After the announcement of the number of pairs progressing to the next round.

"Delilah, I'm sorry, I don't think we're qualifying this round", Tanisha said, looking at Delilah.

"Girl, I understand. I mean, we got 50 points", Delilah replied, putting her hand on Tanisha's shoulder; it was clear Tanisha wasn't confident.

"Why are you talking like you're already out?". David questioned them.

"Look at the competition; it's mostly guys", Tanisha said, pointing around the hall. She wasn't wrong the majority were guys.

"It's not all about speed; you could find your object quicker than everyone else", David replied, trying to motivate them.

"Let's just get this over and done with." Tanisha just wanted this to be over; she'd done enough running for today.

The teachers and third-years gave each pair a piece of paper with a picture of the object they had to get.

"What object did you get?" William asked, trying to look at the paper in Lucas's hand.

"We got a cube. What about you?" He replied, looking at William's paper.

"A teddy bear", William happily replied.

"That's so easy. You could spot that straight away.", Lucas said, sounding jealous.

"What did you two get?" Benjamin turned to the girls.

"A whiteboard". Delilah answered, turning her paper around to show him.

"That sounds good, I think", Benjamin said, trying to lift their spirits up as they already looked dejected.

"Will, You run first, we can get a quick start". David strategised.

"Sounds good to me", William agreed, stretching his arms out.

"I'm faster, so I'll go first", Benjamin said to Lucas, copying his friend's strategy of letting the faster one start.

"All you, man".

The game was starting soon.

"Frank, you go first. Try to find both the cones, and then you direct me to the other one when you return, " Alexander instructed like a manager.

"I'll try", Frank replied, getting ready. The object they got was a cone, a small-sized one as big as an ice cream cone. Not the orange ones you see on the side of the road. The pairs of 1-B were also strategising between themselves.

"Melody, if you see a red toy car, can you throw it in our direction?" Ryan politely asked with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, sure, and if you see an apple, can you throw it towards us?" Melody asked for the favour back with a slight blush on her face.

"Of course", Ryan replied, walking back to Lorenzo.

"You're not going to help them, are you?" Lorenzo quietly said.

Ryan scoffed. "It depends on how far ahead we are", he ruthlessly replied.

"IS EVERYONE READY?" Mr White questioned. All the participants got into position. "Just to make sure. Everyone knows the rules and what item they have to get?" He questioned the group of students. He was answered with a choir of yeses. "OK, if everyone is ready. When I blow my whistle, you can go. Remember, the first ten pairs to cross the finish line will go through to the next round." Mr White finished his speech and walked to the side of the hall, leaving the running space unoccupied. Students had their starting positions, looking at Mr White, who had the whistle between his lips. All of them were ready to set off as soon as they heard that whistle.

FWEETT!!!

The whistle echoed around the room, followed by the echoing of 20 students' shoes stamping on the floor.

William was leading the race for the first ten seconds, but his max speed wasn't the fastest in the room. Felipe, a clear athlete with top running form, was leading the race. Compared to William, who had no form, just natural speed, but this game wasn't only about speed. As William got closer, he noticed that the mess that looked like a mess across the hall was actually a pile of mess. It was so random; random objects were sticking out and lying about. Coloured balls also surrounded the place to confuse further and add volume to the mess. William arrived at the mess and was instantly mind-boggled about what to do. There was so much objects everywhere; he kept looking left and right. The mess was a long line, so their object could be far to the right or far to the left. This game also included luck on how close your object was to your lane, even though there were no designated lanes. It depended on where you stood at the start, so it depended on where you picked essentially.

"Teddy bear, teddy bear, teddy bear, teddy bear". William was thinking to himself, moving objects with his hands. He kept scrummaging moving objects like bottles, balls, paper, rolls of tissue, and cans; there were so many different objects until his right hand brushed a furry object. His head jolted to the right, and he saw the teddy bear. Without thought, he grabbed it, turned around and ran. He looked before him and saw only one other person running back. William was so focused on himself that he didn't notice everyone else was struggling. William thought he was taking too long, but he was one of the quickest. Was this challenge that hard?

On the other hand, Benjamin and Tanisha were looking for their objects. Tanisha was competitive, so she still wanted to qualify despite being knackered. Her eyes scanned what was in front of her, but no whiteboard. However, she did see,

"Benjamin, a cube!" She shouted, pointing at the cube to the right of her.

"Thanks!" Benjamin quickly said before swiping it and running back. On his way back, he saw William close to David and a guy running towards Ryan. It looked like Benjamin was on course to qualify. Meanwhile, Frank was running back; as soon as he reached Alexander,

"Just go straight ahead; I placed the cone on top of everything".

"Well done", Alexander praised, wasting no time and sprinting; he was quick to set off. Despite his appearance, Alexander was quite athletic; even though he wasn't the fastest in the room, he could probably finish in the top ten if everyone in here raced.

Ryan reached the mess and realised he was in a good spot; he looked to his right and saw Alexander arrive, pick up an object immediately, turn around and run back. It was so quick. Ryan was stunned. He had plans to mess with him, but the window didn't open. He wasn't given the chance. What felt like 10 minutes in his head, he saw a second in real life. How was he that lucky to find his object straight away? Or was that intentional? Did his teammate put it there for him? Too many questions with no time. He returned to reality and saw the two guys from 1-C to his left. He failed to mess with the guy in 1-A, but he's got a different opportunity now. He looked down and couldn't see the toy car, so like a child, he started throwing objects to the left of him—the direction where David and Lucas were.

"The fuck is he doing?" David thought to himself while objects piled up on the mess he was looking through. He looked at Ryan and saw he wasn't even looking at him while throwing it, so he was doing it on purpose. Ryan kept multitasking, looking for his toy car while also making a mess on David and Lucas's side. He wasn't looking at what he was throwing in their direction. He just used his left hand to scoop many objects to his left. Ryan thought he was doing well until he saw a figure stand up in the corner of his eye. He turned his head to the left and saw David with a teddy bear in his hands.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Thanks for the assist", David said, turning to Ryan and giving him a look before he ran off. If things couldn't get any worse, Lucas also stood up with a cube in his hands,

"You're great at throwing", Lucas mocked Ryan, giving him a thumbs up before jogging away, saving his energy for the final sprint. Just before Lucas found his object, Tanisha found hers. Ryan was panicking now. His plan to hinder their chances only helped them qualify. He scrambled at the objects, recklessly moving his hands. His eyes were all over the place; his breathing got heavier, and panic took over. Was he going to get eliminated?

"MELODY! GET THE TOY CAR FOR ME!" He desperately shouted; he noticed the toy car far to his right, near where Melody was searching.

Melody didn't hesitate to go for it; she picked it up and passed it to Ryan.

"Thank you." He snatched the toy car and darted back. While he ran back, both the pairs from 1-C went past him. He was embarrassed; he GOT embarrassed, and it wasn't even by Malakai but by his friends. Even though it was his fault and they didn't do anything, they still embarrassed him.

"IT'S OVER!" Mr White shouted to conclude the game. "TEN PAIRS HAVE MOVED TO THE NEXT ROUND!" He continued. "You have now earned 60 points".

"Is it 60 points more?" A student questioned, confused by his wording.

"No, you get 60 points now. You got 10 points more from qualifying into the 3rd round", Mr White clarified.

The students were let down; they thought they had gotten 110 points. 50 from the first round and 60 in the second, but they have just earned 60 points in total now.

"You know what? I'm happy. At least we got 50 points. What's ten more points?" Tanisha said, sitting on the floor with her heart still beating fast.

"10 points for running. That's not worth it", Delilah replied, sitting beside her.

"I'm sorry, I took too long to find the stupid whiteboard", Tanisha apologised, feeling bad. She felt guilty as it was her fault they got eliminated.

"Don't worry about it. I don't care, really. At least we got some points. Look, we were against people from 1-B and 1-A; getting 50 points against them looks pretty good to me". Delilah responded, smiling not fussed about losing.

"All of you that have qualified, you can go have another 30-minute break. Those of you eliminated, you can either stay here or go home", Mr White concluded.

"Are you going to stay here and watch?" Delilah asked Tanisha.

"I'm going to watch my bestie. See how she's doing", Tanisha answered excitedly, wanting to see Maria.

"I might join you. I want to see how Malakai's doing".

The four boys walked over.

"You're not gonna see us win?" Benjamin said sarcastically, hearing the last bit of their conversation.

Delilah stood up, "If Tanisha stayed to watch, I would've. I don't want to be alone on the sides watching all of you; it would be kind of lonely".

"Yeah, I get it", Benjamin replied.

"We got off easy", Lucas said, putting his arm around Benjamin and leaning on him.

"Yeah, both you and David ran back when I was running back", Tanisha said, getting up from the floor.

"Ryan threw our objects to us", Lucas said, smiling.

"On purpose?" Delilah asked, thinking Ryan helped them.

"I don't think so. I think he was trying to sabotage us" Lucas was unsure when he answered.

"Let's go get a drink again", David said, walking past them, basically holding William up. The group followed; Lucas and Benjamin went to the cafeteria, and Delilah and Tanisha went to the other building where the other mini-games were being played.

"Ryan, I didn't qualify because of you", Melody pouted, standing before Ryan.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you, I Promise", Ryan said while hugging Melody to convince her. Melody tightly hugged back.

"You said you promise, you better not break it", Melody replied, believing him.

"You helped me a lot. Of course, I won't break it", He said, breaking the hug with a big smile on her face.

"Fine, I'm going back to my dorm. Text me when you're finished," she said, walking away with her friends. Ryan waved her goodbye, and when she was out of sight, he turned around and sighed.

"What happened? Was finding the car that hard?" Lorenzo asked, noticing Ryan's sour mood.

"I wasn't focussing on finding the car, I was focused on fucking everyone else up. But I helped them by accident", Ryan explained in an annoyed tone.

"We still qualified; you miscalculated and chose the wrong plan. At least you can learn from it", Lorenzo tried to cheer Ryan up. "Besides, it's better now there are fewer people. It will be sweeter when you eliminate them by your own hands", Lorenzo said, walking away to get his phone that was put on the side before the game.

Ryan clenched his fist, "Still fucking annoying".

Frank and Alexander were sitting on the benches on the side and chose not to go to the cafeteria this time.

"Looks like the pairs from 1-C qualified again. Even Isabella and Luna got eliminated last round", Frank said, looking at everyone still in the hall.

"Who cares? They'll get eliminated sooner or later", Alexander replied, not caring about anyone else but himself. Alexander and Frank got first place in this round; even though it didn't mean anything to come first, it still showed that they were levels above everyone else. A select number of people noticed their performance, the third-years and Mr White in particular. So, given that Alexander did have a reason not to care about anyone else but himself because, as it looked, no one was close to him.

Ten minutes before, in the other building.

"This game sounds easy", Nada said, jumping up and down. "What object do we have to find?" Nada questioned, trying to see the paper in Malakai's hand

"A cube; what did you two get?" He asked, looking to his left.

"A teddy bear", Ryan replied, showing his paper.

"You got it easy", Malakai whined like a kid.

"What's the plan this time?" Nada asked.

Malakai didn't have one, but he waffled and made one up, "I'll go first cuz I'm fast, and I'll get us a head start; I'll try to find both of the cubes, then you go after." Malakai knew it wasn't much of a plan, but

"That sounds amazing", Nada replied, smiling.

Malakai bit his tongue to stop himself from laughing; he then put his hand on Nada's head, "Just do your best".

"IS EVERYONE READY?" the teacher shouted from the side. Everyone instantly got ready and took their positions.

The teacher had the whistle in his hands, "READY! SET!"

FWEEETT!!!