As Prof begins calling the names of the next team, my group and I make our way out of the building. We walk silently onto the path back towards the main U of the hub. Well, everyone but Baylee remains silent as she is practically bouncing up and down with excitement beside me.

“This is going to be great, Serena! I just know it!” Baylee continues, making me look up and smile at the taller girl. She is absolutely full of energy and almost reminds me of how Celeste acts at times. It’s hard for me to even keep up with what she’s saying enough to formulate any kind of response.

Moving away from the lecture hall, our team ends up taking a side path off towards a nice little park with a massive fountain and a few large oak trees. Honestly, the entire little area is quite serene. The fountain burbles away happily, surrounded by stone benches, and the trees softly rustle in the breeze. I have no idea how this can be at the top of a building, but at this point, I’m just not going to question it. This entire place has to be full of magical shenanigans to even exist. I’m willing to bet I don’t even know half of it.

Reaching the little park, Baylee and I sit beside each other on one of the stone benches, Claire and Haruto sitting nearby. The Japanese girl, Akari, chooses to sit a bit further away from the group, making me wonder if she had wanted to be solo.

Upon us all finding seats, to absolutely no one’s surprise, it’s Baylee who speaks up first. “Hi everyone, it’s great to meet you! My name is Baylee. I’m a pink sentinel with a specialty in ranged magical attacks. I’m excited to work with you all. If you’d all be willing, would you also share your color and specialty?”

With that said, Baylee gives me a small nudge, indicating she wanted me to go along with her idea. Not seeing any reason not to, I go next. “H-Hi. I’m Serena,” I say, my face flushing as everyone looks my way. “I’m a blue sentinel. I can conjure mist and infuse healing magic into it for area-of-effect. O-Or just use it on you directly,” I finish, describing how Celeste and I had theorized my abilities would grow.

Claire, the blonde girl with red streaks in her hair and a grin plastered on her face that makes her seem semi-insane, laughs. “That’s bloody awesome! We got the blue!” she exclaims, startling me with her slight British accent. Shinara is a mixing pot of cultures, but most Brits tend to end up in cities closer to their home. It makes them a little rare in Shinara, which is mostly made up of Japanese people and Americans who fled the war.

America had been hit hard when the Volcora started escalating around 20 years ago, which led to the mass exodus from the country. Having already been on the brink of a second civil war, many of the less polarized people had fled rather than stay in the war-torn country, being terrorized by both soldiers and volcora. Shinara had been the prime place to go as the most welcoming new city, and thus, the American population here had swelled drastically.

“I’ll go next then,” Claire continues, looking around at us with her wide grin, “My name is Claire, I’m red. My specialty is killing things. You know, giving them the ol’ stabby stab.”

I watch Claire for a long moment before deciding that, yes, she really is this unhinged. It makes me wonder if this attitude will remain once we actually get into a real fight together.

Before I can consider too much further, Haruto takes his turn. “Hello, I am Haruto Sato. I am a green sentinel specializing in barrier magic. My primary role on the team will be to keep you all safe,” he says, his tone clipped and professional, as if he’d practiced saying this exact thing to his mirror multiple times.

With that, we all turn toward Akari, who suddenly looks very uncomfortable. However, sadly for her, peer pressure is a powerful thing, and she caves rather quickly. “Akari Kimura, violet. I am a melee combatant,” she says; her voice is as clipped as Haruto’s, but I detect a heavy trace of nervousness within it. It immediately makes me want to go and see what’s wrong and try to comfort her. However, I have a feeling she might not take kindly to me trying to help her.

For a moment, my other team members look uncomfortable at Akari’s short, clipped explanation. I’m not quite sure why, but from the way that Baylee shifts in her seat — seemingly in an attempt to hide me from Akari — something is definitely up. The only person who seems not to care in the slightest is Claire, who had immediately started picking at her nails.

I bite my lip, considering Akari’s words. Something she’d said had jumped out at me, and I’m not quite sure why. Kimura… where have I heard that name before?

Luckily, being a socially adept person, Baylee recovers quite quickly, shooting everyone that same welcoming smile she’d given me. “Well, I’m so glad to meet you all. I’m excited to spend the rest of the day getting to know you.”

Akari's face had remained as hard and impassive as stone as she had observed the reactions of the team, but underneath that, a spark of deep hurt flashes in her eyes. Her posture stiffens just a little before she speaks.

“I apologize,” Akari says, standing. “I have family obligations to attend to today. I will see you all on Thursday.”

With that, Akari turns and walks away from the park, leaving all of us watching after her, a bit dumbstruck. She didn’t even want to get to know us? This is her team, the people who will be watching her back, and all those other things Prof said. Why not stay and get to know everyone?

I look to Baylee, feeling hurt myself. “Should I go after her?” I ask.

Akari had shown up early and waited for orientation for longer than I had. If she had an urgent family problem, I doubt she would have done that. Could this have just been an excuse to leave after she saw how the others reacted to her introduction?

I start to stand to go after Akari, but Baylee puts a hand on my shoulder and gives me a serious look. “She’s from the Kimura family. From what I’ve heard, they aren’t people to mess around with. Just… don’t talk to her without me or someone else to watch your back, yeah?” Baylee asks, her voice quiet and serious. Honestly, she reminds me a bit of a protective older sister, even though we seem to be the same age.

I frown deeply; what is with the Kimura family? Wait… isn’t that what one of the men who had attacked me while visiting my mother’s grave had said? Yes! He had said, “The Kimura family will hear about this.” What does that mean about Akari, though? Is she connected to the Reavers?

“I-I… okay,” I say, wilting even further; I make a mental note to look up the Kimura family when I get home. There’s clearly something I’m missing here, and I need to know what’s going on.

Either way, I really don’t like that Akari had been forced away from her own team. She’s a sentinel, just like I am, and I don’t care if she’s a Kimura or not. People should be judged on their own merits, not their last name.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“This will certainly be interesting with her on the team,” Haruto says eventually, breaking me out of my thoughts, “As long as us four can work together, we should be fine. Plenty of teams have only four members.”

Baylee nods, “Haruto is right. With us four, we should be fine. We should try to work with Akari as much as we can, but if she doesn’t want to cooperate, then it will be easier to just allow her to operate as she wants outside of our team.”

I bite my lip, not liking how they are pretty much instantly writing Akari off. I’m sure she has her reasons for how she has acted so far. “Just, can I try talking to her first?” I ask, my voice hesitant, “I don’t know why, but… she seemed hurt. We should give her a chance.”

Baylee gives me a tense look but nods. “Sure, you can. I just want you to be safe, okay?”

I nod my agreement; if Akari’s family is really that dangerous, I will want someone with me. Also, it’s kind of strange how protective Baylee is acting of me. Is it just because I’m a blue? Have I already been profiled by my color, like with Ashlyn?

Looking up at Baylee, I still can’t shake my first impression that she looks somewhat familiar. Finally, though, I think I’ve placed her. “Baylee, random question, and you can feel free not to answer, but… do you attend Silver Ridge Highschool? I swear I’ve seen you around before,” I ask, wanting a change of subjects.

Baylee’s eyes go wide — then, she grins. “I do!” she practically squeals, pulling me into a hug, “You attend too?! Oh my gosh, we are going to be best friends!”

Stars! What have I gotten myself into? “I attend as well. You might not have noticed me because I spend most of my time outside of classes at the archery range,” I say, awkwardly trying to extricate myself from Baylee’s hug.

After Baylee is finished attempting to squeeze the life out of me, she looks to Claire and Haruto. “How about you guys? Attend Silver Ridge?”

Claire and Haruto are both shaking their heads before she even finishes asking the question.

“That’s the private school for you rich pricks,” Claire quips. “Us poor folk have to go to the public schools.”

Haruto nods in agreement, “I may have said that differently, but yes, my family cannot afford such a school.”

“Well, you should be able to now. I mean, if you wanted to,” I offer.

Haruto narrows his eyes, “What do you mean?”

Claire hops to her feet and moves to stand right before me, hands on hips. “Yes, Serena. What do you mean?”

I wilt under their attention and throw a confused-looking Baylee a mental plea for help. “I-I… I just mean that. In the contract that we signed during intake… i-it comes with a salary. It’s pretty high, too. I thought all of us got the same thing.”

Claire steps back, throwing her head back and laughing uproariously. “To think! Of all the people to actually read the bloody contract. I thought it would be you, Haruto, but nope, it was little Serena.”

I blink, “You mean you all signed the intake contract without reading it?” Most of the reason my intake had taken so long was because I’d gone over everything in fine detail with Prof. There were a lot of interesting things. Immunity to some laws, a fairly high salary, and massive benefits for my entire family. They really want sentinels to feel comfortable basically signing up to be child soldiers.

Baylee grins, placing her immaculate hand on my shoulder. “Serena, you are officially the team’s lawyer. I think all the rest of us saw a fifty-page contract and thought, nope, I’ll just sign it.”

“If that is indeed the case,” Haruto says, “then I may consider transferring to Silver Ridge. My parents have never liked my current school, and I believe they would love the chance. Serena, do you know when we will receive our first payment?”

I shake my head, unable to believe that they were all here and none of them even knew they were getting paid for it! I mean, sure, I hadn’t thought to expect a payment, but still! “We all get a sign-on bonus of 70 million yen. It should be arriving via check to your houses sometime next week.”

Now even Baylee stares at me, dumbstruck, and… yeah, fair enough. It had been a lot for me to take in, too. I still haven’t told Dad that he basically never needs to work again as long as I remain a sentinel. I doubt he’d quit his job, though; he loves teaching too much.

Still embarrassed by the state of my dumbstruck teammates, I just continue. “According to Prof, most sentinels barely care about their monetary wealth as you can’t use it to get magic items. He just recommended that I get an accountant to deal with all of the finance stuff and be done with it.”

“How are you so casual about this?!” Haruto asks, eyes wide. “That’s more money than I thought I’d earn in my life.”

“B-Because I freaked out about it yesterday,” I admit. “My dad is a teacher at Silver Ridge, which is how I got in. We don’t have money. I just read the contract, so I knew it was coming. I-I promise I’m not trying to be casual about it. I honestly thought you all already knew.” I stutter out, cheeks burning. This is not the first impression for my team I’d wanted!

Beside me, Baylee gently pats my shoulder, “It’s okay, we definitely should have read the contracts. No one is mad at you for anything.”

Claire laughs again, bending down and patting my head in a way that makes me flush bright red again. “Mad?! If anything, you’re my new favorite person! Good job, Little Blue!”

Scene Break [https://i.imgur.com/ESIIWUW.png]

After more talking and a lot more teasing me, Baylee finally manages to get the team back on topic. Well, somewhat. I’m not sure it’s possible for Claire to focus on one thing for more than a few minutes at a time. So, as the discussion starts, Claire is wandering around the little park, looking as if she is considering taking her shoes off to jump into the small fountain. Having learned that trying to convince Claire not to do something sketchy is a losing battle, the rest of us more or less ignore her until we end up needing to fish her out of the fountain.

“Okay!” Baylee exclaims, clapping her hands to make sure that at least Haruto and I are paying attention.

“We have one last thing that we need to figure out before we break for today,” Baylee continues happily. “The team name!”

Haruto and I share a glance, both clearly wondering how we ended up being the only sane people on this team. Well, who knows, maybe we’re just the only introverts on the team. Other than Akari, of course.

“Okay,” I start, “I don’t really have any ideas, though.”

“Well,” Baylee says proudly, “I was thinking that — because of your weather magic and because we basically have all of the different colors on our team — we could be Team Rainbow!”

I wince internally. However, I don’t really mind the name that much. Not to mention that sentinel team names tended to be either overly girly or overly edgy, with this one sitting firmly on the girly side. This is probably a side effect of most sentinel teams being made up of mostly teenagers. I’d once watched a very serious news broadcast comparing two sentinel teams. Team Femme Fetale vs Team Knife’s Edge It was simultaneously one of the most interesting and most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. As such, Team Rainbow honestly isn’t even that bad.

I shrug, “I don’t mind it, actually,” I say, giving my two cents before looking to Haruto, who had pulled out his phone.

After typing for a few seconds, he holds it up. “Team Rainbow is already taken; a team in Brazil has it.”

Baylee deflates, “Dang, I liked that one. Oh, I know, what about-”

Baylee is cut off by the sound of a large splash as Claire, having stripped off her shoes and jacket, literally leaps into the fountain. We all watch in confusion and wonder as she comes up for air a moment later, sputtering and soaking wet.

“I-It’s r-r-really c-c-cold!” she cries, moving quickly back towards the edge of the water.

Cursing, I hop up from my bench seat and run over to help her out of the fountain. Sadly, Claire is a fair bit bigger than me, all tall and muscular. Outside of my assault state, helping her out of anything is a challenge. Still, I manage to help Claire hoist herself out of the fountain, getting completely soaked myself in the process.

Once out of the water, Claire throws her arm over my shoulders, soaking me further and grinning broadly, “Thanks, Little Blue! I wonder if they have any towels.”

Vaguely, I wonder if Claire will ever actually use my real name again as looking around for a place for us to go get some towels. Surely, the admin building will have some, right? Because I’m already starting to shiver.

Looking away from Claire, I see Haruto and Baylee staring at us, still seemingly in shock from the fact that Claire had literally jumped into a fountain.

Baylee gives Claire a flat look. “You really are a few sandwiches short of a picnic, aren’t you.”

And that, is how Team Picnic was born.