"Jacque, I'm bored!"

"Eli, go bother Levi." The Spy shoves me away, never taking his eyes off his precious intel. Glaring at the Frenchman, I walk over to Levi, our Heavy.

"Levi, I'm bored!" The giant Russian looks up at me and smiles.

"Little Scout can help Heavy beat Pyro in poker."

"Cool if I join, Ayden?" I ask the Pyro.

"Like I need help losing to the Russian." He laughs. It doesn't take more than half an hour before the game is over and Levi wins.

"How does he do it?!" Ayden bangs his head on the table. I shake my head.

"Maybe next time, Pyro will beat Heavy," Levi grins.

"Mail's here!" yells Daniel, our Engineer. He drops a stack of letters on the table and sorts through it.

"Allistor, Shawn, Eli." Daniel holds up our letters to us. I grab mine and sit back down. Let's see…Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma…ma and…who's this? I squint at the return address, trying to decipher the tiny cursive name. Oh wait, Lana and Derek. My oldest brother and his bitchy wife. Great, just what I need, another fucking critic! As if one wasn't enough.

The room falls into a rare moment of silence as everyone reads their letters. Ayden glances over my shoulder from time to time (The Pyro never gets mail) and reads some of the letters.

It takes a while before anyone notices the unclaimed letter.

"Hey, Dan, whose that letter for?" Ayden asks. Dan picks up the letter, getting a puzzled expression on his face.

"Well, alright. It's addressed to 'The RED Team'." He says, ripping open the letter.

"RED team, you will a new class. They will be arriving at twenty- hundred hours on the sixteenth of October."

"What day's today?" I ask.

"Ze sixteenth of October," answers our Medic, Rodrich.

"Well, 'e should be 'ere any minute," Jacque says. A banging at the door confirms that theory.

Solider opens the eye port. "STATE YOUR NAME AND BUSINESS HERE!"

"Idiot! Let me in before I break dis door down myself!" a high-pitched voice growls.

"LOOK HERE, SON! I AM THE COMMANDING OFFICER HERE! I DON'T TAKE ORDERS FROM NO MAN! ESPECIALLY NOT FROM SOME LITTLE, SQUIRRELLY, MAGGOT-BRAINED, COWARDLY SON OF A-"

"Jason! That's enough!" Dan jumps up, "I'll handle this." Jason glares at the guy one last time and stalks away.

"Your doorman sucks," the gut says loudly, not even a hint of fear in his high-pitched voice.

"WHAT! DID! YOU! SAY!" roars Jason, throwing himself back at the door. It takes both Heavy and Demo to hold him back.

"Son, I'd speak quickly if I were you," warns Dan.

"Name's Hunter. I'm da new class." The guy says calmly.

"Well Hunter, you sure do a fine job at makin' enemies. Welcome to the RED, son." Dan opens the door. Hunter steps inside , completely soaked. He wears an old aviator jacket, jeans, and combat boots. His long black hair sticks to his head. Over one shoulder is an old, beat-up duffel bag.

"Yeah, 'ere's da thing. I'm not a 'son'," he clears his throat, "I'm a girl."

All of us are stunned. A girl…on the team?! I don't… I … know, eh? Well, my mind is official freakin' blown.

Dan is the first to speak.

"A…girl?"

"Y'up. Do I need ta say it in other languages? Soy una chica. Je suis une fille. Ich bin ein Mädchen-"

"Okay…we, uh… Well, we weren't excepting the new class to be female. So…you've caught us off guard," Dan clears his throat, "Welcome to RED. I'm Daniel, the Engineer, and you've met Jason, our Soldier…" Jason's still in processing mode. "That's Rodrich, our Medic…"

"Ja," greets Rodrich.

"That's Allistor and Shawn, our Demoman and Sniper…"

"Hey, lassie," Allistor mumbles warmly. Shawn nods.

"And that's Levi, Eli, and Ayden, our Heavy, Scout, and Pyro."

"Hullo, Hunter!" grins Levi. Ayden waves shyly.

" 'Ey, girlie! I'm Eli, I'm 'da Scout." My mouth is up and running before I can even think, "Don't you worry your pretty little face 'bout no BLU! I'll protect ya' from any-"

"Before Eli tires to woo you, allow me to introduce myself. I'm zhe Spy, Jacque." Jacque bows to the Hunter, who raises an eyebrow.

" 'Ey! Tall, masked, and mysterious. Yeah, don't even try charming' me. Trust me, it will end very badly… for you," Hunter says. Jacque straightens up and blinks at the girl. He starts to say something, but Dan interrupts him.

"Hunter, you must be tired after your long journey. Shawn, could you take her to room. End of the hall on the right. Everyone else, lights out at ten," Dan dismisses us. Shawn leads the Hunter away to the dormitories. Slowly, everyone leaves the commons area till only Ayden and I are left.

"Well then," Ayden sighs.

"A girl on the team. Dat's different." I reply.

"Yeah…she's kinda cute though, dontcha think?"

"Eh, she's okay."

"Says the guy who practically proposed to her," Ayden snickers.

"Fuck you!" I shove my friend off of his perch on the table. I howl with laughter as Ayden tumbles to the ground, landing face first. The pyro jumps up and tires to play it off as if nothing happened, but his seriousness quickly fades as he's laughing too.

"Shut the fuck up! I can 'ear you in all zhe way in zhe dorms! Grow up! This is war, not a bloody playground!" Jacque's yell shuts us up. The Spy's temper is even shorter than The Soldier's and any missteps could come back to stab you in the back, literally.

Ayden and I sit in silence, waiting for the other to speak. Finally, Ayden beaks the silence.

"Did you see the last Red Sox game?"

"When we were against da Yankees, yes! It was amazing! We absolutely murdered dem!" The rest of our evening is spent talking about sports.

"Well, 'night Eli," Ayden gets up and leaves for the dorms around nine. Left alone, I think back to today's battle. It had taken almost the entire day to capture the damn BLU intel. While I am daydreaming, I don't notice Shawn had walked in and is trying to get my attention.

"Eli…Eli… Hey, ELI!" I snap awake.

"Almost ten. I'd get to your room before Dan sic's Jason on your ass," says the quiet Sniper.

"Thanks, Shawn," I head to my room while Shawn heads to his van. Within minutes, I'm asleep.