The Next Day

    Ester was allowed to wear her army tank top and shorts even if everyone in the camp had a white semi-uniform shirt. Ester walked next to her brother. Massimo looked at her,

    "I never got to ask, but did you ever date anyone in the army?"

    Ester looked down as she blushed,

    "Uh...kind of...Slinger er Javier and I tried it out cuz we felt a connection but then we realized that we were better off as a family."

    Massimo nodded,

    "Anyone I should beat up?"

Ester laughed and smirked at him,

    "I think they would destroy you if you tried,"

    Massimo rolled his eyes,

    "Shut up,"

Ester laughed,

    "I bet even Billy can beat yo ass, and he's the least soldiery of all of us...he's amazing for strategy too though,"

    Massimo rolled his eyes and glanced at her,

    "Did anyone try anything?"

    Ester rolled her eyes,

    "I would break their fingers if they did. Also, my boys beat them up all the time if they tried flirting with Ace and I,"

    Massimo smiled and nodded,

    "Good,"

    Ester laughed,

    "Let's just hurry up,"

    Massimo laughed and nodded. The twins hurried to camp and Lee immediately hugged her,

    "Yay! You are doing camp!"

    Ester laughed and nodded,

    "Yeah, I have time today so like why not?"

    Nick smiled and patted her shoulder,

    "Nice to see you back at it,"

    Ester smirked,

    "I betcha I am faster than all of you now,"

    Then Adam walked up and inside,

    "Is that Ester Randor?"

    Ester chuckled and nodded,

    "Hey, Ad!"

    Adam smiled and walked up to her,

    "Glad to see you back and safe Ester,"

    Ester smirked,

    "I know you missed me for two years,"

    Adam sighed and shrugged,

    "Maybe,"

    He did a salute and Ester smiled and she proudly did one back. That was when one kid arrived: Lola, she grew much taller from the last time Ester saw her,

    "ESTER!"

    Ester laughed as she was tackled in a hug, She ruffled her hair,

    "Hey Lola, been a while,"

    Lola smiled brightly,

    "I missed youuuu, can you tell me stories?"

    Ester smiled and nodded,

    "Yeah, at snack time,"

    Lola nodded happily. Derek and Justin showed up at the same time like they sometimes do. Justin felt his heart beat quicken as he looked at her. Derek looked at her,

    "So she's working here now?"

    Justin shrugged,

    "Not sure, why?"

    Derek shrugged,

    "I just feel like it will be awkward because of how we met,"

    Justin shrugged,

    "Eh, it will be fine. Ester's chill so she won't care,"

    Derek absent-mindedly rolled his eyes,

    "No offense dude. But the last time you saw her, was two years ago and she went through a whole army experience since then...she probably has changed,"

    Justin fought back his glare at Derek, knowing that he is partially right. Ester looked up and saw the two guys and smiled at Justin,

    "Morning!"

    Justin smiled,

    "Hey, Ester,"

    Derek walked up to her,

    "I'm sorry for my attitude yesterday Commander,"

    Ester smiled gently and waved her hand in dismissal,

    "Ah, don't stress about it, dude. I've seen weird shit so I woulda questioned it too. Just keep your eye out for things next time. You also don't have to call me commander, it's just Ester or Coach Ester here,"

    Derek smiled and nodded,

    "Thanks...I'm Derek or Coach Derek,"

    Ester smiled and nodded,

    "Nice to meet you, Derek or Coach Derek,"

    Derek smiled and nodded,

    "Likewise,"

    Luke walked inside at that moment and smiled at seeing Ester,

    "Alright Rockstars, Let's start this meeting!"

    Ester fell back into her lax Military stance in a habit whenever in meetings, which is locking her arms together behind her back in habit and standing straighter, eyes trained on Luke. Akemi felt herself loosen up as stress left her at seeing the young face of Ester. Everyone who knew Ester was worried about her, they just didn't show it. Luke smiled,

    "I am happy to announce the safe return of our very own Commander Ester Randor. I wanted to say thank you for your service to our amazing country and that we are all proud of you here at West Side Tennis Club,"

    Ester smiled and nodded,

    "Thank you, Luke,"

    Luke smiled and Akemi stepped up a little bit to speak,

    "Ester will be helping out on every court, showing the kids some fun exercises that she had to do for warm-ups,"

    Everyone turned to the smirking adult as she nodded,

    "Yeah, also make sure they drink loads of water after cuz it may not be as intense cardio as it could be...but they may like it and may not. But hey, some of the drills imma do are fun so yeah,"

    Derek tilted his head to the side slightly,

    "How much cardio do you do?"

    Ester ruffled her short hair in thought,

    "Uhhhh...Do you mean daily?"

    Alesia looked at her,

    "You do cardio daily?"

    Ester laughed and nodded,

    "Yeah, every morning and every night...which is weird right now cuz of the different time zone,"

    Amaury nodded,

    "So what did you do today? Since you aren't at your camp anymore,"

    Ester nodded and smiled slightly,

    "Yeah, that kinda put a small bump on our mood for cardio this morning. However! We ended up just running to Times Square and back,"

    Massimo's eyes widened,

    "WHAT?!"

    Ester shrugged at the shocked expressions that she was given,

    "Yeah, I mean we usually sprint but ya know...don't wanna run into anyone,"

    Nick nodded,

    "That's some cardio you do. What time did you guys do that?"

    Ester shrugged,

    "Ummm...we all kinda woke up at 2 A.M....so around 2:30."

    At that, everyone stared at her in pure shock. Luke nodded slightly,

    "Alright, that is dedication, good job Commander,"

    Ester chuckled and shrugged,

    "Eh, I guess so...just a reflex for all of us at this point, and you don't need to call me commander unless like I'm in my uniform and doing stuff for the military,"

    Massimo tilted his head,

    "Don't you have something like after camp?"

    Ester nodded,

    "Yeah, my squad was called in to check out the newest cadets...I think it's cuz everyone is scared of us,"

    Lee smirked,

    "Someone scared of you?"

    Ester laughed and shrugged,

    "I know right?! Can't imagine that,"

    Everyone laughed. Justin looked slightly to the side and saw that Derek was looking at her, Justin felt something again and did not want to acknowledge the jealousy. Kids started coming, those that knew Ester immediately ran over to hug her, Ester laughed and hugged them back. Ok. SoEster's drill for the yellow ball, the oldest kids, was sprints to get to the ball and putting them in a different place, for the middle age group, she did spider drills, for the youngest, she played freeze tag that involved running and jumping. All the coaches and volunteers were impressed by one of the youngest commanders in history, Derek would sometimes stare at her and Justin would too, but with an admiring look on his face. Okan was very proud of the young and beautiful adult that she has become. Okan and Ester were picking up the balls after everyone was brought up to snack. Okan looked at her and smiled,

    "So any boyfriends?"

    Ester laughed and shook her head,

    "Nahhh...some guys asked me out but none of them had my attention. Some tried to get with me but ended up with a few broken bones. One of my squadmates, Javier, and I tried dating last year but we decided that we were just meant to be best friends and family."

    Okan sighed and smiled,

    "Boys are disgusting around beautiful young ladies like yourself,"

    Ester laughed and rolled her eyes,

    "Whatever you say,"

    Okan laughed and nudged her,

    "So do you like anyone?"

    Ester shrugged, immediately thinking about Justin,

    "I don't know...I think I'll wait a bit more to see if anyone asks me out that's interesting enough,"

    Okan laughed and nodded,

    "Sure, but just saying, you can always look here for someone,"

    Ester tilted her head in confusion,

    "What do you mean?"

    Okan rolled his eyes at her, he knows Justin likes her, he suspects that Derek does too, but he still does not get good vibes from that guy.

    "Never the mind,"

    Ester shrugged and chuckled. Okan winked at her,

    "I still want to see this Javier person though,"

    Ester laughed and nodded,

    "Alright,"

    Okan smiled and locked arms with her,

    "Everyone is excited to hear some of your war stories, just don't scare anyone,"

    Ester laughed and nodded,

    "I won't I'll just say some funny stuff that went on during training. My squad won't find out so it's all good,"

    Okan chuckled and nodded. They finally got to the rose garden where everyone was sitting down with their snacks. Greg smiled and nodded at her to take a seat in the middle, Ester rolled her eyes at the dramatics and sat down. Ester smirked,

    "So, what kind of stories do y'all want to hear?"

    Flare immediately was the first to respond,

    "Funny ones first!"

    Ester chuckled and nodded,

    "Alright. I'll tell you guys about the first time I met one of my best friends, Javier or Slingshot...It was one of the nights where everyone was eating in the mess hall. The bulky army guys were all having an arm wrestle competition. Javier saw me and he thought he could win, what with me being a girl, he called me over and asked me if I wanted to arm wrestle, that if he wins that I had to kiss him, *Justin and Massimo glared while all the kids yelled out 'ew!'* Yeah I know right? So I asked him what would happen if I won, he said that it was not going to happen, but if it were to happen, he would run around the camp in his underwear the next day. So naturally, I had to accept-"

    Lola looked up at her,

    "Did you win?"

    Ester smirked,

    "I didn't try at first, but after a few of his attempts at beating me, I won the match and everyone looked at me in shock while Javier just frowned in disappointment. And that, my friends, is how I met my best friend Javier."

    Antonio smirked,

    "Was it fun to watch him run around in his underwear?"

    Ester burst into laughter as she remembered laughing as he ran around almost naked,

    "Yes, one of my favorite memories is watching Javier run around, our training officer, however, did not find it as funny as everyone else, he made Javier run the obstacle course and let me tell you guys, it was hilarious watching him go under barbed wire without any protection,"

    Everyone laughed. Amber immediately was next to request a story,

    "How did you form your team?"

    Ester smiled gently,

    "An elite squad was needed ASAP. I was top of my class along with my best friend Nikki, Nikki and I met the second day of training and instantly became best friends, what with the sincere lack of girls. I was given the choice of having five people with me. I was close with Javier after we started talking after I beat him. I met my other three squadmates during drills, Damion or Snipes, Billy or Climber, and Quin or Cannon. I had a week to pull together the team. Nikki is my second-in command and the two of us watched everyone else train while we were training too. I've talked to Billy quite a bit seeing as he was a quiet guy and we were friends. I knew he was the right choice as soon as I saw him during our strategy part of the training. Damion and Billy were close and casually argued all the time but I knew that they would work very well together. Quin had an interesting way of showing himself by his expressive and loud personality at points. They were all shocked when I asked them to be part of my squad, but we got together and went through our squad training, surpassing all other candidates for the special ops team,"

    Everyone was surprised at how the Blazing Dragons was formed, Massimo knew some of the stories, but all the other adults just assumed that they were randomly selected together. Adam was the next to question,

    "How did you come up with the names for each other?"

    Ester smirked fondly,

    "Well, I was known for questioning everything that I thought was wrong, along with being known for my witty comebacks and sarcastic remarks, so they came up with Spitfire for me. Nikki got her nickname because of this one time during training, we needed to think fast and she thought of using this makeshift arrow to throw it at the target to finish our task, she hit it right on and one time this guy was bothering her when we were playing cards, she threw the ace of spades at him and hit him in the eye, he had a pretty good scrape from where they took the card out. For Billy, he can climb anything and he can do it fast. He was on top of our training for climbing the wall at record speed. Javier got his nickname a rather funny way. We were in battle and he ran out of ammo. He found two sticks near him and held them together as he picked up a rock. He stole my hair tie that I had on my wrist and used it to make a slingshot, so he took out the last dude by hitting both of his eyes with rocks. Now, Quin, we both loved going to the armory on days off when we just wanted to try target practicing. There was a new canon and he immediately looked at it like it was candy, he immediately took it and was one of the first ones to use it to hit a dummy right in the head. His preferred weapons are cannons so it was fitting. On one of our missions, Damion took out a whole squad using his sniper, now he loves that thing more than anything, which we tease him about all the time. That's why we call him Snipes. Any questions?"

    Derek raised his hand and Ester nodded at him to speak,

    "What is your favorite weapon?"

    Ester smirked,

    "My twin guns or throwing knives. I used them all the time,"

    Lee smiled,

    "Can you show us some moves?"

    Ester immediately smirked and shrugged,

    "Does anyone wanna be a test dummy?"

    No one answered and Ester laughed,

    "I'll just show you some techniques for running and stuff,"

    Ester crouched down and looked directly at the pillar. She took off sprinting and jumped onto the pillar and used it to swing her around 180 where she propelled herself from the pillar to spin in a flip and when she landed on the ground she did some rolls and cartwheels. She came to the edge of the wooden structure and flipped over to the other side of the barrier. She landed in a handstand before flipping back inside. Everyone watched her in pure awe and clapped. Ester smirked and did a small bow,

    "Thank you thank you, now I think that's all the time we have today. Let's get going,"

    Finally, it was dismissal. Okan immediately linked arms with Ester, fully intending to meet Ester's Ex: Javier. Ester rolled her eyes and whispered,

    "Don't make a big scene,"

    Okan smirked and shrugged,

    "We shall see,"

    Ester chuckled. Justin walked up to beside them,

    "Did you like coaching again?"

    Ester smiled brightly,

    "Yeah, it was nice, felt really calm, just what I needed before training new recruits,"

    Derek walked up to behind them,

    "What do you mean?"

    Ester smiled,

    "My squad and I were asked to come in to help train some newbies and set a good example,"

    Lee smirked,

    "Gasp, Ester being a good example for newbies,"

    Ester laughed and shrugged,

    "I know right?! Me of all people, shocker,"

    Everyone laughed. They finally left and everyone stopped momentarily at seeing the small group of soldiers standing outside: a guy with short black hair with dark brown eyes wearing his red Blazing Dragon army tank top along with black shorts which was Damion, a guy with sandy blonde army cut hair with grey eyes and his grey Blazing Dragon army tank top along with black shorts which was Quin, a guy with dark red slicked back short hair and dark green eyes and green Blazing Dragon army Tank Top with black shorts which was Billy, a girl with dark blonde medium hair in a french braid with blue eyes along with a Blazing Dragon army purple tank top and black pants which was Nikki, and finally a guy with dark brown fluffy medium hair with blue eyes along with a Blazing Dragon army tank top with black shorts which was Javier. All of them were muscular and lean proudly showing their tattoo on their right shoulders, Billy being the tallest and Quin having the most muscle from his cannons. Ester did a slight salute and they immediately returned it. Ester smirked,

    "Guys, this is Nikki, Damion, Quin, Billy, and Javier,"

    Okan immediately walked up to Javier,

    "You are gorgeous, Ester I see why you chose him,"

    Everyone except Massimo was confused, Ester's squad laughed while Ester and Javier blushed. Ester shoved Okan playfully, very softly,

    "OKAN!!"

    Okan chuckled and nodded,

    "Maybe I should join for the boys,"

    Ester face-palmed but chuckled. Lee immediately saw the opportunity when she saw Justin frown,

    "Oh my god, you dated Javier?"

    Ester and Javier blushed and Damion immediately took up the opportunity,

    "Sadly, yes. Javier got to her before I even had a chance,"

    Ester glared at Damion and Damion immediately ran behind a laughing Billy. Billy immediately noticed and shook his head,

    "Hell no Snipes! I am not taking this hit,"

    Billy and Damion immediately started wrestling and Ester laughed,

    "Get up idiots, we need to be in peak condition for those recruits,"

    Billy and Damion nodded and got up, Derek slightly frowned,

    "Wait, so you actually dated Javier?"

    Javier glared,

    "Got a problem bub?"

    Derek immediately shook his head,

    "No,"

    Ester chuckled and nodded,

    "Yeah. Sling and I dated for like a month or two, but we just family now,"

    Alesia smiled,

    "That's nice though,"

    Ester sighed and shrugged,

    "Yeah...However! SOME people won't stop giving us shit bout it,"

    Ester stared at Damion and Quin and the two shrugged,

    "It's funny,"

    Ester rolled her eyes,

    "Anyway, we gotta get going...we have like an hour to get to the site and we are still like forty minutes away,"

    Justin looked at her,

    "Where is it?"

    Ester smirked,

    "Right outside of Chicago,"

    Everyone was confused. Damion chuckled,

    "Well, we are ten minutes or so from the airport where our jet is waiting...and we gotta get going,"

    Ester nodded,

    "See you guys at some point,"

    Massimo smirked,

    "Come home soon!"

    Ester lazily saluted him,

    "Be back by Monday!"

    The six then started sprinting to JFK airport. Nick whistled lowly,

    "Damn, they are fast,"

    Okan smirked,

    "You should see her playing freeze tag with the kids,"

    Justin nodded,

    "She got way faster,"

    Everyone agreed.