Lunch break finally came, and the first thing Ines did was approach Mateo. Earlier in the day, the game's concept was announced to everyone else. Glyle sat snugly in her pocket, waiting for a moment to get out. She met him at the lunch table, sitting down and beginning to eat nonchalantly while waiting for Tedros to show up.
"So, any idea who we could recruit?" Ines asked.
"No idea." Mateo sighed, looking to his left and noticing Sybil leaning against a wall, eating an apple while looking into the distance, pretending to notice the kids. The loud commotion around the corner indicated she was just zoned out and pretending to watch them.
"Hey, Ms. Collins." Ines asked. "You want in on this next game?" She noticed the teacher take a particularly large and crunchy bite of her apple as she asked the question.
"Sorry, I got practise exams to grade." She replied, her eyes still glazed over.
"Well, so far it's only the three of us, unless Tedros knows someone." Mateo sighed. "Wherever he is."
Suddenly, the commotion around the corner got louder, and Tedros voice was a specific highlight. Mateo got up to inspect what exactly it was.
It was three of the bigger guys just in front of the hallway that contained everyone's lockers, known for being bullies, and one scrawnier looking kid looking both scared and confused. and in between them was Tedros, facing the bullies with his arm crossed.
"Give it back." Tedros demanded.
"Give what back?" The leader bully asked. He wore some kind of outdated football jersey despite Mateo never seeing him play, and his hair was just a buzz cut. He stood confident, and his two sidekicks tried to force themselves not to laugh.
"You cornered a weak student and forced him to hand over his money. Now I'm telling you to give it back and find your own way to make money." Tedros replied, taking a step towards him.
"And if I don't?" The lead one said, pushing him away with little effort. The kid Tedros was defending had to stop him from falling.
This was it. Self-defence time.
Tedros scooted the scrawny kid away, placing three fingers on the wall and letting the pillar he summoned almost pierce them. The three bullies eyes all widened in fear, and the two sidekicks ran out. Mateo could have assisted in whatever Tedros was doing, but decided to watch this play out. Tedros lightly tapped the pillar until it calmly burst and faded from existence, and chased the ringleader down, making another pillar to catch him as soon as he caught up. The bully ran into it and fell to the ground, and Tedros stood over him.
"Now give it back."
The bully threw the note at Tedros before scrambling himself back to feet to run in the opposite direction, tripping several times. Tedros calmly picked the note up and handed it back to the scrawny kid, who took it in one swift motion and ran the opposite direction of the bully
"The counter does it again." Tedros whispered to himself. "Anyway, what'd I miss?"
Ulysses sat at the other end of the table with Latrell, who was casually sipping a carton of orange juice with one hand and rapidly writing down potential names with the other. She noticed that ever since the games started, she's been able to write with both hands, and this current task was done with her right hand. And she had to admit, it was way better to write knowing she wouldn't have to wipe a giant smudge off her hand afterwards. Ulysses on the other hand was just panicking, throwing glances to Ines as she was talking with Mateo and now Tedros. Somehow, the girl who was constantly sick and on the verge of fainting was looking more collected and prepared than her.
"Okay, Latrell." Ulysses whispered. "Who do we think will actually work with us?"
Latrell showed him the notebook page with the finished notes, with percentage chances. The current trio was Ulysses, her, and Gabriela, who was currently getting Blair. As much as she wanted to trust Gabriela, she didn't know what she'd do to get Blair to join, so she was at 75%. Next was Janet and Evelyn. Neither had any real reason to join either side, but maybe Evelyn could be bribed? Not sure what to bribe Janet with, so Evelyn was 50% and Janet was 40%. Elijah and Natalie might join with a good enough incentive, but she had no clue what that could be. But was an option, so they also went to 40%. Leon was another possibility for bribing, but he might not be over the stabbing she accidentally caused, so he was 35%. And it might be easier for the other team to recruit him. And Ms. Collins only entered a game when absolutely necessary and wasn't going to bother helping the students out, so she was a 0% chance.
"So we try to recruit Evelyn?" Ulysses asked. He tried to remember an actual conversation either of them had, and nothing was coming up.
"It's worth a shot?" Latrell replied. "She'll be in the music room, that has at least a 95% chance."
Before the percentage babble could continue, Gabriela finally made her arrival, with Blair nervously in tow. She sat down next to Latrell, and gestured to the seat across from her, and next to Ulysses.
"Ah, Blair." Ulysses said, trying to smile at her. "Nice to see you join us." Blair was clearly as panicked as him, so he just stopped trying. She was at least willing to hear him out and that was frankly enough.
"So Blair." Gabriela said, trying to get to the point. "You mind demonstrating your powers?"
Blair opened her notebook and raised her hand over her knife drawing, which came to life. She then stabbed in into the table, and the other three watched as it stayed stuck upright in the table. A teacher observed, but looked the other way.
"Saw her use it to cut a chain link fence during the last game." Gabriela lied casually
"That's pretty good." Ulysses nodded quickly. "So you can just kill Ines that way?"
"We're killing Ines?" Blair whispered. Her mind was in a haze for the last two days over killing Terrence, and she could at least justify that for two reasons. The first was obvious, it was killing him or dying herself. Okay, she didn't technically land the killing blow and it was the games rules, but that was just a lie, she was the one that killed him. And second, he was a jock. Star of the football team. He could easily defend himself. She was just a small girl who didn't work out, so killing him was more justified due to the power imbalance between the two of them. But Ines? The girl who could die from being pushed over too hard? Killing her just felt…sadistic.
"It's the easiest thing to do." Latrell said. "Tedros is another option, but he's been going around after school trying to stop crimes, so he could be stronger than anyone realizes."
"You're going about this wrong."
The four looked up, and Elijah was standing at the end of the table, with Valerie in tow.
"Look, you want to kill Ines, right? And I'm just gonna say, getting rid of someone who's gonna die anyway isn't a good move."
"Is that what you think?" Gabriela asked.
"Look, we join you, and that's six people. Twice as many as they seem to have. So the plan's simple. We kill Mateo. Guy's probably still hurting from Terrence's death and won't be at full force, and in terms of strength, he's the strongest left. And killing him leaves Ines vulnerable for the next games. So if you promise he's who we go after, we'll join you."
"Make a decent proposal for how to kill Mateo, and we'll join."
"Oh, that one's easy." Elijah exclaimed calmly as he took a piece of paper from his pocket. He focused on it for a little and left it on the table, where it erupted into flames after a few seconds.
"I've been practicing my powers in the junkyard for a while. It's not shooting fire, but anything I focus on gets set on fire. Seems like the more thought I put into it, the longer it goes without catching fire. So Valerie makes a bubble that turns us both invisible, and I go in and set Mateo on fire. If that doesn't burn him to death, then Blair stabs him, Gabriela beats him to death, or one of you two can do something. Sound like a plan?"
"I'll admit it does." Gabriela replied flatly. "But what's stopping you from taking someone here out?"
"Nothing." Elijah shrugged. "But I'll make a promise. For tonight, and tonight only, we're on your side."
"And after that?"
"I'll work with you if it benefits me. If taking someone here out benefits me long term, then it's what I'm gonna do."
"You're…quite honest, aren't you?" Ulysses managed to choke out.
"I mean, that's better than me claiming to be your best friend and then killing you, right? I like being honest with people."
"Well, I suppose it works for us." Ulysses replied, looking to be on the verge on throwing up. "Welcome to the team."