Love of Ice

CHAPTER 4 : THE LAST MEMBER

Since the team was mostly formed, they decided to report for training with the boys.
They had just finished their last round of running, sitting on the grassy slope by the track with their jackets over their legs. Chatting among themselves as they cooled down, they did not realise that there was cries for help and angry screaming until it got quite loud.

" Do not go near Ethan. You fat cow, he is mine!" the voice shouted.

The girls followed the voice and arrived at an alleyway. They saw a girl being hounded by the 'queen' in the campus and her minions.

" Stop , I've already reported you, Christy. You're already going to get a demerit for this. Anymore and it will be the worst punishment," Adelaide said from behind.
"Who are you bitch?" Christy asked sneering.

"I'm someone you don't want to mess with, little girl," Adelaide mocked.

Anger covered Christy's eyes as she raised her hand to slap her, but the sound of a slap never came because Adelaide had caught her hand mid slap and twisted it till Christy was shouting in pain.

"Let go! Let go! Please, I won't touch her anymore just let me go!" Christy begged her.

Disgusted, Adelaide let go of her hand a little too suddenly which caused her to fall in the mud, ruining her dress.

Once Christy and her minions scattered, Adelaide, Lizzy, June and Elaine helped the girl, whose name they found out was Claire to the medical department. While the nurse cleaned her wounds, Adelaide and Elaine asked question for they were less scary asked questions.
"Who is Ethan?" Adelaide asked carefully.

"He is a trainer at the campus gym and my brother," she whispered.

"If he is your brother, why would they beat you up like a love rival?"

"They don't know...." Claire said looking down.

"It might not be my place to ask but I consider you as a friend so why don't you tell them?" Adelaide asked a bit unsure if she was crossing a line.

"They won't listen , I've tried and my brother has tried to stop them, but they do it when he is not there," Claire said. "And I consider you as my friends too. You guys are from the Winter Biathlon team right, Jeremy tells me a lot about you all."

"You know Jeremy?" Adelaide was surprised.

"Yes, he is my childhood best friend and my crush," she whispered the last part.
Adelaide smiled knowingly," You play Biathlon right?"

"Jeremy taught me and I trained for 2 years, why?"

"What do you say about joining us in the team as out the last member?" Adelaide stretched her hand out.

"But, I ..."

"Just because you're shorter than most doesn't mean we can't use that at our advantages," Adelaide told her knowing she was insecure about it.

"Claire looked down at the hand for a while, hesitating. Finally, she took Adelaide's hand and shock it.

"Welcome to the team, Claire." Adelaide smiled for although she was not the best candidate, she was determined to boost this girl's self-esteem.

June and Lizzy, who were standing at the door, now walked over to put their hands an Claire's shoulder. "Welcome to the team, Claire", they and Elaine said in unison.

They were walking out of the medical department when Lizzy decided to have one of her partying ideas. " Let's have a girl's night. We have no classes tomorrow, and we can stay up!"

" We can go to my house," Claire said. Four pairs of feet stopped and eight eyes stared at her as if she had grown two heads.

"My parents left me and my brother their house which is only 10 minutes from the campus when they passed away," she said.