The Animal Inside

Chapter Twelve: Competencia

After signing up in the gym, I made my way back to the auditorium. I was please to see that Noa wasn’t there. Lock had stolen my seat, and he and Dex were deep in conversation. I sat in Lock’s seat, beside Gaia.

“What took you so long? Lock said that oh, what’s his name...oh yeah, Diego was talking with you about what happened, but I didn’t think it would take that long.” Gaia said.

“I signed up for Tracking Wars. Diego thinks I will be good at it, so I put my name forward.”

Gaia nodded, and Lock looked over, only just noticing my arrival.

“Hey babe. Where you been?” Lock asked. My heart swelled when he said babe, and I smiled.

“I put my name forward for Tracking Wars.”

“Awesome. I hope we aren’t competing at the same time so I can watch.”

“Tracking isn’t that exciting to watch Lock,” Kimi said, joining in the conversation. She was sitting on the other side of Gaia.

“Why not?” Lock asked.

“’Cause you can’t see anything until they arrive back. They track in the trees, which make it impossible for us to know what’s going on,” Kimi explained.

“Oh. Don’t worry babe, I’ll still be there to support you, if I can,” Lock said, smiling at me.

Dex’s device binged and Dex started tapping away.

“Those the odds?” Lock asked, looking over Dex’s shoulder.

“Yep.”

“Come on Dex, spill,” Gaia said.

“Okay, okay. Let me just...” Dex tapped away on his device. “Here we go. Lock, you have great odd. You are ranked third overall.”

“Third?” Lock said, outraged.

“It’s ok Lock. I think you’re the best,” I said.

“Thanks,” Lock said, draping his arm over my shoulders.

“Can I continue?” Dex said. We nodded. Dex tapped on his thingy again.

“Ok. Gaia has average odds. Not bad, but not great.” Gaia nodded, accepting this. Dexter tapped on his keyboard again.

“And Kefira...” Dex stopped, staring at the screen in disbelief. “That can’t be right.” Dex tapped away again. “Hmmm, interesting. Very interesting,” Dex said.

“What?” I asked.

“You have great odds. In fact, you are ranked first.”

We all sat in silence for a moment, absorbing what Dexter just said.

“How?” I said

“Huh?” Dex asked.

“How do I have the best odds?” I clarified.

“I’m not sure. You’ve never competed before, and you’ve only been here a week. It’s strange that you have the best odds.”

I sat there, mulling over this new information. I wonder how I got such great odds.

“Is everyone else terrible?” I asked.

Dex laughed. “I don’t think so. We have some pretty good trackers here. Maybe the odd are in your favour,” Dex said, quoting ‘The Hunger Games’.

After a while, Mr. Conway stood at the microphone again, announcing the competitions. Apparently the draw had been arranged and the order of competitors was posted on the area of each event. Dexter, however, had a cheat’s way of finding out.