One Rotation

A Competition

Mr. Nostra then walks over, and tells us some shocking news.  They found some more NASA agents who they believe would be good matches for the mission also, and that they will be joining us now.  It is now going to be a competition for the five spots on the team.  We are going to be joined by seven more people, giving us a total of six girls, and six guys.  He introduces us to our new competitors, and they walk into the room.  First, the boys come out.  First, is Gabe Shell.  Gabe walks out, and we get a good look at him.  He is five foot eleven, and has dark brown skin.  He walks over, and stands next to us.  Mr. Nostra then introduces us to a man named Sean Brode.  Sean is a tall man of about six feet tall.  He shakes our hands with a firm grip, and stands quietly next to Gabe.  Mr. Nostra continues to talk, and tells us that the next person’s name is Jake Sandy.  He is about five foot eight, and has dark brown eyes.  He walks down the line, and nods to all of us.  He stands next to Sean, and we turn our heads back towards the door to meet our last male competitor.  The last male member of our competition is a man named Ryan Welk.  He walks into the room, and I shrink back.  Ryan is a burly man who is about six foot three.  He walks down the line, and glares at all of us.  He stands by Jake, and looks straight forward.  Mr. Nostra tells us about the new female competitors, and we crane our necks to get a good look at them.  The first girls name is Sydney Helm.  She walks in, and we get a good look at her, she is five foot five, and has long blonde hair.  She flashes us a smile, and stands next to Ryan.  We then meet Carly Laven.  She is five foot three, and has short brown hair.  She shakes our hands, and stands stiffly next to Sydney.  The last person we meet is Beth Blanch.  She walks in, and we all have to look down to look at her.  She is five foot tall, and she has long black hair.  Mr. Nostra tells that our competition will continue, and he takes out a white board and a marker.  He puts us in ranks of our current standings.  We know that only five of us will make it.  As of now, the rank is based solely on the rope climb.  He finishes writing them down, and steps out of the way so we can see what he has written. 1. Ryan, 2.Jake, 3.Molly, 4.Sean, 5.Carly, 6.Gabe, 7.Jim, 8.Nick, 9.Beth, 10.Sydney, 11.Olivia, and 12.Ava.  Next, we will be doing target practice.  We are led into a room full of targets.  We are given a gun with twenty bullets, and we are told to shoot them all.  I take aim, and pull the trigger.  The bullets fly out, and I stop when they are all gone.  We press a button, and the targets come up to us.  Every bullet of mine has hit the target, and in the center.  We walk down to the other edge of the room, to see our new standings. Me, being on the end, I get to see how everyone else did.  Ryan has also hit the target every time, but he is the only one of them who has.  I walk by Jake, and see that he has hit the target eighteen times, which I think is very impressive.

      I then walk by Sean’s, and Gabe’s targets.  Sean hit his target eighteen times, and Gabe hit his seventeen.  Carly did fine, and hit her target fifteen times.  Jim, and Beth both ended with twelve hits each, and it was mostly downhill from there.  The targets that have been hit, would not have counted in FBI training, because most of the bullets hit the side of the target, or in a place that would not be worth very many points.  I see that Nick had only hit his target nine times, but Ava’s result was a shocking one.  She had somehow managed to hit her target seventeen times.  She really wants this, and she will do whatever she can to make her way back up to the top, I think to myself.  Olivia and Sydney brought up the rear, with five hits each.  We walk the final way to Mr. Nostra, and he starts to do some math on the side of the white board.  He grabs a calculator out of his pocket, and continues to do his work.  Next to Ryan’s name, he starts to write down what his current score is.  He starts by writing twelve out of twelve, which is for the rope climb.  This means that he has beaten all of the other people at this event.  He then writes down a twenty out of twenty, for the shooting, leaving him with a score of one hundred percent, which makes him still in first place. He then goes to my name, and starts doing my calculations. He writes down a ten out of twelve for the rope climb, and a twenty out of twenty.  He then multiplies them together, and gets my composite score of eighty-three percent.  He writes that next to my name, and I assume that it means that I am now in second place.   He moves on to Jake, and writes down his scores, which are eleven out of twelve, and eighteen out of twenty.  He types some numbers into his calculator, and writes down Jake’s percent of eighty-two next to his name.  Jake stamps his foot, and Mr. Nostra continues to do his calculations.  Sean comes in next, with nine out of twelve and eighteen out of twenty, leaving him with a sixty-eight percent.

      Gabe takes the next space, with his scores of seven out of twelve, and seventeen out of twenty.  Mr. Nostra writes the fifty percent next to his name, and fills the next spot with Carly’s name.  Carly’s scores were eight out of twelve, and fifteen out of twenty.  She also ends with a fifty percent, but her percent was lower by a few decimal points.  There is a large gap between Carly and the rest of the competitors.  Jim comes in next, with a thirty percent.  His scores were a six out of twelve, and a twelve out of twenty.  Beth takes the next spot, with a four out of twelve, and twelve out of twenty, leaving her with a final score of twenty percent.  Nick ended close behind, with a score of nineteen percent.  His percent was based on his scores of five out of twelve, and nine out of twenty.  Ava comes in next, but she is a decent way behind.  She has scores of one out of twelve, and seventeen out of twenty, leaving her with a final percent of seven percent.  Olivia takes the second to last place, with a percent of six.  Her scores were low, being a three out twelve, and five out a twenty.  Sydney ended up with the last spot, with her low percent of four percent.  Her scores were two out of twelve, and five out of twenty, putting her just behind Olivia. He writes down our names in order by rank, and we look.  1. Ryan, 2 Molly, 3.Jake, 4.Sean, 5.Gabe, 6. Carly, 7.Jim, 8.Beth, 9.Nick, 10. Ava, 11. Olivia, and 12, Sydney.  We nod, and walk back to our targets.  The targets have been replaced with life size cut outs, and our guns have been replaced with ten throwing knives.  We are told to throw all of our knives, and we are told to start.  Knives start to fly, and we are finished in a minute.  I grip my last knife, and release it.  It spins over and over, and sticks in the neck of the target.

      The targets come towards us, and I see that all of my knives, just like all of my bullets have hit the target.  We start the walk back over towards Mr. Nostra, and we look at everyone’s targets.  This time, Ryan hasn’t hit his target every time.  This time, he hit his target nine times.  Jake ended up hitting his target seven times, but they were all good hits.  Sean also did well, and he hit the target nine times.  Gabe ended up hitting his target most of the time, and ended up with a score of eight out of ten.  Carly, was not the best at throwing knives, and she managed to hit her target three times.  Jim did the same, and hit the target three times.  Beth, who seems to have a knack for knife throwing, hit her target nine times.  Nick did better on the knives, and hit target seven times.  Ava, ended up doing well on knife throwing as well, and ended up hitting her target eight times.  Olivia did just as well as Ava, and also got eight of her knives to hit on the target.  The most impressive I think, is Sydney, who also ended up with sight knives hitting the target.  They were not the best hits, but they ended up hitting the target anyway.  By the time we got to Mr. Nostra, he has already started to write down the numbers.  Ryan, who already has a perfect score of one hundred percent, then got his score multiplied by nine out of ten, leaving him with a final score of ninety percent.  I come in next, with my score of eighty-three percent.  Sean is next, with his new score sixty percent.  Jake finishes close behind in fourth percent, with fifty-eight percent.  There is a gap between Jake, and Gabe.  Gabe ends with forty percent.  There is a large gap between Gabe, and Beth, and the rest of the scores just keep decreasing.  Beth is next, with her score of eighteen percent, and Carly is not far behind with fifteen percent.  Nick, is not that far behind, with thirteen percent.  Jim is also not too far behind, with his score of nine percent.  Ava is still in ten percent with six percent.  Olivia is next, with five percent, and Sydney is in last with three percent.  Most of the ranks are the same, but a few of them have changed.  Ryan is still in first, and I am in Second, but now Sean has moved up one spot, to spot three.  Jake has been taken down one spot, and is now is sitting nice in fourth.  Gabe has also stayed the same in fifth place.  Beth, has moved up two spots, and is now in sixth place.  Carly has moved down one, and has been set in seventh place.  Nick has moved himself up one rank also, and is in eighth place.  Jim has dropped down two places, and is now in ninth.  The last three places, which belong to Ava, Olivia, and Sydney, have all stayed the same.  I am in a good spot, but I need to stay there.  Of the five of us who were on the begging team, only one of us are currently on the team.