BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Fuck sake", Malakai tiredly said, half asleep.

October 23rd. Monday, 8:45 AM.

With his eyes partially opened, Malakai looked towards his phone and turned off the alarm. He glanced at the time and saw 8:45 AM. It was not a time he wanted to wake up, but he had to, as his challenge date was today. Unluckily or luckily, he was the only person he knew who had their challenge today. All of his friends had their challenge later in the week. On the bright side, Malakai could get it over and done with. With that thought in mind, he motivated himself to get out of bed,

"Aryt, let's go", he said, unwrapping himself and sluggishly stepping out of bed. The email Malakai got sent told him the day of his challenge, his team number, the location and the time he had to be there. The location was none other than the main hall, and the time they had to be there was 10:00 AM.

Malakai got ready on his lonesome as William was still asleep. Stepping out of his room and towards the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth.

9:35 AM.

Malakai had a small breakfast and was getting ready to go until,

"Hey", William said, opening his door and rubbing his eyes.

"Yo", Malakai greeted back, putting his shoes on.

"You going?" William asked, looking at Malakai's outfit.

"Yeah".

"Good luck. I'll be watching", William said, putting his fist out.

"Thanks", Malakai replied, fist bumping him—a short and tired conversation.

Malakai stepped out and put his earphones in. Malakai loved listening to music. He also loved walking while listening to music, but lately, he hasn't had the chance to do it as much as he is with his friends most of the time. If you saw Malakai alone, you would most likely see him wearing earphones. This was perfect, a fifteen-minute walk listening to music in his comfy tracksuit. There was no dress code for this challenge; they were allowed to wear anything they wanted. So Malakai wore his favourite plain, grey hoodie and matching joggers. Comfort. This was one of the first times Malakai had been alone outside, and it almost didn't feel real to him. It was like he was still dreaming. Despite being autumn, the weather was warm, and there was no breeze. There were no clouds in the sky, and the sun was shining. A Beautiful day for a walk. It was the first time Malakai had taken in the campus and the academy. It was a lonely walk, accompanied by music, which acted as a soundtrack for his thoughts. Malakai liked it, though; he could look around and think while appreciating the nature around him. There were barely any other students around; the few that were, he didn't recognise. Malakai knew he had to savour this, as this would probably be one of the last times this could happen. One because he was rarely alone, and another because he wouldn't wake up this early just for a walk. It was a great experience, but Malakai preferred sleeping.

Malakai reached the hall with one minute to spare. He walked in to see a lot of students, teachers, and Mr Miller. He looked around to see if he noticed anyone and recognised faces from his class, but he didn't know them.

"Should we start?" Mr Miller asked as soon as he saw Malakai walk in, presuming he was the last student to arrive.

"Yeah, a good amount of students are here", Mr White replied, standing beside him.

Mr Miller stepped forward towards the students, "Good morning, everyone!" he introduced. "I can see you're all ready for this challenge", he said, smiling, taking the piss as everyone looked tired. His joke didn't get any laughs, only awkward looks. "I know the email said the challenge was at 10, but to tell you the truth, the challenge is not taking place here."

Sleepy eyes woke up.

"Before I tell you more, can you please organise yourself into your teams? If your email said number one, can you stand here?" Mr Miller then directed where each group should stand. Malakai got the number four, so he went to where four was directed. Where he stood, there were three girls he didn't know.

"Where's our fifth member?" One of the girls asked.

"Here", a deep voice replied, approaching them.

Malakai turned around and got a surprise, "It's you", he said, pointing at him. He saw a tall, built, mixed-race guy with brown curly hair, noticeable green eyes and a goatee.

"Looks like we're on a team, Malakai", Jason said, smiling. He towered over Malakai and looked down at him, trying to intimidate him.

"No hard feelings, right?" Malakai replied, reciprocating his smile, not intimidated at all.

"Yeah, that's in the past. You played the game", Jason replied. "I can't be mad at that".

"What's your name?" Malakai asked, offering his hand.

"Jason", he gripped Malakai's hand firmly and shook it.

“Malakai Junior”, Malakai replied.

"Think everyone knows your name", Jason said, leaving the handshake.

All the girls behind Malakai listened to their conversation, so they heard their introductions.

Malakai turned towards them, "What's your name?"

"I'm Nina, and I'm from class 1-E." Nina was a blonde girl with short hair reaching above her shoulders and straight bangs, long eyelashes, and dark blue eyes. She was wearing a fluffy pink oversized hoodie with black joggers and trainers. She was the same height as Malakai, 5'6.

"I'm Luna; I'm from class 1-A", a tall girl with long, flowing charcoal-coloured hair covering half her face replied. She was taller than Malakai, about 5'10. She had a white crystal nose piercing and a beauty spot under her left eye. She had her nails done and wore a lilac T-shirt with ripped jeans and trainers.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Your hair is sick. Are you an emo?" Malakai, after saying that, immediately put his hand over his mouth. "Oh shit, why did I say that?" He said.

Jason snickered behind him while Luna giggled in front of him,

"Thank you. No, I'm not an emo", she replied, smiling to show she wasn't offended.

"My bad, my bad. I chat shit most of the time", Malakai told her, letting her know he didn't mean to offend her.

"I can tell, don't worry", she replied, reassuring him. It looked like Malakai was already known to be a joker.

"I'm Akari; I'm from class 1-B," a short East Asian girl with short light brown hair and light brown eyes happily replied in front of him. She wore a short-sleeved designer shirt, blue shorts, and long socks, which were scrunched at the bottom.

"Akari? I've heard that before." Malakai tried to remember where he heard that name. "Wait, are you Delilah's roommate?" He remembered looking at her like a lightbulb switched on in his head.

"Yeah, I am. How'd you know?" Akari curiously asked.

"Delilah said she had a roommate from class B and said your name", Malakai replied.

"So you are good friends", Akari said, noticing his positive tone when speaking about Delilah.

"Yeah, yeah. She's calm", he replied. Then it looked like another light bulb switched on his Malakai's head. "Wait. We're all from different classes", he noticed.

"Oh yeah, you're right", Nina said, also realising.

"That's kinda sick", Malakai said, looking around the different groups. All the groups had a person from a different class—groups of 5 with a person from 1-A, B, C, D and E.

"Can you line up in your groups, please?" Mr Miller announced to the students. The students in their groups took shape in a line. Malakai stood second in the line behind Akari. He looked to his right and saw a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes; he looked to his left and saw a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Identical. He looked to his right again and then to his left. He kept switching sides to see if he was seeing things right. The two people he was looking at noticed Malakai looking at them like they were zoo animals. They both looked at Malakai,

"Are you two twins?" Malakai excitedly asked the two of them.

"Y-yeah", Chris answered, unsure if Malakai genuinely couldn't tell.

"Isn't it obvious?" Christina asked Malakai like he was an idiot and looked at him with a weirded-out expression.

"It is, but I was making sure. You might have been doppelgängers", Malakai replied, smiling.

"Is it your first time seeing twins?" Christina asked, thinking it was because of his excited reaction.

"Na na", he replied, shaking his head. "My younger brother and sister are twins", Malakai continued.

"You have younger siblings?" Luna sounded surprised.

Malakai turned around, "Why is that surprising?" He asked, distracted by her reaction.

"No, it's just that, based on your behaviour, I thought you would be the youngest in your family," Luna replied, using different words instead of childish.

"I don't know if you violated me or not", Malakai replied, unsure if he got indirectly dissed and called childish.

"Okay, thank you!" Mr Miller said, clapping his hands, disrupting the conversations. Malakai and Luna stopped talking. "Now you're all in your groups, I will explain. The challenge today is something we've never done before. A lot of preparation has gone into this. The challenge will take place around 12:00 PM. This is because the location where the challenge will take place is a two-hour drive away".

Faces dropped. A two-hour journey. They didn't know this; they would've prepared better if they did. Most people bought their phones and headphones, no snacks or other forms of entertainment. A two-hour drive with people they didn't know too well.

"I'm sorry this was sprung upon you now. Maybe we should've mentioned it in the email", Mr Miller said, noticing the range of disappointed to annoyed faces. "But I'm sure the journey won't be that bad", Mr Miller tried to motivate and cheer them up, but it didn't work.

"How many points can we get?" a student impatiently asked.

Mr Miller smiled, "I'll tell you all about the challenge and how many points you can get when we've reached the location".

Eyes rolled. They were already sick of him. The students had to keep guessing the challenge and the number of points during the journey.

"The bus is waiting outside, so I think now is a good time to start our journey", Mr Miller said, walking away.

"A bus?" Malakai said.

"Yeah, how else do you think we'll get there?" Jason replied.

"You mean a coach", Malakai said, confused about the American differences.

Jason walked past Malakai and said, "You're in America right now, so it's a bus".

Malakai stood still for a moment; he didn't like the passive-aggressive tone Jason used,

"Well, this is going to be a fun journey".

William was still in bed. Even though he woke up to see off Malakai, he returned to lying in bed. William was an early riser, the polar opposite of Malakai. Malakai was a night person, while William was a morning person. However, given the chance to sleep in and rest, William took the opportunity. Usually, if William had a chance like this, he wouldn't take it and would choose to do something productive and start his day off, but this academy has exhausted him. William looked at the time and saw it was nearly 10:00. He opened the academy app and located where the live stream would be; he clicked on the first-year tab and saw the second challenge livestream. He clicked on it and saw,

"Livestream starts in two hours?"