Spy School: Camp, it's complicated

What the heck is HORNET?

(Erica's POV)
The first stage of the competition was tomorrow morning, and Ben had been training all day ever since he had caught Zoe kissing Sean. But now, at lights off, he was lying in bed, hands over his eyes, groaning. I got up and sat down on his bed.

"Ben, are you alright?" I asked. "No. Yes. No. I don't know." he answered. "Why did I ever date her in the first place? Dating sucks," he grumbled. I looked at his face, and his wonderful eyes were tightly closed, and his mouth was a taut line. Wonderful, trusting Ben had pretty much had his heartbroken.

I patted his shoulder, and I said "Sometimes love is like that. Sometimes you get your heart broken." He sat up, looking intensely at me "What about Josh? Did you love him?" Oh boy. This is a touchy topic. "Ummmm, Josh was the first boy I ever liked and did I love him? I... I don't really know what love feels like, but I guess my feelings for him were... close to love." I answered carefully, but now I was hugging my knees, ready to cry.

Ben noticed, and quickly said "Hey, I'm sorry." and wrapped his arms around me. I returned the embrace, and for the second time, today was wrapped into his arms. I stayed there until about 30 seconds later when I pulled away and said "We should go to bed now." because I couldn't stop thinking about the time Josh had hugged me.

It was right after a bomb-defusing exam, and I and Josh had defused ours the fastest. Joshua had high fived me and hugged me. I was shocked, but I hugged him back, inhaling his scent of leather. I flashed back to the future and saw Ben snuggling up against his pillow, and I tucked myself in as well, ready for the morning. @Alpha12321 that was for you, the Jerica moment.

I woke up, and the sun was shining annoyingly in my eyes. I groaned, and pulled myself out of bed, grabbed a change of clothes, and changed behind my privacy screen. Ben was doing the same behind his, and a minute later we exited the tent, ready to face anything in the challenges.

I was fully conscious of the drawing in one of my utility pockets, and it felt like it was burning into my skin. When we finally arrived at the common area, an hour early to train, we saw something we probably weren't meant to see.

Agent Kimberley was there, talking, but to who, we couldn't tell. I signaled for Ben to dive behind one of the bushes near the common area. Just as we did, Agent Kimberley looked suspiciously over his shoulder and continued talking. "Yes, mission flopping wombat begins in an hour. Yessir, I understand. This time we will not fail. Everyone will forget SPYDER, HORNET is the new it organization." and Kimberly walked away.

I looked at Ben and saw his gears turning. "You know what else starts in an hour? The competition," he said slowly. "Maybe it's a cover for their plan. What are they gonna do, make it a math competition to take advantage of my math skills again? Man is that uncreative." he continued.

We sat there behind the bushes for 20 minutes, trying to think of HORNET's plan. And what HORNET was. We finally got up, with nothing to show for our 20 minutes of thinking. We stood up and just waited there until everyone else showed up. Zoe and Sean walked in, holding hands. I stole a glance at Ben, who had his eyes narrowed.

Two seconds later, Agent Kimberly walked in, megaphone ever-present in his hand. I followed his every move, wanting to know everything that I could about his involvement in HORNET. He shouted "Everyone, it's time for the first stage today. We will have a competition every other day, understand? Today's competition is hand to hand combat tournament. The list of matchups will be posted in a minute." I looked at Ben, who was thinking the same thing as me. If it wasn't math problems, what was HORNET planning? A minute later, everyone swarmed the lists.

Erica was up against someone named Chelsea, Zoe was against Warren, Mike was against Chip, Hauser was against Jawa, and the list went on and on until I got to my name. I was against Sean. This was going to be great.

I hope you guys had a fun time today! It's a little shorter than I usually write, but I was a bit rushed, I had a basketball game. I have an idea for a new fanfic, but I probably won't write it until after this one is done, which hopefully will be a long time off. Bye!