Later in the day Kosi headed straight to the clinic to see Jay. At the entrance he ran into Dell who froze upon seeing him. His eyes going wide he immediately looked down and scurried away.
Heading inside he was again surprised to see Captain Williams waiting outside Jay's room. "Uhh captain, so you're here to tell Jay he can't continue or?" Kosi asked awkwardly. "No. Actually Mr Blue this saves me a trip of having to come see you personally let's sit" he said placing a hand on Kosis shoulder.
The pair sat in the waiting area. Clearing his throat Captain Williams spoke "Now I don't need to tell you that I was not a fan of letting you in the trails. You are the youngest person down here by rights you should be the weakest and smallest and that's not what we need in explorers" the captain said as Kosi was by now beginning to clench his fists in frustration.
"Inspite of all that as much as it pains me to say you're actually a perfect fit. You remind me of your mom actually. Stubborn, resilient and smaller than anyone else but you better pray she you don't get on her bad side. All in all she was still the best explorer I ever worked with" he continued placing an arm around Kosi.
"I'm sorry I doubted you Kosi, you've made me a believer. If you're good enough you're old enough and you sure as heck are good enough. Wagers off, finish tomorrow's trail and I will personally assign you a place in the team" he said to a now teary eyed Kosi.
"Wait..." Kosi asked with a sniffle. "What's any of this got to do with Jay?" he continued through tears now falling.
"Well he was a test. I'll hold my hands up right now and say I shouldn't have done it but I had him enter to see if you could set aside personal gripes and focus on the task at hand and according to him that's exactly what you did. I apologize for meddling in your dreams it was horribly out of line" Captain Williams replied with a squeeze on Kosis shoulder.
A mixture of confusion and anger consumed Kosi in that instance. Unsure what to say and do he just shrugged off Captain Williams hug and shot up to his feet. Not even looking at him Kosi went into the patient room where Jay was sitting.
"Hey..Kosi you look alright man you look terrible what is it" Jay asked watching a frazzled Kosi. "I just had a chat with your buddy Williams. What the heck did I do to you!" Kosi barked.
Staring daggers through Jay he approached him slowly. "Being Dell's henchman and bullying me wasn't enough huh? Almost costing me my dream didn't cut it huh you just had to butt into my business again" he sad now looming over Jay.
"You're honestly better than me. I was jealous and mad alright. You're dating the girl my boyfr- best friend was in love with" Jay said absent-mindedly before abruptly stopping himself face turning red.
"Boyfriend?" Kosi said confused. Looking at Jay he noticed a red mark around his neck and remembered seeing Dell leave earlier. "Oh..oh! oh!! oh well alright um congrats I guess" he said awkwardly. "Thanks" Jay replied.
The following day at the final trail the remaining recruits were surprised to see ten flat stones laid out across a sand pit in front of them. "Alright! Congratulations on how far you've come. The third and final trail is a test of balance and body control. Hop across the stones each one you land on is one point towards your final score" the captain said standing on the side of the pit.
"That's it?" a bearded brunette man asked looking at the tiles. "Yeah why" Captain Williams replied with a smirk. "I don't know just looks easy" the man replied confused.
"Well these stones have sand on them and as you can assume sand is not level so if that sounds easy to you still why don't you go first" the captain said incredulously.
Shrugging the man hopped onto the first stone with no trouble. As he stepped back to hop onto the second his shift in weight caused him to tilt over and his foot hit the sand. "Alright one point. Next!" the captain said gleefully. The brunette man looked back at him confused and embarrassed just walked off.
One by one recruits attempted to cross the stones. After each attempt the lab technicians reset and added sand back onto the stones. Jude had figured out how to control his balance and not keep the stone upright but as with several others the sand on his shoe caused him to slip once he reached the fifth stone.
Brodie aggressively stomped on each stone sinking a few somewhat further into the sand. This worked until he reached the seventh stone which was too small for him to land on with both his feet meaning his feet hit the ground.
Willow took a different approach, landing on each stone gracefully she was still unable to reach the finish line after reaching the seventh which was too small to jump from property causing her to miss the eighth.
Finally Kosi having watched all his friends he had come to a realization. "These boots aren't right for this" he muttered looking at the course. Confused looks were all he got in return with some questioning why he was talking to himself.
Taking his shoes and socks off he hopped onto the first. Maintaining his balance he rubbed the sand off the bottom of his foot onto his pant leg. He repeated the process until he reached the seventh step. Looking at the progressively smaller stones he remembered what Captain Williams had said qualified as a point.
Throwing caution to the wind he brazenly hopped from one stone to the next narrowly glancing a foot on the final one before leaping onto the platform on the other side landing rear first. He sat up and held up all ten fingers smugly towards Captain Williams.
"Um does that count!" one of the recruits asked incredulously. "Uh yeah ten points.." Captain Williams replied.
With the conclusion of the final trail the final ratings had Willow at first with twenty-eight points. Brodie was second with twenty-seven points. Jude was seventh with twenty-two points. Kosi was tied for third with twenty-six points.