The Ranch

Preparations (1)

The soaked quintet make their way back to the balcony to their other members. They're handed towels by the staff. Sherlock, Kai, Lucien, Abel, and Pierre dry themselves as they watch what could have been their fate.

Because of Kai's wild goose chase, the other team exceed the hour limit and has to suffer swimming through the poisoned water. The five witness the after effects and feel that almost drowning is pretty good in comparison.

Soon, all the rounds finish and the losing teams have to leave. Phillip, who got pushed to the side when Kai returned, waves goodbye to Tih. That was all he was going to do, but then he noticed Kai's glare and decided to push his buttons even further. He blows a kiss and winks at Tih, making sure Kai sees. Phillip watches Kai's face scrunch together with enjoyment before turning to leave. Kai makes a mental note to keep Tih away from the scumbag.

Four teams leave the balcony and four teams remain. The announcer congratulates the semi-finalists before announcing, "The semi-finals and finals will continue tomorrow, same time."

With that, the crowd disperses, emptying out the arena. Tih's group heads to the cafeteria to eat dinner together as celebration.

They huddle together while reviewing the day and discussing tomorrow's plans.

"They've given us time to spy on our opponents. We'll use it to gain info on the four teams. Lucien, you got it?" Kai assigns Lucien to the job of gathering information.

Lucien nods, pushing his tray aside to set his computer on the table.

"Taking this into consideration, the other teams are likely to do the same." Sherlock adds on, looking towards Instructor Henri.

"It Should Be Fine, But They Will Know My Occupation." Enri explains, basically claiming to have stayed low key during his time on the island. Kai, Sherlock, and Lucien recall their first time meeting him, when he came into the room through a ceiling window and scaled down the wall. It was definitely an interesting first impression.

Victor ponders," Then we only need to worry about Tih's videos." The rest of the team is full of newcomers who haven't done much on the island yet. There might be some information on the five aces, but only enough to know their occupation. It isn't comparable to their opponents who have been living on the island for x amount of years, but even some of them might not have the portfolio that Tih has already garnered.

It would be especially hard with Instructor Kane's team, who have experiences with Tih first-hand and won't be underestimating them. It's good that the team has already decided not to put Tih in unless necessary.

"We also recorded the games from today. A portion of us will need to review it and note the important parts in our opponents performance." Sherlock looks to Lucien.

"Group chat." Lucien replies, his eyes remaining on his screen.

"I'll Do It. It Should Take A While To Get Through And You All Are Still Young And Need Your Beauty Sleep." Henri takes the job.

The group of ten then review their own games. Each adding their own comments.

"Our cooperation could have been better here."

"The pressure we put on the boulder was uneven, causing it to scrape against the side and wasting strength."

"Abel, your movements paused for a second here."

"Aside from that. We're still new arrivals going up against veteran islanders. We can't compare in stamina and won't be fully recharged by tomorrow." Sherlock points out with a slight frown. This isn't something they can overcome with brainpower.

Pierre nods," That's right, use your energy sparingly. Make sure to eat everything and sleep early too."

"Kay mom!" Theodore snickers.

Getting back on topic," Anyways, Instructor Henri will have to participate in one of the games." Henri nods, agreeing with Victor's words.

Victor looks towards the boy that doesn't look over ten. Tih will have to be a last resort, if they really can't hold out. Reminded, he mentions," In addition, we're not in the staffs' good graces as of now."

"Should we bribe them?" Pierre offers.

"No need." Kai shakes his head, knowing the staff don't have that much influence," It would be a waste of resources."

The conversation moves along to the commentators.

"They don't seem...quite used to commentating." Sherlock says sparingly.

"They suck at it." Kai reiterates into a blunter form.

"That reminds me, you also garnered quite the attention from not only the staff, but the audience." The type of "attention" Victor is referring to is not the good kind.

Pierre defends Kai," It's true Kai antagonized everyone, but I think it took some attention off Tih for better or for worse." A half-hearted defense.

Speaking of antagonized, someone antagonized Kai quite a bit. Recalling the infuriating memory, Kai invites the others to pull Tih off to the side.

Tih is dragged away from his meal to be warned(hypnotized) about the dangers of being alone with a man like Phillip. Kai regrets not having this conversation before, otherwise the relationship between those two never would have gotten to this point.

The other members listen in on Kai's overprotective mom behavior.

Lucien mumbles," yeah cuz you weren't this obsessed with him before." Distracted with his teaching, Kai doesn't hear his words.

Don't think they don't know. Kai's overly friendly act worked on most people, but there would always be a few slips here and there. After spending enough time around Kai, Sherlock and Lucien had realized early on. On a certain level, Kai was only pretending to be attached to Tih. A surface-level relationship, if you will.

But as time progressed, the two watched from the side as Tih gained more and more favor with Kai. Obsession would be an over-exaggeration, but now, Kai truly is incredibly attached to the child.

Author: Can you whisper?

Henri: I Don't Know, Can I?

Author's note: Ya'll like my topic transitions? Good yeah?(sarcasm)