Chiron Academy

Chapter 9.5: Mariah's Regrets

"That was amazing!" Wyatt heard Sally say loudly.

She and the rest of the squad sat a few seats behind Wyatt on the bus.

The match had ended and all of the students had been shuffled back onto the old school bus for the journey home.

Wyatt sunk into his seat. He had his phone out in front of him, staring idly at a book he'd downloaded. He was trying to read, but his heart wasn't really in it.

"I thought the fourth round was exciting," William said, in a tone to match Sally's bombastic excitement," but this one blew it out of the water! I knew Diverman had some sort of plan for that last match; he's way too smart to rush in to fight the Crow like that, with no idea what he's doing."

"Yeah, and the Crow was soooo close to the end too," Sally added. "I bet Diverman just wanted to let him feel like he was about win it before he closed in his trap. Like, just to mess with him."

"It's no surprise his team won both of the matches they were in," William said nodding knowing. "He's got a keen brain for strategy. It's a wonder we made it as far as we did in our match with him."

"Oh, seriously, we had no chance. He probably had us figured out the second we walked into the arena." Sally said glowingly. "I bet he was just waiting until we had all tired ourselves out first."

"-ourselves out first," William finished with her. "We were outclassed. Todd and his guys were just too good."

"I don't know if it's all that bad," Mariah chimed in. "We've got some serious skill in our group. Though I do think we probably could have had made some better strategy."

"Yeah, I mean, trying to take on SuperRyan in the air?" William laughed. "What kind of plan is that? Why don't you just challenge a tank to a fist fight, while we're at it?"

"If Diverman had been in our group," Sally exclaimed, "he would have come with a really good plan and we would have won. I bet you anything."

Wyatt's fingers tightened around his phone. He could feel the hurt and the disappointment welling up inside him.

Wyatt tried to his best to ignore the talking of the group behind him, but their section of the bus seemed to unnaturally silent and his ears seemed to keep tuning back into their talk no matter how many times he tried to focus on some other sound on the bus. All other conversation seemed to settle into a dull indecipherable buzz around them.

Wyatt heard Mariah's voice join the growing cacophony of talk again. She must feel relaxed; she rarely spoke. The usual wavering of her unsure voice seemed absent as she joined the conversation.  

"Well, I definitely think," she started," I would have been much more effective if I had been placed in a building nearer to the intersection where the tower was. I was so far away from everything that was going on in the game, I might as well had not even been there."

"I just keep wondering what our plan was in the first place," William said. "Run fast and get ball hardly seems like much of a strategy. It's more like a vague hope that things will somehow go our way. Whereas Squad 1 had some real teamwork going on; they had a coordinated assault based on their combined abilities. Our plan was like a baby's compared to theirs."

Wyatt stopped midscroll in his book. His hand remained tightly gripped around the phone's bulky case. He didn't look back towards his squadmates. He didn't dare. He just continued to stare down at his phone, motionless.

"Yeah," Sally explained excitedly. "Boom: blackness. Boom: water. Boom: the jetpack.It was so cool."

"I mean," Mariah said," I know we couldn't exactly foresee all of the fighting that Squad 5 started but, I think sending squad members behind the lines, into the different squad territory to serve as a flanking maneuver, would have been a more proactive approach. Otherwise, when someone else gets the ball and starts to run back towards his goal, all we could have done was to run vainly after them and hope they trip."