Gangleader Academy

8. Awkward situations

    "Blondie. What's u-" suddenly my legs graciously kickstart and I speed walk down the hallway as fast as I can on shaky legs. My face starts to heat up and my hands ball up into fists. I can hear him calling for me, trying to catch up to me but my head start got me to the girls restroom without incident.

    I shoot India an SOS text and lock myself in the biggest stall before pulling out my alto, hitting it and sliding down to the floor. This is something I do on very rare occasions. Times when I'm extremely stressed or upset.

    When India knocks on the door I let her in and give her a serious look. "We have a problem."

    Her eyes are wide as she looks me up and down trying to figure out the source of my foul mood. But then she seems to figure something out and comes to sit next to me.

   "Must be bad if you've whipped that thing out." She says with a concerned look on her face. She waits patiently for me to speak with a look on her face that was urging me to spit it out.

    I hesitate before taking a breath, readying myself for what I'm sure will be an excruciating conversation. "... I just walked in on Derek.. kissing some girl in the hallway."

    She looks at me for a moment before her face lights up and she squeals. Sometimes I wonder how she's even apart of this world. She's just so normal and bubbly. Correction.. weird and bubbly. In this line of work the majority of us are angry, trigger happy teens with daddy issues and a chip on our shoulder.

    "You like him! I knew it! Issa I'm so happy for you! OM- why do you seem disgusted?" She asks with wide puppy dog eyes.

   "Because. I do not like Derek. He's an asshole. I'm just embarrassed because I acted like a total freak when it happened. I mean he was trying to talk to me and I ran away like some kind of awkward.." I can't think of any other word but, "...freak!"

    "Maybe because you like him?" She asks with hope in her voice.

    "No India. I don't like him. Sorry I hate to break your heart." I say as her shoulders slump and she frowns like a pouting toddler.

    "Well if that were the reason you're so upset you just need a distraction. Metaphorically speaking that is."

    "What?"

    "You know. A little fun to take your mind off it. For example Liam... or Axel."

I stare at her for a second trying to figure out what she's talking about. ".. What?"

"Look they're both hot and clearly have a thing for you so-"

"INDIA! Ohh my god no! What wh- no!
That's just- Liam has a thing for me?"
The last words just slipped out before I could stop them. Stupid mouth.

I cut her off before she can say anything else. "But no I don't like Derek in any way shape or form. And I don't need a boy toy to distract me because I don't like Derek so.. yeah."

"I guess you'll figure all.. that out in your mind course." She says with a smirk and exits the bathroom before I can say anything else.

End of flashback

— — — — — —

I open my eyes when I hear my name being called. I stand and follow the the trainer out of the plain white room everyone else was sitting in. Patiently waiting for their names to be called.

Luckily I'm not first up on my squad. In fact it's our team leader as tradition goes, is up first. So I'm in the viewing room where my squad and Liam's fellow squad leaders are sitting. The viewing room is shaped like a horse shoe. With video projected glass. We can't see him and he can't see us but we see what he sees in the sim.

The first few fears are common. The fear of failure. The fear of a mutiny within our gang. Friends and family being hurt or killed because of the gang life. And worst of all, getting investigated and caught.

I'm sat in between Emery and Alissa, whom both have grown on me in the past few days of not avoiding Derek. Emery is really nice and funny, and fun to make fun of when he continuously says woah. Alissa is different from what I expected. She's almost as opinionated as I am and very stubborn to top that off.

    The three of us talk and distract ourselves from the hours of watching Liam's fears play out for a long time until-

    "Woah Issa it's you." Emery whispers just loud enough for Alissa and I to hear in the mostly quiet, dark room.

    I look up to see my face on the screen. Well myself but considerably prettier than I actually am. I sit there confused until sim Liam plants his lips on sim me's lips. The entire room goes silent and all eyes are now on me.

    My jaw is basically on the floor as I watch my sim self make out with sim Liam. This entire experience is surreal. I don't dare look around in fear of meeting a certain someone's eyes.

    "So what.. he's afraid of kissing y-" Alissa starts when the point of the sim is uncovered and I see myself being suddenly yanked away by-   My brother?

    I can't even think as sim Elijah smirks at Liam before mock pouting at me as he presses his gun he got seemingly from thin air to my temple. "That's it son. You know what you have to do."

    Elijah seems to hesitate. "NOW!" My father urges louder. But he makes no move to do whatever he has to do.

    "Elijah! Do it! Don't you want to take over when I retire? She's the only thing standing in your way!" Sim me makes a pained sound as sim Elijah's arm tightens around my throat.

    "Shot her! Then boom it's over. Don't be a little bitch! Do-" And suddenly sim me has a bullet in her head and she's on the ground dead. The sim ends with Sim Liam's screams.