Chapter Sixteen:

If there was one thing that Jess could count on at Boxtens so far, it was that every single person here stared at him like he was crazy.

And right on queue, he now he found himself in the lounge... With the entirety of the dorm crammed on the couches staring at him like he was crazy. Thankfully, the crowd included Gwen. And it was no small comfort that David was standing next to him facing the dorm.

David had returned a while ago from his run and when he heard that Jess had gone behind everyone’s back and forced and begged the headmistress to let them into the dorm games- an extremely dangerous and possibly reputation breaking competition… David was beyond excited!

And so he rounded up the entirety of the dorm- even Brentley was here, sitting calmly in a single seater couch whilst everyone else was squashed on couches or bean bags. Gwen sat apart from the others on a chair from the kitchen.

The bad thing about David being this excited was that he was the only one who looked excited. Apart from him, only Kate tried to look supportive and cheerful, but she couldn’t hide how uncomfortable she was at the tension. The fact that she was still even on his side after all this chaos was strangling him with comfort and guilt.

“So,” David said, clapping his hands once to get things started. “I think we should start training for the games. We can set up a schedule, we’ll work around everyone else’s routine.”

A girl at the back raised her hand.

“Khanyi.” David said, gesturing for her to speak.

She didn’t stand up but lowered her hand and spoke:

“So you signed us all up for the dorm games without our permission?” she asked Jess.

Jess hadn’t expected someone to speak to him. What would he say…

“Who are you?”

“Khanyi!” she said.

“Oh, cool. I’m Jess.”

She made a face that impressively captured both shock and disgust. “I know who you are, you’re the guy who ruined the charms exam. You ruined everyone’s concentration.”

Matt quietly looked up at Jess, and crossed his heart. “Marked” he mouthed.

“If five minutes of distraction made you fail then you probably weren’t going to do well anyway.” Jess offered dryly.

“Nice, you’ve got jokes.” Khanyi said. “But, do you have a plan?”

“Win?” he guessed.

“Nice. Sho!” Khanyi nodded, and slammed backward into the couch in defeat.

“Okay, Jess.” The next voice came, and it was Gwen in her most challenging voice, and immediately everyone turned to look at her. Gwen unlike the rest of the dorm didn't care too much for David trying to be orderly and respectful. She stood up and crossed her arms. “Have you studied last year’s games? Or any from the last few years?”

“No-”

“Have you studied the other dorms?”

“No-”

“Do you know their strengths and weaknesses? Do you even know everyone in this dorm?”

“I haven’t met them yet!” Jess protested. “Okay, but look.” He said, turning to everyone. “How hard do I really have to try to convince you guys? Don’t you win to win this?”

“No.” A Korean girl squished behind Kate started speaking. “Your dorm games are only good for military students. Most of us aren’t enrolled in military programmes. My art teacher won't care if i can swing a sword..”

“Yea, bruv.” Matt agreed. “And like we’re not trained for all that. We could legitimately die there! We’re not trained.”

“I think that actually works to our favour.” David said suddenly, and everyone turned to look at him- with much more intent and engaged expressions than Jess had gotten. “We have a good mix of people here, we all have different skills and backgrounds.” David continued. “And even though we don’t have we don’t have as many options to choose from as the other dorms. That means we can prepare better. We don’t have to split our focus on 200 hundred possible teammates to choose from. We only have to know each other and train together. If we can all prepare in time for the games then there’s a chance our dorm has that advantage over them. Quality over quantity. We can win this.”

Bingo.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

That’s what Jess needed to convince these guys! Nothing could get people to jump onto stupid shit like a nice figure head. A politician, an influencer- A David. Heck, knowing David was here was one of the things that even let Jess consider that they could win. That should be good enough for everyone else.

“If that works for David,” Jess said slyly. “It works for me.”

“And who says David gets the final say?”

Brentley.

Brentley had just woken up to his feet and strode towards Jess and David.

“People lose their lives in this tournament and you’re going to make everyone participate just for your benefit?”

“It’s not just for our benefit!” David argued back at Brentley- but with such passion there was no malice in it. “This is the dorm games! The entire country would be watching! This a chance for us to prove ourselves. To actually prove ourselves as a dorm. I've known all of you guys for years. I know we have a shot!"

There was some uncomfortable silence, and if there was a sitcom there’d be a laugh track playing at that last line.

But then unexpectedly, Brentley smiled.

“Alright then. Captain David it is.” Brentley said, standing with Jess and David now with arm wrapped around of each of their shoulders. “All in favour?”

No one objected.

And Jess suddenly realized he was in a team composed entirely of people who hated him.

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“So, this here is our little lounge it’s a lot smaller than the boy’s dorm. But it really cozy and stays warm all through winter. In here is a dining room. It’s really cozy too. But the table is big enough for all of us to sit here and study.”

“You all study here?” Gwen asked, not hiding her distaste. Not only was studying in groups distracting, but it was like cheating. If you couldn’t work out a secondary school syllabus by yourself what kind of mage were you?

“Well… We don’t study together actually.” Kate said, reddening and growing an uncomfortably sorrowful face. “But I’d really like us too! I think it’d be fun, right?”

Hm? Oh, Gwen realized. That wasn’t rhetorical, Kate actually expected answers like his was a conversation or something. As far as Gwen was concerned she was a hostage in this hell hole of a dorm.

Hmph.

She was also a hostage of Kate’s house-tour. Gwen had been to many a museum tour and there was never ever this much audience(hostage) participation.

“I don’t think studying in groups is all that worthwhile.” Gwen said gently. “Too distracting. And I like working at my own pace.”

“That’s the perfect answer for you!” Kate beamed. “You always do so well, it’s so cool that you take all of this so seriously.”

“Of course I do.”

“That’s wonderful! Ooo, come on.” Kate said, grabbing Gwen’s arm and pulling her up the stairs. “So up here’ are the bedrooms-"

Gwen yelped and tripped halfway up the stairs, and when she looked down at her leg to see what tripped her, there was a black ghostly oozy hand protruding from underneath the stairs that was clutching her leg.

Before she could zap it with the force of a nuclear bomb. Kate excitedly clapped her hands and said:

“Oh, let me! Let me!” she squealed, and then stomped on the hand excitedly, like she was playing one of those stomping spiders/whack-a-mole arcade games.

A low golem-like voice echoed from under the stairs.

“Owwwwww.”

“What the hell was that?” Gwen snapped, as she rose to her feet.

“Oh, that’s just the ghoul here- Barry.” Kate said, like she was introducing a pet dog. And just like a delusional dog owner that insists their dog doesn’t bite, Kate seemed perfectly entertained and deluded by Barry- COMPLETELY ignoring the attempted murder just now.

“Why didn’t they get rid of the ghoul here?” Gwen asked. “Didn’t you tell maintenance?”

“Oh, yes.” Kate said, slowly. “It took them a month or two to actually come here, and when they did get here they thought he was funny.”

“Oh, yeah. Nothing funnier than sexual harassment.”

“Aww, no. He’s harmless.” Kate cooed. “But come on, look!” Kate said. And to Gwen's alarm Kate suddenly did a quick run up and slid across the hallway finishing off with a grand showman’s pose with her arms spread out to the heavens. It might have actually been funny and entertaining had the hallway behind not been so dark and ominous.

“Ta! Da!” Kate announced. “Here are the bedrooms! The last room on the left is Nora's. And the first room on the left is Khanyi’s room-”

“There’s only four rooms here?" Gwen said in disbelief. "Where am I supposed to sleep?”

“Oh!” Kate said, “I was just getting there! The room opposite Nora’s is yours-”

“But there’s five of us now, where’s the other person sleep?”

“That’s so quick! You already know there’s five girls.” Kate said, admiringly.

“We were just in the same room...”

“Still! Not everyone is so observant. But there is no fifth room, I share a room with Nora so you can have my room. The room across Nora's was mine, but Nora gets lonely sometimes so I decided to share a room with her.”

“Isn’t that a bit crowded.” Gwen said, disapprovingly. Dorm rooms were small, and the cancer dorms were so old and dingy they probably looked like prison cells inside.

“Oh, no. Nora’s room is quite big! And we never really shared a room or anything growing up, even though we’re twins. We had our own wings at home, so it’s really fun that we get to spend so much time here. I know Nora only got sent here as a punishment, but we got so much closer because of it.”

“Good for you.”

“Oh… Okay, um.” Kate stuttered. “So Khanyi’s room is here on the left. Khanyi’s really nice. She’s a fourth year like you so you probably know her.”

“If she’s not in the top ten I wouldn’t know her.” Gwen answered.

“I’m not sure what her class rank is.” Kate said, thoughtfully. "But she’s really bright and athletic. She’s South African, she was actually scouted to join the school’s discus team. And across her room-” Kate continued, pointing to the nearest room on the right. “-is Hana’s room. She’s really sweet too but she’s always really busy so we hardly see her. Her brother was actually in our class in our first year but he went back to Korea. I remember he was always homesick. I don’t blame him. Being away from home is hard isn’t it?”

“I didn’t notice.” Gwen said. “We’re here to study.”

“But sometimes the freedom of home is just… so good you know? Having your own time, spending time with family, being in your own home… But this is so good too. I just know you’ll like the cancer dorm too.” And suddenly she reached out for Gwen’s hand. “I know you don’t really want to be here, but I hope we can be friends. I won’t make up your mind for you and tell you to just enjoy everything or anything like that. But give it a chance. Sometimes all you need to do to enjoy something is to just give it a chance.”