High-rankers, assemble! Wellcome to The Wellston Games

Chapter 1

"Are you sure you're okay?", Blyke asked her softly as they approached the meeting room. "You know... we can postpone the meeting".

"No, I'm fine", she said. "This won't take long anyway".

At seventeen, Remi was used to the disadvantages of being born a girl. She knew what to do when a certain time of the month came, and she rarely let it stop her from continuing her normal activities, specially the ones related to the school. However, there were days that were harder than others, and this was one of those days. As if waking up to cramps wasn't bad enough, she had been feeling extremely weak and tired, to the point that even walking required more effort and energy than usual.

The good news is that there wasn't much left to do. Now they'd have a quick meeting with the rest of the high-rankers to discuss things related to the end of the school year, and then she'd finally go to her room to rest in her soft, warm bed.

However, when Blyke opened the door to the meeting room, Remi had the feeling that the reunion wouldn't go as planned. Her eyes immediately landed on her best friend Isen, unconsciously expecting him to greet them with a relaxed smile on his face like he always did. But that didn't happen. Instead, Isen was curled up on the floor, his face so red that it almost matched Blyke's hair, whining in pain as everybody else in the room stared at him wide-eyed.

"Isen!", Remi and Blyke screamed in unison. One second later they were on the floor by his side, patting him on the back trying to get his attention, but it didn't seem to work. His eyes were closed so hard that they looked like a thin line, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"What the hell happened here?", Blyke asked, staring angrily at the two guys that were standing closer to their friend. "What did you do to him?"

But judging by the way they looked, it didn't seem like they actually did something to Isen. Arlo and John were both frozen, their faces so pale that you could almost see through their skin. They were looking at Isen with so much horror that anyone would have thought that he was growing a third arm.

"I... it... it was an accident", John started saying. "I was playing with the broom... I was just moving it. And... and Isen came from behind me and... uh..."

"And?", Blyke insisted.

"And I accidentally... y-you know". He then did something with his hand, a gesture that Remi couldn't interpret, but Blyke could. His whole face turned white, and his mouth opened and closed even though no words came out of it.

Blyke went back to Isen's side, horror in his eyes as he put a hand on his shoulder.

"Dude, breathe", Blyke said.

Isen shook his head. "Holy shit I'm going to die", he whined, and Remi would have thought that he was being dramatic if it weren't because his voice sounded much higher than usual.

"You are not going to die. Just breathe".

That's when Remi realized why her friend was curled up like that. A quick glance to the position of his arms helped her understand that he was grabbing a certain part of his body. Realization hit. The boys' reactions and John's gesture now made sense.

Poor Isen had been hit with a broom... there.

"Here she is!", someone suddenly said. Both Remi and Blyke turned to the door, where Seraphina showed up dragging Elaine by the arm. It seemed that Wellston's healer was already aware of the situation, because her eyes quickly started glowing, her small hands right over the area that Isen desperately tried to protect with his own fingers.

Seconds passed, and Remi could feel under her touch the way Isen's entire body started to relax. His breathing became steady, his eyes slowly opened, and his face started to regain its original color.