"The stars are beautiful, aren't they, Sheila?" I couldn't sleep so I went outside and just stared at the stars. I had climbed onto the roof and just sat there, looking up. The surrounding area was dry and cold. I was alone for a while until I heard those words. Startled, I turned around and saw Snipes.

"Oh, hey Snipes." I could barely make out a little grin on his face in the dark.

"Mind if I sit with you?" he asked in his Australian accent.

"Not at all." He sat by me and smiled again. "What are you doin' out here?" he asked me. I looked back at the stars.

"Can't sleep." He gave a slight nod. I noticed that he still had his hat on.

"Worried about tomorrow?" I nodded.

"Don't worry. It won't be that bad. Trust me, I'll make sure nothin' happens to ya tomorrow." I smiled. "Thanks," I said, yawning. Snipes patted my back and I began to lean on his shoulder. I couldn't really stand up myself since I was so tired, but he looked wide awake. Snipes said nothing against it, as well. We just spent another thirty minutes or so looking up at the stars until everything went black.

I opened my eyes to find myself in my bed. At first, I thought that I had been dreaming until I got to the starting point. The preparation stage of the battle was about to begin. Snipes walked over to me with a satisfied grin on his face. "Had a nice sleep, Sheila?" he asked me. I nodded. "The stars sure were beautiful. They'd make anyone go to sleep."

"Mission begins in sixty seconds." Snipes motioned for me to follow him, so I did in wonder. I had never really gone into the battlefield before! I was never "ready" as they put it. It sucked to be me. Snipes led me to a place that he called "The Sniper Ledge". There, we went to a small hut and there were a few crates in the corner. Snipes pointed to a small opening where I could fit in. "You can hide there for spies," he told me. Snipes then dragged a crate over an opening of the hut and began to place some glass jars, most empty and a couple already filled with a strange yellow liquid. After he put the first yellow one down, Snipes suddenly began to blush and looked up at me. "Um...hey, if I ever need to fill these up, can you take control of rifle?" I nodded, a bit confused.

"Okay..." The battle was long and all I could hear in my little hiding spot was the sound of gunfire and Snipes' occasional curse. I stayed by the corner, holding my kukri and staring straight ahead to look for spies. I was just mindlessly staring when I noticed something move inside. A spy. He didn't seem to notice me as he uncloaked, so I slowly and quietly got up. The BLU Spy took out a long, light blue icicle. How did it not melt? I will never be able to answer that. I began to sneak behind the Spy as well, mentally preparing myself for what was about to happen. Someone in this room was about to die. The Spy was about to backstab Snipes when I struck. I stabbed him through the chest with my kukri. My victim didn't have a chance to scream as I slid him off the weapon. Snipes heard this and quickly turned around. He looked down at the dead body on the ground, surprised.

"Holy dooley! Good one, Sheila!" I nodded and slowly walked back to my hiding space. Oh my god...I just killed someone... I just KILLED someone. I looked down at the kukri. The Spy's blood stained it. I took out a tiny towel and wiped the thick blood off of it. By the time I was done, the entire towel was dark red. Then, I heard Snipes call out to me. I quickly get up and run over to him. He handed me his sniper rifle and picked up a jar. I knew what this meant. I took a quick glance around the battlefield. There were BLUs everywhere. I was honestly surprised at first but soon reminded myself what I had to do. I quickly pulled up the rifle and began to look through it. I aimed at the first BLU I saw, BLU Heavy. I pulled the trigger and felt my heart quickly skip a beat as the Heavy fell to the ground. I pulled the rifle back to reload and as I reloaded, Snipes came back with the empty bottle now full of whatever that liquid was. "Thanks, Sheila," he said, taking it away from me. I took a deep breath. Part of me wanted to watch him instead of being out of sight, but the other part of me wanted to hide.

"...um...Snipes?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I...watch?" Silence.

"Sure," he finally said. I sat down on a crate and watched.

"The payload is nearing a checkpoint!"

"Shut your cake-holes and stop that cart!" Snipes shouted at the others. Almost immediately after, I hear an explosion and Soldier screaming. Body parts fly up in the air. Dear god...

"The enemy has received additional time."

"Piss!" Snipes cursed. He look back at me and grabbed my hand. "The BLUs will most likely be in this room any moment now. We'll need to get through them first if we want to protect the next checkpoint. Ya better be ready cause here they come!" He pulled out his Submachine gun and motioned for me to do the same. Then, we ran to the next part of the building, dodging bullets from the BLU Heavy. When we finally got to the building, we ran down a small set of stairs and began to shoot at the BLUs in the room. I'm not sure if they noticed me as much as they did Snipes since I'm a bit small for my age and I was behind him but still was able to shoot. "Quick! Sheila, cover me!" He ran behind me and took something out of his vest. It was a yellow bottle. "BOMBS AWAY!" He threw it at the BLUs and the liquid splashed on all 5 of them in there. We managed to kill two of them but one. BLU Heavy. He fired at us while pushing the cart. However, we did stall enough time for our teammates to come to our rescue. Heavy shot down the BLU Heavy, Soldier, and Demoman.

"Thanks, Heavy!" I called out to him. Snipes lead me to the final point of the area that we had to defend. We ran to the final checkpoint and I helped Snipes get up a ledge before he pulled me up. There, he momentarily aimed his rifle at the checkpoint, but soon lowered it. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Why don't you take control of it this time. I'll see how you're doin' and if needed, I'll throw jarate at them." He handed me the rifle. We won that round. :D

- Tal