Set 8 Volleyball

4 - Dismantling

The early morning sun was an unwelcome surprise, it was far too cold to make sense. Milena shielded her eyes as they walked, glancing into the Art room to see Oscar and Carley asleep under a desk, and not having enough time to make out anyone else. Jack forced his hands into his coat pockets and shuddered. Jasmine’s peripheral vision allowed her to see only one other person awake; Freddie Barnes was in the Engineering room tidying up. When he saw the Guys his face paled and he quickly scurried into another corner of the room. Milena and Jasmine exchanged concerned glances and paced after Jack around the corner. Their breath made tiny clouds in the cold air as they hurried to keep close together. 

“This is getting so boring.” Jamie muttered under his breath. The Wankers had spaced themselves out around the MUGA, too startled to sleep. Issy pressed herself against the wall, fiddling with a strand of her hair. She was barely concerned about what she had seen; as far as she could agree, she believed it was deserved. Her mind wandered to Leni and Tom often, though, Growing up with Leni, the overconfident and bratty little shit who kept everyone on their toes, Issy couldn’t understand why Leni would express such anxiety about someone like Tom. In all honesty, she couldn’t care less about it anyway. Issy turned her head to Jae, who was drinking out of a water bottle that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a while.
“That’s disgusting Jae.”
“Yeah, I figured.” Jae set the bottle aside and returned Issy’s eye contact. “I can’t really be arsed to clean it though. So I haven’t.” 
Issy rolled her eyes and reached for the bottle. Cleo turned to face the pair of them, grimacing at the bottle in Issy’s hand.
“I’m cleaning it, don’t worry.” Issy stood up clumsily, holding her free hand out to Cleo. After they had both struggled to stand up, they nodded to Tom and left the MUGA in no time at all. 

Billie stepped out of the Sports cupboard, cursing the wind for making it so hard to light up her cigarette. She kept her hand firmly over her mouth, uttering a “fuck” at the spark flying out of her lighter and into her skin.
“You okay?” Brooke asked from inside. Billie sighed, “Yeah.”
She attempted once more to light the paper, relieved when it started to burn. She took a drag and slumped against the door to the cupboard.
“Billie?”
She looked up to see Jasmine peering around the corner. “Billie, is Onyx with you?”
“She’s sleeping in there.” Billie gestured to the cupboard. Milena and Jack presented themselves too - until they stood before Issy and Cleo at the water fountain. 
“What the fuck are you doing here?!” Cleo spat. “Gonna go kill someone else?!”
“We’re looking for our mate, not that it’s your business.” Jack retorted bitterly. Issy rolled her eyes and pulled Cleo back to the water fountain so they could get on with what they came for and ignore the others. Billie coughed and pulled her cigarette from her mouth, “What’s her problem again?” Milena shrugged, brushing past Billie to open the Sports cupboard. There Onyx was, asleep and peaceful.
“How long has she been asleep for?” Milena asked, quietly careful not to wake the sleeping Onyx up.
“Dunno - probably since what happened with Rhys. She might have wanted to sleep it off.” Brooke sighed without a sense of care in her voice. Onyx suddenly began to move around uncomfortably - slowly lifting themself up while stretching their body out.
“What’s… going on? Milena? Jasmine?” Onyx loudly yawned. “Was it… just a dream?” Milena, Jasmine and Jack all silently looked at each other; Onyx received the impression that this wasn’t all a dream in fact. “So, he’s dead? I actually killed him.”
“Dude, not to sound like an arsehole, but Rhys is probably the least of our problems right now.” Jasmine began, sitting beside Onyx alongside Jack and Milena. Billie and Brooke were still standing in the freezing cold, listening in. “The whole school’s practically at war and everyone’s fighting each other. Who knows who’s gonna start on us soon.” 
“Shall we go back to the media room? You might wanna see Luke, Onyx!” Jack brightly said. As soon as he heard Luke’s name, Onyx’s eyes lit up and a small grin drew across their face. The four took Onyx’s answer as a ‘yes’ and they all hopped onto their feet (although Jack and Milena didn’t really need to due to their longness) and began making their way to AWE05.
“Billie? Brooke? Are you coming?” Milena enquired.
“Nah, I’ll stay here with Billie.” Brooke spoke for Billie-Jo, who made no rebuttal to the answer.
“Are you sure? It’s freezing!” Jack shivered, his chin quivering like a leaf being pattered with rain.
“You said Luke’ll be there, right?”
“Well, yes?”
“Yeah, me and Billie are gonna stay here.” Brooke looked away from Jack and folded her arms, her facial expression becoming even more miserable than usual.
“Okay, well we’re gonna go because I’m actually going to freeze to death.” Jasmine exaggerated as she pulled Jack’s sleeve and dragged him along with her.