"Can everyone hear me?" Sandy asked through the comms, and we all nodded. I noticed everyone was coursing with adrenaline, bouncing and fidgeting with their weapons, despite showing such arrogance previously. Except for Leilani, who seemed completely unfazed as she stared out to the jungle.
"Where are we hiding the flag?" I asked, trying to grasp the situation.
"It really does't matter." Julianna said.
I frowned. "Any tactics?"
"No. We'll just go out there and find their damn pole and get this over with."
I wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. "Seriously? No defense or anything?"
Niko seemed to finally lose his patience. "Did you not hear us before? They're team J. If you're so worried, you can stick around here and be our 'defense'." He made air quotes when he called me a defense, and I huffed as I tried not letting the words get to me. Then there was a loud gun shot, and the four of them shot out in search of the flag.
I sat around awkwardly, my whole body alert for any sounds of rustling that would signify someone sneaking in to grab the flag. I heard gun shots and some soft grunts, but it was clear they were pretty far away. I momentarily fantasized about someone from the opposing team approaching me, me shooting them and being the savior of the day.
But within a minute, Sandy's voice came from our comms saying where their pole was located, and Leilani's voice came almost immediately after that.
"Got it. I'm heading back." She said, and after ten seconds she emerged from the woods running unbelievably fast. She handed it to the referee who pushed a button to signal the game was over.
My entire team came out, unscathed and mildly satisfied, while the other team limped out with their heads hung low. I hadn't even noticed we—or rather, they—had gotten so many of them.
"Thanks for all your help, defense." Niko told me sarcastically, and I completely ignored him as I congratulated Leilani.
"You ran back so quickly. That was so impressive." I told her, being completely honest. I also really wanted to become friends with her, because though quiet, she had defended me and been seemingly kind to me.
"You'll get used to that about her. She's the quickest person here by far." Julianna told me, and I sensed a tinge of bitterness in her voice.
"Everyone calls her the Bullet." Sandy said as he looked at her with deep respect. I studied Sandy and I instantly knew he had a crush on her by the way he looked at her with admiration.
"It's nothing." Leilani's words were dismissive, but she hid her face slightly as her cheeks grew rosy and a small smile plastered her face.
As we walked back to the main field where everyone was gathered, I walked behind everyone. Once Leilani noticed, she dropped back.
"I just wanted to say thank you." Leilani said in her soft, lucent voice.
I looked at her, confused. "What? If anything, I should be thanking you."
She shook her head. "No one's complimented me before."
"Wha, but—how?"
She shrugged. "I've always just been the freak, or not good enough for my family. And to be complimented by the heir of the Scarlett Legion is just—wow."
She and her family must be incredibly loyal to the Legion, as she thought so highly of me, and her excitement was pouring out of her mouth though she was someone who was otherwise always quiet. And I noticed how she called the Shadow Legion the Scarlett Legion—one of the first people I've heard call it that. I figured her ancestors were with the Legion when it was still using its original name, and that must have been a hell of a long time.
"Well, you really are splendid. You should be competing in the Olympics, honestly."
Leilani seemed to glow. "You can't tell anyone, but that's my dream."
"Why don't you go? Represent the USA!"
"No. No, never. My family and the Legion would never let me stand out like that."
"Oh." I said lamely, "that sucks."
She smiled sadly. "It's okay. I still love serving the Scarlett Legion."
"You're so generous, Leilani."
At that, she seemed so happy that she would cry. "Please call me Lei. And if it's okay with you, I would like for us to be friends."
My heart warmed at how sweet she was. "Lei, I would love that. And call me Cass."
* * * * *
The next few rounds of capture the flag went on just like the first round. My team promised we had nothing to worry about defense, so I ran out as well in search of the other team's flag. Then I got shot in the leg (visibly, as it leaves a white mark on your clothes—like bird poop) deeming me useless and embarrassed for the rest of the game.
When our team won yet again and everyone walked out, Niko laughed shamelessly at my leg.
"Well, you must have been a clear shot." He smirked. "Does it hurt at all."
"No." I retorted, quickly flipping him off. It was going to leave a bruise, but it was nothing compared to how my ego was throbbing.
"Oh, don't get bitter. How many people have you shot?" He asked, knowing full well of my answer.
"None." I said, glowering.
Niko guffawed, and it was all I could do not to smack him upside the head. I took a deep breath and walked away, not wanting to bring any more attention to myself than I already was. I noticed all the trainees were constantly looking my way when I walked within 50 feet away.
* * * * *
"Alright, that's it for the morning portion. Go have lunch and come back in an hour." A leader yelled, and I couldn't help but to let out a sigh of relief. When I started walking back inside, I noticed for the first time Ollie leaning against the door leading back inside.
"Ollie!" I called out, and she looked up and smiled. People looked up to see me speaking loudly for the first time, but I didn't care because I was so relieved to see her.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, an automatic smile approaching my face.
"Here to pick you up for lunch. I heard you guys were doing capture the flag." She said, and I thinned my lips into a line as I gave an annoyed look.
She laughed. "I understand you so well."
Right when we were about to walk away, Trevor caught up to us. "Ol! I didn't know you were back." He said, smiling widely and reaching over to give her a hug.
"Yeah, I was dragged out of Florida to take care of this one." She said, giving me a teasing smile. "Have you met her?"
"Cassandra? Yeah, she's in my team."
Ollie raised her eye brows and I scrunched my nose at what he called me. "Call me Cass. Literally no one calls me by my full name."
Trevor gave me a thumbs-up. "Cass it is then."
Then Niko walked by, and he cocked a brow as he looked at us with a smirk. "Damn, Ollie, I feel so bad for you, having to be friends with this useless piece of shit because you're related."
"Hey, shut your shit-spitting trap, Niko. You're seriously going to get your ass kicked some day if you keep being an ass."
"Yeah? And by who?" He challenged, stepping close.
"Do you really want to know?" Ollie stepped to the challenge as she leaned off the wall and stood up straight. She had on heels, making her an inch taller than him. They had a stare down for a tense few seconds, then Niko rolled his eyes.
"I'm not in the mood for this. I need to conserve energy for the afternoon unlike some people." Niko started walking away, but I noticed his fists were clenched by his sides.
Trevor waved awkwardly to us and walked next to Niko, talking casually to cool him off.
I looked to Ollie with a questioning look, and she tipped her head towards the cafeteria.
* * * * *
When we sat down with our food—Ollie with a bowl of authentic ramen, and me with a tuna tataki, wishing I had gotten the ramen as well—I asked her what was going on earlier.
"How do you know Trevor, and Niko? What's going on between you two?"
"Oh, well, I used to have training before like you. I started when I was 8, and then there was this whole drama when I came out as trans when I was 16. A lot of my family members were against it, blah blah. So I ended up quitting because I just wanted to be out of all the gossip and attention. And Niko looks down on me for quitting. Anyway, I met Trev and Niko then. I was pretty well known there, like you. Being a Scarlett and all. Trev was an all around awesome guy and we still hang out. But Niko... we're childhood friends. He was there even before I came, and we were close for a long time, and not just because we're the same age. I don't know. He started becoming really arrogant, and condescending, and he had this... attitude towards all the Scarlett family members. Even me."
"Could it be because of you coming out?"
"Nah." She dismissed the idea immediately, "he actually knew for a while, and he was in full support. And that's pretty rare to see, a 14 year old boy perfectly okay with a trans girl." She shrugged, and though she sounded annoyed, I could tell she kind of missed him.
"Well, he's been making my day hell." I muttered
"Yeah, you're in team A right? I was surprised when Trev said you were in his team."
"Why would they put me there? I mean, I'm no where near strong, or fast, or smart as them."
"Because you're the heir. You're going to be the leader. Roselle can't put you in team H or something, because then some people would start complaining, or worse gloating that they're better than you."
I poked around my salad, suddenly feeling upset. "I deserve to be in team N. And I probably wouldn't even be able to keep up then."
"That's not true." Ollie asserted. "You may not have as much physical strength yet, but you'll catch up after a few months. And what's more—you have instincts that can't be taught."
"How do you know that?"
"We've been watching you, remember?" She said, kind of awkwardly.
I nodded. "Ah. Right. That's a little creepy."
"Just a tad." She sympathized. "I wasn't part of the recruiting-Cass project much, but from what I've heard people already respect you by how loyal, smart, and adaptable you are."
I blushed, but I wanted to change the subject because I couldn't bear thinking about back when I was still in New York, both because it was creepy and also because I didn't want to think about the Office, or Kyle.
"So what team were you in? Back when you still had training?"
"C."
"Damn. You're so badass it hurts."
She laughed. "I'm really not. Just being raised in this life made me a stone cold bitch."
I chuckled and finished my lunch before I sadly put my tray away, making my way back to the field.
I exhaled slowly before I walked out to the field where the trainees had started gathering. I really didn't want to go back in there, to face the embarrassment. I was actually so upset that my breath trembled and my eyes were starting to burn with tears.
Ollie noticed my sadness. "Hey. You're doing great so far. You must be so jetlagged, and shaken up, but you're holding up so well. We only have a few days before the weekend, and I'll take you to a club on Saturday, alright?"
I laughed. "That sounds amazing." I reached over and hugged her, and at first she seemed taken aback, but she hugged me back tightly.
"Now go kill 'em."
* * * * *
"Alright, last round!" Niko said excitedly, "we're gonna take them out easy!" He collided his right fist against his left palm, and a wicked, excited grin etched across his face. As much as I hated him, I had to admit he had killer looks. He was extremely fit, but in a different way than Kyle was. While Kyle was more toned and lean, Niko was buff, radiating testosterone. Now, with him focused and ready to take down the other team, he definitely had an attractiveness seen in hot guys of action movies.
I frowned as I looked at our competitors, the B team, with their full set of 13 no doubt super strong, smart people. I looked at all of them individually, some people who looked as if all they did in life was train, while others resembled more closely to me, average, but definitely hid tons of tricks up their sleeve. I accidentally made eye contact with one of them, a guy with a black tank top showing off his huge arms and a snake tattoo that wrapped around his bicep. He smiled easily and winked at me, and my face reddened as I smiled awkwardly and looked away.
We walked into the field, and I was glad this was going to be the last round, despite the fact that this was going to be the hardest one yet, against the second strongest team who outnumbered us by more than twice.
"Alright, here's the plan." Niko said lowly as everyone leaned in to listen. "Because we can't completely be offensive this time but we lack in numbers, we're going to slowly progress towards their field and try to trick them into them all being inside our loop. Julianna and I will take the outside posts, moving a little faster than Leilani and Trevor, so we can trap them and shoot in a semi-circle formation."
I tried not to be hurt by how he blatantly excluded me. "What about me?" My voice came out more quiet than I intended.
He looked at me with an exasperated look. "Just stay away from us so you don't give our plan away. And try not to get shot, it's embarrassing for us."
I noticed Lei giving him a death glare, that genuinely would have scared the shit out of me if it had been directed towards me, and I didn't have it in me to be angry anymore. I fought back the feelings of hurt and embarrassment and tried to keep my ego intact as I rolled my eyes and looked out to the field.
The round started with a bang of the gun, and my team sprinted out.
"Have you got coordinates on where everyone is, Sandy?" Trevor asked.
"Yeah. I see nine people running into your trap."
"Nine? What about the other four?" Julianna demanded, her voice hushed.
"I see one heading to the lake. Can't tell about the other three though. For some reason I can't detect any other electronics in the region."
For a moment I was envious of how everyone seemed to work so well together so naturally, and I felt so utterly excluded as I trudged towards a random direction
Just then, Julianna cursed loudly into the comms. "Guys, I've been spotted." I heard a few gunshots, "they're firing away. They're the ones that weren't in the trap."
"Shit. That means they're going to figure out our plan." Niko said, "I've gotten three."
"I got all three of them as well. Just not before they got a chance to let everyone know what we're doing."
"I've gotten two—" Trevor started, but a groan followed soon after. "Sorry dudes, I'm dead."
"Me too." Niko said dejectedly.
"Me three." Julianna admitted.
My mind was racing as I listened to their interaction. That meant there were eight people down, four left in the B team, and only me and Lei out in the field.
"I slashed down three people." Lei spoke in her quiet voice, "know where the last guy is Sandy? Or the flag?"
Sandy sounded frantic and embarrassed. "Sorry y'all, I don't know why—I can't find their positions."
Just then, I ran into the lake. The murky, blue-green water seemed to flow into the jungle, and I desperately looked for a place to hide, among this vulnerable open space. Just then, I saw a twinkle inside the murky water. I squinted at it, and noticed it was gold—their flag.
I widened my eyes and inspected it—yes, it was definitely the flag.
"Guys." I said, speaking in the comms for the first time, "I found the flag."
Everyone's voices rushed into my ears. "Where? GO! Get it. Fuck, why you!?"
But Lei's voice was the sound of reason. "Where is it, Cass?"
"It's in the lake."
"Okay, just wait there. I'll go get it." A few seconds later, I heard a gun shot. Lei gasped, and I closed my eyes shut, fearing what she was going to say. "I'm so sorry. I'm down. It was Colton—I didn't see him."
"Colton against Scarlett? Just fuck me." Niko said.
"He's heading towards our flag." Sandy warned, and I groaned inwardly.
"Scarlett, get the flag." Julianna demanded.
"Are the comms waterproof?" I asked, already fumbling for the mask and the gas tank left by the lake. I thanked god I knew how to scuba dive as I screwed the BCD onto the tank and strapped it onto myself.
"Yes. Go." Niko said, and I jumped in the water.
I knew it wasn't safe to dive inside too quickly, but I pressed the limits as I equalized as I went under water fairly quickly. I grabbed the pole with its glinting gold, and filled up my BCD with air as I resurfaced quickly. I jumped out of the water, threw off the tank and mask, and started running, my hands instinctively reaching toward the gun strapped onto my belt. I flicked it off of safety and onto full-auto as I ran the fastest as I could.
When I ran through the jungle, I noticed the guy with the snake tattoo, the guy who had winked at me—and was most definitely the mysterious Colton—was ahead of me. He firmly grasped the emerald pole in his hand as he ran several steps ahead of me. Even if I was faster than him, which I definitely was not, there was no way I could beat him to the referee to hand the flag.
He glanced back and noticed me sprinting, and he seemed to laugh to himself as he continued running towards the referee. A surge of anger filled inside of me at his arrogant, condescending attitude towards me.
Bad mistake, I thought, as I recalled Brook's favorite phrase: Take advantage of people underestimating you.
I aimed my gun towards Colton, closing my left eye and alining the target with his back. I didn't know if I was going to do it right, but Trevor had adjusted it for me, and my hands were surprisingly steady. I slowed down my running slightly and blasted the full-auto handgun at Colton. Many pellets flew in strange directions, but Colton turned towards me with a shocked expression, his hands reaching to his gun. That was when I got him, full on the chest.
One shot, two shots, three.
I continued drilling him with shots until his entire vest was basically covered in white, and I was satisfied. He threw his arms up in the air frustratedly.
"Darling, wasn't that a bit excessive?" He hollered as he threw the emerald pole to the ground in defeat.
"Just wanted to make sure I got you." I smirked, not quite grasping yet my victory.
"Well, you can be damn sure you did. I can't believe I was taken down by the princess."
I glared at him. "Don't call me that."
"That's what you are though. And we are all you knights."
I bit my lip, not liking how that sounded for some reason. Then Colton snaked an arm around my waist flirtatiously. He dug his face into the side of my neck and said lowly under my ear, "although this princess doesn't seem in need of much saving."
I was very uncomfortable with his sudden advance, but I tried not showing that as I gave him a smug once-over. "Don't get so close. I don't want all that second place rubbing on me."
Colton laughed good-naturedly as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched me walk out with a defeated—and maybe respecting?—smile.
When I emerged into the field where everyone was waiting, I got a great satisfaction by watching everyone's expressions. The B team looked ecstatic, they had beaten team A! And my team looked extremely downcast as they looked out to the fields, having lost in capture the flag for the first time in their lives. Even Trevor looked upset.
When their eyes spotted me, everyone hushed and for a second just blinked at me. Then they looked at Colton, as he stepped out of the jungle looking ashamed with a full chest of white paint.
I walked over to the referee and handed her the golden pole.
That was when the entire crowd went wild.
"A TEAM CONTINUES TO GO UNDEFEATED!!!" The referee's voice projected from the speakers. Davidson looked at me with surprise and pride, and he surprised me by giving me a high five. Trevor rushed out and hugged me and lifted me in the air. When he put me down Julianna whirled me around and smacked a huge kiss onto my lips. I was still laughing but I raised an eye brow asking what that was for.
"I'm sorry." She gushed, "I'm just so happy."
"Thank you." Sandy said, "you saved me from my mistake."
Lei patted my shoulder and I turned to her, a wide smile on her face. "I'm so proud of you. What you did out there, on your first day, too, astounding."
Even Niko seemed pleased. "I'm glad you're a little more competent than I thought."
I was overjoyed by everybody's positive response, so I couldn't care less about him. "A simple thank you works too, pal." I joked, not being able to help the huge smile of happiness stretching on my face.
To my surprise, he studied my face for a second and echoed my smile. "You have the most idiotic, contagious smile." He hesitated before he added, "thanks for not making us second place for the first time in five years, Scarlett."
I groaned. "Oh, do anything but call me Scarlett. Please. Cass is fine."
* * * * *
Glad I got an update pretty soon! How did you like this chapter? How do you like all these new characters? Let me know by comments and votes!
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