When I first arrived at the school, everyone was talking about me. When Elijah was caught hugging me in the hallway, everyone was talking about me. You would think that two weeks after my mums death, everyone would be sick of talking about me. But they're not. They stare, and they whisper and they giggle as I walk by. Not only has Elijah's jealously over the boy with the yellow backpack got everyone riled up, so has the fact that the same boy shot my mother dead.

You'd think a bunch of teenagers being taught how to be discreet for several years would be masters of it, but apparently not. You'd also hope I'd be used to the stares and the whispers by now, but I guess I'm not. If I'm brutally honest, it's taking every ounce of sanity I have not to go around throat punching people just for looking at me. I have to walk around with this fake, bored and uninterested, face on - too worried that any other look will churn out a new rumour.

The other day I heard that I was looking pissed off because Elijah had 'called things off with me', that he did it because my life is 'too messy'. Seriously, the kids here have murderers as parents and my life is considered messy. Not to mention that Elijah is Not! My! Boyfriend! And my mum Just! Died! Hence why maybe, I might not be walking around like the world is rainbows and butterflies!

"You could stage a breakup," Grace suggests.

She and I are walking towards the sports centre for our daily dose of P.E. Truthfully, today is combat training and I'm very happy I'm going to be allowed to hit things.

"Why would I stage a breakup with him?" I ask her, "We're not even together."

Grace laughs, "You could have fooled me."

"I'm serious," I insist. "We're not together."

Grace gives me a look, "Does he know that?"

"Of course he does!"

"Amelia, you're together all the time. You train together, watch films together, study together, eat, breathe, laugh together. He didn't leave your bedside for three days. He gives you forehead kisses, regularly. The only person who doesn't think you're together is you."

"And Elijah," I grumble. Grace shakes her head and I feel I have to defend myself. "I'm not denying there are feelings there - but my mum did just die, like, right in front of me. My dad was also killed nine weeks ago. It's not as easy as just giving a boy I barely know, my heart. It's not like you both didn't befriend me just because it was a mission-"

"- We didn't-" She interjects.

"- But you can't blame me for having some trust issues. Also, for Elijah's sake, people that I love keep dropping dead."

"Okay," Grace concedes. "You make a fair point. You did also just admit that you love Elijah."

I balk at her, "You're seriously taking my words out of context!"

"Am I though?" She laughs, "Because I'm pretty sure I just heard you say that with my own ears."

We reach the outside of the centre and everyone is already there, waiting to be let in. Elijah is stood on the corner, and Lily is pushed into his side, her arms wrapped around him like they've always been there. I'm shocked, surprised and then I'm pissed. Super, super pissed.

"Might want to wipe that look off your face," Grace murmurs to me. "Since you're not a thing and all."

So I do. I rearrange my face to look completely neutral like I have been for weeks. Then I turn away, ignoring the sour taste in my mouth. I didn't think I was a jealous person, turns out seeing a girl with her hands all over Elijah makes me feel more violent then watching my mums lifeless body fall to the floor. Imagine that. What a weird reaction to have.

Finally, after it feels like I've been stood there, listening to Lily giggle into Elijah's ear for an eternity, Stan arrives. He walks towards the doors to let us in and even he bulks at the sight of his brothers neck being nuzzled by one of my roommates.

His eyes turn to me, a questioning look on his face. I shrug, because I honestly don't have the answers he's looking for. I have no fucking idea what's going on there, and I don't like how angry it's making me. It's not even like Elijah is doing anything, he's just stood there like an immoveable object, but he's not exactly shoving her grubby hands off him either.

Stan leads us inside, light is filtering into the large room, illuminating it. Dust particles float around as we make our way through, they almost look magical, even though it's just dust. In the middle of the room rope has been laid out in a large circle.

"Combat training," Stan says as we stand around the ring. "Is about using your strengths and figuring out their weaknesses. Today we're going to do rounds, whoever wins stays in the ring until they lose. Who wants to go first?"

I immediately put my hand up. I'm eager to hit. I'm even eager to be hit. Not a second later Lily puts hers up too. I feel a sadistic smile spread across my face, absolutely wonderful. Maybe she doesn't know Elijah has been training me. I know she doesn't know about how I beat Grace my first time. They all think of me as an outsider, weak, and they all think they're better; faster; stronger then me. That's why they can't comprehend why Elijah would like me; they think of me as lesser.

Today that's going to change.

We both step into the ring, and stand at opposite ends, shuffling around, not taking our eyes off each other. I can't stand her, I know it's because her arms were just around Elijah and I know that I'm being irrational, but I don't care.

"Start," Stan instructs.

Lily runs at me, but she's slower then Grace and easier to predict. I deflect her first punch, pushing her arm out the way, and smack the back of her head with my free hand. Lily let's out a frustrated grunt and spins to face me. I smile at her and wave, which makes a few people laugh. She momentarily looks embarrassed, but it quickly contorts to rage.

She goes for me again, swinging her arm towards me, using her full body weight. I duck underneath it and kick out at her legs, she drops to the floor with a groan. Not a second passes and she gets back up.

This time she stands still and waits for me to walk towards her, so I do. When I'm half a foot out she suddenly springs forward, palms wide to grab me, I spin to the left and grab one of her arms, using the momentum to throw her over my shoulder and slam her into the floor. When she's down, I hold her arm behind her back and kneel on her neck. She wriggles and writhes, but my hold is too tight.

"Enough," Stan says, after five seconds. Any longer and she would have passed out.

I let go of her and stand, offering a hand to help her up but she slaps it out the way and gets up herself. As she goes to leave the ring, she slams into me, muttering "bitch" under her breath.

I'm not really a fighter. I'm not mean or malicious and I don't go looking for trouble. Maybe it's because my mum just died. Maybe it's because I've been thrown into another world where the boy I like, the boy I thought liked me, just had this exact girl wrapped around him. Maybe it's because I'm sick to death of the way they treat me here. But suddenly, anger explodes through me, and my jaw clenches tight - I feel my hands ball into fists and I hate her.

Without even thinking about it, without knowing what my plan is; I run at the wall, as I'm near it, I swing my arms back and slam my dominant foot on down vertically. I use my body weight to propel me upwards, along the wall. I run upwards twice, then I use my other foot to push off the wall. This allows me to backflip far enough that I know, without a doubt, both my feet are going to connect with her annoyingly round head. I double kick Lily, hard, knocking her unconscious. She falls to the ground with a thud before I've even landed. I open out my arms and legs as I hit the ground, so I don't fall over.

"Fuck you." I say to her listless body, flicking my hair out of my face.

"Amelia!" Stan yells, but he's rooted to the spot.

I glance around the circle, and everyone is staring at me; wide-eyed and impressed. I'm breathing deeply as I take in their faces, the only thing you can hear is my panting.

"Bro," Grace laughs, breaking the silence. "She just went like, full ninja."

"Grace!" Tessa snaps.

"Oh, sue me." Grace rolls her eyes. "Lily deserved that. She's been a right bitch to Amelia."

"Grace!" A few people call out.

But I'm still not calmed down enough and I turn to Elijah, he looks dazed, as if he can't believe what just happened. I march right up to him.

"Go on," I spit at him, waving my arm in Lily's direction. "Attend to your new flavour of the month. But let me tell you, the next time you want to use me to get ahead, don't pretend to have feelings for me, because I won't believe you."

Then I spin on my heel, leaving him looking like he's the one who had a kick to the head, and march straight out of there; my head held high. It's only thirty seconds until my chest feels tight and I can't breathe. I'm hit with mass hysteria.

"Amelia," Grace calls behind me. I spin to face her, "Oh god. Are you alright?"

I point to my chest, "Can't. Breathe."

Grace asses me for a fraction of a second. "You're having a panic attack." She leads me over to a bench. "Okay sit down, sit. Come on, sit down."

I do.

"That was so awesome." Grace tells me as she shoves my head between my legs. "I mean, Lily has always had a thing for Elijah, but damn today was so disgusting. And Elijah, what the hell was that about?"

"Still can't breathe," I tell her, she pushes my head down further.

"Oh, yeah. Just breathe through your nose for five seconds and out through your mouth for five."

So I do, and after a minute I can feel my heart beginning to slow and my breathing getting easier.

"I just - like, I don't get it." Grace rambles on as I try to control myself. "He's never showed her interest before. To be fair, he wasn't actually showing her interest, was he? He was sort of stood there like a statue whilst she wound her way around him like a baby prostitute. Still though, he should have set boundaries. It's not like he didn't know you were gonna be in the class. Maybe he wanted you to get jealous? Not sure he expected you to learn how to fly and totally knock her out though. God, that was so awesome."

I sit up and look and Grace, she genuinely looks in awe of me and I don't know what is happening with me today, but we both fall about laughing.

"Amelia," A voice says and I look up to see Stan standing over us. "I'd like to speak to you."

That sobers us up pretty fast. "Oh, bloody hell." I mutter, heaving myself up to follow Stan.

"Good luck!" Grace yells to our retreating backs.