The Girls' Brigade. A uniform group, stemming from hell, was probably one of the most disciplined based co-curricular activities. It consisted of torture, precision drill and way too much screaming from higher authorities.
A hideous uniform as something part of the package, Ziva often brought herself on the verge of ripping through the uncomfortable fabric.
Everyone claimed it was a watered down version of an army and Ziva couldn't agree more.
Regardless, Ziva David was the President and she wasn't going to let her own damnation prevent her from leading the girls the best she could.
So when she was asked to participate in a Girls' and Boys' Brigade recruitment performance, she was obligated to agree to it. Thankfully, thirteen others were forced into the same misery and Ziva didn't have to suffer alone.
The Boys' Brigade was similar to the Girls' Brigade, except, as the name implied, was for boys.
Although Ziva did not know any of them well, she was determined to keep it that way.
Apart from a precision drill item, there was a dance.
Ziva was overjoyed.
It was meant to be a 'couple dance', accommodating a pair. The seniors, who had toiled over its creation, were insistent that each pair consisted of a boy and girl.
Soon began the grueling process of learning everything. It was relentlessly taxing and all of them were hating every second of it.
Ziva expressed her excitement through sighs that escaped her lips when her seniors, the masterminds of the organized crime, told her to smile a tad more during the dance.
A forced tug of the lips was all she could manage.
Running a hand through dark hair and leaving a nest atop his head, Anthony DiNozzo, glared at Ziva with piercing green eyes when it was announced she was to be his partner.
He was tall, slightly ripped and blessed with a rather charming face. Ziva couldn't think of something to say when they first practiced the dance together, so she didn't. Tony, as his friends addressed him, exchanged the favor, not making it any more awkward than it already was.
The performance fused both the co-curricular activities and brought the most unlikely pair to ever exist.
But that was it. They just coexisted as two different entities, never mixing.
Now, the thing was, no matter how hard the seniors worked to bring the two co-curricular activities together, no matter how much effort they stuffed in, they just could not bond as a team.
Mostly because no one saw the point. To them, the team was already cohesive enough.
No one was clawing anyone's eyes out, there was no threatening nor knives being pulled out.
Of course, there was another factor that came into play- about three-quarters of the team was already attached. This made the entire 'couple dance' aspect of the performance hard to carry out with genuine willingness.
Through it all, they pulled through the numerous practices. As the date of the performance drew closer, so did the team, absent-mindedly.
The first time they spoke was filled with tentative teasing and the crushing feeling of mystery.
"Can't believe the ice queen of the Girls' Brigade can dance so well," Tony had said during a break.
Quirked eyebrows, Ziva caught his gaze and locked his eyes down.
"Is that what they call me?" replied Ziva.
Tony, raised his hands defensively, laughing gingerly, "No, I mean- we don't mean it in a bad way- it's just-"
"We have a name for you too," Ziva cut off, turning away from him as she took a sip of water, "the giant 5-year-old."
Clutching his chest and feigning pain, Tony groaned, "Ziva David, I'm bleeding out. Send help."
That earned him a soft chuckle. With coiled lips, Tony said, "you better watch out, Ziva. I'll be avenged."
The exasperated stigma was gone and all was well.
Of course, being the irresponsible person he was, Tony had skipped out on a couple of training sessions and had been late a bunch of times.
Things took a turn for the worst when, on a particular training, one of the authoritative figures dropped in to observe their training session.
The seniors had been high-strung and agitated that day, ratting Tony out to the teacher-in-charge. Low and behold, Tony had skipped out on that day's training as well, making the entire thing worse for him.
Almost immediately, the teacher kicked him out of the performance.
"Hey, you look quite upset for someone whose partner had just been kicked out," Abby, a teammate and friend, joked. Forcing a smile, Ziva had shaken her head, spilling some excuse about being tired.
But she was upset. It was such a waste. They had just been becoming friends or at least, acquaintances, but now she'd have to build something that exhausting with a replacement?
Ziva was pulled out of the realm of her own thoughts by one of the Boys' Brigade teachers mentioning her name. "So, who do you think should replace Tony? Since he's your partner you get to have a word. Not saying that it might happen, though."
She peeked at Timothy McGee, who was in-charge of the Boys' Brigade on the student front. He didn't seem to be able to tell her to help him root for anyone so she just spoke her mind.
"Well, I think the best person would be Tony since he already knows the entire sequence. Even though he did commit to other things, don't you think as long as he realizes his mistake, apologizes genuinely and changes for the better, it should be enough?"
A silence enveloped the group of students gathered. The teacher-in-charge of the Boys' Brigade pressed his lips together in a thin line, possibly enraged. Ziva couldn't tell.
The seniors picked off from that abrupt quiet into a discussion about new t-shirts they were going to make for the performance.
The next training was a particularly long one. In fact, it was a one-day camp. It would consist of games as well as practice. But when that day rolled around, Ziva woke up with vicious cramps. Usually, they weren't so bad. They'd pass eventually, perhaps after a few doses of painkillers.
However, it got to a point where she couldn't stand from all the pain. Not only was she in absolute discomfort, she had attempted to go to the camp, and vomited due to added motion sickness of taking a train.
The dizziness whelmed her mind, robbing her of clear vision, stability and eventually, consciousness.