Lynn

“Come on Ness, you should totally do it!” Lynn implored. “Well maybe…” Ness meekly responded but Lynn was having none of it. Three years had passed since their first lesson in diving school together, and Ness and Lynn had become unlikely fast friends. Because of this, Lynn knew Ness well. First, he knew that she was good. Although she didn’t always put in the effort, it was clear to him that she could compete at the highest level in their age bracket. Occasionally, she’d let it slip when she casually out-swam or out-dived anyone in class. Secondly, he knew that she was something of a coward. Well not quite a coward. He corrected himself. Ness didn’t shy from physical adversity or danger (unlike him) but when it came to evading social confrontations of any sort, she was a veritable escape artist.

Still, it’s what’s best for her. “No Ness, we’re signing up right now, together.” Lynn’s tone brooked no argument. Reluctantly, Ness let herself be dragged along to the small gathering of other similar-aged kids. Lynton’s socially adept eyes rapidly scanned the small crowd, located targets, and sorted them. Typical teams are six people, Ness and I are already two, so we need at least four more. Now, how about roles… Lynn tried to recall what he’d read about the Junior League and what he remembered from watching previous competitions. Since in our age bracket we aren’t dealing with any of the specialized combat trials, we should probably focus on teamwork rather than optimal skill. Decision made; Lynn reviewed who he’d seen in the crowd. Who would work well on a team?

His eyes locked on Millie. She’d be a good fit, I guess. I think she even knows Ness from her school. Lynn approached and dragged Ness along. “Hey Millie, do you have a team yet?” Lynn asked. Millie, who’d been looking around quite lost, immediately perked up, “Nope, are you inviting me?” she said with a cheerful smile. “Sure thing, welcome to the team!” Lynn said, and then they resumed their hunt for teammates. The trio began small talk, which involved mostly Millie explaining who couldn’t be on their team. In short order, he managed to get together three others who were hadn’t found a team yet. Luckily, they all met to Millie’s requirements, primarily that they “weren’t any of the Barns brothers” or “total jerk faces”.

Alex was probably the male equivalent to Millie—a total chatterbox—but a strong swimmer. Ness and Lynn both knew him from diving school. The other two, Joseph and Jannette, were twins and only Lynn knew them from his school. He vouched for them and they were both excited to be on a team with Lynn. Gathering the little group together, Lynn started to herd them towards the registration desk. There, an older man with a wicked scar and a younger man who appeared to be a secretary sat.

“We’d like to register as a team, Sir” Lynton spoke as they were nonverbally addressed by the secretary’s gaze. “Your names please” he commanded, and the children gave their names. Only on Lynton’s full name did the old man with the scar seem to pay any attention at all—otherwise he looked rather bored by the proceedings. Once all names had been recorded, the secretary launched into a speech he’d clearly memorized by rote

“Welcome contestants, to the annual juniors league competition, year 603. As you are all doubtlessly familiar with the nature of the competition, I will not bore you with the details now. Instead, I will briefly highlight the special rules that apply only to the junior’s league. First, there will be no live combat trials and all challenges are designed to place contestants in minimal, yet acceptable risk. Secondly, unlike in the official competition, your parents or guardians reserve the right to withdraw you from competing or to bar you from certain events should they so wish so. Finally, we’d like to remind our young contestants that although the junior league approximates the full Triumvirate’s Competition and there are prizes to win, the most important goals for contestants your age should be to better yourselves as individuals and to have fun.” Papers were shuffled. “Now, welcome team #82 and from this point on, you are officially registered for the Junior League Triumvirate Competition. We’re excited to see you at the competition in six months. Good luck.”

While the speech had probably been designed to be read by a bubbly or enthusiastic presenter, this secretary’s oration didn’t pack the punch. Still, the little team was excited and all clutching their little signed slips that verified they’d been registered. Team 82 moved out of the bumbling crowd of their peers who were still hunting for teammates, and the group fell into comfortable idle chatter. Lynn looked over at Ness and smiled to himself. Looks like she’s losing her shyness. He’d done this before with Ness—breaking the awkwardness. Even when she warmed up to someone, she never reached Millie-levels of chatterbox but still. Progress.

Lynn led the little group sat down in a to a small copse of trees of trees near the gathered crowd. Then, he looked around the group. Damn it. Looks like I’m the leader for now. Lynn hated leading people. Something had to be done though, so he raised his voice and said, “Alright team 82, lets make a plan”. Then, chaos ensued. Everyone started talking at once, even Ness. It took quite a while for them to get back on track and organize a training plan. Getting ready for the competition was serious business after all.

“So, we all agree we should meet tomorrow, at the training field next to Sedgerich Lake?” Lynn asked the group. Looking around, everyone nodded. They’d finally all agreed on a time and place. Now, everyone just had to show up tomorrow. “Alright, and who wants to plan our first training session?” Lynn asked. At first, nobody volunteered, but then, to Lynn’s surprise, Ness volunteered. “I’ll prepare something” she said with conviction. “Alright, good. I’ll see you all tomorrow then.” Lynn said and the group got up and began to disperse. Goodbyes were exchanged and everyone started to head into different directions. Catching up with Ness, Lynn fell into step beside her.

“You sure that you can figure out something for us to train tomorrow?” Lynn asked.

“Yeah” Ness replied.

“Wow, you’re confident. Let me know if you need any help.”

“Sure, it’ll be fine though. I’ve already know where to start.”

Then, the pair arrived at a fork and Ness took the right. “Bye Lynn!” she shouted as she hurried off. “See ya tomorrow!” Lynn shouted back before beginning to trudge back to the Declan Household. Overall, he was happy with how the day had gone. He’d been able to find a team with at least some competent people and there hadn’t been any infighting in the group yet. Lessons on working in a group had been one of the few things his father had personally tutored him in. For example, his father assured him that working with groups was both a blessing and curse. A good team could accomplish great things while a bad team could any progress as quickly as it was made. He hated that he’d fallen into the leadership role though. Not that he was bad at leading for his age, it’s just that it reminded him too much of what his father did, and what his father wanted him to do. He didn’t want to tell people what to do, just as he didn’t like being told what to do.

The following day, team 82 converged in the training field that they’d picked the day before. Obviously, they hadn’t been the only team to pick this place, but it was still rather empty. The large grassy surface was still wet with dew from the morning and footprints were clearly visible where foot-traffic had bent the blades of grass down. Besides Lynn, Ness, Millie, and Alex, there appeared to be a couple other teams of around their age scattered about. Some were already busy, doing physical workouts or sitting in a circle and discussing secret strategies or something.

Lynn spied the twins’ approach and then they were complete. A quick round of good mornings and good-natured grumbling later, Lynn gestured to Ness. “Alright Ness, you prepared something for us to train today?”. Ness nodded, and retrieved a small, palm-sized brown book. She opened it, apparently read some of it, nodded to herself, and then looked up. “So, last night I asked my dad about the competition and…” Ness cut off as she saw nervous glances flying around their small groups, “…Oh don’t worry guys. I asked him and read over the rules again. We’re not allowed to have a ‘coach’ or ‘trainer’ but we can get advice if it’s not directly ‘strategic’ in nature, whatever that means.” The group looked relieved.

Lynn was relieved too. In truth, he didn’t know the rules of the competition all that well but one of its cornerstones was non-interference. Adults, parents, or whoever weren’t allowed to help any contestants train or tell them what to do. In theory, this was supposed to prevent parents getting involved in the competition too much and instead keep the challenge of the competition resting on the shoulders of those competing. In practice, Lynn knew, in some of the highly competitive teams, like those founded by children of the people his father associated with, this was more of a guideline rather than strict rule.

Ness continued. “I read through the rules again last evening summarized it all together a bit, just so that we can prepare better. I also reviewed some of the things that past competitors wrote, and I found the notes I took at last year’s competition.” Hold on, Lynn thought, Ness took notes at last year’s competition!? In retrospect, he did remember her sitting in the stands scribbling away at something but now that he knew she’d been taking notes, he marveled at her foresight. “Now, even though you guys might already know these, I’ll go through the basics of the competition, especially the junior league, again”. The next half-hour, while long-winded, wasn’t boring to any of Ness’s attentive audience.

First, the primary difference between the Junior League version of the Triumvirate Competition and the non-Junior League version was that in the Junior League, the team would never directly compete against an opponent. Instead, they focused on scoring points, and at the end of the competition, the team with the highest amount of points would win. In order to win, one had to qualify for the finals and then in the finals, the team had to score the most points. The qualifiers were much easier, and simply automatically qualified the top 10 percent of teams. Teams did have the chance to attend more than one qualifier but typically only three at a most were schedulable for a single team.

To score points, challenges had to be completed. These challenges were created by a small council of competition judges and were kept hidden three months before the first qualifier. Additionally, points could be scored through a rating system developed by the judges. To contestants, especially first time-teams like Team 82, this rating system was somewhat esoteric and purposefully kept hidden from the competitors. Still, from the hits Ness’s father had dropped, the judged points seemed to be mostly based on teamwork capabilities and clever problem solving.

The actual challenge that would be released in three months was somewhat hard to guess beforehand but it was still possible to prepare for it. Ness talked about how she’d found different types of challenge that were typically given and occasionally challenges would repeat. In general, the challenges were always aimed at recreating problems that they might have to face as adults. For example, “search-and-rescue” challenges were always popular. Sometimes underwater, sometimes on land, and sometimes on both, these involved the team being required to find lost and “injured” individuals and recommending to the judges how to best care for them. Other times, the challenges were a race against time. For example, last year, teams were given broken paddleboats and a racecourse marked out by buoys. The challenge had been to figure out how to repair the boat and then complete the course as fast as possible.

“In general, most challenges involve a physical part. We’ll need to swim, dive, run, paddle, or do something that requires us to be fit. Then there’s the team part. All challenges are designed to be almost impossible for an individual to do and we need to be able to work together and communicate quickly. Finally, there’s the intelligence part. Sometimes, it’s medical, sometimes it’s more construction focused. We might have to diagnose and tend to “survivors” or we might have to patch up a broken boat with scrap parts.” Ness concluded her explanation.

Alex, eyes wide, asked “So we’re all going to need to be experts at everything?”

“Well, no” Ness said, “Typically teams divide up into roles and they choose one person to practice first aid, one person to practice ship-maintenance, one person to practice navigation, and so on.”

Next Lynn spoke up, “So what do we do now? We won’t know what the challenge actually is for another three months.”

“Well, I think the physical part is a good place to start” Ness said as an evil smile started to creep across her face. Uh-oh. Ness spoke, imitating instructor Kev, “How about we swim some laps to get warmed up?” Lynn and Alex groaned as countless memories of borderline sadistic diving school ‘warmup’ sessions came to mind. Ness in a leadership position might not be such a good idea after all, Lynn thought as team 82 moved to the lake and started their training process. It’s gonna be a long six months.