e l e v e n ;

Raven stopped walking Scarlet around for the remainder of the ten weeks that Roseanne was gone. Roseanne returned to the group with about three months before their mission taking off into space. Upon her return, Roseanne started spending equal amounts of her time in class with everyone else in the crew. The instructors thought that with such little time leading up to the mission, she should assess their strengths in order to assign them tasks on board the ship. 

She had been with Indy, spending a little bit extra time with him when he was having trouble in a simulation mission with a med bay scan. When the simulation was over and they finished their tasks all before the allotted time, Indy went right up to her and pulled her in for a hug, lifting her high off the ground because he was so much taller than her. He was even a bit taller than the other boys in the crew which were all older than him. Roseanne giggled as he said to her, words full of joy. "We finished that simulation mission in record time, all thanks to you cap." He had taken to calling her cap recently, since she had taken those extra leadership classes and it probably meant she was one step closer to becoming the leader of their mission.

"Everyone did a great job." She said to him.

As he put her back down on her feet, they started talking about other things. There was an ages old sport that they both liked to watch on the weekends. The league incorporated one team from each province and at the end of each season, the top six made it into the playoffs. Since Roseanne was from Province of Flowers, she supported The Flowers. Indy was from Province of Ocean, so he supported the team from his home province. That specific weekend, their teams had gone up against each other, and despite the pink team coming from an impoverished province, they had undefeated streak on their home field against the blue team. The blues hadn't defeated the pinks in Province of Flowers in thirty five years. That weekend had been no different and Roseanne had bet Indy that if her team won, she had bragging rights to use against him. 

That sport was just about the only thing she and Raven didn't have in common. He liked a different sport that she didn't seem to be able to get into. But she had Indy to talk about the weekends games.

"One more year undefeated at home." Roseanne gloated with a grin, rubbing the loss in her friend's face. But it was in a friendly way. She wasn't one to over do things like their other crew mate Scarlet. 

Sometimes on the weekends, the group went on hiking expeditions in the mountains nearby. The garden had all kinds of terrain, and on the property there was a hiking trail as well as a beach. They only got to go there on their free days which were the weekend. Most of them were so tired of training all week though, that they preferred to stay at home resting. On their latest hiking excursion, Scarlet had been rude to everyone. She had called Mauve fat, Indy uneducated, Raven a friendless loner, Roseanne a terrible leader, and Honey just a dumb little kid. Seville had been exempt from her harsh words, and Ciel hadn't even gone hiking with them. He stayed back at the dorms to sleep. He told them it was beside the point to have two days to rest, and they were using it to go out and do more physical activity. 

Raven actually felt like he agreed with that, but Roseanne had convinced him to come along. Now he was sure they should have stayed home. They had gone out just so that Scarlet could judge every single one of them without mercy. She then laughed about it when everyone remained quiet and rolled her eyes at the fact that none of them could take a joke.

But Indy gave a small shake of his head at Roseanne's words about her team being undefeated for another year. "We'll get you guys next time."

They had been in the middle of discussing the events of the game when Roseanne heard someone calling her name from the other side of the simulation room. It was Raven, but she was so engrossed in her conversation with Indy that she ignored him at first. When she didn't turn or didn't say anything to him, he tried again a few more times. That was until Indy tapped her on the shoulder. 

Gesturing to the boy on the other side of the room, trying to get her attention, he said. "I think Raven wants to tell you something."

But Roseanne sighed. "Yeah. But you and I were talking."

She thought she could finish their conversation first, and then she would go see what Raven needed. She figured that if it was urgent, he would walk over and tell her what he needed. But she also thought it would be rude to walk away from indy, mid conversation. 

They continued talking and for a moment Raven didn't say anything. Then his voice got louder as he continued calling for her. She ignored him for about a full minute until she grew a bit frustrated and she turned around, hands on her hips. Her eyebrows were knit into a frustrated look as she excused herself from Indy, he nodded and she walked over to Raven. If he was so desperate to get her attention now, she figured it was something important. "Yes Raven. What do you need? Can I help you?"

He could see the way he gulped nervously and wracked his mind for something, anything to say. As he looked her up and down in her pink space suit, he pointed at something on her belt. "That clip on your belt buckle is broken. You need a new one."

Roseanne raised an eyebrow at him in confusion. In her mind, she thought to herself, That's it? He interrupted my conversation and called me all the way over here for a clip? But then it dawned on her that maybe it wasn't about the clip at all. Maybe it was the fact that she was giving Indy some extra attention when she usually spent all of her time with him. Roseanne wanted to smile at how precious she thought he was. That he was jealous seeing her talking to someone else. So she thought, for his sake, she would play along with his little lie about her belt clip. 

She looked down at her belt buckle. It was silver colored and with the insignia of a flower on it, as though the color of her hair and eyes wasn't enough indication that she was from Province of Flowers. Or as though the pink space suit wasn't also a dead giveaway. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, yet she still undid her belt and pulled the buckle off. She then boldly reached for him, grabbing his own belt and undoing it. His face went a deep beet red as she pulled the belt from around his waist. She removed the silver buckle with a coal piece insignia on it and switched it with hers. Her pink belt now had a coal insignia while his black belt had a flower one. Their instructors would surely have something to say about it, but she didn't care because she knew they wouldn't even notice unless someone were to tell them.

Putting her belt back on, she looked up at him with a grin, placing his own belt back in his hands. "I have a new buckle now. Problem solved, thank you, Raven."

"H-hey! You c-can't just do that!" He stammered nervously, still red in the fact that she had touched him. He wasn't even mad or offended that she did it. He was merely trying to remain calm and play along with her too. But she knew that at the end of the day, she would let her keep his belt buckle.

"If you want it back, take it from me then." She challenged, and then turned to walk away with a little spring in her step.

As she left him to grab her helmet which she had left on a table nearby when she was talking to Indy, she heard him muttering to himself as though in a scolding manner. "What the fuck? Why was I so desperate to get her attention just now?" Indy was long gone. When he saw their little interaction, he thought he would just let them be. Instead he went to catch up with Ciel for their next assignment which was intelligence training. 

At Raven's shy words to himself, Roseanne couldn't help but smile.

As time continued to pass, they were a month away from their mission in space. When they went in for their first intelligence class of that month, there were pictures with ranks on the holo board. 

Rank 1 - Black, 99.9999999999999999%. Everyone looked at Raven as they saw his name and ID photo on the board. He was defined as rank one, even above Roseanne when they were normally at the exact same rank. Right underneath was Rank 2 - Pink, 99.9999999999999998%. Just one number off from the same score. Rank three was Scarlet with ninety eight percent, rank four was Mauve with ninety six percent, rank five was Ciel with ninety five, rank six was Indy with ninety three, rank seven was Seville with ninety one, and rank eight was Honey with ninety percent. But the instructors expected Honey and Indy to be in the lower ranks, since they were a few years younger than the other members.

Their main instructor, Instructor Violet, walked into the class room and stood at the white podium near the holo board. "These are everyone's results after your final examinations from last week. We still have a month to go, but our general admin has asked me to designate the position of captain, as well as the two co captains for the mission today." 

Just by looking at the board, everyone already knew, or at least had some kind of idea as to who was getting picked. 

The others started muttering among themselves, but Roseanne was frozen in her seat. She had trained so hard and taken all the extra classes to put her at the top, and still he was better than her. She wasn't mad at him for it, she just felt as though she were a failure.

"For the remainder of the month, we will only be doing simulation missions, for three hours a day. There will be no more intelligence training. You have all learned and mastered everything you needed to know." When she said that, there was a communal sigh of relief in the room. The boys in the back even cheered with excitement. "There will still be physical training offered, but it will not be mandatory. I suggest that you attend though, as it will keep you in shape for the upcoming eight years you will spend in space."

Scarlet nodded in agreement at that. Roseanne already knew right off the bat that Scarlet was going to the physical training. She wasn't too excited about their intelligence classes, but every single day she was excited for the physical training classes and she always pushed herself to extremes. 

"Now," Instructor Violet sucked in a breath in preparation. "Its time to announce the captain and co captains of the upcoming mission. You have all done a great job. But there are others who have greatly exceeded our expectations." As she said the last part, she looked right at Raven who didn't want to meet her eyes out of embarrassment. "Captain of the expedition is...Black! Congratulations son, we're all so proud of you. Since you did not attend the ten week leadership seminar like Pink, administration thought you could cram it in ten days. So you will be reporting to me every day for the next ten days for your assignments."

Roseanne felt as though her world crumbled around her. She could feel the burn of the other crew members as they watched her for a reaction. But she felt like Raven deserved it too. 

It was his words that pulled her out of her bubble of self-pity.

"I don't want to be captain though. I respectfully decline the title." He told her with a firm shake of his head.

Instructor Violet gasped in surprise. She immediately tried to convince him to change his mind. "This is a great honor. When you return from the mission, granted that it turns out a success, you'll get some extra money to take home to your family. Isn't that worth it?"

He shook his head again, and looked towards Roseanne as he answered the instructor's question. "Not if I'm taking the spot from someone who had been specifically training for it."

Roseanne offered him a smile. There was hurt within it, but it was still a genuine smile. She was happy for him and she thought that if anyone else deserved to be captain, it was definitely him. "I think you should do it, Raven."

Their instructor nodded in agreement. "Besides, Pink and Red will be your co-captains. So she'll still be in a leadership role. You have until tomorrow morning to think about it."

-

so now the bit that happened in real life was the one about raven getting jealous. so there was a boy at work who was really into soccer like me. its not indy's character irl, i just made it indy so it could fit with the story. and we would talk about soccer on mondays since the league games happened on the weekends. one day i was on one side of the restaurant talking with him when we had no customers.

and i hear raven calling me from the other side of the room. but i ignored him bc i thought if it was urgent he would come over and tell me. plus the conv was getting good with my friend. until he kept calling and calling. and i was like "YES RAVEN CAN I HELP YOU?" and i stomp over to him. and so he gets all shy and he literally grabs the first container in his sauce cart that he sees and says, "my splenda container is more full than yours."

and so i go -.- but i decide to play along. so i take it from him and he says "hey thats mine!" and i grin at him. i tell him "tough. drive thru needs it more. dt is more important." be our restaurant is super busy so that's our store motto. dt is ALWAYS first. and i go get my splenda container and hand it to him, it was like halfway empty. so i walk back and continue my conv with my friend. and i hear raven muttering to himself "why was i so desperate to get her attention though?" he's a dork tbh. <3

-clary