Chapter 17: Cleanup

Sam sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her shirt was totally soaked! It had been a while since she’d had a workout as good as tonight.

“Pack it in, guys! We’re loading up!” Carly called, stuffing weapons into duffel bags. “All hands on deck for this one, we’re carrying this stuff back to storage!”

Sam was curious what they were doing. Last week she’d left on her own to take Mary back to their room, so she hadn’t actually seen where the Boffer Club stored the weapons. Surely they didn’t keep them in somebody’s room?

Everyone was gathering their things. Daniel was quickly conscripted by Mac and Tony into putting his muscles to work carrying one of the bigger bags, and nearly everybody needed to carry in something.

“I’ll get this one,” Sam reached for one of the duffels, but Cain picked it up before she had a chance.

“Sorry, Sammy, maybe next time,” he smirked.

Sam sulked. She hadn’t been able to lay a hand on him all night. Oh well… there’s always next week…

“Anything I can carry in?” She jogged over to Carly. “I can help with that if you want.”

“Oh, that’d be great, but I’ve got this covered!” With a smile, Carly slung the heavy backpack over her shoulder. “You can just bring in your weapon!”

Sam glanced down at the red and gold sword. It didn’t seem fair.

“Um…” A blushing Mary approached Andy, shaking like a leaf. The intense girl was the kind of person she’d be wary of under normal circumstances, but after all the help she’d been tonight, Mary felt a little more comfortable talking to her. “Th-Thanks for letting me use this…”

“No problem,” Andy said, taking back her spear. “How was it?”

“It was… heavy. My arms are sore…”

Andy sighed “Yeah, spears take some getting used to. If you want, though, I can show you how to hold one next week.”

“R-Really?!”

She shrugged. “Why not? It’s better than flailing those swords around.”

“Ah, I see Andy’s getting you to join the spear cult!” Josh grinned, walking up behind the ravenette and patting her on the shoulder. “You should take her up on it!”

“Sh-Shut up, no I’m not!” In spite of her protests, Andy was smiling ear to ear, twirling a lock of her hair as she beamed at the boy.

Jamie rolled her eyes and made a disgusted grunt.

“Thank you,” Mary said, smiling a little. Sam felt a small smile come over her as well. Her roommate was actually starting to make friends, kind of. And without hiding behind someone else! She was so proud!

“Okay, people, let’s move it!” Carly called, clapping her hands together. She held up her sword like a torch and led them off the field.

Sam thought it must have been a bizarre sight. Some fifteen students walking through campus in the middle of the night hauling large duffels and golf bags full of foam weapons like some bizarre renaissance fair parade. She tried to hide her face from the curious and confused onlookers they passed. Was this how Mary felt all the time?

Carly led them to one of the older buildings on campus, and they headed down an outside staircase to a basement. With a jangle of her keychain the door swung open, and they headed inside.

Sam was shocked. She’d grown up in a pretty messy apartment (well, that’s what her mom called the hole in the wall they’d lived in above the rec. center, anyway) but this looked like something out of a horror movie. “The Hoarder from the Black Lagoon” or “It Came from the Old Lady’s Yard Sale” or something like that. There had to be enough junk in here to fill a whole landfill!

“This is the equipment storage,” Carly called over her shoulder. “Lots of clubs store their stuff in here. Hoops from the Hula Club, oars and canoes and stuff for the Rowing Club, fire staffs for the Poi Club, you name it, it’s in here somewhere.”

She maneuvered through the maze of boxes and bins until they reached a shockingly-empty corner of the room, where she unceremoniously dumped the bag off her shoulder.

“Just leave the stuff wherever,” she advised, and in under a minute the Boffer Club’s equipment joined the rest of the pile. Sam felt like she was committing a crime by adding her sword to this trash heap.

“Hey, aren’t you going to leave your sword?” Sam asked, noticing that Carly was still carrying her silver sword. The other girl flashed a toothy grin.

“Nope! See, it’s not a club weapon, this is mine! So I get to take it home with me,” she explained. Sam noticed that she wasn’t the only one. Mike’s sword, Cain’s knife, Andy’s spear, a lot of the older students were still holding onto their personal weapons.

Sam was in a surprisingly chatty mood tonight. Club activities had gotten her all worked up, and she was actually curious about these personal weapons, so she struck up a conversation with Carly as they left the basement. “So what, you made that yourself, then? That’s pretty cool, I guess.”

“Yeah, it’s great! See, we don’t get a lot of funding from the school, but what we do get, we use to make new weapons for the club. Nick handles that, though, since he’s our Forgemaster.”

“Equipment Manager!” Nick called over his shoulder.

“Whateveeer! Anyway, yeah, mostly Nick just makes stuff with club money, that’s why he made that blue sword he used today, you know?”

“It was a test model,” Nick walked over to join the conversation, startling Sam. “Mainly I just like building stuff. Testing what works and what doesn’t, you know?”

“…Oh. Cool, I guess.”

“But on the other hand, we can still make our own weapons,” Carly added. “We just need to buy the materials ourselves. Duck tape, core materials, foam, it’s actually really cheap! And then you get to keep it!”

She gave Sam a conspiratorial smile. “Why do you ask, are you curious about building your own sword, maybe?”

“What? No, of course not,” Sam scoffed. “It’s not like I’m that interested in the club or anything, this is just a way for me to pass time.” She cleared her throat. “But let’s say, for sake of argument, if I did want to build my own weapon, how much would it cost?”

Carly and Nick exchanged a smirk. Sam scowled.

“I’m just curious!” Those two idiots were getting the wrong idea! No way did she actually want to invest her hard-earned money into this dumb hobby! Yeah, so what it was kind of fun and a great workout? And sure, maybe Sam had been thrilled to land the killing blow on Carly earlier, or that time she’d taken out Mike with those throwing knives, or…

…

Study, she needed to study! She couldn’t spend all her time on this!

“Look, Sam, I think it’s great if you want to build your own weapon!” Carly grinned. “In fact, if you REALLY want to get creative, Nick here works on commission, and right now he’s designing something that’s really gonna knock your socks off…”

A wicked smile crossed her face. Sam didn’t even want to ask.

“Whatever. Like I said, I’m not interested. I was just curious!”

Perfect. They’d just reached the road back to Sam’s dorm. “Okay, well, I’m gonna head back, see you guys.”

“W-Wait up!” Mary called behind her.

Sam turned to wait for Mary, but she was confused by the expression on Carly’s face.

“Where are you two going?” Carly asked, raising her eyebrow.

“…Back to the dorm?” What was so odd about that? Club activities were over, and she had to study tomorrow.

“Well, yeah, we’re done with playing, but it’s not like the night’s over yet,” Carly snorted, rolling her eyes. “It’s not even 9:30! After club lets out, we all go to hang out at the Honey Café! Come on you two!”

“Huh? Seriously? Do we have to?”

Carly looked disappointed. “Well, I mean, you don’t have to, but it’s fun. You know, socializing, hanging out, shooting the shit, that’s what clubs are for, right?”

That sounded positively dreadful.

“I-I’ll go!” Mary blurted out. She walked back to join the others, shooting a hopeful glance at Sam.

“That’s great!” Carly cheered. “It’s gonna be a blast! Sam? What about you? You in?”

Okay, yeah. Sam hated socializing. At the same time, though, she was still pretty worked up from all that running, and she doubted she’d be able to relax enough to go to sleep for a while yet. Plus she was dying of thirst and had drained her water bottle a while ago, and a nice glass of ice-cold milk sounded pretty temping right about now…

“Ah, it’s okay, Carly, just leave her be,” Cain cheerfully called out. “Sammy’s not the kind of girl who wants to have fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Sam’s eye twitched. Oh, really? Oh, really now? She wasn’t that “kind of girl” huh? Who the fuck did that jerk think he was, saying something so brazen? She’d show him. She could have all sorts of fun!

With a scowl, she stomped over to join the others, glaring daggers at Cain.