A Team For Two

 

 

The initiation for the first years went on as planned, it was smooth. 

 

As I had expected all the first years were very nervous about what we were going to make them do. Nothing but relief was seen on their faces when Tony announced that they had to make a ten-thousand-word essay on wisdom. They all went back to their own rooms after the task was announced, on the other hand, I decided to walk around the school with Tony. 

 

The first years and the executive committee of the house of Zeta were at the courtyard, at the pool. The pool was filled with red beans. It still amazes me how they could fill such a huge pool with red beans. The first years were allowed to enter the pool in batches of five. The only time you can leave the pool is when you find a brown button. 

 

"Such a tedious task," Tony smirked next to me. He was not the one looking for the button, but it looked as if he was. He truly was a lazy guy. 

 

"Lazy bum," I laughed and continued to walk. We walked past the office where the donation box of the school is placed. As I had expected it was filled, it was the initiation of Kappa - to donate something important to you. 

 

"There they are," Tony halted at the end of the second floor. I followed his gaze at the school field where huge fences were built. The fences made up a huge rectangle which was cut in half. One was filled with so many huge pigs, the other was empty. 

 

I scanned the field which was filled with students of Beta, they were all wearing red t-shirts and black shorts. In the empty field stood Ace together with the rest of their committee. He was announcing something. 

 

I did not want to spectate the killing of such innocent animals, so I wanted to ask Tony to leave already.

 

Do not get me wrong, I was not a vegetarian but killing an animal in a brutal way was a no for me. I was about to ask Tony to leave when Anne caught my eyes, she was sitting on a bench at the far end of the field. 

 

She was wearing a cap, her grey hair covering her whole back. She was facing back at us so I could not see her expression, but I knew she was either sad or mad. 

 

"Let's get her," I gazed at Anne, and Tony looked at her as well, he nodded. In a hurry, we made our way to the field. 

 

When we reached the field, we found Anne pouting and glaring at those from the house of Beta. She sighed when she found us approaching her. 

 

"Tony already explained it, didn't he?" I sat next to her and took her hand to rub it. 

 

"They could have gone with something else," she insisted. Her blue eyes were growing dark, nothing but anger was seen there. It was very rare to see her this mad, she was always cheerful and understanding of others. I guess it was her soft spot for animals that made her mad.  

 

The battle between the first years and the mother pigs started after a while. The loud cries and wails of the pig could be heard throughout the northern side of the school. The first years of Beta did everything they could in order to kill them. They were only given a limited choice of weapon - rope, knife, and spear. 

 

I noticed my brother staring at us from the second floor right before we left. 

 

Why was he here?

 

Instead of heading back to our dorms, we decided to go straight to the library instead. The helpless wails of the pigs could still be heard in the dorms, we did not want to hear it anymore.

 

I could picture the students of Beta laughing and smiling as they slaughter all those pigs. They were so ruthless, I hated them. 

 

It almost made me forget the fact that it was a better initiation compared to climbing Mount Scion. 

 

***

 

After the initiation day, the rest of the first week passed by in a flash, nothing much really happened. No challenges or fights had occurred with our house and another though I heard there were a lot of students from Zeta and Beta who challenged one another.

 

I was glad that no one from our house has issued a challenge to another.  

 

Due to the incident at the welcoming party, Beta was given points while Zeta got a deduction. There was a camera behind Ace when it happened, it was used as evidence. it made me realize that maybe Ace was not defending himself for a reason, maybe he knew about the security camera behind him all along. 

 

I did not have to defend him, but I did not really regret it. I was only standing up for what I saw anyway. 

 

We were in the middle of class when I was figuring out how I was going to arrange my timetable for this week. The teacher was talking about what we had discussed last year, I knew I was not going to miss out on anything, so I took out my notebook to plan. 

 

There was going to be another meeting this week since Green Day was coming up soon. 

 

Green day is not Kappa day, it is a day devoted to nature. 

 

Our school was a school that promotes almost everything this was why there was always an event or two every other week. As I have said, Green Day is not Kappa Day, but the overall in-charge was always someone from Kappa. 

 

The House of Kappa was always in charge of this event yearly, maybe it was because of the fact that they are kind to everything, including nature and animals as well. 

 

By the time I finally finished listing down everything I had to complete for the week, Miss Rafiela, our teacher was done too. Before she had let us leave, she left a few works for us to do. I listed it down in my notebook as well. 

 

Two more days passed by in a flash. 

 

Nothing much had happened until the day of the meeting. Only the secretary and the presidents were required to attend so together with me was Jamie, our second-year secretary. 

 

She was very quiet; I was not really sure if it was because I frighten her, or she simply was just quiet. I did not pry into it since I had nothing to say anyway. 

 

Upon entering the meeting hall, I found Nathan placing handouts on the chairs. He seemed cheerful as usual. I gave him a slight smile when our eyes met. He immediately waved me towards him and so I came. I felt Deja vu when I realized how early both of us were, as I said, the reason why became close was due to the fact that we always arrive early during meetings.

 

"Can you look through this before we start, I just need a few advice," he bit on his lower lips. He seemed a little anxious, he was going to be the one who leads the meeting later on. I smiled again and gave him a nod as I started to flip through the papers.

 

It was well organized, and it was very easy to understand, what can I expect from someone who was in Management. I could not find any mistakes, even I was in awe. 

 

I was about to give him my comments when Chase and Ash, from Zeta, arrived. 

 

Ash gave me a slight glare which caught me off guard. 

 

Did I offend her? Did I do anything wrong? 

 

I shrugged it off when I thought that I was being too sensitive. I faced Nathan and told him my thoughts on the proposal. 

 

"I couldn't even find any mistakes and I even checked the grammar. Don't fret, Nathan," I gave him a small pat on his arm. 

 

Nathan was tall, he was even taller than Ace, so it was kind of awkward when I patted his arm. I had to look up to him. He rubbed his head and smiled, "Don't flatter me Cana. You know I always get anxious when it comes to these things."

 

"Yeah, and as a future CEO, you better learn how to stop it," I waved and made my way back to Jaymie. 

 

Nathan was someone whom I was able to become friends with last year, he was always so kind and friendly, it was easy to get along with him. He was the only House Head whom I could talk to without any tension. 

 

Just like before, Miss Randell led the meeting, she was alone today. Soon after, it was taken over by Nathan. 

 

He stood in the middle calm and collected unlike how he was just now. He explained everything in a manner of order, I was able to understand it well and judging from how the rest of the members were nodding, they probably understood it too. 

 

Ace was carefully scanning the paper when he raised his hand a little to ask a question. 

 

"So, the houses will be paired?"  he asked, annoyance could be heard from him voice. 

 

"Yes, we decided to lessen the competition between houses for this event and make them work together instead. The pairing of the house would be decided by the lottery. Points would be divided between the winning house." 

 

I had thought that Ace was going to be against it, but he simply nodded. No one disagreed on the system. Green Day was not a big event anyway, the points of the winning houses were only 50, it did not matter to any house.

 

I remained quiet as Nathan further discussed some of the rules and regulations of Green Day. Every once in a while, I would glance at Jaymie to see if she was noting down all the important things. Her notes were well organized, her handwriting was easy to read as well. She was fitting as the secretary.

 

As the meeting near its end, I started to become anxious. The lottery was going to be held before the end of the meeting, I just hope we would not be paired with Beta. There was too much tension happening between our house and them. On top of that, I did not get along well with Ace, and Anne was still annoyed with what had happened during their initiation. 

 

Nathan had already prepared a box with our house names inside.

 

"Ladies first?"  he glanced at my direction. 

 

"So much for gender equality," Ace commented. I rolled my eyes and gestured for him to go first, he laughed and took the ballot. His hands played around the box before he took a piece of paper. His blue eyes gleamed when he opened it up. 

 

He laughed, "Sorry, Vandia. I guess you are stuck with me."

 

Please tell me he was joking. 

 

I felt my hands made its way to rub my temples. Jaymie noted it down right away. The world was always against my wishes, maybe next time I should just wish for the opposite. 

 

"Are we still going to have the meeting with the house we are paired up with after this?" Jaymie whispered beside me and I nodded reluctantly. 

 

The meeting adjourned after the lottery. 

 

I was the one who approached Ace and Ceasar after the meeting. Jaymie stood behind me, a little nervous. I had suggested for a short meeting to happen between the two houses so we could plan ahead and strategize for the games, Ace just shrugged and agree. 

 

I had thought that a disagreement would happen during the meeting; I was wrong. An animosity happened even before the meeting begun. We fought over which room to use. 

 

Yes, we could not agree on what room to use. 

 

How stupid. 

 

It was such a small deal, why couldn't he just agree to have the meeting at our house lounge? Why did it have to be at their house lounge instead? I found myself rolling my eyes at him a couple of times, but he just continued to laugh and smirk at me. 

 

"You know what, let's have it at the library," I tried to strike a bargain. 

 

He whispered something to Ceasar which made him laugh but soon nodded. 

 

Finally. 

 

We settled down on a long table, Ceasar and Ace sat opposite Jaymie and me. 

 

"So, Miss Vandia, what's the agenda?" Ace smiled cockily at me. I bit my lower lip to fight a sarcastic comment. 

 

"We need to strategize a bit on the events that will happen. We also have to plan on who the competitors for each event would be. I mean this event is going to happen in five days," I gave him Jaymie's notes during the meeting just now. He declined it and showed that he has a copy. Ceaser, his secretary was well organized with his notes as well.

 

I was about to speak again when my phone rang. I immediately answered it, excused myself, stood up, and went to a far corner. 

 

"Yes, Tony?" I answered. 

 

"Where are you-" 

 

Our conversation was halted.

 

"We are having a meeting, please do not interrupt," Ace grabbed my phone. He ended the call immediately after he spoke. My eyes widened at his rude action. 

 

"What are you doing?" My hands swiped my phone back. The call has ended.

 

"Does your house teach you how to be rude as well?" I placed my hand on my hips as I glared at him. 

 

"Well, does your house teach you to answer a call during a meeting?" He inched towards me. As usual, I back off only to find myself against a shelf of book.

 

"You know Vandia, I am a busy guy. Studying to become a doctor is no joke, I use up all my time to study so if you have other plans, let us just cancel the meeting. Don't waste my time." 

 

His right hand was placed near my right temple, he held onto the shelf. 

 

I felt a little guilty about answering the call. There was a sense in what he said but I got annoyed. I pushed his hand down and stared him in the eye. 

 

"I was planning on ending the call right away if you hadn't interrupted. Thus, this meeting is also for your house so if you are not interested, you are free to leave. I am not forcing this on you, even without your house, Iota can win." I raised my right brow waiting for his response, but he just shrugged and went back to the table. 

 

The rest of the meeting went smoothly, of course there were still a few sarcastic remarks from both Ceaser and Ace. I would have been shocked if there was not. 

 

Jaymie had noted down everything, and all was agreed upon at the end. The meeting between the two houses adjourned after two hours. We had decided to finish all the planning because both of us were equally busy. If there was going to be any changes, we agreed to send it via mail or message. I did not give them my number, instead, I asked Jaymie to give hers. 

 

Ace and I was the last to leave the library, Jaymie left first whereas Ceaser excused himself to go to the comfort room. I had thought another clash was going to happen between us again, but he just placed his hand out. 

 

I looked at his outstretched hand with a smirk. 

 

"Let's win Vandia," he smiled. 

 

"We definitely will."

 

I shook it.