Game On (An oc x DRV2 au)

Chapter Eighteen

I wake up to the sound of voices outside. As I open my eyes, I'm blinded by the sunlight blasting through my window. Okay. I think that there's a chance it's morning. Seconds later, I hear the ding dong, bing bong of the morning announcement. Yup. Definitely morning.

I throw on some clothes and run outside to see Stolas, Caim, and Will standing by a tree at the front of the rows of cottages.

"Doesn't look like it was hit by lightning or anything. In fact, it's severed pretty cleanly," Caim says.

I then notice that he's actually in the tree, getting a closer look at where it looks like a large branch was cleanly severed off. Said tree branch sits on the ground right below it.

"Is that what made so much noise last night?" I ask as I join in the conversation.

Will raises an eyebrow. "That's the funny thing. I didn't hear it."

"Really? It was pretty damn loud," I insist.

Will points to one of the furthest cottages from our position. "I was sleeping all the way over there. There's no waking me once I'm out for the night, either."

"Yeah, I'm pretty far down, too," Caim agrees.

"Well, whoever's right here must've really heard it," I remark, gesturing to the cottages closest to us.

"I'm sure we'll hear a lot about it at breakfast, then," Will grunts.

We do, in fact, hear lots of conversation about the branch.

"I thought I'd imagined it," I hear Azrael saying to Zeben and Iris. "You guys really heard it too?"

"It was kind of hard not to," Zeben chuckles. "But I figured it could wait 'til morning. Once I'm up, I can't fall back to sleep, so I wasn't gonna take that risk."

"I'm the second-closest row to the tree where it happened," Iris grimaces.

"No one else was near the tree where it happened?" Zeben jokes.

Iris buries his face in his hands. Azrael is visibly conflicted as to whether or not he should laugh.

"Are y'all being theater kids without me?" Dana teases as she emerges from the kitchen, handing Azrael a cup before telling him, "Two shots of espresso, 'cause you need it, kid."

"I get that a lot. Do the bags under my eyes make it obvious?" Azrael takes a long sip of coffee.

"You look like you've never stood within a five-yard radius of a pillow in your entire life," I chime in.

The poet gives me a look. "Thanks a lot, Sophie."

"Oh, Sophie, perfect timing!" As soon as Dana realizes I'm here, she rushes into the kitchen and returns with a warm mug.

"Chamomile tea," she says as I take a sip. "I honestly wasn't quite sure this morning. My psychic abilities are a little wonky today."

"It still tastes delicious," I insist. It really does.

"Probably not as good as the shaved ice," Zeben remarks.

I process his words for a minute before turning to Dana. "When??"

Dana smiles guiltily. "The day you guys were off exploring the second island, I was kind of hot so I made homemade shaved ice. Zeben helped, so we just went down to the beach and ate shaved ice."

"And you never said anything about this why?" I exclaim. Not only did I miss an opportunity for shaved ice, but also the chance to go down to the beach and hang out with a beautiful woman? Is Zeben into Dana?? Did I miss my chance???