Windows flashed by as I raced through the castle. My heart pounded furiously, and my breathing was getting close to erratic. I've got to get out of here. Now.

Finally managing to find the grand door, I raced out into the field separating the academy from the first wall. I charged right into the group standing outside, accidentally overshooting and crashing right into a tall human. Gafrial's gloves, that was definitely not timed correctly.

I scrambled to my feet, pulling the woman I knocked down with me. She was muscular enough to almost pull me down as I tried to help her up, but her face was peppered with fine wrinkles. Her hair was strawberry blonde, but I could see streaks of grey in it. And these streaks weren't purposeful like the black streaks in my gloriously white hair. Oh no, these were marks of time.

I stopped studying her, though, when I saw the irritation in her eyes. Before I could even begin to attempt to defend myself, the woman said, "As soon as we're done, I want ten laps around the school from you. I don't care if the sweat will make your hair dye run. I will not tolerate tardiness." Did she really just assume I'm going to use my hair as an excuse to get out of running? I'd much rather outwit her.

As I stared at her, confused, she brushed herself off and faced the rest of the class. "As I was saying-" Someone else crashed into the teacher. Feeling sorry for the poor dude, I hauled him up and shoved him behind the crowd of students.

The teacher stood up and let out an infuriated huff of air. "Alright, which one of you did that?" I glanced at the man I had saved from ten laps around the school, blinking when I realized it was Kent. Didn't expect that. Is Diana here too? I looked around but didn't see her. Makes sense. We can't all be in each other's classes.

Glaring at all of us, the irritated human said, "Since I don't know who it was, you can all run an extra lap around the school. You, girl with the flashy hair. The lap you run with the class won't count towards the ten you owe me." I held in my protests, not wanting the sadistic teacher to focus on me any more and figure out the loophole I was planning on exploiting.

The teacher continued, "For those of you who weren't here for the beginning of my class," she paused to throw an extra death-y glare at me, "My name is Agnes Huffington. You may call me Ms. Huffington or Coach Huffington, and nothing else. I am your physical trainer. Today you will all go through a series of tests so I can determine your fitness level. Then I will give you a workout regimen to get you into shape enough for you to be able to handle your powers safely. Other than that, I don't care what you do. Every day during third hour you lot will come down here and work out. I will not be supervising. You will be tested every two weeks. If you slack, I will be able to tell very easily, and I will give you my personal attention. Now I want you all to sprint to the first wall, jog to the academy, and then sprint back to where I am standing now. Go!"

What followed was one of the most brutal, torturous workouts I had ever taken part of. Huethor gave her enemies more mercy than we were given. Only three things got me through the horror show.

One, I was already fit from going on runs with my dad's pack and having nothing better to do than some light exercises with the guards at the seelie castle. The guards wouldn't train me in any weaponry though, something about how I was already vicious enough without knowing how to efficiently kill people.

Two, I couldn't wait to see the look on Huffington's face when I showed off my loophole. It was going to be priceless.

And three, the students of Preston Academy have a little nickname for Ms. Huffington. Many students stealthily offered me condolences for my ten laps, props for saving Kent from ten laps as well, and forgiveness for the extra lap everyone had to run. Apparently, running an extra lap around the school was one of Huffington's milder consequences. So of course, the students had to find a way to get a little revenge, and the best course of action was a nickname.

For many years, that nickname was The Huffer, but that lacked pizzazz. It lacked ingenuity. It lacked that little something that drove Huffington over the edge. So about five years ago, a student went down in Preston Academy history for renaming The Huffer. On his last day of school, he dared her to run with them. After the run, The Huffer was panting, tired from the exhausting run. Then, he said, "That's a lot of huffing and puffing. Are you alright Puffer?"

The new nickname spread like wildfire, until even the teachers called her The Puffer behind her back. It was this story. This hilarious, ridiculous story that carried me through The Puffer's maniacal tests.

After the tests were over, The Puffer gathered us all around into a circle, where she split us up into three main groups. I trudged over to join the third group.

To my surprise, The Puffer addressed my group first. "Group 1, you are all in perfect shape. All you need to do is run one lap around the school and out to the forest edge and back. I don't care if you also do your own workouts later. The rest of the class you may do as you please as long as you don't interrupt the others." She scowled at me specifically when making that last remark. Kyarii's pearls woman, I'm not some delinquent. Most of the time.

The frowny teacher looked at the middle group. "Group 2. You're all average. Probably too lazy to exercise regularly, but not lazy enough to lose your ideal figure. You will run with Group 1, and then climb up and down the stairs to the inner wall twice." As The Puffer went into more detail, I scanned the second group, reading their reactions. Many of them, including Kent, looked bored. The others looked daunted by the sheer amount of effort this class was going to make them expend. Right. I keep forgetting that these are all children of the powerful. Many of them led pampered lives before either coming here or being sent here.

I was broken out of my thoughts by a sudden movement from The Puffer. She was marching towards the third group, and only stopped when right in front of them. "As for you lot. Group 3, you are the most unfit people of the group. I'm surprised you haven't stopped moving altogether for all the exercise you do. I completely expect most of you to simply stop functioning for how healthy you are. Ho-"

"Stop," I said, stepping out from the safety of my group.

The Puffer turned to face me, her eyes flashing. "What did you say, late-comer?"

I stepped forward again. "I said stop. You have no right to judge these people. The only reason you're here is to help them. I don't see how this mockery is helping them do anything except destroy their self-confidence."

She glowered at me. This should be fun. "You little brat." What followed was a very long lecture filled with us creative insults and a lot of curse words. Is she trying to teach me something here? By the time she was done, my punishment laps had quadrupled and The Puffer was out of breath.

I had remained silent for the lecture, but I couldn't help myself after she was done. "Would you like some water, Ms. Huffington? You're really puffing hard there." My fight to keep from smirking was fought valiantly, but doomed to fail. After all, who wouldn't smirk at their teacher's face turning a mottled red out of fury?

The Puffer screamed something that sounded vaguely like "Ten maaaarrrrgghhh laps!" I set off running, and heard the pounding of the rest of the class's tired feet after me.

Unfortunately for us, the diameter of the school hadn't gotten any shorter in the time since we had first run around it at the beginning of class. As I was running, I thought back to my odd conversation with Corlahn.

After everyone left the classroom, I smiled hesitantly at the history teacher. "Can I help you with something, Ms. Corlahn?"

She smiled back. "Yes, in fact. You can. Rin, you were the only person in class today who didn't try to switch seats with someone. Why?"

I shrugged. "It seemed pointless. I was considering trying to move back, but after you caught the first few people I didn't think it was worth the trouble."

Corlahn looked at me thoughtfully. "Why do you think I flipped the seats?"

"It was a power move. You showed the kids who chose to sit in the back that we won't be able to escape your notice, and the kids who chose to sit in the front will have to learn to adapt if they really want to learn. It also showed you those who would try to thwart you and disobey, which was apparently everyone."

The teacher chuckled a little. "You know, most people would say it was just to keep an eye on the troublemakers, who would choose to sit in the back. They would say the ones who sit in the front are the more trustworthy ones."

I looked at her calmly. "I'm not most people, Ms. Corlahn."

She hmmed. "And what about the second year hybrids? Why do you think I called them all to the front?"

"Because you're not stupid. The second year hybrids who had you last year knew your little trick. I'm guessing you swear all your students to secrecy on the last day, and your students respect you enough to keep their word. However, they still know how to take advantage. I'm guessing where you ask them to sit is different every year, but still in places you can keep an eye on them."

Corlahn nodded at me, grinning. "Impressive. You're a smart one, Rin. I think you'll do well in my class."

I snapped out of my flashback when the finish line entered my field of vision. So close. As soon as I finished the first of the many laps I still had to do, I paused to take a breather.

I wasn't the first person to finish, but I was one of the first. Those who had finished before me were mostly walking around to cool off. Most of the classmates who finished after me did what I wanted to do, and flopped onto the ground. A few of them gazed at me sympathetically, knowing I had to do fifty more of those. Kent patted my back as he wheezed after finishing his lap, and then face planted in the grass.

Once everyone had finished, I decided it was time to display my genius. Smirking at The Puffer once again, I shifted. A few students laughed, catching on to what I had realized when I was first given these extra Xothrien forsaken laps. She never said I couldn't run them in wolf form.

Taking in the look in her face, I snickered a little. I didn't know human faces could turn that shade of red.

Drawing on the stamina of my wolf form, I ran my 50 laps, cheered on by my classmates. I finished my fiftieth lap and collapsed onto the ground, shifting back into my human form.

My classmates whooped and applauded as I caught my breath, The Puffer nowhere in sight. I spotted her as the bell rang, glaring at me with enough spite to rival even Kyarii's wrath. Waving my fingers, I mouthed, "Toodloo" at The Puffer as I walked inside to grab lunch. Well. That was fun.