Once we arrived back at our dorm, it was clear that Marin had a lot more on her mind. She plopped down on the beanbag chair immediately and put her hands on her face while letting out a big sigh.
“Why can’t people just work together…” she groaned. “Miles seemed to be having fun while we were searching the floor, but just like before, the second something bad happens, he shuts us all out.”
“It’s hard to predict what people are thinking,” I said. “People are usually a lot more complicated than we give them credit for.”
“It definitely seems to be that way…” Marin said. “I guess all we can do is wait for the team draft tomorrow and take it from there.”
“Seems that way. Tomorrow’s a practice day, but it definitely seems like Keon will want us all to be hard at work searching the shop for useful items to escape with.”
“I do agree that we shouldn’t give up, but what are we expecting to find in that shop anyway? A jackhammer?” Marin said.
“Yeah, I doubt we’ll find an obvious trump card in there, but we only really skimmed all the items in there, so maybe there is something useful hidden in there somewhere.”
“Maybe…”
We then heard a knock on our door. I was closest to the door, so I opened it and saw Rayna standing there with a new set of pajamas and our normal outfits in her hands.
“Hey, kids,” she said. “Here are your clothes. Feel free to leave the clothes you’re wearing outside, and I’ll take care of them for you.”
“Thanks…” I said.
I then heard Marin’s booming footsteps behind me coming straight for the door.
“Hold on!” she said. “Let’s talk for a second.”
“What is it? I’m in quite a hurry,” Rayna said.
“I just figured that you should know that they murdered the last housekeeper who was here,” Marin said. “You’re trapped here just like us. Don’t you know that?”
“Yeah, but the difference is I get paid to be trapped here,” Rayna said. “Literally every door I deliver to, there’s always someone trying to convince me I’m in danger, and I should work with you all. Well, you know what? I bet working with you is how the last housekeeper got killed. So, no. I’m just going to keep doing my job until this is over. Please spread the news to all of your little friends. Have a nice night.” Rayna then walked away. Marin slammed the door shut.
“It was worth a shot,” I said.
“How can someone be so oblivious?! How could anyone be okay in this situation?!”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think we’re going to get her on our side sadly.”
“Ugh…I’m gonna go get changed,” Marin said. She then walked into the bathroom.
It was getting late now, and a lot of thoughts were going through my head. I have no idea how this draft is going to go. The teams with Conrad and Miles will have an edge in basketball, but the team with Sabrina will have an edge in baseball, so I’m not sure how Levi will choose to format this. Maybe we’ll even draft the teams ourselves. It’s hard to say, but the more I think about it, the more stressed I start to feel, so I decided to just lay down on the beanbag chair and close my eyes.
Suddenly, I felt a light tapping on my forehead. I started to sit up and started to let out a big yawn, but instead I ended up getting a mouthful of wet hair.
“Pffffttt!” I muttered, while spitting out the hair.
“Stop eating my hair!” I heard Marin’s voice say. I opened my eyes, and she was holding her hair in her hands. “You got spit all over my hair!”
“That wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t put it in my mouth!”
“I didn’t put it in there! I was holding it up, but it slipped out of my hand! It’s hard having long hair…”
“What a way to wake me up…”
“I just wanted to tap on your forehead, I wasn’t expecting you to sit up like Nosferatu! You rose like a vampire and started sucking on my hair!”
“If I was a vampire, I’d go for your neck, not your hair.”
“That’s so cliché. You could just bite my arm or something, you pervert.”
“We have the weirdest arguments.”
“It’s because you’re a weird guy. No go on and get dressed, so we can turn the lights off. I’m sweepy.”
“You say ‘sweepy’ with a straight face and I’m the weird one?”
“Shush! C’mon, we don’t have all night. Get those jammies on.”
“Alright, alright. I’m going.”
I walked into the bathroom with my new set of pajamas in hand. I got undressed and then redressed in the same looking pajamas with the only difference being that these were much cleaner. It is nice to have a new outfit on after a whole day of wearing the same one. Nothing makes me feel grosser than wearing the same outfit for a 24-hour period. Especially when I have to be around so many people. I decided to take a shower too, since it had been a while since I had one. I usually shower in the mornings, but these are special circumstances. I’ll just take a quick rinse in the morning to get back on my usual schedule. I’m a creature of habit after all.
I finished up and left the bathroom and saw that Marin was already in her bed on the top bunk curled up in her blanket. I decided to put my pajamas outside the door and get ready for bed, but as I opened the door, I saw Sabrina standing next to the door.
“O-oh! Hey, Ryder!” she said. “F-fancy meeting you here!”
“I mean, this is my dorm…” I said. “What are you doing here?”
“Nothing at all. I was just passing by. See you later!” Sabrina then jogged away.
“That was awkward…” I heard Marin’s voice say from behind me. “Do you think she was eavesdropping on us?”
“I don’t know why she does anything anymore…”
“Maybe she was hoping to get a sniff of your dirty pajamas…”
“That is vile.”
“Love will make girls do crazy things.”
“I don’t think that’s why she was here. Maybe she really was just passing by. Either way, I’m beat. I’m heading to bed.”
“Sounds like a plan…Prince Charming.”
“I already get enough of that from Emma, don’t start doing it too…”
“I’m just teasing. Alright, I’m turning out the lights,” Marin said. We then went to sleep in our respective beds.
Good morning, students! It is now 7 A.M. and breakfast will be served in one hour. Up and at ‘em! You’ve all got a long and productive day ahead of you. Let’s all give it our best!
I started to roll over in my bed at the sound of the announcement. It was starting to give me the same feeling that I had when my alarm clock would go off before school, except rather than having to deal with getting up early for school, it was about getting up early to see if I was going to die or not. It was a familiar form of anxiety, nonetheless. I sat up, rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and hopped out of bed. As I started heading towards the bathroom, I saw a large mass shoot out from the top bunk of the bed onto the beanbag chair. The lump hit it with a thud and then looked up at me.
“I think I cracked my ass,” Marin said to me. “That was a way better idea in my head.”
“Did you seriously just jump from the top bunk?!”
“Possibly,” she said, rubbing her lower back.
“You’re going to hurt yourself before we even start the first practice day!”
“It’s not that high up! I just wanted to see if I could make it, y’know? The ladder hurts my lil feet, so I wanted to take a shortcut. Did I scare you? I was kinda hoping I would.”
“You did! My heart fucking stopped! I thought someone threw a boulder at me.”
“Wow, comparing a girl to a boulder. That’s rude as hell.”
“Then don’t throw yourself down like one!”
“Whatever, I don’t regret anything! Go ahead and use the bathroom first though. I need a moment after that,” she said.
“Just don’t die on the beanbag. You’ll stink up the joint,” I said.
“I’d like to think that my corpse would smell like flowers all the way to the grave.”
“Biology would probably disprove your theory.”
I then went into the restroom to take a quick rinse and change into my normal outfit. I was ready to finally wear some real clothes. Marin sure is a weird person. I haven’t thought about jumping off of a bunk bed since I was twelve, and she does it at 18 while we’re trapped in a murder school. I don’t know if I’ll ever quite understand her. After finishing up, I left the restroom and saw that Marin was back on her feet.
“How’s your ass?” I asked.
“It’s got a big crack in it…”
“So, everything’s normal then?”
“Yup! My turn now.” Marin went into the restroom with her normal outfit in tow.
After a couple minutes, Marin returned with her usual attire that I was used to seeing her in, except she wasn’t wearing her usual heart embroidered apron.
“No apron today?” I asked.
“Nah. I’m more aerodynamic this way,” she said.
“I guess that makes sense.”
“You ready to grab some breakfast?” Marin asked.
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“You bet.” We then left for the cafeteria.
Walking into the cafeteria, we saw the usual scene that we were now starting to get used to at this school. Everyone was sitting at the same table with a nervous energy surrounding them. Miles was sitting at the same table, but he was noticeably further away from the group than anyone else. Maya was the closest person to him though, so it’s hard to say whether the distance was his choice or her demand.
“Always fashionably late,” Keon said. “Welcome, you two.”
“Good morning!” Marin said. “So, what’s for breakfast this morning?”
“Eggs Benedict!” Amber said, before stuffing her face.
“It’s good as always,” Emma said. “I hate to say it, but we truly are well fed here.”
“It’s nice to get some protein in us before we start practicing,” Conrad said. “It’s easier to build muscle that way.”
“If Eggs Benedict will make me better at basketball, then I’m gonna need seconds,” Cyrus said. “I’m all skin and bones over here.”
“You can say that again,” Carmen said. “You’re one scrawny chabón. You’re going to get crushed in all of these sports.”
“I’ll just have to use my supreme intellect to outsmart my opponent,” Cyrus said, jokingly.
“I can’t wait to see how that goes for you,” Carmen said.
Conversation was strangely lighthearted as we ate our breakfast while enjoying each other’s company. I think everyone was trying to distract themselves from the anxiety of the draft, and the sports tournament in general. It’s also possible that Stockholm’s Syndrome was starting to take hold of our minds, so I made an internal promise that no matter what, I’d never even entertain the idea of liking it here. I hope the others do the same. After we all finished our food, Keon spoke.
“Alright. I think we should discuss the plan for today.” Everyone gave him their attention. “I imagine we will have to do the draft here sometime soon, so after we finish with that, I am going to go to the shop on the second floor to look for things we can use to get out of this place. I’m sure most of you would rather practice so that you can earn some money, so I won’t force you all to accompany me, but if you want to, I’d appreciate the help.”
“I’ll come help,” Carmen said. “I wanted to take a look at the shop myself anyway.”
“I’ll come too,” Emma said. “I don’t think practice will make me much better at something I’m so terrible at anyway, so I don’t mind doing something actually constructive.”
“Thank you both,” Keon said. “I’m sure we can get by with just the three of us, so the rest of you are off the hook. We’ll make sure to come and practice when we finish our examination. I don’t want to worry my future teammates about my effort after all. Also, I’m sure there are some things that I would like to earn from the shop myself.”
Then, just as well timed as ever, an announcement came on over the intercom.
Now that you are all nice and fed, please come to the gymnasium, so that we can start the player draft! You have five minutes. Thank you for your continued cooperation.
“Even hearing his voice over the intercom pisses me off,” Conrad said.
“Agreed,” Maya said. “I hope I can piss in his coffee one day.”
“Well, I guess we better get going,” Keon said. “Let’s get this out of the way.”
We all got up and started walking towards the gymnasium on the other side of the floor. Once we entered, we saw Levi, the other staff members, and a large board that was set up against the stage. It read, “FFU 2025 Player’s Draft,” on the top of it, then had two sides that both counted from one to six. Above each side it read, “Team [blank].”
“Welcome! Welcome! Isn’t this exciting?!” Levi said, shaking his fists around. We all stood still. “I say, ‘Sports!’ You say, ‘Yeah!’ Sports!” No one moved a muscle. “Sports…?”
“Just shut the fuck up and let’s get this stupid bullshit over with,” Maya said towards a now dejected Levi.
“You guys never play along…” Levi said. “Have it your way. Let’s get this show on the road! As I’ve mentioned to you all yesterday, this time the motive is going to be a sports tournament where the team that loses two of the three games has to vote to execute a player from their team! Once the draft is finished, there will be no changes to either team. If anyone gets injured your team will be down a player, so make sure to stay healthy and play safe! Now, here’s how the draft is going to go: I have picked two team captains that will each choose players one at a time until each team is filled with seven players each. The team captains that I have chosen are…Miles and Sabrina!”
“This is not going to go well…” Emma said.
“Why not?” Amber whispered to her.
“You’ll see.”
“The reason I chose these two should be obvious,” Levi continued. “Miles is the strongest basketball player of you all, and Sabrina is the strongest baseball player, so dividing them helps keep the teams relatively equal, at least at the start. The rest is up to you two now, so come on up here Miles and Sabrina! Let’s get started!”
Levi ushered them both up onto the stage. Sabrina stood on the right side, while Miles stood on the left side. Levi took his place between them.
“Now, Rayna, if you would do the honors,” Levi said.
“Sure thing, boss.”
Rayna walked up to the board and removed a piece of paper from the blank spot next to “Team” on each side of the draft board. It now reads “Team Miles” on the left side, and “Team Sabrina” on the right side.
“You know what they all say, ‘Ladies first’!” Levi said. “So, Sabrina, I will give you the first ch-”
“I choose Ryder,” Sabrina said immediately, before Levi could even finish his sentence.
“Told you,” Emma whispered to Amber. Amber shook her head.
“Wow! What an unexpected person to be the number one overall pick! That comes with some high expectations! Rayna, please write ‘Ryder’ under ‘Team Sabrina’.” Rayna did just that. “Now, Ryder, come join us up here on stage. Come and stand here on Sabrina’s side, so everyone knows that you’re off the board.”
I felt my face getting red as I walked up to the stage with everyone looking at me in disbelief that I was chosen first. I stood behind Sabrina, and she looked back at me and gave me the happiest smile I’d seen from her. In my mind, I was only thinking about how much I hope that we somehow get Keon or Conrad since they were definitely the most athletic people who were available to be picked.
“Okay, time for the next pick! Who’s it going to be, Miles?” Levi asked.
“I choose Conrad.”
“Conrad it is! Come on up here and stand next to Miles, if you would.” Conrad rolled his eyes, walked onto the stage, and stood far away from Miles on the left side.
“Your turn, Sabrina.”
“I choose Atticus.”
Atticus is the tallest person in our group, so I guess that does make him valuable, but he doesn’t really seem like the athletic type. Maybe, Sabrina has a plan of some sort that I’m not aware of. Miles then proceeded to pick Keon which made the teams seem very lopsided already, with Miles, Conrad, and Keon being on the same team. With all that height and experience, it’s safe to say that winning the basketball game is not in our future. Sabrina then chose Robbie.
“Wow! I never thought I’d get selected in the top five! You’ve got a good eye, missy,” Robbie said. “I’ve still got some thump in these old bones!”
I truly have no idea what Sabrina’s plan is, but I don’t like it. Me being the number one overall pick was bad enough but passing up on Keon and then selecting Robbie is definitely making me fear not only for our team chemistry, but our likeliness of being competitive in any of the three sports. Miles then chose Amber, who was the tallest girl other than Sabrina, then Sabrina proceeded to choose Carmen.
“God, if there’s any team I don’t want to be on, it’s that one,” Carmen said.
“Too bad! Now come join your teammates!” Levi said. Carmen shook her head and then made her way to our side of the stage.
“Number one pick, huh, loverboy?” she said as she passed by me. I let out a nervous laugh.
Miles proceeded to pick Emma. Then Sabrina chose Cyrus with the ninth pick.
“Can’t believe I wasn’t last,” Cyrus said. “If only the kids from jr. high could see this! I’m moving up in the world!”
“I can’t believe it either…” Carmen said in a dejected tone. “This team keeps getting better and better…”
Miles then made the mistake of choosing Mia.
“If you choose Mia, then you better choose me next!’ Maya yelled. “We’re not going to play against each other! It’s not happening, fuckwad!”
“I-I don’t have control of that!” Miles said. “There are only two people left, so yell at Sabrina, not me.”
“Sabrina!” Maya turned to her and yelled. “If you pick me, I won’t lift a finger in any of your stupid games!”
“You should pick Marin regardless,” Carmen said. “She looks much more fit than that little firecracker.”
“Yeah, pick me!” Marin yelled from in front of the stage. “If I get chosen last, I don’t think I’ll ever emotionally recover from it!”
“Ugh…” Sabrina groaned. “I really don’t want her on my team, but it can’t be helped now. I choose the blonde bimbo.”
“That sounds like Marin to me! C’mon up here!” Levi said.
“How does that sound like me?!” Marin yelled at him.
“With that pick, that means Maya goes to ‘Team Miles’ and the draft has come to an end! What a rousing success! Today is the first of two practice days. Use them wisely because after them, the most important basketball game of your lives will be played in this very building! Once the first game finishes, I’ll reveal how much each of you have earned from the game, and everything you need to know about using the money, but for now, get to practicing! You are dismissed.”
Levi and his cronies then left the room, leaving us still standing on the stage in our respective groups. Miles’s team was huddled together talking while we were awkwardly sitting slightly distanced from one another. It felt like we were the weird kids at the high school lunch table. Marin then came over to me.
“I’m glad we ended up on the same team, roomie!” she said, putting her hands up for a high five.
“Me too,” I said, slapping my hands on hers. “I just wish our team wasn’t so…oddly constructed.”
“I’m sure it’ll work out.”
“We truly are ‘The Island of Misfit Toys’,” Carmen said, walking up to us. “We’ll need to salvage something out of this team, so you two better practice hard. It’ll most likely be impossible to win the basketball game, but we still need to keep our eyes peeled for the other team’s personalities and mannerisms so we can use it against them in the following games, if we don’t end up escaping before then.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Atticus said, joining us. “I’m not very proficient in sports myself, but I like to think that my observational and critical thinking skills are what set me apart.”
“I thought it was your ‘quiz game-like knowledge' that set you apart?” Carmen said.
“I only have my immense knowledge because of my observational and critical thinking skills,” Atticus said, pushing up his glasses.
“Let’s hope you can prove it during the games,” Carmen responded. “I do hope you can do a bit of the heavy lifting athletically as well though. You’re by far the largest person here.”
“I promise to do what I can at least,” Atticus said.
“You can expect only the best from me!” Robbie said, walking over to us. The rest joined the group as well. “I was quite the stallion back in my prime!”
“I’m just going to pretend you’re not here,” Carmen said, turning away from Robbie.
“Even if we struggle during the basketball game, I promise you all that we’ll definitely win the baseball game,” Sabrina said. “I’ll pitch all nine innings, and there’s no chance they’ll get even a hit off of me.”
“That’s great and all, but baseball is the last of the three games. We need to win either basketball or soccer to even get that far. If we lose both of those games, then it’s all over,” Carmen said. “I have to ask, Sabrina, what the hell was going through your head as you made your picks?”
“It’s pretty simple actually. I picked Ryder because I couldn’t give the other team a chance to draft him, then I chose people who were ugly and or men, so they wouldn’t get in the way of Ryder, and I’s relationship.”
“Ugly?!” Robbie protested. “You bite your tongue!”
“I catch so many strays these days,” Cyrus said, shaking his head.
“What a way to create team chemistry,” Atticus said sarcastically.
“If that’s the case, then why did you pick me?” Carmen asked. “Because lord knows I’m not ugly nor a boy.”
“Because you’re going to help us win the soccer game,” Sabrina said nonchalantly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“What brought you to that conclusion?” Carmen asked, folding her arms.
“You’re the best soccer player of us all by far,” Sabrina said. “I played soccer in high school along with softball, and I remember a very athletic girl named Carmen from when I played in the California state finals. You scored three goals and knocked us out of the tournament almost single-handedly. You were quite good.”
“We played against each other? What year? I feel like I would have remembered playing a six-foot adonis with multi-colored eyes.”
“It was freshman year, so 2021. And I was a bit different back then,” Sabrina said. “I barely played any minutes in that game, and I was much shorter and less athletic than I am now. Anyway, being on the bench most of the time, I got to spend a lot of time watching you make us look like a 3rd grade travel team.”
“What a small world we live in. And yeah, soccer was never really my passion, but it's true that I was pretty good in high school,” Carmen said.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?!” Marin asked.
“I haven’t played since sophomore year, so I don’t know if I’m really any good anymore. I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. Guess the cat’s out of the bag now though.”
“We’ll still be counting on you!” Marin said. “We’ll all do our best too though!”
“When did you stop playing soccer, Sabrina?” Carmen asked.
“After my freshman year,” she responded. “I had a growth spurt over the summer, so my coach told me to focus on softball full-time rather than split it between the two.”
“So, to sum it up, we’ve got a team of one softball phenom, two washed up soccer players, some critical thinkers, and a bunch of people who probably don’t even know the rules of these sports…” Carmen said, holding her head.
“I’m definitely the last one!” Marin said.
“Not funny,” Carmen responded. “We’re going to need some major luck if we’re all gonna make it out of this alive.” We then heard a voice from the other group.
“We’re leaving to check out the shop. Will you still be joining us, Carmen?” Keon said.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” she said. “You all better practice hard or I swear to god.”
“We won’t let you down!” Marin said. “Shall we make our way to the basketball court before lunch?”
“I’ll come,” I said. The others agreed, and we made our way to the second floor to start our first practice session.