THE FIRST DAY 

I woke up, and surprisingly did not find my head severed. I got ready, and wore my uniform. Scarlett insisted on me sitting with her and her friends at the breakfast table. I was beyond arguing with her, I just wanted Caleb to come here and we'd escape this hell hole together. 

I plopped down next to Scarlett at her table. I saw Raven, the bulky guy, and about five more people that I didn't recognise. 

"Aurora! You came!" She clapped with fake enthusiasm. "Everyone, this is Aurora. She is my new bestie!" 

I felt like banging my head on the table, as everyone assessed me like I was trying to kill them. I was in danger here, not them.

I tried to say hello, but all I could choke out was, "Hell no."

A guy seated in front of me chucked, "Hello to you too." He was extremely attractive, but not as much as Caleb. He had caramel brown eyes, and they looked-

"Everyone, introduce yourselves!" Scarlett chided. 

The bulky guy from yesterday said, "Mateo."

The skinny guy next to Mateo said, "Kyle."

Next to Kyle, sat the hello guy, "Archer."

Archer. The guy Scarlett had mentioned. Her twin brother!

Raven was sitting next to Archer, and next to Raven sat a girl named Achlys. 

"She's a friend. She's dating Mateo." Scarlett whispered in my ear. 

The girl beside me introduced herself as Layla, and Scarlett told me she was dating Kyle. 

The last guy seated next to Scarlett was Xander. By the looks of their intertwined hands, Scarlett was dating him. 

That left the only single people on the table as me, Raven and Archer. Technically, I wasn't single, but Caleb wasn't here now. "Do you have a boyfriend, Aurora?" Achlys asked me. 

I hesitated. Was Caleb my boyfriend? I hadn't had that talk with him. But I guess, he told me he loved me several times, so he was my boyfriend, right?

"Uh, yes." I said. 

Archer raised an eyebrow, "Then why did you pause? Is he here?"

"Is it the letter guy?" Scarlett asked me loudly. 

"Well, we haven't talked about this whole girlfriend-boyfriend thing, and he's still got an year to complete his schooling then get into Assassin. And dating is not permitted in my society."

Archer pressed on, "So he isn't your boyfriend?"

 I was very uncomfortable but I couldn't lose my demeanour in front of all these hereditary assassins. "No, he- I mostly think that-" I spluttered. 

"So will you be my girlfriend?" Archer asked smoothly. 

I took a sharp breath and said, "No."

"Sounds like lover boy missed an opportunity that I want to claim. Why decline?"

"I'm sorry, but you don't know anything about us. Or me." I said. 

I haughtily got up from the table, and Archer got up too and grabbed my hand. "I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that."

"I'm not your opportunity or your plaything." I said. 

"Sit down." Archer growled. 

I wasn't exactly what you call obedient, but I sat down without arguing. Then all of them smiled sweetly like nothing had happened. I was going to go mental around people like this. Bipolar and dysfunctional people. 

Ten minutes later, the speaker announced my name to report to the office along with a guy named James, Mateo, and Archer. 

I walked to the office with Archer and Mateo. I still was terrified of Mateo, everytime I looked at him, I could hear the crack of Samuel's neck. 

"The achievers of the societies! Welcome!" The cheery lady outside the office greeted us. James was already inside, and I nervously walked in, not knowing what to expect. 

There were four seats, the one of the right corner occupied by James, Mateo sat next to him, Spencer sat next, and I sat on the left corner seat. 

"You all are achievers of your respective societies. James Miller, athlete of Society four, Mateo Johnson, athlete of Society one, Archer Johnson, valedictorian of Society one and Aurora Belle Collins, valedictorian and athlete of Society seven." The chancellor said.

Wait. Archer was a valedictorian. He didn't seem like one. First of all, he was ripped, so I figured that he'd not be as well in studies. Clearly, I was wrong. Second of all, why was I even thinking about him?

"Valedictorian and athlete?" Archer echoed. "Is that possible?"

The chancellor scratched the back of his head, "Well, not until now... Ms. Collins excelled in both these categories so we couldn't hold back any of the titles earned by her."

"The reason I called you in my office is that I need to choose a prefect. Usually, there are only a couple of title bearers each year, and the selection is fairly simple. But since your results are quite similar, we can't draw a conclusion." 

"Get to the point." Mateo snapped. 

"This year, I want to hold a series of tests to choose the prefect."

"I won't do it." I said, and everyone's gaze turned to me. "I don't want to be a prefect."

"Ms. Collins, you don't have much of a choice. Plus, you're our top candidate." The chancellor said. He offered, "I can give you a weekend in the middle of the semester to visit your family and friends."

I asked, "When is this?" This meant I could go meet Caleb. The thought made me ecstatic. 

"Next week. Any more questions?" He asked. "No? You may go to the auditorium where they are screening your press interviews."

When we got back, my interview was going on. We took a seat in the last row and Archer again sat beside me. Seeing Caleb beside me in the interview really calmed me down. His eyes were electric. 

"Who's that?" Archer furrowed his brow. 

I said smugly, "Caleb."

"Your so-called boyfriend?" He sneered. 

"Just you wait." I smirked. 

After a piece of the interview, we had a lunch break, and the cameraman had caught us making out in the corner. I happened to know that it was broadcasted too. 

When that scene rolled on, Archer was visibly mad. "He's not my boyfriend, he's the love of my life." I said.

Archer just got up, and stormed out of the auditorium. Mateo glared at me, and I raised my hands, claiming I didn't do anything. 

Apparently, mine was the last interview, and after that, we were briefed on Assassin Academy. 

The annoying chancellor came onto the stage, and he said, "Welcome to Assassin Academy, your home for the next eight years!" 

The crowd cheered, and Archer walked back in. "They didn't let me leave." He grumbled. 

He noticed that I wasn't cheering with the other students. "Why did you choose Assassin if you don't want to be an Assassin?" He questioned. 

I didn't reply, and Archer studied my face for a minute, and turned back to pay attention to the chancellor. 

"Every year one student will be killed, the student at the bottom of the class." Wait what? "Only twenty five of you will graduate Assassin Academy, and the student at the top of the class shall receive special privileges. This year, we would be conducting tests to determine the Prefect."

Murmurs rose in the auditorium. "The candidates are Mateo, James, Archer and Aurora."

He went on and on about the facilities that Assassin Academy had to offer. There were ten buildings in Assassin Academy. Eight buildings for each of the batches, and we were currently in Building One. The other two buildings, one was solely for examinations, and the other was for weapons and artillery. We were not permitted to leave our buildings unless we were told to do so, and that only with supervision. 

Classes were to begin tomorrow, but not for me, and the other three candidates running for Prefect. We could use our time to study, or dilly dally, or train. We had one week to compete in these tests. 

I wanted to start classes, as most of the students were hereditary assassins, and I already lacked in the skills they possessed. So I went to the chancellor's office right after the orientation to talk to him about this. 

The chancellor was talking to somebody else. I closed my eyes and strained my ears. I had considerably good hearing, and I silenced my breathing. "-these new kids, they're really promising. I'll get a perfect match of brains and brawn this year." The chancellor said. 

"Why are you asking the athlete kids to participate, when you know that Archer or Aurora will be Prefect?" The other guy said. 

The chancellor replied, "By pushing those two to work hard, I'm going to make genius assassins out of them."

Just then, the door to the waiting room swung open, my eyes flew open, and my concentration shattered. Archer walked in and took a seat away from me. "Why are you here?" He asked. 

"I don't want to not do classes." I said, praying that it made sense. 

He shrugged, "Same." 

Did anyone ask you? I wanted to ask, but getting in trouble with him would put my head on a spike. 

The other man walked out, and I, along with Archer, was called in. I walked in, stated my request, and Archer practically repeated the same thing I said. 

The chancellor took a moment for consideration and said, "Very well. Both of you may start classes tomorrow." 

He told us to go wait in the waiting  room while we received the schedule. Five minutes later, he handed us freshly printed schedules, and I went on my way to my room.

I walked in, and hoped that Scarlett and Raven weren't in the room. It was just 11, and I was already tired. Scarlett was tying her shoelaces, and Raven was searching for something in her bag. 

"Where are you going?" I asked no one in particular. 

"We're going to play badminton with the rest of our group. Do you want to come?"

I mean, I was tired and bored, and badminton always helped. "Sure."

I got ready in less than two minutes, took my trusty white badminton racket, and joined Scarlett and Raven who were waiting for me outside. 

The badminton court was in the basement, and that made me fear that the ceiling was too low. I walked in, and saw the highest ceiling of any badminton courts I had ever seen. There were four courts, and eight of us, since Achlys didn't want to play badminton. 

Mateo started playing with Archer, Raven was playing with Scarlett, Kyle was playing with Xander and that left me to play with Layla. I don't know if I was so used to playing with Caleb, that I found that Layla played like absolute shit. Scarlett suggested to do a doubles championship. 

Everyone was arguing about their partners, so I asked Scarlett to rank everyone for me.

She told me that Archer was the best, followed by Mateo, then Raven, Xander, Kyle, herself and lastly, Layla. 

"Why don't we do a round robin of singles games and then decide the teams?" I suggested. We had loads of time on our hands. 

They agreed, and the matches began. I kept the first matches between Archer and Mateo, with me refereeing the match, Raven and Xander with Kyle as the referee, and Layla and Scarlett. 

I wanted to assess the playing style of Archer, as if I wanted to defeat him to be the best, I'd have to give it my hundred percent. Archer played as if he was a fluid, his court movements were off the charts. Mateo rivalled it with his power, but Archer had the perfect skills to defeat Mateo. 

Xander won from Raven, and Scarlett won from Layla. The next match was between me and Kyle, and everyone else was just watching the match while they rested. I carefully made sure to not unleash my secret weapons while playing. They would solely be reserved for Archer's match. I easily won, without smashes or deceptions. 

Archer came up to me after the match and told me he wanted to play with me. I smirked and said, "Let the game begin."

Archer and I started playing. All of the other people were watching every move that we made. 

Scarlett cleared her throat, and said, "Archer to serve. Love all, play."

Archer served, and I replied back with the same power but keeping the rally of the same intensity proved difficult. It was like each shot I returned, sapped a bit of energy from me. The first point went on for twelve shots when finally Archer hit a toss which hit his frame, and I jumped up, and smashed it precisely on the midcourt line, right in front of him. 

I gained my confidence, as Archer's friends realised that I was better than him. He smirked at me, and I smirked back. The game went back and forth till we reached 20, all. Deuce. 

By then, I had fully analysed Archer's play, and I thought I could see through his shots. I thought I had gotten the last point in my bag. I smashed, but Archer retrieved it, tried again, but he received it again. 

I tossed, but he jumped and dropped it, and that didn't give me enough time to receive it properly. The shuttle was thrust down by him, and I couldn't pick the smash up.

He held up his hand for me to shake it, and I did. "Well tried." He said, and walked off. That was the only match I lost in the round robin. 

The rankings were:

1. Archer- 7 wins, 0 losses

2. Aurora- 6 wins, 1 loss

3. Mateo- 5 wins, 2 losses

4. Xander- 4 wins, 3 losses

5. Raven- 3 wins, 4 losses

6. Kyle- 2 wins, 5 losses

7. Scarlett- 1 win, 6 losses

8. Layla- 0 wins, 7 losses

So the teams were Archer and Layla, me and Scarlett, Mateo and Kyle and Xander and Raven. 

We went for lunch, and decided the matches would continue after an hour. I tried explaining my strategy to Scarlett, "We target the weaker players. That means they will target you too and you must be ready to receive at all times."

The matches weren't particularly interesting, Mateo and Kyle's team won. Archer and I had two weak extremely weak links on our team, so it was mostly about exploiting the weak player. 

"Who wants to play with us?" A couple of older guys came in. 

Scarlett asked, "What are you doing in our building?"

"The chancellor told us to play here instead. He said he saw some promising young talents."

"Doubles match?" Archer asked. 

They laughed and said yes. 

"Aurora, d'you want to play with me and wipe the smirks off their faces?" Archer came up to me.

I glanced at them sneering and said, "Sure, why not?"

They seemed extremely confident about their play, but once we figured out their weaknesses, we won easily. I high fived Archer after the amazing match. He was undoubtedly the best doubles partner I'd ever had.

I was dead tired, and I had dinner and crashed into a deep dreamless sleep.