The Academy by Emmaline Andrews

I can give you is to never be alone with him. Stay with the class, in the middle of the group if you can. Coach Janus, the Fitness teacher, is no push-over. He’s big on fair play and good sportsmanship so he won’t let Broward work you over. Stay where he can see you as much as you can.”
     
    “All right.” I nodded. “Anything else?”
     
    “Yes—stay out of the shower.” Wilkenson leaned across the table and pointed a finger at me. “They have those individual ones there, in the back of the gymnasium.”
     
    “They do?” My heart started pounding at the thought. “You mean the kind where you can have actual privacy while you shower?”
     
    “Well, yes, my little manikin.” Wilkenson frowned. “But the showers are across the building from the coach’s office and it’s dark back there. Anything could happen if Broward catches you alone. So no matter how sweaty you are, just come straight back to your dorm right after class. After all, you can always catch a shower before RLO, right?”
     
    Reluctantly, I nodded. “Right.” But inside, I cursed my luck. A refreshing, hot shower just within my reach, but that big bully Broward was going to stop me from taking one. It wasn’t fair!
     
    “Good.” Wilkenson smiled, unaware of my inner turmoil. “Then you should be fine.” He frowned. “Other than being the smallest one in the class that is.”
     
    I sighed. “I can’t help that.”
     
    “I know,” he said consolingly. “Don’t worry though—you’re small but you’re tough. You wouldn’t have made it this far if you weren’t—right?”
     
    “Right,” I said uncertainly. But at the moment I felt anything but tough. I just wanted to get through the upcoming fitness class without getting myself killed or my secret discovered.
     

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    Fitness class was as bad as I had feared it would be.
     
    To begin with, I was the smallest student in the large group of third and fourth-form boys—the smallest by far. And I could tell by the unfriendly looks I got from the other cadets that the rumor Broward had spread about me had preceded me. Any hope I might have had of making friends was over before it began.
     
    “Hey, freshie,” Broward called as I walked into the large, echoing gymnasium. “What took you so long to dress out? Did you have to go to the Admin building to try on your gym suit?”
     
    Actually what had taken me so long was waiting until he and his crew were out of the dressing room. As soon as they were gone, I had gotten dressed as quickly as possible, thankful that the gym clothes which had been waiting in my locker were just a little bit baggy. The thin t-shirt material didn’t cover as much as my thick uniform jacket but my breast bandages still seemed to be well hidden.
     
    I didn’t answer the taunt, just held my head up and kept walking because there was nothing else I could do. Still, I could feel my cheeks burning and I knew my classmates would take my embarrassed blush as a sign that Broward was telling the truth. There were some unkind snickers as I took my place in line but no one spoke out loud because just then the instructor, Coach Janus, walked in and blew his whistle.
     
    “All right, ladies, settle down.” He was a heavyset man with thick, bushy black eyebrows and a hooked nose. There was a no-nonsense look in his dark brown eyes—not a teacher you wanted to make angry with you, I decided as he went on. “Today we’re continuing our sports from Earth-that-was series with a game called dodge ball.”
     
    There were groans from several of the assembled cadets but Broward had a nasty grin on his lumpish face that worried me. What was 'dodge ball' and how was it played? I was afraid I was about to find out—the hard way.
     
    “Okay now, form two teams,” Coach Janus continued. “Broward, you’re captain of A team and Jakes, you’re B. Go to it while I get the equipment.”
     
    “Great.” Broward strode forward along with