I don't sleep for as long as I needed to, an unexpected alarm wakes me at 11 o'clock. I roll out of bed clumsily and stumble to the diary on the wall, running a hand through my dried sweat encrusted hair. Gross. I find that Lizzy set an alarm last night, under the title of "brekkie/brunch/lunch/not sure". Which she was able to do because we're partnering pilots now, and we are treated as one unit. Almost every scheduled we now must attend together, hence, our diaries are linked.

I meet Lizzy in the dining hall. It's not a set meal time, so we don't have to squish onto a table with twenty other people. Thankfully, there's food starting to come out in preparation for lunch.

I find her standing beside the table in the corner, the empty table from the first day. I move over cautiously to join her.

'Ah, I get it now.' I say. Lizzy nods her head.

'I thought it was about time we figured out why nobody sits here.'

'Mystery solved.' I say. It makes sense now. Nobody sits here because the air vent above seems to be a breeding ground for little black spiders, many of which dangle down from above. As I'm standing there a larger black crawly thing falls, dropping past my nose. I jerk my head back and let out a sputtering laugh.

'I wonder why this hasn't been dealt with.' Lizzy muses as we stared perplexed at the black dotted ceiling.

'Because they're extremely poisonous.' Says Becket, his voice sounding from behind us. I have one eyebrow raised before I even turn to face him. He's smirking. 'Or so the ledged goes.' He concedes. I can't help it when the edge of my mouth twitches up.

'Back in Australia we teach our children to catch and milk the venom of wild funnel web spiders.' Lizzy says, putting on a heavily saturated Australian accent.

'Then we dry and powder their bodies and use them as a seasoning in everything so that we can develop an immunity. We have the occasional loss from the ones who react worse, but it's all for the greater good.' I continue.

'I haven't heard that one before.' Says Becket, crossing his arms.

'Clearly you haven't spent enough time in the outback, mate.' Lizzy says. I snicker at her sinister tone.

'I thought you guys lived in the middle of the city.'

'The native wildlife is native to all our country, we ride kangaroos to school right beside the traffic.' I say.

Becket lets out a theatrical sigh of exasperation. 'You know I actually came over here to congratulate you, but we can talk about this instead.'

'Tell us about the spiders first.' Lizzy says.

'They've tried to clear them out, but they've come back even worse every time, so everyone's given up.' Becket explains. 'So, congratulations?'

I laugh. 'Thanks.'

'Aw, shucks.' Lizzy says, surprisingly sincere.

'No, really. You made the right decision. Nobody wants to think about what could have happened if you didn't step in when you did.'

'How do you know about that?' Lizzy asks. The whole base knows that we launched and it was a success, they watched it on the news. But hey shouldn't know what orders we were given.

'As a pilot I'm allowed on the command level; welcome, really.' He explains, glancing at his watch. 'I have to go. Congratulations, again.' He says, before sauntering away.

Once he's out of ear shot Lizzy turns to me and says, 'You know, he definitely likes you. I like him too, but Andrew.'

'Andrew?' I say, ignoring the first part of her statement.

'I thought I told you.'

'You didn't. But I did figure it out myself. He's cute.' I redirect the conversation. Or try to.

'Yes, he is. And so is Raleigh.' Goddammit Lizzy.

'Hey let's finish talking about Andrew first, I'm curious.'

'Fine, go on.'

'Is he another boy toy or do you find him interesting?

'I'm not sure yet.' Lizzy then proceeds to tell me about Andrew. She says that he's one of the sweetest people she's ever met, kind and gentlemanly at every turn. Quite a contrast to herself. I suppose opposites attract. I'm happy, because by her description he's exactly what she needs. Someone who won't turn and run when she needs them. I hope they get together.

I also hope Lizzy doesn't eat the poor boy alive.

We hang about and eat our lunch slowly back at the table we sat at on our first night. Where I snapped at Dean for trying to be nice. He comes in around forty minutes after Lizzy and I did, dumping his try across from us, looking us in the eye and saying, 'Awesome.' Andrew and Koemi turn up around midday, and we sit with them and chat long after we've finished our own food. The dining hall still isn't very full; most people will be having late lunch after a long night.

'So.' Lizzy says, puncturing the otherwise comfortable silence. 'What do you guys know about Raleigh Becket? Why is he here, holding a high position if he's basically useless as a pilot?' She asks, putting the question to Dean, Andrew, Koemi, and indirectly to any other cadet sitting at the table. I was hoping she'd forgotten about becket for the moment, but apparently not. I kick her under the table. She kicks me right back.

'He was a very good pilot. Still is. And he's very close with lots of people in command, he's been in the game for a while. But on his last deployment something went wrong.'

'Yeah, what happened there?' asks Andrew.

Dean shrugs. 'I don't know. But his partner, his brother, died. Apparently he washed up in Canada. I don't know what he did there, but when they started decommissioning jaegers the General called him in.'

'Why would they bring him in again? I mean, he's not that useful, is he?' again, Andrew asks.

'I dunno, apparently he spends a lot of time in command, the science wing; I've seen him tagging along with the general myself. He must be doing something.'

'Maybe he's first reserve.' I say. People turn to look. 'You know,' I babble. 'He's a capable pilot. He has more experience with piloting a category three than anyone else on this base, and of course basic training at least for all the other classes.'

'How do you know that?' Lizzy asks.

'He told me he's a category three pilot, and he doesn't have a partner.'

'When was this?' She asks disbelievingly.

'When you weren't there, obviously.' I reply, slightly condescending. I exhale in a huff. 'Hey, what's happening with you guys? I mean, they've picked the pilots for Thurian, so what happens to you now?'

Koemi answers. 'We have a few more rounds of trials to choose the backups, and then the rest can either take up another position here, or go home.'

'How many places are there?'

'Three.'

'Three?' Lizzy asks, three being too few for two backup pairs, and too many for one. 'Why three?'

'Maybe because Becket is already a backup.' Andrew volunteers.

I nod along. 'Maybe.'

Hello again my lovlies! I'm sorry about the long wait for an update that you had to endure a while back - please forgive me, I was in Europe on a school choir tour, and that was incredibly busy. Anyway, to those who have made it this far, thank you for reading! :3 Thankyou to everyone who has Favorited or followed, it makes my day to see that people are enjoying this. Special mention for knightpoenix2, the reviews are great; All feedback is welcome and positive feedback is the best. Also thanks to Bonjour-les-filles for advice, editing help and self esteem boosting :) stay strong and be sexy my friend.

One final thing- I recently had a go at sketching Lizzy and Eloise! if you'd like to have a look the I've posted the links in my profile.

Peace, love and sass.

Amelia.