Before you walked out of the door, Ms. Pauling handed you your duffel bag. How she did this, you couldn't wrap your head around, because she didn't have them earlier.

You followed the team to their base. The environment had many rocks, sand, and weeds. The lines on the RED team base were red. It was set up like a small factory, and you believed that was for a cover up. Your new team led you into the base and past some hallways until you came across a longer hallway with doors. The doors had class symbols on them that matched the symbols on your teammates' shoulders. They continued to lead you down to the last door on the right. This one didn't have a symbol on it, but Scout opened it and ushered you in. The rest of the team stayed outside as you entered the room. It was an average size with a bed in the left corner from the door, a desk to the right of it with the back of the chair to the door, a small empty closet on a half-wall to the right, and a small bathroom leading to the right taking up the other half of the wall (includes a toilet, a sink, and a shower that doubles as a tub). You sat your duffel bag on the bed, which had red sheets.

"Well, here ya' are toots. How do ya' like it?" Scout asked you, giving you his cocky smile.

"I like it Scout," you said, smiling in return. You unzipped your bag and took out the chargers. You found an outlet and plugged them in, they ended on the desk, so you plugged in your computer and phone, as it was dead from the plane ride. You then put the clothes in the closet and sat Bidoof on your bed. You slide the duffel bag under your bed.

"Hey, what's this?" Scout picked up Bidoof and looked him over.

"Oh! That's a stuffed animal I've had forever. It means a lot to me s-" you tried to say, but Scout ran out of the room.

"Hey guys! Strat's got a baby toy!" He was laughing maniacally showing it to everyone. You rushed out of the room and found them gawking over it. Spy and Medic were scoffing, but that was to be expected. Heavy, Sniper, and Demoman were looking at it with curiosity. Pyro was jumping up and down squealing. Engineer and Soldier seemed to think it was cute and was chuckling. You felt red with embarrassment and marched up to Scout. You snatched Bidoof from his hands and ran back into your room, catching yourself before throwing Bidoof onto the bed and gently setting him under the sheets. "Aww Strategiisst! You look as red as the team color," Scout cooed slowly walking into the room. You glared up at him and walked past him, your feelings a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"Is there anything else we need to do before Ms. Pauling gets here?" You asked them, trying to keep your voice calm.

"Ha- ahem, yes there is. We need ta show you the base and discuss the chore schedule," Engie said, trying to not laugh.

"Alright then... lead the way," you said crossing your arms in a subconscious defensive stance. You were second-guessing bringing Bidoof, but the other part of you wanted to stand up and defend it. You were in a confused state.

They led you through the base, showing you kitchen, Medbay as they call it, where Medic sleeps and performs medical... stuff as they described it. You were fine with it, the farther away from him the better right? You saw the waiting area where you wait to load up into the truck and head to the battle grounds to go to battle, and the place you get ready for it and the weapons closet (no one really kept their weapons in there). You saw the living room, kitchen with a table near the cooking area, the hallway with the rooms, and the training grounds for practice. You saw the rest of the base including the somewhat planning room they used. Slowly, you calmed down and chatted with them.

They concluded that the team will rotate between Pyro, Spy, Medic, and Engineer for cooking, though with Pyro being into fire you didn't feel safe about that. Demoman, Heavy, and Scout will do supply checks. You will be rotating between Sniper and Soldier for laundry and cleaning as needed. You were fine with the arrangements.

As you circled back to the rooms, you met Ms. Pauling in the living room that connected the rooms and the kitchen. You hadn't even realized two hours had passed.

"How was your tour Strategist?" She asked you.

"Oh, yes I was fine, thank you," you answered, nearly forgetting your new name for a second there.

"That's good, you have your duties sorted out?"

"Oh yeah Ms. Pauling. Strats here gots it all figured out," Scout answered for you, giving a small laugh.

"That's... good. Anyway Strategist, I need you for a moment in your new room, if yo-"

"What for?" Scout butted in. By now it was clear he liked her, still technically being a teenage girl you had the power to look right through his act. Sadly, he was just making her annoyed. Ms. Pauling huffed.

"None of your business, if Strategist wants you to know later she'll tell you. Now follow me." You followed her to your room. Scout tried to follow, but one glare from Ms. Pauling kept him silent. You followed her into your room and she turned around. "Now, take off your clothes, please."

"What?" You snapped, being protective.

"Ah, I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. I need you to take off your clothes to your underwear so I can gather your clothing measurements for your class outfit."

"Oh... that sounds less... bad." She laughed and took out a tape measure.

Following her instructions, you were able to give her the measurements she needed without feeling too exposed.

"With that I will have you your outfit, class symbol, and equipment soon. I suggest you look at the site for your school work. I took your computer and wrote the passwords and such into the notes. If you have any questions I left my contact in your phone, but just don't let Scout have it please," she said, leaving your room and you were left with nothing to do. You figured you would look at your school work later and walked out into the living room. Everyone but Spy and Medic were there.

"So Strat, what did Ms. Pauling want?" Scout asked, looking cocky as if you were going to tell him head-on.

"Not much," you responded and Demoman laughed as he drank a beer.

"No I mea-!"

"So what happened to Spy and Medic?" You asked, avoiding the question.

"Well, Medic's in the Medbay and Spy Ah think is in his room," Engineer answered.

"Oh... well on a totally different note, are there any nicknames I can call you by, like for battle... or because I like nicknames?"

"Well, you can call me Engie, that should shorten it," Engie answered.

"Just Heavy's name is fine," Heavy said.

"Oi can second that, unless ya want to call me Snipes," Sniper laughed.

"ME TOO!" Soldier yelled.

"Yah can call me Demo,"Demoman took another swig.

"Scout's just as short as ya can make it, unless you want to call me awesome!" Scout gloated.

"Only if you earn it, Scout," you replied. He shrugged.

"And ya can call Pahro by his regular name, and same goes for Spy and Medic," Engie concluded.

"Alright, thanks. I'm going to look at what I missed for school, I'll be back out when I'm done!" You said, walking to your room.

Walking over to your desk, you opened your computer and clicked open the notes. I held your passwords for the website and the teacher codes.

Going onto Peak Learning's website, you typed your password in for your account and studied it. It opened up on a display with a toolbar on the left with the tabs "Week," "Year," "Progress," and "College." You were on the Week tab and it displayed Monday through Sunday as the head on column and your classes at the head of rows. When you hovered over one of the squares they made, it said "Create a goal." When you clicked it, it made a little pop-up of a small box for whatever you type in. You moved your hand across the keyboard and hit enter. It gave you a little rectangular bubble with what you typed in inside of it included a box. When you clicked the box a check appeared inside of it and the bubble turned green. You erased the "goal" and clicked the Year tab. It had your classes as the head of rows once again with the words "Projects," "Concepts," and "Extra Concepts" stacked on top of each other with project names, concepts, and extra concepts for that class stretching out to the right in bubbles. According to what you learned by the week, you had most of your class' concepts, extra concepts, and projects bubbles' green. This meant you were finished with them. You scrolled down the year and saw that your Math 102 class was completely filled and Math 103 was starting to be complete. This synced progress with your classes back home.

You clicked into one of the green bubbles in Math 102. It said "Pre-test" at the top with an "untaken" as a status. Then when scrolling down, it told you "Objectives: (Insert something here)" and when you clicked on it gave you access to resources to take notes from. Then at the bottom of the page it showed you passed the test on the concept with a "9/10." You clicked back into the Year tab and then clicked into the Progress tab. It told you your grades, if you teacher graded a project, if you passed a test, and if you finished your goals. Clicking into the College tab, it showed you college prep information, your GPA, and what skills you could focus on for that year. It was a pretty functional website. Not to mention that you could email your teachers back home if you had any questions.

You closed your computer, because it turned out that you didn't really miss anything for school. It was just in time, because the door opened behind you and you turned your chair around. Ms. Pauling stood there with clothes in her hand and a symbol for the door.

"It's ready, how about you change into this and I'll put the spares in your closet, you'll have to wear this nearly everyday you know!" She told you, looking excited and smiling. You nodded, took one of the outfits, and walked into your bathroom. You changed and looked at yourself, of course right now the holsters for your weapons were empty including the bag-necklace... thing. You walked out into your room, and Ms. Pauling turned around and whistled. You laughed. "Oh! I installed the symbol on your door, come look!" She pulled you outside into the hallway like a school-girl. She turned you around to look at the symbol. It was a knight chess piece: one of the most strategic pieces in a strategy game. You laughed once again.

"I like it Ms. Pauling, it looks perfect," you complimented and she giggled. You never thought you'd ever hear that.

"Oh hey, that looiks nice," Sniper said, sauntering up to the door. Hearing Sniper, Ms. Pauling coughed and composed herself.

"Strategist and I think so too. Is Engineer ready to give her the equipment?" She asked, trying to pull herself together, which wasn't working very well.

"He said he's got one last thing to do, but he sent up the mace and the rifle. Here." He handed her the rifle you used to fight everyone and a mace that was half the size of a baseball bat. It was long and had perfect looking sharp spikes sticking out in random places along the top of it. The bottom had a handle too and that looked perfect for your hands. Ms. Pauling gave you the rifle and you slid it into the holster. She then handed you the mace and you slid in into the holder. It stretched to make it smooth to take out, but it couldn't be scratched or cut. The pants protected your leg, so it didn't hurt to run with the mace in it holder. You absentmindedly rested your hand on your rifle.

Slowly, everyone came to admire the outfit, even Medic and Spy liked it, though Spy said it could have more "exquisite taste." After another minute, Engie came holding somethings in a box.

"Ah'm here, Ah'm here. Ah got the stuff," he stood next to Ms. Pauling.

"What stuff?" You asked, confused.

"Well, the Strategist's equipment of course darlin'."

"Oh, right. Sorry about that," you laughed.

"It's fine, just let me explain it to ya," he pulled out a small tablet, a smaller device that looked like a GPS, and then nine circular disks with a tiny button on the side. Each disk had one of the class symbols on it. "Now the tablet is where you make all of your battle plans, and-a it plays the plan out like a movie. It has a model of the base, and icons that represent us and other things you can use to make plans. It stores all of your plans, so make sure not to let this get in anyone else's hands, ya hear? The tracker," he handed you the GPS thing, "holds our health percentage so you know if you have to jump in our place during battle. It's connected to the chips that allow us to regenerate after we get killed, so it's pretty nifty if Ah say so myself. Erm, finally we have the disks. If you press the button on the side of one of them there, your outfit changes to that class' and you gain their equipment. To change back, just hit the button again. Try it out."

You put the equipment into your bag, which was surprisingly light for what it held. You took out a random disk, which was Soldier's, and pressed the button. In a flash, your clothes changed and you were holding a shovel. You couldn't see anything through the helmet except their feet. Everyone gawked at the sight, at least you hoped they were, because you couldn't hear them say anything.

"HEY! SHE LOOKS LIKE ME! ALL READY TO GO INTO BATTLE!" You heard Soldier shout to your left.

"I can't see shit," everyone laughed, including Soldier. You lifted the helmet up and pressed the button on the disk again, transforming back into your outfit. "Thanks, Engie. This is genius."

"Why thank you, Ah'm glad you like it."

"You said earlier that the tracker was connected to your chips, when do I have to get mine?"

"Well, tomorrow would be best, but Medic'll have to do surgery on ya." You felt your eyes slightly widen. You did not like this man, and the Medbay didn't exactly look clean either.

"Ja, tomorrow early in the morning vould be best to have you recover later in the day. Then jou could practice vith someone for training," Medic said. You both made eye contact. You tried not to let your feelings through but he was giving you a crooked, evil smile.

"Right, well, it's late. You should have dinner and then it'll be time for bed," Ms. Pauling moved in, giving you a sympathetic glance and everyone nodded in agreement. She left and you all moved towards the kitchen, feeling Medic's eyes on you all the way.