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The diner felt small but not claustrophobic, a quaint little place that could easily make a nice hangout place for most. Screaming kids running around or complaining that they didn't get what they wanted to eat didn't exist, making the atmosphere more peaceful than most diners. Mostly, the patrons were adults or teenagers chatting happily in quiet voices.

"So, what did you want to talk about, Rowdy?" Leighton asked him before I could, and I gave a grateful smile. Rowdy intimidated me, and probably many other people, too. Leighton sat at my side, while Rowdy lounged across from us in the surprisingly spacious booth. The waiter came up and took our orders, consisting of an order of fries to share and drinks, and then walked off to another group of customers.

"Look," Rowdy sighed when he moved out of earshot, rubbing his temple as if he really had to think about what he was going to say next. He looked up at me, brown eyes piercing and surprisingly understanding. "I get that you're excited to be a part of this, but don't do what you did today again, okay?" He frowned, and then let out a sigh that seemed too calm for what he looked like in general. "The outcome of today turned out in a best case scenario. I'm friends with Arthur, and that's probably the only reason it worked out like it did. There are other teams that it wouldn't have worked out nearly as well."

Leighton snorted as he took a drink of his coke. "What she do, follow you in unprepared? Badgers would absolutely shred her." I felt my face heat up, learning that what I did apparently wasn't the right thing at all. Thanks, sheep-dude, I thought you were on my side.

"Exactly." Rowdy mumbled, frowning. Seeing the heat in my face, for just a second, I could spot some guilt in his face. "No, no, sorry, Fey, it's not you." He breathed in, rubbing his forehead as if it were hard to explain. "All of us play because it's fun, right? It gives us something to do. But a lot of the Badgers play because it gives them an excuse to play brutal characters and sometimes even take that to reality." The Moderator mumbled, starting a sentence with Arthur's name but not finishing it. My mind shot to the boy that was the Administrator of Bronzed Syndicate. "We got into a spar last year with the Badgers in the final event they got to organize from having the most points the previous year. They rented out the fair grounds and built this maze thing. Have you seen those indoor horror houses? Like that. Easy to put up, easy to take down. We had a pact with Syndicate that year, so Arthur and I teamed up to see if we could find the exit key. We ran into the Badger's Advisor."

"Ezekiel?" I asked, leaning in forward on my elbows. The waiter dropped off the tray of fries, and when he left, Rowdy continued.

"Yeah, Flynn." Rowdy's words stung like a bitter wind in a perilous winter, seeming to make everything more dastardly. "He attacked us, but we didn't expect any less. It's part of the game. But you can never, actually hurt anyone, you know?" His eyes darkened, and he picked at the fries despite the fact that he didn't eat any. "Well, he, uh, tripped Arthur and before I could pull Zeke off, he drove a box cutter into his eye. Not fake, not in the game, the guy stabbed him for real. Miles and Rory showed up and we ran Zeke off. We took Arthur to the nurse, and Syndicate had to drop out of the final event because of their top three people being out of the grounds. She sent him to the hospital. They tried to fix it, but mainly all they could do is make it look less gruesome. He can't see out of it anymore." Rowdy took a sip of his drink, a guilty look passing his face. "No cameras inside that thing, so no one could prove who did what; we couldn't even press charges. Didn't help that the Superintendent really tried to smooth it over. She didn't want people to think of her school as 'violent'. Pathetic."

"Don't forget about Roe." Leighton grabbed a handful of fries from the small basket. "First team transfer in years." He looked over to me, making sure I still listened.

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