Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XXXVII - "The Ice Cream"

“And then, she hit me with a branch,” Dan explained, motioning with his hands over his bowl of ice cream. “Here I am, just trying to make my way back to our side of the arena, when out of nowhere, Audrey comes by. I’ve used up all my Rddhi for the day, I can’t do nothing, I’m fighting for my effing life out there, and Audrey just won’t let up. I try to turn the tables on her - bam, she runs right into me!”

“Just like Lynn ran into me!” Audrey exclaimed, sitting nearby at the other table. “Twice!”

Lynn chuckled, her arm in its sling for the foreseeable future, bandages covering the length of it from fingers to the elbow.

“And then she smacks me right across the face,” Dan added, gesturing to a branch-shaped patch of bandages running across his face. “Twice!”

“I had to be sure!” Audrey said.

Dan shooed her away, and the whole table - most of it, at least - laughed along.

It had been an odd sight, nine bloodsoaked, battered students from West Narragansett Technical Academy entering Haljinski’s Diner in Russet. The sight alone was enough to earn a few odd stares from other patrons, a slight suspicion in the eyes of two Russet Military Police officers sitting at their own booth. But with the Combat Simulation over - it was ice cream time!

The jovial atmosphere didn’t appear until they arrived at Haljinski’s. At first, the members of both teams slowly awakened from their injuries, with nine of the ten participants knocked out during the simulation. Mackenzie had been the lone survivor, though she might’ve looked and felt the worst out of all them, her entire body now an angry shade of red rashes. Isaac heard that blood vessel bursts or something like that were responsible for it, but he wasn’t a medical expert, nor exactly was he in the best mood anyways.

Team Blue was all smiles, of course. Those smiles looked weary, but the feelings of victory are universal. They might’ve been tired, but elation and euphoria ran through them, found in their eyes, in the way their hands high-fived and their chests bumped outside of Ms. Mogami’s medical tent. Dan and Demetrius even dumped a big barrel of water on Mackenzie to celebrate their victory, her leadership, and the official title of Most Valuable Fighter, bestowed upon her by Clayton in his unofficial capacity.

Feelings of losing are universal too. The members of Team Red mulled around, rubbing their heads, saying nothing, empty stares, just looking beat as they waited for Piper to conclude taking pictures of the victors and for Ms. Mogami to finish her examinations. The physical pain hurt, sure, but the emotional pain of losing was something Ms. Mogami couldn’t exactly help them with. All she could offer was the universal cure of time, some encouraging comments, and a few chocolate bars, which everybody ate in the most melancholic fashion possible.

While most of the tag-alongs focused on the winners, Hanai approached the losers. “But you’re not losers!” he proclaimed, pride in his voice.

“But we literally just lost,” Coleridge complained, clutching his stomach since all the exertion gave him a cramp.

“Yes, by definition, you are losers,” Hanai admitted. “But not by feeling. Take pride in your effort today. I know you all tried your best. Use your performance today as a springboard into your future endeavors!”

The words didn’t exactly help any of the feelings of loss at the moment. Nor did Piper sly or Oksana’s off-beat words of encouragement, nor Clayton’s optimism, nor did the usual conversations between winners or losers. Everybody was respectful, at least. Mackenzie kept a firm eye on Babs the whole way back to the train station. Team Red and Team Blue got in separate cars when the train arrived, and Isaac heard that Babs ended up sticking on the train all the way back to the border crossing with the Pond with the tag-alongs, rather than getting off at an earlier Russet stop like the rest of the participants.

For Team Red, the train ride had been quiet. Getting off at the stop and going to Dan’s recommended ice cream parlor had been done reluctantly. But that’s the thing about losing - the disappointment will stick around, the regrets and wonders about “what if” will still be there - but over a long train ride home, it gets pushed to the back of the mind. The positive experiences soon work their way to the surface, helped along by conversations with others.

And outside of Babs, nobody had any hard personal feelings with each other. If they had to lose to anybody, at least it was the classmates they knew and liked. And if they had to lose, at least it occurred during a Combat Simulation, and not any of the other actual experiences with combat. Because you couldn’t get any ice cream after losses in those - you couldn’t get anything.

Team Blue and Team Red found a long booth to sit in. The more talkative members gathered on one end, while the quieter ones - namely, Isaac and Reed - sat on the other. Alfie was with them too, but they couldn’t tell if he was quiet because of losing or because that was his natural personality.

And the ice cream helped too, of course. All you need is a little pick-me-up, and like an engine, some good feelings just might be helped along.

“Hey, D, you got strawberry sauce on yours?” Dan asked, pointing at Demetrius’s bowl.

“No,” Demetrius realized. He took a look at his arm and realized blood had been dripping out of a reopened cut on his arm.

“Lionel, I can’t believe you outsmarted me,” Lynn said, struggling with her left hand to eat the ice cream out of her bowl.

While Audrey helped out and spoonfed Lynn, Coleridge just shrugged. “You almost had me. I want to say it was luck, but I think it was more of my raw skill that won it out.”

“But then you get whacked by D,” Dan pointed out.

“Now, that wasn’t much of a fair fight, was it?” Coleridge complained. “Me and Lynn were fighting fair and square, but Demetrius just comes out of nowhere and sends a beam at me!”

“Those beams are a cool power,” Audrey said. “All you guys have cool powers! Mackenzie, I didn’t know you could get creative with your vortex-ring-waves-blast-sphere thing!”

Mackenzie struggled to answer, barely staying conscious in her seat. She closed her eyes and head slowly bobbed along until she opened them with a start.

“Aw, is someone sleepy?” Lynn asked.

“I know Ms. Mogami gave me medical care, but I think I really need to lie down after this,” was all she could say.

“Yeah, you sure blasted us really good,” Audrey commented. “I heard you even knocked out Isaac!”

Everybody looked expectantly at him, but Isaac just pushed the ice cream around his bowl (for the record, he did get strawberry sauce).

“What’s eating you, Ike?” Dan asked. Nearby, Coleridge readied his spoon in case Isaac wasn’t feeling hungry.

Isaac shrugged. “I don’t know. Just not in the mood, you know? We lost.”

Audrey reached over and patted him on the back. “It’s just like Hanai said. We’re losers in a technical sense, but not in our hearts!”

“HEARTS! HEARTS! HEARTS!” Demetrius, Audrey, Dan, Lynn, and Coleridge all chanted.

Coleridge set his spoon down (he didn’t write the whole operation off, though) and spoke. “Even a guy like me knows we all did some good things. Sure, losing today will probably keep me up late tonight, keep me staring at the ceiling wondering what I could have done differently, and that will probably diffuse into a general sense of dissatisfaction with life, wondering where it all went wrong, both today and in all those moments I wish I could just forget. But!”

Coleridge held up his bowl. “I’m having ice cream! And that makes me realize I did some good things today, too. Like I beat Lynn! Who would’ve guessed that!”

“You and Audrey both got me good,” Lynn admitted. She opened her mouth to let Audrey feed her more ice cream, then smiled. “But that was a good trick, right? With the whole ‘oh, Demetrius still hasn’t freed me yet’, but he actually did.”

“You almost got me!” Audrey exclaimed.

Dan pointed his spoon at Audrey. “And look at you, Ms. Most Kills. Two and a half!”

“MMK! MMK! MMK!” Demetrius, Audrey, Dan, Lynn, and Coleridge all chanted.

Audrey playfully shrugged it away. “I couldn’t have done it without my loving family - all of you guys. Team Red, you provided me with the motivation to do good today, and Team Blue, you inspired me to work hard - and provided me with all those bodies to defeat!”

The whole table laughed again, then got sentimental. “We’ve been here for three months,” Lynn said. “You know, I’m glad we’re all classmates.”

“We should get matching tattoos or something,” Coleridge said. “You know, like we all stick out our arms and the tattoo's match for all of us. Just something to show how good of friends we all are. Or...I know, we could take another family photo!”

“FAMILY PHOTO! FAMILY PHOTO! FAMILY PHOTO!” Demetrius, Audrey, Dan, Lynn, and Coleridge chanted. Isaac heard movement across from him; he thought Reed was actually joining in on the chant, but she was just getting up to use the restroom.

The chanters paid her no mind and instead looked expectantly at Isaac. He quickly glanced away and focused on his ice cream. However, he had to admit, his feelings were pretty malleable. On the surface, at least. He most likely would also be staring at the ceiling tonight, but right now, hearing all his dumb classmates chant about family, with that good ice cream feeling running through him, all he could do was shake his head.

“You guys are something else,” he said.

“And speaking of something else,” Audrey commented, “I think we got ourselves a new Class 2 in our mix!”

Demetrius stood up in his chair and swung his jacket around while everybody clapped.

“It’s not confirmed,” Isaac said, feeling that creeping sort of embarrassment anybody gets after being congratulated. “It’s how I felt, but the Academy has to run their tests and confirm it first.”

Coleridge leaned over the table and placed his spoon under Isaac’s face. “I’m Chuck Banner with the News at Nine, interviewing Mr. Class 2 here,” he said in his best news reporter voice. “Isaac Spallacio, tell us how you’re feeling.”

Isaac broke into a smile and spoke into the faux microphone. “Ah, you know, Chuck. It’s my team, really. They got me through this and I couldn’t have done it without them - hey!”

Coleridge snickered as he dropped the microphone into Isaac’s bowl and stole a big spoonful of the strawberry goodness.

“Everyone!” Mackenzie called out. The table went silent and everybody looked in her direction. She stood up and closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh.

She didn’t say anything. Instead, she started snoozing.

Lynn tapped her on the side. Mackenzie blinked herself awake, wheezing for a moment.

“I really, really need to lay down,” she mumbled. “But first…I want to apologize. I…have been acting like a shrew. It means I haven’t been nice, Audrey.”

Audrey put her hand down.

Mackenzie cleared her oddly-colored throat. “The reason we got ice cream in Russet is because we’re redeeming the boxtops at the Arnold Corporation Russet branch office. But…”

Whatever Mackenzie was trying to say, it sure looked like she had trouble saying it.

She sighed again. “Seeing you all here, being the best of friends, made me realize that I’ve wronged you all.” She closed her eyes, unable to bear seeing them. “I justified tricking you all because I felt that, as Class Rep, I deserved a little extra. I put this cross on my back, thinking that I was all-important, that you guys would be lost without me, but I know you all got good heads on your shoulders, whether or not I’m here.”

The classmates looked around at each other, not sure where this was going.

Mackenzie gripped the table as she came clean. “The truth is that the boxtop competition was rigged. I organized it so whoever contributed more would get more of the cake purely because I knew I could contribute more. My father’s the Mayor of Pennacook. I just had him write me a check. Then I had my maids and servants by the cereal boxes. And then Lynn’s brothers and sisters actually cut out all the boxtops and sent them to me.”

“And they didn’t even let me in on it,” Lynn complained, evidently learning about this scheme for the first time along with the rest of the class.

“I became Class Rep and led you guys because I’m self-serving,” Mackenzie admitted. “I wanted to lead for my sake and pretended it was all for yours. The boxtop competition is proof of that. I’m sorry, everyone. Since the boxtop competition is student-run, we can still change the rules. Since everybody contributed, everybody gets an equal amount. Everybody gets their fair share.”

She brought a hand to her bruised temple. “Oh, but that’s just me being self-serving again. I’ve mucked around enough with the boxtops. You guys ought to decide how we distribute the cake.”

The table went silent for a moment, thinking it all over.

“That’s not all true,” Lynn spoke out. “Maybe you were a little self-serving, but nobody’s perfect. And you owned up to your mistakes. And you really did a good job leading us back there.”

Audrey agreed. “I think you’re being too negative! It sounds like you’re trying to beat yourself about it. But that’s not all true.”

Isaac joined in. “Yeah, during your admittedly short backstory, you made it clear you care about all of us, especially for Team Blue.”

Coleridge eyed her injuries. “Yeah, you might be aggressive, short-tempered, and snarky, but you also got that weird witchcraft super endurance thing going on. I bet part of it had to be for the sake of the team.”

“And you helped me get used to school here,” Alfie spoke up for the first time. “All that homework and sense of belonging.”

“Actually, I think I did a lot of that-” Isaac’s interruption was interrupted by Demetrius’s interruption.

“Forgiveness!” he cheered, and soon the whole table chanted along.

“FORGIVENESS! FORGIVENESS! FORGIVENESS!”

Her eyes still closed, Mackenzie smiled, then collapsed face down onto the table, her head smacking it with a loud thud. The chanting stopped; the classmates looked on in surprise.

Mackenzie managed to lift herself back up. “Thanks, you guys. It means a lot. And before I redeem the boxtops and then go see Ms. Mogami again, I have one more thing to say.”

Mackenzie looked up at the ceiling of the diner, still working on the ability to look her sins in the eyes. “Reed, I’m sorry, too. We’ve had our disagreements in the past, but that doesn’t give me the right to insult you. You’re your own person, and you have things going on that we don’t know about. You didn’t give us any boxtops directly, but you still wanted to contribute - you just did it in your own way. And the end of the day, what’s really so wrong with that? We’re a family. And everybody has that weird uncle, yet we love them all the same.”

“WEIRD UNCLE! WEIRD UNCLE! WEIRD UNCLE!”

Mackenzie raised her hands. “I didn’t mean it to be insulting. More like, metaphoric. You’re our classmate Reed, and nobody should be allowed to insult you. So, how about we all get our Triple Decker cake? We could have only gotten it thanks to you, after all.”

No response came. The class had been so enamored with Mackenzie’s speech and their own chanting that they neglected to look in Reed’s direction the entire time. When Mackenzie finally looked down from the ceiling, she saw what the rest of her classmates were now seeing - Reed had disappeared.

Mackenzie sat back down. “Oh well, maybe she’s just in the bathroom.” She went down to her backpack, intent on looking at a boxtops while she workshopped her apology now that she had a second chance for it.

Instead, Mackenzie’s arm just grabbed air. The gears in her head worked slowly, not wanting to reach the obvious conclusion. She peered down - the backpack with the boxtops was gone. And so was Reed.

But then the bell to the diner rang, and the classmates all watched a completely disheveled-looking Reed come in. She raised the bag of boxtops with a scraped hand and let out a rather weak, “Ta-da…”

The classmates kept quiet. Mackenzie just facepalmed, and the action had enough force to make her collapse her face down on the table again.