[Game: Pop Quiz!]
[It looks like you're mad at Mr. Frog. Uh oh, looks like someone is in trouble!]
[Rules:
1. The person chosen to answer the question will choose the person to answer next. If unable to do so, Mr. Frog will choose.
2. Mr. Frog must be able to understand your answer for it to be valid.
3. If a person is unable to answer the question, then Mr. Frog will administer a mild punishment. If a person is unable to answer a question two times, Mr. Frog can administer any punishment as he sees fit.
4. A person passes the pop quiz if they answer the question correctly. They will no longer be quiz participants, thus no longer having to answer any more quiz questions and cannot be called on by other participants.]
[PS: Since you called me to appear, you're a teeny bit smarter than a bag of rocks and might survive this game (≧◡≦) ♡]
Mr. Frog chuckled, "Bald man. Answer this question."
Sal, the elderly man who had specks of grey hair on his head asked in a shaking voice, "Me?"
"Not you. The delinquent bald student stuck in his chair."
Sal gave a sigh of relief, wiping traces of sweat off his forehead with his sleeve.
"What special ingredient does Miss Wolf use in her homemade cherry pies?"
A. Human eyeballs
B. Cherries picked from Scarlet Forest
C. Leftover sugar from Mr. Sloth's cupboard
D. Butter churned from the milk of Mrs. Cow"
The gangster-looking baldie spat at the frog, "I'm not answering your stupid question."
"Oh? I'll even give you a special hint. It's said that time moves different in Mr. Sloth's house. Surely millennium-old sugar would ripen and taste better than regular modern sugar."
"..."
"Still not answering? I'll have to punish you if you don't answer."
"Fine, I choose-"
Clay interrupted, "Wait! Don't choose the hint. The frog always lies about its hints. Choose anything but the hint."
The frog enticed the baldie, "If you ignore that silly boy, I'll give you a reward. I'll even take the spit off you."
The baldie ignored it. "Hmph. Kid, you really think I'm that stupid? I choose B. Cherries picked from Scarlet Forest."
"Oh? What an intriguing answer. One of your classmates tried to stop you from choosing C and you listened to him and chose B. Cherries picked from Scarlet Forest. I'm sad to announce that you're WRONG!"
The frog's entire body jiggled as he rumbled with laughter. It started prancing around the man.
"Kekeke, you already got a punishment. Hmm, what should I do? What should I do?"
The frog purposefully glanced at Clay and exclaimed, "I know! Since I'm a very benevolent Mr. Frog, I'll help you out and get the spit off you anyway!"
It extended its red tongue, rapidly wrapping around the entire body of the baldie in a spiral fashion. The tongue seemed to have some magical properties and all the sticky saliva slipped to the floor. Before anyone could give out a sigh of relief, the frog retracted its tongue in its mouth. With the baldie still inside.
"Ahll the shpit is gun. Hurhurhurhur."
Clay's face flushed and his throat tightened. When he was about to shout at the frog, Ted the man with gelled-back hair, shot a warning look at him.
All the students in the class were silently watching the frog. The only thing one could hear were the greatly muffled noises from inside the frog's mouth. The frog gave a look of great exertion, like it was going to give poo. Clay's eyes widened as he watched an oval human-shaped lump go, ever so slowly, down the frog's throat.
He clenched his fists. His mind went through various scenarios.
Could he use this moment to kill the frog?
*Clay sprinted at the frog with a pipe in hand.
The pipe was ineffective and the frog swallowed him without a blink.
It chuckled, "What a nice appetizer."*
Clay shook his head. There were no usable weapons. Last time, the metal pipe bounced off the frog's head without a scratch.
What if he aimed at the frog's eye?
*Clay dashed towards the distracted frog and stabbed his pipe towards its eye. Before it could puncture, the frog's clear membrane closed over the eye and the pipe bounced off. The frog roared in anger and squeezed Clay to death with its tongue.*
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Suicide mission.
But as Clay thought back to the previous scene of the baldie attacking the frog, he found some discrepancies.
Why did the frog only give the baldie a mild punishment for attacking it? Could the frog be forced to adhere to a certain punishment? Were there hidden rules in this game?
After watching the excruciatingly slow scene, Clay closed his eyes and told himself, "Wait. That is the only way. Wait until I determine all the hidden rules. We still have 9 people in play, including me."
The frog burped.
"Oops. I forgot to ask him to choose the next person. Keke, I guess I'll choose myself."
The frog chuckled at his own joke. It thought out loud, "Hmm. Who should I pick? Should I choose the noisy child who keeps interrupting and seems very angry at me? Or maybe the old man who's too nervous and is bound to get it wrong? or maybe the couple who think they can get by, staying as quiet as mice? No offense to Mr. Mouse."
The bulb of its meandering finger trailed each person it mentioned.
"I think...I'll choose you! Ted." It ended up picking a person not mentioned. Perhaps it wanted to frighten him with surprise?
Ted didn't verbally respond. He casually leaned back on his blue plastic chair, crossing his hands behind his head, and gave the frog a mocking look. He currently looked like an experienced lawyer who was watching a low-level intern call his client for cross-examination.
"What special ingredient does Miss Wolf use in her homemade cherry pies?"
A. Human eyeballs
B. Cherries picked from Scarlet Forest
C. Leftover sugar from Mr. Sloth's cupboard
D. Butter churned from the milk of Mrs. Cow"
After a brief pause, the frog continued, "Let me give you a hint, Scarlet Forest is where the rumored mythical dragons reside. It is said, if you --"
"A. Human eyeballs"
There was no hesitation.
The rest of the class gave an outburst of shock.
"HMM?" The frog flared its eyes in surprise. It calmed down and smiled, "You gave your answer with such conviction. Are you sure about that?"
"I'm sure. A, final answer."
The frog gave a dirty look, "Ding ding ding! Correct! Her friends always ask her what the secret to her mouthwatering pies are, but she's planning on franchising the business, so don't worry Miss Wolf, we censored the true ingredient! Ted passes the pop quiz with flying scores!"
Clay thought to himself, "Censored the true ingredient? Are we being watched by other people?"
Lily said, "How could you..."
Sal gave an approving nod, clearly impressed. The three students gave thumbs up.
Clay asked Ted, "How did you know?"
Ted adjusted his tie, calmly explaining, "In 1997, there was a research experiment where a college professor asked all his students to write a multiple choice question on the last day of class and its answer. He found out that his students tended to put the answer as A. Even after repeating the experiment the next year, 70% of the class put A as the answer. "
He shrugged, "Since Mr. Frog gave the two hints of the two hints of B and C. I figured it was a 70/30 guess to choose A."
He paused, looking around at everyone's awe-struck faces. The couple's faces flushed red with hope and they squeezed each others' hands.
"Naw, I'm just kidding. I just made that up." Ted chortled, "I just guessed. 50/50 guess cuz' who could trust that frog. What kind of professor would ask his students to write questions?"
The frog interrupted, "Okay next question. Ted choose."
Ted asked the class, "Does anyone want it?"
Clay, along with the others, were silent. He was struggling internally. Why did he care so much for a boy he met today? Wasn't he treating other people as sacrifices? Sacrifices for Hay?
He glanced at Hay's motionless corpse, still laid on the desk. The frog didn't do anything and just let it lay there.
Or was he treating other people as sacrifices for himself? Maybe he didn't really want vengeance. Maybe he just wanted to look good in front of other people. To feel morally good.
Clay bit his lips. It wasn't like he didn't feel fear. When he saw the baldie being swallowed, his heart jumped with a shot of fright. Looking at the frog left feelings of dread and worry that the frog would choose him next.
Did he really just want to survive?
Ted's words woke Clay up from his thoughts. "Alright, I'll just choose randomly then."
Ted reached over and picked the metal pipe from the floor. He spun the cylinder on his table. Everyone watched the swirling blur of gray with bated breaths.
The pipe pointed at the female person in the couple. Before Ted could say anything, the male person in the couple spoke up, "I'll do it instead of her."
Ted nonchalantly agreed and pointed at him with the pipe, "Alright. I choose that guy."
Clay breathed an internal sigh of relief. He need more time to test his hypothesis.
The frog exclaimed, "Great! Great! Young lover, answer this question and impress your lady friend. Hopefully it won't be a sacrifice you regret!"
It continued,
"Surprise! Mr. Chameleon is also in this class. Which student is he?
A. Lily
B. Darian
C. Clay
D. Ted"
"Aha? You don't believe Mr. Chameleon is really here? When you guess correctly, we will have him reveal--oops!"
The frog dramatically covered its mouth with its two hands. The question said "Mr. Chameleon" and the frog even said "he," so Mr. Chameleon definitely had to be a guy, right? But again, this could be a trap set by the two animals and Mr. Chameleon could actually be Lily.
Clay wondered out loud, "If there's a Mr. Frog in this world, are you good friends with your predators, like Mr. Snake?" Seeing the frog's darkening look, Clay pressed onwards, "Oh, there is a Mr. Snake? So you must be great friends with him!"
Mr. Frog gritted its teeth, "Mr. Snake is a slithering lying devious devil and I would *never* be friends with him."
Clay exclaimed, "Aha! The frog glanced at Lily. It probably doesn't want to get embarrassed, so Mr. Chameleon must be Lily."
Lily protested, "I am not a chameleon!"
The man in the couple chose Lily.
Mr. Frog laughed, "While it is true that Mr. Chameleon can turn into Mrs. Chameleon just as well, not in this case! You are wrong! I glanced at that girl on purpose, do you think I'm a fool?"
After spitting a glob on the man, who jumped and was only struck on the torso, Mr. Frog scathingly said, "The real fool in the room is the boy who told you to choose the girl. The boy that couldn't save farmer-boy. The boy that led you all to your doom."
*Wait. Just keep waiting. One by one, each hidden rule will reveal itself.*