Mate I never wanted

How do you form a team?

Vivian

I stared at him blinking.

Was he really asking me to join their team?

Just a few weeks ago they all tried to bully me out of school, and now he wants to team up?

"Umm... no, thank you..."

Sure, teaming up with them would be a sure high score for me and everyone would kill to be in their team, but I would rather float myself into the open space rather than doing this.

Clearly shocked that I rejected him, he stumbled a bit.

"What?"

I exhaled and rolled my eyes as the initial shock wore off.

"I already have a team, so I can't join you."

My answer to him was quite short and harsh, but I had no wish to be nice to him.

The whole dining hall was quiet once again.

"You will regret this decision."

Oh fun, now he was threatening me. I rolled my eyes at his words and turned away from him and looked back at Rebecca.

She looked a mixture of confused and shocked... that turned into something a bit sadder.

"Do not refuse them just on my behalf. We both know that they are more at your level than I am... Damm, you scored higher in the shooting test than I did even when you were half dead. You scored third, and I am in the second half of the chart."

"Don't be ridiculous. I had already agreed, and I do not break my word."

Her eyes shined for a moment with tears as heat filled her cheeks. And so I added, as we were still on the subject.

"Ummm... but if you would not like to team up with me, I would totally get it. I think that I kinda became their number one enemy. They will most definitely target any team that I would be on."

She just laughed and shook her head.

"Nah, I'm not afraid of them. This will just make it kinda difficult to find anyone to join our team. Most are scared of them and a lot of people already have teams."

"I'm sure that we can find someone."

My voice did not sound as reassuring as I hoped it would, because there were already only a handful left to pick from and most would probably be scared to join us.

"I will go ask for a list of people that still do not have a team picked, and we can check out who is still free."

As we were talking, I felt my phone vibrate once again.

What the hell does Lucien want from me again?

Darling, how are you doing?

Confused, I stared at his message.

How can this man be even more confusing? The tone between the two messages was so different that it was kinda hard to keep up. How can one person change so quickly... and the darling... wait did his heat start again so soon?

But before I could answer him, Rebecca came back with a list.

"Okay, there are only a few people left, as we guessed. And only fewer would have enough courage to stand up to the Nobels."

With a sigh, my eyes skimmed over the list of people.

"Do you know any of them by chance?"

"A few, but none of them a perfect. The biggest issue is that there is only one commander left unclaimed, so we should start with her."

Together we crossed the hall and Rebecca stopped in front of a timid looking girl with glasses and braided long brown hair. I think she is a cat hybrid, just like Rebecca.

"Hi Le..."

"Sorry Rebecca, but I am not joining your team. I am not suicidal. The Nobels will make my life a living hell."

Lexi was the first one to refuse, and so did the next few. We were left with the final three. If they also refuse, we are screwed.

Hell maybe there is a way to work in a smaller team?

Through the whole day we spent walking and talking to the last few unclaimed students, as I kept receiving messages from Lucien. He was asking me all these stupid, cute things, like how my day was going and if I had lunch yet. By now, I'm pretty sure that he was in deed in heat, but I did not have time to think of what I should do about it right now. I had to form a team for the next test if I didn't want to fail this test.

We stopped in front of one of the boy's dorm rooms. Rebecca knocked on the door and a boy with a bag of chips in his hands opened the door. He was a bear hybrid, and he looked like one. Standing in the doorway, he could barely fit through it.

"Hi, Kevin..."

Rebecca started to speak, but Andrew was pushed out of the doorway by a smaller looking boy. He was clearly a fox hybrid. By the paleness of his skin and hair, I would guess a snow fox or something like that.

"Well, hello, ladies."

He had a charming smile, long lashes and the most beautiful icy-looking blue eyes. Looking into them, I could not think about Lucien. Their eyes were similarly shaped and their color was so alike...

Ugh... why couldn't he leave my head alone just a few hours?

I have important matters to take care of. If I fail to form a team, I won't be able to take the rest of the test and I will fail.

"Hi Andrew."

Rebeca said with the most charming smile that she could muster. She had been using it the whole day as we tried to recruit the rest of the team, and I was thankful for that, because I did not have to do it.

"Let me guess, we are the last ones without a team?"

He said with a knowing smirk.

"No, Vivian requested that we go to you right away. She was very impressed with your skill at class."

He chuckled.

"Thank you for the compliment, but I know that no one else will join you. The whole academy is busting with gossip about how Vivian shot Mathew down, and he openly declared her the enemy."

I rolled my eyes.

"Not the enemy, but he said that I would regret it. Now are you scared of him and the nobles or will you join us?"

He rolled his eyes and laughed with a lot of crazy tones in his laughter.

"What is there to be scared of? Only the richest students in our year, with the highest scores. I like our chances, sign me up."

Rebeca then turned to the bear hybrid that opened the door before.

"And how about you, Kevin? Will you join us or are you scared?"

He pulled another chip from the bag and ate it.

"I don't really care."

"So will you join us?"

I asked in a bit more stern tone.

"Sure, why not?"

He said in a broad tone.

" So who do we have in our team?"

Andrew asked and Rebecca answered.

"Well, there are four of us."

"So all we need is a commander, right?"

Both me and Rebbeca stayed quiet. We both knew that there was no one willing to join us. We had already asked everyone and no one wanted to join us.

"Umm... yeah... we will figure it out. Don't worry about it, I will go register at the trainers."

Both me and Rebecca left the boys' room. While walking to the training center, Rebecca started talking.

"Vivian, you should talk to Mathew. If you apologize, I'm sure they would let you join their team..."

"What? No. I am not teaming up with them. And I already promised you and the boys that we would be a team... I will just talk with the trainers. Maybe they will let us go for a team of four. I can be both the pilot and the commander."

She released a sad sigh as she said.

"Well, I guess that may work."

We were wrong.

As I approached one of the trainers, they shot my idea down instantly.

"No. All teams must consist of five members. If you fail to form a team, you will fail the exam. I can give you the list of people that are still without a team..."

He clicked away on his tablet computer as he checked the system lists and his face looked quite happy when he clearly found something.

"Okay, I see that there is still one student left, Paul Green... he is also an engineering and pilot student just like you. His score is zero and he was injured before, but the medical team gave him the green light to go back to training..."

Paul had already refused. We have no one to choose from.

The phone in my back pocket started to vibrate and an idea popped into my mind. I hated to even have to consider him, but there was no one else I could turn to.

"Umm, sir... can a student that passed all the tests and is considered a graduate take part in this test?"

"It depends if he took this test?"

I shook my head. For a fact, I know that he did not take this test, because the highest score in this test still belonged to a team from ten years ago. And no one in the imperial family had ever scooped so low as to take part in something so below them as taking part in a team challenge. They all have enough points to graduate without it.

"No, sir. He did not."

He stood there thinking for a moment as he scratched his head.

"Well, I can't see why not. There have been many graduates that returned to take different types of tests for their employment, so I don't see why this could be considered any different."

Hope ignited deep in my chest as I smiled at the older man in front of me.

"Great, thank you sir. Can I sign my team up now?"

The man nodded and gave me his tablet.

"Here you need to sign up a navigator, two soldiers, a commander and a pilot."

I signed Rebecca as the navigator, Andrew and Kevin as soldiers, myself as the pilot and I signed Lucien up as our commander.

"Thank you sir."

I said to the man while handing him back his tablet.

"Great, I'm happy to see that you won't fail this test like that. We are very interested in seeing how you will do in another test. There are a few bets going between the trainers in how high you will score. I put my money on you. I'm sure you will be in the top three."

He said happy as I smiled at his encouragement as I said goodbye and pulled out my phone.

Okay, now I just need to convince Lucien to join us.