Dorcas Meadowes had just arrived at camp not two days earlier and already wanted to plunge her head into a waste bin to never emerge again.
A little dramatic, a stretch some would say, but not really false.
All because of soulmates.
They were the hot topic, and she couldn’t detest it more. Everything was all about romance, and it remained a bitter subject to her to the very day. They weren’t perfect and they didn’t always didn’t get happily ever afters just like that and it was so frustrating.
It didn’t just magically fix all your lives problems and it didn’t just make it worth it to stay with a pathetic excuse of a man who hurt his kids and got them taken off the both of you. Not everyone seemed to get that though and that was the frustrating bit about it.
Benjy Fenwick, the Pakistani boy normally being one she would hold no problem with, seemed to want to challenge her views on this, for whatever inane reason. “They’re not a have-to thing, though. It’s the universe giving you a chance. You just gotta decide if you want to take it.”
Dorcas thinks he just likes sounding mature rather than any actual belief in what he says. She resolutely doesn’t ponder on what it means that she thinks what he says sounds mature, and she most definitely doesn’t listen to the voice telling her ignoring your problems like Rosier?
A twig snaps from somewhere in the woods surrounding her and that is her cue to focus on the game once more. She had ignored the gossiping group, the ones who were giggling like little kids over some sickeningly lovey-dovey soulmate fantasies, because they could probably take her out with their numbers but now it only sounded like one person was nearby.
She probably should have considered before her distractingly heated rant that her hiding spot laying on the ground was not the easiest to get out of but foresight was a common wish.
Her terrible choice felt like it was being smeared over her face as she narrowly dodged a blue paint-balloon and tripped into a run.
It was probably a good thing her mind was flooded with adrenaline as she ran through the forest, past the luscious growth with little thoughts but the competition playing through her mind. Otherwise she would probably be cursing the whole way.
Nevertheless, as she nears the decided upon safe-zone just in time, she pauses in disappointment at the sight of the brat Mulciber and his goons standing there already, silly as it was as chances were they hadn’t managed to get many hits in and instead lingered around the deserted zone and possibly ganged up one poor soul. Team Grey were already confirmed last-place in her mind.
She was correct, she thinks, as she spies a girl in a shirt that she swore was once pink cowering from the line.
Dorcas doesn’t get to soak in her correct judgment for long before a boy in a green shirt is running along side her. It almost brings her to worry their elbows would clunk together or their feet would entangle, situations that would be irritating.
Those, are at least put to rest, when he slows down for a second to call something behind him and she is speeding ahead once again. Only a few meters left.
Hands resting on her knees, she realises it was same for the green-shirted boy except Mulciber seems to find a sudden interest in hand-drawn line.
A leg is held out and Dorcas doesn’t think twice before thwarting whatever stupid thing Mulciber was attempting to do.
Sadly, she only managed to catch the boy in her arms, not to kick Mulciber’s foot out of the way as she had initially aimed for.
Sadly, that was until the long green sleeves of the boy’s shirt rode up to reveal a mark on his pale wrist. The same mark found on her neck, the one she hid with her long locks.
She lets the boy go and accepts his thanks with little more than a nod.
And then the boy, her soulmate, staggers off to.. Evan Rosier, the rascal, who shoots her a glare over his shoulder before redirecting his attention to the admittedly handsome boy standing before him.
The pest masquerading as a charming boy was annoying. And past that, she could appreciate a pretty face. If soulmates were really a chance, then Dorcas impulsively sets her mind to gamble.
She has a boy, his name Regulus she had overheard, to woo.
Let the summer games begin.