Skaters 101 (but without the skating)

extra 2: a watergun fight

"Everyone gather round!" Mr Plushenko rang the bell.

The students sat down at the grass. Dusk had almost settled over the plain, the next game about to begin.

"This game is called War. Aim of the game is simple, to kill everyone not in your team. Last team standing wins." He set down a huge box filled to the brim with water-guns of all assortments. "If you get drenched by water, you're dead. Splats of water no bigger than the size of one's thumb don't count. We've got cameras all over the forest to monitor action, so the moderators of the game will determine whether you're out of not. Friendly fire can also kill."

"Did you hear that? No shooting at me for fun, ok Shoma?" Yuzuru whispered to his unofficial son.

"Now. The teams." Mr. Plushenko brought out a box filled with slips of paper. "We will let fate decide."

Whispers of fear circulated the group, fear that friends, close friends, specifically, mothers and son/daughters would be seperated.

"The leaders of Team 1 and Team 2." Mr Plushenko randomly drew two names out of the box.

"Yulia for Team 1, Patrick for Team 2."

Yulia got up stoically from her seat, and went to stand at Mr. Plushenko's right, while Patrick, waving and nodding to his imaginary fans, sauntered over to Mr. Plushenko's left.

"Now. The members." Mr Plushenko started to draw names out of the box at an incredible speed.

"Nam. Team 1."

"Mao. Team 2."

As the names went on, the students called walked to join the line forming behind their team leaders. Yulia scowled when she heard that Boyang was to join Team 1, and her scowl deepened when Nathan was also assigned to her team, not having a very good memory of her two classmates from the night before, however, she cheered up considerably when her ward got up and joined her line of teammates. As long as she could protect her child, she was content.

Yuzuru, on the other hand, wasn't as fortunate. As soon as Shoma had been taken away from him, to join his opposing team, he had let out a groan of disappointment. Running to Mr. Plushenko, he begged to be allowed to switch teams.

"Nope, the teams stands." Was Mr. Plushenko's apathetic reply.

Maia and Alex high fived as they passed each other in line, to join the same team, and so did Yang and Cheng. Yuzuru sighed. Such good friends were they, that Fate couldn't bear to part them, but as for him... it wasn't meant to be.

Suppose his friendship with Shoma wasn't as strong as he thought it was. Maybe they were not friends at all. Doubts and worries filled Yuzuru's mind.

From where she sat, Satoko could literally feel the glumness radiating off Yuzuru's exterior. Getting in line behind him, she plucked up her courage and gave him an empathetic pat on the back.

Yulia shot a consoling look over to her opponent and fellow mother, conveying a message in which she promised to take care of Shoma like her own son. Only in that did Yuzuru find solace in.

"Now that the teams are sorted, are there any questions?" Mr. Plushenko asked, gazing at each team respectively.

Patrick raised his hand. "Are we allowed to use phones to communicate with our teammates?"

"Yes." Mr. Plushenko nodded his head.

Not even before he finished saying the word, Patrick had long ago whipped out his phone and started a group chat, like he did whenever he heard news that he just had to share.