Bookview Valley 4

Chapter Six: Let the Games Begin

June 15th, Saturday

No one would have expected it, but the morning began with the loudest siren I've ever heard in my entire life. It was loud, high pitched, and headache inducing. With a scream and a thump, I sit up in my bed. My eyes trail over to find Brianna sitting on the floor beside her bunk, looking dazed. Harper snickers at her from the top of the bunk.

"No one told me we were in military camp," Brianna wails, "That should be in the pamphlets!"

"Good morning, sleepy heads," Gwen strolls into the room, a cup of coffee in her hand.

"How long have you been up?" Harper asks.

"And what time is it?" Brianna pipes in, finally getting up off the floor.

"Since like five am, and it is currently seven thirty." Gwen trails back out of the room, leaving us to our confusion.

"Five am?" Harper mouths quietly to herself.

"Early bird gets the worm," I shrug.

"But the late worm get to live another day," A girl says from her bunk near the front of the room. The girl in the bed above her just groans.

"I want to be the late worm," Bri frowns.

"I'm sure we'll get used to it," The girl says, pulling her light, brown hair into a pony tail, "I'm Rachel, by the way," More groans from the top bunk, "and that's Lilyth."

The name sends a spark of dread through me, "Did you say Lilyth?"

"Yeah," Rachel nods, "My girlfriend. We're from Grayton Springs."

"I'm Lilyth," The girl finally sits up in her bunk, her black hair trails over her shoulders. Her blue eyes find me and she gives me a half smile, "You must be Morgan Brooks. I've heard a lot about you."

The dread in my stomach grows, "You have?"

"Yeah, in the newspapers," Lilyth climbs down from her bunk, "Don't worry, I'm not the Lilyth from the cult."

"I definitely wasn't-" She cuts me off.

"You definitely were," Lilyth laughs, "I may be dark, but I'm not that dark."

Rachel gives her a look with her soft, brown eyes, "Don't lie to them."

"I may be that dark, but I am no demon queen," Lilyth snorts, "It's nice to meet you, anyway. You're kind of a legend, surviving four serial killers. Wow."

"Uh, thanks?"

"Don't mention it," Lilyth stalks off to the bathroom, Rachel following behind her.

"Weird," Harper mutters, brushing out her short, black hair with her fingers.

"Very," Brianna yawns as she begins to choose her outfit for the day; something pink and stretchy.

. . . . .

Grabbing a tray of whatever breakfast is, I'm not entirely sure and don't want to guess, I make my way to the table where most of my friends currently sit. Nick smiles at me as I sit next to him. Flynn's talking away to Sebastien, who's just staring at him with some lovesick look. Bri and Harper are still off getting food, and Ben is quietly poking at his food.

"It's way too early," I say.

"You're telling me," Nick sighs in agreement, eyeing his...breakfast.

"I'm actually okay now that I've woken up," Bri says, taking a seat at the table.

"Sure you are," Harper rolls her eyes, "You forgot silverware."

"Fu-" Bri rushes away from the table causing us to all burst into laughter.

"I hope today isn't too exhausting," Flynn says once our laughter has calmed down.

"My body is already sore," Sebastien agrees.

"That's only because you misheard the directions yesterday."

"I did not."

"You definitely did."

I tune them out and turn to Nick. He's staring at me, his smile still on his face. Why is he staring at me? Do I have something on my face? He notices me staring at his staring and instantly looks at his food.

"Everyone!" We all glance up at Director Lockewood, "After you've eaten, please make your way to the bonfire! The games will begin soon!"

. . . . .

The first game is capture the flag; very exciting. Can you hear my sarcasm? I'm not very sporty and I hate running. We are so going to lose. Luckily, however, it's not group against group. We've been split up three groups against the other three groups. It's my group, the Outstanding Octopus group, and the Slithering Snakes. Which means, we've got Flynn, Sebastien, and that one girl Rachel with us. Which also means, we're against Nick, Bri, and Harper; also Lilyth.

"We are so going to win," Brianna grins at me.

"You're going down!" Nick exclaims giving me a warm smile.

"What they said," Harper rolls her eyes.

"You've got it all wrong!" Flynn chimes in, "We are the best!"

"This is going to be very chaotic," Ben mutters behind me.

"Everyone to your sides!" Director Lockewood calls out with a megaphone. We all race to our opposing sides, "You'll have five minutes to come up with a plan and hide your flag. The flags must be hidden in their corresponding sides! Begin!"

"Alright, where should the flag go?" Paige begins the process.

"There are no bad ideas," Mari smiles at all of us, they seem to not really care, or they really believe in their group.

"Come on guys, we only have five minutes!" James exclaims, eyeing the members of his own group.

After a few seconds we finally have a plan and a hiding spot for our flag. I'm not ashamed to say that I didn't really tribute towards any of that. However, I end up having to guard the flag with four other people, one being Stacy and not Ben.

"Are we sure she can defend our flag?" Stacy asks, her eyes trailing over me with disgust, "She might just kill us all when you guys run off." She's not actually talking to anyone specific, she's mostly saying all that to rile me up. I try to ignore her.

"What do you mean by that?" Rachel asks, striding over to us, as she's supposed to guard the flag too.

"You haven't heard?" Stacy's lips quirk up into something vile.

"No, I've heard," Rachel gives Stacy a look I'd never want to be on the other side of, "I'm just wondering what you're getting at? Are you trying to propose that Morgan would try to kill us because of her brother?"

"That's precisely what I'm saying," Stacy crosses her arms, a frown forming on her face.

"Well, that would be quite rude, including the fact that Morgan isn't her brother."

"But they were siblings. She coul-" Rachel cuts her off.

"We don't need this kind of pessimism from a teammate. If you're going to be like this you can go join the offense."

Stacy's mouth gapes open, "You can't tell me what to do."

"I just did, scram," Rachel glares at Stacy until she walks away and out of the woods.

"She's definitely going to tell the other team where we are," I say once she's gone.

"Most definitely," Rachel nods, "and we'll be ready for them."

Smiling, I say, "Thanks."

"Anytime."