"HA! Gotcha!" Emma grinned as she shot Olivia.
"Babe, no fair!" her girlfriend groaned as she watched one of the three lights on her vest dimmed.
"Life isn't fair, babe," Emma ran up to kiss her girlfriend's cheek before running off.
Olivia smiled warmly as she watched her girlfriend run off. God, she loved that girl.
"Girl, get your ass over here!" Ava yelled and dragged her aside. "Get your head in the game, Jauregui!" she waved two team flags in her hand. "I got the Mia and Seth's flag. That makes two after Val and Ally's,"
Olivia nodded. "So we're down to one,"
"Got that right, Chancho. Just your girl's,"
Well, this wasn't going to be easy. Both Olivia and Ava knew that Emma had a hold over both of them.
Olivia was so whipped she lost a life because she'd stared at her girlfriend a second too long just moments ago.
"So, what's our game plan?"
"I spotted Emma and Rebecca's flag over on that side," Ava pointed to her right, just over a high wall.
Olivia scoffed. "You're kidding, right? That's way too high. How did they even get it up there?"
"Oh you know...cheerleaders,"
The two of them shared a laugh as they pictured the two girls climbing the wall to get their flag up there.
They sure were competitive.
"I don't see them anywhere...maybe they're looking for the other flags," Olivia said, looking around.
"Tell you what. You go get the flag. You climb faster than I ever could anyway," Ava laughed. "I'll cover you,"
Olivia nodded. Climb. Yeah, she could do that.
"We've got 10 minutes," Ava said, looking at the timer on the wall.
"See you on the other side," Olivia winked at her partner and ran off.
'This should be easy,' the raven-haired girl thought to herself. Emma and Rebecca were both probably off looking for the other flags they didn't know had already been found.
That, or they'd already been shot dead and were out of the game.
Hopefully.
Suddenly, Olivia heard the same buzzing noise that rang when she lost her first life earlier.
"Damn it!" she cursed, looking around to see who had shot her.
"Hi," Emma appeared from behind a block, pushing Olivia till her back hit the wall.
"Babe! You scared me,"
Emma chuckled. "Well, you couldn't possibly have thought that we'd leave our flag unattended, now could you?"
"As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I thought you guys would've done," Olivia admitted shyly. "Don't you guys have to look for the other flags too?" she lied.
Emma shrugged. "I'm sure Rebecca's got that covered,"
Okay, so it was just Emma. Olivia could work with that.
"So..." the raven-haired girl inched closer to her girlfriend. "We haven't got much time left, babe. And I was thinking..."
Before she could continue, Emma giggled. "Flirting with the enemy now, are we?"
Olivia gulped. She'd seen her girlfriend's eyes turn a darker shade of brown. Only she knew what that meant.
"I- I mean," she stuttered, losing all sense of the charm she held over the smaller girls just moments ago.
"You what?"
"Nothing," Olivia shook her head. She looked down momentarily, just to see if her gun was loaded and ready to shoot.
It wasn't.
'Crap,' Olivia thought to herself.
She had to find a way to load the gun so she could at least take Emma out. The thirty-second recovery time would give her the leverage she needed to climb the wall and take their flag.
She could do it with one hand, right?
"I can't believe the game's almost over," Olivia said, trying to buy herself time. She readjusted the gun in her hand, such that her finger was just over the barrel, where the necessary buttons were located.
"Yeah...I didn't think we were gonna win anyway, but I could at least stop your team from winning," Emma chuckled. "After all...my best friend and my girlfriend? All the more a reason to take you guys out,"
"You're so competitive," Olivia laughed as she pressed the button. She saw a light blink faintly, grateful for the first time that it didn't have any flashy display of light works whenever she loaded her gun.
"You know I am," Emma chucked her gun back into its holster and wrapped her arms around Olivia's neck. Leaning in for a kiss, Emma's plan to distract her girlfriend until time ran out ultimately failed when she felt her vest vibrate.
A sign that she'd lost a life.
"Damn it, Liv!" Emma groaned as her arms dropped to her side. She pouted, but smiled slightly as Olivia gave her a quick peck before running off to climb the high wall.
Even after thirty seconds had passed, Emma made no move to take her gun out of its holster to try and win the game.
She simply let Olivia climb the wall and eventually, retrieve the last flag.
•••
"Fantastic win, Team Green Eyes!" Todd applauded once everyone had gathered in the canteen of the arena.
"Team Green Eyes?" Olivia turned to look at Ava. "I wasn't aware that our team name was Team Green Eyes,"
Ava shrugged. "I took the liberty of giving us a name before we went in," she nodded at Todd, who beamed. "I had a feeling we were going to win,"
"And win you did!" Seth draped his arm over Ava's shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. "Good job babe,"
"You don't even have green eyes," Ally noted.
"But Ms. Jauregui does," Ava looked over at the raven-haired girl, who blushed deeply. "And she's the main character today,"
"My love," Emma sat on Olivia's lap and nuzzled her face in her girlfriend's neck.
"You let her win, didn't you?" Rebecca looked at her teammate quizzically.
Emma nodded slowly, causing everyone to laugh.
"I couldn't help it!" she whined. "She distracted me!"
Olivia placed a hand over her chest. "I did nothing of the sort!"
"Well, a win's a win," Mia nodded, applauding.
"No matter how you did it, Jauregui," Valerie winked.
"So, that's one point for Team Green Eyes. Shall we move onto the next game, or do you guys need a little bit more time to rest?" Todd asked, handing everyone a bottle of water.
Taking it gratefully, Ava took a sip before replying. "I think we can start in about ten minutes,"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Ten minutes sounds good! Which game are we going for this time round? Just a refresher, you've got Colour Run and Computer Rush to choose from," Todd stood by as he waited for everyone to choose.
"So, either we play as opponents again and try to get everyone turned into one colour..." Ally trailed off.
"Or we play as a unit and take on the staff," Rebecca finished for her.
"I think we should continue playing as two separate teams first, then go out with a bang in the last game," Mia said.
"Sounds like a plan," Valerie nodded, interlacing her fingers with Rebecca's.
Emma looked at them fondly as Olivia gripped her waist tighter.
"Alright, then it's settled! I'll be back with your equipment in a bit," Todd said, walking away.