Wait (Keith Kogane X OC)

Chapter 14

After Oriande, the crew was quiet. Nobody seemed to be in a joking mood for a long time, and even the Paladins, who were used to that kind of drama, seemed off. The first failure of their mission loomed over everyone and was a constant reminder that, while they certainly were impressive and strong, they weren't invincible.

Ryan Kinkade, in response to this, started walking around with a camera floating around his head. It would drift around, sometimes invading people's space.

"Why in the world are you filming us, dude?" Sarah asked him. "Is this even allowed?"

Kinkade grunted in response.

"Alrighty."

That brief conversation occurred at breakfast, and as soon as Kinkade left, Nadia slid close to Sarah and whispered, "Ryan likes filming. He's making a documentary about life around here, for future purposes. What do you say we mess with - I mean help, definitely help him."

Messing with him seemed unnecessary to Sarah, because he had a valid reason for filming, but hanging around with Nadia was always fun. When she agreed, Nadia squealed and hugged Sarah around the shoulders.

"Sarah Murphy, you are my best friend, you know that?"

Sarah couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face. "Awe, I love you too, Nadia." She patted her friend's head, and the two went back to eating breakfast.

It was weird to have someone call her their best friend. While she did think that she and Nadia were very good friends, she wasn't as close to her as she was the Paladins. The Paladins are my family, Sarah reminded herself. We've been through so much together. Having someone outside of that is nice, though.

"Have you ever played Slap Jack?" Nadia asked. She was almost done with her breakfast and took a deck of cards out of her pocket.

"A few times, yeah." Sarah used to play with her brother, Martin, but he was too gentle to really do any damage. He always let her win.

Nadia's lips curled into a vicious smile. She got off her seat and hopped across the table to sit in front of Sarah. Then she shuffled the cards at an impossibly fast speed, dealt all the cards, and offered Sarah the choice of which half to choose. Sarah chose the cards on her left and fixed her cards so they were more uniform and easier to hold.

Let the games begin.

It turned out that playing with Nadia was a lot different than playing with Martin. Nadia was much more enthusiastic and aggressive, desperate to win. Ace, eight, five, two, ten, seven, seven, ace, jack - Sarah managed to put her hand on top of the pile first and soon after felt an intense pressure and stinging pain.

"Gah, darn it!" Nadia cursed, withdrawing her hand. "I was winning!"

Smirking victoriously, Sarah added the cards to her hand. She had been running out of cards rapidly and only had a few in her hand when she got the small pile of cards.

In a surprising turn of events, Sarah got more aggressive and eventually beat Nadia. The girls walked away from that game with bruised hands but happy because they had fun.

Searching for Kinkade, they wandered around to all of the places he spent most of his time: his room, the gym, and they checked back in the cafeteria, but never found him.

Nadia sighed and put her hands on her hips as they walked. "This is so lame. He hardly moves from place to place during the day. Where could he be?"

"Maybe he's checking out his fighter," Sarah suggested.

That seemed like a good idea to Nadia, so the girls went to the hangar where the MFE fighter aircrafts were stored when not in use. The room didn't have a door, as it would only slow them down in case of an emergency, so they poked their heads around a corner to see if Kinkade was in there. He was, and they watched as he peacefully ran his hand across the his fighter. The act seemed dramatic to the girls, and Nadia took that as a queue to step in. Kinkade didn't notice her as she approached and leaned against the fighter. Sarah couldn't contain her laughter when Nadia scared him.