Let’s Play A Game

Blurb of Let’s play a game

A girl stands up to help a buddy when school is raided. They discover her after following her out of the building, but nothing is as it seems. What is she to do at this point?

In the game, Elisabeth is stranded. Fighting, spying, lying, and obviously NOT falling in love are the only ways to live. However, that proves to be difficult. When Brian, a teammate, turns into the person she needs and wants, will she return?

Let’s play a game Prologue

“What did you say? Who’s stupid enough to do something like that?”

Anja shrugged her shoulders. No, no, no, no, no, no… The director would spend as little time on that threatening letter as to my new nail polish. It was almost embarrassing that someone would try something like that. How old were they?

“Isn’t that right? But maybe it’s the Black Puppies… It’s not like they haven’t done anything like that before…”

The students of Black Downey High, or as we called them, the Black Puppies, hated us. They did everything they could to annoy us. The worst thing about it, the boys at BDH were so much hotter than those at our school. They knew it too, and used their goof looks to break girls’ hearts for sports. Or hobby. Or whatever you wanted to call it.

Only Anja, Dany, Lin, Rosa and I were still a virgin from our year, because of course the play would only be successful if the boy had gotten the girl into bed. I’d always found it terrible, but what could I do about it? How did they manage to do it every time, though? Every girl had to be on their guard, didn’t they? How could they keep falling for those stupid, and easy to see through, plays?

“Probably… How do you even know that? Found a new heart to break?”

Anja, my best friend, was one of the most popular girls in the school alongside with me. Although we were both pretty beautiful, she always managed to show up for school as if she had taken hours to get ready. It was hard to believe she was still single. Every boy almost hung on her lips to put it that way. Therefore it was only natural that Anja occasionally made use of het good looks to get some information loose from the guys.

“That’s mean, Liz, that was just one time! I just happened to walk by the director’s door when he suddenly cursed. I just listened for a little while.

I rolled with my eyes. Of course. That was typical of Anja. Looking up danger and getting herself in trouble was typical of her. And that’s why I loved her. A mischievous look slipped over her face as she repeated to me the exact words of director.

“He seems to actually give a crap. Not even kidding. He was talking like if it had importance to it, but then again… That man is so… I can’t even explain it.”

Anja nodded. Both of us hated the man. For some reason, the man always reminded us of a stupidity that we did like one time a long time ago. Why didn’t he just leave us alone? We took revenge one time, one god damned time, and that was the only thing he remembered us from? If you speak of the devil…

“Ah… The skunk girls… Like things aren’t going amazing enough already… Go to the refectory. Right now!”

Quickly we did what the man said, even though I was still annoyed by the skunk-girls stuff. In defense we were 16 and we had a good reason to throw the skunk into the showers with Mackenzie. That b***h hid my clothes when I was showering!

Luckily Anja had found them before Mackenzie had managed to get the boys into the dressing room. Her face when she realized her plan had failed… I still have to laugh about it sometimes. Everyone knew that she had been trying to get my popularity for a long time, so Anja and I decided to put an end to it.

Her plan was ten times worse than mine, so I thought it was fair. Especially since I didn’t invite the boys to take pictures of her. What did she think? That if everyone had seen me naked, I’d suddenly lose all my friends and popularity? The boys had come to offer their apologies afterwards too. Afterwards Mackenzie actually was the one to lose a big part of her friends…

Damien was the only one to have brought me a towel back then, but fortunately that was no longer necessary. From then on, he sat at the table with us. I knew he was a real friend to me. When I saw him sitting, I hugged him back and slid into the spot next to him. Anja sat down in front of me.

Luckily the dining room was a free mobile phone zone so it was pretty calm. No one yelled or threw food. Apparently, there was someone on the school board who wasn’t an idiot. Since the mobile phone ban was lifted, it had been much quieter in the canteen. And the students and teachers also seemed to be better at dealing with each other.

It had been Anja’s idea to address the school board about this, but in the end I had taken the burden of presenting our case since Anja was fairly rude in nature. Not in a bad way! I loved her sometimes raw words that gave her insights strength, but we both knew that the school board wouldn’t appreciate it the same way I did.

The teachers were also impressed by our dedication and also the compromise we dared to conclude. In other words, the teachers and the director, although he did not admit it immediately, were deeply impressed.

Apparently, no one, besides me and Anja, knew anything about the threatening letter. So Anja actually kept a secret. Not that she couldn’t, because she knew almost all my secrets, but sometimes she was really a glossip. She always knew everything to the seam and told me everything to the deepest details…

“So… Soon P.E….”

Right away, my courage collapsed. Although I was a good student and quite sporty, I hated P.E.. The lessons weren’t something I’d call sport. I apologize for that, but it’s true. However, the teacher was a very cool man. He was always nice and immediately let you stop if you couldn’t have hurt yourself anymore.

“I know… What are we doing today?”

Although I didn’t really want to know the answer, I couldn’t do anything else. Everything but…

“Baseball!”

A sigh escaped my lips. The problem wasn’t that I was bad in baseball, but I was amazing at it. That’s why I was always put in the group with the worst players to make the game more fair. The most annoying thing was that we almost always won, so my teammates didn’t bother enough to make any effort.

I was hoping it would be different this year and I could put together my group as a team captain. Anja had always been my opponent. She was almost as good as me, which is not impossible to believe as we played baseball together ever since we were 5.

The only difference was the power of my hits. Anja didn’t hit as hard as me, so sometimes she couldn’t make it to the last base. Last year, the teacher had made a new bet with the whole school. Whoever got the ball on the roof of the school got a 24 pack of beer. The problem was that the school was a fat 35 yards from first base. Plus the building was 3 floors high.

I was so close last year. It was almost on the roof. But I had practiced for this. I had to and would get that ball on that roof and win that beer. As soon as the bell rang, a grin spread over my face. Anja also grinned. Both of us knew I’d get that ball on the roof. Only… No one else knew, so when I would succeed…

We tried to behave as normal as possible. If no one noticed that we were as excited as we were, no one would suspect anything. When everyone was finally dressed and ready, the teacher decided to show his good side again. Anja and I were allowed to choose teams. Finally, the teams were divided proportionally.

Maybe it was because there were other baseball players on the team this year besides me and Anja. The two teams started to warm up while Anja and I discussed the placement with our teams. Secretly, we threw each other a few conspiring looks. My team was allowed to bat first. I was going to be ready to throw the balls.

It slowly advanced, which was nerve-racking to me. They were as usual moderate strokes. A lot of points were lost just because they almost refused it to see where they had to hit the ball to and if they could run further. Or they didn’t bother. Of course, they thought I’d make the points for everyone.

Eventually Skylar managed to run to third base and Clarissa could get her to home base, she also came on third. Lara managed to reach the second base and both managed to run to home base because of Damien, who also managed to hit a homerun. Tommy and Tobias were both tapped out. And Ronny and Danielle were on third and second base.

Finally, it was my turn. I went crazy with my team after Damien. I was calling clear instructions, but no one listened a little. Right away, my team started cheering as I got ready. Because Anja and I were formidable baseball players, the teacher had decided that we had to throw for each other and make it extra hard for each other.

So now I was excited that Anja would throw for me because I would get enough force to get him on the roof. I leaned a bit back and curled the bat as far as possible behind me. A few times I had to breathe deep in and out. I could do it. When Anja asked me if I was ready, I nodded convinced.

The ball flew at me in a sizzling speed. With all the power I had in my body, I rammed the bat into a perfect corner against the ball. I looked at the ball going insanely high to a point that I almost didn’t see it anymore. It had to work. The class was mouse-quiet. Anja stared at me with big eyes and turned around and also looked for the ball.

“That’s impossible…” I heard Damien mumble behind me.

Suddenly there was an immense cheer. The entire class jumped up and ran towards me like I was some famous player and started doing joy dances. Slowly I started to make my way across the field. Of course I didn’t walk. At a slow jog-pace I made my way across the terrain. The teacher looked at me with big eyes when I was standing back in my place.

“So sir, about the beer…”

Let’s play a game Chapter 1

In the end, we won by 1 point. It was super close, because if I hadn’t been able to cut her of she would have definitely won. Luckily, I tapped her just before she made a homerun. We hugged each other panting and puffing while we gave each other a “well played”.

The teacher nodded us as he mumbled something about some beer that would be ready before the last hour tomorrow. I couldn’t resist chuckling softly when he was gone. It wasn’t until we let each other go that we noticed that we were the only ones still outside.

Then it happened. I saw a couple of men dressed in black with balaclavas. I pushed Anja into the gym and warned the teacher. He looked at us like we went crazy right then and there before him, until gunshots suddenly sounded. Immediately the teacher closed the doors and flew into the changing rooms.

The girls were dumbfounded when we stormed into the locker room and panickily asked if everyone was in the changing rooms. Confused, they replied that Nina wasn’t in the locker rooms yet, but that she was cleaning up some stuff was. I gestured everyone to be quiet and lock the door while I was looking for Nina.

Anja shook her head violently. She didn’t want me to be in danger, but I was the fastest and besides, I had learned enough martial arts to keep a few of them at arms length. The girls started walking one by one into the boy’s dressing room, after which I explained the situation to the teacher.

He wanted to get Nina himself, but he understood that maybe I was the best option. Anja closed the door with tears in her eyes after the reassured look I threw her. A shiver of pure adrenaline ran over my back. I spurted to the other side of the gymnastics hall as fast as I could and searched for Nina.

She stood right along one of the bucks and wanted to turn around to go to the locker rooms when another flurry of gunshots sounded. This time much closer. I grabbed her arm, covered her mouth with my other hand and pulled her between the wall and a plinth. Her cry of fear was smothered by my hand.

Suddenly the double door of the gymnastics hall flew open and a few men stormed into the hall, weapons pointed out in front of them. Nina’s eyes were as big as saucers, but she managed to keep quiet. Between a crack of the plinth we could see the whole room and we knew that if they found us there was no way out for us.

I gestured to stay silent and took my hand from her mouth. I turned a little closer to the crack in the hope of getting a better view of the men. They all had something that covered their face, but I saw some things with which I could recognize them later or describe them.

A scar on the lower lip of one and blonde hair. The other had some kind of blue color in his hair. His right ear also had a pair of silver piercings. Whispering, I explained to Nina that she also had to study the men in the hope that they would be caught later.

Suddenly the back door of the gym also flew open. Immediately covered in Nina’s mouth, but she managed to keep herself quiet as best she could. Soon I saw the panic that grew in her eyes. I had to hide her. The plinth with the hatch was right in front of us, but we could never get in without seeing us. It was right in their sight.

The newcomer, who had entered the back of the gymnasium through the back door, walked towards the changing rooms. There was now a free path towards the back door. The chances of us both getting out together were small. Too small. Even alone, the chances were very small. But as one of us ran… This was her only chance… And maybe my only chance aswell.

“Nina,” I whispered as softly as possible, “Listen carefully. I’m going to create a distraction. As soon as I do, I want you to crawl into the other plinth. You have to be low…”

She shook her head.

“Nina! Listen! We don’t have time for this. I have a chance to get through the door now, but not for very long anymore. You’re doing it. Nina, listen! They’re going to look here and they might find us! This is the only way! Listen, don’t go too fast and make sure you stay low to the ground. And whatever you do, don’t make a sound, okay?”

She nodded visibly shaking.

“Okay, if I’m at the door, you leave, okay? If you leave too fast, they’re going to see you, and they’ll find you. Once you’re in the plinth, you’ll lock it from the inside out and don’t make any sound anymore. The littlest sound can betray you. Understood?”

She nodded again. I breathed in deeply and got ready. I had to get to the forest. That’s where I could hide until I was safe. The police had to have been notified. They just had to be. I had to believe in it. It was now or never.

My heart raged in my throat. It seemed like everything went into slow motion when I came straight. Everything went too slow for me. I felt the look from one of the men resting on me before I spurted away. In the corner of my eye, I saw a movement. Nina moved towards the plinth. She was going to make it.

One of the men shot into action: “Grab her!”

Adrenaline spewed through my body. I stormed through the back door and bumped into a group of men who immediately responded to the scream. Right away, I went to the left towards the wall that surrounded the school. I threw myself sideways over the wall and ran. The men were on my heels.

The forest wasn’t far anymore. It was my only hope. The hedge appeared in the picture. Just a few more meters and I’d be there. I just had to make it. Although it wasn’t smart, I looked over my shoulder. They were close by. Too close. It was like I could feel their breath burning in my neck.

“Don’t let her escape!”

Suddenly one of the shooters appeared in front of me just past the gate. I rammed my body into him, fell and rolled a little further across the ground. Maybe it was the fear, maybe the adrenaline did it, but I immediately flew back up and ran further. My lead had gotten a lot smaller, so panic almost got the best of me, but I pushed it back.

I zigzagged between the trees by hoping to shake off my pursuers, but they clearly didn’t feel like letting me escape. Jumping over a low-hanging branch I abruptly turned to the left and came into the dense part of the woods. You couldn’t look beyond a few yards ahead of you. It was perfect.

Anja and I had been researching it a lot, so I knew exactly where the good shelter places were. Even if we used it for different reasons. The moment I was sure they couldn’t see me anymore, I dropped myself into the pit that went hidden between 2 boulders. It was almost impossible to see unless you knew where it was. A few men rushed by while others slowed down.

Without me knowing, I held my breath out of fear that they would still find me. My heart jumped like a savage as I let myself sink deeper and deeper under the rock. I knew if I made a sound they’d find me. I didn’t even want to know what would happen to me when they found me.

“Where is she? Does anyone have a sight on her?”

There was that voice again. Who was he? I couldn’t afford to look. That would be the stupidest thing I could do. If they had the rock in their vision, they’d see and find me. Still, it was hard. He was the leader. And if I could see him or recognize something about him…

“No one. We have to leave, sir. Otherwise, the police might find us.”

“Was there anyone else who met my expectations?”

“No sir… But we can…”

“That’s okay, David, I want her.”

After a break, he continued: “Get everyone out of the school building and bring a few documents. Let them search for the file of a student who meets her profile and appearance. If we don’t find her now, we will find her later.”

They were going to look for me. Reality came crashing down to me like a piano falling in my face. At home I wouldn’t be safe anymore that was a fact and a painfully obvious one as well. I couldn’t go to the police because it would be too predictable for me to do so. They’d expect me. Who said they were trustworthy, by the way? Someone who could arrange all this… What would that person all not be able to do?

I had to take my chance. I needed to know who was after me, for who I had to watch out for. Very carefully, worrying about making a sound, I crawled up. Hoping that the plants would cover me and keep me hidden from him, I overcame my fear and i looked over the edge.

The men had dropped off their masks. I saw them all except for one of their faces. He stood with his back towards me. I studied the others thoroughly. I didn’t recognize them, but later, if it was necessary, I would.

I gently started lowering myself down when suddenly one of the men shot up. He looked straight at the rocks to the place where I was hiding. I stayed stiff. It was like he looked at me right in the eye. He also looked at me right in the eyes. All the blood pulled out of my face and I turned pale.

He saw me, he had to. For some reason, he suddenly looked away again. With difficulty, I managed to stop myself from shooting down right away. Instead, I kept slowly sliding down until I was completely clogged back.

“What’s wrong, Ryan?”

“I thought I saw something in that tree there, but it was just a bird.”

Why did he lie? Did he just save my life? No, he didn’t… He couldn’t have. Whoever this Ryan guy was, I couldn’t afford to trust him.

“Now that you say so, who knows, maybe she’s already been able to hide inside one of the trees. No one would see her, and she could spy on us just like that.”

“Sir, maybe it’s best if you’re already leaving. You can’t afford to be arrested. David, make sure he gets away safely. I’ll look for a little further. She can’t have gotten that far.”

“We’ll see you at the meeting, I suppose?”

“That’s sounds good to me.”

Footsteps sounded but became softer and softer as the man disappeared. My heart was like a possessed one. As soon as I could, I had to run straight back to school, get my stuff and run. That was all I could do.

Ryan said again, “I know you’re sitting there, just come up.

He wasn’t talking about me. I had to believe it. I had to. He wasn’t allowed to find me. Then it was over for me.

“You know I’m talking to you. Just come now, if I’d wanted to kill you or tell on you, I would have done it a long time ago.”

I grinded my teeth. He couldn’t be sure.

“Listen, this can go one of three ways. The first one goes like this: I’m going to shoot between those two stones for fun because I know there’s no one there, is there? The second option is that I just call my boss and call my men here, we’ll get you out. Or the third option: you come out of that hole and listen to me.”

I moved even less than a death corpse. I wouldn’t surrender. The last thing I wanted was to die or to get kidnapped. How could this day have gone so wrong? How did I end up in this situation? I wanted to cry.

“Okay, have it your way.”

I heard a clicking sound that I immediately recognized. The sound a gun makes when the safety is taken of. All the stubbornness in my body disappeared like snow in front of the sun.

“Wait! Wait! I’m coming out already”

“That’s what I thought.”

Author of Let’s play a game

The awesome romance book Let’s play a game is created by Jolien Wuyts, an author with unlimited potential. She loves reading and writing. She has her own unique ideas about writing. She hopes that every reader can feel the power of her words. She has only authored Let’s play a game so far.