𝑯𝒆𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒉 | ᴹᴰᴳᶜ

16: Rumor Has It

"I'm glad you still love me." Logan told me as we cuddled on the couch at my house watching TV.

"I'll always love you." I replied. Then I heard the front door open expecting Shawn or Dad, but it was..Jace?

"Wow, Delilah! I love you, and you're in love with another guy!" Jace yelled, standing in the living room threshold. "Who are you?" Logan questioned, looking at Jace and then back at me. "Delilah's boyfriend! Who are you?" "No, I think you have that wrong! I'M Delilah's boyfriend!" Logan and I stood up. "Lilah, what's happening?" Logan asked, turning to me. "It's not what it sounds like!" I turned to Jace. "How are you even here!?" "My dad drove me! How else!?" Logan got defensive.

"Don't talk to her like that!" "Don't talk to me like that!" "Don't tell me how to talk, rich boy!" "Right back at you!"

Logan and Jace began arguing, and I began to panic. I fell to the floor, having a hard time breathing.

I woke up in a panic. I sat up and looked around. I saw Sofi still sleeping. I looked down and saw Maya still sleeping as well. I looked at the clock, and it was 4:59AM. I laid back down when a loud horn filled all of EPIC. I sat up again and saw Sofi put a pillow over her head and heard Maya groan and rustle with her blanket. I climbed down the ladder. I didn't want to be awake, but I didn't want to go back to sleep after that weird dream. Maya saw me.

"How are you awake? Go back to bed, Delilah." She said, putting her face into her pillow.

"I can't." I heard someone knock on the door. It was Alex. I heard her voice.

They wanted us to wear clothes that were EPIC colors. It felt like a uniform. I had on black shorts that went down to the middle of my thighs, a grey shirt that said EPIC, and the black jacket I wore yesterday. We all met up in the hallway.

"Alright, guys! Crack of dawn! Hitting it hard! Isn't this exciting?" Evan said as we walked down the hallway.

"Yeah! Totally! Uh. Quick question. Who's shirt am I wearing?" Nick asked. "You know this place has trained like 20 guys who are in the NHL right now?" Evan spoke, Maya chimed in,"And 3 woman on team USA! I would slay in the Olympic Village! How hot are bobsledders?" We walked into the lounge and met Ms. Morrow. She told us to check our emails for the schedule.

"We are not going with each other?" Sofi asked. Alex shook her head. "At least we have ice drills together." I said.

"Well, like Coach Cole said. You're no longer a team. You're just a group of kids trying to beat each other, maybe hurt each other, but also have fun!" Alex said as we walked to this table. The lady I didn't like greeted us.

"Oh, there they are! The kids I invited by mistake! I certainly did not get an earful about that!" I got mad. "Oh, I'll give you an earful." I mumbled to myself. I think Maya heard me because she grabbed my arm the same way she did yesterday. She handed Sam a wristband thing.

"What are these?" Sam asked, taking it.

"These are performance bands! They track all kinds of things, like active minutes, muscle mass, agility algorithms. Hand-eye coordination. We track that, too. Anyway, all this information goes into the system, and we develop what we call "real-time player rankings." and it all goes up there right on the big board. Pretty cool, right?" Cole said. I saw people moving up and down the board.

"So I'm my own avatar. I'm listening." Koob said, putting on his band. I did the same. "The first half of the summer is all about individual training. Okay? Then your rankings will lock, then the coaches will draft teams for tournament play. Whoever wins that tournament will play in the summer showcase. Against our bitter rivals. Canada." I smiled to myself. Logan's from Canada. Toronto, to be specific. He loved telling me what it was like. He made it sound so beautiful and nice. I would love to go someday. "The one with all the scouts?" Evan asked. "Yeah. We got a big day! Let's go!" Cole clapped his hands. We all walked away.