Griffin, with a mouth full of peas and some chicken, attempts to say, "Cool," but it comes out moreover as, "ool." Once he finished, he got up quickly and jumped to the nearest unoccupied bed and started bouncing on it, with a grin like a child's.
She laughed as she watched Griffin, "Why are you so childish?" She asked, walking to her bed and laying down on it. She was smiling brightly and she chuckled again, "Don't use all of your energy right now, remember, the competition starts tomorrow."
"Am I not allowed to have fun before I die?" Griffin joked, and he stopped bouncing, but he still had a smile on his face. "I'm sorry to whoever's bed I messed up!" He called out before heading to his bed, cursing the fact that his feet touched the edge of the bed because of his height.
The people who had delivered the food came back in, taking the empty plates and letting the others finish their food before taking their plates as well. "Lights out." One of them said in a rather gruff voice, the lights on the ceiling on their barracks slowly growing dimmer. The others quickly got to their beds and sat down, talking between each other.
"Griffin!" Felix yelled jokingly, pointing at his bed, "Thanks so much." He rolled his eyes and laid down, scowling at him.
Dierra chuckled and rolled onto her side so that she was facing the others, not going to sleep just yet as the room went completely dark.
Griffin couldn't sleep.
As hard as he tried, all he could think about were the days to come and his family. He tried to hum to himself, to say that everything will be alright, but he couldn't stop the silent tears from coming, no matter how hard he tried.
The others had fallen asleep somewhat easily, some of them rolling and mumbling in their sleep. Dierra sighed, she didn't fall asleep easily and the worry from the competition just kept her up. She sat up in the dark and swung her legs over the side of her bed, swinging them and wishing that she had brought a watch.
"You awake." Griffin said it more like a statement than a question, and his voice was lacking enthusiasm. He tucked in his knees so that the bottoms of his feet lay flat on the mattress.
"Yeah," She whispered, looking over at where she thought he was. "You can't sleep?" She whispered again, still swinging her legs.
"Yep." Griffin sighed and wiped his eyes. "Can't stop thinking about things. Sorry if you thought all boys didn't think. It's a stupid stereotype." Griffin sat up and messed up his hair. Some of it found its way to the front of his tear-stricken face, but Griffin didn't care. He was happy that it was dark in the barracks.
She shook her head, "I know that stereotype isn't true, my older brother used to think a lot.." Dierra sighed, "Just..I'm here if you want to talk about anything, I promise I won't judge." She stood up and stretched before sitting back down softly, knowing that she probably wouldn't sleep at all.
"Let's see… I'm a wuss when I look confident, I'll never see my sister-she's real sweet, and-" He hesitated, "I'll miss the one girl that I like." (Dierra if you didn't catch on).
She nodded in the dark, knowing that he couldn't see it, "What's your sister like? Is the girl you like from your town?" She knew she was probably asking sensitive questions but she didn't want to sit in silence the whole night.
"My sister? Oh, she's really nice. Innocent, too. One day, when we were both home sick with the flu, we made friendship bracelets, played doctor-switching roles at times, and even though our mom told us not to, we went outside and looked at the stars. It was past curfew, and we were lucky we didn't get caught. The girl…I know her. I've seen her around some, but not very often."
"Your sister sounds really fun, I wish I could meet her." She sighed and looked around the dark room, "Have you talked to the girl."
"Sometimes. She seems too distracted to notice me, though. Always focusing about the little things. She's moreover honest than nice. I wish she could focus a little less, and then she might notice that I like her. Or rather, liked her. I doubt I'll make it out of this place alive." Griffin sighed. If only you knew how much I like you now…
Dierra nodded, "I could try to help you win," she offered, "That way you'd be able to see her and tell her how you feel." She laid down on her bed and looked at the ceiling, "You seem like you really like that girl."
"I doubt I could…Actually, it's impossible. I'm sorry, but I don't think you could help me with my problem. Sorry" Griffin lay back down and turned his back to Dierra. If only she knew…If only…
She shrugged in the dark, silently promising herself that she would help him win. The thought of never seeing her siblings again if she helped him almost made her cry, but she pushed the thought away, starting to hum an old song she had heard a long time ago to calm herself.
"I'm going to sleep. Don't die." Griffin stifled a chuckle before he drifted off about fifteen minutes later.
She chuckled lightly and nodded, not falling asleep until she could hear some of the others start to stir. It was still quite early in the morning, though you couldn't really tell since there were no windows.
Griffin mumbled in his sleep a few hours into it.
"Ava…no. I know you…don't go. I should've told you…her. No, don't go. Don't go!"
Griffin jerks up and gasps, sweating, his hands gripping the blanket so hard his fingertips were white.
Dierra rolled onto her side, completely covered with her blanket besides her face. She frowned slightly and shifted to her stomach, mumbling something about people being quiet and food.
"Oh thank God…" Griffin whispered quietly to himself, and he tried t fall back asleep. Eventually, he did, with worries of what was to come.
(Timeskip?)
(Sure, I suppose I'll timeskip to their breakfast (They get told what teams are going against each other every morning))
Soon it was morning and Dierra woke up to the smell of food being brought in. She sat up and looked at the table, where a bowl of some sort of mashed food sat for each of them. Cossett and Cassian were already eating at the table and Felix looked about as awake as Dierra as he stumbled to the table.
Griffin mumbled a few curses before groggily getting up. He absolutely despised being woken up, but this wasn't home anymore. This was a prison to him. He walked over to the table before yawning. "How did 'yall sleep? I couldn't after a while, but I did by some miracle…"
Cossett looked at Griffin with a smile, "I slept pretty well," Cassian nodded in agreement, "Though I don't think your friend did." She pointed to Dierra and then Felix, "Neither of those two look like they got enough sleep."
Dierra rolled off of her bed and threw the blanket back on it, slowly making her way to the table. She nodded sleepily in greeting to the others and grabbed her bowl, flopping down on an empty chair. "Do you think they'll make us fight today?" She asked between bites of food.
"Probably," Griffin was eating slowly, not really liking the bland mush they were given.
"We're about to find out," Cassian said, pointing towards the door with his spoon. The door opened and three people stepped in, two were dressed in all black, while the third that stood in the middle, was dressed in a sharp gray suit with a red tie.
"Good morning contestants," The man said in a stern and unforgiving voice, "I am the announcer in the competition and I'm here to tell you that your team, team thirteen, has been chosen to fight today."
Ari squeaked and pulled her legs closer to her chest. She was sitting on the floor where she sat yesterday and Adrian was right next to her, quickly putting a protective and comforting arm around his newfound friend. Felix just sighed disappointedly and shook his head, going back to eating when the man continued to talk.
The man continued, "As you probably know, you'll all get a new set of clothes and your choice of a weapon. These two assistants will bring you your clothing along with a small medical pack for the team and a map of the arena in a little bit. You'll be going against team four in roughly an hour, good luck." The man turned on his heel and walked out of the room, the two assistants following right behind him and closing the door before they went to get supplies.
(I don't know if I'm allowed to curse or not, so I won't until you give me the okay)
"Crap. Okay. Okay, I can do this. You won't die in the first fight." Griffin encouraged himself, but he seemed unsure of himself. "So who's getting what? I'll probably take a knife, maybe a sword if they have it."
