5: Alex’s First Day

The cafeteria kitchen was bustling with activity when he finally got there. Alex looked around to see if he could spot Derek, the only person he really knew although Derek had introduced him to a few of the other students the night before while they were having dinner. He smiled when he saw the former sailor, who was taller than most, standing by a counter waving a wooden spoon at him. Making his way between the other counters and dodging people going to and fro, he reached Derek who handed him the spoon.

"Just in time to stir," Derek said with a laugh.

"What are we making?" Alex asked as he took the proffered spoon and began stirring the batter.

"Quick breads," came the answer. "Specifically, pumpkin, date bread and an eggnog holiday bread. I’m not crazy about pumpkin or date bread myself so I opted for the eggnog bread. That sounded interesting."

"I like pumpkin bread," Alex said, "especially the way my mom makes it with raisins and nuts but I don’t care for pumpkin pie."

"Yeah, well, anyway, we’ve been given a bunch of recipes. Here, I got you a copy. We can do anything on this sheet we want but they suggested we start with the breads first as they’ll take the longest to bake. We only have to make one batch of bread if we want to try something else, but we have to do at least two things on this sheet."

Alex stopped stirring long enough to take a quick glance at the recipes. "Hmm.... those brownies sound good. I’ve never had any made from scratch before."

"Brownies it is," Derek said, "and then maybe we can do these nut gems. The dough has to chill. Why don’t I put that together now and by the time the breads and the brownies are done we can work on them?"

"Sounds good to me."

"And the best thing about all this is we get to eat the things we make. Grace said she’ll have all our goodies out tonight for dinner."

"Grace?"

"The kitchen manager and head cook. There she is."

Alex looked to where Derek was pointing and saw a middle-aged woman with streaks of gray in her brown hair moving from one workstation to the next. She made her way to them, giving them a ready smile.

"I see your partner finally made it," she said to Derek.

"I’m Alex Grant." Alex let go of the spoon to shake the woman’s hand.

"And I’m Grace, or if you prefer, Eruanna."

"Excuse me?" Alex asked.

Grace laughed. "Eruanna, it means the same as Grace in Quenya."

Alex gave Derek a puzzled look. "What’s Quenya? Didn’t you say they called the elvish language Sind-something?"

"Sindarin," Grace answered before Derek could reply. "Quenya is the other elvish language. Now which recipes are you boys planning to try?"

For the next couple of minutes, Alex was forced to put aside all the questions that burned within him to answer the cook’s questions. She approved their choices, gave them some tips and moved on to the next group. Once they were alone and putting together the batter for the brownies and the nut gems, Alex gave Derek a puzzled look.

"They came up with two different languages?"

Derek shrugged. "Apparently. Not sure why though. We’re not required to take this Quenya. It’s purely optional and offered only as an evening class once a week and on Saturday mornings. I understand that it’s popular with the townies."

"The townies?"

Derek gave him a grin. "Yeah, you know. The good people of Wiseman. Apparently some of the courses we’re taking are offered to the rest of the community for the fun of it I guess. Haven’t really figured out what the relationship is between the Academy and the rest of the college and community." He shrugged. "So, who gets to lick the brownie spoon?"

Alex grinned. "You can have the spoon while I have the bowl."

Derek raised an eyebrow. "I’ll toss you for the bowl."

Laughingly, Alex fished out a quarter from his pocket. "Call."

****

The cooking class apparently was a success in spite of someone burning an entire batch of mint chocolate chip cookies, much to everyone’s dismay, and the minor grease fire that was quickly put out, much to everyone’s relief. Once they had cleaned up the kitchen to Grace’s exacting standards they were free to seek their lunch, be it at another college dining hall or in town. Grace promised she would have all the goodies set out for the students at dinner.

As they were heading off Derek asked Alex where he wanted to have lunch. "Or maybe you just want to be alone. I’m cool with that."

"No, actually, I like eating with company. I haven’t seen anything of the town. Maybe we can go find something to eat there."

"There’s a place called the Gold Nugget Café and Emporium. I hear the food’s pretty decent."

"The Gold Nugget it is. Let’s clean up a bit and then head out. I didn’t look at the schedule. Are we free this afternoon or do we have a class?"

"Wednesday afternoons are devoted to phys. ed. stuff. We’re supposed to report to the phys. ed. center at two. Actually Monday and Wednesday afternoons are set aside for phys. ed."

Alex scowled as they reached their room. "Why do I get the feeling I’m back in high school?"

Derek laughed. "Hey, it’s not so bad. Mondays we do archery and on Wednesdays we either do fencing or self-defense. In fact, everyone who wants to do fencing has to show some competence in the martial arts. You don’t have to be a black belt or anything, but you do have to demonstrate that you know some self-defense moves."

"I wonder why?"

Derek gave him a jaundiced look. "Hey mate, where have you been living? Mars? Even in the wilds of Alaska you can still get weirdos bent on causing others harm." He paused and gave him a sly look, and when he spoke again it was with a twangy accent. "And if nothing else, if you have to wrastle with a bar, you’re all set."

"Don’t you mean ‘bear’?" Alex asked jokingly.

Derek playfully pretended to slap him upside the head and Alex ducked, giving him a grin. "I mean bar. I’ve been in a few that are downright mean and you need to keep your wits about you, but if you’re so foolish as to want to go one-on-one with a bear, be my guest." He gave him a disdainful sniff and Alex laughed.

"C’mon. I just want to wash up a bit and then we’ll go eat."

"Sounds good to me, mate."

****

"At least we don’t have to wear gis," Derek said some time later as he and Alex joined the rest of the students in the large gym where apparently the self-defense class would be held. Everyone was wearing loose clothes per their instructions and were milling around waiting for the class to begin. "So are you any good with this?"

Before Alex could comment several people walked in and all talking stopped. Alex found himself gawking along with the rest, for they were as beautiful as Darren Harper. There were four men and four women. Two of the men were dark-haired and it was obvious they were twins by their identical features. The third had rich brown hair with reddish highlights but it was the last man who caught Alex’s attention.

"Hello, Ambrose," he whispered to himself.

"What’s that?" Derek asked.

Alex shook his head, not taking his eyes off his quarry. He wondered if Ambrose would recognize him even though he had lightened his brown hair a bit so it was closer to ash blond. He had also shaved off the beard he’d worn since he was twenty. Ambrose had never seen him clean-shaven.

The brown-haired man was speaking and Alex forced himself to listen.

"....split you up into groups. As we call your names you’ll go to that person."

Alex noticed that the other three men had taken up stations in different parts of the gym where mats had been placed on the floor and each was accompanied by one of the women. The man started rattling off names from a list and students began moving to where he was standing. Alex wondered if fate would have him be called by the man he knew as Ambrose Elwood and he had a sudden sick feeling in his gut. It was too soon. He needed time to scope out the situation before confronting his former mentor.

Fate, apparently, agreed, for when the first man stopped rattling off names, one of the twins picked up where the other had left off and he heard his name being called. Giving Derek a lopsided grin he loped over to the other side of the gym to join the students already there. Derek ended up going to the group around the second twin. Once everyone had been called, the instructors introduced themselves to their group.

"I’m Roy and this is Sarah," said the man leading Alex’s group, nodding to the young woman standing beside him. Alex wasn’t the only male there who found himself gawking like a love-struck teenager at the beautiful Sarah who gave them all a knowing smile. Roy gave them an amused look. "My job today is to test you on your knowledge of self-defense. I want everyone who has never done anything like karate or taken a self-defense course to move over to this side of the mat and take a seat on the floor. The rest of you stay where you are."

Almost half the group started moving. Alex and a few others stayed still. When everyone was settled, Roy then asked those still standing to give him their names, directing them to sit opposite to where the others were.

"Right then," Roy said. "When I call for you, you will come onto the mat and either I or Sarah will be your opponent."

Someone raised their hand. "Don’t you want to know what style we’ve learned or if we have a black belt?"

"Not necessary," Roy answered. "In a real-life situation, neither you nor your adversary are going to stop to ask each other what belt level they are at."

Everyone laughed at that. "Okay. Let’s get started. Once you’ve proved to me that you can handle yourself, then you are free to leave. You need to report to room 102 which is down the hall on your left as you leave this gym and you’ll be doing fencing. Because it’ll take a while to get to everyone, there won’t be an actual fencing class but you’ll be given a chance to check out the foils and other equipment so you can be familiar with them."

One of the other students on Alex’s side of the mat raised her hand. "What if you’ve done fencing in college? I don’t think I want to start all over again."

"And you won’t," Sarah said. "Anyone with previous fencing experience will have their own advance class. We just need to sort everyone out first."

"Any other questions?" Roy asked. "All right, then, let’s get started." He motioned to one of the other men to join him on the mat. Apparently Sarah would act as a referee while Roy sparred with the student. Alex watched with genuine interest as Roy suddenly attacked the student who managed to block the move and they went at each other. The match did not last long, though, before Roy had the student on the floor.

"Very good," he said with a smile as he held out his hand to help the young man up. "Off you go. Who’s next?"

Three other students got thrown to the mat before it was Alex’s turn. He had spent the time analyzing Roy’s attacks. Alex himself was a third-degree black belt in one form and a second-degree in another and was competent he could hold his own. The other students so far hadn’t lasted more than a minute or two before either Roy or Sarah (who sparred with one of the women) had their opponent on the mat. When it was Alex’s turn, he stood and gave the traditional bow before the match began. In each of the previous matches it was the instructor who attacked first. Alex decided not to wait but went on the offensive himself. If Roy was surprised, he didn’t show it, but easily blocked Alex’s move and then the fight began in earnest.

Alex was used to employing the different fighting techniques of the two forms, blending them into a technique all his own that usually ended up confusing his opponent and he was relying on this to take Roy down, for he had noticed that the instructor had kept more or less to one style. But as he delivered a roundhouse kick that the other man easily blocked he saw a glimmer of challenge in Roy’s eyes, eyes that seemed to dance in delight, and for some odd reason Alex felt suddenly afraid. Not that he allowed himself to show it. He still attacked and counterattacked with confidence, but something in Roy’s expression unnerved him at a deep visceral level and he did not know why.

Then, in a move that seemed straight out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, everything seemed to slow down as Roy executed a move that should have been impossible save in the movies, seemingly floating in mid-air before delivering a kick that sent Alex flat on his back. Time speeded up again as he struggled to breathe. Roy was kneeling over him, his hand on Alex’s chest, gently rubbing it.

"Keep breathing, Alex. That’s it. Deep breaths. You’re doing fine."

The pain that had lanced through him from the kick and landing hard on the mat slowly ebbed away and then he was blinking up at Roy who was grinning down at him.

"An interesting display, my young friend. Your instructors taught you well."

Alex couldn’t help turning his head for a second to look to where Ambrose was in the middle of refereeing a match, then turned back to Roy with a nod. "Very good instructors," he managed to gasp out.

Roy gave him a hand up and patted him on the shoulder. "Off you go now," was all he said and then he was turning his attention to the next student waiting and Alex stumbled off the mat and headed towards the door. He stopped and turned around looking for Derek, but the sailor was not there. Just as he started to leave he caught sight of Ambrose who happened to look up, almost as if he knew Alex was staring at him. Their eyes met and Alex was shocked when the man nodded to him — in acknowledgment? In recognition? — he didn’t know, but he quickly looked away and left, his knees feeling shaky all of a sudden. For the second time in a matter of minutes Alex felt fear.

He turned right instead of left, making his way to the men’s locker room where he stood before a sink and splashed some water on his face, trying to get himself under control. When he felt calmer, he left, stopping long enough to take a drink from the water fountain before making his way back to the gyms. He was suddenly not in the mood for fencing or anything else, but he had no choice in the matter. He would have to play this through. He found room 102 and smiled to see Derek there, checking out the equipment.

Derek saw him and gave him a smile. "How long did you last?"

"Longer than I had any right to," Alex said and was surprised to realize that he meant it. "So, what’s the deal here?" he asked, wanting to forget his humiliation and concentrate on what was before him.

"Give Phil your name and let him know if you’ve done fencing before," Derek answered, nodding towards the middle-aged man who was standing nearby with a clipboard.

Alex nodded and went to introduce himself and admitted that he had done fencing back in college. "But that was some time ago and I only took it the one semester. I think I’ll feel more comfortable in the beginner’s class."

Phil nodded. "That’s fine and if you find that you remember more than you thought, it’ll be easy enough to switch you to the other class. For now, find yourself a foil and get suited up. Once we get everyone sorted out, I’ll give a brief lesson to help familiarize everyone with the rules of the sport and let them try out one or two basic moves."

Alex nodded and went to where the other instructor, a woman named Bev Larson, was handing out equipment and soon he was suited up, carrying the mask under one arm while holding the foil in his other hand and stood next to Derek watching as people trickled in. It was another fifteen minutes before the last of the students entered and then while Bev took the ones who admitted to having some experience in fencing to the other side of the room, Phil addressed the larger group of beginners. Surprisingly to Alex, Derek followed Bev’s group, and he felt a twinge of... jealousy? He wasn’t sure. Why should he think he was an expert in everything? He gave himself a mental shake and concentrated on Phil’s lecture.

With the mask on and his back to the door as he faced his opponent and went through the basic moves Phil was teaching, Alex was unaware of the golden-haired man standing at the door watching them.