Friday Barnes one shots

The IYA games (pt 1)

Friday was in a bad mood. There was no other way to put it. Today was against her in every way possible.

Her morning went as such: She had rolled out on the wrong side of the bed, literally, and landed on the floor, smacking her head on the corner of the night table. Then breakfast had been a disaster as she was in line behind Ian Wainscott who had heard her stomach growl and taken the last of the waffles just to keep her hungry. Mr McLean had called her out on being wrong for the first time ever and a fifth former had opened a door in her face, giving her a nosebleed.

She spent the rest of the day in Sick Bay, missing a surprise assembly, until she was let downstairs for dinner.

She was ready to murder someone if they so much as looked at her the wrong way. She may be a detective, but right now, she wasn't above trash talk and violence.

She found Melanie sitting at their usual table in the corner, chewing slowly on the Kidney Pie. The chatter was louder than normal and the room seemed to be more crowded. She took her seat, ignoring the bad feeling rising in her chest.

Melanie gave her a forced smile. "All the pie is gone."
"Okay," said Friday dryly
"Sorry you've gone without food all day. I saved you some lunch though!" Melanie added, reaching into her bag and pulling out an apple and a sandwich wrapped in a serviette.

Friday smiled taking a bite out of the sandwich, her mood rising a little as the Headmaster took to the front of the room.

"Settle down please." He said.

The chatter continued as if he wasn't there

"Quiet now. Quiet. SILENCE!"

Everyone went quiet.

" Good. Now, I'm sure you've noticed that there are four other schools here in the hall with us. Highcrest welcomes the year 8 classes of Gorge Stanley College,"

The Gorge Stanley students cheered and clapped.

"St Sebastians,"

They too clapped, but more politely.

"Dicksons middle school,"

These kids waved silently.

"And our old friend and long time academic rival, St Rajahs."

The table housing St Rajahs erupted into screams and cheers, boys whooping and girls yelling.

"Yes, yes, that's enough." The Headmaster snapped. "Now, as I said in our assembly this morning, we are glad to host this year's International Young Academic games! Or the IYA."

Every student in the hall clapped. Friday frowned. Maybe she should have been at that assembly. Someone came and sat down next to her. She say blonde hair out of the corner of her peripheral vision and groaned.

"I'm hurt you don't want to see me, Barnes" Ian whispered.

Friday ignored him, intrigued by the IYA.

The Headmaster continued. "As you already know, the IYA is a series of four games that take place over the corse of a week to test the ability of the chosen champions for each participating school. The players this year will be read out shortly. They have been chosen at random by computer and there will be no backing out. This year, the four games consist of, paintball, to test your strategic abilities, capture the flag, to test your physical strength, a scavenger hunt, to test your observing skills, and a twisted version of an escape room to test your thinking abilities."

The buzzing of excitement from the students was incredible. Clearly this was something that the school looked forward to.

"Now," said the Headmaster as he was handed a piece of paper, "the players for this year's games."