BXBX NOVEL Chapter 22 - Paintball
Once they had entered "Unfriendly Fire" (which Samuel had never really liked the name of despite it being a great place), he realized he probably should\'ve told Lena how many of his friends were going to be joining them.
Upon seeing the group of eight or so people with Roger standing in front to wave them over, he could see the little queen become tense. He hadn\'t taken into consideration the fact that she might not be all that comfortable around too many strangers.
"You didn\'t tell me there was going to be this many people!" she hissed under her breathe as they started walking over towards them. It was obvious that her decent mood had been ruined by her lack of knowledge of this detail.
"I promise they\'re decent people." He whispered back, offering Roger a smile as he stepped in front of the princess so he\'d be the first one that they greeted.
Roger who was the only to actually know the real situation between Samuel and the girl was happy to finally met her, but by her appearance and the way she held herself, she could see why his friend said she was taking a bit to get used to.
"Nice that you could make it, I was starting to think you might be late." Roger told his friend as he gave his friend a hug before he turned his attention to the girl standing near him. Her arms were now crossed over her chest, he assumed that this was probably her way of saying that she expected him to respect her personal space. "And you must be the Princess, nice to meet you." Roger held his hand out to be shook and Lena just stared at it for a few seconds before reaching her hand out to shake the other\'s hand. He was surprised as she shook his hand much firmer than he had expected that she would considering her size.
"Likewise, I prefer princess, but you can also call me Lena." She replied, looking behind to stare at the other guys who were looking between her and the other two men. "Are we waiting for anyone else?"
"This should be everyone." Roger was the one who replied to this question. He also gave a quick introduction as to who everyone was and introduced Lena as well who didn\'t bother with shaking anyone else\'s hand. It was evident that everyone was intrigued to know more about her, but the way she was holding herself made her come across as unapproachable.
"Best to get everything started then! We only have ten minutes before our time is supposed to start anyways and we still need to get you fitted for your equipment."
"What equipment?" Lena asked glancing over at Samuel as though she was annoyed that once again something was not explained to her.
"Protective gear. You need a vest and stuff to make sure you don\'t get hurt." Roger explained as he started to head over to the counter to ask for the assistant to help since everyone was there and ready.
"Am I going to have to deal with more people touching me?" She asked, her voice was low and level, but Samuel could tell that there was a level of venom behind.
"Not really, I can help you fit the vest on if necessary, but they are just going to ask you about what size you need, we have to sign waivers as well to agree that if anyone gets hurt we were aware prior to playing of the risks and we cannot sue over it and stuff." Samuel replied, smiling again as he tried to not upset the little queen more than she already was.
"Sounds like more trouble than it is worth." She shrugged, turning to watch Roger as the guy who was standing behind the front desk was coming over to help them get situated with everything. Samuel could already tell by the looks he was getting that the moment Lena was distracted and getting her equipment sorted out and rules explained to her that he was going to be bombarded with a number of questions he wasn\'t ready to ask yet.
Roger actually had his back on this however and took all the guys to the side and basically told them not to be rude and ask too many questions and that they\'d get a chance to find out more at a different point in time. Samuel made a note in the back of his mind that he owed his friend a favor after this, though he wasn\'t certain that it would be one he would want to fulfil.
It took about twenty minutes to get everyone kitted out and for Lena to get sorted and comfortable with the rules and how teams and everything worked. He was surprised to see that the little queen actually seemed to be in a better mood after she had talked to the attendant and learned more about the game, maybe she realized that this could be more fun than she had originally anticipated.
His one thing thankful thing was that he and her had been put on the same team which meant that he didn\'t have to worry about any form of retaliation from as he would\'ve if they were on different teams. This was only a small grace because Roger was playing on the team opposite of him and he was quite a good player having had more time to play than Samuel had over the years. He was also probably the roughest out of all of them as well, he followed the rules, but didn\'t lose any opportunity to make each chance to hit a target count.
"Should we do bets?" Roger asked as they entered the oversize room where the game would take place. He made sure to ask his friend so that no one but him would hear the question.
"Next time, I don\'t even know if she\'s going to have fun or how well she\'ll do. We can take bets next time if she\'s interested in playing again after this." Samuel replied back, making sure to keep his voice down.
The room that they were going to be playing in was a dark gray in color- the wall, ceiling, floor, and the objects that were setup to provide strategic hiding places as well as barriers against being hit. The room was also rather dim in order to make it easier for both teams to blend in corners and such to make it harder to pick targets out, which is why the gear was also dark in color as well as the paintball guns.
A timer was placed on the wall which was set for an hour, a buzz would to signal the start of the match, but before that happened, the two teams were separated and given a chance to pick where their starting point would be to increase the level of suspense and thrill in not knowing where the enemy team would strike from.
The attendant went over the rules once again and made sure everyone understood, but he set the buzzer to go in thirty seconds and set the lights one tone darker and synched when the room would light up again to be after the match was supposed to be over.
As the countdown as going on, near the end Lena moved closer to Samuel before speaking.
"I don\'t quite understand this game nor do I know how well everyone else plays, but you probably have your best chance of winning by sticking next to me." Samuel looked at her rather surprised by the claim, but he didn\'t have a chance to reply before the start of the match buzzer went off and everyone started to move. It made him more intrigued though to see what the end result would be by the time the matches were over.