Just Because You're Paranoid (Part Six)

All of the training squads were assembled on the main lawn, all decked out in their uniforms for a schoolwide meeting. All of the school's students were there, even the ones that weren't old enough to be assigned to any teams.

Everyone was excited about it. It was easy to see why. It wasn't like we had any sports teams that could compete with other schools, or even among other teams on campus. This was the closest thing to organized sports anyone was going to see at this school.

Standing with my team, I tried to take a headcount of the students involved. I stopped once I got to 45, because there were more than I could see to add to the total without fudging the numbers.

I was also eyeing all of the girls on the other teams. Whoever's idea it was to put a bunch of fine teenage girls in tight bodysuits, the thought was much appreciated.

Don't judge me. I got enough of that from my own teammate.

Hisako smacked me on the arm while I was getting a look at some of the other X-Men trainees, "Would you quit it and pay attention?" She hissed at me in a whisper, "Even Eddie's taking this more seriously than you are."

Eddie was scared out of his mind. He was taking this too seriously and throwing himself off. Fundamentally changing who you were under pressure was the easiest way to psyche yourself out.

I was trying to stay loose, which wasn't hard. This was all basically a giant field exercise. It was every student being asked, 'What did you learn?' about dealing with danger. I could deal with that. I had also arrived after the Paladins' rough patch in the last series of tests, so I wasn't triggered by the idea of competing with the others.

"I will when the assembly actually starts. No one's talking yet. In the meantime," I pointed at my blue-green eyes to mark how much light I was taking in. "I'm solar-powered, and we're standing out in the middle of the sun. I'm getting antsy. I need to occupy my mind."

Hisako rolled her eyes at what I called 'occupying my mind', "You can stop sizing up the other girls."

Well just make the day even more boring for me, why don't you? "Fair enough. I can start looking at you if you want me to," What else was I supposed to do to pass the time?

And aside from that, the only reason I hadn't before was so I didn't screw up the team dynamic. Hisako and I got into it with each other routinely enough to begin with. We had a bit of a rivalry going. We always tried to outdo each other in the field, even when we were working together. I think it was because we both thought we were good and we were competitive with each other. Had that not been a thing, I would have absolutely ogled her more. The girl was pretty cute.

"You're an ass, Bel," Well, when we weren't at each other's throats, at least. That shit wasn't cute.

"What? How am I being an ass? What's the problem here?" I said, "I'm not whistling, making comments, or hitting on anybody. I'm just looking. I wish somebody was looking at me."

That seemed to amuse her, which, okay. Laughing at my expense was a few positive notches above any form of anger, "Really now?"

"Yes. I for one, can only hope that I look as good to some of these girls as all of them look to me."

"Good luck with that."

"I know you don't mean that, but thank you."

The two of us shut up as all of the squad instructors took the stage and stood in a line. Miss Pryde was able to see us from where she was and gave us all a supportive smile as the Headmaster Cyclops and Headmistress Frost stood ahead of them by the microphone.

"Attention, everyone," Cyclops said, getting an immediate dead silence from all of the students, "Good morning. Now, as I'm sure most of you are aware, in one week, we'll begin the second of the three scheduled Field Day events we have this year. To reiterate, the squad that has the best average score for all three Field Day events will be declared the winners."

He quickly started droning on with some speech about doing our best and using these exercises to prepare ourselves for the responsibility that some of us will face one day as X-Men. Yawn. I started whispering to my friends, "What was our score during the first Field Day?" I asked, "Actually, better question. Where did we place?"

Eddie spoke up, his eyes still cast on the stage in front of us as Cyclops continued to blather on to fill time. Just because you were a leader didn't mean you had to talk to fill time and make things feel important. All of the squad advisers up there with him even looked bored to tears, "Out of the nineteen squads, we were twelfth," He said, talking about it like a reprehensible memory.

"That's not so bad," I said. When they said we had sucked, I had been thinking that it had been some insurmountable ranking, somewhere closer to dead-last, "We can totally make a push closer to the top this time."

"When you see our scores compared to the top five squads, you won't be saying that," Hisako told me, "The Hellions, the Corsairs, the New Mutants, the Paragons, and Alpha Squadron. We didn't even get close."

"The lowest scoring team out of those five still had at so many points over us," Eddie followed up, punching into his own palm, "If we want to catch up, we'll have to be nearly perfect."

Despite the name, Field Day was split up into multiple days, with the big time team events happening on one day that the event was given the title for. The rules were based on multiple averages. We would all be scored individually in various categories, then as a team, and then during practical exercises. The average individual scores would be averaged together with the team and practical exercise scores.

Everyone would know how everyone did. Not just the kids competing. Everyone around the school. So you had to be good, because if you weren't there wasn't a person at the Institute who wouldn't be aware of it.

"Well, last time, you didn't have me," I can admit it, I was preening like a peacock as I said that. Eyes lighting up and everything, "I'm a bad loser, and I guess I need to spread that mentality around to the rest of you. Because I might not be the person that gets you to the promised land, but goddamn it, I can get you pissed off enough that we aren't getting there to make you pull us the rest of the way off of sheer rage."

Hisako and Eddie looked at each other before the former spoke up, "...I'm perfectly fine with that."

"Yeah, me too," Eddie said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation, "Sounds good."

I had a week to find out the rest of what made us all tick as individuals and how to mash that together for maximum effectiveness. For the most part, I knew where I stood as a person, but there were still a few blank spots with the others. If we were going to make a real splash during this Field Day, we needed every edge we could get.

In the grand scheme of things, when we were all on the same page, the Paladins had the potential to be a well-oiled machine. And the fuel that we would be driven by would be frustration, high expectations, and lots of sarcasm.

"Team meeting after the assembly?" I asked, getting nods from everyone, "Ruth, I'm going to need to ask you for a big favor."