I walked into sociology soaking wet to prevent anyone from shooting me.

It was early November and just below freezing, but it was a small price to pay for eternal glory for a year.

I sat down in my regular seat, and Caroline sat beside me, which was slowly becoming a habit of hers. I wasn't sure what exactly she wanted from me, but oddly enough, I didn't mind her for the most part.

The only time she bothered me was when she talked to me.

She looked over at me, an eyebrow raised. "It's not raining outside, so, uh, what's up with the water?"

I smiled, a little proud of myself and my ingenuity. "I play to win."

"Win what?"

"Half off my room and board costs from a dorm Nerf gun battle."

Her eyes widened. "That's pretty cool. Me and my sisters should do something like that."

I chuckled. "If you want to all hate each other and build distrust, you go right ahead."

Dr. Mann shuffled into the room, took one look at me, then turned to the podium, where he rested his laptop.

"Miss Amanda Jayne, how are you today?" he asked as he plugged a cord into his computer.

"I'm good. How are you?" I asked.

"I've been better. I'm getting real tired of your political statements," he said, then looked up at me.

"Huh?" I looked down at my soaking wet coat and jeans. "Oh, this? It's not a state—"

"You've made your point, but now you just want to push until it's annoying. There's no way you'd do that otherwise." He strode away from the podium and stood just in front of me, his arms folded.

"You seem to underestimate my love of winning. And if you want to keep your job, I'd suggest that you don't falsely accuse me of things, yeah?"

Caroline nudged me with her elbow lightly, but I elbowed it right back to her rightful place.

Dr. Mann gave me a disingenuous smile. "Of course."

"And I'd also recommend not giving any homework this weekend," I said.

"Don't overestimate my kindness."

I folded my hands and placed them on the ineffectively small desk in front of me. "I'm not. I just know that you need this job, and I can very well take that away from you. Cooperation is what makes a society work. I figured you'd follow your own guidelines."

Dr. Mann shook his head, then turned away.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Caroline whispered to me. "You told him, but you haven't done anything about it?"

I nodded.

"Why? You better have a good reason."

I stared at her for a moment. "You better not be whisper-yelling at me. I have my reasons, and he has his for our little tiff."

"That's not what I asked. Why would you do that?"

"Why are you trying to push me to do something about all this? I know what I'm doing, so now that you've done your part, we can gladly go our separate ways."

I didn't actually know what I was doing, but when did I ever? I just faked it.

"Using people is real shitty, sis. You only wanted my info," she said.

"You willingly told me everything. I didn't ask for it."

She looked back at me, then down at the ground. "Okay, why don't we start this over? I'll ask you again. Why did you tell Dr. Mann we have dirt on him, but you didn't do anything with the dirt?"

As the clock struck the hour, Dr. Mann stood in front of the class and began talking about stigmas and stereotypes. I didn't mind. In fact, he came in at a pretty good time for me. It allowed me to figure out exactly why I hadn't done anything.

I prided myself on action, not words. So why hadn't I taken any action?

Fear?

Embarrassment?

Empathy?

Mr. Emotional Intelligence would have been super useful, but he didn't know about any of my Dr. Mann issues, since I never told him.

I had no intentions of changing that, as he had plenty of things he needed to focus on, but I couldn't help but think how much easier it would make my life.

And people liked to tell me that I was a selfish bitch.

Fucking idiots.

***

Viktor, Diego, and I all crouched behind a bush, just as a light snow began to fall.

"Dios fucking mio, is that snow?" Diego said.

I nodded. "Get used to it, sunshine. That happens a lot here."

Viktor pressed his finger to his lips, so I shut up.

Diego didn't. "So what's the plan for taking out these fuckers?"

"Keep it down. I don't want us to get caught," Viktor whispered. "And ask Amanda that. I don't know what we're doing."

"You're in charge of this? Shit, we're dead," Diego muttered.

I crossed my arms. "Look, dude, if you don't like it, you can either leave, or I'll end your chances of winning right here, right now."

"Oh, I'm so scared." He laughed and waved his hands around.

I grabbed one of his arms with one hand and pointed my gun at him with the other. "Stop it. Someone's gonna see us, dumbass."

"The sooner someone takes you out, the sooner I'll be able to win this thing." He aimed his gun straight back at me.

"Guys, stop it," Viktor said, then let out a sigh. "This isn't going to work if you two can't cooperate."

Diego didn't take his eyes and aim off of me. "Cooperation is for pussies."

"Cooperation is great, as long as people like you know their damn place," I said.

"My place?"

"You know, like a burning dumpster."

Diego glared at me. "Look at her. She thinks she's so cute."

I smiled. "I don't think it. I know it."

"That's it. Diego, you stand on this side, and Amanda, you stand on the other side. Don't even look at each other," Viktor said.

I let out a laugh. "This is ridiculous."

"Yeah, come on, dude. You know we don't mean any of it," Diego said.

"I meant it all," I said.

Viktor took in a breath. "Just stop arguing. I just wanted that we all get along peacefully."

"This is as peaceful as we're gonna get. You got a couple type A personalities here, so I don't know exactly what you were expecting," Diego said.

I smiled. "Now, if you're going to chill out for just a second, I'd like to go over what I was thinking our strategy should be."

I paused and waited for either of them to interject, and when they didn't, I kept talking. "So, like I said earlier, there are several different types of strategies already forming. The alpha males put aside their differences and are teaming up to go after the alpha females. Logically, we should let them take each other out, and the three—I mean two—of us can take the leftovers."

"How many people is that?" Viktor asked.

"The majority of them. The best course of action, in my humble opinion, would be to wait outside somewhere where every single person goes."

"So the dining hall?" Diego asked.

"Sure, I guess, but I was thinking the dorm."

Diego shook his head. "That's too obvious. Someone else has to be there already, and they'll be waiting to take us out."

I brought my finger to my chin. "You're probably not wrong. But then don't you think camping out by the dining hall would be similar? We'd almost be sitting ducks in a sense. Word gets around fast."

"What if we didn't stay in the same place? We'll track people down on the move. They're all wearing yellow bands on their arms, so we can see them easily," Viktor said.

"That sounds like work and exercise. No thanks," I said.

Viktor frowned. "I thought you wanted to win. You poured water on yourself in the freezing cold."

"Exactly. My muscles are too cold. I might pull a hamstring or something. Do you want me to die?"

"You won't die of a pulled hamstring. God, the sky is always falling with you," Diego said.

"It's part of my charm." I smiled, then looked over to Viktor. "I'm about to trust you. Don't make me regret it."

The way Viktor's face lit up made my entire year.

"Really?" he asked, his eyes brighter than I had ever seen them before.

I had seen him through his highs and lows and stuck with him through them (once I decided he wasn't too bad). And although I liked helping him through his problems, when he was happy, I was happy.

And in those moments, there wasn't a single person on the planet that was more perfect, more beautiful to me.

Where almost every emotion (besides anger or frustration) I expressed or repressed was a cognizant effort, he was pure joy, pure sadness, pure everything. He was just unadulteratedly him, and that was what made him so beautiful to me.

Blaine once told me that Viktor and I were more similar than different, and while our personalities were nearly opposites, the realness both of us had was what brought us together.

And although I told Viktor he needed to be more realistic in his views, I didn't mind having an eternal cheerleader around.

But the one thing I found odd was his lack of optimism in himself.

I had to be there to tell him he could do whatever he wanted, or to give him some faith that he wouldn't fail. I knew a lot about failure, and it didn't scare me the same way it terrified Viktor.

I wasn't all that smart when it came to emotions, but somehow, I knew that it was a product of being told he was great all the time. He couldn't let those people down.

But I saw through. I'd tell him if he did something wrong. If he failed with me, it didn't bother him too much, simply because I didn't expect him to succeed one hundred percent of the time.

"So Vik, we'll do things your way for once. Lead the way," I said.

He smiled. "You're going to have to run, if that's okay with you."

"I'll live, probably." I smiled back at him.

"Oh, isn't that fucking wonderful," Diego said.

I shut my eyes, then turned to look at him. "No one asked you, Diego."

Viktor glanced over at me to make sure I wasn't offended or something.

It took a lot to offend me, and when something did, it wasn't because of some idiot's sarcasm directed at me.

Diego was mean, but I loved it.

And to Viktor, he was another fixer-upper.

I hesitantly stood up, half afraid that I'd get shot right away. But when nothing happened, both Diego and Viktor followed my lead and stood up as well.

"Where do you want to start our massacre?" I asked.

Viktor's eyes studied our surroundings. The snow seemed to be sticking to the ground, and I was happy that I decided against wearing glasses that day, since the snow would have stuck to them.

"Right there." Diego pointed to a girl passing by, a Nerf gun in her hand, and a yellow band on her arm.

"No, we can't start with her. I like Tiffany," Viktor said.

"You like everyone," I said.

Viktor nodded. "That's true, but—"

"Fuck Tiffany. She needs to go," Diego interrupted, then darted across the walkway.

Viktor muttered what I guessed to be a Swedish curse word under his breath, then turned to me. "Thank you for not picking on Tiffany. She's really sweet."

"I don't know her, but look, we can't just let everyone go because you like them. We're trying to win," I said.

Viktor frowned, as Diego returned with a satisfied grin on his face.

"Adios, Tiffany," he said.

I looked down to where Diego came from, and there was Tiffany, with a dart stuck to her forehead.

"Instant kill. One hundred bonus experience," I said with a laugh.

"I feel like an assassin. I'll catch you guys later, okay? I'm bloodthirsty now," Diego said, and before he gave us a chance to stop him, he ran off in another direction.

"Oh my god. We better avoid him now. He's going to come after us. I just know it," I said.

Viktor shook his head. "Diego's not a traitor."

I rose an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, so he may have some character issues, but that doesn't mean he's going to betray you. He has a good heart," Viktor added.

"You tell me that, but I've never seen anything to support that statement. Look, I don't dislike him, but I don't trust him at all. It's not that difficult of a concept to grasp."

He took my hand in his, and I wasn't sure where he was taking us, but we began to walk.

"Wow, you're cold," he said.

"That's what happens when it gets cold outside. Plus I have bad circulation."

"Should you be worried about that?"

I shook my head. "It's whatever. I'm just always cold, and my toes sometimes turn blue."

"That sounds terrible. You should get that checked out," Viktor said.

"I don't know why you think I have the time to do that."

He laughed. "What do you even do all day? Sit in your dorm and mumble about how much you hate everything?"

"Yeah. What do you do all day?"

"I sports. That's pretty much it," Viktor said.

I laughed. "You sports? Do you also win the points?"

"All day, every day."

I burst into another round of laughter. "What's your deal? I haven't ever heard you this excited about hockey."

"I think it's because there's finally a goal in sight. I can see it. And you're right here with me."

"You're too sweet to me. Yeah, I helped you in high school, but I'm not really doing much this time around," I said.

"You're just—" he thought for a moment, "—you're just you. That's all I really need."

"What do you want?"

"What?"

I frowned. "People aren't nice to me unless they want something."

Viktor shook his head. "Then you're hanging out with the wrong people."

I looked up at him, but I didn't say anything.

Yeah, Arti was problematic and Blaine was blunter than an unsharpened pencil, but they were the only people who really gave me a chance. And Viktor, he was the ray of sunshine in my life. God knew I needed his light.

I loved all three of them, but a part of me was curious about what I was missing out on with Viktor.

It was just my nature.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning/afternoon/evening to you! I am super duper excited, because I just wrote out an entire outline for the rest of this book. I know, I'm surprised too.

What is the public opinion on our ships? Blaine and Amanda? Viktor and Amanda? Screaming because you don't know? No one because life is meaningless? (What?) I've gotten split feedback in the past, so I wanted to see how we're doing now.

Personally, I'm Team Screaming.