The next day, I stood up and grabbed a blue t-shirt and another pair of black jeans.

I went downstairs and grabbed a breakfast bar. I scarfed it down while watching everyone socialize. I pushed myself and blew my whistle. Everyone snapped to attention.

I started pacing in front of them. “It’s time for another game. This time you will breaking into this house and stealing this vase.” I pulled out a vase from behind my back.

“Now, we will split into teams of three, of which there will be two of.” I looked around, Eleyna and the sailor had scooted closer to me.

“Sailor and Eleyna with me. Corporal, soldier, and sergent on a team.”

They groaned. I smiled.

“If you would so please, you may go first.”

We waited for half-an-hour outside. I read, Eleyna carved designs in the table with her beautiful knife. The sailor just fidgeted. The three came out of the house triumphantly. They had the vase raised up high.

“Don’t drop it!” I yelled. That startled them into almost dropping it. I jumped up and ran to catch it. I was just in time.

“This vase costs more than any of you!” Since it was the pretty blond woman who almost dropped it. I focused most of my anger on her.

She was upset and got in my face and yelled, “I’d like to see you beat our time!” By that point my partners stood behind me in case things had gotten messy. I looked back and smiled. “It would be our pleasure.”

I walked up into the house and said, “Eleyna can you pick locks?”

“It would be my pleasure.” The corporal walked up to the door and in no time flat the door popped open. We all walked in. The sailor kept walking. I grabbed the back of his collar.

“What?” He asked looking back.

With my other hand, I pushed a button on a control panel on the wall and red lasers light up in front of me. The sailor’s face was really close to the red beams.

I pulled him back and he asked, “How are we going to get through?”

I tucked in my shirt and replied, smiling, “Watch.”

I studied the beams and then took a running start. My partners backed away. I did a few jumps, dives, and rolls. I landed on the other side in a gymnastics stance. I looked around and saw a huge red button. Of course, I pressed it. The beams deactivated and my team walked towards me.

I smiled and waved. I looked at the vase. “Sailor?”

“Yes?” He responded.

“Can you take the vase back across?” I turned to Eleyna. “Can you go along with him and make sure you both get across?”

“Of course,” Eleyna responded. “But where will you be?”

“There’s a pressure plate on the other side that will reactivate the laser beams.”

They both nodded and ran down the hall. The laser beams light up one by one in front of me. I did another set of jumps, dives, and rools. I landed on the other side. I looked at my watch. It had only been 3 minutes.

I looked at my team. “Shall we go back?”

Eleyna looked at me. “But, of course.”

We walked back over to the bench, raising the vase above our heads.

“But it’s only been 3 minutes!” One of the people shouted.

“That’s not fair. You knew the setup.” The pretty blond woman said.

“I didn’t and you’ll just have to deal with it.”

We had done those three games all week. With a few changes for each game. Each day I had become close to Eleyna. I would now call her my best friend. But I was not excited about today’s game.

“All right, everyone. I have gathered you in the ballroom for today’s game: dancing.” There were many confused looks.”But first I’d like to tell you all something, Eleyna is going to be on my team. There is still one more spot for me to fill.” I turned and started to walk to the edge of the ballroom.

The sailor perked up. ”You aren’t dancing with us?” I turned to look at him. He stood up straighter. “It’s just that you’ve done every game with us before, why not this one?”

I turned to look at Eleyna, she just shrugged. I looked back at the sailor. Sensing my discomfort, he went in for the kill.

“Unless, of course, you can’t dance.”

“Of course I can dance.” I snapped. The sailor nodded towards the dance floor, bowing, and held out his hand in an invitation.

“ Mademoiselle.”

“Monsieur.” I curtsied, despite my lack of skirt.

I turned. “Since I seem to be dancing, Eleyna is excused from dancing.” I turned back to see the sailor still offering up his hand. I took it and we started to do the Waltz. I noticed no one was dancing and yelled, “Get dancing or all of you will be cut.”

The sailor smiled at me and everyone got in pairs of two to dance. I tried

I tried to avoid looking at the sailor’s giddy face. All of a sudden I heard voices. I strained to hear them. They became crystal clear.

“I said Waltz. That was not a Waltz, that was a giraffe trying to do the foxtrot without a partner. ”

“I’m sorry. I’m sure I’ll get it. I was up all night looking at schematics.”

“I don’t want your sorry, I want you to do the Waltz.”

“Please, Mom, give me another chance!”

Thap

I stumbled. The sailor took several steps to compensate. “Are you okay?” He asked. I blinked rapidly, focusing on his worried face.

“I’m fine,” I said gruffly, going back to dancing.

I tried to avoid his face again. I decided to study the other partners, which is what I should have been doing in the first place. All of them seemed to be struggling with even the simple Waltz. I gave a dry laugh at the irony. My gaze passed by Eleyna, who was chuckling in the corner. I glared at her. She saw me glaring at her and started to full on laugh.

“My name’s Daniel.” The sailor said.

I looked at him startled. “What?”

“My name,” he started, looking bashful. “It’s Daniel.”

Still shocked, I merely said “Alrighty then.”

The sailor looked to the side with a hurt expression that I didn’t understand. I looked away quickly and happened to catch sight of the clock. It had been five minutes since everyone, except Eleyna, had started to dance. I broke away from the sailor quickly. He reluctantly stepped away as well. A loud shrieking sound filled the ballroom as I blew my whistle.

“Alright everyone.” Everyone turned to look at me. “That concludes all of our games. Tonight at dinner I will decide who else is on my team. You may do whatever you want with a few exception: Don’t touch or harm another contestant, Don’t leave the premises, and Don’t disturb me in my dorm. Thank you. Eleyna, I would like to talk to you after lunch.”

A few minutes later. I was studying a house plan that I already knew by heart. I heard a knock on my door.

“Come in,” I yelled without even looking at the door, knowing that it could only be Eleyna.

I heard something slide with a thunk onto my desk from where I was perched on my bed. I looked up to see exactly who I expected to see, Eleyna.

She had a mischievous look in her eye. All of a sudden she dropped into a bow and said, “Would the Mademoiselle give me the immense pleasure of having this dance.”

I groaned and slammed my head against my headboard. Eleyna was spewing laughter while I was so close to cracking my skull on the headboard and ending my existence.

After wiping her eyes, Eleyna slide a tray full of food in front of me. I stopped trying to murder myself for the time being to stare at the food curiously then at Eleyna. She was sliding another tray to sit across from me and settled behind it.

Looking at me, Eleyna recognized the look in my eye and explained. “I thought that I would bring you lunch and make you eat with me. I’ve never even seen you eat, so I thought that I could force you to eat with me out of the obligation of Social Etiquette.” She looked at me with humor in her eyes but I could see the worry swimming underneath.

I smiled to reassure her. “You are right I can’t escape Social Etiquette. Let us get started.”

I was stuffing my face with food as was Eleyna. We finished quickly, having been hungry from training early in the morning. I decided it was time to confide in her.

“I need to tell you my back story,” I said with a completely straight face. Eleyna looked at my dubiously while I just laughed.

“Look,” I started. “I need to tell you the truth about myself.” Eleyna opened her mouth to interrupt me but I cut her off. “Eleyna I need to do this for me.”

“A long time ago, I was a little girl, I swear I’m not that old. My parent were billionaires but they got their fortune through stealing from the poor and just keeping it. Kinda like a reverse Robin Hood. They wanted to make me into one of them, they wanted me to steal from the homeless and steal from ophanes. I quickly mastered the thieving aspect of the job, but I could never quite manage to the seduction piece. Keep in mind I’m like three at the time they started to teach me. I also took a while to learn, which angered my parents greatly causing them to beat me. I grew up with that. When I was twelve they wanted me to do my first job which required taking money from a much needed program for the homeless and seducing a man three times my age. I ran as soon as they let me out of the van. They taught me so well I was able to go dark.”

I took a small breather to gauge Eleyna’s reaction. She looked furious.

“Since I went dark I’ve built up my reputation through stealing from the rich, keeping some for myself then giving the rest to the people my parents have robbed. This whole plan is to show the world what monster’s my parents really are and get them locked away for a long time with no way out.”

I paused again to let everything sink in.

“Wow, just wow. Your parents seem like terrible people,” Eleyna stated after a while.

I laughed and replied, “Yes, yes they were.”

Eleyna suddenly meet my eyes stopping me in my tracks. She searched my eyes for something and I suppose she found it, if her nod was anything to go off of. She shifted backwards and leaned onto the footboard in a relaxed position.

“What’s the plan?” She asked.

I settled back against the headboard in a position the mirrored Eleyna’s. I felt so much more comfortable around her after telling her about my bitchy parents. “We are going to sneak in during a ball they are hosting to show off their new loot and we are going to take them the fuck down.”

Eleyna raised an eyebrow. “That seems fairly simple and also explains that dance game.” She sat up. “Do I have a dress?”

I smiled as wide as the Cheshire Cat. “But of course Madam.”