Too Young (The Jewel Project #1)

Chapter 12.1 - The games People Play

Chapter Twelve

The Games People Play

Sam thought that Tom's determination to fool Angie would only last a few hours. His desire to insult her seemed much stronger.

But it turned out, over the next few days, that Tom was really striving to make it work. If Sam didn't know he was only doing this to win a stupid bet, he might have thought that his twin was really falling for Angie. They were still screaming insults at each other from time to time, but the matches were rarer and shorter.

Tom tried to joke with Angie, to surprise her. It usually ended with Angie flipping him off or throwing something at him. She seemed to be on to him.

Once, Tom jumped out from behind a tree to scare her while she was on guard duty. It resulted in Angie stuffing her rifle in his stomach. On that occasion, Tom forgot all about being nice and the insults that came flying from on to the other got Jerry to have a fit and refuse to feed them their next meal.

Sam wondered if he should warn Angie about what Tom was plotting, but he didn't like the idea of betraying his twin brother, so he decided to ignore the situation all together. He had other, more important things on his mind. Like Snitch Gravel. And Clive.

Over the next days, they moved camp every night, along the river. Sam knew that Snitch Gravel had to find them if they wanted the ruby back, but he didn't want that happening until they finished designing the traps. Steve and Jimmy were seeing to little else, and, when they finally agreed on all the potential traps they could build with the materials they had, Jimmy got working on the actual build. Clive seemed okay enough. They tied him up every night and Jimmy had practically turned him into his assistant so he could keep an eye on him while building traps.

Sam had mixed feelings about Clive seeing their traps, but he couldn't trust anyone else to keep an eye on him. Jimmy was the only one he was actually scared of. And seeing bits of traps wouldn't hurt. Jimmy sent him to do something else every time he had something essential to build or fine tune.

They also started sharing guard duty to give Jimmy time to rest and Kyle a break. Even if Sam insisted that he should get some rest, Kyle was on guard every night and devoted the day to making obstacle courses for their training.

Kay still took care of the girls' training. Angie was thrilled with learning how to fight properly, but the rest of the girls weren't as keen on it. Tina refused it all together, saying that she wanted no part in such barbarities. Christine and Alice tried their best, but Alice grew bored pretty quickly and Christine hated losing to Kay all the time. She only had fun when wrestling around with Angie who was a lot less serious than Kay.

Sam liked to watch them, though he had to close his eyes almost every time Christine was in trouble. He enjoyed Angie and Kay's sessions the most, probably because they were the only ones who did something that looked like proper fighting.

Kay was exceptionally good and Sam kept wondering if she could actually bring him down. His guess was yes, but either way, he refused to train with her when she suggested it. He couldn't even dream of hitting her. Kyle would appear in front of his eyes just too vividly and he didn't want to get knocked out again.

Sam had taken to translating more of the document in every second he wasn't spending emerged in maps, strategy plans, supply tables and schedules. There was little else he could do as a leader. He wasn't even sure that worked. He spent more time being bossed around during training than giving actual orders.

After days of sun and unbearable heat, it now looked as if it were about to rain. Sam didn't mind, he could take care of his plotting inside his tent just as well as outside. And a little break from training was welcome.