Constance anticipated more when he stepped into the courtyard of his soon-to-be school for orientation. He fiddled with his slightly askew collar as the rest of the prospective students filed in.
"They're all here," spoke a man near inaudibly over the crowd to the woman at the microphone.
The aforementioned woman tapped the microphone twice, the feedback making the audience silent, before she voiced, "Welcome, everyone! If you're all in the right place, then you've come out today to prove your worth for our hero course."
John tipi-toed to see above the crowd, straining his body as his generally average stature was pushed down to the lower brackets among his potential peers.
"In thirty minutes we'll begin with the exam, which will be broken into two phases. During phase one, the preparation phase, you'll be given fifteen minutes to prepare with your randomly selected teammates and pick out one piece of support gear. During phase two, you and your team will be placed onto one of fifteen fields with one flag each. Your goal is to gather as many as possible. You will be rated both individually and as a team."
Beatrix watched as the woman made some wild gesticulation, prompting a door behind her to open, and a group of people to come out from the door, unfolding tables identifying the test-takers by last name.
"Succinct." thought Constance, taking a slip with a number on it, "Good."
As the group of prospective students, each took their own slip and the three aforementioned students found themselves grouped.
"Anyone have any plans?" John asked, chipper as was his usual mood, "Name's John, by the way."
"I'm just gonna grab the heaviest thing, I'd suggest you do the same," Constance said, "Constance."
"How does that make any sense? I'm Beatrix" the girl questioned, her slightly hunched posture giving a good chuckle to her teammates.
"Well, I can change it to anything we need, and having the heavier object just lets me create more."
"Seems like a solid plan." John mused, his thumb and index on his chin in thought, as he looked toward Beatrix for hers.
"I mean, I guess it works. But are you absolutely sure that you can replicate the designs?" Beatrix asked, more for the fact that she wanted a plan she put in place to come to fruition, even if this rationale was subconscious.
"I've done a look over of the items, they seem pretty simple for the most part." Constance rebuffed, not actually having looked over any anything, and simply wanting a decision to be made.
"I'd say it can work." John concurred.
Beatrix, feeling outthought, agreed with the other two, "Alright, I guess. We can make it work."
The same woman from earlier announced that there were only five minutes left.
The group, in full, walked towards the rack of items that were still left, and Constance, being a freak of nature, grabbed the heaviest items, near the top, and handed them off, after some persuasion, to John, who lifted all three with ease in one hand.
"Test-takers five-hundred, one-thousand, and fifteen-hundred," the registrant said to himself, looking at the map of the arena on his monitor, "Entrance four, arena six."
The trio proceeded to walk towards their designated section as the silence was only broken by John's constant attempts at small talk. When they finally arrived, they all put their flag in between their waste and their pants.
"So, what now? We all just stick together? Split up? What's the best play?" Beatrix asked, looking at the vast expanse of green dotted only with a few solitary structures and a different type of environment maybe half visible in the distance.
"Well, if we assume that everyone else taking the test knows each other as little as we do," John mused, thinking, "Then it's unlikely that they trust each other enough to split up. Plus we need Constance if we want to be able to have any equipment."
"So we stay together, and we blitz anyone we come across?" Constance asked, his eyes narrowing in an attempt to look smart.
"More or l-" the blaring alarm startled John into silence.
Over a loudspeaker near the entrance to the park, a voice started, "The test. Begins. Now."
So, this chapter was a little shorter than I wanted it to be because it's entirely exposition. Next chapter should be a little longer. It also might seem that this story kinda starts in a weird place, and it does. It's on purpose that none of the characters are known yet because I prefer the type of storytelling where the backstory of everyone, even the main character's is shown later in the story.