Sam & Penny Short-Stories *English*

CALL OF THE WILD - Team building measure

"What is Boyce doing here?" Elvis wondered aloud while the whole team was busy washing the vehicles in the hall. "They've been talking in Steele's office for over an hour."

"I guess Boyce has had another one of his brilliant ideas that will get us another visit from Nurse Flood," murmured Ellie embarrassed, who still hadn't forgiven him for his Fitness training session.

"It certainly won't be that bad this time. He learned from it back then," Sam objected with a smile.

"It's easy for you to say it. You didn't have the pain that we had to go through," Arnold said to him and Ellie immediately agreed with him.

"I had to put up with your whining for the rest of the week. That hurt me too," he replied teasingly and promptly had a wet sponge on his face.

"You'll be sorry, Pen!" he replied to her in a threatening voice, which took away the seriousness of his nasty grin as he dipped the sponge in his hand into his bucket before running to the loud cheers of the others after her, because she had long since fled.

While Sam chased Penny across the hall, repeatedly throwing the sponge at her, which she cleverly dodged, and picking it up again to continue chasing her, Helen and Lizzie entered the hall.

"What's going on here?" she turned to Ellie, who immediately stopped her cheering tirade for the nurse.

"Let's say that Penny has let the sponge slip a little and Sam is now looking for revenge."

"The two of them are running around here like children," Lizzie said, confused. She had never heard of either of them fooling around and laughing so freely, and it confused her immensely.

"Believe me, they're always like that when they're both in this mode," Helen objected, bored.

"What kind of mode is this supposed to be? Kindergarten?"

"In love," Helen and Ellie replied at the same time and grinned at each other.

"Oh...Oooohhhhh. What? Really? The two of them?!"

"Lizzie?! Really?" Even Hannah saw that. You should definitely interact more with people than with animals. You live completely behind the hill," Helen teased her.

"Everyone has checked, except these two. You should see how sad they both look when they each go home alone in the evening."

"Oh Ellie, now you're exaggerating," laughed Helen.

"Maybe a little bit," she replied, before two more newcomers caught her eye. "What are you actually doing here?"

"Steele ordered us here. I have no idea what we're doing here, but he'll definitely tell us straight away," Helen explained, pointing to the door to the wing with the offices and social rooms from which Boyce and Steele had just emerged. Promptly at that moment, Sam threw his sponge again. However, Penny had spotted the two older men soon enough and decided to cut a hook between Jupiter and Venus back to the team when a smacking clap made her stop. Everyone turned in shock to Sam, who stood frozen, biting his teeth in embarrassment.

"Fireman Sam!" Steele shouted admonishingly and Sam winced while Boyce snorted and held the sponge away from him with two fingers in disgust. Arnold quickly ran to get a towel.

"Well at least it's not me again," Elvis chuckled quietly, infecting those around him.

"Please excuse me, sir. We just...I mean...Well, I..."

"Sam wanted to keep us on our toes, sir, so we wouldn't get rusty. That way the incentive to be fast was obviously greater," Penny immediately jumped to his side as she took the sponge from Boyce with a sheepish smile and caught a grateful look from Sam when Arnold came back with the towel.