I walked casually over to the table where the Scouts sat. Some of them were chatting about baseball. I saw a female Scout look down at her dinner. She was wearing a red dress, so I assumed that was Alice. She didn't seem to notice me as I sat down in the empty seat next to her.
"Marisa... where are you?" she muttered under her breath and stabbed her peas with her fork. She missed the pea and it hit me in the face. Ow. I definitely don't want to sit next to, or across from her.
Alice followed the pea with her eyes until they rested on me. "Who are you?" She asked with a puzzled look on her face. By this time, Aya, the female Scout with the camera had sat down in her seat.
I laughed awkwardly. "I guess this tells me I should get some food." I said, referring to the peas.
I stood up and grabbed my crutch. I walked over to the buffet and took a plate of food-looked like tonight's food choices was random Asian stuff. I wasn't really a picky eater, but I didn't like spicy foods or bitter foods that much. I grabbed some Japanese food. I knew that if worst came to worst, I could just scrape off the wasabi and ginger.
I came back to the Scout table, holding the plate in my right hand while operating the crutch with my left hand. I put the plate down and went back for a drink. There wasn't any soda left in the pitchers, so I had to go to the fountain machine. I came back and settled myself between Alice and a Scout who had an open book at the table, his plate pushed neatly off to the side.
Alice looked at me then asked her question again, this time a bit louder. "Who are you?"
I looked over at the blonde girl and answered. "I'm Adrian, I'm new here and-" I was cut off by a yell from a black haired, female Scout.
"AHA! See? I wasn't lying!" Aya waved her camera at me. Everyone looked at me, including the other classes. My face turned red from embarrassment and I tried to cover it by taking a sip of soda.
"'ey, she's kind of sexy," One of the male Scouts nudged another male Scout next to him. He nodded and whispered something into the first Scout's ear. I tried to ignore them.
A third Scout was listening in on the two's conversation. "What? Wha'did he say?" The third Scout questioned.
"F'get it, Ryne, it wouldn't make sense t'ya, bein' a girl an' all," the first Scout replied with a smirk. That was the trigger for Ryne. The female Scout, Ryne, jumped on the male Scout, sending them both to the floor.
"'Ya think it wouldn't make sense ta me? B'cause I'ma girl?" Ryne grabbed the Scout's dog tags, choking him.
"A'right, a'right, I'll tell 'ya, leggo a'ready!" The Scout managed to choke out. Ryne let go of the dog tags and sat back in her seat while the Scout stood up. Ryne folded her arms.
"A'right, Dakota, then tell us, we ain't got all night."
Dakota, still on the floor of the mess hall, stood up and announced to the rest of the Scouts, "Garrett was sayin' that he'd like to bonk the new girl later."
The Scouts, apart from Alice looked at me and laughed as I choked on my soda. My face went red as I turned my head away from those idiots.
"Do ya know what that means?" Alice whispered to me, and I nodded, trying to get the soda out of my nose.
"Well, wha'da say?" Garrett looked pointedly at my chest. I turned a darker shade of red and shrunk into myself.
Alice looked at me and noticed that I was turning redder by the minute. "Garrett, give it a rest. Yer embarrassing her," she muttered loud enough for him to hear.
He laughed, "N'way, this is hilarious!"
Dakota looked at me and tugged on Garrett's sleeve. "I think 'ya should stop, Alice's gettin' pretty pissed..."
Garrett laughed once again, "An' wha' harm can a tsundere do to me?"
Alice carefully got up out of her seat and walked over to Garrett and precision-bitch slapped him into the Heavy table.
Garrett rolled over in pain.
"Leetle Scoot, you must be more careful." a Heavy gently chastised him and went back to eating his sandwich.
The Scout didn't respond. A Medic sighed, and got up to assist him.
Alice glared at Garrett. "Don't call me that."
"Yeah, yeah, I geddit."
A Scout snickered and turned to me. "Nah, he don't. Alice usually does that at least twice a week, maybe more."
I tried to stifle my laughter. It wouldn't be good to make some enemies the first day here because of my dark sense of humor. I jabbed at my dinner with my chopsticks. The Scout next to me looked at my food, which was being mutilated by the chopsticks.
He put his book to the side and turned to face me. "You don't know how to use chopsticks?" He asked in a light Boston accent.
Was it that obvious that I didn't know?
"'ey, Niko! About time 'ya joined the convo!" Aya shouted. The Scout-Niko, looked at Aya and didn't reply.
I had the feeling Niko wasn't very social. Either that or he really didn't care what the other Scouts were up to.
"MAGGOTS!" One of the Soldiers yelled, getting out of his seat.
"Great, now here comes a Soldier to yell at us," Alice rolled her eyes at Dakota and Garrett.
"Maggots, we have a battle tomorrow at O-600, time to get some shut-eye! Dismissed!" A second Soldier yelled, cutting off the first Soldier, who glared at the second.
Everyone got out of their seats as I tried to quickly finish my dinner by stabbing it with my chopsticks, making it even more of a mess. My sushi had turned into rice soup.
"A'right! Finally a battle!"Ryne happily shouted, frightening a few Pyros.
"'Ya gonna fight tomorrow?" Ryne asked, smiling.
I had finished my dinner too fast and had the hiccups.
"I can't. My ankle's broken. The Medic told me not to put pressure on it." I replied with a few hiccups.
"That sucks!" Ryne's smile had turned into a frown.
"'Ya could always ask an Engineer to build a Dispenser for you." Niko spoke, not looking up from his book.
Alice beamed from next to me, "Yeah! That'll fix your ankle in no time!"
The two Scouts, Alice and Niko, helped me stand up and Alice handed me my crutch. Ryne was going to say something, but quickly shook her head. We were almost out the door when we heard a voice behind us.
"Wait!" We turned to see Aya running towards us. "Do you mind if I come along? I want to interview the Engineers. I heard they built new weapons!"
Alice looked at Niko, who looked at me.
Alice shrugged. "I don't see why not."
Aya cheered and the four of us walked out into the hallways.
We were a pretty quiet group even though there was a battle tomorrow. Scouts would usually be excited and annoying the other classes as they went throughout the halls, Alice told me. We arrived at a workshop where the Engineers were finishing up last minute weapons and blueprints.
"Need a Dispenser here!" Alice yelled into the room, alerting the Engineers.
One of the Engineers came over to us. "Y'all need a Dispenser? Sorry, but we ain't building them 'till tomorrow."
"But without one, this Scout here won't be able to fight." Aya whined and pointed to me.
The Engineer looked at us. "Sorry, no can do."
Alice looked like she was about ready to jump at the Engineer.
I sighed. "It's OK, I just won't fight tomorrow."
"No! You can't give up! You'll miss the first battle after both teams got new people!" Niko yelled.
Alice, Aya and I looked at Niko, shocked to hear him yell.
"Hold on young 'uns." A second Engineer came over to us and put his hand on the first Engineer's shoulder. "Why da y'all need a Dispenser?"
I told the Engineers about the incident and how my ankle got broken.
"Ah see. Very well, I'll build a Dispenser for y'all."
My Scout companions looked at the Engineer with smiles on their faces.
It took a bit of time, but the Engineer was able to build a Dispenser. I sat on the work table while the machine healed my ankle. During this time, Aya had wandered over to the rest of the Engineers to interview them. Niko was sitting on a stool reading his book while Alice was talking to the first Engineer about something that I couldn't make out, all I heard was "Moving on its own without being controlled."
The Dispenser made a tiny beep as it had finished its job. The second Engineer we encountered came over and pressed the off switch on the machine.
"Welp, try 'ta walk." He suggested and I jumped to the floor.
I took a step and nearly fell over, luckily the Engineer caught me.
"Ya alright there?" Aya glanced over at me.
"Yup. Just not used to putting my weight on this leg." I shrugged and the Engineer set me back on my feet.
"Y'all should git to your rooms, it's gitting late." The first Engineer spoke up as Niko put a mark in his book.
Alice glanced up at a clock that was on one of the walls of the workshop. "Jeez, it is getting late, and I still have to take a shower." She walked towards the door.
"I'll go with you, I need a shower too." Aya had finished her interviewing and joined Alice.
That just left me and Niko in the workshop with the Engineers. Niko quickly muttered something about needing to go to bed and ran out the door. He spun to face me and smiled warmly, "I'm glad yer ankle's better. I'll see you tomorrow."
I blushed. I never knew Scouts could be so nice. I stood with my back to the workshop and didn't notice an Engineer tap on my shoulder until he spoke.
"Ah, so ya like him?" I felt my face grow hot as I slowly turned around.
"N-no! Of course not! Don't be ridiculous!" The Engineer and I both laughed. I was laughing because I was nervous, he was laughing because he caught me off guard.
He put his hand on my shoulder. "It's a'right if ya do, son, it's not uncommon around here. Just don't let anyone figure it out, it's against the code." He whispered that last part and looked around.
"Um... I'm a girl..." I corrected him and he laughed.
"Sorry 'bout that, thought you were a boy."
I sighed, "It's alright, a lot of people seem to think I'm a boy when they first meet me…"
We stood in silence for a moment. Then the Engineer seemed to remember something.
"Oh, before I forget again, here, take this." He drew a small watch out from the pocket of his overalls and handed it to me.
I looked at it, puzzled.
"It's a respawn timer. It tells you how long you have until you respawn in case you die in battle." He explained.
"So... if you die in battle... your life doesn't end?" I asked.
"Sort of, yer dead for a few seconds before you come back to life in the respawn room. You don't respawn during "Sudden Death," so if you're hurt you should immediately call for a Medic or find a Dispenser." The Engineer tapped on the Dispenser with his wrench and it turned back into a tool box.
"Sudden Death..." I whispered.
"Well, I think it's about time you hit the hay, Missy, you've got a big day tomorrow." The Engineer pats me on the shoulder.
I nodded and started heading out the door, "Thanks again for the Dispenser, Engineers!" I called over my shoulder as I walked out the door.
I was walking down the hall when I saw another person. Not just another person, a certain female Spy.
"Konbanwa, Adrian-san." Tori walked over to me. "How's it going?"
"Pretty good" I yawned.
"What are you doing awake? It's almost time for lights out." Tori looked at me rubbing my eyes.
I explained what I was doing.
"I see, by the way, you don't have a room yet do you?"
I shrugged, "guess not."
"Well then, come on, you can stay in my room because you look like you're going to pass out" Tori looked at me as I yawned.
"Thanks."
The two of us walked down a few hallways and I kept stumbling due to my sleepiness.
"We're almost there, Adrian. Adrian?" Tori looked down to see me curled up on the floor of the hallway, sound asleep. Tori sighed and tried to wake me up. "C'mon, Adrian, it's just around the corner."
I yawned and shuffled to my feet. Just a bit further, then I could curl up to sleep. We walked on. My eyelids were starting to close when I crashed into something. My eyes shot open and I fell to the floor.
"Hudda, hudda." I looked into the mask of a Pyro.
"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're saying, Pyro?" I said with uncertainty in my voice.
"Rww." The Pyro looked down, maybe depressed. It was impossible to tell.
"Right... well, I have to go. Sorry about crashing into you." I waved good bye to the Pyro and hurried down the hallway.
"What happened to you?" Tori asked as I came panting into her room.
"I accidentally crashed into a Pyro on the way here." I replied as I threw off my clothes and pulled on my red nightshirt that came down to my knees. I made sure to put the respawn timer somewhere where I wouldn't lose it. Specifically, next to Tori's and fell asleep in the sleeping bag that was laid out for me.