"Yo, catch".
The plastic ball landed in a pair of hands.
"Huh?".
"Say thanks to Nada for me", Malakai said, giving a nod to Justin.
Justin didn't know what was going on. Malakai randomly threw a plastic ball towards him. He didn't know if he should run away with it or wait by the door because it felt wrong that he had this plastic ball. He got it too easily.
"Justin, he's paying us back", Marcus told him. "Nada gave him a ball in the second round. He's returning the favour".
Justin awkwardly observed what was happening in front of him. Malakai was at one end of the table, and Kayla was on the other end. Kayla was side-eying him but didn't seem too interested in him. Justin expected someone to be running at him, not whatever this was.
"I should leave, right?" Justin quietly asked Marcus.
"Yeah…" Marcus slowly replied, also confused about what he was seeing through Justin's camera. "I don't know what their problem is, but you don't need to get involved".
Justin listened to the advice and went on his way. He didn't say anything to Malakai or Kayla. He left without saying a word to either of them and managed to get a plastic ball. That was the easiest plastic ball he's gotten in this challenge. He wasn't complaining, but the whole situation was odd.
"He's gone", Malakai said, looking at the empty doorway. He looked back at Kayla. "You're not gonna chase after him?"
"No", Kayla replied, staring daggers at him.
"Look at my hands. I don't have the plastic ball", Malakai said, lifting both his hands to show her and feeling awkward by how Kayla was staring at him.
"I don't care", Kayla curtly replied and screwing her face.
Malakai didn't like the expression she was making and her attitude.
"Bro, why are you still here?" he asked. He didn't understand what she wanted. "You said you were gonna take the ball from me. Look, I don't have it no more".
Kayla kept the same face.
"It's not my fault you decided to throw it to him", she replied.
"You're acting like I was forced to throw it to him. I wanted to give him that ball", Malakai said so she didn't get the wrong idea.
"Okay? I don't care", Kayla replied, shrugging.
Malakai gave a confused look, "What kind of response is that?" he thought.
"Aryt, tell me what you want then?" Malakai directly asked, not beating around the bush.
Kayla didn't answer.
"You want an apology?" Malakai asked.
Kayla didn't answer.
Malakai took that as a yes.
"Aryt then. I'm sorry for taking your plastic balls and pretending to shoot you. Hahaha", Malakai said, finding it funny and laughing at the end.
Kayla didn't laugh.
"Haha", Malakai noticed he wasn't getting anywhere like this. "Okay, genuinely, what do you want?" he seriously asked.
"Revenge", Kayla concisely answered. "I want to ruin your chances of winning".
Malakai looked at her funny. "Heh. Revenge?" he rhetorically asked. "You're acting like I killed someone you loved. All I did was take a few plastic balls from you. I just did what I had to do for my class".
"I don't care. You ruined the challenge for me", Kayla sourly replied.
"That's the point of the challenge. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose. Not everyone can win", Malakai said.
"I don't care".
"What do you mean you don't care?" Malakai replied, tired of hearing that response. "Bro, whoever's on the mic, help your teammate. She's not alright in the head. All she says is I don't care", he continued, pointing at Kayla.
"Kayla, what do you plan to do?" Sabrina asked.
Kayla didn't answer.
"Kayla, I know you're trying to sabotage him, but this doesn't help us either", Sabrina said.
Kayla didn't answer.
Sabrina had been trying to talk to Kayla this entire time, but Kayla didn't answer.
"This hurts to watch, dawg", Ash said, sitting next to Jason. "Both our representatives are doing trash".
"Dillon's doing well now", Jason replied. "He's got three balls in his bag".
"You're watching Dillon's angle? I've been watching Kayla's", Ash said. "Shit's tragic. Malakai's toying with her".
"Nah, he's not toying with her. But it does look like he's in control of the situation. He looks like he doesn't care what she does. He just wants to know why she's doing what she's doing", Jason replied.
"Maaaan, you should've been a representative", Ash said, leaning back. "You would've done better than this".
"Probably", Jason replied, slightly confident. "But, it's harder than it looks. I bet a lot of people would do worse than them".
"Are you going to shoot her?" David asked Malakai.
"Nah", Malakai casually replied.
"What are you waiting for then? Run past her", David told him, confused about why he was wasting time.
"Aryt", Malakai listened. He looked at Kayla and told her,
"Imma run past you now".
"Why did that idiot tell her?" The whole of class 1-C questioned.
Kayla furrowed her eyebrows, "Why don't you shoot me?" she asked, expecting Malakai to use his paintball gun.
Malakai furrowed his eyebrows, "What? Bro, why do you wanna get shot? Are you a masochist?" Malakai asked, confused. "Are you that hurt I didn't shoot you?".
"No. But, I've now realised that you're scared to shoot me", Kayla replied, smiling, trying to taunt him.
"The fuck?" Malakai reacted. "That's the dumbest thing I've heard".
"I don't see any other explanation as to why you haven't shot me", Kayla said.
Malakai let the moment marinate for a few seconds.
"Let me get this straight. You're hurt I didn't shoot you, and now you hate me. But if I shot you earlier, you would still hate me now because I shot you", Malakai replied. "Women…" he face palmed. "You lot are not human, man. You lot are a different species".
"My point still stands", Kayla smugly said.
"Your point?" Malakai replied. "Bro, I don't know who you think you are, but I told you. You're not worth a bullet. None of these bullets have your name on them".
"Sounds like a bunch of bullshit", Kayla said, feeling like she was getting to Malakai.
"Oh my days, man. This women's delulu", Malakai mumbled.
Malakai loved to take the piss, and this was an excellent opportunity to go back and forth with Kayla and argue for the fun of it, but he didn't have the time.
Malakai took a deep breath in and exhaled,
"Fuck this".
Malakai made his move. He dashed to his left and ran along the left side of the table. Kayla saw him suddenly run and shifted to her right to block Malakai. Malakai saw her moving in front of him to block her. He smiled. This position was perfect for him. He raised his arm and aimed his paintball gun. Kayla saw Malakai's expression. His smile was identical to the one she saw in the second round, and he had those crazy eyes, plus, she couldn't miss the paintball gun aiming straight at her face. Malakai continued to close the distance and kept his aim locked on Kayla. He was aiming straight at her forehead, right between her eyes, and when he was close enough.
"Haha!".
PAP!
Kayla's body shuddered, but she felt no pain.
She didn't get shot.
Malakai switched the gun on safety before he started running. He pretended to shoot Kayla to distract her and run past her. It worked. Kayla's panicked reaction made her close her eyes for a quick moment and stop focusing on Malakai. In that little moment, Malakai had the chance to dash past her.
Kayla had all the talk, but when the gun was pointed at her, she crumbled. However, it wasn't over yet. She failed to grab and stop him, but there was still a chance to hurt him. Malakai hadn't completely run past her, so Kayla turned around and erratically swung her right arm towards Malakai's face. Similar to how Akari swung her arm out to her in the last round.
Kayla's right hand landed on Malakai's face, barely. Without a second thought, she dug her nails and tried to hold him. Unfortunately for Malakai, Kayla had some fresh, sharp, light pink acrylics done last weekend. Her nails were doing more than scratching the surface.
"Ayo! What the fuck!" Malakai exclaimed, moving his face away while running after feeling a sharp pain on the side of his face.
Kayla's nails manage to dig deep into Malakai's skin and leave three nasty scratch marks on the right side of his face. One near his eyebrow, one next to his eye, and the last on his cheekbone.
It didn't stop there. Malakai kept running, so Kayla chased him. Malakai sprinted out of the room and took a left.
"Shit! She scratched me!" Malakai said, feeling a little weirded out. "Yo, where should I go?" he asked David.
…
"Yo! Say something!" Malakai hurriedly said.
…
He got no response again.
Malakai put his hand to his right ear. The earpiece was gone.
"Shit..." Malakai said with his eyes widened.
He turned around to look behind him, and Kayla was still pursuing him.
"She made my earpiece come out", Malakai thought. "I need to go back".
The distance between Malakai and Kayla rapidly increased due to Malakai's quicker pace. Kayla couldn't keep up. Malakai took a few quick glances behind him to check if Kayla was still chasing him, and surprisingly, she still was.
"I need to spin back round and get that earpiece", Malakai thought.
"Tch", he kissed his teeth, taking a left and going up the stairs. "I can't hear you lot. I'm going round back to that room to get my earpiece", he told the class.
Groans came from all around the classroom. He gave away a plastic ball, and he lost his earpiece. No one in the classroom could tell him off either because he didn't have an earpiece.
"What is he doing?" Lucas rhetorically asked, annoyed and shaking his head.
"He's throwing the challenge", Benjamin added, leaning back.
"Guys, chill out", William said. "He's doing good so far".
"He's right. It's not his fault he got scratched", Ray added.
"But how can a scratch make his earpiece fall out?" Lucas asked, not understanding how Malakai lost his earpiece.
None of the people in the class saw Malakai get scratched because they didn't have an angle on it. They heard Malakai say he got scratched, and they could tell from the crazy movement from the camera when he was running past Kayla. They could still hear what Malakai was saying because of the camera vest, but they could not communicate with him.
"This is bad", David said. "He can't hear what we're saying, and we can't tell him what to do. We've got no communication with him".
"And he won't know when the round will end or what Delilah is doing", Benjamin added more problems.
"You're worrying too much. He's going to get the earpiece back", William said, defending Malakai.
"And if he doesn't?" Lucas asked.
"Err, well. I haven't thought that far", William replied. "But it's Malakai, dude. He'll make it work".
"You have too much faith in that guy", Benjamin said, not having the same optimism.
"Why shouldn't I?" William asked. "When hasn't he pulled through".
"Many times. Remember when we used to play, and he'd say he'd win the game for us and didn't?" Benjamin replied, giving an easy example of them playing that FPS game they liked to play.
"Dude, I mean when it matters", William said.
Benjamin looked away. He didn't have a response to that. It was clear that Lucas and Benjamin were less optimistic than Ray and William. Usually, Benjamin would be on Malakai's side, but he'd seen Malakai mess up too many times already. Even he was surprised by how much Malakai was messing up, he couldn't defend him. Lucas always worries about stuff involving Malakai.
"The round isn't over yet. Let's see what he can do", David said.
David was on the fence. His heart wanted to have faith in Malakai, but his head was telling him that Malakai had messed up too many times for this to be okay. Giving a plastic ball away and losing the earpiece isn't something that could be skipped over. If they ended up with the most points, this could be water under the bridge, but if they didn't, most of the class would be doing more than blaming Malakai.
Destiny was casually strolling around the building. She'd already found three plastic balls and dropped them into her safe zone. When she got to her safe zone, she was met with many of their plastic balls on the floor next to the locker. This wasn't a surprise for Destiny, though, because she already knew they were there. This was because Destiny had an item. She had the cameras. In the fourth round, after she got shot by Malakai, she found an item card. The card had a code that could be used on an app on the tablet. That card allowed Destiny to have access to the cameras around the building. The only camera angles she didn't have access to were the other team's safe zones, but she had her safe zone camera angle. That was how Alexander quickly made it back to their safe zone and stopped Dillon. While frozen, Destiny checked the cameras and saw Dillon go into their safe zone, which led to her telling Frank, who then told Alexander. Destiny didn't watch what happened to Dillon but was told what happened afterwards. From what she was told she was fairly confident that Alexander was doing fine. At the start of the challenge, she thought Alexander was slacking, but now it seemed like he was back to 'normal'.
Back to Destiny. She was strolling around the building. Her pace has slowed down like most of the people in this challenge. At the start of the round, she was much more hastier with her actions, but now, she was resting a little. Conserving her energy in case she needed it later. Destiny kept walking into rooms and searched. She wasn't searching with any eagerness. She was fairly confident that they had the most points, so her hunger to search dwindled. The repetition of the challenge was also boring her, and the bullet shot in the previous round dampened her mood. Alexander questioned her before this round started about the paintball stain on her clothes, but she didn't want to answer him. She gave him short answers with a little bit of attitude. Talking about it embarrassed her.
Destiny walked into a room, thinking nothing of it, but she saw something. Dillon crouched on the floor with his bag next to him. He was looking at the bottom shelf of a bookcase. Destiny couldn't see what was at the bottom of the bookshelf, but it looked like a mess judging by the mess around it. The room Destiny and Dillon were in was small. The room didn't have much inside, which was confusing for Destiny because she didn't know what Dillon could be searching for that intently. That wasn't the only thing she was thinking. She was also thinking about whether she could sneak off with Dillon's bag. The bag was right there. It was in Dillon's blind spot. If Destiny was quick, she could make out with it and go unnoticed, but she had to do it now because Dillon could stop searching at any moment.
Therefore, Destiny had no doubt about what to do next. She quietly tiptoed towards Dillon. She made sure every step she took was soundless, and she kept her eyes on Dillon. Every movement she saw Dillon make made her heart race. Even the slightest movement of his hands scared her. Destiny got closer and closer, and every time she got closer, her heart raced more. She was scared her heartbeat was going to sell her out. Destiny could hear her heartbeat, so she was nervous that Dillon could hear it, too. That was the one thing she couldn't make soundless. However, luckily enough, Dillon was too focused on whatever he was looking at. Eventually, Destiny got close enough to the bag. Destiny carefully lowered her hand and got ahold of the handle. She intricately held the bag handle at the top with two fingers and slowly lifted it up.
"I don't get what you're trying to make me look for".
Destiny froze mid-lifting the bag up. Dillon randomly spoke. Destiny was like a statue. She stayed completely still for a few seconds. She didn't want to move because she was sure Dillon would notice her if she did.
Dillon didn't notice her.
After those long few seconds, Destiny slowly moved away from Dillon. She made sure to keep her hand still. She didn't want to move the bag around, so the bag made noise. She didn't know what was in the bag, but she didn't want to take that chance. Like the way she came in, she was making her way out. Silently.
"Forget this".
Dillon stood up and looked to his right. He didn't see his bag. He quickly looked to his left. He didn't see his bag. He turned around in a panic. He saw his bag, but Destiny was holding it.
"What are you doing!" Dillon's voice projected across the room.
Destiny looked him in the eyes before she dashed. She was basically out of the room by the time Dillon turned around.
"HEY!" Dillon shouted, chasing after her.
The chase was on.
Destiny was running like this was the first round of the challenge. The sudden excitement gave her a boost. Her legs felt weightless. She took a quick glance behind her and saw Dillon chasing. Dillon wasn't the fastest, but seeing him chase her was still a little unnerving. Destiny could definitely outrun him, but in these circumstances, she wasn't too sure. Her stamina wasn't on the same level as her speed, and she had the tablet tucked into her pants (trousers). She didn't know how good Dillon's stamina was, but she knew she couldn't continue sprinting at this constant pace. She had to come up with a plan to lose him. However, nothing came into her head. The only thought was to run.
Destiny peeked behind her again to check the distance and saw that Dillon was closer than he was before. Without realising, her pace had decreased. That sudden boost was short-lived. She quickly looked ahead and tried to focus on running, but she saw someone ahead.
Dillon saw the same thing she saw.
"OI, MALAKAI! STOP HER!".