Virals Pack: Reborn

Chapter 16: Gaining LV (Part 2)

A/N: Hey, so sorry it's a day late. I got back home Saturday and had to do chores then completely zonked out for the next 12+ hours. So here it is, anyways. Hope you enjoy, feel free to leave feedback in the comments!

*small time jump*

We played for about an hour before Shelton got online with rushed excuses about parents and such. Before then we'd had a great time finding the most sneaky, obvious, and ridiculous places to hide. When Shelton came online, he was still a bit hesitant around me. I could tell just through his voice that he was tentative to extend the hand of friendship in my direction. But after a couple of rounds of us ganging up on Hi (much to his dismay), he grew more comfortable and we all had a really good time together.

"Man, too bad you aren't like us," Shelton mused "you would be a really good pack member." Immediately after his statement, he went silent, realizing what he just said. It stung a bit, the reminder that I wasn't really one of them, but under that I sensed the underlying danger of him broaching the topic of their packhood. Deciding to brush it off, I replied "Ha! Imagine all the trouble that we'd all cause then!"

Hi chuckled "That'd be great, yet another person to gang up on me in arguments"

"Shut up Hi!" Sheldon mimicked Ben's deep, disapproving voice. Reverting back to his normal voice, he went "Hey Katrina, could you whack him on the back of the head for me? That's the customary response to his idiotic comments."

Grinning devilishly, I leaned over to give Hi a smack on the head, but found he had already begun to retreat across the room before Shelton had even finished his sentence. My mischievous smile widened "Give me a second, Shelton, I gotta catch him first"

"Gotta catch 'em all" he mumbled as I pulled off the headphones and chase after Hi. It was difficult to navigate the room with all the junk lying around, I had to awkwardly hop and step over precarious obstacles, like a greasy old paper plate for example. 

"Run, run, fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the ginger bread man!" Hi laughs at me as I nearly fall flat on my face while trying to avoid his backpack. He pauses while he taunts me, and I try to put on a burst of speed to catch him. Unfortunately, my boost attempt involved vaulting over the backpack, which was between me and Hi. Being the clumsy klutz I could be, I completely trip over the backpack and end up crashing into Hi.

We fall to the ground in an awkward tangled mess of arms and legs. I end up sprawled on top of Hi, with my head resting on his chest. I can feel my face turning red as Hi goes "Whoops, guess you got me after all." I chuckle, suddenly full of anxious nerves I didn't have a minute ago, and quickly scramble off of him. 

Across the room, I can hear Shelton's voice raised over the headsets. "Guys? You okay over there? It sounded like you knocked something over..." 

Hi grins and holds out a hand to me "After you, my lady." 

Smiling, I take it "Oh, why thank you, such a gentleman." 

We navigate back to the game station still holding hands. Shelton is still babbling on in his worried way so Hi lets go of my hand and puts on his headset "We're fine, Shelton." 

I put my headset back on as well and hear him say "What did you do this time Hiram? It sounded like you knocked your whole tv station over or something"

Hi chuckles "Oh, that? That was me actually. Whoops." He smiles a bit in my direction. 

Shelton sighs "You klutz. Anyways, you two wanna get back to the game, or are you going to keep knocking stuff over?" 

I smirked "I'm game, let's play! And remember..." I trailed off giving them time to realize the reference before we all say it at the same time together.

"SPEED IS KEY!!!"