Seven

She wanted to go after him and ask more questions. She hated how confused Ivan made her every time he opened his mouth.

Everything about him was a big confusing question mark.

Because, why would he coach his opponent, possibly the strongest one in here?

Shay was being realistic when she said that, not arrogant. What she lacked in control and discipline, she had in raw energetic strength, so why would Ivan help her with her only weakness?

And, how would he even do it? Where? When?

None of those questions were asked because Ivan was already gathering around the fourth pair, watching Adrian and Fabiola go at it.

Adrian was good at not reacting to the pulses, but he wasn't energetically stronger than Fabiola.

Realistically, and even with how close she had gotten to Helene and Adrian the past few days, she couldn't help but notice how both of them had opposite strengths.

Helene was bad with her reaction to the pulses, but strong at throwing them. And Adrian was good at taking the pulses, but he was weak energetically.

If Shay worked alongside the best (Ivan Belov) to strengthen her reactions, she would be better than both of them. That would make her the best werewolf here.

The best werewolf in the world, technically.

Then, she would easily win against the girl vampires, Fabiola and Deanna, both of them not strong enough in either point. That only left Anton (too old to really win this thing after so many failed attempts).

Which meant, her only real competition was Ivan.

And if he was serious about coaching Shay, then they would be at the same level, physically. And later on, the win would be a matter of who deserved it the most, spiritually.

That's something neither Shay nor Ivan could control, so it would make the win completely fair.

Completely about who has what it takes and who simply doesn't.

That was why, once the instructors called it a day and allowed them to do their own thing for the rest of the day, Shay's eyes went straight for Ivan.

She wanted to go ask him all those questions that were running through her mind...

"Hey, come here," Adrian intercepted Shay before she could go. He threw an arm around her neck and pulled her closer to his warm body, "Helene wants to have a girls' night with us."

"Huh?" Shay asked, blinking as Helene joined them and allowed Adrian to throw his other arm around her shoulders, "God, Adrian. You really stink."

"We all stink," Helene laughed. And that was true. Training with energy burned some weird calories in the body, made them sweat something gross. They all smelled like they hadn't showered in weeks.

"Yeah, I know. We can take showers first and then go gather food to have the girls' night," Adrian concluded. Shay raised an eyebrow at him.

"But how can we have a girl’s night if you are not a girl? What’s the point? It’s not a girl’s night. It’s just a night," Shay muttered, glancing between him and Helene. Both of them laughed at her, "What?"

"What if I said I am a girl?" Adrian responded, only making Shay more confused. He laughed harder, "I'm not being serious, Shaynie.”

“Agh, sorry. I'm... I don't understand jokes sometimes. I'm kind of socially inept, to be honest,” she admitted.

“It’s okay, babe, you make up for it in other ways,” Helene smiled at her, “We're just going to hang out and watch movies and eat a lot. Girls being girls. It’s not about gender, it’s just a state of mind."

"Oh," Shay finally smiled when she understood. That didn't sound bad at all, "What if we invite the other girls here? Then we can all be friends."

"What? The fucking vamps?" Helene asked, with a bewildered tone. Shay nodded, "Of course not. I don't want to spend any time with the vampires... they're gross, all of them. They're rotting corpses who want to suck your blood, like leeches. Like a parasites. Ew."

"Exactly," Adrian muttered and shivered, "Gross."

"Oh. Right," Shay forced herself to murmur, but she had a completely different opinion on that.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They did exactly what Adrian said. They went to have separate showers, then grabbed dinner to-go and spent hours in Helene's room, watching TV and just talking more, getting to know each other.

It was a good night. Girls being girls. Shay now loved the concept.

She had never had friends like this before. It was really nice to feel the familiar warmth and closeness of a pack with two total strangers from different parts of the world.

"Hey, even if we don't make it," Helene said at some point during the night, while she was applying green stuff all over Shay's face, "Let's all stay friends."

"Of course," Shay smiled.

"But I really mean it," she insisted, squeezing her shoulder and pointing a finger at Adrian's green face, "You too. Let's be friends. Best friends. We'll exchange phone numbers before we leave, so we can communicate with each other outside."

"Totally, we're connected for life. Even if we lose. I mean, how many people can say they got invited to come here, right? We’re unique," Adrian said, then got up to look for a notebook so they could write their numbers.

Shay responded to them as needed, but she couldn't help but think about how different they were.

Because Shay was certain she would go all the way, that she would win and become Enlightened.

She hadn't even considered the option of going back home. Of losing. Not even for a second.

She wondered if that was a good or a bad thing.

A couple of hours later, around eleven PM, they decided to end girls' night. Adrian and Shay said goodbye to Helene and headed one floor above, to their own dorms.

"Goodnight, Shaynie," Adrian said before disappearing inside his room. Shay opened her door, but didn't go inside.

She stood in the doorway for a few seconds, then decided she didn't want to spend another sleepless night because of Ivan.

So she closed the door and went outside again.

Her plan was to walk around, looking for Ivan just in case he was roaming like vampires liked to do. It felt useless, but it was the best she could do.

For about thirty minutes, she did that. And she felt completely stupid.

There was nobody around the premises, just her and her stupid idea.

She sighed and decided to turn back around... only to have a heart attack when she crashed against a cold, hard chest that was way too close to her.

Shay gasped and felt like she was actually going to pass out from the fright, like a fainting goat.