Page 26 of The Mentor
When the Nboys understood what morning massage actually meant some of them started to complain.
“I don’t want anyone touching my feet,” Solomon said, and since he had already established himself as a kind of leader of the pack yesterday, the other boys started to grump about it too.
“I’m sure that not everyone was eager to go running this morning either,” I said and tilted my head. “But to make it easier for you, Marco will become an example and show you how it’s done.” I turned my head to Marco, who stood leaning against the wall next to Archer in the back of the room. “Won’t you, Marco?” I needed him to trump Solomon’s authority to get the other boys on board.
Marco didn’t look happy about it, but he did move over to the cozy corner and lay down.
“Now, if Marco is willing to let Shelly give him a foot rub, I’m sure the rest of you can deal with it too.”
A few more grumpy questions were heard.
“Why do we have to do this again?”
“But I thought we weren’t supposed to touch each other?”
“What if my feet stink?”
“You just took a shower, Storm, so they’d better not,” I said. “Just close your eyes, lie back, and enjoy it. In ten minutes you will be the one giving a foot rub.”
Except for a few chuckles and giggles, the room was quiet and from the look of it, ten boys and one young man were starting to enjoy themselves.
“Time to swap,” I called out when the ten minutes were up.
“I almost fell asleep.” William yawned. “Can we do that every day? I like it.”
“I’m happy you like it, William.” My voice was sugarcoated as I shot a long glance at Archer, who had opposed this part of my curriculum. “Tomorrow we’ll do a back massage.”
Solomon lit up. “With or without shirts on?” he asked and his eyes instantly fell on Willow.
“With shirts on!” Archer boomed. “And don’t get any funny ideas or I’ll have you running around the building fifty times before lunch.”
Solomon didn’t look too worried, and when some of the other boys knocked shoulders with him in what I assumed was a sign of respect, he laughed.
Three hours of science and math followed, until it was time for lunch. After that the children had an hour to themselves, and many spent it on getting to know each other. Most of them still kept to the children they had come with, however.
Archer had argued that fight training should be after lunch to get the blood pumping, so we started up with an hour of fight training that afternoon.
“Welcome to your first fight training,” Archer said loudly. “Since some of you have already trained for years and some of you have never trained at all, we’ll separate you into two groups. If you’re new at fighting, go with Magni while the rest of you come with me.”
The children quickly formed two groups and Archer, who had tied his hair back and put on a pair of comfortable low-hanging shorts and a tank top, continued: “Magni and Marco will stay with the group of beginners to assist.”
“Gather in a circle, sit down, and keep quiet,” Magni instructed. “First I’m going to show you some basic movements that are…”
“I don’t want to fight,” Nicki objected and ran to me. “I don’t like it when people fight.” Nicki was only ten and I knew from her file that she’d experienced some unpleasant things in her early childhood.
“It’s okay.” I stroked her hair. “No one is going to hurt you, but we have to learn about their culture, and fighting is one of the things that children are taught in school here.”
Nicki’s shoulders sank and she looked down with a sad pout.
“You know what, sweetie, why don’t I learn with you? I wasn’t lucky enough to go to school where I could learn things like this, and I trust that Magni won’t hurt me.” I stepped into the circle of children. “I know he looks big and dangerous, but Magni is a very good friend of mine.”
Magni frowned, but didn’t challenge my statement.
“Okay, ehhm, let’s see,” he said and looked directly at Nicki. “Rather than teaching you how to fight, why don’t we focus on how you can protect yourself? First you have to learn how to block a punch.” He instructed and I played along, doing as he told me to. Next he wanted to teach us how to get out of a strong grip from behind. “Let’s say someone attacks you from behind and grabs you like this.” He pulled my back against his chest, placing one arm across my belly and the other just above my breasts. “What are you gonna do? How will you get out of this grip?”
“Try to get free, Kya.” Raven got up from her cross-legged position to sit on her knees and follow closely. “You can do it.”
I wriggled my body, but his grip just tightened and I could feel Magni’s warm breath against my neck. Pushing at his arms didn’t help either, and when I tried stomping his foot, Magni lifted me from the ground as if I weighed nothing. I didn’t give up, though, and kept struggling, until he released me very suddenly.
