Natasha didn't wait another second.
"Well, let's start with the first exercise," she said with total naturalness, as if what she was about to propose had nothing special about it. "First you'll do a small warm-up. Fifty laps around the courtyard."
Some took time to react.
Others simply looked at her, expecting her to add something more.
"Come on! What are you waiting for? By the way, every ten laps," she continued, "the pressure will double. So I advise you not to slacken your pace."
Silence.
A heavy silence. People seemed to have forgotten how to walk.
"Do you need me to make you a diagram or...?"
There was no starting signal. But it was clear it was time to begin.
The first to move did so almost from inertia, followed by the rest. In a matter of seconds, the courtyard filled with footsteps, with held breaths, with bodies trying to adapt to a load that already, at base, was uncomfortable.
Aku began running without changing his expression.
