57

I'm currently sitting in Spanish class and I'm bored out of my mind. On Sunday, on my birthday, nothing important happened, it was just such a boring celebration that is more important for business. There was nothing interesting yesterday either, except that Santiago and Liliana weren't in class. But I don't know why. But I think that they simply didn't manage to drive here anymore or there were problems in the mafia. But I didn't ask Liliana today. But right now I just want to get out of class because it's just boring repetition.

My prayers were answered when the school bell finally rang. I quickly walked out of the classroom with Lucia, Rafael and Liliana. As I was walking out, I picked up my cell phone and saw a message from our teacher Mr. Pérez saying that we were going to the paintball hall again today. We go there often, simply because we shoot with, so to speak, real weapons, except that they come out with color cartridges instead of real bullet cartridges. But in this way you learn how we behave in an emergency, when a shooting occurs and if we get hit badly, we might even die as a result.

At our usual spot outside in the playground, we already saw the others. We greeted each other and started talking about irrelevant stuff. "Have you already read that we have to go to the paintball hall again later for shooting lessons?" I asked the others. "Sí, hopefully you hold back today so that we have a chance," said Candelaria, amused. "Of course, always for you," I said with amusement, since she knows that I never do that because I always want to improve more than I want to get worse.

When the break was almost over, we walked towards the paintball hall. When we got there, we saw Mr. Pérez, who had just unlocked the door. Once we were inside he started talking. "Today it's the same as always, except that the partners are chosen at random because you also have to work with people with whom you may not get along so well. That's why we're doing it this way today and we're not exchanging any pieces of paper with each other. I'm checking on that. I'm putting a bowl down with the names of the younger grades in it. The older level then always draws one person from the younger level. And what's more, today we're making it so that if just one partner from a team of two is hit, the whole team is out. That's why you would have to rely completely on your partner today. The team that lasts the longest with both partners wins. And every team has different color cartridges today, so you can see which team has shot down the most others and is the strongest." Oh no, why draw, it's much better to decide for yourself because you know who you can trust. What if you have one? If we get a partner that we don't trust at all, the whole thing can't work out at all. But since I can't do anything about it anyway, I'll just let it go.

Federico drew Rafael's name, Emilio drew Xavier's name, he is a friend of Santiago. Juan drew Lucia's name, Candelaria drew Liliana's name and Felipe is on a team with Miguel, who is from his class and also a friend of Santiago, since my class has one less student than the older ones. Now only Santiago, a few classmates from my class and his, and I are standing there. Hopefully I'll be on a team with one of his classmates, as his arrogance is unsustainable. Santiago is just running forward to draw a piece of paper. He takes one out and opens it. Suddenly he began to grin. Oh Dios, please he didn't draw my name. My hope disappeared when he turned his face towards me and shouted loudly so that everyone could hear, "Cecilia." Mierda no, him of all people. Hopefully it won't be weird because of the weekend. I looked in that direction of my friends, my eyes almost popped out because Lucia, Candelaria and Liliana were grinning mischievously. Of course they were pleased, they weren't in my shoes either. I slowly walked towards Santiago and stood next to him. "Well, unfortunately "We're on a team, so let's just make the best of it," I said to him. "Si make an effort, I don't want to lose because of you," he said, whereupon I looked at him in disbelief. "Lose because of me, I think you have to make an effort, who won last time?" I said to him . "But only because I let you win," he replied again. Yes, that's true, but I still don't have to put up with something like that. Annoyed, I turned away from him, which he did the same.

When we had moved, we all ran into the hall and looked for a suitable place. Santiago and I walked towards the square where I last met him, in this half cardboard house. I know that this isn't quite certain, but since we have to change places often anyway and today it's more about the hit rate, this place is pretty good. "Does this place bring back memories for you too?" he asked with a grin. Seriously, this guy has mood swings that are worse than those of a pregnant woman. "Sí, but only negative ones, the only positive thing about it was that I won here " I said back, grinning. "You know why, but we don't have to argue about it again," he replied again. "I completely agree with you about the argument. But I have a question for you. Why weren't you there yesterday? "There?" I said to him again. "Did you miss me?" he asked me again, grinning. "No, but I'm just curious, since you were there on Sunday," I said to him again. "There was a small problem in the mafia, my father needed me and since I didn't want to let Liliana go alone, she had to stay at home," he answered my question. "Oh, okay, but it has nothing to do with that Mission to do right?" I asked him in a quiet whisper. "No, otherwise you would have already found out," he answered my question again. Since I don't care about the rest, the conversation ended and there was silence between us again.

The silence was broken by the sound of a shot near us, hitting the wall of the house. Someone probably didn't hit it right. Since we should slowly start shooting, I carefully looked through the window and Santiago behind the wall. It's strange that he understands what you want from him so quickly, since we don't really understand each other that much, but maybe we can manage to understand each other at least in class and on mafia matters. Since I recognized Miguel, I pointed my gun at him and fired. Hit sunk, the pink paint landed on him. So Felipe's team is out. At exactly the same moment, Santiago graduated from one of our classmates. Since there were a lot of shots here and you most likely heard them, we have to look for a new hiding place as many people are probably coming here now. Santiago led the way and I followed him. Since we saw a large rock a few meters ahead, we quickly hid behind it. From here we have a good view of the pitch. I saw Liliana and Candelaria running in our direction. I quickly pointed my gun at Liliana and fired, while Santiago shot Candelaria at the same time. When they were shot down, be outraged at us. "You have to pay more attention to your cover," I called out to them quietly. "You're good, I'll give you that," came Santiago, whereupon I looked at him in surprise, since you rarely get a compliment from him. "Gracias, I can only say that in return," it came from me, which took a little effort for me because I'm not the kind of person who gives out a lot of compliments to people other than family and friends.

_ _ _

A few minutes and several more hits have passed. Now you know through the loudspeakers that there are only three teams left. Namely Federico and Rafael, Lucia and Juan and Santiago and me. Emilio was hit by Federico earlier. As far as we can tell, Lucia and Juan didn't hit many shots, but at least they're still there. With Federico and Rafael it could be more difficult to win against them, as I think they have about the same score as Santiago and me. Right now we are running towards a tree while covering each other. When we arrived just before the tree, we saw a shot coming towards us. Santiago quickly pushed us against the tree to avoid the shot. We quickly looked in the direction where the shot came from, but there was no one there. So it must have been shot from several meters away and just flew through.

Since we were still standing so close to each other, with my back pressed against the tree and Santiago's stomach pressed against my stomach, I wanted to quickly push away, but Santiago wouldn't let me. I looked at him questioningly, but he didn't give me an answer, he just leaned his face towards me and breathed, "That was close." His breath hit my face, which caused goosebumps to appear on my body. How come? "Does he always do that to me? I could only nod in agreement as his unique smell completely overwhelmed me. He smelled of mint and detergent with a hint of lemon. He came closer and closer to my face until we were only a few centimeters apart. Will he kisses me, do I want that? Stop Cecilia, no you don't want that, it's Santiago, the arrogant, conceited, good-looking guy. Okay, that's not how it works. When he got even closer to me, I opened my eyes in shock, because almost no sheet fits between us anymore. His eyes looked deep into mine and closed with each other. I just couldn't look away anymore, as if we were trapped in our own bubble. But this bubble was burst faster than I thought, suddenly A shot rang out behind the tree where we were standing.

We quickly turned around and saw Lucia shooting straight in our direction. As quickly as I could I pointed my gun at her and fired as she fired too. I quickly duck and avoid the bullet. Lucia's reaction wasn't quite as quick, which is why I fired a lot at her. At the same time, Santiago shot at Juan, so their team was eliminated. So it was just Federico with Rafael and us left in there.

We continued running again and saw the others coming in the direction we had just come from. We positioned ourselves behind a bush and aimed our weapons between the trees from which they were about to run out. Just as they recognized you, I pulled the trigger and the cartridge landed directly on Rafael and Santiago on Federico. The two of them looked in our direction in shock because they didn't see it coming. Santiago and I slapped our hands together because we won at least part of the two parts. We don't yet know who has the highest hit rate. The situation has just been a little strange between us. But I don't want to worry about that right now.

We ran with the other two towards the whole group. Everyone congratulates us before Mr. Pérez started speaking. "So first of all, congratulations to you both, you would be the only survivors or at least the only ones who weren't hit. You did well, but so did the rest of you, because it was close and you mastered it brilliantly and are getting better and better. The two teams that scored the most were the two teams since it was a draw. The teams that mastered this best are Federico with Rafael and Santiago with Cecilia. Congratulations to you four too. You have to remember that a shootout is not just about survival for you or your partners, but also about eliminating as many of your enemies and opponents as possible, so you have a higher chance of surviving and winning the fight. "What he said about shooting and fighting, I can only agree with him because that is very important.

Since school was over, we went to change and enjoy the rest of the day while we still can.