You're My Brother

Testing Things Out

The Monday after the holiday weekend, all students returned, which meant there would be no more silent meals in the cafeteria, no more quiet walks, and worst of all, this meant Griffin would be back.
"I hope you all enjoyed your break." Shiro's voice easily silenced the cadets in Keith's flight class. "But now that you're all back, it's time we start working harder. You're on your second year already, no more simple simulations. That's for children. You're all thirteen or fourteen, going through some changes, wanting to take risks, let your anger out in violent ways. I understand."
The room erupted in murmurs from the embarrassed and offended teenagers.
"Which is why, I have asked to let you give this one your best shot. Last year, you did a rather difficult set of simulations set up by another officer. Many of you passed, but some of you failed."
Keith sensed Griffin was staring at him. He was right. Keith flipped James off before refocusing his attention on Shiro.
"This simulator, however, isn't like that. It's unbeatable. Not as in, it hasn't been beaten before, you simply can't pass. Your job is to stay alive as long as possible. If you make it past 15 minutes, you'll 'pass'."
"Oh this should be fun..." Keith grinned, intrigued to see whatever Shiro had in store for them.
Each one of them entered one by one. Not one made it past 8 minutes. Not even Keith.
"I'm surprised you all made it past 5 minutes..." Shiro looked over the scores of the class and smiled. "Our top three performers are Cadet Kogane, with 7 minutes and 46 seconds, next being Cadet Rizavi, 7 minutes and 32 seconds and... Wow. Cadet McClain! 7 minutes and 24 seconds!"
   "What?!" Lance shrieked in excitement. "No way!"
   "Unfortunately, none of you passed," Shiro informed them, chuckling lightly. "But seeing as the leaderboards have changed, I suppose I could reward you three." He motioned for the three of them to come stand in front of him.
   Keith, along with Nadia and Lance walked towards the front, waiting fir their 'reward'.
   "Congratulations, Lance."'Shiro smiled kindly, shaking the cadet's hand.
   Lance looked like he was about to pee himself he was that ecstatic about the scores. His scores.
   "What is our 'reward', sir?" Nadia asked cheerfully. "Another test with the simulator? Or a different one? The AW Cruiser?"
   "You really like that don't you?"
   She nodded. Out of their whole year, Nadia Rizavi had the top scores with the cruiser.
   "You two can thank your teammate later," Shiro paused, stepping away from the simulator. "You're doing this as a team of three now. Rules are the similar, but I've changed the time requirement. Make it to ten and the three of you will pass. Make it to fifteen, and everyone will pass."
Both Nadia and Lance looked ecstatic to get back into the simulator, Keith however could do without another run. It was fun, it was really fun, but with a team? Not really his style.
Before he stepped into the simulator, Shiro stopped him, "be a good team member this time."
"Fine..."
If he had to be honest, the simulation went really well. Keith was actually a decent human being for once. He didn't leave Lance to die, so that's a plus.
His teammates were so energetic though. The complete opposite of Keith. The simulation excited them, it just set Keith on edge. Sure, it 'excited' him too, but not in the same way.
The three left the simulator with expressions of pure defeat. Lance made it to eight minutes, Nadia to nine forty and Keith to nine fifty.
"I thought you'd do better as a team," Shiro told the three of them when they exited, "but I guess you all need a bit more practice."
"I was ten seconds away! Ten! Come on! I deserve some sort of reward!" Keith tried to persuade Shiro into giving him the credit, even though he knew it wouldn't work.
"It wouldn't be fair if only you got the credit, Mullet!" Lance argued. "We all did really well."
"Not you." The raven haired boy scoffed.
Nadia sighed in aggravation. "Why can't you two get along?! We spent almost ten minutes in a simulator! You were fine then." She turned to Lance and raised her hand for a high five. "You did really well! Eight minutes is awesome!"
Lance blushed like a dork as he returned the gesture. "Aw thanks Rizavi. You're too kind...!"
Shiro pushed Keith towards the other two. "Don't be a jerk...! Congratulate your teammates...!"
With a huff, Keith turned to Lance and Nadia, shrugging as he gave the most unenthusiastic thumbs up ever. "Good job. But we still failed."
"You didn't fail." Shiro looked out to the other Cadets. "None of you failed. You all get passing grades."
The boys and girls erupted in joy. They all passed. Thank goodness.
"But!" The Officer began. "Until a team if three can make it to fifteen minutes, you'll have a fifty percent on the simulator. Anyone who makes it to ten, in a team, gets full marks. Find yourselves a team and start working on your strategies. You'll be tested again tomorrow."
Keith watches as the class all hurried to find partners.
Nadia Rizavi paired up with Ina Leifsdottir immediately, and the two were joined by Ryan Kinkade. Everyone ended up finding someone to work with.
But if course, there were 23 students in this exercise. All but two had partners.
Nobody wanted to team up with Keith, and even if they did, they were far too terrified of him to ask. At the same time, nobody wanted to work with the student who was bottom of the flight class, Lance.
Shiro, knowing better than to force two students to work together did some switching of groups.
Lance was switched out for Ina and James was also pulled from his team.
Keith and James couldn't work together alone, but Ina, the strategist would take charge. He felt bad forcing her to work with the hotheaded boys, especially since she wasn't much of a talkative student, but she promised she'd do her best, and he promised he'd switch things up if it got too much for her.
Griffin and Leifsdottir work well together, they've known each other since grade school. And they both know Keith quiet well. Neither like him all that much, but Ina is much more relaxed about her feelings towards others. Unlike James, she doesn't let personalities get in the way of her task.
Hopefully Ina will make this team work. Otherwise, they're back to square one. And that will not stand with the other officers. Keith has to be able to work with someone. Otherwise they'll kick him out. Shiro will do whatever he can to keep Keith in the Garrison. He made a promise, and he'll stick to it.