"Good morning, students. You've finally arrived at Zodiacs and I hope you will be happy here," Ms. Lenate, their new teacher, greeted. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and a violet blouse which matched her violet glasses.
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She continued her greeting when no one said a word. "I'm sure you all know that after this, you'll be getting missions to keep Sky in order."
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Pisces breathed deeply. She wasn't sure what to make out of this 'missions' thing, but she knew for sure it was no piece of cake. After all, their job was to make sure Sky--the planet they lived in--was safe and sound, and that was a big deal. If something went wrong in their mission, a kingdom or the whole world, might die.
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"Each positions have their own important job. There is the captain who gives out the orders, and you shouldn't go against him or her. If the captain isn't around, we have two vice-captains and the third-in-command," Ms. Lenate explained unnecessarily.
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She doesn't need to explain stuff we already know, Pisces thought, but didn't dare say a word.
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The whiteboard in front of them suddenly changed into some kind of large screen and showed what humans would think was a zeppelin, but in Sky, it was called the Aerola. "This is what you're going to be riding for your missions, the Royal J254. Use it well. Any questions?"
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The students looked at each other and raised an eyebrow, as if they were asking each other if they understood, and the other side answered with no. None of them have ever ridden the Aerola because only the Zodiacs could ride them.
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It's cute watching Libra all confused, Pisces thought. Libra was rarely confused because she usually studied all the necessary and unnecessary stuff before doing it. That was why Pisces always looked up to her.
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The water sign's eyes looked around the classroom. It was a usual classroom, like any other one. There were twenty-four student tables, twice than their number, and a teacher's table--all were equipped with chairs.
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The walls were cream and the tiles of the floor were white. There were four windows on the right side of the room, but none on the left. It made the room felt a bit unbalanced, if that made sense.
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Out of the corner of her eye, Pisces saw a purple-haired girl sitting at the corner, near the window. Her arms were crossed and her eyes were focused to the front. She looks really serious... She looks scary, was what she thought.
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Pisces had a bad habit of judging people by their looks. It caused her to get intimidated and shy to approach some people. She didn't like it either, but she couldn't help it.
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When she focused her eyes back to the front, the teacher had given Aries a few papers for him to give to the other members. I must have zoned off again, she thought with a frown, crossing her arms on the wooden table.
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"Those are your schedules for the next seven days... including this one--does that make sense? Anyways, you're going to spend the next few days in the Training Ground before you go on a real mission," Ms. Lenate tried to explain. Pisces got the feeling she actually was a new teacher. She was just hiding her nervousness behind a mask so that she looked tough.
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Leo raised his hand. Whilst the potentially-new teacher nodded her head at him, she also shot him a glance that Pisces couldn't quite decipher. It was a mix of disgust and annoyance, but why?
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"Only one week?" he simply asked the question everyone had been wanting to ask. None of them had ever had a real battle experience--some lucky ones might have taken lessons of sword-fighting or something like that, but that was as far as it goes, so they wouldn't be ready with just a seven-day-training.
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Ms. Lenate shot him another weird-looking glance--it looked a bit dangerous. "Yes. The missions can't wait, the world needs to be saved," she answered. "Anyways, I have to go. I have a guest, so you call can go to the Training Ground now. It's on the map. Class dismissed."
"Hey, Pisces! Wait up!" she heard the unmistakable sound of Libra. Pisces wanted to groan. She had been hoping to avoid Libra and Sagittarius for a while now.
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Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She knew instantly it was Sagittarius--her hand was always ice cold for some unknown reason. "Yo, Pisces. Your brother is, like, an athlete, right?" she asked.
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Of course, it's about my brother again, Pisces thought, a little disappointed. Not sad, just disappointed. Years after she had befriended Libra and Sagittarius, and yet, all they ever talked about that kind of included her was her brother. How depressing.
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The chocolate-haired girl shrugged. "Yeah, I guess," she replied. Honestly, these girls truly had no shame. If they were going to use her to get close to her brother, then they should've been at least nice to her, not act like she didn't exist until they needed her.
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As they walked, the other two girls started gossiping more about her brother. Pisces slowed down her pace, but they didn't realize and kept walking until they completely left Pisces.
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"I thought you were good friends with them."
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Quickly as lightning, Pisces turned around and was greeted with the face of that intimidating purple-haired girl earlier. "Good friends are overrated. Who might you be?" she asked.
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"I'm Gemini," the other girl answered with a smile. When Gemini was smiling, she looked way different--like she was another person. She didn't look intimidating anymore. Pisces nodded and they walked together in silence.
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She would've copied Gemini's smile if she wasn't in such a bad mood.
Unlike Aquarius, his sister had never been one to get interested over physical stuff. That was why, as everyone was practicing and training by themselves, she was standing alone in the corner and wondering what to do.
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The Training Ground was magnificent. It was quite like an indoor field divided into two parts. The first one was full of gym stuff such as trampolines and suspension trainers while the other one was filled with targets for shooting and skeletons to impale.
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Pisces wondered which way she should go. She totally didn't want to go to the gym part of the Training Ground because it looked tiring, but the shooting part was nearly as intimidating. Besides, Pisces didn't want to make a fool out of herself.
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Her so-called good friends were happily jumping on the trampoline, leaving her by herself as usual. They seriously didn't care about her at all, it was quite saddening.
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"Oi! Pisces!" an unidentified yet familiar voice could be heard. It was Gemini, the intimidating girl. Pisces really hated herself for judging a book by its cover, that act was really uncool. Gemini seemed like a nice person.
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Yes, she might be just another girl trying to get closer to Aquarius via his sister, but so what? Pisces was tired of Libra and Sagittarius, anyways. If they're having their fun, then I'm having mine.
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Those were her thoughts as she approached the girl who called her. Gemini was currently on the shooting part. The bow she was holding was made of wood and it was purple-coloured. The name 'Gemini' was written in capital letters on it.
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"Did you bring that from your home?" Pisces asked, referring to the bow. It looked really old, yet very well-treasured. She looked over at the arrows in something that looked like a belt-bag, used firmly around Gemini's waist.
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Gemini nodded, again with that award-winning smile. She wiped her sweat off her neck with her purple handkerchief. "It's been a while since I did this. My arms ache so bad," she groaned. "What are you doing?"
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Pisces smiled sheepishly. "Uh, I can't really do anything, so I just sit back because I don't wanna make fun of myself," she admitted, blushing shyly.
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Gemini laughed. "Don't be so shy like that. Look around you. The only ones who aren't playing around are Scorpio, Leo and me. And Aries, he's trying," she said with another smile. Does this girl ever stop smiling? Don't her lips hurt?
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Therefore, Pisces looked around her and true to Gemini's words, the only ones not playing around were those four people. The others were just trying out the stuff in the Training Ground.
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Aries was trying to hit the skeleton with his wooden sword, but kept failing--at least he tried--whilst Scorpio and Leo were easily hitting the skeletons. Pisces remembered they used to take sword-fighting lessons. After all, they came from a pretty rich family--or at least around their village.
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Aquarius was being chased by Libra and Sagittarius--Pisces felt sorry for her brother. Virgo, Cancer, Taurus and Capricorn were trying out the suspension trainers.
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"I can teach you if you'd like," Gemini offered, still panting a little. Her left hand was lightly massaging her right arm.
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When the question was successfully processed in Pisces' slow brain, she nodded vigorously. "Of course!" she said before coughing. "I mean, sure," she repeated more calmly, causing Gemini to chuckle.
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"Go grab one of the bows, then."
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A few moments later, Pisces came back with a blue bow on her hand. She also had wore that belt-bag thingy she still hadn't figured out the name of, it was filled with a dozen arrows.
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First, Gemini did it as an example, hitting the bullseye with ease. She looked like a professional, Pisces understood why the teachers picked her.
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Then, the purple-haired girl told Pisces to do the same position she did. She taught her that how the arrow should be positioned and all that too-complicated-to-explain stuff. The embarrassing thing was, Gemini had to remind Pisces to keep her right elbow up and her left elbow straight every five seconds.
Pisces wiped the sweat off her face and sighed in relief. She shook her hand that now felt boneless and sighed again. "I think that's enough for today," Gemini decided. She laid on the floor limply.
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Half the group were tired and already stopped training, but they wanted to wait for everyone to finish practicing, whilst the other half--including Gemini and Pisces--just wouldn't quit because they only got seven days of training before going into action.
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"Finally done?" someone asked with a shout. It was Cancer. She was fanning her sweat away as she impatiently waited for the whole group to finish their activities. Cancer would love to leave by herself, but everyone suggested to wait so she had no choice.
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Pisces looked around and realized they were the last ones to finish. Quickly, she walked over to them with Gemini following behind her.
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The Royal J254 group walked together to the dorms. Obviously, they were going to change out of these sweaty mess of clothing. Pisces regretted wearing her white shirt--she should've picked something more flexible.
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"Hey, after changing, do you want to get lunch?" Gemini offered as they walked. "I heard they had this awesome cafeteria that serves everything."
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Pisces nodded with a smile. "Sure," she agreed, glad that she made a new friend. Sure, she wasn't as popular as Libra or Sagittarius, but she was great and she was the vice-president too.
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Gemini nodded excitedly. "Alright! I'm in room 666 so I'll meet you straight at the cafeteria," she exclaimed with a clap of her hands before skipping away. Pisces thought she was cute.
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The day ended good, or at least on Pisces' end.
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