Dawn's POV

After lunch we all walked back down to the training hall together. Alyson was still pissed off about lunch and walked in the back of the group, trailing behind a few feet .

"Alright Trainees!" yelled Max as he walked into the room and let the metal door fall shut behind him.

We all scurried back into a straight line. The talking ceased instantly and we all were focused on Max.

"The second half of training starts now! You and your partner will be switching roles, and the fastest will be starting first this time." Max said before he paused and walked up and down the line. "Any questions?"

Max was walking down the line away from me, I was waiting patiently to see if someone was going to ask a question or not.

"What's the time to beat?" Landon called out to Max, who stopped in his tracks and turned around to face him.

I was surprised that he had asked. I mean Landon was pretty fast, but I didn't think he was fast enough to beat the fastest time.

"What do you mean?" Max questioned as he started walking towards Landon.

All eyes turned towards Landon and I realized that he was actually serious.

"What was the fastest time ever recorded, in which someone successfully retrieved the ribbon from their partner?" he asked being more specific this time.

Max continued to walk forward, and he stopped right in front of him.

"Why do you ask?" he questioned as he raised a brow, leaning in to get in Landon's personal space.

"I was just wondering sir,I don't think that I could beat it." Landon explained with a shrug.

Max nodded at him then glanced back down the line at the rest of us. "If you aren't going to try to beat it, no point in knowing what it is then," he said seriously. "Any other significant questions?"

No one said anything so Max nodded and pointed towards the door. "Then you trainees know where to go."

We all filed out of the room and headed towards training room D again. We entered through the doors and I quickly glanced up at the platform, and sure enough Jake and Karla were leaning on the railing watching us flow into the room.

Xavier and I walked to the middle of the floor while the rest of the trainees lined up against the wall again.

"Alright Dawn, you're up," Max said while scribbling down something on his clipboard. He looked up and gave me a serious look. "Show me what you've got."

Xavier grabbed the ribbon from Max and tied it onto his belt loop. Before taking a starting position, he gave me a nod. I gave him a small smile and nodded back at him. Xavier then turned around and got into a ready stance.

I still had my hair up from lunch and I stretched a little before taking a deep breath. The chatter in the room had quieted to almost nothing, and I put my right foot back, getting ready to take off.

"Are we ready?" Max asked as he got his timer out.

Without breaking our stances, Xavier and I both gave him a small nod in acknowledgement.

"GO!!" Max yelled suddenly as he started the timer.

Xavier suddenly took off, and I shot off after him. I wasn't going to let him get to much of a gap on me.

He sped down the middle of the room, and I sprinted after him. I didn't run exactly as fast as I could though. I didn't know what Xavier was going to try to do to make it harder for me.

We were nearing the end of the room and I figured he had to turn soon, so I focused on his feet to see where they were going.

Xavier quickly turned right and I followed with ease because I was prepared for it. He sped up and started weaving in and out of the poles just like I had done. I thought about it, and tried to outsmart him by just running down the right side of the poles without weaving in and out.

Quickly catching on to what I was doing, Xavier shot off to the left side of the room after weaving around a pillar. It caught me by surprise and I had to bust my butt to catch back up to him. I sprinted as fast as I could to the other side of the room.

"Eight minutes left," Max yelled from behind me.

I silently cursed remembering that my time was clocking down. I willed my legs to go faster, managing to speed up a little more. I could see him running a good ten feet in front of me. Slowly I tried to close that gap until I was only about five feet behind him.

Xavier took another left and started running down the middle of the room again. I cut the left turn a little short and closed the gap to about three feet between us. We started running down the middle of the room again, the metal pillars still speeding by on my left.

I sucked in as much air as I could and pushed myself harder, closing the gap more and just barely catching back up to Xavier. I was close enough to hear his heavy breathing. It was just as heavy as mine.

He took another right turn, right in between two pillars. I quickly followed behind running towards the outer edge of the room, starting to get really out of breath.

"Five Minutes!" Max shouted from behind us again.

Xavier slowed down a bit and I did just a tiny bit too. Running so fast for so long was really exhausting.

We got to the end of the room and Xavier ran right back to the pillars and started weaving through them again. All the weaving in and out was starting to make me feel a little dizzy. But I still pushed on and chased after Xavier.

Xavier slowed down just a little bit as we neared the last pole, and I speed up to gain ground. I was almost directly behind him. 

He turned left and we ran towards the end of the room again, the other trainees and Max passed by like a blur on my right. 

We were running down a straight away, and I decided It was the perfect opportunity, being so close to Xavier, to try and grab the ribbon.

I got pretty close to Xavier and I reached out with my right hand and tried grabbing the ribbon. I almost had it, but at the last second it slipped out of my grasp as Xavier sped up again and put a little ground between us.

"Three minutes!" Max yelled from behind us as we turned to the left again and started running down the middle of the room for the fifth time.

Xavier decided not to go through the pillars this time and I silently cheered at another opportunity. I could hear his heavy breathing, and decided it was now or never. Even though I was breathing heavy, and my legs were burning, I pushed myself with my last drops of strength to go faster and I got as close as I could to Xavier, he was almost kicking me as he ran ahead.

I had to make a final move, so I lunged forward and just barely snatched the ribbon off of Xavier's belt. He continued running, unaware I had the ribbon as I continued to fall forward until my face met with the ground.

Right before my face hit, I closed my eyes. As soon as my face did smack against the cold grey concrete floor, I could hear Max yelling "Two Minutes!" from behind me.

I felt pain spread through my nose and up to my head. I barely heard the stampede of feet make their way over to me. I lifted my left hand up to my nose and silently willed the pain to subside. It startled me when I felt a hand suddenly appear under my arm, trying to lift it up and get me to roll over.

"Are you alright Dawn?" Max asked me while trying to lift up my arm again.

I groaned as I slowly rolled over on to my back, my left hand still holding my nose. Luckily I was holding on to the ribbon with a death grip in my right hand.

Slowly blinking my eyes, I looked around and could see Max crouched down beside me, and all the other trainees leaning over me with worried looks on their faces.

I felt something runny under my nose and I brought my left hand up so I could see it. Sure enough it was covered in blood.

Max looked worried as he quickly examined my nose. "You're going to have to go to the gang doctor to see if your nose is broken or not. I can't quite tell," Max instructed before grabbing my arm and pulling me up so I was in a sitting position.

I glanced around the circle that had formed around me, and everyone was staring at me silently. I just really hoped my face didn't look too messed up.

"Now Dawn," Max started to say. "Did you manage to grab the ribbon? because if you didn't then it would be a waste of a bloody nose." Max finished with a raised brow.

I smiled as I slowly lifted my right hand, with the ribbon dangling from it. "Got it," I barely said before everyone started cheering. Max smiled as he took it from my hand and put it in his pocket.

"Well done Dawn," Max said cheerfully.

From where I was laying, I glanced up to see if Jake and Karla were still watching, but they had disappeared again.

"Alright! Alright!" Max hollered over the cheers causing everyone to fall silent."Training is dismissed early today thanks to Dawn." Max paused to stand up. "Just don't get into trouble, and be back in your dorms my curfew."

A loud "Yes Sir!" chorused through the room as people started to file out through the doorway. Only Lucy, Parker, and surprisingly, Xavier didn't start to leave yet.

"Are you sure you're okay Dawn?" Xavier asked me. "I feel bad about giving you a bloody nose."

I  pushed my hand up harder against my nose as I started to feel more blood come out. "Its okay Xavier, It's not your fault, I'm the one who dove." I said sounding like I had a cold.

"You think you're ready to get up now?" Max asked while holding out a hand.

I nodded as I took it with my free hand, and slowly got up with Max's help.

"Alright let's get you up to Sebastian's office to have a look at your nose," Max instructed as he made me tip my head back to lessen the blood flow a little.

I followed Max out of training room D with Lucy, Parker and Xavier trailing behind me. We walked back into the main training room, and Max made us stop and wait as he grabbed some stuff off the table in the middle of the room.

As we were waiting, I turned to Parker and Xavier. They both gave me a small smile, one that I greatly returned.

"You guys should go back to the dorm or go find something to do for awhile. I don't want you waiting for me." I said hoping they would listen to me.

Xavier and Parker both opened up their mouths to say something, but I put my free and non bloody hand up to stop them.

"Just go guys, I can find you after I go visit the doctor and we can do something for the rest of the day," I said with a smile.

Xavier nodded and walked over to the door.

"Alright Dawn, just don't bleed out on me or anything," Parker said seriously causing me to laugh.

"I promise Parker," I said while raising up my free hand.

Parker nodded and followed Xavier over to the door. They had just disappeared from sight as Max said something to me.

"Are you ready Dawn?" Max asked as he started walking towards the door.

I nodded as Lucy and I started following him through the door and upstairs to Ground Zero.

We were slowly making our way up the stairs, and I felt blood start dripping down my arm. I gave Max a push to make him go faster, and he gratefully did. I just wanted to get to this doctor and find out if my nose was broken or not.

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Hey Everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Training is off to a really great start...

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