Chapter 37: You’re Getting Competitive

Astrid

The academy announced the next stage of the ranking assessment that morning, students crowding around the main board as the details scrolled across the screen. Teams would be judged on strategy, coordination, combat, leadership, and the ability to adapt under pressure.

I liked that immediately. It wasn’t just about who had the strongest wolf.

Ivy looked ready to faint. "We’re going to die."

"It’s an academy assessment," I said.

"That’s what people say before they die."

Xander overheard and laughed loudly enough to draw a few glances.

I found myself studying the rules a while later, stuck on a strategy element that refused to click into place no matter how many times I read it over. Reed noticed and walked over.

"You’re looking at it wrong," he said.

He broke the tactical side down piece by piece, and I realized quickly he had a real gift for making complicated things simple.

"You’re surprisingly good at teaching," I said.

"Surprisingly?"

"You don’t exactly look approachable."

A small smile crossed his face. "And yet you’re still talking to me."

Before that could settle into anything more, Xander appeared. "What’s happening?"

I explained. He immediately said, "Oh, I can help with that."

Reed glanced at him. "She doesn’t need two people."

"Maybe she prefers my method."

"I haven’t decided which method I prefer," I said.

Both of them turned toward me at once. That should have been my first warning.

They began explaining their approaches side by side, Reed methodical and precise, Xander creative and entirely unpredictable. I genuinely learned something from both of them, right up until they started correcting each other instead of me.

"That won’t work," Xander said.

"It will," Reed said.

"Only if everyone behaves exactly the way you expect."

"That’s called planning."

"That’s called being boring."

I watched them volley back and forth. "Are you two always like this?"

"No," they said in unison.

I stared at them. They immediately went right back to arguing.

Xander leaned across the table to sketch out a rough diagram, his handwriting slanted and messy compared to Reed’s careful notes on the opposite page. "See, the problem with his approach is that it assumes the other team will play it safe. Nobody plays it safe in the final round."

"Nobody smart abandons a working plan halfway through, either," Reed said, not looking up.

"That’s not what I said."

"It’s what you meant."

"You’re putting words in my mouth."

"I’m reading your handwriting. It’s practically illegible."

I glanced between the two pages, genuinely trying to follow the thread of the argument, though at this point it had less to do with strategy and more to do with neither of them wanting to concede a single point to the other. Xander caught me watching and straightened immediately, like he’d forgotten I was still sitting there.

"You agree with me," he said. Not a question.

"I didn’t say that."

"You were nodding."

"I was thinking."

"That’s what agreeing looks like on you."

Reed exhaled through his nose, the closest thing to a laugh he allowed himself, and reached over to correct something on Xander’s diagram without asking permission first.

It took another ten minutes before I realized they weren’t actually debating the strategy anymore. They were arguing over who got to be the one helping me.

I crossed my arms. "Are you two seriously competing over me?"

Silence. Xander looked away. Reed cleared his throat.

"We’re discussing the assessment," he said.

"You’ve been discussing the same three moves for ten minutes."

"They’re important moves," Xander said.

I narrowed my eyes. "See? You’re already getting competitive."

Neither denied it.

Xander offered to demonstrate a maneuver, and Reed immediately pointed out a weakness in it. Reed demonstrated his own version, and Xander found a flaw in that one just as fast.

"You’re both impossible," I said.

"But useful," Xander said.

"Unfortunately," Reed added.

I laughed, and I realized I wasn’t irritated enough to actually walk away. Their ridiculous rivalry had somehow become something comforting instead of exhausting.

We practiced together a while longer, and eventually I noticed a flaw sitting in both their strategies, a gap neither of them had caught because they were too focused on outdoing each other. I combined the two approaches, adjusting the timing between them, and the result worked better than either version alone.

Both twins stared at me.

"Did you just improve our plan?" Xander asked.

"Yes."

Reed studied the combined solution carefully. "She’s right."

Xander looked personally betrayed. "You agreed with her?"

"Because she’s right."

I smiled. "This is fun."

"I don’t like this game anymore," Xander muttered.

After everyone else left the training grounds, I stayed behind, looking out over the empty field. Reed lingered nearby.

"Are you nervous about tomorrow?" he asked.

I admitted I was, though not because I was afraid of losing. It was the watching that unsettled me, everyone waiting to see how the girl without a wolf would perform, ready to catalog every mistake.

"Then give them something worth watching," Reed said.

I looked at him, unsure how to respond, when Xander walked up behind us.

"Exactly," he said.

I glanced between them. For once, neither one was joking. They genuinely believed I could do this, no hesitation in either of their expressions.

That landed somewhere I wasn’t fully prepared for.

As we left the training grounds together, Xander started teasing again. "Just remember who taught you the important stuff."

"I did," Reed said.

"You taught her how to be boring."

I laughed, walking between them, and for a brief moment I let myself sit with something simple and undeniable.

I liked this. Their arguments. Their teasing. Their quiet, insistent support. Being included in whatever this was, instead of standing outside it looking in.

I didn’t understand why tomorrow’s assessment suddenly felt exciting instead of frightening, only that it did.

Then Xander said, "Try not to embarrass us tomorrow."

I looked at him. "Worried I might outrank you?"

His smile disappeared instantly. He glanced at Reed.

Reed looked back at him, something sharpening in his expression.

My eyes widened. "Oh no."

Xander grinned, slow and delighted. "Now you’ve done it."

Reed’s expression turned genuinely competitive, a rare sight that made the whole moment funnier somehow.

I shook my head, laughing, already dreading and looking forward to tomorrow in equal measure.