𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑰𝑺 𝑨 𝑾𝑰𝑺𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑴𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟏𝟑

"Is it...healthy for you to be this light at sixteen?" A cheerleader named Maya asked as she and her friend, Stefanie bounced Delphina lightly in their arms. They were preparing to toss her in the air as part of a routine, but they both halted when they felt Delphina's severe lack of weight.

"Probably not." Delphina shrugged casually, staring up at the sky. "Edible food was scarce on the Isle a lot and I gave the majority of what I found to my siblings." She stopped watching the clouds pass and focused her attention back on the cheerleaders, who were giving her deeply concerned stares. Delphina rolled her eyes at them, looking back up at the sky. "OK, I'm relatively skinny, not dead. Calm down and just throw me already."

The girls shrugged, readjusting Delphina in their arms before tossing her in the air with a perky chant, catching her only moments later.

"Try to smile, Fina!" Audrey called out as she monitored the practice.

"Smiling implies I'm enjoying this." Delphina muttered as she was placed on the ground.

"I heard that!"

"Good!"

Audrey rolled her eyes at the snarky reply, giving Delphina an unamused look while the latter made her way over to Audrey.

"It's basically been an hour and a half. Can I go now?" Delphina deadpanned. Audrey gave her an unimpressed look.

"We still have fifteen minutes."

"That's fourteen minutes too many."

Audrey let out a very un-ladylike snort, folding her arms across her chest. "If it makes you feel better, you're doing great for someone who hates cheerleading." She teased. Delphina paused, giving Audrey the driest possible look. Audrey bit back a loud laugh at the look. "That makes you feel worse, doesn't it?"

Audrey only received a series of blinks in return.

The princess dissolved into laughter while Delphina rolled her eyes. Shouts of surprise from the tourney field gained the duo's attention, both of them turning to see a helmet-clad player barreling down the field, stick in hand, knocking down anyway in his way.

Delphina and Audrey both paused, slowly fixating on the field to try and get a closer look at the player. For a split second, Delphina caught sight of long, thick, black hair underneath the helmet whipping in the wind and her jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Oh my god." She breathed, laughing in amazed disbelief. Audrey gave her a confused look and Delphina shook her head. "That's Jay." She scoffed, watching him swerve and shoulder-check every player on the field.

Audrey's eyes widened, her head snapping back to the field just in time to catch Jay basically tossing Chad over his shoulder and onto the ground. She blinked, frowning at the violent display. "What the hell is he doing? That's not how tourney works. It's supposed to be a team sport."

Delphina snorted humorlessly at Audrey's statement. Jay lived by the philosophy his father had taught him: 'there's no team in I'. Tourney didn't exactly seem like the best fit for something like that. The girls winced, watching as Jay proceeded to use Carlos, who had panicked and dropped to the ground, curling into a ball, as a booster step to leap into the air and successfully launch the tourney puck into the goal.

"Well, that's quite the literal take on 'friends boost each other up'." Delphina mused, folding her arms across her chest as Jay broke into a victory dance in front of the goal, whooping and flipping around. Audrey rolled her eyes, clearly irritated at how one person managed to brutalize Chad, Ben, and a majority of her other friends.

Delphina examined her aggravated look and sighed softly. "He's only doing what he was taught to do, Audrey. What we were all taught to do." She explained gently, nudging her friend's shoulder with her own. Jay may not have been her best friend, but she could spot the classic Isle teachings in his moves from a mile away.