Chapter 2:SKATA

"Brian!,Brian!,Brian!"

I raised my head to realize the history teacher, miss Stephanie glaring at me, the rest of the class were also staring at me, some giggling.

"Brian, you weren't paying attention,this is the second time you've done this in my class. You're gonna have to see me after class". My teacher said with a strict voice, now that it's come to this it only means I'm getting a lecture or detention. After class I followed miss Stephanie nonchalantly to her office in the history department, I sat and watched her as she brewed some coffee and after she was done she took a seat in her big chair behind her desk opposite me. she took a sip of coffee and then started my lecture...

"I have been getting bad reports about you lately from other teachers",she took a serious tone and leaned over with her eyebrows raised so that she looked angry."They say you now participate less in class and are always not attentive,may I get an explanation for this".

The explanation is simple, class is boring, I'm done learning every topic in the syllabus and I don't get anything new from the teacher's lessons, there is no point in showing interest in class when there is nothing to learn, besides I've become hooked on physical and combat training lately,but I couldn't just tell her that, it will sound absurd and seem like I'm bragging. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath thinking about what to say...

"sorry miss Stephanie, its only that I've been stressed from studying lately that my brain is so tired I can't even focus when I want to", hopefully she takes the bait and gets off my case...

" you're a brilliant student Brian, and if you think you're stressed out all you need to do is take a little break, even though you've not been participating in class lately you still maintain your grades and that's a good sign. I suggest you take a little break from studying, maybe a week to recover". Yes! she took the bait, a whole week's break would be the most wonderful thing to have right now. I stood there silent as miss Stephanie wrote me a letter to present to the school's welfare council.

I finally had some breathing space when I exited miss Stephanie's office, one depressing thing about being a brilliant student was that you also had to be perfect since all the teachers had their eyes on you. 'Brian Strider', that name was known by every student in the Veteran Training Academy as the most brilliant student in the history of the school and the only person in the world who had a mutual pulze level but no pulze ability though I'm probably stronger than any super-human my age. Having a good pulze ability gave you the edge you needed in battle to win although physical strength can be trained to increased. Even if the world is at peace there are still those psychos, lunatics and criminals who enjoy hurting people and causing destruction therefore in order to control them people with super-human abilities were put through training in the best combat school on the planet called the Super-knight's Army Training Academy (SKATA) soldiers from this school were called Super-knights and we're in charge of taking care of super-human criminals, they are more like the police of the super-human society. SKATA trains soldiers from all six zones of the world and Super-knights are seen as international heroes. There are so few Super-knights because it's difficult to get into SKATA from a normal school unless you had insane pulze abilities or you reach a minimum cumulative points on a specific grading system. I dream of getting into SKATA to become a Super-knight, however my current record does not seem to support that dream. There's still a year more before application so I have to begin my own training to become stronger and raise my cummulative points.

school is finally over and I'm headed home with my little brother Andrew.The ride is uncomfortable since I hate being anywhere close to my relatives but I've just got to live with it since I can't fend for myself. I stepped out of the car as soon as we arrived at the Strider mansion but I was glued to the spot where I stood gathering the courage to face what was inside since I have some family problems.

"Good day and welcome back master Brian", I jumped as Vanelope startled me with her out of nowhere greeting, she's my personal maid although she's just two years older than I am.

"Yh hi Vanelope", I responded...

"May I take your bag, master?", she asked holding out her hand.

"No it's fine, I can hold it on my own, anyway has the package I ordered arrived?"

" Yes, I put it in your room just as you wished and naturally I made sure nobody caught a whiff of anything".

" That's perfect, I knew I could trust you",then with the encouragement from the good news I went straight to my room. I changed my clothes and took the package with me, I handed my school break note to Beatrice, the head maid and headed out of the mansion on my bike.

I once found a wooden cottage in the forest behind my house, about a kilometre into the woods. I stumbled upon the place when I tried running away from home about a few months ago, I found a the cottage broken down and rebuilt it, stayed there for two days until I missed the comfortable life and went back, I don't think anybody cared but that was then, now it's a place I go to do my personal training and to do some thinking. After riding ten minutes I arrived at the wooden cottage and went inside to change my clothes into something more suitable for training.