"OI, MALAKAI! STOP HER!"
Malakai stopped running and saw what was in front of him. He saw Destiny running towards him with Dillon behind her, chasing her. Dillon called out to Malakai and told him to stop her, which was weird.
"Why is he asking for my help?".
Malakai looked at Destiny more closely and saw she was running with a bag. He quickly put two and two together and figured out that the bag was Dillon's. All of this analysis happened very quickly, but what was Malakai going to do, too?
"What should I do? Should I stop her?" Malakai thought. "It would be funny if I let her run past me, but at the same time, it would be funny to stop her. Hmmm, I don't wanna help either of them, but if I were to choose, I would help.."
Destiny didn't slow down when she saw Malakai. Her legs kept going. Her mind stopped, but her body kept moving.
"What kind of timing is this? And out of all the people to show up, it's him", Destiny thought. "I can't stop. If I do, Dillon will catch me". Destiny took a look at Malakai's stance. "He's still got his paintball gun. He wouldn't shoot me again. Would he?… No, he wouldn't. But will he listen to Dillon?… No, he wouldn't. He hates Dillon more than he hates me. I know he doesn't like me, but surely he wouldn't listen to Dillon. I'll run past him, he'll leave me alone, and I'll thank him after this challenge. Yeah, that's what will happen".
Dillon kept chasing. Seeing Malakai gave him hope. In truth, that person could've been anyone, and he would've shouted at them to stop Destiny. He just needed someone to stop her. Whether or not Malakai was going to help him, he was unsure.
"Tch. Out of all the people, why him?" Dillon thought. "I don't know if he'll listen to me. Then again, I feel like a lot of people wouldn't listen to me. Hold on, this might be a good thing. If someone were to listen to me, it would be Malakai, right?… Fuck I don't know. He doesn't like me, but he doesn't like her either. Tch. No, he'll listen to me. He wouldn't miss this chance to mess her up. If he doesn't help me out, I'll fuck him up after the challenge".
The three of them had their own internal monologues about what was going to happen in the next few seconds. Destiny and Dillon were confident that Malakai was going to support them, but Malakai had already decided who he was going to help. It was only a matter of time before Destiny and Dillon found out his decision.
Destiny kept getting closer and closer to Malakai. The corridor was wide, so Destiny could run past Malakai if he wasn't blocking her.
Malakai looked Destiny's position. She was running down the middle of the corridor. Malakai stepped to his left-hand side to give her an open path to run through. Destiny's face broke into a smile after seeing Malakai's decision.
Well, she thought that was his final decision.
Malakai lifted his arm and aimed his paintball gun. The aim was locked on Destiny. Destiny's smile reversed. Seeing Malakai point the gun at her made her internally panic. I say internally because Destiny didn't stop running. She kept steaming ahead despite the paintball gun being pointed at her. She had no choice. She couldn't stop or turn back. Destiny's eyes were locked on Malakai, trying to gauge if he was bluffing or not, but the smile she saw was the same as usual. She couldn't tell if he was going to shoot or not. That smile could mean anything. She had to find out for herself. All of a sudden, Destiny put her head down and went faster. She thought if she didn't look at Malakai, he wouldn't shoot. Too much adrenaline was running through Destiny to stop suddenly. So much was happening. She didn't know how close she was to Malakai because her head was down until,
"Hehe".
PAP!
Destiny did a little hop at the sound of the gun firing. But the gun didn't fire anything. Malakai still had the paintball gun on safety. No bullet came flying towards Destiny. Destiny instinctively flinched and hopped in an attempt to dodge the bullet after she heard a sound coming from the paintball gun. This meant she stopped running for a moment. She quickly glanced at Malakai and saw his grinning face. She was grateful he didn't shoot her but annoyed he scared her. It was a conflicting emotion.
Malakai didn't expect that type of reaction from Destiny. He thought Destiny would come to a complete halt. Instead, she kept moving. The little hop wasn't a hop on the spot. It was a little hop forward. It stopped her running but didn't completely stop her moving.
Despite the little slip-up, Dillon still wasn't in range to catch Destiny. To Malakai's surprise, Destiny already recovered from that little scare. She was in front of Malakai and was about to go full sprint again.
"That prick", Destiny thought, smiling. "He has helped me, so I guess I have to".
"Aah!"
Destiny fell to the floor.
Malakai stuck out his right leg and tripped Destiny as she ran past him. Thankfully, Destiny wasn't sprinting, as the fall would've hurt her more.
This was Malakai's decision. He decided to side with Dillon. This didn't necessarily mean he preferred Destiny over Dillon. The reason he chose this option was because of what class Destiny was in. Obviously, he didn't want to help someone from class 1-A. To tell the truth, the choice was fairly simple for Malakai. He was always going to stop Destiny. He didn't plan to trip her, but she handled the fake shot better than he expected. After Malakai pulled the trigger, Destiny thought Malakai would leave her alone, so she didn't notice him edge closer and stick out his right leg. Malakai impulsively stuck out his right leg. He saw the opportunity and did it.
"I wanna watch this", Malakai thought as he took a step back and saw Destiny scrambling on the floor while Dillon loomed closer.
"That son of a bitch", Dillon said under his breath with a big smile on his face, seeing Destiny on the floor appreciating what Malakai did.
Destiny was on the floor with her hands and knees, holding the bag with her right hand.
"No! Fuck!" Destiny quickly said, panicking.
Destiny tried to get up but stumbled due to her rushing. She didn't look behind to check where Dillon was because she knew she had to go no matter where he was. Destiny got to her feet and was about to set off, but the right side of her body got flung back. She turned her head and saw Dillon grabbing the bag.
He caught up.
Dillon yanked the bag, making Destiny fly back towards him.
"Let go!" Dillon forcefully told her.
"No, you let go!" Destiny replied, keeping a tight hold on the bag with both hands.
"It's my bag, you fucking idiot!"
"And I stole it fairly!".
"Can I have the bag?" Malakai asked.
"Shut the fuck up!" They both shouted at him.
Dillon was obviously stronger than Destiny, but he couldn't find a way to stop her from clinging onto the bag. Well, there was a way to do it, but he didn't want to do it.
"I'm not getting this bag. I need to do something", Destiny thought, doing her best to keep hold of the bag.
She looked at the bag, and something shined at her, giving her an idea.
"Malakai, help me! Shoot him!" Destiny hastily told him.
"Why would I help you?" Malakai replied, confused and smirking.
"You helped him, now help me", Destiny said, desperately looking at him.
While looking at Malakai briefly, she winked at him.
"Why did she wink at me?" Malakai thought. "Should I help her? She looks like she's gonna do something good. Hmmmm".
"He's not gonna help you. He's helped me", Dillon happily said, still pulling the bag towards him.
"Are you sure about that?" Malakai asked, pointing the paintball gun at Dillon's face.
Dillon slightly turned his head to look at Malakai.
"Why are you pointing that at me?!" Dillon unhappily raised his voice.
"I helped you. Now I need to help her", Malakai replied, smiling. "I can't lie. I don't wanna help either of you, but it is what it is".
Dillon looked at Malakai's expression and tried to see if he was bluffing.
"Tch, I don't give a shit. You're not gonna shoot", he said, coming to the conclusion Malakai was playing around.
Dillon yanked the bag again. He could've got the bag if he pushed Destiny, but he didn't want to put his hands on her.
"Huh?" Malakai reacted, raising his eyebrows. "You thought I wasn't gonna shoot last time. Remember what happened?"
"You can talk smack all you want. You're not going to shoot me again. The guns on safety", Dillon replied, not even looking at him.
Click!
Malakai took the paintball gun off safety.
"What now?" Malakai asked, stepping closer and crazily smiling while aiming at Dillon's face.
Dillon's body eased a little after seeing the eye of the barrel again. His body didn't ease because he was relaxed. It eased to focus on the gun and not on the bag.
Zip!
"What?"
Drop!
Two plastic balls rolled out of the bag. Destiny instantly let go of the bag and retrieved one of the balls on the floor near her. Dillon quickly stepped forward, making Destiny back away and not giving her a chance to get the second plastic ball, which was closer to him.
This was Destiny's plan. She knew she wasn't going to win that tug of war with Dillon, so she wanted to get something from inside the bag, at least. To do that, she needed to unzip the bag, but unzipping the bag unnoticed was just as hard as snatching the bag from Dillon. This was where she was hoping Malakai would help her out. Malakai's help was the one thing she needed to make this plan successful. That was why she asked for his help. At first, he declined, but she winked at him and hoped he trusted her. Lucky for her, Malakai helped her. Him pointing his gun at Dillon distracted him enough to use a little less force and make it easier for her to reach for the zip.
Destiny had a plastic ball in her hands.
"Thanks for the plastic ball, Dillon. Thanks for the help, Malakai. Mwah! Mwah!" Destiny theatrically said, blowing a kiss to each of them before turning around and running for the hills.
Malakai watched as she ran away.
"I kinda regret helping her now", he said, cringing a little.
Dillon picked up the one plastic ball on the floor.
"Why the fuck did you help her?!" Dillon angrily asked.
"I don't know. It was funny innit", Malakai replied, turning to him and shrugging.
"Funny? You helped everyone in 1-A!" Dillon said with an angry expression.
Malakai paused for a second.
"Yeeaaah, I can't lie. My plan was to help you entirely cuz I didn't wanna help anyone from 1-A. But then she winked at me and thought she was gonna do something fun, and she did. You got finessed. Haha", Malakai giggled. "But then I remembered I wasn't supposed to help her".
"Fucking dumbass", Dillon said, shaking his head.
"Can I have a plastic ball? I know you have one more in there", Malakai said, nodding to the backpack.
"Get the fuck out of here!" Dillon harshly replied.
"Bro, I helped you. Be grateful", Malakai condescendingly said.
"If we weren't in this challenge, you would be unconscious right now", Dillon replied, walking up to him and towering over him.
"No, I wouldn't", Malakai smiled, trying to aggravate him. "You know you wouldn't do shit to me".
"Tch". Dillon tightened his fist.
"Dillon, you're wasting time", Sabrina reminded him. "Leave him alone".
Dillon stared down Malakai, keeping himself in check. It was taking a lot not to punch Malakai's smug, smiling face.
"Tch".
Dillon turned away from Malakai and walked down the corridor the same way Destiny had gone. Leaving Malakai standing on the side of the corridor.
"That was something", Malakai said, watching Dillon walking away and putting his backpack back on.
Malakai quickly realised what he was doing.
"Shit! I need to go", he said, pacing away.
"Can you still back him?" Benjamin asked William, looking at him with questioning eyes.
"Errr. I don't know what he was doing there", William replied, scratching his head. "BUT if he finds the earpiece, it will be fine… Right, Ray?".
Ray had a hand on his chin and awkwardly looked at William, not knowing what answer he wanted.
"He's not even concentrating on the challenge. He just wants to have fun", Lucas said, leaning back, looking like he lost hope.
"That's what he always does", Ray replied, popping up. "In every challenge, he's had fun. Think about it", he knew what to say now. "In the second challenge, he drove fast because he wanted to have fun. In the third challenge, he had no plan. He messed around and did random things with the mannequin for fun. It's not like he's tried to get first. He's just done it every time".
"So you're saying we put too much faith in him?" Lucas asked.
"M-maybe", Ray reluctantly replied.
"You guys are overreacting!" William said. "It might look like he's doing worse than he is. At the end of the challenge, Malakai and Delilah might end up with the most points".
"I don't see that happening", Benjamin replied.
"Yeah. He was just helping the enemy. He's wasting time. How can he get the most points?" Lucas added.
"Helping the enemy is crazy", William quietly replied.
"How is that crazy? That's what he did. He was helping the enemy. How else would you describe that?" Lucas asked.
William was stuck on his words. What Lucas said wasn't wrong. The phrasing may have been drastic, but it's true.
"Lu, I think you said that a bit too loud", David quietly told him.
"Huh?" Lucas turned to look around the class.
A lot of people were listening to their conversation. Murmurs and whispers of 'helping the enemy' bounced around the classroom. Now that was said, and in the air, everyone agreed with the statement. Even if he didn't mean to, Malakai was helping the enemy.
"Ahh fuck..." Lucas said, realising he messed up.
Even though he was bad-mouthing Malakai, he didn't want the rest of the class to bad-mouth him. They already were, but Lucas didn't want to make it worse.
"We gotta hope he finds that earpiece", Benjamin said, focussing on the screen.
"Yep. If he doesn't find it, that means that girl has it", David replied. "And if that girl has it, Malakai has actually helped the enemy".
Malakai was rushing down the stairs to the floor below. The only thing on his mind was the earpiece. He had to find it. He sprinted down the corridor to the room where he lost it. Malakai still had a lot of energy left in the tank. His stamina was one of his strong points. Also his breathing was fine. He had no problem with his breathing, and he didn't have any head pain. Having that round to rest helped him.
Malakai reached the room, stopped at the door and peeked inside.
It was empty.
Malakai briskly walked inside and scanned the floor. The room was well-lit, so if something was on the floor, it should be visible. Malakai's eyes were locked on the floor and slowly moved left to right like a camera.
He didn't see it.
Malakai ventured more into the room. He moved towards the table where the scratch happened. He knelt on the floor and checked under the table.
He didn't see it.
Malakai closed his eyes and shook his head. After trying to make his eyes get a higher resolution, he checked the floor under the table again.
He didn't see it.
Malakai turned his body and analysed the floor around the table. He even felt the flooring with his hands to see if his hands could find the earpiece for him.
He didn't see it.
Malakai stood up and went to the other side of the table. To a part of the room where it was impossible for the earpiece to be unless it rolled ridiculously. He scanned the floor.
He didn't see it.
Malakai got to his feet and quickly went around the room, navigating his eyes around the floor again.
He didn't see it.
Malakai stood still in the middle of the room and realised.
"I lost the earpiece".