Zero Two Three One | John Laurens X Reader [Hamilton]

IV: Five Teammates and Tough Teamwork

❝You are either supporting the vision or supporting division.❞
-Saji Ijiyemi

I'd prefer not to say how I ended up having to work with Rory, but let me just say it wasn't under my own accord.

I don't know what I expected to happen during the third month of Advance Training, but I surely had no clue we'd be working on team building. In my mind, this is the kind of stuff that goes on in the office of a big company to bring the workers closer. In my opinion, it's utterly... stupid.

The entire training unit has been split in half, fifty soldiers operating under Daeshim and fifty under Chul. Just my luck to end up with Chul. These groups are split up even further into ten groups of five, simply called teams.

My team is... acceptable at best.

Every day during breakfast, Daeshim comes by and announces where Chul's group and his group will meet, which is usually at different locations around the base. Upon arriving at these locations, our instructors announce what "team-building" activity we'll do.

So far, they've varied between mind games to physical activities. Sometimes the teams work together for a common goal, sometimes they compete with other teams.

Yup. This is all we do now. We work together and figure things out like a motherfucking team!

What kind of princess-magic-fairy-unicorn-glitter-sparkle-fuck-nugget bullshit is this?!

I thought it might be a little more bearable since we only do these activities in the morning and afternoon, meaning our nights after dinner are free. Alas, two weeks in and I've decided that this is more unbearable than the painful workouts and overwhelming tests combined.

I questioned why I hate team-building so much, and I came to the possible conclusion that maybe I'm just not used to having to work with others... not really at least. I don't like relying on others in order to avoid getting an ass-kicking from Chul. The only person I care about and want to rely on is Alexander.

However, instead of recognizing and addressing this character flaw of mine, I simply conclude that I hate team-building because Rory is on my team and he makes it completely hell. And I have to work with him.

Also in my team is Peggy, Vincent, and Alexander (thank God). The five of us put our collective minds together to become a team of horrible catastrophe.

Having already gone through two weeks with Rory, you'd think we'd eventually set our differences aside to be productive and actually complete our tasks, but we haven't. Today is no exception.

This morning, we played a game of charades against another team, and Rory and I got into a pretty heated argument after he tried to act out the word "fish" by twitching on the ground, to which he responded by saying it was supposed to hint at a fish being out of water.

Needless to say, the other team won. As a result, we had to write a page-long explanation as to why we lost and deliver it to Daeshim, who will read it back directly us to bump up the humiliation. If he's unsatisfied, he'll make us write another one.

To make matters worse, we have to sit with our teammates. Alexander and I used to sit alone, but not anymore. Vincent, Peggy, and Alexander usually keep up a pleasant conversation (he's way better at faking friendliness than I am). Rory and I, on the other hand, glare at each other from the opposite side of the table, daring the other to make a move.

Rory hates being trapped with me as much as I hate being trapped with him. He'd much rather be with his friends than with me! Just our luck to end up together!