Carli's POV

Julie's clinging to Hope who is managing to roll her suitcase and carry their bags. Mallory's leaning against me. She'd probably be in my arms if it weren't for Julie's suitcase that have my hands full. Alex and Christen are trudging behind us sleepy and achy. Hope stops walking beside me to adjust Julie. "JJ, give Mom a break. You're a big girl. You can walk," I say. She whimpers and buries her face deeper into her neck. Hope doesn't say a word, but I can tell she's tired.

We're finally in Rio after nine hours on a plane. The whole team's feeling the effects of sitting till you don't know how to stand. "I'm fine Carlos," Hope say calmly. I give her a disbelieving look. "Really I'm fine."

I shake my head and we started walking again. "Mama," Mallory mutters sleepily. "I'm hungry."

"I second that," Christen says.

"Third," Alex sighs smoothing her hair.

Julie shifts and glares at her. She snaps, "I wanted to be third."

I immediately intervene. I'm not going to deal with anymore bickering. I had enough of that with Julie and Christen sitting beside each other for half of the flight. "No, we are not picking a fight over this. No way," I say sternly. "We'll get food when we get to the hotel."

Hope and I exchange looks that none of the 'kids' pick up on. "So . . . " Hope starts off awkwardly as we continued walking. "I think we need to go over the rules—"

"We know the rules," Julie whines into her shoulder.

Hope opens her mouth to respond, but I cut her off. "We are in a different country and this is the first olympics as a family. It's very important that we know, understand, and obey. Understood?" I say firmly. They need to know how important the rules are. Especially in a place none of us are familiar with.

They all nod. "It can wait till the morning though. Just for now, remember to stick close," Hope says. I glare at her. It can't not wait. The hours from now till morning give a lot of room for trouble. She raises her eyebrows at me. I look at the girls and get what she means. They're tired. They won't even remember this conversation in the morning. It's not worth it. I remind them to stick close by and to obey what Hope and I say.

We make it out of the airport without any big surprises. Everybody makes it to the hotel without any complications. After we eat, the room assignments are given and everybody gets settled in. I room with Hope. Mallory and Al are put together, and so are Chris and Jay. Not long after they all fall asleep.

Alex's POV

"Alex."

The persistent hissing of Mallory Pugh is enough to make me murderous. I'm ready to take my pillow and suffocate her with it.

"We're gonna die if we miss breakfast because we're going to starve to death."

"I'm gonna kill you if you don't leave me alone," I snap back pulling the covers over my head.

She rips them off of my body and jumps on top of me. "Get! Up!" she cries out.

There's a knock at the door. Mal opens it, flying across the room. This girl had to have had sugar or something. There's no way she is running this well on pure sleep. Christen strolls in dressed for the day. We're being given a few days to adjust before we started training.

"Alex, breakfast started ten minutes ago. Get up," Christen insists unzipping my suitcase.

I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes. I yawn, "I think rest days should be filled with rest."
Christen rolls her eyes and chucks an outfit at me. "Where's JJ?"

"She left me this morning to go hang out with Moe." she says dramatically acting like she's hurt. Mallory giggles and jumps on the bed next to me. "What are you laughing at?" questions Chris putting her hands on her hips. Mal giggles even more and tries to hide behind me but Christen quickly pins her down and starts to tickle her mercilessly. Christen finally stops and scoops Mallory into her arms. She plants a kiss on her nose and Mal grins. After I get dressed, the three of us walk to the elevator. When the doors open, Julie and Moe are inside arguing about which one of them would survive longer in a zombie apocalypse.

"I'm like a ninja!" Julie says with her arms crossed. "Nobody would ever see me coming."

Moe snorts, "You have white hair, not blonde, WHITE." JJ glares at her. "Besides why are we even talking about us? As long as we have Kling we'd be okay." Christen and I look at her confused while Julie burst out laughing.

"Because she's bite sized!" chuckles JJ starting to turn red because of how hard she's laughing.

"Hey!" yells Mal suddenly jerking her body weight forward making Christen almost drop her. "She's fun sized!" she immediately corrects. "Us short people prefer fun sized."

The minute the doors open, Mallory's out Christen's arms and out the door before any of us can blink. We arrive at breakfast a few seconds after Mal. Hope and Carli are sitting at a table across the room toward the back. We walk over. Carli kisses my forehead and I blush wondering if anybody else saw. I don't get to think much of it when Hope says, "You guys need to sit here today. We have to discuss the rules."

"But Alex and I promised Tobin that we'd sit with her," Christen tells her. I nod in agreement. We had told Tobin that we would last night when we got here.

Carli shakes her head no and looks at us unfazed, "Well you're going to have to tell her you can't." We both sigh but nod knowing that arguing will probably get us nowhere. They send us off to get breakfast. Christen and I apologize to Tobin who is gracious and understanding as usual. The six of us sit around the table and start eating. They explain the usual rules; obey, don't curse, be smart about the things you do pre and post game, etc.

I drown out the conversation until something catches my attention. "—and you can't leave the hotel without asking either of us for permission. There won't be a lot of going out of the hotel unless it's for training or games," Hope says taking a bite of her eggs.

We all look at her wide eyed, well except Julie, she seems like she expected it. Mallory bewilderedly states, "I wanted to see Brazil!"

Carli gives her a warning look and says, "You all know about the Zika virus and all of the gangs. We're just taking extra precautions." Mallory pouts and pushes her spinach around with her fork. Her hyperactivity dropping several notches.

"Ridiculous precautions," I mutter to myself.

Carli eyes me sternly. "Alex, as one of the oldest, you have to look out for yourself and others. The virus is a very serious thing and the gangs are a very real threat," she scolds me. "We can't have any of you getting sick or hurt." I nod glumly and look away from her and Hope upset to try to hide my disagreement. I appreciate her looking out for me but I'm not a toddler. "Oh," she adds causing me to glance back at her. "Don't back talk me again."

"Yes ma'am." I mumble playing with my napkin that's resting in my lap. I meet Christen's eyes, then Mal's, then Julie's. I swear there's a mischievous glint in their eyes. Hope and Carli don't seem to catch the way they look at each other so I dismiss it. I must've been imagining it.

After breakfast, Mallory and I go up to our room. I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling. I'm not sure what to do. I never thought that I'd have to travel nine hours to lay on a bed and be bored. "Lexi?" I turn to look at Mallory who is making her way to my bed. She kneels on the edge with an eager grin. "Have I ever told you how amazing you are and what a great player and person you are? Oh! And how I love you a whole lotta?"

I raise my eyebrows. "While I love compliments, what is this really about?" I say cutting to the chase.

She puts her hands on my shoulders and grips them tightly. "Some of the girls wanna go sightseeing and invited us," she says with a pleading look. She squeezes her eyes tight and clasps her hands together shaking them in my face. "Please, please, please, please!"

I bite my lip. I want to go so badly, but I don't want to get Carli and Hope mad. "I don't know," I say hesitantly. I am the older one. If I say no she'd have to stay. But who is stopping her from going off on her own. I might as well go with her and make sure she doesn't get into trouble. Right? "Fine," I finally say standing up. "But we have to keep this a secret Mal." She nods eagerly and hugs me tightly.

When she detaches herself, I debate whether to text Julie and Christen. Hope and Carli couldn't know that we were gone. If they start looking for us we are screwed. I shot them a really vague text saying that if Hope and Carli are looking for us, we are with Kelley. I pocket my phone and follow Mallory out. I just have to track down Kelley and we'll be all set.

Julie's POV

"We're gonna get caught," I say glancing around nervously. "If Mom and Mama find out we're sightseeing, we're dead meat."

"Mmm, protein," she says distractedly. She was focused on the brochures in her hand. She flips one over and skims the text.

I rip it from her hands and throw it on the ground. I ignore her protests and say, "I'm being serious Pressy! They're not gonna be happy."

She rolls her eyes and picks the paper up. "No duh! But we aren't sightseeing remember? We're watching movies with Krieger." She looks up and back down at the brochure. "Wow Jules! Look at this!"

I want to enjoy the buildings and the rich culture around us, but my stomach was doing flips. We aren't supposed to be out here yet we are. I don't think Chris know just how much trouble we're going to get in when we get caught. Mom and Mama know everything so we'll never get away with this. "I'm hungry," I say stiffly. I want to get inside so we aren't in the open. I feel like a criminal.

"Alright! I know the perfect place," she says eagerly dragging me towards a restaurant. We weave through the congested streets until we knock into someone and find ourselves on the ground.

"Woah! Christen? Julie? Didn't know you guys were out here," a familiar voice says.

Tobin's hand reaches out to help me up. I take it and stand up. She helps Christen up and I notice she wasn't alone. Pinoe, Moe, Kling, and Lindsay are also standing there. The only people that caught me by surprise are— "Alex? Mallory?" Christen sputters.

The two of them look wide eyed at us. My mouth was agape as I realized the reality of the situation. I look at my phone to see the missed calls and numerous texts. My eyes start to cloud over with tears as the seriousness of this hits me. I squeeze my eyes tightly closed hoping to just be transported back to my room.

"What's wrong with her?" asks Lindsay referring to me.

I take a deep breath through my nose and slowly let it out. "We're dead."

-

"Wait. Explain that again," Christen insists with her fingers massaging her temples.

"Carli came to my room asking if I knew where you guys were," Kelley says starting over. "I said that Mal and Alex were watching a sad movie in my room. Then they asked to come in so I said that they were crying. But then they got worried so I said that Mal had cried so much that she felt dehydrated."

"Right. Because that was the right thing to say," Morgan says sarcastically. I glare at her. "What?" asks Moe putting her hands up. Tobin elbows her and shoots her a look.

"Hush." instructs Tobin. "Be quiet and listen."

Kelley continues, "I panicked. So then I said that you went to Becky because she was next door and I didn't have water. I texted her and she said that she was able to stall Carli and then hand her off to Dunn and all day it went like that. I'm starting to think she suspects something."

Ali pipes in, "Same here. I sent Hope on a wild goose chase. Neither of them are happy. You guys better get here quick."

"We're outside the hotel. What should we do?" I ask. The phone is in between Rapinoe, who's driving, and Christen. It's on speaker. Alex is nervous. I can tell because she's biting her lip and tightening her ponytail every five seconds. Mallory has been awfully quiet and Christen won't meet any of our eyes. We all know that we have gotten ourselves in some deep trouble. 

"Well they're on their way to your rooms. You need to get in there." I cringe as I look at the hotel. "JJ I want to talk to you later please." My stomach twist again at that. I'm even in trouble with Aunt Ali!

Alex nudges me forward out of the car. "Come on, we gotta go," she urges. We sprint through the double doors and find the stairwell.

We run to the sixth floor. We're breathing heavily as Christen goes to open the door. I spot movement through the window and pull her back. We crouch down and watch Mom and Mama pass by. "They're going to our rooms," Mallory hisses trying her hardest to see over Chris's head. Alex grabs her shirt and pulls her down.

Jumpy looks bounce around as we try to think. Suddenly Christen grabs me and shoves me out the door. I stumble and land on the floor. "Julie? Where have you been?" Mom immediately says rushing to me and bending down.

I blink. "I uh-" I glance nervously at the door. "I've been-uh-looking for you."

"Looking for me?" She says disbelievingly. She looks around me as if to find the others before starting to examine me so any injuries.

I look down being unable to meet her eyes. "Mhmm. All over." My voice breaks and I'm on the verge of tears. I slowly pull my eyes from the floor and see Mama standing behind her.

Mama locks eyes with me and gives me a stern look. "Julie Beth. Where have you really been?" I don't know how to respond. My mouth opens but nothing comes out. Suddenly she says, "Don't move!" She points behind me. Mal, Christen, and Alex freeze cringing.

Mom looks frustrated as she says, "Everyone. Room. Now."

I slowly get up. Mama grips my bicep and grabs Christen's. "Ow Mama," I whine trying to wriggle out of her grip. She shoots me a cold glare making me shut up. She takes us to her room and sits us on her bed. Mom sits Mallory and Alex next to us. They both stand in front of us with their arms crossed and hard, stern, angry looks on their faces.

"Where have the four of you been? And don't say here because we all know that's not true," Mom questions firmly. I stare at the floor admiring the patterned rug. They both look so angry and upset that I couldn't help the tears that were coming to my eyes. "One of you better speak up or—"

"Out!" I blurt not being able to take the guilt anymore. I hiccup softly. "We were out."

I feel the others glare at me. Alex turns and says, "We were seeing the rest of Belo. Is that such a crime?" I wish the bed would just swallow me whole. I wish it would swallow Alex too.

"Alexandra, you bluntly disobeyed us," Mama says. "All of you completely disregarded the rules we set forth." Alex hangs her head. I chew on my lip nervously. Christen's lips are pursed into a line as she looks straight ahead. Mal has her knees tucked in and a guilty expression on her face. "Julie Johnston I am especially disappointed with you." Her words sting and the tears I was trying so hard to hold back start to fall down my cheeks and splash onto my shorts.

"We thought you of all people would know better than this." adds Mom shaking her head. "We just got onto you for this last camp JJ!" she shouts. She takes a deep breath and starts to pace back and forth to calm herself down. "Coach had a few things on the virus and other dangerous things we need to look out for printed off to give to everyone at the team meeting tonight, but you know the strangest thing happened. The machine broke after only ten of them were printed."

Mama picks up a file off the little table in the corner. "She wanted us to go find a copier to get twelve more made, but we have a little more eco friendly way of doing things around here." She smirks and hands each of us one paper. "Since you four obviously didn't believe us when we told you that it was dangerous maybe these documents will shed some light on the topic."

"You each will copy that page, front and back, three times before you will be allowed to leave this room. If that means you have to miss dinner then you will go to bed hungry tonight. Are there any questions?" asks Mom. We all stay silent and stare at her. "Good." she smiles. She turns around and pulls a stack of notebooks from her backpack. She hands me my all too familiar one before passing the others their new ones. "Al go sit on that wall," she says pointing to the far one under the window, "Christen by the door," she nods over in the direction, "Mallory right here," she motions to where she is standing, "and Julie you sit in between the beds." I shuffle to my spot and rest my back against Mama's bed waiting for someone to give me a pen. Mom drops one on my lap before handing Mal one.

"I better not hear a sound." warns Mama.

By the time I finish, my hand feels ready to fall off. I had actually tried writing with my other hand but found that it was too sloppy to be acceptable. Christen had finished and is downstairs with the rest of the team. Alex exclaims from her seat against the wall, "Finally!" She drops her notebook and pen, flexing her fingers with a groan.

Mal pouts from her spot, "I still have another paragraph."

"Keep writing Mal. You're almost done," I say closing my notebook.

She finishes up and we head downstairs for dinner. It was pretty much empty except for a few people. The team never stayed for the whole period anyway. Christen was halfway through her meal when we sat down with our food.

"We better not have a repeat of today," Mama says sternly.

We all nod vigorously and chorus, "Yes ma'am."

We eat in silence. Dinner was never quiet. "Can we watch a movie tonight?" I ask breaking the silence.

Mom nods, "Sure. Mama and I will check your books and then we can watch a movie."

We finish eating. "First one picks," Alex says as she starts running to the stairs.

Mal takes off after her, complaining about her head start. The rest of us follow in suit. Mama scolds us for running in the lobby so we speed walk till we reach the stairwell. After that we race full speed to their room.

A/N
Friends! Guess what! I used a buddy when I wrote this! All I had to do was give her a prompt and a few guidelines and she killed it! Bucket_Writer is probably one of the best co writers I've ever worked with on a chapter. Literally the only editing I did was change a few verbs and add a few little conversations here and there and some other little nit picky things because believe it or not I am extremely picky! 

Did ya'll notice I didn't write most of this?

Tell me your thoughts as always! Love you!