After a few hours of convincing, Tetra and Lo arrived at the Reaping arena. Well, not exactly at the arena. 

Millions of people lined up to participate in the test. Tetra's breathing flared up as they crammed in with all the other people. Lo held her arm to keep her from getting mixed in with the crowd, but she didn't even notice the gesture as the claustrophobia poured into her. Ava and Evyn were on their way, but got mixed into the rest of the people.

"Rough crowd, huh?" Lo said.

Tetra giggled a bit. "I didn't know the lines were this hectic. You'd think they'd fix that in heaven, but..." They shared a laugh and made eye contact for a quick moment.

Just then, Ava's voice called out to them from over the crowd. Both girls popped out from the fray and ran into Lo and Tetra.

"I see you," Evyn said while nudging her.

Tetra's face got red. "Ugh, Evyn. Seriously?" 

Ava smiled at both of them jokingly and laughed. The crowd started funneling into a path laid out by the angels flying above them. Ava hugged close to Evyn and gave her a kiss on the cheek as the crowds got even more congested. Soon, they came to the huge wooden door that separated the masses from whatever lie within.

Two angels were on either side of each door, hovering above the crowd and making sure that people didn't enter too fast.

When will it be over? Tetra thought to herself. This was such a bad idea.

All four of them were about to go in the door, but then an enormous blast of wind came from the doors and knocked over all the entrants nearby. Tetra fell on top of Lo and the girls got separated from them. Tetra quickly pulled herself off of him and dusted herself. 

"What happened?" Lo said, directing his question towards the angels. 

"We are not sure," they said in unison. "Please wait here." They flew into the doors and closed them with a loud boom. But as quickly as they entered, the doors blew off of their hinges and were vaporized by a red light coming from inside the arena. 

Fog billowed from the empty hole and out walked one very short man, dressed in a pinstripe suit and carrying a clipboard in his hands. He had red skin and a small pointed goatee. He waved his pen around a bit and large holographic screens materialized above the crowds. 

"Well hello, Heaveners!" said the man as his face filled the screen. "Welcome to the first annual Picking. What's a Picking you ask?" Tetra began shivering a bit.

"Well, we on the first circle of Hell are running out of people to torture. So now we will be 'Picking' people to join us! Get it? Picking?" A collective groan rang out from the crowd.

"Oh, shut up. Don't worry, the test will be similar, not, but if you win, you stay on Cloud 9. Otherwise, you're coming with me. Any questions? No? Okay. Continue the line please." A large number of queue ropes appeared and filed all of the citizens into the tight space. "Also, don't try to back out now. You can't. Enjoy!"

Tetra's eyes grew wider. She turned to her friends and yelled, "I told you guys this was a bad idea! Now we could go to the bad place and be tortured forever and probably never see each other or our parents or eat pizza or ride dolphins and..." She burst into tears and knelt on the ground, hugging her arms close to her chest. 

Lo tried comforting her, and she leaned into his arms while they both sat on the ground.

"Tetra's right, you guys," Ava said, "What if we fail? I'd hate to be separated from Evyn. If only we could fly away or something..."

Evyn facepalmed in embarrassment and said, "We just have to pass. If we fail, we fail. At least the decor will probably be better down there if we don't make it."

Lo sighed. "I hope we do. I don't wanna lose you guys." He looked into Tetra's tear-stained face.

Tetra stared back. The look on his face. He felt the same way. She sighed heavily. "We can do this, guys. We can pass this as a team. Together."

"Like we were 'together' during that soccer tournament we played? Teamwork has never been our strong suit," Evyn remarked.

Ava whacked her on the head. "Thanks, Debbie Downer. I'm sure we all wanna remember the day that you nearly cost us the championship game."

"It wasn't fully her fault," Lo interjected. "I wasn't playing my best that day."

The argument continued in the background, but Tetra only looked off in the distance.

*****

"And in the free-agent listings...we have four! Enough for one extra team of H-Soccer," explained the announcer. "Please, step forward, you four."

Four heads weaved their way through the crowds. Ava, Evyn, Tetra, and Lo. 

"Hey, everyone," Tetra waved awkwardly, hoping they didn't notice how unused to socializing she was. 

The three waved back at her and the announcer randomly named her as team captain before taking his leave.

"Me?" Tetra said. "Why?"

Lo remarked, "I'm sure you'll do just fine." 

"Plus...I'm not sure my girlfriend could lead anyway," said Ava. Evyn glared at her, but just decided to let it go.

"If you say so."