Sang Sorenson, the darling of the universe, is the sweetest, nicest person you will ever meet. Her parents are wealthy and kind to all, including their beloved daughter. Sang is sheltered, living in a bubble of kindness and light. What happens when...
Thank you for reading and thanks to FeysandLoVer for editing this chapter!!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I hear the boys burst in and they all begin shouting over one another. Quickly, I clamp my hands over my ears and flinch away from them.
I should've just lost, I think to myself bitterly. Now they're mad at me. I hope they can forgive me. I never meant to hurt their feelings.
Gentle hands pull away my hands from my ears.
"That's enough, Sang," Axel breathed, his smokey voice filling the now silent room. "I know that we were loud, and I'm sorry for that. But you can't hide every time it gets loud. You need to stand up and work with us. You need to tell us how we can help you."
Biting my lip, I nod slowly, understanding what he is saying.
"It-It's just that you guys are so loud and it hurts my ears," I explain softly. "I'm sorry. I won't cover my ears again."
"That's not what he's saying," Silas inserts. "Sang, if we are hurting your ears, by all means, cover them, yell at us, whack us until we shut up. But you can't hide from us. We need to know how to help you."
I giggle at the thought of me yelling at them and shake my head with fervor.
"I wouldn't ever hit you guys or yell at you," I protest.
"That's not the point, Sang," Wil says, but his voice is light and I am confident he is smiling.
"We were only shouting to congratulate you," North states. "You did a great job. The counter said that you took out the most people and didn't even lose a life."
"Yeah, who all did you get out?" Corey asks, an edge of suspicion to his voice.
"I got Marc out first," I recall with a grin. "Then Nathan, then Kota, then Corey. After that, I got out Brandon, Sean, Victor, and Wil who were grouped up together. I let Luke and Kevin battle it out and then took out Luke. It was all quite simple really."
The room falls silent once more as I feel their stares burn into me.
I lick my suddenly dry lips, hoping I didn't do anything wrong.
"You got me out?!" Marc chortles. "I thought for sure it was Luke!"
"I told you I didn't!" Luke laughs back.
Kota questions, "How were you able to shoot me without getting shot? I thought for sure that I would've hit you at least once."
I shake my head, my smile returning. "You were aiming too high and I was ducked down to the floor the whole time I went after you."
"Wait, then who th... got me out?!" Gabriel exclaims.
Kevin snorts, "I did. Next time quit freaking out about the spiders that weren't even there."
"Oh?" Gabriel challenges. "How do you know there weren't any spiders? Did you have your bandana off?"
Kevin replies easily, "No, but do you really think that this place has spiders?"
"They like the dark!" Gabriel defends.
"So Sang," Sean interrupts. "How were you able to find us and take us out so easily?"
I lift my shoulder in a half shrug and respond, "Hearing was my best tool. The air conditioner threw off your scents for a while so I relied mostly on sound. My sense of smell was really only helpful in identifying who was who."
"DIBS!!" Nathan exclaims. "Sang is on my team for the next round!"
"That's not fair!" Corey argues. "Sang should get to choose!"
"And she wants to be on my team, doesn't she?" Raven rumbles in Russian.
"Quit talking about me!" Gabriel demands.
Owen breaks in saying, "How about we split the teams up randomly? The team with Sang will be the one to have one less member."
"Fine," Wil sighs.
"That's a good idea," I agree, a bit relieved.
"Here, I'll put the names into my phone and have it be chosen that way," Kota decides.
Kota's voice comes again a minute later calling, "Team One: Raven, Wil, Luke, Mr. B, Silas, Marc, Nathan, Brandon, and Victor. Team Two: Sean, Axel, Corey, Kevin, Sang, Gabriel, Kota, and North."
Grumblings and cheers rose around the room. Well, at least some of the boys liked their team.
"Wait," Brandon calls. "Are we still wearing the blindfolds? How will we be able to tell each other apart?"
"Yeah, not all of us are as incredible as you, Sang," Sean teases.
"Exactly," Raven agrees. "I am as inedible but the others are not."
"Incredible!" Corey corrects.
"That's what I said," Raven argues.
I grin at Raven and explain the difference in Russian to him.
"Smug bastard," North mutters under his breath once I am done talking.
"North!" I gasp.
"Sorry," He grunts.
"Anyway," Kota inserts. "I don't think that blindfolds will be necessary. After all, we all know now that Sang is the best by far when we are all blindfolded. No blindfolds will make it so that we can see our teammates easier and so that Sang is more evenly matched with us. Now, let's gather with our teams."
"I'm leading Team Two!" Sean yells the second the words leave Kota's mouth.
"No, Sang is the best! She should lead!" Gabriel argues, the other team leaving us to figure things out themselves.
"No, I don't want to be the leader, but thank you," I tell Gabriel softly.
Being the leader just isn't a good idea for me. I don't mind leading at times, but I'm a much better follower, if I'm being honest. Besides, we can't all be leaders.
"Maybe I should lead," Axel declares. "After all, I have the most experience, other than Kota, with leading."
"But I'm the team lead," Kota retorts. "Shouldn't I lead?"
"I've never lead before!" Sean whines.
"Exactly," Kevin agrees. "Why start now?"
"So Sean, Kota, and Axel want to lead? Anyone else?" I ask, trying to bring some order about.
North grunts, "I want to win. Who cares who leads us to victory?"
"Alright," I say after a moment. "Why do you guys want to lead?"
"Because I want to win," Axel says at the same time Kota says, "Victory is essential."
"I've never really gotten to lead..." Sean admits.
"Sean gets to lead," I decide. "Because I know for a fact that we will win no matter who will lead us."
The others reluctantly agree. Apparently, winning is very important to these boys.
"He better not lead like he cooks," North mutters.
