A world Apart (The alien Assassin)

Chapter 4.

POV; first exams.

Loud alarms blared in the environment of the kedran training school rousing its occupants.

Fatima looked at the blinking time dial above the bed, it was 7: am.

"She had fallen asleep the previous night soon after the speech.

She dimly remembered skipping dinner and asked a guard for directions to the female quarters.

She studied her new room with interests, it was small and sparsely furniture, a table and a chair sat in the right corner.

The bed she was sitting on occupied a lot of space in the room and creaked on the slightest movement.

Evidently comfort was a priority to the kedrans. She had not brought anything of hers to the school as they had been confiscated upon her arrival to kedran by the space officials.

"She had waken up to see a grey spandex like over all folded nearly on her bed.

She heard movement outside her door, she stood up and went closer to the door to listen.

She heard girls chatting among themselves. They were all going to the bathrooms.

"Opening her door, she joined the queue, she noticed that they were no kedran among them.

A large of them consisted of Martian while the rest were from Jupiter.

"It seems she was the only one from Earth, she noted with alarm.

She had already began receiving weird stares from the girls, they had already formed cliques and moved in groups.

"She was the only one walking alone. She wondered how long it was before they reached the bathroom, her limp were becoming obvious as she no drag her bad leg as she walked.

She heard more whispering and laughter behind her."

"Girls will always be girls regardless of the planet. She mused cynically as she ignored them.

The federation had a thing for large rooms, she thought on reaching the bathroom.

It was a large rectangular room with no divided compartment. Showers were all on the right and toilet systems on the left.

"A wooden rack was at the side of they clothes. A kedran guard was inside.'

Fatima felt uncomfortable and hesitant to change under his watch.

“A little privacy; a tall Martian girl shouted out to the guard, there were murmurs of assent around the room.

Fatima had noticed the girl earlier, she appeared to be a ringleader of her clique.

"There was no movement from the guard, he had an expressionless face.

“Don't bother, he is a eunuch, another girl said. Fatima couldn't place her planet, she had a weird body proportion.

“How would you know that? The Martian girl asked with a scowl on her face.

“Well, some of us read, it's in kedran history book” the other girl fired back."

The Martian girl raised her hand to slap the other girl, but was stopped in time by one of her crew.

The gathering dispersed as people undress and went to the rack to put their clothes.

"Fatima went to the closet shower, she selected “hot” on the shower dial and the steamy water washed over her.

“Why do you wear that scarf on your head? Your hair is beautiful without it, a girl bathing beside her asked.

“It's called Hijab and I wear it because it's my religion way of dressing.

" she answered back.

“I'm Kate where are you from?” I can't place it.

“Earth she said.

“We Martians have a reputation for being fierce though not all of us are like that.

The girl earlier is called jama, try not to fall into her trap."

" I noticed you don't have any friends and you're the only human here.

"Join our group the girl said offering a hand to Fatima.

She considered her proposal, if she joined them, she wouldn't have to worry about getting bullied and picked on.

She wondered what she could bring to the group as she couldn't fight and not have any particular skill to boost of.

"She remembered Papa said she should make new friends.

She accepted Kat’s hand, and shook it.

Good decision, we'll watch each other back’s while we're here kat said with a wide smile.

Fatima felt light with happiness as she smiled back at kat, now all she had to worry about is passing the exams.

****

The main hall was filled with students when Fatima walked in with kat crew.

"There had been some disagreement about letting her into the group, but kat had been a strong match for all of them.

They had grudgliy allowed her in after that.

The wall was arranged differently from the previous day for the exams.

Tables and chairs were lined in three rows. Master Krim now presided over the exams, Mistress kishra was beside him with a scowl on her face, she carried herself in as usual uptight manner. Fatima search the hall for Master Yedder but she couldn't find him, she was thrilled that he was absent since he was strict.

The table were numbered sequentially, she reached for 86. Kat's number was 21 so she went to the front.

The other crew members all dispersed in search for they seats. The question papers were already on they tables. It was upturned to the blank side.

Master Krim climbed the steps to the podium slowly. He made gesture with his hands to the guards and the gate were closed.

“Good day worriors, he began. We're not raising robots here who only follows orders. On the field, you'll need to make critical decisions from time to time.

A rash decision can kill the best of soldiers so in this institution, we'll be training mind along with body. On the screen before you are 10 calculation problems, 10 general knowledge questions and 10 practical field work questions.

"The exams last for 45 mins. Best of luck, you can began.

The hall became quite and had a tense atmosphere.

Fatima quickly logged in her details in her computer and questions came up.

She easily solved the calculation problems; math had been her favourite subject in school. She randomly marked answers in general knowledge section, his and language were not her thing.

The practical field work questions were tough though and took most of her time. She submitted her work 5 mins to deadline and joined the group of people headed back to the dormitories.

She spotted a huge noticeboard with all the students profiles. She stopped to look at it, the name were grouped by planets. Surprisingly 6 students were in the earth section.

When she saw the third name on the list, the room spinned and went out of focus.

"She distantly heard a voice asking if she was alright, she felt cold water splash on her face and she opened her eyes.

She was on the floor; kat and her crew were looking down at her and carried her up.