Shadow

2

"I hate you."

Teval can barely be heard over Alynna, who cackles so loudly that she's having a difficult time breathing. "Sky and spirits, my stomach hurts," she manages as she wipes tears from her face from where she sits on Teval's bed with Jaes, holding Teval's shadow assignment.

But Jaes gets a hold of himself faster than her. "You know, it is at least a little funny."

All Teval wanted to do was try to enjoy a cup of tea with his teammates, hoping they would console him for his bad luck, but now it's just bitter. "Thanks."

"Hey, I mean, you had this coming for what you did. And look at all your history with this guy," Alynna points out.

"What do you mean history?" Teval frowns.

"Did something happen?" Jaes asks, looking between them.

"Wait, have I never told you that Tev had a crush on Lexton when they met?" Alynna asks as Teval takes a sip and breathes in his tea, coughing it up into his trash bin.

Jaes gasps, his brown eyes wide as he turns to Teval. "No. I thought you hated him."

"Had—She said had!" Teval chokes out.

Alynna raises an eyebrow as Jaes bites his lip, trying to hide a smile but failing. Teval immediately regrets his response and puts his cup down before letting his forehead thump onto the desktop, covering his head with his arms. Why did he think this was a good idea?

She turns to Jaes. "You started with us like a year and a half ago, so I guess I'm not surprised you never heard about this. But back about five years ago, they sent us out to train with one of the supervisors on how to do capture missions for the Corps," Alynna explains. "We were all put in different spots in this area just east of Northcenter district. I was at the corner of a store, and Teval was stationed outside this bakery down the street from me. This other kid who wasn't from the academy was hanging around the whole time, too, and Teval started playing a strategy game with him that the bakery had outside in their seating area."

Teval groans and wants to crawl under the floorboards and expire. He hasn't thought about that day for years. Of course she would bring that back up after this whole incident.

"Anyway, I get distracted by a woman asking for directions, and while I wasn't looking, apparently the bounty walked by, and the other kid, who ended up being Lexton, jumped up and went after him while Teval was focused on the game they were playing."

"So I guess you felt silly for not seeing the bounty," Jaes replies.

"Well, I definitely saw Lexton and his team get the bounty, and they were new at the time, so it really stung. The supervisor scolded all of us on the street for letting a bunch of other kids catch a bounty, and Teval got the worst of it since the guy walked right by him."

Teval stays silent. He's not mad about the incident anymore; Lexton did the right thing. It wasn't his fault that the academy had trainees out looking for the same bounty.

"Oh, yeah I got some of that when I was trained as well," Jaes tells her.

"Afterward at the dorm, this idiot here started gushing at me about this Lexton kid who was a year younger than him and how they were the same height, and he was quiet but cute with a smile to die for, and he was really smart, and he lived down on the south end of Kastil, and on and on."

Teval sits up to glare at her as Jaes giggles uncontrollably. "He was nice and I wanted to be friends with him! And I was embarrassed he saw me getting yelled at." He rubs his face and sighs. "I just... back then I was always hoping to find another kid who was from the islands like me because they're usually farther south. Turns out his mom is from the tribes southwest of here instead."