Naomi raised an eyebrow. ‘And when you get to know me, Melissa?’
Melissa swallowed. ‘Well, then you’re really intimidating.’
~~~
Naomi was not as intimidating as Melissa thought. Or at least, that was the impression he got whenever he talked to Nava. He watched her walking out of the woods where she had been playing the fox again, and once again he prepared his arguments knowing he was going to fail.
‘They’re getting better,’ Nava said as she approached the control tent. At this time of year, the tent was popular because it was out of the sun. It was a blazing-hot July Saturday, but the heat did not seem to be affecting Nava.
‘You still appear to have wiped out all the hounds,’ Naomi countered.
Nava pointed at her left shoulder where a yellow light was glowing. ‘I did, but they wounded me. I’ve got better at camouflaging myself too, so there’s a definite improvement compared to spring. I don’t know whether they’ll win anything at the war games, but I don’t think they’ll sully the school’s good name either. Even against some of the professionals that go to that event.’
‘We would do significantly better if you were to join the team.’
‘And yet, I’d prefer to keep my participation to helping get your teams ready.’ Nava still had not officially joined the MagiTag Club. She turned up and went through various games every so often, and she had been turning up every Saturday for the last six weeks, but she never put herself on the official list of members.
Naomi allowed this for a couple of good reasons, and one weak one. The weak one was that the club had enough members that its official status was not in question. One more would make no real difference. The real reasons why Naomi liked Nava taking part in the games were training and humility. Nava was no teacher, but just seeing her do battle had a habit of inspiring the other members. It also had a habit of keeping the members’ egos in check. It was hard to be a pathologically confident MagiTag player when a girl on the support stream could walk in having not picked up a pistol for three weeks and trounce you as though it was another day at the office. Still…
‘I really wish you would reconsider,’ Naomi said.
‘I’ve explained this, Naomi. I’m not confident enough in my ability to compartmentalise games like this from real combat. If I’m up against professional magicians or an ASF team, I might just start thinking that the situation is serious. If that happens, there could be fatalities.’
‘I think you’re underselling yourself. I believe you have more control than you admit.’
He possibly had a point. There had never been an issue at school. She had never wanted to kill anyone in a game. Yet. ‘I’d prefer not to test my limits at a public event,’ she said. ‘Has the council meeting wrapped up?’
Naomi sighed, but he accepted the change of topic. ‘Yes.’ His brow creased a little. ‘You’re not one of Courtney’s ‘standby’ SSF members, are you? She mentioned she had some auxiliary officers–’
‘Oh no. I don’t do SSF work on any kind of regular basis because then I would definitely end up killing someone.’
‘But you helped with that incident in May. Courtney gave us the rundown on what happened.’
‘Yes. I told her I would be available for situations where my talents were useful. In May, something needed killing and I was probably the only one who could do it. An SSF operation perfectly made for me. Generally, Courtney wants people taken alive.’
‘I see.’
Nava was fairly sure that he did understand, but that was not going to stop him from asking again next week.
235/7/25.
Naomi was not the only one trying to get Nava to compete for the school in a competition. Carlton Horne Sonkei, chairman of the Flight Club, was just about as bad. Then again, Naomi would turn up at Flight Club these days to pressure Nava there too. Sundays were becoming irritating because she had two people trying to pressgang her into competition.
For this reason, Nava was spending less time near the ground, testing out her aerobatics, and more time at high altitude. Since Melissa could not stay airborne for as long as Nava could, the situation was not ideal. One of the reasons Nava came to the club was to spend an afternoon enjoying herself with Melissa. And, eventually, Nava had to come down…
‘Your stamina is quite amazing.’ Carlton belonged to one of the weaker families within the Sonkei clan, but he was still one of the Sonkeis and he had a handsome face and fit body to add to his charisma. If he could just learn to take no for an answer…
‘So I’m told,’ Nava replied.
‘We haven’t seen you in any of the practice areas for a while. It’s a shame. It’s really quite something to see you sliding around the obstacles.’
‘With the aerobatics competition coming up during the summer holiday, I feel it is more important to give those competing as much time as possible to train. I won’t be competing, so I don’t need to train.’
Carlton did not have Naomi’s poker face. His expression shifted from false joviality to disappointment. ‘I’m aware. You’ve made it quite clear, but I still think you should reconsider.’
‘Carlton, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I come to this club to enjoy myself. I have no interest in competitions of any kind. There are plenty of people in the club who are enthusiastic about competing and have the skill to do well.’ Nava paused briefly to consider her next words and concluded that, no, she was not feeling generous today. ‘Frankly, your determination to get me on the team is undermining the other members’ confidence. I don’t take this seriously and you try to persuade me to compete every week. I’d be taking someone else’s place. Someone who wants to compete would be unable to because you pressured
