Friday was always the best day of the week, and not because it was the only day dessert was included with dinner. Friday was the best day of the week because it was the day that I got to job shadow to try and find out what job I wanted to do when I finished my classes. Many of the students had already picked their job out or were just going to follow in their parents' footsteps, but I still had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do.

I knew that I always loved writing and history, but there weren't any good jobs that involved those two subjects on the Ark. I definitely did not want to be on the Council like my father, and I didn't want to work as an engineer like my mom did before she got sick. It was frustrating hearing everyone talking about how they had their life completely mapped out when you were clueless about your future.

I was clueless. One hundred percent clueless, and it was super annoying.

That Friday morning I sat on my bed as I scrolled through the different job shadowing opportunities that day on my tablet. Farm station was offering a job shadowing on the agricultural in the Ark. Boring. Like always Abby Griffin was willing to take students in for the day to observe her working in medical. That would be way too crowded. There was stuff available in mechanics and engineering and computer programming, but none of them seemed interesting to me.

I threw the tablet down on my bed in frustration and rubbed my hands over my hazel eyes. I was never going to be in love, and I was never going to find a job. My life was heading in such a wonderful direction.

There was a light knock on my door, and a few seconds later my dad peeked his head in my room. His calm blue eyes found me, and he instantly could tell that I was frustrated. He would always tell me that I acted just like Mom did when she was frustrated about something.

My dad stepped into the room and came to sit on the edge of the bed, "Hey, kiddo. Are you ok?"

I glanced up at him from behind my long lashes, trying to hide how worried I was, but I failed miserably. I was always so terrible at hiding things from my dad. I think it was because he and I were so similar, and we had always had an understanding.

"Do aliens like bananas?"

"Umm...."

"Exactly."

My dad shook his head at my joking attitude as he tried to turn it into a serious one, "I know what today is, and I know how important it is to you, but you're only sixteen. You don't have to have it all figured out yet."

"I know, Dad, but everyone else does. Everyone else has everything completely figured out, and I can't even show up to class on time-"

"Harles," My dad always used my nickname when he wanted to shut me up. I let out a sigh as I nodded for him to continue with his 'words of wisdom'. "When I was sixteen, I wanted to be in the guard. I job shadowed there every Friday for a year. I also had a girlfriend named Tiffany that I swore I was going to marry, but I never married Tiffany, and I never joined the guard. I became a mechanic, and I married an amazing woman named Grace, and had a beautiful daughter named Harley." I looked over at the tablet lying beside me as Dad continued. "Those kids who have it all figured out, I guarantee you that half of them won't end up doing what they're job shadowing today."

I began to realize that I had been overreacting, and like always my dad was right. I picked up the tablet again, and gave my dad a small smile, "Thanks, Dad... For always knowing what to say."

He nodded, "Well, Dads do know everything."

I let out a laugh, "Ok sure, whatever helps you sleep at night."

Dad stood up from the bed and turned to leave. As he did, he said one last thing over his shoulder, "Oh, and don't forget that we're eating dinner with the Chancellor tonight."

He closed the door behind him, and I laid down with the tablet in my hand. Ok, I could do this. I had exactly fifteen more minutes before I had to leave for whatever the hell I was doing. Quickly, I scanned over the final four jobs on the tablet. Finally, my eyes landed on one that piqued my interest. For the first time in four months, there was an opening in guard training.

Going into guard training was risky because it was very competitive, and the Head Guard would only choose one of the students who applied for it. Was I really serious enough for that? Well, I guess I would find out.

I shut off the tablet and pulled on my black combat boots.

I had just chosen the hardest and most risky job on the list. At least my day wouldn't be boring.

~_~_~_~_~_~

The training room was located towards the back of Alpha Station. It was a large room with punching bags, sparing mats, weapons in locked cases, and several men with their shirts off working out. I seemed out of place as I stood in the room. Everyone I saw was at least six inches taller than me, but I didn't act intimidated. I simply stood there with my arms crossed over my chest as I scanned the room for the head guard.

"Well, well, well, I didn't know you were interested in getting your ass kicked, Winters."

"Oh God, not again," I snapped my head around to see no other than John Murphy standing there with his famous annoying snake-like smirk. "Speak of the devil."

Murphy sauntered over to stand a few feet in front of me, "This is going to be so much fun. You and I will get some real quality time together over these next few weeks."

"Go float yourself," I replied hotly.

Murphy simply laughed at my reaction, but before he could fire out another remark to make me want to bash his face in, a loud commanding voice shouted out over the room.

"Every student interested in the training position come and see me now!" Commander Roger Duke was the tall man in the center of the room. He was in his mid-forties and his black hair had small grey spots in it. He had a scruffy face and dark blue eyes that looked at the students like they were beneath him. I already had a bad vibe from this dude. There were exactly ten students standing around him. Myself and Murphy were two of them, and the others were faces I barely recognized. They must have been from different classes. "Over these next eight weeks, you will report here every Tuesday and Friday at eight o'clock. We will train you, test you, and push you to see who breaks and who stays. You are free to quit at any time if it becomes too much and remember only one of you will get this training position. Is that clear?" Wow, who pissed in his cheerios?  We all nodded, and Commander Duke motioned to the mats. "Ok then, let's get started."

Ok, to be fair I wasn't completely prepared for what came next. Out of the ten students competing for the position, there were only two girls counting myself. All of the other guys seemed pretty fit and in shape. They must have been training for this. They were training for the training...Shouldn't that have been considered cheating?

We did pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, and about every single up there was. We were taught the form for punching and punched those punching bags until our knuckles bled.  Commander Duke told us he was going easy on us, but it sure as hell didn't feel like it.

How could I survive eight weeks of this torture? How could I beat some of those unreasonable strong boys? Maybe I should have chosen the daycare job.

"Ok, ladies, gather round." I slowly got up from lying down on the mat. I was drenched in sweat as I practically limped over to where Commander Duke was standing. He was by a whiteboard with all of our names listed on them. "Every Friday, I will rank you by your skill. Today's is just from observation, but by next Friday these could be drastically different, especially when the sparring starts."

The rankings were this:

1. Nathan
2. George
3.Riley
4. Ben
5.Ryan
6.John
7.Chuck
8.Harley
9.Leo
10.Harper

8th? How was I going to go from eight to one? This was impossible. No, this was beyond impossible. I was going to have to try and find a different job.

"I hope to see all of you back Tuesday...Though, I doubt I will," He glanced at me, and I couldn't help but feel targeted.

Most of the students left until the room was almost completely empty. The guards had left for their shifts and it was just me and Murphy. I could feel him gloating from beside me.

"Well, A for effort."

I rolled my eyes at him, "Don't get cocky. You're ranked sixth, not first, dumbass."

Murphy turned towards me, "Well, we'll see who's really the best during sparring next Friday won't we?"

I locked eyes with him, "Yeah, I guess we will."

"Or..." I could feel the tensions rising as Murphy stepped even closer to me. My jaw clenched as I felt his hot breath on my face. "We could just find out right now." Before I could even process it, Murphy was throwing a punch to my gut. I let out a yelp of pain and a fit of coughing as I backed away from him quickly. "Oh, I see. You're not so tough when your boyfriend isn't, around are you?"

I gritted my teeth as I threw a punch at his face that he dodged. Murphy came at me again, but I moved out of the way and kicked him in the shin. He cursed under his breath. Murphy charged at me and grabbed me by the hair. I elbowed him in the gut, and then in the jaw. Rage filled his eyes as he threw me down on the hard floor.

"Maybe this will finally shut you up."

Murphy was on top of me before I could even realize it. He punched me in the face, but I moved my head just in time on the next punch so his knuckles cracked against the floor. I could feel blood running down my face as he cried out in pain and banged my head on the hard metal.

A quick shot pain went through the back of my head as I reached up and fit my hands around Murphy's neck, squeezing as hard as I could. He gasped for air as I began to get the upper hand, but before I could, I heard the sound of someone rushing into the room.

"Hey! Get away from her!" The voice was deep and masculine and before I knew it, Murphy was being yanked off me.

I stood up angrily, ready to charge at Murphy again, "You son of a bitch! You could have killed me!"

The guard was in the middle of the two of us, and I gave Murphy a hard glare before jumping towards him again, but the guard caught me before I could attack that little rat.

"Hey! Hey! Calm down!"

"Get the hell off me!" I trashed against his grip for a few moments, but when my eyes landed on his face I completely stopped. This guard was younger than most. He had deep, chestnut brown eyes and tan skin. He was tall, and his guard's jacket fit him perfectly showing how muscular he was.

"Are you alright?" His voice brought me out of my distraction by his good looks. The guard was glancing over my body, searching for injuries.

I shoved his arms off, "I'm fine." My gaze returned to where Murphy had previously been standing to find that he had run off. That coward. "Damn it."

"I think you scared him off," There was a slight hint of amusement in his voice that irked me.

I whipped my head back towards the guard narrowing my hazel eyes, "Aren't you supposed to be chasing after him or something? You are a guard aren't you?"

"Last time I checked, two teenagers getting into a little disagreement isn't against the law," He answered.

My fists clenched, "He could have killed me!"

"And you could've killed him, but I'm not arresting you."

My blood boiled. I was already in a bad mood, and this cocky guard was testing me, "Well, I'll have you know that you, Officer..." I glanced down at the metal nametag on his jacket, "Blake, are terrible at your job. I sure do feel safe now knowing that when someone tries to kill me you'll rush in and just let them wander off."

He smirked. He freaking smirked, and why did his smirk have to be annoyingly attractive? "Are you always this ungrateful? I saved your life."

I crossed my arms over my chest, "I didn't need saving. I was doing just fine on my own. In fact, I was just about to get the upper hand before you had to run in here all stupidly heroic, and then let Murphy run away like he did nothing wrong!"

Officer Blake raised his eyebrows and spoke in a mocking tone, "Is that right?"

I nodded, "Yes, so I would appreciate it if you would leave me alone and-"

A shooting pain in my temple cut me off as the room started to spin. I let out a quick cry of pain as my hand went to my head where Murphy had hit it against the ground. I stumbled, but Officer Blake caught me in his strong arms before I could fall.

"Easy there," he said as he steadied me.

I glanced up at him one last time noticing the small little freckles that dotted his cheeks, "You have freckles," The words left my mouth before I could even think them over, and then, everything became black.