Chapter 1: Limits

I grab my jeans off the floor and I hit the door

Just the same old saying

It goes to show, you never know

When everything's about to change

Narrator's POV

Running through the empty halls of Colet Academy, the image of enraged obsidian eyes crossed her mind repeatedly. Everything—the pounding of heart, her panting gasps and her hard footfalls—did not register. Unconscious running led her to stumble a few times only to bring herself up and run even faster. Luckily for her, she had long, lean and slender legs… legs that allowed her to run long distances, if she pushed herself hard enough.

Finally reaching the door of her classroom, she stopped and bent down, holding her knees for support. She slowly and silently recovered her bearings and tried to catch her breath. She fixed her white long sleeved shirt and her dark denim skirt. Violent rasps still escaped her lips and her forehead was drenched in sweat. She wiped it with the handkerchief she had in her messenger bag.

She didn't even get the chance to drop her things off in her locker. It was déjà vu all over again.

She thought back to two weeks ago… on the first day of school.

That day she accidently slept in. She looked at her alarm clock. It read… nothing. Swinging her legs to the side of her bed, she lightly rubbed the back of her neck. She always slept late on Sunday nights because of her regular visits to her best friend's house. She would wind up going home in the wee hours of the night. Eyes still closed, her hands idly searched for the wristwatch on the bedside table. Upon managing to open her eyes, her immediate vision was fuzzy. It took her a few minutes before her eyes saw clearly.

Holding the wristwatch in front of her face, 'it's… eight forty-five?!'

She hurriedly got out of bed. In her haste, she tripped several times. Getting on her feet, she dashed for the bathroom. After taking a bath—however short—she started drying herself along with her long hair. Coming out of the bathroom, she quickly changed into her clothes, took her things and ran downstairs to the kitchen. Finding only a slice of toast left, she gobbled it down and ran out the door, not even bothering to lock the door behind her.

Twenty minutes later, she was standing in front of the same door, with the same hesitant feeling.

She snapped out of her reverie.

Taking in a deep breath, she turned the door knob and went inside. Everyone's eyes were on her. Controlling the urge to crawl under a rock—and maybe stay there—she smiled nervously.

'I'm in deep shit.'

Her eyes scanned the classroom. She saw her empty seat in the back row, and then met the concerned looks on her best friends' faces. Much to her discontent, she met Mr. Jones' glare.

'Ah… Mr. Jones.'

He was the most hot-headed old geezer on the face of the planet, to the students that knew him anyway. He was disreputably impatient.

He stood half a head taller than her, even though she was fairly tall compared to all the other girls in school. He wore rectangular glasses that hung on the bridge of his nose. His wrinkled face either mirrored a stoic or angry look; mostly the stoic one. He sported a baggy, brown knit vest over his old, long sleeved button shirt, which obscured his rather large belly, as well as black khakis. His also wore black done in sandshoes.

She couldn't bite back a frown as her eyes went back to his craggy face. The aged chemistry teacher was notoriously known for making his students perform squat thrusts… in front of the entire class as punishment for breaking his rules. He also 'handed out' an average of fifteen detentions slips to his students per day. He was the reason detention class was discreetly crowded.

In her opinion, it was only by the benediction of a deistic force that he hadn't retired after all the constant berating of 'ungrateful hormonal children'—as he quaintly put it.

'Or maybe it's the yearly snowballing of his paycheck? Hmm… maybe,' she said to herself. Her thoughts were cut to an abrupt halt as Mr. Jones began to speak.

"Well, well, well," he said with a smirk that vanished just as fast as it appeared. "Class, let us welcome the impeccably late young woman standing by the door… Miss Testarossa," his voice echoed through the small room.

"I'm sorry Mr. Jones. I-" she faltered.

"No need for explanations. Take a seat." He gestured for the vacant seat in front of his desk. Even though it wasn't her seat she did as she was told, just before sighing deeply.

"Oh, before I forget. Miss Testarossa," he opened the top left drawer of his desk and took out a pink pad of paper. He began scribbling something and tore a page from it. "…your detention slip," he added.

He handed her the piece of paper. She took it from him with trembling hands.

They both exchanged glances. His for some reason, were coolly, hers were melancholic.

"Now, we proceed to our lesson. By definition, the mole concept is the amount of a substance consisting of the…" his voice faded from her ears.

'Some way to start the day,' she mentally scolded herself. She put the pink slip in her pocket and muted out the old physics teacher's voice.

After five years of practice, she had perfected the 'I'm-hearing-you-but-not-listening-to-you' look. Armed with it, she managed to drift off from class discussions, unnoticed.

Narrator's POV

Half of her day went by without much hassle—except for Ms. Suzuka's surprise oral test. How was she supposed to know that Juliet's last name was Capulet? She was not one to read books that were written before her grandmother was born. She wasn't one to read books at all.

She left for lunch with a frown and knit eyebrows plastered on her once jolly face.

After buying chicken noodle soup, mashed potatoes and chocolate pudding, Fate and her friends headed for their usual table in the middle of the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was located in a separate building from the main school building. It had two floors that were just as big as a basketball court when put together. Numerous rectangular tables with built-in benches were placed in aligned rows and columns all over the large canteen. A flight of stairs was placed on the left corner. The food counter was in the right side of the canteen.

The first floor was accommodated for the freshmen, sophomore and junior students. The second floor was occupied by the senior students. This made first floor—in one way or the other—crowded.

"I can't wait until we become seniors," remarked a certain blonde as she placed her tray on the table before sitting down. She had an ever present smile on her almost round face. Her amethyst eyes reflected her outgoing nature. Because of her looks coupled with her sunshine attitude, she was one of the more popular girls in school, regardless of the fact that she was not a senior.

She was wearing a red, tight-fitting, long-sleeved shirt that hugged her body and just as equally tight black pants finishing it off with red and black sandals. A silver cross dangled from the choker she had on her neck.

"We just started the school year Shamal," scolded Signum. She stood a few inches taller than the blonde. Her features were more outlined compared to the shorter girl beside her—almost masculine. Her perfectly formed nose stood out from the rest of her contours. But more than anything, Signum had piercing sapphire orbs that could calm the most impulsive of man with a single glare.

The pink-haired girl wore a black sleeveless jacket with little silver prints which she left unzipped showing a form-fitting pink wife beater that had the letters H-O-T on it. Dark denim hip huggers covered her long legs. Since she was taller than Shamal, silver flat heeled sandals graced her feet. Her hair was kept in its usual high pony tail but her bangs still covered most of her forehead.

"Scoot over guys. I'm sitting in the middle." Fate pushed herself in the between her friends forcing both of them to shift to opposite sides of the bench. Placing her food tray on the table, she sat down and began eating her food. Both her friends followed suit.

Fate Testarossa had bright burgundy eyes that could easily outshine any gem. Her long blonde hair was held up in a high ponytail, just the way she always had it during class. Her face could effortlessly be mistaken for a model for she had a perfect nose, thin lips, long lashes and rosy cheeks. Fate stood an inch shorter than Signum. Her cream-colored skin blended with the white long sleeve shirt as it clung to her body in all the right places. Her denim skirt reached mid-thigh making her long, lithe ivory legs look even longer. Her white tennis shoes paled in contrast to her legs.

She may seem perfect to the people who saw her on a daily basis, but as the famous phrase stated: 'No one is perfect'. Fate may have had the looks but she was average in school. She would get A's every now and then but it still didn't change her A- grade point average. Another little tidbit about Fate was that she had a knack of being funny. Her jokes were funny in a sense that it would often be at the expense of others, unintentionally. Luckily, Fate knew when to draw the line and apologize. All things considered, Fate had an affable, understanding, honest and witty personality.

Okay maybe she was perfect.

After lunch, their third, fourth and fifth periods went by slowly. Soon it was the last period. It was a Friday so the next period was going to be…

'P.E! Finally, a subject I'm interested in!' Fate thought to herself as she impatiently tapped the heels of her white tennis shoes on the tiled floor. Her change of mood wasn't missed by her best friend Shamal, who absent-mindedly shrunk in her seat. She wasn't quite fond of physical activities—or anything that would cause perspiration for that matter.

She was born with two left feet.

As Fate and everyone in the room waited for their next teacher, the school bell rang signaling the start of the last period. The classroom door slowly swung open admitting inside a…

'Mr. Jones? What the-' Signum thought.

"What?" Fate spoke under her breath. Had the world gone mad? This was beyond wrong. Assigning the old man to teach P.E—a subject that, in anyway was not associated with elements and the like—was like letting Einstein play in the NBA; absolutely asinine.

Just as she was about to stand up and protest, the hoary teacher spoke up.

"I regret to inform all of you that Miss… no, Mrs. Carlson has taken a leave of absence."

Fate breathed a sigh of relief.

"Apparently, she is an up and coming mother. She will no longer be your Physical Educations teacher for the remainder of the year." He pushed the frames of his glass up the bridge of his nose; an age-old habit that he did every now and then. And with an impish smile, he continued. "Thus the school has found a replacement. Detention students change to your physical education uniform and proceed to the gym after this. You will be having your physical education demonstration class with the new teacher."

"Physical Education... remainder of the year… thus? My head hurts. Can't he speak normal English?" Fate whispered in a sarcastic tone to the blonde in front of her. The latter only laughed.

"Miss Shamal, what is so funny?"

"Sir?" she stood up. Meeting the old man's obsidian eyes, her knees went weak—and not for the right reasons.

"What kind of squabble do you have there that you find so comical?" He forcefully placed both his hands—palms down—on his desk eyeing her like a vulture would its prey.

"N-nothing sir," she replied, eyes meeting the floor. Shamal heard Fate snicker.

"Good. Now, take your seat," he paused, sighing. "Now that Miss Shamal and I have cleared things up, I'm dismissing all of you thirty minutes in advance. You may go."

The sound of chairs screeching against the floor and footfalls filled the room. Fate was the last to exit the classroom. She forgot to bring her English book with her. After the blonde-haired girl went out of the room, only Mr. Jones was left massaging his wrinkly temples after placing his glasses on the desk. 'What a long day.'

In the hallway outside, Fate met up with her friends.

"Fate-chan! Why'd you have to go and make jokes like that? You know the old man's got six ears!" scolded the other blonde. Getting reprimanded in front of the class was never part of her to do list.

"Don't forget four eyes in front and two at the back." Shamal frowned. "Okay, okay! Shamal, I'm sorry I was just upset that we didn't have P.E today. Plus, with the way you flinched a while ago, you needed a good joke," she smirked.

The trio headed for their lockers on the other side of the hallway.

"We don't, but you do," the shorter blonde spoke up.

"Shamal, something's wrong with your brain again."

Shamal gave her a firm smack on the shoulder. "I'm not kidding. You have detention, remember?"

Signum closed her locker and replied "She's right." The pink-haired girl leaned against her locker door, closing her eyes and folded her arms around her more than ample chest.

Fate turned to her. "Oh yeah, for once Shamal's right."

The redhead smiled but it soon disappeared as she saw the playful smile on Fate's face. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"

Their conversation went on. It was mostly Fate giving Shamal sarcastic and snappy jokes earning her numerous slaps on both her left shoulder and arm. Things got interesting when they started talking about what the new teacher would look like. They all immediately knew, or more likely, assumed it would be a guy.

"I bet it's going to be another middle aged man just like Mr. Jones," Signum said.

Fate, with a stern face, corrected her. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Signum, you forget… Mr. Jones isn't a middle aged man. He can't even be considered as aged. That man is so old, he's probably a prehistoric being who managed to evolve and survive, feeding only on the terror, pain and misery of teenage humans for the past two hundred fifty thousand years."

Signum laughed so hard she almost doubled over.

"Or maybe he's going to be a super hot guy who'd have eight packed abs, blonde hair, a great personality, a big squishy ass and ooh… and have muscle-licious arms!" babbled the other blonde.

"Is muscle-licious even a word?" Signum remarked.

Fate giggled. "Okay. Shamal, those kind of guys only exist in-"

"Hollywood?" she asked with a glint of hope in her amethyst eyes.

"No. They only exist…" Shamal leaned in closer. "…in your imagination."

Fate laughed as Shamal's smile turned a one eighty and became a full blown frown. "There, there… we all have our 'confusing–reality-with-fantasy' moments," she said in between laughs.

Signum punched Fate's arm making the girl stumble but she caught herself just before falling over. "Fate, I swear… sometimes I wonder if you still have a soul."

A smug look crossed Fate's face. "Nope, I traded it for my sense of humor. Something, both of you, obviously don't have," she said.

"Sense of horror more like it," Signum huffed.

"Aw, come on guys. Fine!" Fate raised both her palms up, making a yielding gesture. "Sorry. For real this time."

Shamal eyed her with doubt.

Sensing her best friend's distrust, she immediately retorted "Honest!"

Her face calmed. "It's alright. I've gotten used to your jokes. Which by the way, are at other people's expense," she shrugged.

Fate hugged the blonde. "I knew you'd understand. But I didn't mean to hurt you though." She looked at her wristwatch. 3:16. "Guys, I better get going. Detention starts in fifteen."

"A little early, aren't we?" Signum tucked a few loose strands of her hair behind her ears. Her long, lustrous hair never bothered her, rather it was her bangs. "Eager to find out who the newbie is?"

"Partly, but it's mostly 'cause I have to change into my P.E uniform. See yah!"

Before Signum or Shamal could retort, Fate had already turned the corner.

'She always acts like that,' Signum thought

When it came to changing, Fate would most likely take fifteen to twenty minutes. She was always finding an excuse so she would be able to change her clothes without other people's prying eyes. If she couldn't force them to, then she wouldn't change at all. Fate always felt insecure when it came to showing her body, whether it was to her best friends or not. Ever since they had been friends, Signum only managed to see an underwear-clad Fate once. And in her honest-to-God opinion, Fate was the epitome of hot.

As to why the girl was diffident of her body was beyond her.

"Come on Sicchan, we've got to get home."

"Huh?" she replied.

"I'm crashing at your place today, remember? Let's get going!"

Shamal walked to the school exit with a confused but willing Signum in tow.

Narrator's POV

Opening the large doors of the girl's locker room, Fate peered through the gap between the doors. No one was inside the spacious room but her. She heaved a sigh of relief.

The locker room had numerous cabinets for each student from the first years to the fourth years, all of which came with locker codes. The first two hundred were for the freshman, the next two hundred were for the sophomores and so on.

Scratching her head, she tried to remember her locker number. 'Number…uh, six hundred, six hundred. What was my locker number? Ugh, six hundred... eight!'

Heading for her locker, she opened it with her locker code. Before changing, she took one last look around the locker room. After walking around for a couple of minutes she went back to her locker, took her P.E. uniform and changed. She took a face towel and placed it on her right shoulder before heading to the gym.

Arriving in the gym, she looked at her wristwatch. It was already three-forty. 'Now, where is this so called new P.E teacher?' she thought to herself, looking around the gym.

After minutes of searching, she gave up. Finding an empty seat by the gym door entrance, she walked toward it and sat down.

'Signum was right. I am kind of early for detention,' she mused.

Fate spent the next five minutes reading the posters plastered across the gym.

On the opposite side of the gym, An orange-haired girl wearing the same uniform sat on one of the bleachers, waiting for detention class to start. 'No sign of the teacher. Not cool. Man, am I early. I thought detention started at three-thirty?'

After a few minutes a loud, male voice was heard.

"Alright students, form two lines. One for the boys, another for the girls," instructed Mr. Walter the teacher in-charged for detention class.

Sighing, she stood up and nonchalantly walked to the line already formed by five other girls. Few girls were often in detention. Most of the detention populace consisted of boys. Today, she saw twenty other male students in the line formation.

She heard her name being called.

"Vita, seen the newbie yet?"

The orange-haired girl turned to face the girl who called her. "Nope, not yet… I haven't heard anything either," she whispered.

"Okay," Fate replied.

Vita was one year younger than Fate. They met in one of Ms. Spencer's, now Mrs. Carlson's, detention class last year. Fate was still new to the idea of staying an extra hour in school as a form of punishment. Vita came up to her and taught her 'the doodads'—as she had put it—about detention. After that, they quickly became friends.

The girl standing at four feet, five had silky orange hair in braids flowing down her shoulder and midway through her front. She had dark blue eyes that were as passive as could be and kept a firm look that said 'you wanna fight sucka?'. Her wardrobe was a mix of red and black punk clothes and sporty ones as well, akin to her personality and taste.

Even as a second year, Vita had always been a rebel at heart, which made her fun to be with. Vita was the only one who would be able to spar with Fate, insult-wise. When both of them happened to be in the same detention class, they would sit together and joke around. But other than that they only exchange 'hello's' every time they meet on campus. After all, each had her own group of friends outside of detention.

"Arms forward raise," Mr. Walter commanded. Everyone complied. "Arms down. I trust that everyone has been informed of today's demo-class?"

Fate let her right hand fall and her left inside her pocket. 'I wonder what the newbie would look like.'

"Everyone meet your new P.E. teacher, Ms. Nanoha Takamachi."

The students scrunched their brows looking around, only to find the basketball club doing power thrusts and Principle Lindy Harlaown standing beside Mr. Walter. 'Meet who?' they all thought.

Principle Lindy Harlaown cleared her throat, loudly.

"Oh, right. About face…"

They did as ordered.

In front of them stood a tall woman wearing black sweat pants with silver linings, a form-fitting jacket with the same color and a white crock-neck shirt under her jacket, finished off with white rubber shoes. She had auburn hair that was pulled back into a side-ways pony tail. Her blue eyes were as bright as sapphire gems. She had a gentle smile on her face. Fate's spine tensed.

The new teacher looked familiar.

'So much for the newbie being a guy. But, where have I seen her before?'

"Good afternoon everyone, I'm Nanoha Takamachi. Most of my friends call me Nanoha, but I advise you not to call me that. Miss Nanoha would be more appropriate. I'm going to be your teacher for today and the rest of the school year. Nice to meet you!" she brought both hands to her sides and smiled broadly.

While Fate was busy with her thoughts, Nanoha started giving instructions for the activities they would be having for the demo-class.

"Ok, find a pair and start with the warm ups." She clapped her hands, breaking Fate from her thoughts.

"You wanna pair up?" Vita elbowed Fate.

"Huh? What," she blinked. "Did you say something?"

"What the hell were you doing the entire time she gave the instructions?" Vita raised an eyebrow eyeing the blonde-haired girl.

"N-nothing… so," she said, changing the subject. "…what did she say?"

"Bend over, we're doing warm ups."

'…Wait, b-bend over?'

Fate performed several stretching exercises with Vita. But when she tried to reach her toes without bending her knees, she made a mental note. 'Never take my knees for granted… ow!'

She felt like she tore a tendon. She was limber… but not as limber as she was years ago.

After warm ups, the group of students were asked to form two lines.

"This is only going to be an endurance test. Last man or woman standing gets extra credit in my class. Try and keep up," the auburn-haired teacher said with an impish smile. She stood in front of the two lines.

All the students started getting pumped. Like every other school, competition was common among the students. A good example was the school's yearly sports festival. Each year, all high school levels would compete for gold, though they were mostly in it for the glory and bragging rights that came with the title.

A jog around the gym was approximately half a kilometer and it took about five minutes to run on a regular pace.

"Okay. This isn't a race. Just outlast everyone. Go!"

Everyone started jogging. At first their pace was slow but it soon picked up. Running the first 2 kilometers was a simple task for the students. But on the third kilometer, some students began breathing heavily. Still, they continued on. On the four-kilometer mark several students couldn't take it and gave in.

"Aw, tired already?" Nanoha teased.

"We're too tired to keep up Miss! The heck with the extra credit," barked one of the male students.

After the ninth lap only five people were left; Miss Nanoha, Vita, Fate, Charlie, and the school's basketball power forward, Lance, who followed a little behind them.

"What's wrong with this woman?" remarked Vita.

"I can't take it anymore!" Charlie stopped with shaking legs and sunk to her knees.

Lance followed suit as he slumped down and lay face down on the floor, panting. He didn't even bother to say anything for fear that his lungs would give out.

"You okay Fate?" asked a concerned Vita.

"Yeah, it's just a little difficult to breathe. How about you, Vita?"

"I'm not sure I can last 'til the next lap. Think you can take her?" she whispered.

"I think so. She may look fine but look," she gestured for Nanoha's arms. "She's trembling. Besides, no newbie outruns Fate Testarossa." A smug grin crept its way into her lips.

"Go get her. I can't run anymore!" Vita sunk to a halt and held her sides as her head cocked back trying to breathe in as much air as she could. No sooner did she fall when her knees buckled.

"Five kilometer mark, it's been fifty-four minutes. Can you still keep up?" Nanoha slowed down so Fate could catch up with her.

"Yeah, I think so," she replied, when Nanoha was beside her.

"What's your name?"

"Fate Testarossa, ma'am."

"Fate, hmmm…"

Everyone wondered why they didn't stop running. Fate was the last student left. She had won the extra credit. That was the purpose of the whole exercise.

But Vita knew that this meant more to Fate than any point she could earn in class. Running was her sport and this was her turf.

Nanoha could still manage to run a few more laps but realizing the bolshie attitude of the younger girl running beside her, Nanoha somehow knew the girl wouldn't give up, even if it meant exhausting her legs. She instinctively smiled at the thought, impressed with the girl's willpower.

'I'd have to remember her name, then.'

She wasn't one to remember her students' names but since this girl managed to impress her on her first day, she was more than willing to make an exception.

After another 3 kilometers of running both women ended up stopping. Everyone, including Principal Harlaown applauded Fate. They all gave her their greetings of congratulations.

Fate thought her lungs were on fire. Her body felt like it weighed a ton. She sunk to her knees on all fours. Her pounding heart was so loud; it felt like numerous drums were beating against her ears.

"Good work… Fate was it?" she patted the girl on the back.

"Thanks. And hey," Nanoha looked at her intently. "Please… don't… murder… my feet again," she said in between pants. Her eyes never left the floor.

Fate was used to running long distances, just not in enclosed areas. It somehow made her uncomfortable thus affecting her stamina.

"You did say that you could keep up."

"Yeah… I could…but I'm no horse, I'm not even… a running athlete."

"But you would make a good one."

"A running athlete?" she finally got up to face the new teacher.

"No, a horse," she laughed and then left Fate to her thoughts.

Vita came running toward her.

"What was that about?" She handed Fate a bottle of water and a face towel.

"I'm not sure. But I'm starting to like our new teacher. She's cool."

Fate downed the water in one go.

"You got that right," Vita replied.

Fate looked at Vita who blinked. They laughed.