This Is War - Chapter 25 – The Most Influential Fashion Icon of the 1940s
Saturday – September 23, 2023
The game for the grand finale of Society Wars was a childhood favorite of mine: capture the flag. Well, kind of. Instead of the teams playing in the front yard and back yard of some suburban home, the sides here were the girls’ cabins and the guys’ cabins. And instead of tagging people to get them out, we’d be using high-tech laser tag equipment.
But the most important change of all was that it wasn’t a flag being captured. Instead, they were trying to capture me.
So it wasn’t actually capture the flag at all. It was Capture the Princess.
Ocelot gave us each a list of rules and told us we had two hours to prepare our strategy. That seemed like overkill to me, until I realized that me not getting captured was the only thing keeping Cole from having his way with me. And based on my experience with him at the casino, I assumed he’d do it in front of the entire camp.
Just thinking about it made my palms all sweaty.
“Please tell me you’re amazing at capture the flag,” I said to Tanner.
“I’ve never played before.”
Of course he hadn’t. He’d grown up overseas or something. He’d never had a normal American childhood.
“But in war, as in business,” said Tanner, “the most important thing is to know your enemy. In this case, that’s Cole and Chastity. So what do we know about them?”
“They’re dirty cheaters,” suggested Diablo.
“Bingo,” said Tanner. “Which means we should probably go somewhere a little more private before we start planning our strategy. Any one of these people could be a mole.” He gestured to our dozens of teammates. Most of them were already doing some target practice with the laser guns. “Who do you trust?”
“Well I definitely trust Diablo.” I smiled up at the giant man. “I’m forever in your debt for ripping off Chastity’s bikini.”
He patted my head with his Shaq-sized hand. “Any time, Princess.”
I was pretty sure he was saying that he’d rip her bikini off any time rather than saving my life any time. But the way he said it was still comforting. I was glad to have him on my team now that he wasn’t sabotaging everything.
“Trust anyone else?” asked Tanner.
“Frankie.” She was, after all, my handmaid.
“You can trust my brother,” said Diablo. “And my boy Nigel.” At first I thought he was joking, but then he cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled, “Yo! Nigel! Get your ass over here!”
Nigel scurried over. “Greetings, Big Diablo,” he said as the two did a ridiculous secret handshake that ended with Nigel gently cupping Diablo’s ass cheeks while Diablo massaged his shoulders.
“What the hell is happening?” I whispered to Tanner. “Are they gay lovers?”
“Maybe?” he replied. He seemed just as confused as me. “I didn’t know they’d ever talked…”
“What?” asked Diablo. “You don’t like our handshake?”
“It was…interesting,” I said.
Tanner held up his hand to get our attention. “We can circle back to that later. But for now, is there anyone else that you guys trust?”
We all shook our heads.
“I can vouch for Isadora and Giovanna,” said Tanner.
I almost fell over in shock. “You can?” Since when did Tanner know the soapy shower lesbians?!
“Yeah. I recruited both of them to the Society. They’re good girls.”
“We need to have a serious talk about your definition ofgood girls. And do you really think they’ll have a lot to offer in our war room?”
