IR Day 14 - A big week

It’s another big day at FUTA. The morning is calm enough with breakfast, yoga with Amelie, and some time in the classroom with Tiff. By now you have a good understanding of the other teams and what makes them tick: there’s plenty of footage of everyone. And in your opinion, there’s even a soft power ranking. Red Team is at the top with Chun. Blue Team and probably Pink Team are right behind them. You don’t honestly believe that Green Team is stronger than your girls, and Yellow and White have wildly different styles and strengths, but they seem evenly matched.

But that can change. New subs and team members are being added, and anything can happen. Leadership can change under the new rules; if you lose the captain’s seat and it goes to Lara this week, that would radically alter Pink Team’s prospects. You like Lara, but you aren’t sure that she’s leadership material. Neither are you for that matter, but at least you’re trying while Lara’s just trying to flirt with Amelie and getting blown off.

You get exactly one glimpse of Ingrid at breakfast, and that’s it. You have lunch in your cabins, delicious gourmet sub sandwiches delivered by some restaurant from the city. They’re doing this to keep you from seeing what you’re in for today. There’s an event, and you have a bad feeling about it. You saw big curtains up down by the lakeside, and you haven’t forgotten some of the activities they made you do last week: fighting each other while balancing on rolling logs and things like that.

You wish you could just play soccer like a normal person. And you would think that after more than a week, you could also stop arguing with your international teammates about whether it’s called soccer or football. FUTA is an American TV show! It’s soccer!

But they’re stubborn, and you are actually in the minority, oddly enough. You, Max, Rebecca… are there any other Americans? It’s ridiculous, and Sam won’t let it go.

As good as the food is, no one has an appetite. Even those among you who hunger for fame more than soccer, like Lili, Sam, and Lara, are stressed about what this next foolishness will entail.

Answers come in a cardboard box carried by Tiff, who wears an especially grumpy expression with her black shorts and white top. Everyone gathers around as she puts the box on your bed and opens it.

“Here we go again,” she mutters as you look at the pink fabric inside. You pull out individually packed and labeled sets of… swimsuits? Bikinis?

You rip one open, Viti’s apparently, and hold up the two pieces.

“So we’re swimming,” you say bitterly, looking at how skimpy the bikinis are.

“Not exactly,” Tiff says.