Twenty Fifty-Six

-19-

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THE NEW COVER!

It's been a week since Tristan and I made up.

We got back into the dorms a couple days ago, and things are returning to normal.  Well, as normal as they've every been here.

"Amber!" Aria calls from outside of Tess's and my room.

"What?"

"Come here!"

I get up and meet her outside of my dorm.  "What?" I ask.

"There's a group of people going to play paintball," she says. "The boys are going and they want us to come. Do you want to come?"

"Meh. I don't know. Are you going?"

"If you're going, I am," Aria tells me. "So make a decision."

"Aria! I don't know! Why are you making me make the decision?"

"Oh is Amber a chicken?" Aria teases. "Come on," she says, grabbing my arm. "Let's go."

Aria drags me through the hallways, past the common room and to the playing field outside. I've never been out here before.  There are a whole bunch of people gathered around out here. Tristan and Quinn widen the circle so we can join.

I look around the circle. There's me, Aria, Tristan, Quinn, Tess, Ethyn, Oliver, some other random guys, and of course, just my luck, Daniel and Cody.

"Aria I don't know if I can be here with them."

"We'll make sure we're not on their team so that we can shoot them a lot," Tristan reassures me.

I nod. "Okay."

"Guys!" Oliver calls out.  "We need two captains.  Who wants to be a captain?"

Cody, Daniel and Tess all say that they want to be captain. 

"Guys," I hiss.  "I don't want to be on any of those teams!"

"Same," Aria says.

"Only two of them will be captains," Tristan reminds.

"Let's let Tess be one of the captains. Daniel and Cody, rock paper scissors." Oliver says.

The two compete, and Cody wins. Then him and Tess play for first pick.

Cody wins again and chooses Daniel.

Not surprisingly, Tess chooses Oliver.  She must still like him.  Cody's next pick is Ethyn.  Aria, Quinn and I will probably be last.

But much to my surprise, the name Tess calls as her next pick is mine.

I'm so confused.  Aria gives me a little shove and I head over.  Tess hands me a paintball gun and a mask. 

"Thanks," I say.  "But why'd you choose me?"

She just shrugs in response.   "Do you want Tristan here too?"

Wow.  Is she being nice? 

I nod in response to her question.

Pretty soon the teams are made. Over here on team Tess, we have Oliver, me, Tristan, and a guy who introduces himself as Troy and Quinn.

Cody's team has Daniel, Ethyn, Aria, and two other guys.

"Poor Aria," I say to Tristan and Quinn.

They nod in agreement.

Tess and Cody have decided to play capture the flag.  Each team gets one doctor. 

Tess comes back and we get right down to business.  "Okay.  We're going to make a great strategy guys.  I want to make partners for our team.  So Troy and Quinn, you guys are going to be on defense. Shoot anyone who comes near the flag. Amber and Tristan, I want you guys to stay near the center line and save our team from the jail. Oliver, me and you are going to be on offense.  Got it guys?"

"Okay, but what are me and Amber supposed to be doing, other than saving our team?  What do we do when no one's in jail?"

"Just play either defense or offense, whatever you see fit," Tess tells us.

"Alright."

"Sounds good," I say.

"Cody!" Tess yells.  "Are you goons ready?"

Cody scoffs.  "You won't be calling us goons after you've lost!"

"As if that will happen," Tess laughs.

"Let's do this!"

Our two teams head to our respective sides of the fields.  There is already a rope marking the center, and a jail outlined.  I guess field isn't the right word for it.  This place reminds of the camp I used to go to back home, where we played capture the flag, without paintball guns, in the ravine.  There are trees, and hills, and it will be perfect.

"The boundaries are marked with neon green flags," Tess tells us.

Troy ties our flag to a tree branch, and we walk to the center line, as the other team does the same thing. 

"Ready?" Tristan asks me.

"Not really.  I've played capture the flag before, but I've never shot a paintball gun.  Does getting shot hurt?"

"Not really.  It just stings a bit at first.  But when we're on our side they can't shoot us.  So it'll be Tess and Oliver getting shot at mostly."

Tess and Cody shake hands, and then the game starts.  "Amber, stay close to the line," Tristan shouts over the wild screaming.  "Shoot them once they come onto our side!"

With that, he disappears into the brush.  I've never even shot a paintball gun before.  How am I supposed to do this.

"Amber!" Tess screams at me.  "Quit standing around!  Do something!  Get in the game!"

Oops.  Guess I stood around for too long.

Where's Tristan?

Just as the thought crosses my mind, Cody, Daniel, Ethyn and the two other guys come sprinting across the line.

I hear Tristan shout, "Defenders!  They're coming!"

In the chaos of six people storming our side, I see Oliver and Tess sneaking into enemy territory. 

Then I remember what I'm supposed to do.  Tristan has already shot Daniel, and Ethyn turned back.  Quinn takes a shot at Cody and hits him.  But where are the other two?

"Amber!  Look behind you!"

I turn around and blindly pull the trigger a few times.

When I stop shooting, I hear my team cheering for me.

"You managed to get both of them Amber!"

Moments later, Tess and Oliver are sprinting towards our side with the other team's flag.  Ethyn is shooting at them, and Aria is struggling with her gun.  The other four are of no help, because we have them in jail. 

I scream and cheer for them to run, and it works.  Tess crosses the line with their flag, beaming.

Cody grunts.  "You win this one.  Let's play again."

"You want to get creamed again?"

"No, I want to win."

We give them their flag back, and we start again.  It starts slower this time, and I have a better idea of what to do.

This time I'm going hide like Tristan did, and be a secret assassin, instead of the obvious one I was last time.

I jog around the huge dip in the ground to get to a patch of bushes.  I hear some yells, so I go a little faster. 

All of a sudden something slams into me.  I tumble down the hill, and everything goes black.

---

Dun dun dun!

You must all hate me. Mwahahaha! I love cliffhangers.

I have three more days until Christmas break! That should mean updates! Yay!

You may have noticed that I changed the cover. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.

Anyway, vote and comment like usual, I love you guys

Jen❤️