The S-Force

9: Yvonne

"Hey are you OK?" I walked up to the girl nursing her left side.

"I'll live." She gave me a strained smile.

"You look like you're in a lot of pain." I observed.

"Well I am but don't worry." She chuckled weakly.

"Do you need to see an attendant?" I asked.

"Saw them yesterday and this morning. I got a cold press and medicine." She replied.

"Want some company?" I finally asked.

"Why not?"

"I'm Yvonne." I sat down beside her carefully so as not to jostle her.

"Toni."

"Are you a newer trainee?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah. I came in like five days ago."

"Six days ago. I'm from the Caribbean/Central facility."

"Sub-Saharan facility."

"Impressive."

"Not as impressive as being directly under Catherine's wing."

"Meh! It has it's downsides."

"Sorry! I shouldn't have said that."

"It's fine." She waved off my comment. "So why aren't you training with the others?"

"I just came from seeing an attendant because I got sick in the stomach this morning."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Thank you." I said with gratitude. A brief silence fell on us but then an idea popped into my head suddenly. "Do you know how to play ludo?"

"Yeah but I'm not very good." She said hesitantly.

"Me neither but it's one of the few games I know how to play." I stood up. "Are you ok enough to go to the common room?"

"Yeah." She stood up as well. "Let's go."

We took the lift that took us up two floors and walked into the common room. We took a seat on the chairs on opposite sides of the giant ludo board. I picked up the container that held the dice and handed it to her

"After you." I urged her.

She took the container from my hand and shook it. She then poured out the dice which landed on six-three.

"Pick a color." The robotic voice from the board announced and Toni picked yellow. A yellow player came out of its place and moved three places down.

"Your turn." She handed the container with the dice to me. I shook out the dice, making it land on six-one. The robotic voice told me to pick a colour. I chose red.

We took turns trying to get our players out of the board. Jacqueline turned out to be pretty good at the game and got three players out when I was still trying to get the second player out.

"And done." Toni announced as the final player made it to the centre of the board.

"Player 1 has won the game. Player 2 would you like to continue the game and finish it or would you prefer to exit?" The robotic voice in the board asked me. A menu with the options "Continue" "Exit" showed up on the board. I picked the option to continue and finished my part of the game a few minutes later.

"Game completed." The board announced, a big display that read "Congratulations" lit up the already bright board.

"That was fun." I said to Toni.

"Yeah it was."

"I think everyone would be done training and having their lunch right now. Do you want to grab lunch together?"

"Sure."

"Let's go."

The lunch room was packed when we got there. All the seats were occupied and hardly had any space. We both got our lunches - a large bowl of salad, a cup of sweet and sour cream, a ham and cheese sandwich, a small bottle of orange juice and a big bottle of water.

"Where should we sit." Toni scanned the lunch room nervously.

I pointed at a table with two girls eating silently. "There's enough space for the both of us at that table."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." I began walking over to the table. "We'll just say hi and ask if we can sit with them."

"Alright." She hesitantly followed after me.

I got to their table, a friendly smile on my face. "Hi!" I said enthusiastically.

One of the girls jumped at the sound of my voice and the other girl looked up.

"Hi." She said warily.

"Um... I was wondering if we could join you. Every other table is taken."

The girl looked at her table mate who jumped when she heard our voice. Her table mate shrugged.

"OK." She said hesitantly.

"Thanks." Toni and I said in unison.

"You're welcome."

"I'm Yvonne." I introduced myself to both girls.

"I'm Toni."

"Jacqueline. Nice to meet you guys."

"Same." Toni and I said at the same time.

"This is Kylie." Jacqueline gestured to her quiet table mate.

"Hey." She said quietly.

"Hey." Toni and I said.

"You guys always do that?"

"Do what?" Toni asked.

"Speak at the same time."

"Really? We literally just met three hours ago." I laughed.

"Wow that's crazy."

Toni and I burst out laughing.