"Thanks for assuming the best of us, Jasper, because we won," I looked at him and paused long enough to mock his confidence. "The other teams just died that fast."

"Oh, really" he chuckled. "I look forward to seeing your improvement in our next battle. I must say, it's so much more enjoyable when your opponents actually put up a fight."

Anger flared up inside me and I felt Duncan had come up behind me and Parker. "It's over," he said. "All the teams are finished, we should leave now." I only fought against Duncan about leaving for a moment before realising that my whole team agreed with him. I reluctantly followed them on the long walk home, fortunately the walk had taken enough time for Duncan's attempts to lighten my mood to succeed. When we finally reached our flat it was getting late, but the sun had barely set because it was summer still. Unfortunately, because we were all minors, they wouldn't allow us to be skipping school. Or, rather, the school wouldn't allow us to blow it off because of video games.

Everyone except Parker started heading to their rooms because of exhaustion. I too was tired, but I found myself worried for Parker and told the others I'd meet them in a few minutes. "Aren't you tired?" I started off. I was still collecting my thoughts and wanted to start off slow.

Parker just shrugged and said, "not really."

I tried to hide my frown, afraid he'd mistake it for disapproval of him. Next I said, "thanks for helping me. I would have died and lost the game for you guys because of a bad decision."

He looked at me, seeming to expect more to that than there was. When he finally came to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to continue without a response, he said, "I would say we're even now, but at the end you diverted the person that was about to kill me," he pointed out.

"Don't mistake my intentions. I wasn't trying to protect you, I felt as though it was my fault you were in that position and I needed to help," I explained. The last thing I needed was for him to think I just felt bad for him.

He was staring off into space again as he said, "The only reason I got to you in enough time to help was because I was too slow to keep up with the others. Really, you should thank Duncan. He was the one who noticed, I happened to be the closest to you. Besides, he was the one strong enough to break the freeze." He refused to accept that I was thanking him. "You look tired, you should get some sleep."

"I'm going to be up for a while," I told him. "If you want to talk, I'll be in my room." He nodded and I took a detour to our kitchen area. We hadn't eaten a whole lot today, so I thought it would be nice to go make some sandwiches. It wasn't anything elaborate so I put one on the table next to the sofa for Parker. He just looked at me for a moment until I was off to Amberline. After knocking on her door I was allowed access and thanked for the food.

When I entered my own room, I was greeted by Duncan, because apparently I took so long that he had been getting worried. I explained that I was making food and left out my small conversation with Parker.

"It seemed like we got a lot of orbs today," I commented while we all were talking.

Victoria just nodded and Duncan said, "I personally think they did it on purpose."

"All that matters is that we won. Maybe D3 will be intimidated," suggested Victoria in her own way. She didn't care about what went on behind the scenes, as Duncan clearly had.

"If the people in charge really have that power, I'd be worried," I said. They both thought and for a moment there was silence. I could only imagine what they were thinking about. The game, their life... all I knew was that if the people in charge could control the game like that, they ultimately controlled who won.

"From today, it seems like they're on our side," commented Duncan, breaking the silence while we ate. Showing his everlasting positive view on life.

"Until we go up against D3 again. They won too today, and you saw the color we were reassigned to," I pointed out. "They had to have done that on purpose."

"Nope, today is happy. I'm not going to think about battling D3 until tomorrow," Victoria clarified. She waved her hand around as she spoke. It was as if doing that had stressed her point.

"What's really critical here is how they could manage giving us an advantage without the people watching at home noticing," continued Duncan. It seemed like everything was a conspiracy theory with him, but still his points seemed valid sometimes.

"If what you're saying is true, they probably tell the viewers it's random," I said, finishing up my 'meal' as I started getting up to put our plates away.

"It's probably how they treat the wildcards. 'We aren't the reason they all seem to act out. They get whatever information on their own terms, and use it the way they do without our help,' just like the orbs they gave us. The game generated it on it's own," Duncan mimicked the people in charge. I shrugged taking his and Victoria's plates. As I walked to the kitchen area I thought had struck me, what information had Duncan been referring to? It couldn't have been anything that involved me because the way he had said it made it sound like they'd acted on said information already. But I couldn't help but wonder, maybe he had been keeping information from us.

My train of thought was interrupted when I saw that unfortunately Parker hadn't started eating his sandwich. I wasn't about to start acting like a mom, but part of me still worried about him. I let it slide for the moment, he hadn't seemed like he wanted to be bothered. I knew that much because he hadn't once acknowledged my presence, not even a glance in my direction. Whether that be because he hadn't wanted to talk or because he was too caught up in his own train of thought to notice, I couldn't tell.

I walked to my room again and turned off the light. It seemed like all conversation was lost after I'd left, and they were finally giving into their exhaustion. I was glad to finally lay my head down and instantly fall asleep. Little did I know how much of a mistake that had been.

Hope you enjoyed the part, who's your favorite character so far? What do you think of Duncan's little theories? Lastly, what do you think of Jasper? Let me know in the comments