Noelle clutched her chest, her breathing becoming heavier, more drastic and her hands shook with fear. Coriolanus grabbed her face, forcing her to look into his eyes, she shook her head and began hyperventilating. 

"What is he doing here? Corio, I can't be here, I can't be here." She whispered, shaking her head, whimpers escaping her lips as her body was wracked with pins and needles. A symptom she had only recently started getting when her panic took over her system.

"Noelle, look at me, darling- look at me, please. Here, smell this." He handed her the rose he had in his pocket, she took one long inhale then another and another until her breathing became regulated. A few tears ran down her cheeks, her hands still violently shook like they had a mind of their own. The brunette girl wiped away the tears, trying to hide her current emotions with a blank look, however, this time she was too far gone into the panic attack to be able to hide her emotions. 

"Corio... I don't know why he's here. What if he tries something in front of everyone?" Coriolanus took a quiet breath, offering a small smile, not wanting her to go deeper down the rabbit hole. 

"Noelle, I am here for you, please don't be scared or be worried. I will not let anything happen to you, please know that I'm here with you, until the end." 

"Until the end." She whispered, smiling as he grabbed her face, resting his forehead against hers and the moment lasted for a good couple minutes. Noelle had her eyes closed, her forehead still pressed against his forehead, leaning into his touch as he caressed her cheek and the soothing touch brought her an extra sense of comfort. 

"You ready, darling?" 

"Yes, Corio." Her voice broke but she looked mentally capable of handling this lesson. He nodded, resting a kiss on her forehead, getting her to take a deep breath helping her to her feet and led her to the gathering group of their classmates. 

Coriolanus stared at Noelle's father, biting back a glare, Noelle kept her gaze downwards and yet she was alert with anything that her father could say. Her father remained as a General, he was a brutal man, not only to his daughter but also to his comrades. 

"Students, I was invited here today and for the following week to train you in obstacles like our military goes through and you will all pass my course. I will not allow any of you to be crybabies or whingers and if you fail my course you will do it again and again until you pass. Are we clear?" All the students nodded, looking in Noelle's direction, knowing that she was his daughter and besides a few of them they all all expected something from her. 

"Go get into your gym clothes." They all ran to their bags, grabbed their sports uniform, and ran to their separate changing rooms. Noelle walked out, hugging herself to hide her insecurities, however, by doing that action it was clear that she was insecure. Especially in the eyes of Coriolanus,  he surveyed the gymnasium, searching for her amongst the other students and ran over once he saw her rocking back and forth on her feet. 

Noelle's father had the students walk to the sporting field; on the field was an entire set up of obstacles that made the brunette's eyes bulge out of her head. Mr Aster turned to the students, a cruel laugh escaping his lips, Noelle grabbed Coriolanus' pinkie with her something she would do when needing comfort from her blonde bestie. 

"Did I forget to mention that you will be here until 6 pm tonight?" Most of the students groaned, Noelle just looked at her father unimpressed but did not vocalise her annoyance. Coriolanus briefly glanced at the small girl, she was much shorter than him, and his 6'0 foot appearance did not intimidate the 5'2 girl. 

"I swear he's going to kill me. He will be the reason that I die." Noelle whispered to him, shaking her head, hesitating to grab her hair as she knew that she would rip it out with stress. Coriolanus shook his head, glancing at the other students, his body already aching at the sight of the obstacle course. 

"We'll go out together." Noelle's initial reaction was to scoff, however, she broke out into a sweet giggle that made Coriolanus' stomach fill with butterflies and his heart freeze which led to the chain effect of his breath being caught in his throat. 

Mr Aster had the students do ten laps around the entire sporting field, Noelle was huffing and puffing by the fifth lap. Physical activities were something that was far beyond Noelle's comfort zone, she was physically weak and that scared her. It scared her because she worried that she wouldn't be capable of protecting herself if she was up against a man. 

Biologically men are far more physically capable than women. She knew that she knew it was an innate thing, she found that irritating but Noelle got over herself, the brunette knew that there was nothing that could prevent men from being stronger than her but the idea of being pinned down and unable to move her arms... that gave her nightmares. 

After everyone completed their ten laps, Mr Aster gave a tally to each student after completing a lap until they all had ten, and then he began explaining the process of the course. Noelle was glad that the weather was pleasant, if it was hot she would already be wishing she were dead instead of being forced to do hours of intense physical activity. 

"Okay, this course begins with running until you have to crawl under barbed wire in the mud, after that, you have to climb a 20ft rope wall, make it down to the other side and then make a 6-foot jump to a climbing net that you then have to maneuver yourself down a pole until you make it the ground. The final obstacle, working as a collective to get everyone up to a 10-foot platform where you then have to cross a distance of 20 feet swinging on ring swings until you make it to the other side. After that, you just get to slide down into a cold pool of water. Great! Let's get started." 

The majority of the group looked pissed; none of them wanted to be doing this, what Mr Aster wanted them to be doing was not safe whatsoever, and they all thought along the same lines. 

'I'm going to fucking die.' Noelle took Coriolanus' hand, looking at him with helpless but dedicated eyes, her eyes were always what held her emotions. They had all the emotions, all her pain love and hope. Her gorgeous hazel orbs revealed her desire for freedom; the blonde boy could see the fire waiting to be lit and that was gorgeous in his eyes. 

"Let's do this." The two ran side by side, both dropping to their knees as they began crawling through mud, staying down low to avoid being sliced by the sharp thorns of the barbed wire. Some of their classmates had already been sliced, causing a traffic jam for three others, Coriolanus escaped first, waiting for Noelle to get halfway out before offering a hand to help her out of the first obstacle. 

"Coriolanus! Noelle! Keep moving! Go! Go! Go! Don't fucking stop!" Not wanting to deal with her father's yelling any longer than needed, she reached for Coriolanus' hand, running with him until they made it to the rope wall.