Pep Squad (8 page)

‘What's wrong?' asked Aidan.

‘You'd built it up so much, I was kind of hoping to see all the grotesque alien-girl stuff,' Jess admitted sheepishly.

‘That'll be in the real mask. This is just the mould, remember? I've got a whole week to plan exactly how hideous I'm going to make you,' smiled Aidan.

‘If your masks are dry, you can fill them with gypsum cement to make the positive mould,' said Miss Kwan. ‘You will need to make two positive moulds. Once you've finished, you may go to lunch.'

The mask Jess had made of Aidan's face was dry enough for the cement, but the cast of her own face still had some time to set.

‘Go ahead,' said Aidan. ‘I'll amuse myself watching the plaster dry.'

Jess was mixing a bowl full of cement when she heard Aidan's voice whisper in her ear, ‘How are you enjoying working with the attractive Mr Aidan Lyons?'

Jess spun around, splashing cement all over herself to see Emily grinning at her.

‘How do you do that?' asked Jess.

‘Mimic people or spot when they've got crushes?' grinned Emily.

‘I don't know what you're talking about,' said Jess, feeling her cheeks go red.

‘You mean it's escaped your notice that he's the cutest boy in the year?' continued Emily.

‘Not so loud,' hissed Jess, looking over at the drying racks where Aidan was prodding the mask to see if it was dry. ‘He's good to work with. Doesn't throw too many pillows at me. Who did you end up with?' she asked, trying desperately to change the subject as Aidan picked up his mask and headed towards them.

Emily grinned an evil grin. ‘Krivlyakaev.'

‘You chose him?'

Emily nodded.

‘Why?' asked Jess.

‘I thought it would be a good chance to gather some intelligence. See what his problem is. Turns out overinflated ego, god complex and when he feels threatened intellectually he turns to violence,' said Emily.

‘He told you all that? What did you do? Dip the bandages in truth serum?'

‘Nah,' said Emily. ‘My eldest brother's a psychologist. I was reading through one of his textbooks when I was six and found this chapter about how you identify basic personality types.'

‘How do you do that?' asked Jess.

‘Now that would be telling,' said Emily mysteriously.

‘What would be telling?' asked Aidan, setting his mask on the bench and spooning cement into it.

‘Aidan, this is Emily, my nerdy roommate who reads psychology textbooks for fun,' said Jess.

‘Hey, I like reading ahead. It gives me an edge,' said Emily.

‘Emily, this is Aidan, who wants to turn me into some freakishly disfigured space alien,' continued Jess.

‘That shouldn't be too much of a challenge, considering she looks like a freakishly disfigured space alien already,' said Emily, winking.

‘Your homework,' said Miss Kwan from the front of the room as the bell rang, ‘is to draw life-sized sketches of your mask design, face-on and left and right profiles, in full colour. We'll begin clay sculpting next lesson.'

Despite the physical and mental exhaustion, Jess was becoming conditioned to waking early and Saturday was no exception. She opened one eye and looked at the alarm clock on her desk, cursing herself when she saw that it was only 6:14. She pulled the duvet over her head in a desperate effort to get back to sleep.

Then all hell broke loose.

A high-pitched bleeping – much louder than their alarm on previous days – broke out, followed by a howl from Emily's bed on the opposite side of the room.

‘Agh! I can't believe we didn't turn the stupid dinges off. It's the weekend!' cried Emily, pulling her own duvet over her head.

‘
Dinges
?' said Jess as she got out of bed and padded over to the alarm. ‘Is that South African for something that dings?' She hit the Snooze button, but the noise continued.

‘No, it's a
thing
, you Uitlander.'

‘I'm not even going to bother with that one,' muttered Jess, banging the alarm's Off button repeatedly and finally pulling the cord out of the wall. Only then, as the noise persisted, did she realise that it was not coming from their machine. ‘Emily, that's not our alarm.'

‘What?' said Emily, poking one eye out from under the covers.

There was a sharp rap at the door.

‘Do you think there's a fire?' asked Jess, running to the door.

‘There'd better be,' grunted Emily.

Jess opened the door to find Signora Enigmistica standing on the other side, dressed in her tracksuit with a whistle around her neck.

‘I thought you girls might try to sleep in this morning. Up you get!' she said, walking into the room and pulling Emily's bedclothes back.

‘What are you doing?' cried Emily.

‘The same thing we do every morning. Fitness Training!' said Signora Enigmistica. ‘Come on. Get dressed!'

‘But it's Saturday,' grumbled Emily, reaching for the duvet.

‘Oh, Saturday. I forgot,' said Signora Enigmistica, holding it out of Emily's reach. ‘Of course we don't exercise on Saturdays. We also don't eat breakfast, lunch or dinner.'

‘We get the message,' said Jess. ‘Two minutes.'

While Emily and Jess were getting dressed they could hear Signora Enigmistica rapping on all the cadets' doors.

As they left their dorm they bumped into Ben and Matt.

‘If Lieutenant Parry had said anything about no sleep-ins on Saturdays I never would have signed up,' said Matt grumpily.

‘And if I'd known he was
a true pantyliner
, I would never have signed up either,' laughed Ben, after glancing at a small electronic device.

‘You what?' said Emily.

‘Gadget boy's latest invention,' said Matt, rolling his eyes. ‘An anagram generator.'

‘But
a true pantyliner
?' asked Emily.

‘Anagram for Lieutenant Parry,' said Ben.

‘When did you get time to make that?' asked Jess.

‘Lifting weights is so mindless I had to do something to stop my brain from imploding, so I wrote the code in my head,' said Ben.

‘Nerd,' said Emily.

‘Now there's no need for name calling,' said Ben, typing into the gadget again, ‘
my Irish earl
.'

‘What?' snapped Emily irritably.

‘Anagram of Emily Harris,' said Jess when Ben refused to answer.

‘By now you should know better than to be
that chic
in the morning,' growled Emily, running ahead with the other cadets, who were starting their workout by doing laps around the gym.

‘She's getting a bit friendlier in the mornings now,' observed Ben.

‘I'd hardly say so,' said Jess. ‘Try typing
that chic
into your gadget.'

‘Hitch cat … ah, chit-chat. She still doesn't like it,' said Ben.

‘If you two have time for chit-chat,' said Herr Klug as he jogged up behind them, ‘then you have time for fifty squat thrusts after your warm-up.'

Ben was about to protest but shut his mouth when Emily ran past him smirking.

Emily was still grinning when they got to breakfast.

‘Nothing makes me happier than watching people doing punishment for too much chit-chat in the mornings,' she trilled as she smeared her toast with her allowance of thirteen grams of butter.

‘Maybe you could just do some squat thrusts in your room before the alarm goes off and leave me out of it,' Ben grumbled at Jess.

‘If you hadn't been playing with that gadget, then this never would have happened,' Jess grumbled back.

‘OK if I chow with you guys?' asked Lieutenant Parry.

‘Go ahead,' said Matt through a mouthful of Weetabix.

‘How are you all enjoying your first week here?' asked Lieutenant Parry.

‘It's pretty tiring,' said Jess, sprinkling her allocated one hundred and six grains of sugar on her porridge.

‘These early mornings are a killer,' said Matt.

‘You'll get used to it,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘How about the classes?'

‘It'd be OK without the languages,' said Emily.

‘I still can't get my head around Chinese,' admitted Jess.

‘Espionage 101 is good,' said Ben. ‘Especially the gadgets lesson.'

‘Now why doesn't that surprise me?' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘I guess you'll be applying to work in the research labs instead of being a field agent when you graduate?'

‘You bet,' said Ben, crunching on his bacon.

‘No Memory Wipe needed for this table then?' continued the lieutenant.

‘I think someone slips me a gallon of it before every Chinese lesson,' grumbled Jess.

‘Well, forget about classes for now,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘Saturdays are all about Fieldwork Fundamentals.'

‘Oh, yeah,' said Matt. ‘What are we doing today?'

‘One of the rules of Fieldwork Fundamentals is for you to be prepared for anything, so it'd be unfair for me to tell you,' said Lieutenant Parry, ‘even if you are my mentees.'

‘Is that Irish for
boets
?' asked Emily.

‘I have no idea what you just said,' said Lieutenant Parry, taking a gulp of coffee, ‘but to be clearer, I am your mentor and you are my mentees. If you're having problems with school work, or any problems at all, or want some career advice, I'm here for you.'

Jess felt pleased. She liked Lieutenant Parry the best out of all the teachers she'd so far come across at Theruse Abbey.

‘Do you mentor all the first years?' asked Ben.

‘Just you guys. We get a handful of you each. I'll actually be your mentor for your whole time here.'

‘Could have done worse, I guess,' said Emily, grinning.

‘Too right,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘I like to meet up as a group once a week. Group discussion does wonders for boosting morale. You can of course meet me for one-on-one appointments as well. You guys have a think and let me know the time that suits you best.'

He stood up and took a final swig of his coffee. ‘But right now I've got the whole lot of you for Fieldwork Fundamentals. We're meeting at the back entrance at nine. Don't be late.'

Jess finished her porridge quickly and went off to brush her teeth, leaving the others behind. She was still slightly annoyed with Ben and Emily for the squat-thrust incident. Rather than waiting for them, she took the rear stairs down to the back entrance so she wouldn't risk bumping into anyone returning from the refectory.

She had been so busy during the first crazy week that she hadn't spent any time outside in the school grounds. As the week wore on the rain had been torrential. Even the scheduled outdoor classes had been relocated inside.

‘There's no point having you all come down with the flu in the first week of term,' Signora Enigmistica had said.

In stark contrast this morning was glorious. As Jess stepped out through the back door the smell of salt air hit her immediately. In the distance she could hear the crash of waves hitting the cliffs that surrounded the abbey grounds. She closed her eyes and felt the sun on her face, letting her body soak up the fresh air for the first time in a week. Standing alone in the sunshine, Jess felt like she'd found her own private Nirvana.

‘Hi.'

The voice startled Jess so much she jumped.

‘Sorry,' said Aidan. ‘I didn't mean to scare you.'

‘Oh, no. I was just … um,' said Jess.

‘Hi, Aidan,' said Emily loudly as she walked up to them, then whispered to Jess, ‘I was wondering why you were in such a hurry after breakfast.'

Jess shot Emily a furious look, but Aidan's roommate had also arrived and the two of them were chatting so he missed the remark. Gradually the rest of the transition years arrived and finally Lieutenant Parry turned up, carrying three huge canvas rucksacks that he dropped on the ground with a heavy
thunk
. ‘Welcome to Fieldwork Fundamentals. Today we'll be–'

‘Dropping heavy bags on the ground,' Matt whispered just a little too loudly.

Lieutenant Parry's head snapped around.

‘Congratulations, cadet. You've just earned the right to carry one of these,' he said, picking up a rucksack and tossing it at Matt, who stumbled under its weight as he caught it.

Krivlyakaev laughed.

‘Another volunteer, fantastic,' said the lieutenant, flinging a second sack at Krivlyakaev.

The pack slammed into Krivlyakaev with a wallop, but he was ready for it and caught it with his feet firmly planted on the ground.

‘I just need one more.' Lieutenant Parry looked at the gathered students. ‘How about we see if a girl can carry one?'

He tossed the final pack to Emily, who stood her ground and caught it without shifting her feet.

‘Well, don't just stand there, get moving,' said Lieutenant Parry, starting off across the lawn and heading into the trees.

‘What we doing today?' asked Svetlana, as the group rushed to keep up with him.

‘Abseiling and, depending on how much time we have, Australian rappelling. You'd be surprised the number of times it comes in useful to scale a high wall or abseil down the side of a building when you're on a mission,' replied the lieutenant.

The fresh air and the thought of doing an adventure sport put the cadets in high spirits as they hiked through the trees. The sound of the waves grew louder until all of a sudden they reached the edge of a thicket, only metres away from a cliff.

Some metal stakes had been hammered into the ground midway between the thicket and the top of the cliff.

‘Here we are,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘Has anyone not been rock climbing or abseiling before?'

Everyone except Krivlyakaev put up their hands.

‘Then I'm glad you're here, Ivan,' said Lieutenant Parry. ‘You can be my wingman. You can put your bag down now. You too, Matt and Emily.'

Matt, Emily and even Krivlyakaev dropped the sacks with relief.

Lieutenant Parry opened one of the sacks and tipped it upside-down. A stack of orange helmets and what looked like loops of seat belt straps fell on the ground.

‘This is your safety gear,' he continued. ‘Standard mission combat gear includes a belt with a retractable wire and grappling hook, but that's for the professionals. While you're learning, we use regular abseiling gear, which includes ropes, harnesses and, of course, helmets. It's old school, but it's safe and ideal for training.

‘We'll start with the helmet. Make sure it fits nice and snug.'

Jess put one of the bright orange helmets on her head and pulled the chin strap tight.

‘Now this,' said Lieutenant Parry, holding up a D-shaped metal clip a little smaller than the palm of his hand, ‘is a carabiner. You open it by unscrewing this,' he continued, demonstrating. ‘You can then clip it onto the rope, screw it shut tight again and that'll hold you.

‘This,' he said, holding up a contraption that looked like loops of seat belt strung together, ‘is your climbing harness. One loop for each leg and the big loop for your waist,' he continued, stepping into the harness. ‘The straps on the legs and the waist are adjustable. They should be pulled tight in a way that is firm, yet comfortable.'

Although Lieutenant Parry had made it look easy, when Jess tried to step into her harness she got into all sorts of trouble.

‘Having trouble threading all your alien tentacles through the right loops?' teased Aidan. His climbing harness was already done up.

‘Yeah. Accessories aren't really my thing,' said Jess, feeling a bit useless.

‘I think you've got your left leg through the bit where your waist should go,' said Aidan.

‘Ah,' said Jess, sliding the whole harness off to start again.

‘Let me,' said Aidan, picking up the harness and untangling it. ‘Right leg in here. I said
right
leg.'

‘Oh, sorry,' said Jess, putting her left foot down and stepping her right leg through the loop.