Day 7 in August 17, 2017
Time: Unknown

They were on a roll. They'd just finished the first day of examination. It was a success and worthy of celebration. They should be happy atleast, but the very person Sammy thought who would have the laughs and giggles first weren't saying anything.

Laine.

Everything about her was gray. Her smile was on her face but it was not there entirely. It didn't reach her eyes, she was the kind of person who starts conversation or the one that atleast get it going, she was never just a side commentor like she was now. It was like she's falling behind them, methaporically and now, literally as they walked the hallways with her trailing them, carrying herself in a bundle with her arms around her.

Why?

She was the kind of girl to boast about this or maybe make comments or throw some slur of remarks how they made it through the day with passing colors. She didn't know why she's acting like this, but when they started tallying their answers, she soon found out why.

Sammy was in the clinic with them, a phone in her hand, her eyes scanning at the barely visible picture of every test paper she shot at the very nick of time before it disappeared. They made it to History, Science and English with no problems but when it came to Math, things started to get complicated.

Halfway through the questionaires, Fei completely stopped answering, she said she didn't know what comes next. Sammy's frowned at that. How couldn't she know what comes next? It was her paper. But then, Laine raised a hand and she confessed that at that time-- half way through the test, Fei's paper was in her hand. They all gasped in shock but Fei remained silent, head bowed. Laine kept it going on her own, tallying two answers at the same time and there was a moment when one of her tallies stopped moving forward and Sammy looked at her. She refused to explain anything and just asked for their checking to continue with dreadful eyes and so, Sammy did.

It ended, all four of their answers for Math was lined up on the board, but one was lacking as if a snake had been cut before it could get to it's ends. There's one that didn't get to reach the end and it worried her, but she didn't let it show. She still had to check it. Her eyes went back and forth to the questions on the screen and marked the right answers, comparing it to her own. She knew the right answers like the back of her hand. She aced in Math and surely, the others did great too. She finished it and wait-- that couldn't be right.

Her frown deepened.

The short one got a failing grade. It was one score short. But no-- She shook her head. She checked it again but still got the same outcome. She checked and checked, she wrote the formulas, the exact convoluted formulas to every specific questions on the board just to solve it right in front of her eyes until the chalk in her hand started to heat up with all the rubbing she made. She tried and tried until it even got shorter until the chalk that was once as long as her finger was nothing but a mere smudge of dust.

She stepped back from the board, it was filled to the frame with solutions but one thing was wrong. It was red in her eyes even though it was written in dusty white. A failed grade. Just one shy away from passing. She shook her head and turned towards them.

"I-" Her voice shook and she hesitated. All eyes were on her. They were worried, scared, and asking her to tell them something good. But she couldn't. The numbers don't lie. But she still needed to try--

"I..." She gulped down a lump in her throat. "I'm going to fix this," she said, she tried to sound steady and reliable but it eneded up weak and unsure and she knew somethimg in them broke even more.

"I'm going to fix this!" she said again, not knowing who she was trying to convince. Maybe it was the air, maybe it was the others. But it was not going through them and she was left to but assume that she did it for herself.

"Don't even try." Laine started sobbing and she stared at her with large tears in her eyes, her lips creased by the sides as she fought back another cry. "I already saw you-- tried. But it didn't work for me." Her voice became small, so broken and her body trembled so as her head as she turned it around the room, trying to get a glimpse of everyone. "I think... I think I'm gonna die." It's a word of finality coming out of her mouth and she seemed to have accepted it. They had to change her mind about it. But they couldn't. It froze them. The thought of giving her a false hope rooted them where they're standing. They can't throw out unsupported words and unsure promises. And so, they stayed there, quiet. She looked like she's waiting for someone to say something, but no one spoke a word and Sammy knew it budded a thought inside of her. That maybe they didn't really care.

She sobbed once more and she ran out of the room, the echoes of her footsteps disapearing as it goes deeper into the hallways. Sammy watched her leave, she opened her mouth but then closed it again.

They cared. But how was the real question here. If they cared, then, that means they wanted her to live. But for her to live they're gonna have to fight. But will Sammy be willing to sacrifice everyone in her group just to save one? Sammy didn't want to choose who gets to live, but in this kind of situation, a leader had to prioritize the majority. She had to. She's gonna have to choose the lives of the many over Laine--

"Please help me save her!" Fei bowed all of a sudden, head almost reaching the floor and they all stared at her.

"It was s-supposed to be me. That perfect test score you see on the board was hers, and that failing was mine. She gave me her paper just so it wouldn't happen. I'm sorry, I couldn't answer it even with all t-the hardwork you've all poured into this. I stopped in the middle but she tried to fix it. She really tried but when she ran out of time she still made me write my own name on that paper and I did." Doplets of tears dotted the tiled foor but she still didn't let her head up, still holding on to the bow and begging. "I was so scared at that time so I just did it. I didn't think it through and now, she's in danger and I have to save her and I'm asking all of you to help me. She saved me, so I want to save her back. Please," Fei's voice shook but Sammy knew there were words that she still didn't let out. It was hinting it, the words: "I'm willing to do it even if I'm alone" and Sammy was in for a bargain.

If they didn't help save Laine, Fei would likely do it alone and they would end up with less than two members and she was sure Mark wouldn't let his friend run towards danger alone so it may become three. James-- trust her, she truly knows him-- with his competitive, fighter attitude would feel insulted for being the only man left not to fight the war and she knew that she would step in nonetheless with all her guilt and reasoning nagging at her. So, It was all the same. It would still end up with all of them throwing themselves into death. The appropriate choices here were, a) to be reckless individually or, b) to be reckless as a group. The latter even though it sounded bad, was still better than the former.

She hated how they only started thinking of saving Laine after they knew what she did. A real hunam being would save their peers regardless of what they'd done. But this was them now.

Laine saved Fei-- it was the only vouch she had to be saved back.

Laine saved Fei and they had to return the favor.

Sammy released a breath and raised Fei's head to stare right into her eyes.

"I understand. Let's save Laine because I know you would do it by yourself even if we didn't," she said and Fei's eyes widened at that. It glistened behind the tears, an admiration and a recognition that she had been found out.

Fei left after that and ran through the hallways, the words thank you echoing as she rushed pass their leader.

Fei ran and ran, her eyes brimming with tears but only few just managed to fall. She had to tell Laine what they had talked about. It may not be that much of a good news because they still had to fight for her to live, but it was good nonetheless. It would bring hope to her shadowed eyes and they would move as a team.

"Laine!" she called when she saw a familiar figure hunched by the windows. Her hands were her on her face and Fei could see slither of tear tracks escape her hold.

She perked up when she heard her  name and she let go of her face, her eyes puffy and almost red. She didn't talk but her expression asked a lot of question. It may be wondering why she was there or just simply calling her name in confusion. Either way, Fei drifted into a stop and she took a lot of air in before she screamed the words: "you're not gonna die!" right at Laine's face. The dark clouds that's surrounding Laine's expression parted upon hearing those words and there was a spark of hope, the unbelieving gleam was in her eyes but Fei knew she hold onto the words the first time she said it.

"Huh?" Was the only squeak she could get out of her lips.

"You're n-not gonna die. We're going to protect you!" Fei straightened herself up and she raised an arm between her and Laine, the yellow daylight of the world made it seem like her hand was shimmering. "I'm going to protect you." She reached towards Laine. "So you don't have to cry now." She smiled at her, the best thing she could get out of her dull face, but what she did and what she said had the opposite effect. It made Laine cry even more and she lunged herself at Fei, circling her arms around her neck and she hugged her tight. She sobbed near her ears as her head perched itself up her much lower shoulders.

Fei tried tapping her hand behind Laine's back but the gesture she was receiving overwhelmed her. She had experienced a lot of hug before, some were brutal, others were playful and most were friendly but never in her life had she been hugged with so much desperation. Like she was a life line, like the very touch was talking to her, telling  her "don't go, don't leave me alone. I don't want to be alone" it was like someone was counting on her. And someone was counting on her and that thought was the very last straw and she cried too. Fei was wrecked with sobs before her hand could even land on Laine's back for the second time and she threw the idea entirely and went in for a full embrace, hugging Laine's back tightly with her arms, snaking around her, her grasp desperate as if the Laine that she now knew would disappear.

"I'm sorry," Fei cried. "I'm so-sorry that I put you through this." She burried her head by the crook of Laine's neck and she rubbed her checks onto her, refusing to let go. "I'm so-sorry that I doubted you. I'm sorry! I don't want you to die. I won't let you die!" Sobs had echoed the place, a promise had left Fei's lips and the words: "I'm willing to lay my own life" was left unsaid.