Hello everyone! Sorry for the long time in updating, but I wanted to make sure that I had this right before I posted. Please enjoy!
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Kim stared at the black and white board with its black and white pieces. The class was quiet, as everyone else was involved in their own chess match. Captain Winner sat at the front of the classroom, simply observing everyone in that quiet, gentle way of his. It still confused her as to why they were playing a game during Strategics class, but Captain Winner had said that chess was a thinking game, and it would give him an idea of who had natural talent for strategies. So far she'd gotten the pants beaten off of her by three different people, and was currently getting whupped by Richardson, a very nice guy who looked like he would end up in Captain Winner's advanced Strategies class.
Captain Winner slipped gracefully off his desk and walked over to her game, where he watched her make a hesitant move, which Richardson quickly countered, leaving her to stare at the board some more. Richardson smiled gently.
"Check." He said. Kim crossed her eyes at him briefly before trying to decide how to get out of this predicament. She moved her pawn to block his piece, which he easily captured with another. She growled low in her throat at her own frustration.
"Not much for chess, are you, Ms. Cattrall?" Captain Winner asked as she moved her hand towards a piece and then stopped, changing her mind.
"Not really sir."
"But your record shows several well thought out and executed strategies for capturing criminals." Kim moved her next piece and then glared at Richardson when he captured it just as quickly as all the others. He just smiled sweetly at her.
"All my partners' ideas. I could carry out anything that she thought up, even understand most of it, but I could never think them up." Richardson captured her last piece and looked up at her.
"Check mate." He said. Kim sighed and knocked her King over, admitting her defeat. Captain Winner moved on to the next group, tossing a 'good job Mr. Richardson' over her shoulder. He tried not to look too pleased with the compliment as those that had heard it looked over jealously. He patted her hand comfortingly. "Don't worry about it Cattrall, I was Chess Club Champion four years in a row in High School, then two years in college."
"I don't feel bad, I know that I don't have the head for strategies of any kind. Even when Megan and I pulled pranks at school she would be the one to come up with how we would pull them off. I'm not worried about it." They both started to put the game away, as class was nearing the end and Captain Winner was telling everyone to finish up their games.
"You just need to play more aggressively, that's all. You've got the moves in your head, you just need to allow yourself to play them. I've seen you fight in Martial Arts practice; you've got it all in you, you just have to let it out." Kim rolled her eyes.
"That is a lot easier said than done." Megan bounded over after Captain Winner excused the class to go to lunch, and sat down in the chair opposite Kim as she collected her things.
"So how'd you do?" Megan asked. Kim rolled her eyes as she stood up and they started walking to the cafeteria.
"How do you think I did? You know that I don't have the head for strategies."
"Sure you do! You just have to let it out." Kim let out an exacerbated sigh.
"I really wish that people would stop telling me that, it's getting annoying."
"Kim! Megan! Wait up!" The two of them turned around at the sound of their names and saw Kaitlyn Stinwell doing her best to make it through the crowd to them.
"What's up Kate?" Megan asked. Kaitlyn slowed, not breathing hard in the slightest, though her shock of red hair gave a few final sways before settling down. The three of them had gone through the Preventers Academy together, and while they had ended up in different fields had remained friends.
"Wondering what you two were doing for lunch." Kaitlyn said.
"Just heading for the cafeteria. Wanna join us?"
"Sure. Hey, how are you two doing with your psyche test that Captain Yuy gave us?" The test that she was referring to was an even more detailed on than the one that they had been given when they had first entered, and had to take every year. They could understand why most of the questions were there, but there were some that just didn't fit. Like, describe your most normal memory, or what do you see when you look at the stars. Kim and Megan shrugged.
"I've got most of it finished, there's just a few questions left." Kim said.
"Like that one about what you see when you look at the stars?" They entered the cafeteria and got in the line, which at the moment wasn't to long.
"Actually, I finished that one almost immediately. What about you Megs?" They each selected their food and paid for it, then picked a table and sat down.
"Still working on it. What did you put down?"
"That when I look at the stars I stare in wonderment at the vastness of the universe and realize how small and insignificant we are, and yet then I wonder if we aren't all that unsignificant; that maybe there's a greater plan out there for us and we just have to get to the point where we can understand that purpose and then maybe we can move on. I see lights that are billions of years old and yet still shining, and it gives me hope that that people I've lost might still be shinning in some way." Megan and Kaitlyn stared at her, and she innocently looked back. "What? They told us to be honest, so I was."
"You are the biggest dreamer I have ever met." Kaitlyn said. "Why are you here instead of writing books?" Kim shrugged.
"Who says that I'm not? I wanted to help people and this seemed like a good way to do it."
"Or you just wanted too uphold the family tradition." Megan said, poking her jell-o experimentally. Kim rolled her eyes.
"If I'd wanted to do that I would have joined the police force back home and been stuck there. I wanted something a bit different out of life."
"Well," Kaitlyn said as she to poked what was supposed to be a nutritious lunch "Cafeteria food is the same no matter where you go so I guess it doesn't really matter."
"Which is why I get the salad, it's about the only thing that can't be messed up no matter where you go." Kim said and opened her salad container to find wilted lettuce, close to rotting fruit, and cheese that smelled like it had been out of the fridge to long. The three of them looked at each other.
"You were saying?" Megan said before all three of them burst into giggles.
"Well, I bought it, so I'm going to eat it." Kim said and began to eat, pretending to choke down each mouthful.
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Hello to my faithful readers! I would like to thank you all right now for reading my story, and double thanks to those who reviewed, all eight of you, much much appreciated. Please tell me what you think and I always welcome story ides, thoughts on characters, or any such things.