Just Another Messy Ending

“So, is this your first day?” The first person to speak to me since the previous night was a boy with a British accent and brown hair that fell in rings around his face. I was seated on a wooden bench near the training grounds; my black worn converse kicking up little clouds of dust by my feet as I shuffled them nervously.

“Yeah” I replied, my voice quiet but strong. From what Weapon had told me yesterday, I was nervous about today, but I couldn’t let that show, now could I?

When we’d arrived in the bunk room, there were only two other people there out of the total of nine – including Weapon and I – which lived in the room. One of these two men was asleep in his bunk though, so all I had was a name for him and the other was running around in a rush, so I only got in a quick hello with him before he left. This meant I had five more code names to learn and six people to formally meet. Weapon would be joining us in a bit, but he had told me he had to speak with some people from another team this morning first; so, I was left to fend for myself and just pray I didn’t screw up.

“Nervous?” the boy spoke up again, sitting down beside me on the worn bench, which creaked gently from the added weight.

Shrugging in response, my eyes focused on the training grounds ahead. When I was first informed I was coming here, I was under the impression it would be - how can I put it? - Secret agent style work. My mind brought up images of hacking, night time infiltration and gathering information under aliases. Apparently, I was wrong though. According to Weapon, we would partake in these activities, but, that’s not all I would be doing. There was also a physical side to being a part of this team. One that involved teaching us skills to use in a fight - in physical confrontation with the ‘undesirables’ it would be our job to deal with.

Of course, most people would think that having professionals teach you to defend yourself is a pretty amazing thing. You’d never have to worry about walking the streets alone at night or anything like that if you knew how to fight.

To me though, it wasn’t so amazing. Simply put, these people were teaching us how to kill. The most common method of killing? Guns.

And if there’s one thing I’m scared of, something that terrifies me, it’s guns.

And now I’m being expected to learn how to use one.

“I was nervous on my first day, you know? Most won’t admit it, but I think everyone who comes here is at least a little nervous at first. And that’s okay, you know? We’re family here, well, at least in my eyes, and we look out for one another, so why don’t you come over here and meet some people? Sitting all alone on your first day will just end up in you separating from the rest of us, and we don’t want that happening” a smile graced my face as the man talked and I found myself nodding, noticing the tiny holes from piercings under his lips as he grinned at me. I’d used initiative last night and assumed that piercings weren’t allowed in training, so I’d taken mine out – apparently, It was a good call.

“Okay then, that sounds good” the bench creaked again as we both stood up, more dust clouds appearing along the ground we’d disturbed.

“Cool. I’m Sweet Tragedy, by the way, but most call me Tragedy” we walked side by side as he led me over to a group of people standing by a variety of what I assumed to be targets for practice.

“Awesome name, I don’t have one yet, but I have to choose one by the end of today and I have no idea what to use” I admitted, looking up at Tragedy, who was slightly taller than me.

“Ah, I’m sure you’ll think of one! We’ll help you if you want. Who have you actually met, by the way?” I thought about Tragedy’s question - of my eight team mates, I’d now met Perfect Weapon, Sweet Tragedy, The Westerner (though he was asleep), Northern Downpour (who I’d only said hello to because he said he had to go meet a friend) and, of course, Party Poison.

“Um, I’ve met Party Poison, I’ve met Perfect Weapon, you, Perfect Weapon pointed out The Westerner to me, but I’ve not actually talked to him and I briefly said hi to Northern Downpour, but that’s it” As we approached the others, I spotted both The Westerner and Northern Downpour standing in the crowd of boys and even noticed Weapon walking towards them as well. Counting the people, I noticed everyone in the team was here, currently minus our… boss? Is that the right word? Currently minus Party Poison.

“Well, you’re about to meet everyone else here and re-meet The Westerner and Northern Downpour. Good luck remembering all those code names, by the way. Took me far too long to get out of the habit of actual names and –even though most people here wouldn’t even think about it – I do tell everyone in our team my real first name when I meet them. My real name is Ben, but sshh, you can’t tell anyone outside the base or say it when we’re in company of others, okay?” The fact Ben was trusting me with his name came as a surprise; after the big deal Party had made about it, I thought everyone would keep their real names secured behind sealed lips.

“Of course I won’t. Since you told me your’s, it’s only fair I tell you mine. I’m Billie Joe. But don’t tell anyone” I whispered with a wink, already feeling like Ben and I would become good friends here.

“Nice to meet you” he practically giggled as we reached the group of others, only a little before Weapon did, who gave me a little wave when he did reach the group and headed straight over to talk to me. The others in the team had already stopped their conversations to study me, looking me over with analytical eyes.

“Hey! I see you met Tragedy!” Weapon started, obviously ignoring everyone else’s gazes like they weren’t there.

“Yeah” it wasn’t much of a response, but I couldn’t think of anything else to add, so I just left it at that.

“Well, since I saw you two walk over, I’m guessing you haven’t met the rest of the guys?” he gestured to the young men behind him as he spoke, still not turning around to face them.

“No, we haven’t really done introductions or anything yet; introductions will be an interesting experience since I don’t have a name yet, by the way” I mused, still stuck on what to use as a code name. Maybe once I’d heard everyone else’s, I’d get an idea of what sort of name to use.

“Well, we’ll just do our best until you think of one; you do realise that Party expects you to have one by today though, right?” he confirmed, eyes serious as he reached up to touch his long raven hair.

“Yeah, I just have no idea what to use”.

“Well, I’ll introduce you to everyone else and just tell us when you think of one, ‘kay? Right, so first person! Meet, The Westerner” Weapon gestured to the man I’d seen sleeping yesterday. He had perfectly applied eyeliner ringing his eyes and inky black hair that fell to his shoulders. Tattoos on his arms were visible as the black t-shirt he was wearing was short sleeved and it hung loose over the top of his black tracksuit bottoms. Most of the team seemed to be wearing similar attire – clothes they could move in for physical training.

The ‘hey’ I gave him was returned along with a little smile as he waved lazily at me.

“This is Chelsea Smile” Weapon informed me as a brown haired boy also decorated in tattoos grinned at me. For supposed professionals, I didn’t expect him to reach his hand out to fist pump me as an introduction, but I wasn’t complaining. All of them seemed like good guys and looked like they knew how to have fun as well as do their jobs - a different reality to the one I’d built in my head where they all wore suits and poker-faces. I noticed that he had ‘DROP DEAD’ tattooed across his knuckles and I have to admit, it looked pretty awesome.

“The Prince” The third boy was reasonably tall with black hair and a fringe that swept across his face. His skin was milky pale in contrast and a gold wedding band glinted in the sun as he touched his fringe, almost self-consciously. His smile seemed cautious and almost distrustful, like he wasn’t sure whether I was friend or foe; hopefully, I’d be able to gain his trust soon enough – after all, if we were going to be team mates entrusted with each other’s lives, we should have confidence in each other.

“Northern Downpour” Ah! The boy I’d briefly met yesterday!

“Hey, Downpour” I greeted with a smile, receiving a nod in return and a sincere looking smile.

“Hey, new boy”. Everyone here seemed to mess with their hair a lot – just like Weapon and Prince, Downpour also played with a strand of his caramel coloured hair as he spoke.

“He’s Fun Ghoul and Ghoul, he is not a new play toy, so don’t be all over him” Weapon’s small warning to the shortest member of the group had me cracking a smile as the man ran over and hugged me. Like he’d done this many times before, Weapon rolled his eyes and started to try and detach the dark haired boy from me, only to fail miserably when Ghoul tackled me to the ground in some sort of monster hug.

“Ghoul!” While everyone else started to laugh at the situation, Weapon scolded the man on me before giving in and smiling himself as I squirmed under my new team mate.

“Are you quite alright there, Ghoul?” I chuckled as the man started to tickle me, causing dust to attach itself to the back of my clothes like nobody’s business and everyone else to laugh harder - including Ghoul and I.

“Yeah, I’m perfectly fine, thanks” Before a full scale tickling war broke out, I decided to separate us and stand up, dusting myself off before Party came out and saw us mucking around. I don’t mean to sound like a goody goody trying to impress the boss, but I didn’t want to make a bad impression on my first proper day here. I’m sure that though these guys seemed capable of a laugh, Party wouldn’t have thought that this was the time or place and would have been less than amused. Hence, the tickle war stopped on my decision.

“I like the new guy, he’s fun” the one person I had yet to be introduced to spoke up. “a wild one” he mused, grinning at me.

He was only a little taller than the almost comically short Ghoul and was, by far, the brightest dressed member of the group. Clad in a bright red hoodie and skinny jeans, he was the only person in the group who didn’t seem dressed for the occasion – as mean as it sounds, I couldn’t wait to see him try and move in jeans that tight.

“Actually, Phoenix, you might be onto something. …Wild One…”

The others exchanged looks while I stood there, confused and trying not to seem awkward.

“I don’t think you have to worry about finding a name anymore…” Phoenix informed me, casually slinging an arm around my shoulders.

“Welcome to the team, Wild One” Ghoul cheered, finally letting me catch onto their train of thought.

I would never have considered it for myself, but I actually liked it.

“Wild One it is then!” A voice said from behind us, startling me but apparently not fazing everyone else.

Then again, they were probably all used to Party Poison creeping up on them.

“Since you all seem acquainted now, how about we get started?” Party’s suggestion brought back the thoughts of how at some point we’d most probably be handling guns. Shivers coursed down my spine as I tried to push the thoughts from my head; I’d deal with that problem when it presented itself and not before, right now, I needed to stay calm and collected.

Nods and voiced agreements had us heading over to the edge of a training course, ready for what was probably going to be a tiring first day.

Despite everything, I was actually liking it there so far; the people seem friendly and the living conditions aren’t too rough.

Maybe, just maybe, this won’t be as bad as I thought.