Close to the Covert Rains **Book One**

Chapter 6 (Saturday)

"Ana!"

Ana's eyes shot open.

"Ana!" Dryda called again.

Propping her head up on her arm and yawning, Ana croakily replied, "Wha?"

"Niko's here."

She rolled out of bed, rubbing her eyes. What on earth was Niko doing here? She lurched blearily to the hall. "Why's Niko--" Oh. Right. For Monday night's activity.

Last night, everyone in the sixth grade had crowded into the small common room of the dorm building, watching the district TV channel where the principal of Storm district had announced Monday's activity--capture the flag.

Predictably, the principal announced the competition as grade-versus-grade, tournament style. In other words, sixth grade would have to go up against eleventh grade first. Well, "first" if they didn't get eliminated--highly unlikely--and "only" if they probably did.

Yet they'd all started planning anyway, excitement charging the air. All of last year, they'd been pummeled by twelfth graders in nearly every tournament, so this year, against eleventh graders, their odds had improved tremendously.

Improved from negative-hundred-percent-chance-and-never-in-a-million-years to somewhere-around-zero-percent-chance, but still.

Tara and Tamy put themselves in charge, and they'd grouped everyone in teams of four, each with their own job during the game. Ana, Dryda, Bella, and Niko were one of two teams in charge of scouting out enemy territory and attempting to find the flag, while another team was supposed to wait to charge in and grab it. The final two teams were on defense.

Ana wasn't sure if she liked the strategy, but also wasn't sure if she liked the logic of twelve-year-olds playing competitive capture the flag against seventeen-year-olds.

She shook her head, leaning against her door frame. She yawned again. Niko stood in their hallway beside Dryda, who held the door open, peering expectantly outside. Nearby footsteps stuttered to a halt, then Bella squished into their entryway. "Hey guys," she huffed. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Ana grumbled, shuffling to the living room and sinking to the couch. The others sat around her.

"So," Bella said, still panting. She must have sprinted here from her dorm. Or run laps outside before coming here. "Ready to discuss strategy?"

Niko snorted. "Only because Tamy and Tara told us to, and if we don't do it they'll beat us up."

"I guess," Dryda fidgeted with her hands in her lap. "How are we going to find the flag?"

"Well," Ana muttered, "how are we s'posed to answer that when there's no flag to find? That's like asking what I'm going to eat for breakfast when I don't know what my options are," her stomach growled.

Dryda carefully nodded. "That makes sense. We don't even know what the arena will look like. It could be full of sand, or a large lake. If it's not a forest, I'll be practically useless at blending in."

Niko nodded too. "But we could at least make up some scenario. If only to say we tried."

"Fine," Bella folded her arms, "but let's make this quick. As Ana's stomach suggested, I wanna go eat."

Ana tried to hide her blush.

"Okay," Niko's eyes lit up, "I know we don't like this...but let's just say it's an alpine forest. So, pine trees, maybe snow. Could you blend into that Dryda?"

She shifted her skin. It became woody, and a few leaves poked out. They tried to recede, and she grimaced visibly. "I can try," she shifted back. "I'm only one kind of tree, but I can try and hide my leaves."

Niko nodded. "And Bella, you can shrink down so the enemy can't see you. Ana's illusion will have to hide both of us, but my telescoping vision will be a big advantage."

"If," Bella countered, "you can see through the trees. Didn't you just say this was a pine forest?"

He hesitated. "Okay, yeah...maybe I can climb a tree and scout from there."

Ana frowned. "Does anyone know if the rules to eliminate other players have changed?"

Bella and Niko looked over at her. "Um, why would they have?" Bella knit her eyebrows together. "It's still just, you get so deadish that the healers have to come save you."

"You can also tap out," Dryda said, "like they do in jiu jitsu."

Bella gave her a withering stare. "Only wusses do that."

Ana rolled her eyes. "Yeah, wusses who don't want to practically die before admitting they've lost a game," she wrinkled her nose. "Who actually thought that almost dying was a good rule?"

Bella turned her glare to Ana, but fell silent.

"Anyway," Ana leaned back in her seat, "I was asking in case glaring them to near-death was a new option. Then we could all form a line and stare at them."

"Uh," Bella said.

"Do you need more sleep?" Dryda whispered.

"So..." Niko said, "I was about to say that if I can see through the terrain or whatever, I'll probably have the best chance of spotting the flag."

Ana stuck her tongue out.

Bella glared at him, in perfect imitation of Ana's death-stare plan. "You're saying we're supposed to be your little guardian angels while you find the flag all on your own?"

Niko hesitated, "No...but you do have to admit, I can see--"

"Good for you," Ana cut in, "but I think no matter how good your vision is, four pairs of eyes are better than one."

"I agree," Dryda said softly. "Why don't we just work together as a team?"

Niko leaned back into the couch. "Fine," he said, "but--"

Bella stood, jostling the couch. "Lovely conclusion, everyone. Working as a team," she stretched her arms overhead and yawned. "Adios amigos, I'm off to get some breakfast," she marched towards the door, and Ana jumped up to follow.