HARD CHOICES

• Holly Groth, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2014

Jacklen watched as the officer road away, he had been to tell them of their parent’s death and to say the owners of the house were evicting them. As she clutched the small weeping girl in her arms she turned to the house to collect their belongings, holding back her own tears she whispered to the girl, “It’s going to be ok Rose, I’ll take care of you, I promise.”
I’ve run out of options, I have to do it, I don’t want to but I have to, Jacklen thought to herself. I must protect Rose, making up her mind she shook the man’s hand. “Deal” was all she said. She was then taken to a compound where she was to be trained as an assassin in exchange for the wellbeing of her sister.
As she regarded the other teenagers she was to train with, one girl and four boys, she noted they stood in pairs except for one boy with brown hair and blue eyes. He was the one the teacher called forth, saying “Calen this is Jacklen, you are to catch her up with the class in your free time, she is also to be your new partner for training.”
“Yes master,” was all Calen said.
And so the lessons began and went on for the next five years, she would wake before dawn, run with the other students through an obstacle course, eat a light plain breakfast, then combat training, lessons in poisons and other things an assassin would need to know. Of an evening after dinner, Calen would catch her up on what the class had already learned and when she was caught up they talked, practised new combat moves or tried to break in to the teachers quarters.
She learned quick and had a natural talent for fighting and being stealthy, she became good friends with Calen but not so much with the other four students in the class.
As the years went by Jacklen and Calen exceeded the other students. They were even assigned to their first jobs together, long before the others. Throughout all this she only told Calen about Rose. Then one day she and Calen were assigned a stake out and rescue job. The pair were to observe and report the goings on of a merchant supposedly smuggling foreign assassins into the country and children out to be sold as slaves, they watched as the merchant and his helpers (3 smugglers) herded the six children toward the dock where a ship was waiting. She and Calen moved taking out the merchant and smugglers with practised ease. As Jacklen turned she caught her breath, the girl standing at the back was Rose, pulling Rose aside she whispered. “What are you doing here? You should be in protection, oh never mind your safe now, and you’re coming home with me, I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” Bending down she swept her up in a huge hug.