Enneagon
Chapter 6: Heart Attack
This chapter is appropriately named after the reaction I had upon realizing I forgot to update T-T
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[Hexagon Academy, Briox]
[9.7.2065]
The Stars hated her. They really, really hated her, in a "you-have-inflicted-great-personal-insult-upon-me" sort of way, because Icecloud couldn't think of any other fathomable reason that this could have happened. She had just set down her moving boxes and turned to greet her temporary roommate with a smile on her face when she had recognized the dark French braid and the mint-rock green eyes.
Why her?
The girl had stripped off her blazer and taken off her tie, the dishevelled nature of the white dress shirt implying that she had just been in bed. And judging by the way her face dropped the second Icecloud walked into the room, she was no happier about the situation than she was.
It took all of Icecloud's strength to remember the money.
She had to tough it out, there was no way around it. The girl being there or not made no difference, she had to grit her teeth and bear it.
"Icecloud", she snapped, gesturing roughly to herself. And then, without bothering to find out the others name, turned her back.
…
[Hexagon Academy, Briox]
[9.8.2065]
Ashfur was pacing. Lionblaze and Cinderheart eyed each other in exasperation, watching their coach trek up and down the turf in his stress. "For Star's sake, he's gonna wear a hole in the turf if he keeps doing that", Cinderheart muttered, nudging Lionblaze with her elbow. "You should go tell him to stop, you are the captain."
"You're nuts", Lionblaze muttered back. "That's a one-way ticket to getting benched." Cinderheart groaned something that sounded suspiciously like "baby" and propped her hands up above her head. She leaned back against the goalpost, watching her coach cautiously. "Seriously, is he okay? Should someone go check on him?"
Ivypool, who had been silently observing the scene from the top of the bleachers, vaulted over the guard rail around the field and joined Cinderheart by the goal. The silverette's face brightened as she saw Ivypool, and she exclaimed, "Ivy! You're the other captain, maybe you can talk to him."
"Talk to him?", Ivypool asked with her eyebrows raised. "C'mon, didn't you two read the email?" Lionblaze, as a team captain, was technically supposed to be on top of emails, and she shot him a dirty look.
The strawberry blond gave a single, guilty cough.
"Tryouts", Ivypool explained patiently, with a tone similar to a preschool teacher explaining 2 + 2 = 4. "We lost a bunch of the seniors last year. We have like four spots to fill and he always gets nervous about stuff like that."
With that, Ivypool ran a hand through her hair and looked around at the rest of the team assembled on the green. "These hopefuls had better get here soon, or I think Ashfur really might ruin the turf." Sure enough, the artificial grass around Ashfur's feet was already starting to look dangerously threadbare.
Just as Lionblaze and Cinderheart had craned their necks to eye the ground, a voice behind them spoke up. "Forget the turf, I'm just glad he didn't make us show up two hours early again. Remember last year?"
Cinderheart almost tripped over her laces in surprise, then smiled when she recognized the girl behind her. "Hi, Icecloud!", she greeted. "I'm glad you made it, with what happened yesterday."
"So am I", Icecloud concurred with a grimace, setting her bag down by the goalpost. "You already heard about the oxygen leak in our room, then?"
"Oh yes", Ivypool remarked sarcastically. "Hazeltail's been complaining up a storm in the common room. I don't think there's a single person in Thunder who doesn't know all about it by now."
"To be fair", Lionblaze intervened. "She was rooming next to freshmen boys. I'd be losing my shit, too".
"Speaking of losing your shit, take a guess as to who I'm rooming with", Icecloud muttered bad-temperedly.
"Nightcloud?", Cinderheart guessed, taking in the pissy expression on Icecloud's face. The blondine snorted. "Hah. No, I wish. Try the bitch from Sky."
"Echosong?", Lionblaze interrupted. "We're talking the girl with the black hair, right? She's your roommate?"
"Yeah, tha-" Icecloud broke off mid-sentence. "Wait a hot sec, how do you know her?"
Cinderheart's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah Blaze, I'd like to know that, too."
Lionblaze, who suddenly seemed to realize the danger he was in, backed up and eyed the three girls warily. "It's not like that! She's a family friend, that's all." When Cinderheart's eyebrows crept another inch up her forehead, he elaborated, "My mom's a socialite, she set us up with every single rich family she could find. Echosong's mom is the Briox Chief Justice and they're so obnoxiously rich it's not even funny, so of course we've met a few times. That's all, I swear."
"If you say sooooo", Cinderheart sing-songed, smiling.
"I'm sorry I hate to interrupt your charming banter but what. The. Fuck", Icecloud suddenly snarled from behind them, gesturing toward the door.
All four of them turned toward the gym doors, which had swung open to admit the tryout-ees. And leading the pack? A short girl, with mint rock green eyes and coal black hair.
Icecloud gave an audible hiss of anger. "What in the actual hell is that bitch doing here?"
…
The tryouts started out, as was the case every year, with a run. And as was also the case every year, the vast majority of tryout-ees were out of shape. The Hexagon team led the pack with ease, with Icecloud and Berrynose at the front of the group. There were two exceptions. The first was Echosong, who was extremely fit and jogged along effortlessly alongside Icecloud. Icecloud, in turn, was grinding her teeth so loudly that Lionblaze behind her wasted a whole two minutes desperately examining his wristwatch out of fear it was broken. The second exception was Bumblestripe, who lagged at the very back of the group and promptly pitched over at the end of the run. He collapsed onto the nearest bench with his face flushed bright red and covered in sweat, and was immediately offered water by an extremely concerned Cinderheart.
Bumblestripe, with his face buried in Cinderheart's hydroflask, didn't see the frown spreading slowly across Ashfur's face.
…
It was with great satisfaction that Icecloud watched Echosong stumble and fall to her knees.
"That was a foul", Echosong hissed furiously, wiping the blood off of her shins. "What the fuck is your problem?"
Icecloud stood there for a second, looking down at the blood flecks on the turf, wondering how much she should tell the seething brunette on the ground. She met the mint-rock eyes levelly, and could see the beginnings of angry contempt on her new roommate's face. Well. If she didn't know, she'd never understand. If she didn't see the issues with her behavior already, there was no damn point. And with that thought in mind, Icecloud ignored her and turned away.
Ten minutes later, Icecloud found herself face-first on the floor, spitting turf beads out of her mouth. The ball rolled forlornly across the artificial grass as Ashfur bellowed at his players to "stop the damn fouling already, you're on the same team!"
Icecloud groaned. There was blood on her cheek where she had slid across the rough, plastic-y grass, and her mouth tasted horribly of tar and burnt rubber. She looked up, and saw the malicious gleam in a familiar pair of mint-rock eyes.
"I'm gonna kick your ass", she snarled, glowering up at Echosong with her damned high cheekbones and the coal-black wisps of hair framing her face.
The other girl just smiled grimly, brushing the dark hair out of her face. "Yeah? Get in line."
…
"Bumblestripe, can I have a word?"
The gym was emptying out now, the rest of the players filtering out the double doors in chattering droves. Bumblestripe, having not entirely recovered from the exertion of the run, was the last one out of the gym. He had just been peeling the goalkeeping gloves off of his hands when Ashfur approached him, looking grim.
Bumblestripe immediately feared the worst.
He was well aware that his fitness was abysmal, and instantly regretted not working out more over the summer. And of course, Ashfur had definitely picked up on it, too.
"I don't think I need to tell you what the issue is", Ashfur said, his voice pinched. "This morning-"
Bumblestripe let the gloves fall. He ran his hand through his hair in resignation, then muttered, "Yeah, I know. I'll quit the team first thing tomorrow, so you'll have enough time to find a new keeper."
Ashfur's jaw hit the floor.
"You'll what?"
Out of all the reactions Bumblestripe had been expecting, that wasn't one of them. Ashfur looked dumbstruck, staring at Bumblestripe as if he'd grown a second head. "You want to quit? Why?"
Bumblestripe, equally confused, stared back. "Don't you want me to?"
"Bumblestripe, you moron- no, of course not! I mean, your shitty fitness is a problem but it's nothing to quit over!" Ashfur began pacing in that signature way of his, striding briskly back and forth across the same spot in the turf. Bumblestripe eyed the artificial grass carefully, and privately felt sorry for it.
"Here, hold on-", Ashfur exclaimed aloud, rifling through the contents of his contacts list. He kept pacing, the turf beads flying in sheets around his feet. "Ah, Cloudtail! About damn time you picked up!"
End Chapter 6
I FORGOT TO UPDATE I AM SO SORRY (I'm serious I just about had a heart attack in online class because I looked at my google docs and remembered)
I HOPE THIS NEW CHAPTER WAS SATISFACTORY ;-;
Azra out!