Hello my lovelies! Thanks once again for reading, it means a lot to me to see the numbers and reviews.
Also...eight favs and eight follows! Woohooo!
So without further ado, on with the chapter!
Hollyleaf POV
The second the lift hits the second floor we bolt out down the corridor. Since none of us are brave or skilled enough we didn't jump out the window, and instead resorted to taking the slower, but safer, way into the actual gym. Now we ran past classrooms and eventually ended up in the Upper Gym. There were stairs to the bottom floor, a balcony to view the Lower Gym, and a few things upstairs to use. Considering it was only ten past six, there were two younger students playing tennis downstairs, and that ginger-and-white-and-black haired person Ivy and Briar room with practising archery up here with us.
What? I prefer my research to be about my lessons, not random others. Does that sound rude? Uhh-
Anyway, we tore across the upper floor -which was mostly empty seeing as most of the sports were downstairs and exited through the fire exit. There was a metal staircase going downwards to the ground, but we ignored it and turned to the low roof. I paled, how was I going to get up there?
"Okay everyone, I'll give you a boost." Lionblaze announced once everyone had come through (though it took us awhile to call Jayfeather over). Well there's my answer.
Cinderheart goes first, stepping onto his cupped hands and he raises her steadily upwards until she can push herself onto the roof. Then Jayfeather, same again but he got helped up by the silverette. He scowled at the need for help and I giggled slightly. Then Honeyfern, Poppyfrost, Mousewhisker, Berrynose ("Hey, I could have got up myself!"), Icecloud, Hazeltail, me (I made these strange whimpering sounds being lifted, I'm not good with heights), Briarlight, Toadstep, Dovewing ("Ah my dress, no my heels!") and finally Lionblaze himself jumps up and hauls himself on.
"Dovewing why are your heels so sharp?" he said, inspecting them.
"Well, after the incident with Foxleap on the group chat we all decided that we need sharper heels!" she explained as if we were all stupid.
"Uh, you, Blossomfall and Ashfur did." Honeyfern corrected,
"Majority vote!"
"Ashfur voted?" Berrynose exclaimed.
"He recommended it. Weirdo." Dovewing said, tossing her hair over her shoulder, "why are you dating him Poppyfrost?"
"For the last time, we aren't dating!" she cried.
"Yet," I muttered inaudibly.
"So back to the heels, you want to physically stab Foxleap or anyone?" Toadstep asked.
"If he drives us to that point, yes."
"Oh."
Briarlight brought the conversation to an end. "O~kaaaayyy~ let's just focus on getting Foxleap and Ivypool back inside." she said, stepping in front of them. At that moment I looked up to see the four windows on the end of each row of dorms on the four respective floors had many people pressed against them. I waved, recognizing a couple of familiar faces, especially from Thunder.
This happens a lot.
Then we ran to the edge of the roof at a yell to see Foxleap and Ivypool on top of the main school roof.
"They're going to kill themselves!" Briarlight exclaimed.
"What's going on?!" Jayfeather screeched.
Then we looked down.
"Are they…" Lionblaze began.
"...llamas?" I finished. A whole crowd of them were standing casually below.
Something clicked, and we all turned slowly to Berrynose.
"What have you done?" Hazeltail yelled at her brother.
"I didn't do anything!" he replied in a pleading tone, to no avail.
"They're going to die!" Honeyfern cried.
"They're breaking the rules!" I screamed, horrified.
"The poor llamas are going to get crushed!" Poppyfrost said, ignoring the fact that her friends were about to jump.
Then they jumped.
Everyone, including me, began shrieking, and I felt my throat run dry after yelling "NO!" for a while. Panic and terror overwhelmed me and at one point I felt as though I would pass out as I watched them doing their backflips of doom. Surely I wasn't about to lose two great friends?
Answer: No.
At the very last second, they whipped out large umbrellas -DO NOT TRY ANY OF THIS AT HOME- and floated down safely like Mary Poppins, right onto two llamas' backs. I felt so much relief, it was unreal. Then, something else came to mind.
"Hang on a minute," I said, "They're breaking the laws of physics!"
Everyone turned towards me, and I heard a few muttered "Oh no…"s.
"They've broken the laws of physics! There should be no umbrella big enough to carry their weight safely enough combined with the air resistance!"
I basically flipped. It was not my most liked memory, and by the end of it I was lying face-down on the roof sighing and groaning. Everyone looked very worried and confused, at least the last time I saw them. After a minute or so of deep breaths and calming myself down, I got up again and straightened my skirt, brushing any dust off it.
"Okay I'm back." I said.
"We good?"
"I got both of that on camera so we good." Mousewhisker replied for me.
"Do not upload that to the PP!" I said threateningly, "It's Foxleap and Ivypool's choice whether they want theirs uploaded, and Foxleap will probably want it for his own account, and you are not uploading the one of me!"
"Too late."
"What?!"
I ran over and saw that he had already uploaded both videos.
"Mousewhisker, no!" I screamed at him, snatching for his phone and resorting to hitting the screen madly when he tried to pull away. Eventually Cinderheart pulled me off.
"No hard feelings, Hollyleaf, but, uh, everyone will probably have seen it now. Besides, no one really takes it as more than a laugh anyway."
I wasn't listening. "My life is ruined…" I moaned. There would be a very low chance that me and Mousewhisker would remain a couple. Everyone was laughing now.
The someone screamed.
Wait-
My head shot up to see Icecloud teetering on the edge of the roof, balance swaying her back dangerously, arms flailing, and eyes wild.
"Help!" she cried.
We all began rushing forwards as she fought to steady herself, but it was too late, she was falling backwards, crying out…
But Toadstep was there in an instant.
He caught her, pulling her up with a fierce look of determination to protect. She gasped in relief and panted heavily, savouring every breath like it could be her last.
And in all truth it honestly could have been.
He was still holding her around the waist, and it didn't look like Icecloud was stable enough for him to let go. He paced backwards, leading her away from the edge until the were far away from it.
I suddenly felt Honeyfern's presence beside me. "Ship!" she whispered to me, and I nodded, eyes glowing.
Like it was made to be, Icecloud suddenly wrapped her arms around him. Toadstep was taken aback, but not for long. They hugged, blushing, then they kissed delicately on the rooftop.
Leaf Blowing In Wind's (Leaf's) POV
I hummed slightly as I drew on the A7 pad, my pencil tracing the outline of a cat. The room was quiet and peaceful, mainly because Sage was out somewhere. Outside another blizzard was raging, pounding at the walls of the cave outside, though it was inaudible over the crashing noise of the fall. The school was sat inside a large cave, where the only entrance was through a waterfall. The rocky walls and falling water acted like a bubble, or safety blanket, protecting the school.
Suddenly Sage walked in and flopped onto her bed. She lay there with her face buried in her pillow for a minute or so before turning onto her back, picking up her phone and flicking open the cover. Then she growled slightly.
"Hey, Leaf, can I borrow your charger?" she asked, looking over at me.
"Sure," I said, unplugging it from the wall, "where's yours?"
"I packed it." she replied, almost proudly, taking it off me.
I tilted my head slightly. "You...packed already? You do realise we aren't transferring for two months?"
"Those two months are going to seem like two centuries if I don't."
"My goodness Sage." I sighed. Surely the Academy wasn't that bad? And if I knew Sage she'd probably studied a map of Warriors High and knew it off by heart already.
Shaking my head, I returned to my drawing.
? POV
I strode swiftly and quietly through the dark halls of the High School, keeping to the shadows and avoiding the light from the windows. It was raining heavily outside, masking any footsteps, and my black hoodie was drawn so that I blended in the dark, and no one could recognise me.
At last I reached the lockers.
I crouched down to the only one with a lock, and briskly changed the combination to 669. The lock clicked open and I swung open the locker to reveal a door to the outside. I pushed it open silently and crept through, closing the locker and the door behind me and twisting the code away from the combination from behind.
The door was hidden by thick vines and bushes, though I was able to get through and hurry along the hidden path into the forest, cursing at every thorn prick. At last the trees loomed above me and I was able to reach the clearing safely. A ring of people stood around a stone, and on that stone stood a tall, broad-shouldered, dark brown haired man with amber eyes. Those eyes narrowed at me when they saw my arrival.
"Tigerstar, you're late." he said, voice laced with menace.
"Very sorry, sir, I was held up slightly." I replied, holding up my knife to reveal a few bloodstains.
"Good thing we waited." he said tersely.
I slid into the crowd next to a grey-and-white haired teen. The man in the center looked around at us all.
"Members of the Dark Forest, I have called you all to a meeting without our trainees to discuss some special...plans for the future. It is every gang's goal to take control of the school to hold a reign of terror for everyone in, but we are by far going to be the gang that achieves that. We are organised, and have several students come to us on a daily basis and we give them training. And they are loyal."
"But there is another clever tactic waiting to be played, that will eliminate the other teams once and for all." he beckoned us forwards, "Come closer, my warriors, and I shall tell."