After parting from the two at the dining hall, Emily walked back to her room to grab a water bottle and towel before she headed off to the gym. Once she arrived, she was immediately fascinated by the amount of equipment they had. On her tour yesterday, she only had a glimpse and could only see the row of treadmills from the window. Yet, upon entering it became apparent that there was a wider variety of equipment, from weight racks to dumbbells, even a couple rowing machines.
It was now almost 10.30 and she was surprised to see that it was empty. She placed her bottle and towel down next to one of the treadmills and, properly tying her hair up, she started warming up.
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Cassandra headed towards the dormitory, Meghan walking alongside her. The two chatted absentmindedly until they glimpsed a few familiar figures approaching them. The two shared a brief look and instantly spun around, walking back in the direction they had come from.
The figure leading the group called out "Cassandra, Meghan, that's you right. We have something to discuss with you."
The two turned back around guiltily, Cassandra greeting reluctantly, "Good morning, Isabelle. How can we help?"
Isabelle rolled her eyes and walked over, "You know exactly how you can help. You haven't told the new chick your crime have you?"
Cassandra sighed. This is the third time I've been lectured, give me a break. "You mean Emily? That's right I haven't."
"You have a moral obligation to disclose such things, I won't stand for letting her remain oblivious. If you're too chicken to tell her I will."
Cassandra's fists clenched at her sides, and she glared at Isabelle. "You have no right."
"Neither do you."
"It's my business not yours."
"It becomes my business when it implicates someone else"
"You-"
"Alright, stop it you two. Bickering like children." Meghan stepped in. "Of course Cassandra will tell her, there's no rule saying she must disclose everything from the start-"
"Of course there's not a written rule but it's a moral rule for sure-"
"Are you going to let me finish?" Meghan added impatiently.
Isabelle scoffed. "Fine then, finish."
"It's not like Emily didn't have the chance to ask. On two occasions Cassandra prompted her to inquire about it but she refused to ask both times. She had a choice."
Isabelle's eyes widened slightly, "She didn't? How foolish. If she doesn't know soon enough, when I get an opportunity I won't hesitate to convince her to ask you." She scoffed. "Let's go." She turned to look at the two girls following behind and purposefully glared disdainfully at Cassandra as she walked past.
Cassandra heaved a sigh of relief and pouted, "Meghan, what am I supposed to do now? I've been threatened".
Meghan rolled her eyes, "Threatened? Take it seriously then. She'll actually tell her you know."
"Yeah yeah, I know I know. I was kidding. I'll think about it later. Let's go first."
The two walked the short distance to the dormitory building in silence, only breaking the silence once inside Cassandra's room.
Cassandra sifted through the files on her desk, trying to locate the monthly report Meghan had returned to her yesterday. After she found it she passed it back to Meghan before looking through the scattered files to try and find the scaffold for the recreation day.
Meghan had, albeit unwillingly, extensively drafted a thorough scaffold to submit to gain approval for the activities planned for the recreation day.
After seeing Cassandra overwhelmed by the monthly or "stupid" report for this month she had volunteered to write up the event scaffold although she had dismally found it to be much more work than she was expecting.
After Cassandra found it she swapped files with Meghan and the two left the room.
"Alright, I'll catch you for dinner later?" Cassandra asked.
"Ok. Don't be late."
"I won't be."
"Really?"
"Definitely."
"We'll see. See you later then."
The two parted ways, Cassandra heading to admin, Meghan to the library.
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Just as Emily had finished warming up she heard a soft click as the door to the gym opened and a girl walked in, also holding a small towel in hand. She wore a white long sleeved shirt and black shorts, with her long black hair neatly tied back into a ponytail. After noticing Emily standing awkwardly half on half off the treadmill she cleared her throat and introduced herself.
"Sorry to barge in like this, you must be Emily right? My name's Mikaela, do you mind?" She gestured to the equipment.
"No, not at all, it's a public place. I was just finishing anyway..."
"No need to rush." She put her stuff down next to a rowing machine and turned to look at Emily. "By the way, you've heard about the recreation day right? Joined any activities yet?"
"No…not yet."
"Any you're thinking of?"
"Not particularly… I'll have a look sometime".
"Do you know how to play any sports?"
"I played a bit of volleyball in high school…."
Mikaela jumped up and clapped her hands excitedly. "Great! Would you like to join our team then?"
"I wasn't that good though"
"Doesn't matter. Our event during the recreation day is a beach volleyball match against the men's team. It's not a formal game you don't need to worry. Also we have enough players to make a team so if you don't want to play its alright. So? Will you consider it?"
After pondering it for a couple seconds Emily replied hesitantly, "Do I have to wear a bikini?"
Mikaela's eyes widened and she let out a muffled laugh before looking at Emily and doubling over in laughter. After a few heaves she responded "No no of course not it's not formal, wear what you like. If that's your only question I take it you're in then right?"
"Yeah, I'll try it out."
"Great! Once we've finished here, if you're free that is, I can take you to meet the rest of the team. We usually practise every afternoon a few hours after lunch so at around like three-ish."
"Ok. I'll try my best to come."
"Cool. No pressure if you can't make it."
Emily smiled, "I am free this afternoon so I would be happy to meet the team."
Mikaela grinned, "Alrighty, let's finish up here and go."
Once Mikaela noticed Emily had finished, she finished the set she was on and, after stretching, joined her to head to the courtyard.
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Once Cassandra had reached the administration building she skimmed the report again, making sure that it was all there and that there wasn't anything unexpected inside. Even though she had already done this a few times on the journey, she had to do one last check, just for security's sake.
After she was satisfied, she opened the door, greeting the receptionist politely before being invited into a smaller office to the side. Inside having a quiet discussion were two senior officers and Jake. Jake was not only undertaking a placement at the centre but was also serving as a junior mentor. But to his supervising superior officers he was demoted to nothing more than an errand boy within the centre.
Cassandra handed over the file and sat down in the spare chair at the table. After she had done so, the two officers exchanged a look and then turned to Jake, who subsequently seemed to understand and made to leave the room, squeezing Cassandra's shoulder on the way past.
Straightaway, Cassandra knew that they had some sort of news. She tried to calm her nerves by reminding herself that it wasn't bad to the point where they gave her a glass of water and told her to sit comfortably. Yet, after a period of dryness, any lead was significant, so she was filled with anticipation.
However, anticlimactically, they only revealed that they are intending to obtain a search warrant to search a site they believe may contain evidence. She knew from the phrase "intending" that it would take at least another month to be able to obtain anything and she found herself to be slightly relieved at this.
Despite her persistent efforts, the two said they couldn't reveal any details until the warrant was obtained and so, she reluctantly changed the topic of conversation back to the monthly report and the upcoming recreation day.
After their lengthy and tedious discussions, Cassandra felt rather deflated, and was very much looking forward to having a relaxed dinner with Emily and Meghan later that afternoon. It was still early afternoon, so she decided to quickly grab some lunch and then head back to sort out anything else that remained.
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At exactly 6.02 Emily walked frantically into the dining hall, glancing around to try and see Cassandra or Meghan among the busy tables. Seeing how Meghan had teased Cassandra about being late she was certain she would be punctual to arrive and so she was surprised to find herself in this unfamiliar, somewhat stressful situation. Truthfully she felt rather lost and debated returning to her room and coming back in 10 minutes when she was sure they would arrive. Fighting back the impulse to retreat back she decided to do another check.
She made her way around the outskirts of the hall but found the frequent presence of wooden pillars inhibited her observation, so then she gave up and walked back to the centre. After waiting for 5 more minutes, she decided to queue up for food and let the others find her. Emily was certain she would be the last one to arrive, she had finished practise with Mikaela and the team with plenty of time to spare yet had lost track of time in the shower and so had arrived a couple minutes late.
After she had served herself a plate of food and was looking to find a suitable table she heard a shout "Emily, wait up".
Cassandra was walking towards her, her hair slightly tousled but her appearance otherwise identical to that of this morning. "So sorry to keep you waiting, I overslept again…"
"It's fine, I arrived late myself I haven't been waiting long.
Cassandra scratched her head guiltily before turning her head from left to right. "Oh? Where's Meghan? I thought she'd be early after all that she gave me this morning"
Emily shrugged, "I'm not sure. Go get your food I'll find a table."
Cassandra nodded and headed to the counter while Emily walked over to an empty table she had spotted nearby.
Emily sat down at the table and placed her cutlery on her plate, and stared in admiration once again at the design of the hall, particularly the carvings in the pillar. She got lost in the spirals, her eye drifting down the beam until out of the corner of her eye she spotted Cassandra returning.
She looked towards them and was surprised to see Meghan and the young officer she had seen upon her arrival. Emily greeted them and looked to see Cassandra grinning as she sat down, "guess who's late".
Meghan coughed and rolled her eyes, "We were working".
"Sure you were", she raised one eyebrow.
"We bumped into each other in the library, he was helping me write the report."
Cassandra looked at Jake, clearly surprised, "You don't have more important things to do?"
Jake finally spoke up, "What important things? I got booted out of the supervisor's office and was told to be "on standby" for the rest of the day. What else is there to do?"
Cassandra shrugged, "fair point. You're still late though."
Jake smiled apologetically and continued eating while Meghan just rolled her eyes.
Cassandra turned to Emily, "Oh right, you've met Jake before right? He was probably the one who met you when you arrived right?"
Meghan looked up, "Yeah, because you were sleeping"
Cassandra pouted, "Meghan. I-"
Emily laughed, "I have met him before no issue."
After a few more bouts of bickering the topic naturally drifted to the upcoming recreation day which peaked Emily's attention. In conversations she much preferred listening and so was content listening to the familiar bickering of the other three as she finished her meal, occasionally chiming in.
Cassandra was having a heated discussion with Jake about their upcoming demonstration at the recreation day. She was relentlessly pestering him to come practise with her more often so it can be flashier and more seamless while he was stressing that he was too busy at the minute and that they could afford to leave the preparation quite late like last year.
Emily turned to Meghan who was also silently observing, "I didn't know Cassandra liked martial arts. She doesn't strike me as the sort to do it."
Meghan turned to her, "Because of the limp right? I didn't think so at first either but I've got to admit the performance with Jake last time was quite impressive. She told me she'd been doing it since a young age and liked the movement aspect of it."
"Oh I see. What about Jake? How'd they decide to do it together?"
"Well, the previous 'recreation day' was, pretty much an orientation day for all of us. It was only a few weeks after we came here you know. We were all looking for different events to put together for the day and someone had suggested a martial arts demonstration and well, Cassandra agreed and had trouble finding a partner so Jake offered to step in and that's that."
That's that. She glanced over to the two who seemed to have reached some agreement. "Fair enough."
"What are you doing then? Anything?"
"Yeah I signed up for volleyball."
"Volleyball?" Cassandra interrupted, "Cool, I'll definitely watch you play, the sports matches are always interesting. Did you play in high school or something?"
"A little, I quite enjoyed it but I'm not that skilled so…" please don't watch me it's going to be embarrassing.
Cassandra chucked, "all good, we are all amateurs anyway no pressure."
Jake turned to Meghan sitting beside him, "you doing the photography again this year?"
"Yes, I'm not too interested in participating in any of the activities so don't worry I'm not missing out on anything."
He nodded, "your footage turned out well last time we'll be counting on you"
Meghan rolled her eyes but smiled slightly.
After their discussions had finished they were startled to realise that it was almost nine. They placed their dishes into the trays and left the dining hall which closed at nine. After bidding each other goodnight and arranging to meet for breakfast tomorrow morning they each made their way back to their own rooms.