ORWEO (Working Title) 3.1

Chapter 3.1

A/N: Previously, Skylar, Kiersten, Issac, and Darien have returned from their mission (this is the morning after); Darien and Issac are both in the infirmary and Skylar and Kiersten are preparing to go to regular training. Enjoy!

The next morning, Skylar's muscles had never been in more agony.

Her alarm clock continued to blare, announcing the time as 5:30, but she couldn't even move her arm to shut it off. Eventually, a sleepy and bleary-eyed Myra appeared in front of her bed and turned the alarm clock off.

"Come on. Let's go," she said, grabbing both of Skylar's arms and dragging her out of bed. Skylar was too exhausted to fight back, but her muscles protested the change in position.

"Skylar. Up," was all her other roommate said, nudging Skylar with her toe as she passed. Skylar groaned in response and forced herself to sit up despite her protesting ab muscles.

"We have training, and then we're having a meeting over breakfast. You don't want to get extra exercises tacked on today because you were late getting up, do you?" Myra poked Skylar one last time. "Come on. You can't lay there all day."

"Watch me," Skylar grumbled as she pushed herself to her feet. She gathered up her training clothes, a plain white T-shirt and her favorite pair of Spandex, and changed into them, moving as delicately as she could manage. She then made her way to the bathroom and splashed water on her face. The cold water snapped her into reality, and she quickly dried her hands and face before pulling her shoes on and following the rest of her bunkmates out of the room.

The training room was fairly far from Skylar's dorms, and the trek there was not pleasant. She still wasn't fully awake, and the thought of physical activity made her want to crawl into bed again, far, far away from the training room that awaited her. It was only the threat of even more exercise that compelled her to pull open the double doors to the training center, where they had the second-earliest slot. Their trainer, Chris, greeted them as they walked into the door, a towel slung over his shoulder and a bead of sweat already making its path down his chestnut-colored face. "Morning."

"Morning," the four of them repeated.

"Today we're going to do some speed training," Chris announced. His announcement was met with a series of groans. Speed training required a supply of energy to tap into, and Skylar wasn't sure if she had enough energy to manage it.

"This is a crucial part of your training," Chris continued. He began to pace around the group. "Many of you are tired; others of you are well rested and prepared for this. When you are out on missions, you have a natural disadvantage because you are more tired than your opponent. Those of you who are tired need to learn how to dig deep and find that desire to win. If you do not have a commitment to winning, an obsession with victory, you should pack your bags and leave now, because you will never survive out there in the real world.

"Those of you who aren't tired, don't take this as a guaranteed win. This will be a lesson for you in humility and respecting your opponent. In every single fight, you should anticipate that you are going to lose. Do not mishear me; anticipate it, but do not accept it. Use it as motivation to fight back with everything you have until you win. Do I make myself clear?"

The group nodded collectively.

"Our first activity is a rope climb." Chris nodded to the two ropes that hung from the ceiling. The vaulted ceiling was about 20 feet from the ground, a distance that would have been manageable under ordinary circumstances, but even climbing 5 feet sounded impossible considering Skylar's exhaustion.

"First up, we're going to have Skylar and Ace go head-to-head."

Skylar looked over to see Ace smirking at her. "Good luck, Sky. You're gonna need it," he sneered.

"Sure I will," Skylar retorted. "Do you want me to use one hand so it's a fair competition, or would you prefer me demonstrate my complete superiority on the rope?"

"Skylar, were you listening to anything I said?" Chris chided her. "That doesn't sound like anticipating loss."

Skylar lowered her head. "Sorry." She ignored Ace's look of victory and instead memorized his lopsided smirk, using that image as motivation to beat him to the top."

"Start at the bottom of the rope," Chris instructed, and Skylar and Ace both walked over to the rope. The rest of the group shuffled over and surrounded them as they both grabbed as high up on the rope as they could reach. Ace was just barely taller than Skylar, but Skylar had stronger legs that would propel her further up the rope with each push.

"On my count, start off. First person to ring their bell wins."

Skylar glanced up and saw the blue bell at the top of her rope. She wiped her hands on her Spandex shorts. "Let's do this."

Ace was also eyeing up his rope, and Skylar grabbed the knot and braced her legs to jump onto the rope.

"One," Chris started counting. Skylar felt the familiar rush of adrenaline start to course through her veins. Her heart was pounding against her chest, as if it was trying to escape the confines of her ribcage, and she felt her legs begin to tremble with anticipation.

"Two," Chris continued. She took one last glance at Ace, who was in the same position as her, and tensed every muscle in her body. She prepared herself to spring as soon as the next word left Chris' mouth.

"Three!"

As soon as Skylar heard the first syllable leave Chris' mouth, she leapt onto the rope, grabbing it with her thighs and pulling with her hands. Within moments, she slipped into her familiar rhythm. Grab, pull, rest. Grab, pull, rest. The rest of the group picked a favorite and cheered for them, but she tuned out all of the noise. All that mattered was her and the rope and their continuing dance as she climbed higher and higher. Before long, her muscles were burning and she was tempted to pause. Her muscles complained with every pull, the agony growing exponentially, but she shoved the pain deep down and brought to memory the confident smirk Ace had worn before their competition. She pictured his friends congratulating him as she walked away defeated, and the image propelled her faster up the rope until the blue bell was a fingerwidth away. As she strained to reach the blue bell, she heard the confident ring of the bell to her right.

She turned to see Ace clinging to the rope with his legs and one arm, the other arm outstretched towards the swinging bell. The cocky grin on her face crushed her, and she bit her lip to prevent her frustration erupting.

"Come on back down," Chris called up to them, and Skylar and Ace slowly let themselves slide down, being careful not to keep their skin in contact with the rope for any amount of time lest they get rookie ropeburn, as they had dubbed it. Anyone who worked with ropes for any amount of time knew how to prevent the painful injury and also knew how badly it stung.

They reached the ground at almost the same time, and Chris shot Skylar a look before he waved Ace over to congratulate him. "If you're anticipating some big congratulatory speech, you're going to be disappointed. Learn to be satisfied with the victory itself and not the recognition you get from others. That means I don't want to see any celebration from your friends, either," he added, and his friends lowered the hands they had raised preemptively for a high-five.

"Skylar, I'll talk to you afterwards," he added in a voice so quiet only Skylar could hear it. Skylar's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach and she managed a nod. She knew exactly what that meant; she had disappointed Chris, and that entailed some sort of punishment.

The competitions continued, but all Skylar could think about was her imminent meeting with Chris. All of the competitions were close, but there was a clear pattern—the people who were better rested were consistently victorious. Skylar observed another pattern in each of the matches—the loser always slowed down about 3/4 of the way up the rope. She vaguely remembered that same slowdown, but it had been so instinctive she hadn't even noticed at the time. If she could have just maintained her rhythm throughout, she would've been the first to reach the top.

She continued to analyze and compare her performance relentlessly as the rest of the group competed. When the rest of the group was finally dismissed, Skylar stayed behind until the last of the stragglers stepped through the double doors.

Chris took a deep breath as he wiped his face with his towel. "I'm gonna be honest with you, Skylar. You've demonstrated talents both on and off the field in all areas. You're in top shape physically, your mental game is sharp, and you seem to be very dedicated to this cause. I know that you are faster and stronger than Ace, but you let him beat you. I don't know what happened in your head, but you handed him that game. You can't let that happen again, here or out in the real world. That's why I have to do this to you."

"What are you going to do?" Skylar's stomach dropped. It was bad enough that she had disappointed Chris; now she would have to deal with a punishment too. Chris did not take failure to work hard lightly.

"I want you to climb that rope again until I'm satisfied that you've maximized your potential. I don't care if it takes one try or a thousand tries; I'm not going to let you go until I'm confident that you are putting your full mental and physical effort into this obstacle. Meet me back here after all of the regular training sessions are finished today. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Skylar mumbled. Chris nodded to her and gestured to the door.

"Go work on whatever else you need to. I'll see you later."

"Yes, sir." Skylar wiped her forehead on her shirt and left the room, not glancing back until she had opened the doors and stepped out into the hallway.