Wintercrest Academy

Bren To The Rescue

           3 Lightnings and 2 Ninjas have all gone down by Kaia’s gun. The Wolf Pack are sneaky and move together, not very easy to shoot. Playing hide and seek with a hint of call of duty when she was young is proving useful now. She skulks into the gym, looking for more house members to take out. Coast is clear. She’s also found two alphabets: A and Z. It crosses her mind that the game is secretly mocking her, since she found the first and last alphabet and hasn’t found any other since then. Evil. She creeps back out and through the hallways until she notices a shadow, oaky two shadows, close to the library. She holds her breath and backs up against the wall. When the shadows appear closer, she jumps out of hiding and points her gun to the soon to be kicked out members.

           “Adan?” her eyes widen as she lowers her gun. “You’re playing? And you’re in the same house as Astrid?!”

           “Fate is a dirty, dirty player.” Astrid shrugs.

           “Shush.” Adan bumps Astrid’s shoulders. “Yes, I’m playing too. Don’t worry, I have no idea where any of the alphabets are hidden so it’s a fair game. The alumni did all the hiding so seniors can play too. This is our final Homecoming game.”

           “That’s very thoughtful. So, we’re enemies right now.” Kaia scans their Ninja bandanas and instinctively, the three of them raise their guns, Adan and Astrid pointing at her and vice versa.

           “We’re friends, we’d spare each other.” Adan drops his gun and they do the same.

           “I’m the odd one out,” Kaia sulks and Adan goes to squeeze her with his warmth.

           “It’s okay. Astrid and I will spare you. As long as you get out of here in 5 seconds.”

           Shocked, Kaia pulls away and glowers at him. “You evil monster!” she swats his shoulder just as Astrid starts laughing and counting down. She takes off, running towards the art theatre. When she’s far away from them, she stops to catch her breath.

           “Oh look, you ran right into my den.”

           Kaia shoots her head up to see a male Lightning sitting cross legged in a corner. Oh darn, just when she thought she was in a safe zone.

           The boy squints. “Kaia? Wow, I’ve never really seen you up close. You’re beautiful.”

           Trick of the enemy, Kaia’s mind sees red. He’s probably trying to flatter her so she’d lose her guard and become and easy target. Her eyes quickly dart toward the art theatre door. If she tried to run in right now, he’d shoot her before she’s fully in. What do I do? She slowly stands into her full height, tactfully clutching her gun so she would aim and take him down.

           “Thank you. Are you a . . . freshman?” he nods. “Right. That’s why we haven’t seen each other around.”

           He smiles. “Yep. Hand over your alphabets. You’re about to leave the game so you won’t need it.” He points his gun at her and before Kaia can do the same, she feels a body push hard against hers till they both hit the floor with a thud. She sees black for a few seconds and prepares herself for the headache that’d come from hitting her head on the floor. Except, there’s a hand between her head and the floor, cushioning it. She opens her eyes slowly, and Bren, Bren is atop of her!

           His full weight of strong bones and long limbs literally sinking into her, strong enough to make her become one with the ground. She can smell the woodsy scent of him, and he’s watching her with an expression he’s never used on her before. It’s different, softer and she internally pinches herself for appreciating his great looks in this awkward position they’re in. Click, they hear a camera sound and they both turn towards the silly kid grinning like the Grinch.

           “What are you doing?” Kaia has always known Bren’s voice is deep, but hearing him talk while on top of her makes her feel the rumble of it in her belly.

           “Get off me.” she sighs and he does. He stretches out a hand to help her up, but as if realizing that Kaia and Bren don’t roll like that, he lets his hands drop quickly to his side.

           “What did you do?” he asks the boy.

           “That picture is a thousand times more priceless than whatever gift I’d get for winning this game. Wait till everyone sees it!”

           “Nobody’s going to see anything.” Kaia deadpans and splats him with yellow paint straight to his heart. “You had a chance to shoot me, and now you don’t.”

           “Because he appeared and went all Superman on you! I’ve got to show everyone this—” Bren shuts him up by crouching to his level, snatching the phone and deleting the picture. “I have back up.” The boy squeaks.

           “Yeah, right. Go to the tents and tell them she took you out. Bye kid.” Bren pushes the boy’s back as he stomps away.

           “He said he has backup,” Kaia says when Bren turns to her.

           “He’s not going to post it. Calm your tits.” He grunts.

           Kaia chokes. “What?” Why would he even talk about her t**s?

           Bren’s cheeks and ears seem a little flushed, but his poker face remains. “I don’t want to be seen in such a compromising position with you. I’d make sure he doesn’t post it.”

           “You put us in the ‘compromising situation.’” Kaia glares at him and then smoothens her skirt and adjusts her bandana. “I actually didn’t need you to rescue me.”

           “Yeah, right. He was going to eliminate you easily. And I want to win this. I can’t have my team members leaving the game so quickly.”

           “Liar.” Kaia snorts and rolls her eyes. “If I get any bruises later, I’d hurt you.” She moves stealthily away and keeps searching. Soon enough, she finds the letter ‘B.’ Finally! She tucks the alphabet into her waist bag and hunts for more, slapping herself on the forehead when she thinks about Bren’s name starting with the letter B.

                                                           ****

           Pyjama day was a sweet success! Students came to school in cute and hilarious onesies, ugly plaid patterns and some pyjamas with really weird inscriptions like ‘blasting zone, keep off’ plastered on their butts. It was great nonetheless. And he has been on a high since the Maniacs won the game. It was initially a tie with the Ninjas, but when the scores where compiled, the Maniacs had taken down more people than the Ninjas, hence their overall win. Sweet, sweet victory!

           And sweet, sweet mocha cookie crumble frappucino! Heck, if there was an apocalypse and he had the chance to save just one thing, he’d save Bean and Buns so he’d have lifetime access to their amazing coffee. The scent of it makes him salivate as he walks into the café wearing a corduroy jacket and a pair of jeans. He doesn’t have to search too much to find Kaia, and he hates that his stupid eyes can single her out immediately. Betraying oculars!

           She’s wearing a casual cotton dress and her hair is wrapped in a bun on top of her head. He immediately worries that the hair is too heavy for her head, and now his mind is bringing back images of her head under his palm, their bodies close enough to. . .okay, timeout. He ambles towards the chair she’s seated at and that’s when he notices that she’s seated with some guy.

           “Hi?” his brows furrow as he dumps his bag on the table.

           “Oh, hey. She said she was waiting for someone but I didn’t know you’d be here so soon.” the boy laughs nervously and Bren appreciates the fact that he makes braces look cool.

           “I’m here now. You can leave.”

           “It was nice to meet you, George.” Kaia gives him a handshake and he smiles like a sheep before leaving. Yep, he’s gone. He’s obviously fallen so hard for Kaia just by the way she looks. The Black, glowing goddess with a freaking big brain. No compliments, Bren!

           “You’re socializing when we have work to do?”

           Kaia rolls her large, pretty eyes. “Just . . .lets forget that happened and go straight to studying.”

           And so, they do. They’re a team, just for now. Bren fights his mind for noticing how effortlessly beautiful she is, for observing how she chews lightly on her upper lips when she’s thinking, for—no. He should not be doing this. He hates her. She’s Kaia, the recent pain in his ass. He blocks out those thoughts until they’re done studying.

           Kaia yawns and stretches and it has to be the cutest thing Bren has seen. If his eyes were camera lenses, he’d probably capture this. Right, Mr Ariel. Bren has tried to watch him closely, to see if he’d get him taking pictures of anything at all. Or of Kaia. He had no such luck.

           “I’m leaving.” Kaia grabs her bag.

           “I don’t care.” Bren absent-mindedly swipes through his phone. He decides to text Willow. Hey, what does it mean for someone to have many unaware pictures of you on their camera?

           “Sleep well. Competition’s getting closer so you need ample rest. No pressure.”

           Bren looks up at her when she says this. Did she know he wasn’t resting and was downing pots of coffee like an addict? Probably not. She leaves him alone as his phone pings with a notification. Willow: they’re either in love with you or some creepy stalker. Think Joe Goldberg. No. It couldn’t be any of those options. None of them would be logical given the situation. Teacher and student. How would that even­—well, s**t. The world is a crazy place, anything is possible. He watches as Kaia pass by the glass windows of the café, cute, free and so ignorant. He’s going to get to the bottom of this. Why? He doesn’t know yet. But he’d figure it all out.