Spectator

Chapter Twenty: Then

It was a few weeks later that the pranks really started to take off. Now, pretty much everyone had been teamed with everyone else. Gasquet had been her leader once, and though he was pushy and obnoxious, he didn't have the same disdain for her that Zakariah or Nari did. They'd redone the invasion exercise two more times, until everyone had played both sides. They hadn't been exactly similar; once had been on a reimagining of the United Planets' now furthest colony, Ceres. That had been challenging as the invaders, manoeuvring through the asteroid field, and they had had a fair few casualties before they'd made it anywhere near the underground colony. Still, they'd had the numbers and the automatons, and enough advanced fire that they'd triumphed. In fact, every exercise had the invaders being victorious, which had certainly made Kali feel better about her one defence. They'd survived the second most minutes—or least, depending how you looked at it.

Still, it begged the question as to what it was all for. They'd had limited intel of the battle of Io, and yet they were simulating advanced technology that the students could barely use, let alone fight against. But whether or not the faculty was disappointed in the results, Kali stayed around 30, even when they fell to a class of 62, from another drop-out, and then 61. That one had been from cutting, a student named Daniel who had been consistently in the high 50s and low 60s for the last three months. It meant they had broken into uneven groups, five of eight and two of seven.

Kali didn't mind very much being in the group of seven for this week, because it was led by Ainsley and Jae. It would be a good Game that week, Kali was sure. Even the rest of the group was decent, no-one she particularly didn't get along with. Revlon hung around Lan, but that was fine with Kali—she had Ainsley, and absolutely no jealousy whatsoever.

The issue was the shenanigans.

They started off harmless enough. Alarms and lights were disabled so that an entire platoon was late for their classes. It had been Gasquet's team, who had been furious towards the point demerits - but if Kali had suspected Zakariah, the next day it was his team that was the victims. Precautions had been taken, countermeasures - and then it was the showers. They would suddenly douse the unfortunate occupant in frigidly cold water. There was so little discrimination in who could be targeted—even Ainsley had found her BioVin dunked with cinnamon so strong it had become inedible - that no-one was really sure who was behind it. Of course, that made Jae all the more curious.

"Someone quiet," he mused. "Maybe they started out alone but they aren't now. And they're smart enough to know they can't be exempt either - I bet they were included in one of the earlier pranks, just to throw off suspicion."

"I need a new bowl of BioVin," Ainsley blanched, and quickly rose from the cafeteria table. Students were sitting mostly in their squads today, and more than a few were shooting suspicious looks at each other. No disciplinary action had been taken either, Kali presumed since no faculty had been victims, and the destruction to government property had been almost negligible. So far. It was almost as if the Academy was telling them it was their job to fix it and figure it out. Part of Kali wondered if there even was a student behind all these escapades, or the staff just wanted them to think there was. For all she knew, this was just another test.

"Don't forget mischievous and careful," Revlon laughed from Lan's other side. "If I had to guess, I'd pick you. You fit all of the requirements, and no-one would suspect you."

Kali would be more apt to agree with her if not for the way she was grabbing onto Jae''s arm and playfully slapping his shoulder. She looked down into her bowl, taking a small bite. No cinnamon. Just mild, healthy, uninteresting BioVin. She usually didn't like the programmed flavours, but perhaps it was time to make an exception.

"And what do you think, Kali?" Now Jae was turning to her with that ridiculously charming smile. "Am I the culprit?"

"You could be," Kali said, and tried not to grimace when Revlon hit him on the shoulder.