Helanie:
"I am glad you came," Rudy was in the woods, finishing up when I showed up. He only gave me a smile when he noticed my two friends behind me, and his smile started to fade a little.
"Hey guys, I didn’t know I was getting lucky with so many students today," he managed to smile, despite looking visibly unhappy.
"I hope it’s okay," I confirmed with him, and he gave me a nod. His sudden shift back to a good mood was helpful because I was seeing this practice as just a way to train and not for other reasons.
In the next few minutes, he helped us warm up and then began to reminisce about his own first classes. He brought out his old registers, which shocked me. He used to give himself daily tasks—exercises he had to do, including very hard ones like taking rounds of mountains without much help from his wolf.
He got us on our feet for a few rounds. Since they were also using a little strength, I didn’t fall too far behind. In fact, there were times when I was running ahead of Rudy.
I thought he was just slowing down on purpose to make me feel better about myself. But the others were also behind me. We finally arrived at our starting point after three hours of running and noticed how the boys were able to catch their breath.
I guess I needed my wolf fully awake to be able to do that.
"That was impressive," Rudy said, clapping his hands. Since it was just my friends, no one was shy about celebrating my strength.
I shyly looked down and then squared up for the next lesson. It was going great. Everything was going just like I expected when I’m with my friends. Lamar and Gavin were pretty goofy during the breaks.
The two seemed to have bonded well during their time together.
"Okay now, we will rest," Rudy raised his hand to stop the exercises. Lamar and Gavin threw their bodies on the ground to rest.
"I saw some apples on the trees, Helanie, do you mind coming with me to pick some?" Well, I guess I knew what Rudy was up to.
He wanted to spend time with me, and he was going to do it, whether my friends were around or not.
I turned to look at my friends and found them giggling and laughing about something they were whispering about in secrecy.
"They’ll be fine," Rudy laughed, noticing my concern. "Besides, we’ll be getting them apples."
He added, extending his hand to me. I didn’t take his hand but quickly followed him to let him know I was joining him.
"So, how do you feel being back at the academy?" he started talking softly, walking beside me and leading me into the deeper woods.
"It’s good. What helped the most is that Lucy has woken up," I wasn’t lying about that part. Even though she had proven to me that our friendship didn’t mean anything to her anymore, I was still glad she woke up.
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