ER Day 7 - Wake up to Tuesday

You sleep well.

The chilly, but peaceful quiet in the dark in the morning only lasts until Tiff marches into the cabin, full of energy, literally banging two pots together. She keeps banging them even after everyone is awake and covering their ears.

She finally stops.

"Get dressed and get to the dining hall," she says. "Eat light, then go to yoga room 5 for warmup."

"What kind of drills today?" you ask. It can't be anything difficult because you have that practice game this afternoon.

"No drills," Tiff says, and the girls all murmur to each other in confusion. No drills?

"I'm not allowed to tell you. You'll see. You're on TV now, remember? You knew it was going to be crazy. They warned you. Quit acting surprised. Remember what I said. Eat light."

"Do we know who we play later?" Lara asks, raising her hand.

Tiff grimaces.

"Blue Team," says.

That's Adella's team.

You feel sudden apprehension. And then you feel relief. Playing against Blue Team today means you will NOT play against them in Friday's much more important game.

You all get dressed and eat a small breakfast, where the Blue Team watches you, and you watch them. There is very little interaction between the teams at the dining hall, and even less as you all go to different yoga rooms at the gym.

Tiff doesn't do yoga. She leads you through quick stretches, and then you have to change into your... uniforms? The uniform is not a soccer uniform. It's more like what olympic runners wear: like skimpy bicycle shorts and an extremely tight crop top. Confused, you and the others all put them on. It's not very modest for the girls like you, but everyone is too nervous about the day to be distracted by some bulges. You wish you weren't too scared to enjoy the view...

You wave at some of the cameras as all the girls in the camp walk out to the path into the woods, where half the teams split off and take another path. You wonder where they are going.

Your team arrives at the beginning of an elaborate obstacle course. It's long, with a LOT of obstacles. You can tell by looking at the map that it will be totally exhausting. So you will all be tired and sore for this afternoon's match.

"Cheer up, it'll be fun," you tell some of the girls who are complaining. Other captains are doing the same thing with their teams.

It's as long and difficult as you fear, but you are good at this. You are an athlete, even if some of the obstacles require a lot of upper body strength, which is not your strong suit. You still do well! You are fast and have good balance...

...until you get to the final obstacle. You are at the lake, and you have to cross a lot of spinning logs to get to the other side, but there's like this fog out there...

Someone hands you a staff with pads on the ends.

"What's this for?" you ask.

"For balance," she replies.

Oh no... You carefully go out, balancing... until you see that there is someone else in the fog up ahead, coming toward you.

So THAT is what this is about. That is why they split up the teams... part of this course is getting past this other player.

You see that it is... a girl from China. On the White Team? Well... she looks dangerous. She's not very big, but she has amazing balance. You fight her! You are alert and confident today, but still not quite a match for her. You find yourself in the water.

You swim to shore, disappointed, but suddenly you are pulled out of the water and dragged to your feet. You find yourself face to face with a girl with a nose ring and... blue hair. So Lena has dyed her hair again.

"Thanks," you say, but she cuts you off. Her English is good, but she has an obvious Russian accent. You have never really talked to her before, but she's talking to you now.

"You keep your fucking hands off my girl," she says, then pushes you away hard. You stumble and fall on your butt.

Lena walks away, and your team arrives.

Lara stops Lena. "What the fuck was that?" she asks, but now Tiff is here, and she stops them before anything can happen. Lena leaves, and Max and Rebecca help you up. You dust off your ass and watch Lena go.

"You good?" Tiff asks.

"Fine," you reply. You are not fine!