Chapter Eighteen: Battle Prep

Whistling with delight, Alexis strolled through the hallways of Willerton Hall. She was all a flutter with one thing on her mind: Lurak. She didn’t care about what everyone else said. He cared about her, and she him. They had become such good friends that it only made their relationship better. Not only that – but he had discovered one of her weaknesses: chocolate. And he had just bought her a lot of fudge while they had been shopping downtown. She popped a piece of the silky fudge into her mouth and savored the flavor, a beaming smile lasting on her face.

Alexis was about to reach for the door handle of her room until she realized that her fingers were covered in chocolate. She gleefully licked them off, then wiped her hand on her faded jeans. Entering the room, she found Christian sitting on his bed reading “To Kill a Mockingbird”. She found it odd – Alexis hadn’t seen any bodacious babes with him for quite some time. Maybe he’d finally gotten tired of being a player. Nah.

“Hi Chris,” she said cheerfully with a muffled voice. Apparently he had been deep into his book, as she had startled him and he instantly glanced up at her.

“Oh hey,” he responded quietly. That was another thing – he had been quiet around her lately. She still had the feeling that he was angry at her, but she couldn’t figure out why. The last thing she had done with him was when he helped her learn how to ice skate. Maybe he was mad at her for being such a klutz and injuring him.

“Jordyn came by a bit ago.”

“Oh? What did he say?”

“He wants you to stop by at his room. Says he has some big news for you.”

“Oo! Okay.” Alexis took off her jacket, whipped her brush out of her purse, and started tending to her hair. Christian watched her in admiration. He wondered what she must do to her hair to make it always look so shiny and smooth. He wanted to go over to her and touch her hair…to smell it…

He shook his head and went back to his book. What was he thinking?! Jordyn said he should talk to her. He still couldn’t figure out what to say, or when. Was now a good time? Would what he has to say be great because she’s in a good mood, or would it be a terrible decision because it might ruin her day?

“Um…Alexis?”

“Yes?” She immediately stopped brushing her hair and gave him her full attention. Her emerald eyes focused on him, and he instantly felt a longing for her. “What is it?” Just as he opened his mouth to speak again, a rush of fear overcame him and he couldn’t speak.

“I…uh…you need…I mean…I – I think you should go talk to Jordyn right away. It - it sounded urgent.”

“Oh, okay.” Alexis tucked her brush away and rushed out the door.

Damn it! What the fuck was wrong with him?! It wasn’t going to happen. Christian turned his attention back to his book and continued to read. His eyes skimmed over the pages but the words meant nothing to him. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

“Hey, Jordyn!” Alexis greeted her friend, embracing him in a quick hug. It had been a while since she’d seen him – about two weeks other than inside the VRBG. She was afraid to approach him lately since he was so upset about her dating a Hes, so she was ecstatic that he wanted to see her.

“Alex! Hey, I have some great news!” He pulled her into his dorm room and sat her down in the chair next to his bed. She nodded an acknowledgement of Kori who was sitting in the corner watching television. He gave a slight nod back, but nothing like his cheerful greetings he used to give her. Alex sighed in disappointment. She hated having to feel awkward around her old friends.

“So…you know the next upcoming VRBG tournament game?” Alexis nodded in understanding. “Well…it’s the best three out of five two versus two matches, and you and I were chosen for the Willerton team!” Suddenly, any disappointment Alex felt had completely vanished. An overwhelming happiness spread into her eyes, and she squealed with delight as she gave Jordyn another hug.

“That’s awesome!” Kori said, jumping up from his seat. He ran over to the two and congratulated them, obviously erasing his prejudice against her too. Even if it was a temporary feeling, Alexis was grateful.

“Alexis, that’s fantastic!” Brianna exclaimed after Alex had shared the news with her and Kaiden.

A proud, half-smile appeared on Lurak’s face as he praised her, “I knew you were the best, Shooter.” He pulled her close to her as they were walking and kissed her on the temple.

“When do you get to do it?”

“It’s tomorrow – starts at five thirty. Jordyn is going to bring his visor over to Chris and my room since only two visors can be registered to a computer – and his is already full. Christian is going to manage it for us.”

“Oh this is so great!” Brianna clasped her hands together with excitement. “I’m going to tell my girl friends and we can all have a big party in your room!” Alex laughed.

“I don’t think a lot of people can fit in our tiny room.”

“I don’t care!” Bri pouted. “I’ve been telling them about this for ages and they’ve been wanting to see so we’ll cram in there somehow. Anyway, I’ve got to go catch up with my bro, so I’ll see you two love birds later!” She pranced off daintily, as her curled, ginger hair bounced behind her.

There was a long silence. Alexis felt the guilt overcome her. She knew what Kaiden was going to ask.

"So I guess...well, I suppose...since it's you and Jordyn and everyone else will be there you probably won't be needing me huh," Lurak stated, then nervously rubbed the side of his face with his hand. Alexis sighed with disappointment.

"No." The word stung the air. The second she said it, she wished she hadn't. What was she thinking? The least she could have done was butter it up a little bit instead of just blurting out such a harsh word...

"I understand."

"I'm so sorry, Kaiden!" Alexis said suddenly, grabbing his arms and looking up into his face. He stared down at her, noticing the sincerity in her eyes.

"I know." He pulled his arms away from her grasp, then slowly reached up to her shoulders and rubbed them soothingly. "It's not your fault that some people overreact about a silly game. You know...boys will be boys," he chuckled. The sound of his laugh seemed to strengthen Alex's spirit a little. She herself even wished that he could be there - that he was the one controlling the game actually. It was a lot of pressure for her to represent the team with Jordyn. Even though there were only a total of ten students that seriously competed in the game, the word of the tournament had spread vastly over the past few weeks and she bet that at least fifty people had caught on to it and were watching the action regularly. Not only did she want Kaiden's support, but with the way Christian had been acting around her lately she knew it would make her even more tense to know that he was right there watching her and she wouldn't be able to focus as much. Wait a second...why was she worrying about what he thinks of her?

"Wake up, nerd," Alexis heard a gruff voice as she felt a rude nudge in her side. She gave out a grumpy moan and opened her eyes, blinking a few times before she noticed Christian hovering over her. What was his problem? Why did he have such an awkward and surprising look on his face? Had he never seen her asleep any other time or something? "Um..." His face suddenly got beet red.

"Huh?" Alexis noticed that his eyes weren't focused on her own, and instead...she followed the direction of his gaze...Shocked, she let out a quick gasp and reached for her covers and whipped them over her body. She must have been warm in the night, because her t-shirt had been pulled up around her neck and revealed her purple, velvet, push-up bra. She rolled over onto her side, embarrassed. Thank God she had been too lazy to take her bra of last night...or else..."Get away, you perv!" She screamed at him.

"Wha - I -" Christian's face changed from an embarrassed expression to an angry and smug one. "It's not my fault you like to feel yourself up at night!" Alexis let out an angered growl.

"What do you want!" she snapped.

"I just thought you might want to wake up considering it's 11:08 am and your tournament starts in approximately twenty-two minutes. Unless...you were planning on presenting yourself in your pj's with messy hair and the scent of onions."

"ONIONS?!" Alexis shot up, her shirt falling back down to her waistline. "Honestly, Christian Bently! Would it hurt you to stop being a dick face to me once in a while?!" She stomped out of bed, scampered to retrieve her bath paraphanelia and clean clothes, then snatched the brass key off of Christian's nightstand and stormed out of the dorm room.

FUCK. Why had she slept in that long? People were going to start showing up in ten minutes and she wasn't even going to have time to eat before the battle. The nerve. How long had Christian been staring at her for? Did he always have to be such a pervert?! Oh wait...it's Christian we're talking about...

Alexis returned to her dorm room, freshly cleaned and clothed. She could hear lots of chattering through the door, and when she tried to push it open it got stuck. She shoved again and again, then finally heard an "Ow!" from the other side.

"Alexis!" she heard Jordyn cry. "Guys, get out of the way!" Pushing and shoving could be heard, then the door shot open. Jordyn greeted her with a beaming smile. "Hurry up! We have to start in five minutes!" Alexis rushed into her room and tried maneuvering around the bodies to put her things away. She knew this was a big deal, but she was definitely not expecting this many people to be crowding into her dorm room. All the expected company were present: Kori, Erik, Christian and Jerrod, then there were also a couple of boys whom she recognized but had never met. Brianna was there as well with a couple of preppy girls from her hall that had their hands all over Christian (who seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly). That, of course, was exactly what Alex would have expected. She sneered at Christian, who then shot a fiery look back at her, that quickly turned into...wait...guilt? That's odd. She shrugged it off.

Alexis took a seat in her chair next to Jordyn, who both placed their visors over their eyes. They each turned on their dials then Christian prepared the program on Alex's computer while trying to pry the babes off of himself. After entering all of the coding, Jordyn and Alex's figures appeared on the screen. A bunch of "Oooo"'s could be heard from the girls that had never witnessed a VRBG session before. Alexis mentally rolled her eyes. In a way, she was thankful that she got mistaken for a boy and placed in the wrong dorm so that she didn't have to deal with annoying girls like Brianna's friends.

"Alright, let's get ready," Christian said, taking command. "Looks like your opponents are Razor and Titan, both level twelve, as it should be." Alexis narrowed her eyes. Titan, eh? She remembered that little pushover punk who dared to insult her abilities because of her being female...now she'd get her chance to show him again. Christian typed in some more coding, then Alexis and Jordyn's figures faded into the TV screen. Their real bodies remained limp in their chairs, but Trinity and Nydroj glanced at each other with confident looks.

"Are you ready, Trinity?" Nydroj asked. She gave an assured nod.

"Let's do this."

A/N: I'm back! Oh man I've missed this story so much - I can't wait to get back on it again. I hope I haven't lost too many of my readers but I will totally understand if you got impatient with me. :( Sorry for the ridiculous delay, but I've been busy with a new job as a full time computer animator so I'm trying to avoid being on my computer as much as possible outside of work. Maybe I will have to handwrite for a while then type it all out at once...ewww pencil and paper! Anyway I hope you enjoyed this pre-battle prep. See you soon!

Devia