5- The Game

We arrived in front of the stadium; Jimmy joined us after a couple minutes with our drinks. We ignored each other as Red and I continued to talk about magic. The other three were already inside the stadium. When we arrived at the box office, I smiled and winked at the girl behind the desk.  But before I could utter a word I was interrupted by the brown hair sister.

“I’ll pay for the tickets” Jimmy told me

“Don’t worry” I told her, “it’s the school that pays no need to lose money. We invited you to this” She smiled at me with mischief in her cold eyes.

“Well, it’s not my wallet so don’t worry about it” I looked at Red. She couldn’t possibly allow her sister to pay for the tickets with stolen money. Red sent me an incent smile and said to me

“I’m not her mother”

“She listens to you, you can’t let her do this” I said

“Is our little guardian angel a goody too shoes?” Jimmy sarcastically said. Without waiting for my answer, she turned around a bought the tickets.

“Can’t I at least flirt with her?” I said pointing at the girl.

“Please, you can do better than that” Jim said as she handed us the tickets and looked at her phone again. Without thinking I took the phone in my hand and squeezed so hard the phone shattered in my hand. Jimmy looked at me then to the ground. Without uttering a word, she went back to the desk took a paper and pen wrote something down and came back. She handed the paper to me a walked towards the entrance.

“What’s this?”

“That’s the new phone you are going to by me.”

“But this model is six hundred bucks” I growled. Jim came strolling back to me and patted my cheek.

“Don’t worry” she whispered “it’s the school that pays no?” and with that she walked away.

“Bad move sweaty” Red told me. I sighed, exasperated by all this. “You better make up to her”

“Why?” I curiously asked

“You know when I told you that you are the first person she willingly talked to in six years” I nodded “Well, I was wrong. I remembered the last person that broke something of hers. He ended up in an asylum.” Well this changes things.

“She’s having a childish fit? What is she, seven?”

“No honey, she’s board”

“Ok, ok, how do expect me to redeem myself?” I looked around me. There were stands around selling clothes, food and objects. Red pointed to a stand that sold beaver tales. I raised an eyebrow but did not comment. I made my way to the stand and bought her a chocolate beaver tale.

“Don’t forget the smatries. Jamie loves them”. I asked for smarties in a separate container. Once I had them I wrote ‘sorry’ on the dessert I just bought.

“Cliché, but doable” Red commented. I rolled my eyes at her and started walking towards our seats. Jimmy was waiting patiently in the corridor.

“Here” I gave her the beaver tale. She looked at me surprised then back at the food. She looked at Red, back to me then to the beaver tale. She carefully took the food from me and as she did so her figures brushed mine. Sparks flew me through me that warmed me up from the inside. My pulse quickened and my eyes dilated. She smiled at me, but it never reached her eyes.

“What’s wrong with you? You look sick” Jimmy asked me coming closer into my personal space.

“It’s called lust” I told her in a baby voice pointing at my face.

“What now?”

“I’m lusting over you” I told her with exaggeration arm gesture.

“Oh, ok. Well you and me both” she said then she took a bite from her food. My jaw fell all the way to the ground and my eyes popped out of my head. I could hear Red’s laughter booming through the hall.

“Are you lusting after yourself or after me?” I asked her. Red was leaning on me for support as she kept laughing. She was crying her eyes out as she was holding her abdomen.

“I think she just told you that she mas- masterb-“she couldn’t finish her sentence as she burst out laughing again.  We made our way towards our seats.

“Where have you been?” Jessica yells over the noise of cheering.  We all ignored her and took our places. I was sitting between Red and Jimhaya.

From the outside, the stadium looked like a normal baseball dome. On the inside, it was more than a mile in diameter. The arena contained buildings, forests, water and mountains. There was a wall two hundred meters high separating the stands and the arena. Each seat had a tablet.

“Listen up” I told the sisters beside me, “The game is simple, its capture the flag. There are two teams; each team is consisted of thirteen players. The goal to win is to get the flag and bring it back to the location dedicated. The catch is that everything goes: magic, maiming, fighting, hallucinations you name it. The only rule is no death, but obviously there always are” I said that last part as a joke. “The game ends when one of the teams catches the flag”

“Cool” Jess said. Red looked very interested, though I didn’t expect her to and I wouldn’t even bother with Jimmy.

“What happens if there is a death?” Red asked

“There five judges that analyse the cause of death and determine the consequence. Ususaly , the deaths are accidental and others are not. If a player dies caused by another player, the judges figure out if the player meant it, or if it’s the damage of an attack that killed him or her. Anyway, the penalty can go from time out, to expelled, to prison, to death sentence.” The sisters looked at us shocked. “Are you serious?” they asked together and we all nodded.

“That’s awesome!” Jess exclaimed. “That death rule just made the game more fun”

“We have a school team, and we are pretty good” Ren told her “Every year there is tryouts. You should come “

“I will defiantly!” They started making on the seats.

“I think I just threw up in my mouth” I heard Jammy said beside me.

“Come on” I said “they’re cute” she looked at me with her ‘I’m not impressed look’. I smiled at her. After a moment we heard noises and the crowd went nuts. The two teams were just coming into the arena. The tablets at our seats started shining. These devices showed us a 3D view of the arena and the location of the players. Each team had a matching uniform. Our team trained here Annwn, they wore a black collard jacket with red fiery designs on their sleeves and had their logo, a dragon, covering their entire back. Underneath they had sleeveless blazers that fell down to their waist and made of dragon scales. These black scales were almost impossible to penetrate rarest clothing in the world. They had red scarves, black pants with protective guards and military boots. Each team member had different weapons and artifacts depending on their role and their strengths. The Dragons were so far unbeatable for three years in a row.

I grabbed Red’s shoulder and pointed to one of our players. “See that guy? That’s Boris. He and the Japanese lady beside him are our school team coaches. That lady is Kasumi, it means beautiful and harmony. She is a priestess, so her speciality is magic. They have been our coaches for a couple of years now.” I was so excited to start playing again.

“That’s great” she told me but she was distracted by something. The dong rang throughout the stadium: the game began. I tapped Jimmy’s shoulder and asked “What’s with your sister?” Jimmy looked over me and saw Red’s intense face watching the game. “She’s analysing the play. You know: Tactics.”

The rest of the game went pretty fast; the Dragons owned tonight. We all got out of the stadium and made our way to the back where the players were coming out. We made our way through the sea of fans that are desperate for a signature or a picture. We saw Boris and Kasumi coming out of the dugout

“Coach” Ren yelled. We made our way towards them.

“Ren, Zoe, Sy” Kasumi excitedly said. “Are you guys going to try out for this year’s team?”

“Absolutely” Ren said

“Hello again girls” Boris told them “Kas, these are the J sisters: Jessica, Jasmine. hello Jimhaya”

“Boris” Jimmy said bitterly.

“Hey girls, I heard a lot about you. I hope you will try out for the flag team.” Kasumi said.

“Jessica” Boris said “We didn’t have time to talk after the evaluation but I hope to see you often. I liked your way of fighting but if you want I can teach you better technics”.

“Really?” Jess said “My dad is teaching me right now but he is teaching me in wolf form.”

“Who’s your dad?” Kasumi asked

“Raymond Hundale”

“Ray? You’re Ray’s children? That means you’re Kelly kids?”

“You know our mom” Red said

“Yes, your mom and I go way back.” There was a car honk behind us. Kasumi and Boris smiled at us “We better get going. We hope to see you at the tryouts in September” and they joined the rest of the team.

We made our way back to the portal, Jess and Ren leading the way. Once we were out the city, Jimhaya took off without a word. “Where is she going?” I asked Red.

“Don’t worry, she will be here soon” Red said. Not far from here I heard a muffled noise. I separated from the group who were too caught up in their conversations. I made my way to the empty ally and froze from what I saw. There was a guy who was caught in a death embrace with a woman. Her teeth were stuck in his neck, draining the life out of him. After a while she dropped his dead body on the ground. I gasped at the sight: It was Jimmy. Her closed eyes opened at the sound I made, but I managed to hide behind the wall. I couldn’t believe it, all this time Jimmy claimed that she was nothing but human. I knew she was hiding who she really was but I didn’t think I would see it in action let alone now. I quietly made my way to the van where the group was waiting. I made a mental note that I would speak with Red before I do anything else. Or I could simply keep it to myself, for I have now something I could use against her in the future. I think that is what I’m going to do.

“Sorry I’m late, I had to go pee” Jimmy said to us while we were waiting for her. She’d clean up well; there was no blood on her face, or on her green sweater. We all got in; I drove silently while the rest of them talked among themselves about our day. I looked back in my review mirror and looked at Jimmy in the back. She was looking out the window, ignoring everything around her. She turned her dead eyes and looked straight at me. She smiled at me then turned back to the scenery outside.

When we arrived at their home, the sisters got out, thank us for this awesome day. We said our goodbyes and before Jimmy went completely inside I shouted to her. “I’ll see you tomorrow Jimmy”. She stopped moving for a few seconds, and then walked in the house without a glance. I was a little disappointed that she didn’t acknowledge my presence.

“We will see you tomorrow” Red quietly said and followed her inside. Jess gave one last kiss to Ren and followed her sisters. We all got in the van and drove off to school.