After the opening ceremony we had, we all gathered on the blacktop outside the mansion. It was decorated with an assortment of targets, turrets, and dummies. This place is a training ground for soldiers too. At least the U.S and other countries know how to treat us. I thought silently to myself. I sat at a collapsible table with a list of names for those who were returning, which wasn't a lot, and those who wanted to sign up had a form to fill out. About six came to the blacktop who returned and checked off their name and no others wanted to sign up yet. I frowned and slumped forward.

"This is gonna be a long year..." I said with a drawn out sigh. It didn't feel fair, good potential so far yet no one seems to want to join. In forty minutes the new recruits will have decided who they wanted and we have six out of thirty we could have. Alice pulled up a chair and leaned on me, kissing my cheek. "Its gonna be okay, we'll get our thirty or even more." She said optimistically. "Your speech was awesome and very moving, I'm confident we can get at least twenty." I rolled my eyes and lifted my head. "The other mentors and councilors had to throw the crowd a bone to get them to even cheer. How the heck am I going to even get fifteen?" As if someone had opened up the Hover Dam and my hopes had been heard, a large amount of recruits came in and started slightly shoving their peers out of the way. It was easily twenty or thirty .

"Stop being a pessimist. " Alice kissed my cheek and skipped over to Grace, Shauna, and Zack. I grinned and started seeing a few more returning members checking of their names and shaking my hand while the recruits sounded like excited high schoolers. When they were done we had thirty five members in all, twenty five recruits and ten returning members. 

Zack of Concord who's the master medic and acupuncture expert.
Alice of Serenity who's my girlfriend and a telepath, energy user, and has exceptional agility.
Shauna of Battleground zero or known as New Mexico who's very shy and strong yet submissive and a preffered non-combatant, I don't even know her other powers.
Grace of Cincinnati.
Jermaine of Paris.
Adam of North Dakota.

Their names blurred together as I made an assessment of strengths and weaknesses, strategies and plans, roles and classes. I finally made a stack of papers and put a stamp of approval on all of them. I walked over to address them and found a metallic desk and held my hand to the table and pulsed. Electricity started to spark on the table making loud popping noises, the new students jumped and turned to me. "Ahem, I am absolutely stunned as to how many students there are here I must say and I must also say," I smiled widely,  "You're all approved!" They cheered and hugged each other. I held up one hand. "A few rules though, be inside by 1:30 or earlier and no sneaking out and if you must be out past these times please notify me or Alice Callaway. In my absence, Alice or Zack will be in charge. If they're going to be unavailable I will suggest a temporary leader according to grades and psyche profile. I will be assigning teachers who will report to me by the end of the day and if they are issues they will notify me as well. Lastly, I will surely not accept bullying. Severe action will be taken by my judgement and I am a pretty nice guy but if the crime is serious enough, off you go to my office where I will discuss punishment." The crowd was dead silent and looking rather at attention so I grinned and made a wide gesture to the mansion. "For now, until the rooms are assigned, go have fun."

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It was late evening and Grace and Shauna suggested that we have a giant slumber party in the living room so it was pretty quiet upstairs in my office/bedroom. "Ugh, so much paperwork." I groaned in despair. Alice was in the bed, reading a novel and got up. She walked over to my desk and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I blushed and smiled. "You know, you could take a break and sit with me dear. You look absolutely stressed out." I kissed her and sighed in relief. "While that sounds absolutely marvelous, I have to get this done by tomorrow. Council wants our reports and everything there is to know about our structure of life in mansion number five and I am going to finish it." Alice rolled her eyes and smiled. "Well I guess I can pull up a chair and help my ,lovely mentor, out." Her voice was soft and soothing so I pointed at a rolling chair and slid it over by moving my finger towards me.

https://youtu.be/w7JRWHCKkIY

"You're such a help. I don't know what I would do without you." I held her hand and gazed into her eyes. She looked away shyly and smirked. "Mm. Probably go crazy or be seduced by Grace." I rolled my eyes and went back to work. "She maybe cute but you're my one and only, stop being jealous." Alice scoffed and crossed her arms. "Am not jealous, hot head. I was just making a joke on her flirty nature with you and how it'd probably work if I wasn't around." I pointed my pencil at her, still concentrated on my work. "That's jealousy my love, I'm telling you that you haven't anything to worry about. " Alice glanced at me with an irritated look and looked through the paperwork.

"Did you call her cute?" She asked with an accusing tone. Irritated, I stabbed my pen through the table and sighed. "Can't you just drop the subject? I have enough as it is and I don't have time to argue." Alice flinched and wistfully took the stack of papers she had to the bed and worked there. I didn't mean to hurt her feelings or startle her, but sometimes when she got like this it was irritating. I walked over to her and gently took her pen and papers. She stared down at her feet and sighed. "I'm sorry, that was stupid to even bring up. Jason, how can you not like Grace? She's beautiful, gets along with everyone and isn't a bother." I put my finger to her lips and kneeled in front of her. "She's not you though, not as beautiful, cute, funny, she doesn't have your cute little habits or your personality at all. I barely know her." I kissed her forehead and locked lips with Alice, picking her up and smiling. I pulled away after a good minute and put my forehead against hers. "She's not my girl, you are. I want my future with you." She widened her eyes and then covered her mouth.

I held her as she put her arms around my neck and cried.  "I love you so much!" I put my hand on the back of her head and whispered. "I love you too, I'm sorry for getting upset with you love." She got down from my arms and pushed me down on the bed then getting on top of me to kiss me. "Shut up will you? You big loveable dummy." She stacked all the paper on my desk. "You're all done for the night, period." I smiled and cuddled against her. I fell asleep after awhile in her arms and had no dreams that night. Then I woke up to the sound of my stupid phone blaring its loud alarm. Alice dismissed the alarm and had fallen asleep on my chest.  "Good morning Alice, ready to start the day?" I asked in a soft tone. Alice smiled and crawled up to my face and kissed my forehead. "You sound almost like Adam.." I smiled at the memory of my father. He would always greet Alice at the door when she walked to my house to get me for school and after when she wanted to spend time with me at my house till dusk. I sat up and kissed her cheek, getting up to go get ready.

" I'm going to go change my clothes." I said while gathering an outfit: Under Armour shirt, jeans, and my jacket. Alice tugged at the back of my shirt. "Sounds intriguing, maybe I will join you some day." Alice said, making me blush. I got changed in the bathroom and fixed my hair for the day, although I would be testing and seeing the powers of the students in my clan. I stepped out and saw Alice waiting for me on the bed, wearing a black skirt and a denim jacket with a pink shirt underneath it. "Cute." I said with a smirk and walked towards the door. "You're up along with Mentors and Councilors so we can actually enjoy our breakfast and discuss what we do today as far as the pretests and analysis go." Alice looped my arm in hers and we walked out of the mansion together with Grace and Zack not too far behind.

"Good morning team, how is everyone." Grace asked cheerfully as she pranced next to me. Zack fixed his glasses and rolled his eyes. "I am awake and frankly would prefer if you keep that exciting optimism to yourself, no need to be so jumpy at the crack of dawn." I shot him a glance. "Look bud, she can be as happy as can be and you can feel what you wanna feel too. No need for a bad atmospheric mood." Zack shut up after that and looked in the distance at the rising sun as we walked into the town.  Grace smirked at me and Alice in gratification and walked beside Alice. "How was your night Ali?" Grace asked with a small smile. She already knew most likely.

"Bittersweet, I got to spend time with Jason with a small argument and paperwork but we fixed it and he made it better." Alice smiled and squeezed my hand affectionately. "What were you two arguing about?" I walked over and poked her nose. "Nothing that concerns you, jumpy one." Grace blushed and stuttered then fell silent. We eventually walked to the cafe and sat down. Grace had her tea and a hot buttered biscuit, Zack had an omelet and black coffee, Alice had a caramel latte, and I had a mocha with whipped cream with a steak and egg biscuit. "So with some things in mind we will split up our thirty-five students into three groups, My group, Grace's, and Zack's group. For now, today we'll assess and analyze them. Find their weaknesses, strengths, what they should work on, and concerns." Zack clasped his hands together and leaned forward. "No harsh feelings or anything but why is Alice here? I know she's your girlfriend and everything but I cannot figure out why she is apart of this meeting." Alice looked at me in puzzlement. "Well, I noticed that the Guardian Mentors had assistants and I chose Alice as my own. She can put me in my place if I get overzealous and can help me with my paperwork and other things."

                Zack nodded and smirked. "Ah, emotional support as well. In any case I think with Alice's role set in, we should establish ours." I nodded and pulled out a small tablet. "Before we left the ceremony I was given a small tablet that can project holograms for meetings and strategies, they dubbed it Hologram X." I flicked it forward and a projection of Zack, Grace , and I had positioned itself on the table. "Since Zack is mostly deadly in terms of physical tactics and he's master medics, he'll be our support and control teacher. He posses a lot of finesse and grace but knows how to kill so he'll be excellent for the reckless and support classes. Grace is powerful in terms of using her mind and energy blasts and possesses an insane amount of agility. She can be our focus and energy teacher. I will deal with the one's who possess abilities of interest and those who need an..extra push in terms of using powers." I looked at Alice in particular and projected a holo of her and Shauna. "You two are by far the best students in terms of powers but you are too scared to use them, your full potential cannot be reached so I assigned you two to my group already. After classes, we will all spar so we can get better too." Someone patted my back and sat down beside Alice and I. "Very good Jason Wood, you'll make a fine mentor in the years to come." Ms. Thompson had been listening the whole time, which I found creepy.

      "I am grateful for the paperwork that was done, most didn't even do their own. Which I could expect. No one is as dedicated as you." Ms. Thompson smiled at the group and sighed. "Well finish up! The academy is ready to get started in an hour and I'd like to give you a tour of your classrooms."

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YO YO YO, ladies and gents. PeterAC here with the latest chapter. Now I am planning big things for the book and if say this book gets to 500 reads, I will print out and make a few actual books with a cover and everything that is signed and whatnot to send to a few lucky readers. I will also inform you that this will be a book series, I do not know how many but I will surely make more than one book. Since there are thirty-five students I will also select three readers to be actual characters! Put in your character name, powers(up to three to four), weaknesses, apearance, and basic information. I will accept a background story or make one up if need be. Thats all for my author's note, Broken ch.20 "The big test" Will be  coming soon!

XOXO PeterAC