The Vesta House Squad

15) Capture The Flag: Conductivity and Bait

The Summer Solstice had arrived, and even the students who weren't looking forward to the Capture The Flag game were excited. This much was obvious from the fact that in spite of their teachers' best efforts, nobody was paying attention during their morning classes, as they were eagerly anticipating getting out of school early. 

Right now, for example, the gang was sitting in class, having finished their in-class assignments, and were waiting impatiently to be excused. Isaac was reading yet another terrible YA novel, his eyes darted back and forth as he spent just seconds on each page before turning over to the next. Arthur sat still, staring at his desk, as he had nothing better to do. Katrina did the same, but for a different reason: she wanted to avoid looking at her classmates and accidentally ruining her day by finding out that they were thinking of something really stupid. Finally, Valerie was idly pulling a string out of and around her index finger into roughly the shape of a ball. She had managed to get it to about the size of a baseball when finally, the bell rang. Almost everyone leapt from their seats and hurriedly rushed outside. Isaac speed walked with his face still buried in his book, using his peripheral vision to follow the flow of the crowd. Arthur walked beside him, intuitively sticking by his friend and roommate. Valerie dashed past the two of them, almost tripping over herself in her haste. On her way out the door she deftly plucked the ball of string from her fingers and tossed it into the trash can. Katrina initially chased after her, but changed her mind after looking back at the boys and walked alongside them instead.

The first thing they had to do was change into their P.E. clothes. Usually, it was just their P.E. class but now everyone in school was here, and none of them had ever seen the locker rooms so crowded before. In the girl's locker room, hanging out with the rest of the Aphrodite kids was Ally, who waved amiably at her and Katrina happened to pass by.

"Hey, I haven't see you in a while! How's everything going at school. You finding everything okay?" she asked.

Valerie told her how she enjoyed her classes and how everything was just fine...well, except for the situations with her siblings. That still hadn't improved.

"Ugh. Bullies," Ally replied. "Sometimes I wish I could just make 'em disappear you know what I mean?" After a short pause, she added, "So who's your friend here?"

"Ah I've heard about you," she said after Katrina introduced herself. Then expecting her to snap back, she added, "Don't worry, I'm not here to argue with you. But if you'll accept some advice, maybe if you weren't judgmental you'd be happier? Just a thought."

Valerie expected her to argue back, but Katrina simply just nodded as she stared at Ally's face. Ally then wished the two of them good luck as they parted ways (for the Aphrodite kids were assigned to Blue Team). Katrina's eyes followed her as she walked away.

"I don't like her," she said, her eyes still narrowed.

"Oh? what's that? You don't liked the girl who said the way you judge people is bad?" Valerie feigned astonishment. "What a shocker."

"Yeah...it's probably just that," said Katrina, her gaze still lingering in the direction Ally had headed.

Meanwhile in the boy's locker room, Arthur's presence was causing quite a commotion. Since its release yesterday, the article had made its way around school, and there were more than just a few pairs of eyes on him. In particular, the Poseidon kids seemed especially riled up today. However, neither Arthur nor Isaac noticed anything out of the ordinary, and almost walked right into them.

"Whoa whoa whoa uh...yeah don't go there right now, it's...uh let's just say it's a bad idea," said one of the older boys as he guided the two of them into a different direction. He explained to them that the Poseidon kids always hung in the showers they nearly just walked into, and having read the article, they were out for blood.