Chapter Twenty-Eight
ANGEL SINCLAIR
“The next series of questions will be true or false, Angel. I want you to answer as quickly as possible, within a two-second time frame. Do you understand?” Mrs. Thompson sat patiently, her hands folded on the table, and waited for me to answer.
It was Monday morning, and I was cranky and tired. The previous group session with Bo and Jax, where we’d fielded bizarre challenges and spilled our guts, confirmed that the routine was going to be the same as last week. Now I was back undergoing more psychological testing.
Fun, it was not.
“Did you say true and false questions?” I asked to make sure I’d heard her right.
“Yes, that’s what I said. No matter how strange the question, I want you to go with the first answer that comes to mind, okay?”
I let out a breath. “Fine. I’m ready.”
She looked down at a sheaf of papers in front of her and began to read. “True or false. I’d rather be a florist than a fireman.”
“What?” I said.
She patiently repeated the question.
“False,” I said. “I totally kill plants.”
“Please don’t provide reasoning,” she said. “Just true or false, okay?”
“Sure. Whatever.”
“I’ve never lied to anyone in a position of authority.”
“False.”
“I’m a confident person.”
“Uh…false.”
This strange line of questioning went on for an hour before she was finally done. She made a couple of notes, and I stood to leave. To my surprise, she asked me to sit down and stay for a few more minutes.
Apprehensive, I returned to my seat and waited for her to speak. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.
“Angel, I want to talk to you about Friday’s trials. Would you mind if I ask you a couple of questions about it?”
My hands tensed in my lap. I didn’t really want to revisit the disastrous trial, but I nodded. “Okay.”
“In reviewing the footage, I noticed you were the first one to find the ladder to the trapdoor on the ceiling and realize the game continued on another floor. Why didn’t you climb the ladder and immediately move quickly to find the exit on the next level?”
“Well, I sort of did.”
“Explain ‘sort of.’”
“I told Wally to cover me as I climbed the ladder. I was vulnerable there and needed his protection. Unfortunately, I still got hit going up. Once I opened the trapdoor, I went through and waited for him.”
“Why did you wait for Wally?”
“Because we were working as a team. It wasn’t in the rules that we couldn’t.”
“True.” She sat back in her chair. “So, on the first floor, was it was your idea to search along the walls, looking for the exit?”
“Yes. It was dark and hard to see. I figured the exit would be concealed, so it seemed logical to search for a door seam or a lever that would open it. That’s kind of a standard thing in games online.”
“Okay, once you got through and were waiting for Wally at the top, what happened?” she asked.
“Wally didn’t come up—well, at least not at first. Jax came next. I think he must have shot Wally or forced him away from the ladder to make his way up next. I was expecting Wally, but I managed to hit Jax when he came through. He probably expected to take the hit. He hit me, too. He didn’t bother with me after that. He ran off right away, looking for the exit, I guess.”
“So, Jax stayed focused on the assignment.”
I didn’t miss her point, and my face flushed. “Yes, I guess he did.”
“Okay, so once you and Wally were on the second floor, you resumed looking for the exit.”
“Yes. That was the goal. I eventually stepped on the door trigger by sheer luck,” I explained.
“Not just sheer luck,” she pointed out. “You were methodically clearing the level, looking for the exit.”
“True, but I stepped on the button by accident.”
“Fine. So, the door opened, and what happened next?”
“Wally was closer, so I pushed him through.”
“Why did you do that? You knew the first person to go through would get the bonus.”
“I know, but if he got shot one more time, he’d be dead. I was healthier, so I let him go first. I was going to follow right after him, but I tripped and Jax showed up firing. I had to roll away from the door to avoid being hit. That’s when Jax went through.”
She nodded, watching me carefully. “But you hit him.”
“I hit him as he went through. Apparently, he had enough points to take the hit and still make it through. It also took my score to a healthy fifteen points.”
“Why didn’t you go through after Jax? You had enough points to risk getting shot by anyone, including Bo, who was still in the area, and make it through safely.”
I looked down at my hands. “I know. I was going to, but…”
“But what?”
“But I knew Frankie was still out there, and I thought she could use some help.”
“You didn’t think Frankie could hold her own.”
“No, she could. I mean, I think she could. I wasn’t sure how experienced she was at laser tag. But I figured I had extra time and points, and there was nothing in the rules that said we had to come out before fifteen minutes. Just by fifteen minutes. I already knew I wasn’t going to get the top score because Wally had already secured the bonus, so I went back to see if I could give her a hand and maybe rack up more points before I came out.”
“But you got hit.”
“Yes, but Frankie found the ladder and got to the second level safely.”
“Until Kira appeared.”
I stiffened, my fists tightening at the memory of it. “Until Kira appeared. She scored a shot on me, but momentarily lost her gun. At that moment, were all down to five points. I was going to finish off Kira, but I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
I hesitated. “Because Frankie asked me not to, which was nuts. Kira doesn’t even like us, and especially not Frankie.”
“Why doesn’t Kira like Frankie?”
“I have no idea. Frankie is nice to everyone. But Kira flat out told us she didn’t want to be friends with any of us.”
“I see. So, while you were arguing with Frankie, Kira somehow retrieved her gun and shot at Frankie. You saw what happened and put yourself between Frankie and the laser, thereby saving her. Why did you do it, Angel?”
My cheeks heated. “I don’t know. I didn’t want her to fail.”
“So you’re her leader, then?”
“What? No.” I was taken aback by the comment. “I’m just her friend. I want her to succeed.”
“At your own expense?”
I looked down at my hands and then back at her. “I guess so.”
“Okay, thank you, Angel.”
I stood, feeling like I’d messed up more than I could have imagined. Slash would be so disappointed in me, and that hurt a lot.
I had a bad feeling my time at the trials was coming to an end faster than I expected.