It was like everyone in the whole world planned to bore him to tears. Today of all days! Squad VII was stepping onto the field poised to decimate their competition in yet another spectacular victory. Everyone knew it! They were idiots if they thought Squad VIII stood a chance.

William looked forward to watching the blow-by-blow feed across the multi-screen stadium and maybe even get a nice view of the playing field.

Nothing beat watching the game from the VIP lounge; it was a near exclusive experience. People like Sarah and Reginald were the sort of people who could afford the experience. William figured out early in his first year that making an appearance at every game was important to a person’s reputation; especially if they wanted to get somewhere in life. Not turning up created an unspoken list of faux elite; the posers pretending to have money and connections. Those were the people you needed to watch out for; they’d keep taking until there was nothing left to give. He was lucky that Sarah bought him a season’s pass as a reward for making one of the better squads. One less thing for him to worry about funding, and more importantly, his name wouldn’t have the embarrassing ‘Guest of’ log next to it.

The day before the big game, Liam needed to impress Sarah by renting a drone to get a personal view of the competition. With a drone, they could zoom in on their favourite player and keep it anchored on them throughout the game. Drones couldn’t interfered with the game in anyway, and if someone were to try, they’d get expelled without so much as a warning. If he remembered right, there was a cluster of drones anchored over the stadium ceiling.

Sarah bounced in the way that girls did when they can’t keep their excitement a secret. Reginald snapped at her for not controlling herself, but Liam didn’t seem to mind when she squeezed up close to him. Being a girl of impeccable taste, Sarah wanted to watch Seth in action. Liam may have caught her wink to William, but stammered a hasty, “We’ll see.”

It’s only fair, William reasoned, the drone was completely paid for by Liam, with no hand-outs from his mom, who felt that his time would be better spent studying. Who was she kidding? It was obvious to William that Sarah’s family had eyes on Liam, and maybe a sort of arrangement was in the works. Sarah didn’t look like she hated the guy; but then again, it didn’t look like she liked him as much more than a friend either.

Drone access was going to get harder as the games reached the finals. Even faculty would get in on the bids if their favourite teams were in the silver tier rankings. Last year, a whole cluster of students pooled their credits together, even going as far as making a timetable for who had control over the drone. Things could get pretty intense.

William didn’t get much sleep that night. His mind wouldn’t let go of last year’s greatest moments. He had seen the reel a million times, dedicating the best bits to memory. God, he’d give anything to see some of those plans playout this year. Seth’s moves were incredible. He’d never seen anything quite like it. If someone told him that Seth was an undercover Hunter, he’d believe it in a heartbeat. Only problem with that idea was that Seth had no ties to the Order, and as far as he knew Hunters were only sanctioned by the Red Order. Ah, well, it would have been cool.

He dozed off at some point in the early morning night. William woke to the customary pre-game chanting as student prepared for their day.

A wide smile graced his face. Game day finally!

He rushed to his wardrobe and fished around the bottom for his lucky socks. Squad VII had never lost a game as long as he wore those socks, and he’ll be damned it he’d cost them a game because someone else thought it was a silly superstition.

His tablet chimed, lighting up the surface of his nightstand. The name: Captain Evelyn Clark sat in the center of the surface.

‘Squad meeting 0800. Squad office.’

Captain Clark was everything that Seth was not. She was cold and calculating. He could never tell what she was thinking, except that maybe she didn’t like him. Then again, he got the impression that she didn’t like anyone. People were there to either help her get ahead or they were in her way. Something had to be working if she lead her team to a silver tier ranking. This year was her second and last year as captain, and William was under the impression that the thing she wanted the most was to take Seth’s place in the championship rankings.

Too bad for her that wasn’t a realistic goal. Seth’s awesomeness had yet to be unleashed.

He dressed in his white and orange squad uniform, hoping that the meeting would be quick so he could rush to the stadium. He reached the Squad IV office ten minutes early, joining six other members with a more arriving in minutes. “Ah man! I was looking forward to today’s game.” Dave sighed to his pal Paul. “You hear Seth benched half his team?” Both were third years, but knew enough to obey the captain’s unreasonable command.

“What! When?” William felt his cheeks flushed when they stared at him. Was he supposed to know already? Where did they get their news? He’d love to get in on whatever source they had.

Dave rolled his eyes. “Subscribe to the feed, Greenie.” He hated being treated like he was a stupid first year. William shrugged, it was the only way he could hide the fact that his new nickname bothered him. “Whatever, I knew that.” He wished he had thought of looking at the school gossip rags, but they weren’t exactly credible sources. He didn’t want to waste his time reading about who was dating who, which is basically what these trash mags ended up degrading to. Ah well, to each their own.

“Yeah, sure ya did, Greenie.” The older players pulled him into a headlock and messed up his hair. “Aw he looks so cute when he’s mad.” Paul smirked as William ran his fingers through his hair to straighten the mess. “Don’t sweat it, Greenie. It’s not like you would have had access to the feed until some squad was bullied into taking you.”

“Seth didn’t bully nobody!” His screech caught him and his teammates by surprise. He felt his ears boil. If he could just crawl away and die now, that would be great.

“I don’t bully easily,” Captain Clark retorted, closing the distance between the military avenue and her squad. According to rumour, the captain was tenth generation military, and like her mother and father before her, she was enrolled into the Academy’s military program. Becoming squad captain last year and dominating the tournament in the way that she did only proved that her fine breeding made her into the competent leader that she was. Pity genetics wasn’t the only deciding factor in a good leader.

The players fell inline and saluted. Breath held, William dashed into position, and struck his chest with his closed fist, mimicking the other players. With one hand behind his back, he counted the number of his fellow squad mates who were also enrolled into the military program. He’d have to check the records again to be sure, but was he really the only one in the social program?

What did Seth hold over her that would make her recruit outside of her preferred hunting grounds?

Captain Evelyn Clark carried herself with authority. She was tall, taller than a girl ever ought to be, by William’s standards. Everything about her was crisp and clean. Not a hair out of place, and fastened into a tight bun at the base of her skull. She kept her hands behind her back, her chest out, her chin up so that she’d have to look down her nose to address her players. Her collar bore the circular trophies of her victories: two solid bronze and one hallow silver button. This year, she was going to win herself a solid gold button.

“That said…” her voice was kept low so that the players would have to focus their attention on her words. “You’re not here because you’ve earned a position among our ranks. You’re here because the alternative would have caused us embarrassment. Greenie, do you plan on embarrassing me?”

What kind of question is that?

She lowered her voice. “I said… Do you plan on embarrassing me?” He thought he saw hellfire reflected in her brown eyes.

“No, sir.”

“Greenie, do you plan on embarrassing your team?”

“No, sir.”

She nodded. He got the impression that he was let off easy. She opened the office and stepped inside. It was weird how everyone waited for her. All members from Squad III and Squad IV had access to the office, with the exception of the Squad’s personal war room. He’d never seen it for himself, but according to rumour, every war room was equipped a little differently.

Her soldiers followed in silence, taking their seat in the war room and waited on her instruction. He couldn’t tell if she relished her hold over her soldiers. Not a single one of them would breathe without her permission. He couldn’t understand why. Did they fear her? Was it respect? Or was it something else entirely?

She took her seat at the head of the table and activated the console. A projection of the game field rose from the table. All participating members of Squads VII and VIII appeared in groups of three over their starting base.

Squad members slid their tablets into position, downloading the data that their captain had prepared. William cringed inwardly. He had no idea he was supposed to bring his tablet. On game day, the only thing any sane person would want to do is keep their eyes glued to the screen. He could download the feed after the game. He wondered what they were reading.

“Greenie, we perceive you to be a liability to our team and its goal. We understand that you are somewhat of a rabid fan of Squad VII’s captain.” Captain Clark couldn’t bring herself to say his name. Even thinking of him brought a twisted expression to her face. Was it hate? No, it had to be disdain. William wondered what would cause such a look.

“You have yet to prove yourself, Greenie. We’ll be watching you carefully. Anything discussed with regards to our training, research and tactics is top secret. That is unless you want your career in the games to be cut short. Do I make myself clear?”

He stared. It was all he could do. He wasn’t sure what he was being accused of: a snitch? Worse? What was she going to do to him?

“I said: do I make myself clear?”

He nodded. He didn’t want to ask for details. Right then, he made up his mind about one thing; there was nothing her or anyone else could do to him to make him quit. He could take the torture. He could stand being benched all season; as long as he stayed in the game. She could remove him, but he could recover from that. Anyone who knew her in person or by reputation would take his side for sure. There’s no way he was ever going to get a fair shake from someone like her. She could trade him, which would suit him fine, he didn’t need to win nearly as badly as she did. Besides he had three years ahead of him to make his mark. Her days were numbered.

“We made silver tier last year.” The team cheered, pounding their feet against the floor to maximize the energy of their win. The noise cut off when the captain nodded. “This year we need get you losers ready to go toe-to-toe with Squad VII. We all know they’re the team to beat. We aren’t alone in this. Many of our silver tier brothers and sisters have the same goal. BE NUMBER ONE!”

Again the squad hollered their approval. Again the noise was cut short. “We can use our brothers and sister’s efforts to our advantage. Let them do the heavy lifting while we train harder. We covered a lot of ground last year. I moved us up 10 ranks and I have no intention of losing that momentum. I want you to live and breathe the games. You will rise as soon as curfew allows and train. You will be allotted fifteen minutes to eat, and then you will spent the next forty five minutes training. I don’t care if you smell like a demon shit you out for breakfast, you will not waste a single free second. This year, WE WILL BEAT SQUAD VII.”

His team cheered like she had announced the end of the demon war. William clapped. William whistled. William hooted. He mimicked anything that wouldn’t betray him as less than thrilled about his new lifestyle regime as dictated by a woman on a power trip. He hoped that these animals wouldn’t sniff him out.

“Problem, Greenie?” Her voice cut through the ego boosting. All eyes fell on him, judging him.

“I have umm…duties during lunch and after class and I still have to study.” As soon as he said the words, he knew it was a mistake. He had no problem sacrificing the café job that Astral accidentally forced him into taking after her fit. The damaged she caused was due to be paid up by the end of the month. He had no intention of keeping the job after the debt was paid. As for studying… well no one looked at your grades once you graduated. All that mattered was that he attended the school. What he didn’t want to do was ruin his time with his friends, friends who actually had some value in the real world, unlike these want-to-be War Hawks.

“To the first point, not our problem. You train when you are told to train. I don’t care how special you think your circumstance are. To the second point, best advice I have for you is learn how to learn. We don’t keep dummies. You need a B average, unless you want to get promoted, in which case you’ll need straight A’s. Too much to handle, Greenie?” Captain Clark jutted her chin toward the door. “Don’t waste my time.”

He’d never be able to rejoin the games if he quit. She could make his life hell, but it was his life to live with real consequences that he’d have to deal with. Unless he gave up control, she had no say over what he did with his day.

“Our plans are finally seeing results. This morning, as many of you have learned, Captain Wright has benched half of his team. He may be intending to increase the difficulty of the games to mimic the conditions of the war fields. We’re counting on these acts of desperation. We’ve honed in on his fears,” her dark eyes darted to William and held him with a promise, “and now we’ll break him.”