The Dream Team: A Hysteria Short

Earth
S.C. International School
2012

After the Division, Theo noted that the three piqued his interest.

He did what he did best: observing. He would hang out with his (not so close) peers during breaks and would watch the threesome at their table; his eyes would drift from the loud Alessia to calm Ritsuko, finally settling on the sharp-tongued Verena. His peers would occasionally chat him up, and when they did, he would use their knowledge to his advantage.

Apparently, the massive group of eight had a dispute.

How the Split occurred was told in different ways.

The more common story was that they were kicked out – simple as that. Rumor stated that Verena was thrown out, and in her defense, Alessia and Ritsuko left along with her, making clear on whose side they were on.

Another version told that Verena left of her own accord. With Verena gone, tensions in the remaining seven rose. This resulted to Alessia taking Ritsuko with her, unable to take the tensions and the heavier arguments.

Finally, the rare story told Theo that the five actually left the three and formed their own group. This was the lesser likely version; even Theo didn’t believe such immediately when he heard that for the very first time.

However, as time went on and as he listened in through the grapevine and kept his act of observing, he himself began to strike out theories. He noticed the hostility among them; particuarly that between Verena and Lizbeth. Aside from that, Kira spat insults every chance she could.

Alessia spit back.

Those who seemed to be in the middle were Ritsuko, Nova, Radelle and Ling.

But Theo found that Verena and Lizbeth’s hostilities were only exchanged when they were faced with a crowd. The two tended to face off academically, but when stuck in the cafeteria, Theo noticed that Lizbeth wouldn’t join in with Kira when the latter would make a scathing comment. Verena would give Alessia a harsh look when the brunette would talk about scalping Radelle for nearly running into her car for the nth time that semester.

In a way, the two defended each other.

And he thought that it was very odd.

Nevertheless, Theo opted to find out a little more about the curious group.

‘Breaking in’ wasn’t hard; all it took was for him to talk to Ritsuko and have Alessia walk in on their conversation. Alessia decided that she liked him since Ritsuko was comfortable with him, which led to him occupying the fourth seat at their table.

He didn’t get the desired reaction from Verena, though. The blonde merely cocked a brow when she approached with her tray, sizing him up with her criticial eyes. Theo pretended not to notice.

“Wyatt?”

“Herman,” Theo responded calmly. “Hi.” She merely stared for a moment and then proceeded to shrug, taking a seat much after. Verena then acted like nothing had changed at all, which both caught his attention and made him more curious.

After weeks spent with the three females, Theo found himself warming up to them. He laughed at Alessia’s jokes, debated with Ritsuko and found himself talking quietly to Verena once things started to simmer down.

Eventually, things shifted. Theo was recognized more as part of the former threesome. Three turned into four and although many made snide remarks on how easily he could ‘claim’ the three, he paid them no heed at all.

He found Ritsuko as the head, Alessia the heart and Verena the soul.

Theo liked to think himself as the eyes.

* * * * *

Hetar
 Base X
T.X.

“Wyatt! Do you spot any enemy activity from the other side?” Felicita called. Wyatt peered through the device and shook his head to himself, shouting a negative in response. “Keep your eyes open; Amalia wants to make sure that we don’t get burned down like how we were a couple of months ago.”

“We were blindsided!” Wyatt protested. Feliticta merely snorted and the watchman heard her steps fade away, he peering into the telescope once more to verify if they were being spied on or attacked or not.

Day sixty-four, the brunet thought. No attack or signal so far from the opposing team. Amalia is anxious, Felicita is still bubbly and there has been no signal from Sakura. All is well –

A crash made his head snap up; Wyatt’s eyes widened upon seeing Zelda stumble around with a hand on her knee. “Fucking damn it,” the woman moaned. He gave her a sharp look.

“What the hell, Zelda.”

“If you’d stop scattering your goddamn materials all over the floor, I wouldn’t have misstepped and nearly broke my knee,” she growled. The male merely rolled his eyes and folded back the telescope, sitting down and running a hand through his hair. Amalia’s twin regarded him curiously.

“You look like shit.”

“Could have made that sweeter.”

“You look like excrete.”

“…forget I said anything,” Wyatt sighed. Zelda gave a playful smirk and ruffled Wyatt’s hair, making the latter send her a weirded out look. “What, did Amalia let you have an extra dose of coffee this morning?”

“She might have. Oh yeah.” Zelda scratched the back of her neck, “She asked for all of us to meet. You know her. Amalia wants some updates.” Wyatt nodded and stood up, stopping as he noticed Zelda rubbing at the scar underneath her eye.

“Don’t touch it.”

“It burns.”

“Do you want me to patch it up again?”

“Pfft. I don’t need your magic, Eyes.” Wyatt allowed himself to smile at the nickname and the twosome climbed down the spiraling stairs, Zelda leading him to the team’s conference room. “Get ready for some messed up group dynamic.”

“To be fair, you tend to mess it up.” Instead of taking it as an insult, Zelda tossed her head back and laughed.

“I heard no complaining when I bombed TL’s backup headquarters.” The male allowed himself to chuckle at the fond memory, remembering Zelda calmly leaving as explosions set off. Amalia had scolded her for being reckless but Felicita whooped and gave her a high five. Sakura merely gave a nod of appreciation. Her scarlet eyes had caught Wyatt’s.

“Like what I did, Eyes?”

“Living up to the name, I see.” He responded. Zelda winked.

“There’s a reason why you guys called me the Wildcard, baby.”