The Cloak Guard

Aftermath, Part 5

"Emily? Hey Emily? You ok?"

"Huh?" Emily snapped out of her daze and looked up to see Britta staring at her. "Oh sorry, I kind of zoned out there. What is it?"

"Uh, I was just going to say that we're almost out of time, so..." She gestured up to the clock and Emily followed, cursing when she saw they only had a few minutes left. She had zoned out so much that she had missed most of the practice. She barely remembered what anyone had done today. Some team captain she was.

"Alright, everyone form up," she called. A few seconds later, they were all standing in front of her. "Good job today," she said, trying to sound confident so they didn't realize she had no idea how well they did. "But keep practicing at home. Sectionals is coming up and we can't afford to slack off." She ignored Britta's not-so-subtly look, knowing full well that applied to her too. "So, I want everyone to meet at the park on Silven street this Saturday for some extra training." There were a few groans but no one really complained which she was grateful for. "Alright, I'll message you all the details later. You're free to go."

"So what was that?" Britta asked as the others left. "You were spaced out the whole time."

"Not the whole time," Emily protested. "Just...the majority of the time."

"Yeah, that doesn't make it better."

"It makes it marginally better."

"Emily!"

"Ok, I'm sorry," Emily said, rubbing her head. "There's just a lot going on, so...I've been a little distracted. I'll get my head in the game, don't worry."

"No, I'm going to worry," Britta replied. "Emily, you're not yourself. Normally I wouldn't miss the drill sergeant version of you that makes people want to go into witness protection from you, but strangely enough I'd prefer that right now then this because you're scaring me."

"It can't be that bad!"

"When Dalton messed up the scorpion pose earlier, you just said 'good job.'"

"He messed up the scorpion pose! Oh come on, that's basic stuff! I'm going to make him run 100 laps for that."

"Ok, well at least I know you can bring the sergeant back," Britta said dryly.

"What?"

"Never mind. Look, as someone who actually knows what's going on with you and probably why you're acting like this, you do realize you can talk to me about it. That is the point of being best friends, right?"

Emily stared at her before sighing and taking a seat on the bleachers. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. Everything's weird now though. Like, even Decker's acting up."

"How so?"

"He hasn't asked me out once this week. Normally I'd be over the moon over something like that, and I still am a little, but it's also weird and not like him."

"No kidding."

"It's not just him. It's all of us. Gabriela, Sumin, Travis, the new kid Franklin. All of us who were part of that fight with Swarm. I mean, I know there's no way we could leave that fight without it affecting us some way, but..."

"But what?" Britta asked, concerned.

"But I think we all kind of know."

"Know what?"

"That he's coming back," Emily said softly. "Swarm. He's not gone, he's just...gone into hiding. But he's coming back. And...I don't know how we'll beat him a second time. We barely managed to the first time and it was a lot of luck there."