Recruitment

Chapter Three

We had made our way to the place he pointed to and we stood across from each other, making direct eye contact.

"Well Astrid, we really don't have a lot of time.. about.." Jack looked at his watch. "and hour and a half."

WHAT. I CANNOT DO THIS. 

That's all I could think to myself. No, no, I can.. I just have to believe, right? Yeah, I can do it..

"Erm, Alright." I said quietly, I was definitely nervous. 

"Show me what ya got, kid." Jack looked at me and grinned. 

"I.. I don't know if I can. I'll be okay at the fight, let's just save my skill, sound good?" I said, fidgeting with my fingers behind my back.

Jack looked at me for a second with confusion in his eyes.

"Alright. Fair enough. Just remember to always go for one your size. Also always count how many they have in their gang, they usually out number us, easily. Don't go for more than one at a time at your level. You're tiny and we don't want you getting hurt. Don't pull out your weapons either, we play fair." Jack said sternly. 

I'm not that tiny! I thought to myself. 

"Got it! Thanks Jack, I appreciate it." I said and smiled as Jack slightly smiled back.

"Well we shouldn't keep the others waiting, we all need to stay together." Jack looked back at his watched than looked at me as we trotted along.

When we finally met up with the others we had about an hour until the fight and boy was I scared. Thinking back, I might of said I'm at least okay at fighting but no, now thinking I'm definitely not a fighter. It had took me until right now of this moment to realize I have zero skill in fighting, none. I guess the realization finally kicked in. 

"Heyyy Astrid!" Grayson got up and grinned as he walked towards me.

"Hey." I said with looking down at my feet.

"What's wrong?" Grayson asked with a concerned tone of voice.

"Oh, uh. It's nothing. I'm okay, just a tiny bit nervous, that's all." I gave him a soft smile.

"You know, Astrid. If you don't wanna, you don't gotta fight, you just joined the gang today." Gab expressed.  

I looked at him for which was probably about 30 seconds and shook my head.

"No, no. It's okay, I want to fight, I'll be okay just saving my strength for the fight tonight." 

I gave him a reassuring smile has he nodded, Grayson had sat back down as I sat next to him.

"Well, I have a deck of cards we can play with to pass time. Do you guys want to play Crazy 8's?" Asked by Arlo. 

"Yeah sure, I'm down" Wyatt said as he sat down on a log.

The rest of us agreed and Arlo started dealing out us eight cards each. I was given quite okay cards, I've had better to be honest.

Games passed.. Time passed..  

I placed down my final card which was the six of hearts on top of the six of diamonds which was the card Arlo had just placed. 

"I win!" I shouted as I shot up with excitement. I finally won after 4 games, took long enough.

Everyone laughed a little bit.

"Good job Astrid." Gab said as he giggled.

"Oh shit. We're gonna be late, c'mon guys. We got to go!" Jack checked his watch for the time and shot up from where he was sitting quickly.