Milly's Wrath

{Twenty Twenty-Three}

DAY ONE

Walking in the hotel I couldn't help but marvel at the chandelier lights hanging from the beautifully decorated wallpaper. I mean, there was a fountain in the middle of the lobby! My team and I sat on the leather couch's as Rick and Nicole went to check us in. They, along with our Sponsor, Mrs. Rivers, were the chaperon's for our small group of ten.

Outside it was still black since we arrived at five this morning. The competition starts promptly at nine in the ballroom, across the hotel. I wanted to come a day early, but the hotel's were already booked by the Competition Sponsors, so coming earlier would mean extra money we didn't really have. Still, I ran over the list of things we need to do, and I was glad I had made the team pack everything we needed for the first day of competition, as well as the girls do their hair, before we even got on the plane.

"I can not believe we're really here." Kimbrea spoke, still looking above us at the ceiling. ?'m

speechless."

"Well that's new" .Jessica replied, smiling despite rolling her eyes.

"Oh shut up." Brea rebuttled.

"Make me."

"Both of you shut up." I interject, just as the Chaperon's came back with our room keys.

"Alright," Mrs. Rivers nasal voice sounded through the room. It's sad she was sick now, of all times. "The girls get one room, boys get another, Nicole and Rick get one room I get the other. You can put your bags in the room and come back down for a breakfast."

"Isn't she lovely?"I muttered when she turned and walked away, not expecting any one to listen, but not really surprised when they laughed.

I won't bore with the details of finding our rooms on the sixteenth floor of the twenty floor hotel. All competitors would be on this floor, so I guess that was good. I wanted to take a quick nap, knowing we had a couple hours before check-in, but decided against it. I didn't need any drags of unfinished sleep, or malfunctioning clocks, to mess today up.

My group found a little cafe in the lobby, sliding two tables together so we could all fit.

"So on a scale of one to ten how nervous are you?"Nicole asked, daintly taking a bite form her muffin.

"We made it this far, let's go another yard."Travis responded, quoting the lyrics to a song I couldn't place a name to at this moment.

"Any whether we make it or not...I swallowed some Orange Juice. We still made School History, and we just have to make sure there newbies keep it that way."

They laugh, soon going into discussions of things they wanted to do tonight. I wanted to tell them we needed to stay and rest for tomorrow, but I knew it would be futile. Going out after competition became a tradition, and without every day being an elimination this one was minimally different.

"So...why was the leader of Illusive just mugging you?"Toya asked.

"Yeah, I heard about the little party scene, what's up with that?"Jason questioned.

I glanced behind me, indeed seeing the leader, whose name I forgot again, looking me up and down with a glare that could scare Lucifer. After my altercation with London, I knew there would be some more drama with her, but it completely went over my head her team also made it to Nationals.

Deciding not to entertain her pointless looks, I simply shrugged. "That's her problem- not mine's."

"You sure?"Kimbrea asked.

"Look, I want us to focus on the competition and the competition only, okay? Nothing else matters at this moment. We didn't travel over two-thousand miles for nothing. You got me?"