The night and morning went about as normally as they could have. Nothing was found during the nightly body search, breakfast was relatively quiet, and everyone was heading back towards the court before we knew it. One thing that was unexpected though was what was waiting for us on the basketball court; it was Levi.
“Hello, students!” he said enthusiastically. As per usual, no one responded. “How is the training going for you all?”
“Get off the court,” Carmen said. “You’re in the way.”
“I will. I will. But first, I have an announcement for you all!” Levi said. “As you all know, today is the last practice day and tomorrow we will have the first game of the sports tournament, so I thought I’d tell you some more about how this is all going to go down.”
“Be quick about it,” Carmen said.
“You’re all so impatient…The basketball game is going to be officiated by yours truly, and you may not believe it, but I actually played a lot of basketball in high school. I also coached a travel team, so you can trust me to get the calls right.” He gave us a thumbs up.
“Well, that’s the biggest lie I’ve heard all week,” Amber said.
“Yeah! Like they would ever let you near children, scumbag!” Marin yelled.
“It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not, frankly. I just wanted to give you all time to rethink your strategies if you thought you’d be able to get away with constant traveling or fouls. I have eagle eyes, so none of that will get past me. Also, the other sports will be officiated by other members of the staff, so do not worry about the other team catching any breaks. That is all. Good luck to you all!” Levi then left out the same door we entered.
“I can’t say that makes me feel any better about this tournament,” Miles said. “There’s no chance in hell that any of those nutjobs are going to be able to officiate a game. They wouldn’t be able to watch over a fucking bouncy castle.”
“People go to school for years to become umpires and referees, you can’t just pick it up overnight,” Conrad said. “I don’t know who’s going to call balls and strikes in the baseball game, but there’s no chance they’ll be able to do it accurately. Umpires can’t even do it accurately today, and that’s their job.”
“Having him on the court watching us is going to piss me off,” Maya said. “I’m gonna find an excuse to chuck a basketball at his face.”
“I think that’ll break the handbook rules, Maya,” Mia said.
“Ugh, I’ll just think it really, really hard then,” Maya pouted.
“Let’s just get to practice,” Keon said. “No use dwelling on Levi’s dumb antics.”
The two teams then separated and went to their respective sides of the court. Walking to my side with Marin, we both noticed that Sabrina not only wasn’t talking to me like she always would, but she wasn’t even looking at me.
“Sabrina definitely seems in pretty low spirits,” Marin whispered to me.
“Yeah, I can’t help but feel a bit bad…” I whispered back.
“Maybe you should apologize to her.”
“I can try. We definitely need her in a better mood if we’re gonna have a chance of winning.”
During practice, I was waiting for an opportunity to go up to Sabrina, but it was hard to approach her. She wasn’t talking to anyone and wasn’t even near anyone as we were practicing. I wasn’t sure what to say either. It is true that I was a little harsh during our meeting, but I had every reason to be. She’s been mean to everyone here and refuses to help the others even though this tournament hinges on the death of someone, and–according to Emma–she was planning on buying the escape tickets which would have killed everyone. She told me that she would have never done it without my consent, but she never seemed to care about that before. I definitely don’t trust her, and a lot will probably have to happen for me to start, but the truth is, we need her…so I’ll do it. I’ll apologize. I walked up to Sabrina, who didn’t even look at me.
“H-hey, Sabrina, can I talk to you for a sec?” I said.
“If you really want to…” she said, still looking away.
“I just wanted to say, I’m sorry. I know that you mean well, and I’m sorry for making you feel like your feelings didn’t matter. I just hope we, and the others, can still be friends after this is all over.”
“You don’t need to apologize!” Sabrina said as she stood up and looked right at me. “You were right…about everything. I keep putting you in these horrible situations by making you feel responsible for my actions and I’m sorry for that. I don’t deserve an apology.”
“I was out of line with what I said. We should just agree that we both did some things wrong and then move past it together, with everyone. Your feelings matter just as much as mine, and everyone else’s.”
“I really don’t deserve your kindness…” Sabrina said with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know if I could stand keeping away from you for very long though, so I will happily accept your apology and I hope that you can accept mine, even if I don’t deserve it…”
“You do deserve it, and I do accept it. Now, join us all in practice. We need our team captain to set this ship on the right course,” I said with a smile.
Sabrina couldn’t hold back her emotions anymore and grabbed me and pulled me into her chest. She was around six inches taller than me, so the angle of our hug was kind of awkward, but I embraced her back. After a short time, she let me go and gave me a warm smile. I’m glad my apology worked. Hopefully this will help change our fortunes.
“I’ll be nice, and I’ll work with the others,” she said. “The one thing I won’t budge on though; is protecting you. I’ll make sure that no one gets harmed while I do it though! I promise!”
“I figured you wouldn’t budge on that,” I said. “It’s a deal.”
I looked over to Marin and she gave me a thumbs up, while Carmen and the others looked happy as well, seemingly understanding the new change in our team chemistry. Sabrina then walked over to the rest of the team.
“Alright, everyone,” she started. “We’re going to do some dribbling drills, and then we’re going to practice our free throws. We don’t have all the time in the world, but I want to make sure that everyone is going to be comfortable when we stand on this court tomorrow.”
“Yes, captain!” Marin said.
“About time you started being a team player,” Carmen said with a smile.
We then practiced together as a group with Sabrina instructing us. Everyone now had a better understanding of their specific roles with Sabrina helping everyone practice their specific strengths. She was even being polite to Marin, albeit with a slightly annoyed look on her face. I’m sure that would change with time though. Marin has a way of getting people to like her. We took breaks for lunch, went back to the court, then when dinner came, we met up with the other team. Miles was exuding that same confidence that rubbed people the wrong way before the teams were set though, which annoyed some of my teammates.
“Looks like the basketball game is tomorrow!” he said. “We’ve seen you guys practicing so hard, so I promise not to beat you all so bad that you don’t earn any money to use in the shop.”
“You sure sound confident,” Carmen said. “I wouldn’t take us so lightly.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you’re all at least good enough to give fifth graders a run for their money, and, while I don’t want to seem like a dick, I don’t think you guys could even get within fifty points of us,” he said with a smug look.
“You’ve been a real piece of work lately,” Carmen said.
“I never did like the guy,” Atticus said.
“All I’m saying is that I’m going to sleep like a baby tomorrow knowing that I’m not gonna be on the chopping block at the end of this,” Miles said.
“Don’t even joke about that!” Marin yelled, pointing at Miles.
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“It’s the sad reality of the situation,” Cyrus said. “Someone will lose their life after all of this…but it’s not going to be someone from our team.”
“Woah! That’s some confidence you have there, Cyrus,” Miles said. “Hey, Emma. Do you think they stand a chance? Be honest.”
“Well…” Emma started. “As I’ve watched them, they have improved quite dramatically in a small amount of time, especially Ryder. Sabrina is a very capable player too, so I at least don’t think we’d be able to win by fifty or more, as you’ve claimed. I’d calculate that it would be a much closer game than that.”
“Jeez, Emma. Whose team are you on?” Miles said. “We’re gonna wipe the floor with them in basketball, then in soccer, then we’ll all be one step closer to getting out of here!”
“Miles. Just shut the hell up,” Conrad said, standing up. “There’s not an ounce of honor in you. They’ve been working just as hard as we have been, and we need to give them the same respect they’ve been giving us. After this tournament we’re all still going to have to work together, and you need to stop making us seem like the bad guys here. I won’t stand for it.”
“Well said, Conrad,” Keon said. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” Miles just threw up his hands and shook his head.
“We really do respect you all!” Amber said. “After this is all said and done, I hope there’s no hard feelings either way.”
“Same to you,” Carmen said. “There’s still a chance we can get out of here before the tournament ends anyway, and we’ll need everyone for that if the chance comes.”
As dinner concluded, the teams started to split up and say their farewells for the night. It seems like people don’t like practicing after dinner, and that’s fine with me. Before our team split though, Sabrina called a final team meeting once the other team had finished filing out.
“The game is tomorrow, so I wanted to reiterate to everyone the positions that they are going to be playing,” Sabrina said. “There are only five players on each side at a time, so two of us will be on the bench and will be rotated in throughout the game. We want to give everyone a chance to earn some money, so everyone–except me and Ryder–will take their turns on the bench and on the court. The reason Ryder and I will be kept in is so that if the game ends up being close, we can still have our best pure scorers in to keep the game close. I will be playing small forward, Ryder will be our permanent shooting guard, Atticus will play center, Robbie will play power forward, Cyrus will be playing point guard, and Carmen and Marin will be guards when they play. Carmen and Marin will be the first players on the bench to start the game.”
“I’ll be ready to go when you call on me!” Marin said, enthusiastically.
“I better get some minutes, Sabrina,” Carmen said. “There’s some things I need from that shop ASAP.”
“You will both get your chances, I promise,” Sabrina said. “Now I’m going to describe all of your specific roles. I know we’ve already talked about this, but I want to make sure there is absolutely no confusion during the game. Marin and Carmen are going to be our wild cards. They are most likely going to be guarded by the weaker players on the other team, but little do they know that you both can shoot the ball when you need to, so your job is to have them underestimate you, then make them pay.”
“You can count on me!” Marin said, even more enthusiastically.
“Me too,” Carmen said.
“My job is to be our number one scorer, and I will be scoring the majority of my points from inside the three-point line. I imagine that Miles will be the one to guard me, and while he talks a big game, I’m going to give him hell if he underestimates me,” Sabrina said.
“Hell yeah! Girl power!” Marin yelled.
“Ryder is going to be our number two scorer and will be shooting the ball from behind the three-point line. He’s already proven that he’s the best shooter we’ve got so if he’s open, get him the ball.”
“Hell yeah! Ryder power!” Marin yelled again.
“I’m glad we have our own personal cheerleader too,” Carmen said sarcastically.
“Atticus’s job will be catching rebounds and drawing fouls. You’re most likely going to be guarded by Conrad, and while you do have the height advantage, he is definitely the strongest man here, so don’t take him lightly.”
“I won’t,” Atticus said. “All I have to do is get the ball and give it to one of you. I can do that.”
“Robbie, you’re going to be the person who gets the other team to turn over the ball,” Sabrina said. “Steal the ball, rush a poor pass, just get them to give the ball over to us without fouling them.”
“My fingers are so nimble they won’t even know what the ball looks like!” Robbie said confidently. “It’ll be just like that time back in Mexico when I went to raid some ancient ruins looking for Aztec treasure, and I-”
“Okay, okay, you can tell us all about it when we win. We've got to continue the meeting,” Sabrina said. “Cyrus. Your job is to find the person who’s open and pass them the ball. The preference is obviously going to be myself and Ryder as the number one scoring options, but as the game goes on, I’m sure they will adapt to guard us both harder, so you’ll need to adapt too.”
“It won’t be a problem,” Cyrus said. “It’s basically me against Emma, and I’ve been wanting to see who can outsmart who for a while. This should be fun.”
“That’s the spirit,” Sabrina said. “That’s everything. I hope you all get a good night of sleep, because this game truly is important to all of our futures. We’ve done all we can, so be proud of how far you’ve all come. I’ll see you all at the nightly headcount.” She then waved us goodbye and left with a confident strut.
“She’s like a completely different person,” Marin said. “You must truly have a way with words, Ryder.”
“I really don’t, so I’m not sure where it all came from, but it did seem like I said all the right things.”
“If she’s with us, then I think I’ll sleep a lot better,” Carmen said. “That girl is a female Adonis.”
“It’s definitely good not to be on her bad side, even though a part of me wishes she’d smack me around a little bit,” Cyrus said with a mischievous smile.
“You’re a deviant,” Carmen said. “I know too much about your fetishes at this point.”
“Like you’re any better, ‘Miss Ultimate Pick-Up Artist’,” Cyrus said.
“More like ‘Miss Ultimate Succubus’,” Marin corrected.
“You’re all just mad you don’t have the charm I have,” Carmen said. “I’m going to head out now, so I’ll see you all later.”
“Yeah, I’ve gotta get ready for guard duty,” Cyrus said. “Catch you all later.”
Everyone started splitting up, and before I knew it, only Marin and I remained. Suddenly though, I remembered something I had to do.
“Hey, Marin. Sorry, but I gotta go talk to Emma real quick. I’ll meet you at the dorm, okay?”
“No worries! I was going to hang out with Amber for a little bit anyway. I’ve had a severe lack of girl talk since I’ve been here and I’m feeling the deficiencies of it.”
I laughed. “Okay, then I’ll see you later tonight.”
“See ya!” Marin said before walking off towards the dorms.
Time to find Emma. I gotta tell her that I defused the bomb known as ‘Sabrina,’ so she won’t tell the others about the escape tickets and make them turn against her. I was thinking about where she might be, and my first thought was her dorm, but I was worried that Conrad would answer the door instead and I would have no idea how to make conversation with him without looking incredibly awkward. I’ll use that option as a last resort. I racked my brain for a bit, then it struck. She’s definitely in the library.
The library was next to the cafeteria, so the walk was very short. Once I entered, I saw the familiar tight corridor in the middle of the room that branched off into the various bookshelves all the way until the back wall. This place was just as claustrophobic as ever. Walking throughout the aisles, I kept my eyes open for Emma, and, as expected, I found her perusing books in her own section which was filled with various mathematics books. She must have sensed my footsteps because we looked at each other at the same time. Her glasses were halfway down her nose. She pushed them up.
“Hello, Ryder. What brings you here?”
“Sabrina won’t be buying the escape tickets. I just wanted to make sure you knew that, so you didn’t tell the others.”
“I see. Do you believe her?”
“I do. There’s no chance she’s lying.”
“Okay. While I can’t say I fully trust her, I do trust you. We’ve been through too much together for me to doubt you now…Do you remember when we first entered the library?”
“Yeah, sadly I do. It feels just as cramped as ever. Walking through the tight, dusty corridors then finding a secret room where Andrea pointed a gun at us was definitely not the most fun sequence of events.”
“It truly was quite the experience,” Emma said with a slight smile. “Finding the secret room, almost getting killed, and then having to investigate Louis’s murder together…seems like we’re on a bad streak when in each other’s company.”
I laughed. “Yeah, it definitely seems that way. You didn’t bring me good news last night either, telling me that Sabrina might be planning to kill everyone.”
“I’m sorry for putting you in a tough spot,” Emma said. “But, if it was even a possibility, I had to make sure to prevent it.”
“I totally understand, and I’m glad you did. It gave me the chance to convince Sabrina to work with all of us, rather than just me.”
“Sounds like we’re better off than we were before then. I’m sure she’ll be a great help now just like she was at the beginning. I just hope she won’t revert back to closing us all out.”
“I’ll make sure that she doesn’t. You can count on me.”
“So responsible…Where was this Ryder when we had that gun pointed at us?”
We both laughed.
“We got out of it didn’t we?” I said.
“Yeah, but that was just because Levi was in the right place at the right time.”
“I guess you could say that luck was on our side.”
“Shut up. You know I hate the foolish idea of luck. Don’t even get me started,” Emma said, in a playful tone.
“Sorry, sorry.”
“You really have come a long way though,” Emma said. “My job was to analyze you all during practice, and you went from a major liability to the second-best player on that team. The way you solved the first murder too…it’s just strange.”
“Everyone’s been saying that. Cyrus and Marin both had similar sentiments. I see it too. I really don’t know what’s going on, but I feel…I don’t know how to describe it…like I can learn and process things much faster than I have ever been able to before. Maybe I’m a quick learner, and I just never applied myself before.”
“Well, whatever it is, keep it up. I’m sure it’ll help us more in the future. I’m going to get back to reading, so you should go get some rest.”
“Okay, then I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Ryder.” Emma then stuck her nose right back into her book and her glasses fell halfway down her nose once again.