While Kylie's hands were all over the place to animate the story and Sam added his own thoughts in here and there, Issy realised her family was slowly getting bigger and bigger.
Issy had sat with the couple for lunch and then as Issy and Kylie couldn't stop thinking of more things to talk about, Issy ended up spending dinner with them too after both Kylie and Sam had both said that she wasn't intruding.
Now Issy was walking home after they had finally parted later than any of them expected. As she was leaving, Sam had suggested one of these next few days where Issy was off that all of their initiation class should definitely meet up and Issy was down for that. She had seen some of her friends in passing as they made their way to their jobs or during meal times but even then their time together was limited. In somewhat of a daze, Issy walked straight past the N block elevators and thought about what they could do together when they could all get the time off at the same time. Without a doubt Issy knew that they needed to do something out of the compound as most of her friends' jobs had them stuck inside all day. Not only that, but she remembers her brothers whining about wanting to do something out of the compound too but they could never come up with anything.
The first thing that came to mind was Capture The Flag. She smirked to herself at the memory, at the thrill of it. It had been one of the best moments of initiation by far. The only thing was she had never heard of the game being played outside of initiation but what if. . . Issy paused in her stride and leaned her elbows against the metal fence on one of the higher levels of the Pit as she let her mind take control of all the possible ideas of what they could and couldn't do, of what rules could be acceptable and how it'd all work. . . She let out a small laugh as she went over the revamped game in her head until all of the loose ends were gone.
With an exhilarated glee that she hasn't felt in a while, Issy pushed herself away from the fence and ran. She had to tell someone of her plan, to get people on board and to fill in the holes that she couldn't see. With no patience to stand in an elevator, Issy bounded up E block's stairs until she came to the fourth floor and then quickly walked down the hall, checking the numbers as she went. When she finally found door 26, Issy knocked rapidly before unlocking the door and letting herself in. Stood in her brother's living with frowns on their faces were Zeke, Blake, Will and Four. She grinned a grin that had Four narrowing his eyes at her but before either of them could say a word, Dec walked out of his room and stopped in his tracks when he saw Issy.
"Hey Iss," He greeted unsurely. "What's up?"
"Do you remember when you said you wanted to do something out of the compound but couldn't think of what?" Declan nodded his head as the others perked up slightly with their full attention now on Issy. "I have an idea." She said vaguely, grinning as Dec's lips twitched up into a smirk.
After Issy had explained every little detail about her idea she had all of the guys nodding their heads and adding their own thoughts to the plan. Not two hours ago Will had left to see if Christina could make the armbands for the teams so it would be easier to tell who was on what team. Half an hour after he had left, Dec had got a message from him saying that she had started straight away once she knew what they were for. Four had suggested that they use the area used for CTF instead of trying to find another area to use. As they added more and more to Issy's original idea, Blake wrote all of it down so others could see how to play the game. At some point during their planning Will came back with several takeaway boxes balanced on top of a medium sized cardboard box and the six of them continued through the night before any of them called it a night.
xXx
It was very late into the afternoon when Issy woke the next day on Declan's sofa. She groaned as she rubbed at her eyes and then suddenly a mug off coffee appeared before her.
"Morning Issy." Hec said cheerfully and Issy frowned at him as she took the mug from him.
"What. . ." She started but then stopped when she saw Red walk out from Dec's bathroom. "Why are you. . .?" She paused again when Rainbow sat down on the arm of the sofa.
"I have to say when your oldest brother put on he group chats that you and a few others had an idea for a game that you wanted to test out, I don't think I've ever seen many people come to door to put their names on a list before." Hec grinned down at her before Declan crouched down in front of her.
He gave her squad mates a look and they took the hint and left the siblings be. Once they were far enough away, Dec looked down at her with a sheepish smile. "This idea had us too pumped to leave it be for a few days so we're doing it tonight, if that's okay?"
"Yeah, that's fine." She smirked at him. "So how many people have we got on this list?"
"Twenty eight. That's including us. We told everyone to meet at the tracks at half eight tonight." Issy nodded as Dec scratched the back of his neck. "So me and Four were thinking about who should take the other spot as Captain," Issy rose an eyebrow at him and then at Four as he came to join them. "You'll be doing your thing and Four will be the blue team's Captain but we were thinking of offering Eric the role of Captain of the red team."
"Isn't he apart of the twenty eight?"
"No, he messaged me a while after saying that he'd think about it and we thought –" Declan trailed off as he looked to Four.
"We thought that you could convince him to join us." Four finished. "And lets be honest, if there's anyone Eric will say yes to, its you." Issy groans again, her head rolling back onto the sofa as she thinks about it. A bad taste appears in the back of her mouth as for some reason it feels like they're trying to get her to use both her and Eric's feelings for each other in their favour.
"Even if then he says no, you can say that at least he can tell the other Leaders where we are if anyone needs us." Dec offers up quietly.
She sighs. "What time is it?"
"Nearly dinner time." Four answers and Issy pathetically rolls off of the sofa and staggers to her feet.
"I'll go ask him now then." She fixes her tangled hair into a bun before trying to straighten out her clothes as she walks to the door. "I'll message you about his response and then meet you at the tracks when its time." Without another word she leaves her brother's apartment and heads for the cafeteria.
When she gets there, the cafeteria is crowded like normal but she easily spots Eric sat with the other Leaders at their usual table. Waving to a few members that she knows from passing and a few of her friends that salute her with their cups and glasses, she weaves her way around the tables until she stands at the edge of the Leaders' table. Eric raises a pierced eyebrow at her from where he sits at the end opposite Max and next to Harrison. Its been a while since Issy was in close quarters with him, the last time had to be when they were on patrol together.
"Hello Issy," Max greets, not even turning to look at her as he feds Livvie.
"Morning." She grins, nodding her hello's to the rest of the table.
Harrison rolls his eyes lightly. "I think you'll find its 'afternoon'."
"If you're going to be specific about it," Eric starts, glancing at Issy. "It's actually classed as 'evening'." A smirk appears on his face as Issy starts to laugh quietly.
Max shakes his head half heartedly. "So what can we do for you Issy? Still bored from yesterday?"
"No actually, I'd just thought I'd let you know that a large group of us will be heading down to the old fairground around eight tonight for some fun. I think either Dec or Blake will send you the list of who's going."
"A large group you say?" Max asks and Issy nods her head. "How many of you will there be?"
Issy cocks her hip out to the side and rests her hands on her hips. "Twenty eight. Well," Issy pauses, turning to stare at Eric, who stares back indifferently, his shoulders tense. "Maybe twenty nine."
Max raises his eyebrows as he looks between Eric and Issy. "I said to Dec I'd think about it." Eric snaps.
"You're running out of time to think about it." She shoots back at him. "You've got, what," Issy checks her watch. "Two hours to meet at the tracks? Plus, we need another Captain, and before you say anything, Four's the other Captain and I've already got a role to play." Issy watches as Eric thinks it over. "You'd be missing out on Four having his arse handed to him again." She says softly and Eric looks at her questioningly. "A while ago Four was pissing me off so I pushed him off the roof." Max and Harrison hissed in response as Eric snorted and Issy shrugged her shoulders. "He was fine, he landed in the net okay."
There was a pause before Eric started to nod his head slowly. "Be at the tracks for eight?"
"Yup." Issy grinned. "See you at eight." She waved at them as she backed away and headed out and back to her flat to get ready for the night ahead.
xXx
At ten to eight Issy stood with her brother, Four, Will, Zeke and Blake as they went over the details again. Will was holding the box full of armbands and Zeke and Blake had a bag of dart guns each. They all fall silent as Eric was the first on to arrive. He nodded at each of them mutely as he leaned against a ruined wall before turning his gaze to Issy. She was so hyped for this that she couldn't keep still and was continuously bouncing on the balls of her feet. Smirking, he raised his eyebrows at her and shook his head as she winked back.
By the time it was eight everyone had arrived at the tracks and stood in smaller groups, waiting for an explanation. Alec stood with Cody, Kayden, Bree and Noah. Sam, Luke, Lilah and Flare quietly discussed just what they could be doing. Jason leaned against Josh as Hugo, Uri and Tris stood around them. Hector sat on a boulder with BD, Red, Rainbow and Billy. And finally Lauren, Shauna and Lynn stood near the tracks.
At quarter past eight, the train horn sounded in the distance and everyone followed after Four along side the train before jumping in. Once again Issy stood at the front of the group with Four, Dec, Zeke, Blake and Will, all of them sharing a grin as their friends shuffled. Will put the box down in between them and their friends as Zeke and Blake placed the bags one either side.
"So," Declan started. "We brought you all out here to play a game."
"We've worked on this all night after Issy came to us with the idea." Four carries on only to be interrupted by Zeke.
"Which was pretty epic in the first place." Zeke winks playfully at Issy.
Blake glances at the others before looking back at their friends. "It's like Capture The Flag with a few major differences. . ." He trails off with a grin and Issy laughs. The tension and curiosity flowing from their friends is thrilling and Issy thinks its about time they're taken out of their misery.
"We call it Manic." Issy whispers tauntingly, grinning as everyone stands alert at the feral tone in her voice.
Hopefully they'll be more updates coming in quicker as I've now broken up for summer with nearly ten weeks off... Believe me or not but I've literally wrote all of this today and it feels so good to write this story again. Another cliffhanger (soorrryy) but I know exactly where the next chapter is going so it'll be up soon.