"Welcome to challenge two", Mr Miller announced in front of the 30 students. All the students walked closer to him as he said that. "Can all of you stand in line with your teams?" he ordered. The students did as they were told and organised themselves in their groups. "The livestream will start in a minute; I will explain the rules once it starts. Let me remind you this will be live; whatever you do or say cannot be taken back", Mr Miller warned them.
"You hear that, Malakai?" Luna teased, looking back at him.
"Don't worry, I won't say anything", Malakai replied, looking away and looking away and shrugging his shoulders. He was definitely going to do something stupid.
"Look, it's starting", William alerted the others, causing everyone to look at the TV. The livestream started showing Mr Miller; it then panned to the students in their teams.
"Malakai's with Akari", Delilah noticed they were on a team from the jump.
"He's with that girl I talked to at the minigames as well", Lucas also noticed Luna's long hair.
"His team looks interesting; he's got that guy that's with Dillon all the time", David added, looking at Malakai's team. He recognised Jason but didn't know his name.
"Do you guys recognise anyone else?" Benjamin asked, looking at the other teams. Everyone tried to look for people, but,
"It looks like he got lucky; I don't notice anyone", David replied, trying to see if he saw anyone he knew.
"He's the only noticeable one there", Lucas said, sipping a drink.
The camera then focused more on the teams, getting closer to the students and showing their faces.
"Why are they treating this like the Olympics?" William giggled at how the camera moved across each team, showing each student. The camera moved to team 4 and went down the line, eventually coming close to Malakai. Malakai looked directly at the camera and,
"Why does he also put his middle finger up when he sees a camera?" Tanisha questioned, as she'd seen Malakai do it a few times. Whenever someone recorded Malakai, his natural instinct was to put his middle finger up.
"I don't know, he just always does it", Ray replied, smiling, seeing his friend on camera. When the camera reached Malakai, he looked directly into the lens, smiled, and raised his middle finger.
"That's Mally for you. Can't change him", Benjamin smiled. Everyone was happy to see Malakai on the TV.
The camera focused back on Mr Miller as he started his speech.
"Welcome to challenge two!" He announced for the second time. "This year, we are changing, evolving, and increasing our standards. You recently partook in the minigames which were introduced this year, and now you will participate in a challenge introduced for your year group".
"Oooooohhh", Malakai quietly ad-libbed, only so his group could hear. The only reaction he got was a smirk from Nina, but he didn't know that as she was behind him.
"As you can see, there are six cars behind me. This challenge will involve driving, so one person on your team must be the driver. Let me explain the challenge", Mr Miller said. "This challenge is to open the safe and retrieve whatever is inside at the final location. Each team will have a car. In the car, there will be a map that shows three different locations. They are marked A, B, and C. Here's the twist: you need to go to locations B and C and get whatever is there to open the safe at the end; you don't have to go to location A. However, going to location A will massively help with the challenge at location B. So it is up to you whether you decide to skip it." Mr Miller took a second to catch his breath.
"That sounds fun", Ray said to the group.
"I know, right? It's much better than the first challenge," William replied, putting a sweet in his mouth. The camera panned to the students again.
Lucas started laughing, "What's Mally doing?" He shifted everyone's attention to find Malakai on the screen.
"Is he braiding her hair?" Delilah tried to make out what he was doing. The camera eventually got closer to Malakai's team as it went down to each team again.
"He is", Benjamin laughed.
"That kid", David said, shaking his head.
"Why does it look good?" Tanisha asked as the camera caught an angle that showed the back of Luna's hair.
"Maybe he has a weird hobby no one knows about", Ray replied, amused at what he was seeing.
"I might ask him to braid my hair", Delilah said, touching her hair.
"I don't think your hair is long enough", Benjamin commented, causing everyone to laugh except Maria, who watched silently. She was in a daze, watching the screen.
Malakai was braiding Luna's hair, but not entirely. As Luna's hair was long and had a lot of volume, Malakai got a small part and started messing around with it while listening to the challenge explanation. Surprisingly, Luna hadn't noticed.
"As I said before, one person will be the driver. What I mean by this is they cannot get out of the car at any location; they have to stay in the car. They are only allowed out at the final location; otherwise, they cannot exit the vehicle", Mr Miller explained.
"What are the challenges at the different locations?" a student shouted.
"You have to find out yourself. All I'm telling you is the bare minimum," Mr Miller replied. This was fair enough, but it added to the students' curiosity.
"The points", Mr Miller started. "First place will get 1000 points".
"A THOUSAND!" William exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his seat.
"This is serious", Benjamin said, leaning forward.
Did the students hear right? A thousand points? This wasn't a small challenge. This is nothing like the minigames. This was what the students wanted. More points.
"Second place gets 800 points, third place gets 600 points, fourth place gets 400, fifth place gets 200 and last place gets 0 points".
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Eyes opened—a range of 1000 to 0 points. The gap between students will be massive after this challenge. In this challenge, the winners win, and the losers lose. This was ten times bigger than the minigames.
"Before we start, can you decide who will be the drivers in your team?" Mr Miller told them.
Not wasting any time, the students went into discussion. Luna turned around and noticed Malakai's hands near her hair. "What were you doing?" She asked, suspicious he did something.
"Nothing, I didn't do anything," he replied, putting his hands up, looking guilty. As she turned to look at Malakai, the back of her hair faced Akari. Akari saw what he had done and giggled.
"You did do something", Luna said, noticing Akari's giggle.
Jason told her, "He only braided it a little". He didn't want to waste any time.
"He did a good job", Nina commented; she watched Malakai braid her hair the whole time as she was the only person behind Malakai.
"Forget that. Who's going to be the driver?" Jason hastily asked, stopping the conversation.
"Me, I'll be the driver", Malakai volunteered without hesitation.
Everyone looked at Malakai.
"Are you sure?" Luna asked with a concerned expression.
"Yeah, it's fine", Malakai replied, with his hands in his pockets.
"I don't think you should be the driver", Jason said with certainty.
"Huh?"
"It'll be better if you helped with the challenges at the different locations", Jason explained.
"It's fine, you lot got it", Malakai replied, waving his right hand, believing in his teammates.
"I can drive if you want", Nina said, raising her hand. She knew she was in the lowest class, so she thought that everyone else thought she would be useless.
"Can everyone here drive?" Luna questioned to make sure that everyone was an option.
"I can't", Akari timidly raised her hand.
"Bro, it's fine. I'll drive", Malakai repeated louder to show how much he wanted to drive.
"Didn't you hear what he said? The driver can't leave the car. Don't you think you'd be more useful for the challenges", Jason was trying his best to persuade Malakai but,
"Broski. Why you stressing? I'll help us with my driving. Everyone used to call me Lewis Hamilton", Malakai replied with a smile.
"Oh boy", Luna laughed a little after that comment, covering her mouth.
"If Malakai thinks that's the best option, I think we should go with it", Akari said before Jason could reply. Jason knew Malakai's ability, so he thought he was wasted on being the driver. The look on his face made that known.
"Don't worry, it's part of the plan", Malakai confidently said, seeing Jason visibly stressed.
"Okay, can all of you go to your designated cars!" Mr Miller announced. The cars were lined up next to each other, with numbers on the back to indicate which car belonged to which team. There were also numbers on the front. The road was like an airstrip, fitting all six vehicles next to each other and setting it up almost like a race. The students stood behind their cars and waited for further instructions.
"Before you get into your cars, we've ensured everyone has someone on their team with a driving license. So, someone without a license shouldn't be driving", Mr Miller said. "Another caution is if someone crashes or a crash happens, the challenge will be stopped until we've ensured everyone is okay". Mr Miller made sure he covered all bases. "Okay, you can get into your cars".
The students got into their cars. Malakai entered the driver's seat while Jason, without conferring, went to the passenger side, leaving the three girls to sit in the back of the car.
Malakai turned the car on. "This cars nice", he said, holding the wheel and looking around the car. "It's automatic", Malakai noticed there were only two pedals.
"What's wrong with automatic?' Nina asked from the seat behind Malakai.
"Nothing, but manual is more fun", Malakai replied. Malakai then beeped the horn for no reason.
"Are you sure you can drive? It looks like this is your first time in a car", Jason worriedly said, looking at Malakai, who looked like an excited kid in a candy shop.
"Bro, it's fine. I know how to drive. I'm a sick driver", Malakai replied. "I have to admit, though, it's been a while since I've been in a car", Malakai said, adjusting the front mirror.
"What?!" Jason said in a panic.
Malakai laughed, "Broski, chill. I'm joking. You ain't gonna die". Malakai looked in the mirror and saw Luna holding something; he turned around. "What's that?"
"It's a map; it shows where all the locations are. It was in one of the back pockets", Luna replied, analysing the map.
"You good at directions?' Malakai asked.
"I guess. The map doesn't look too hard to read. We should be fine". Luna replied, feeling confident.
"Are we going to location A?" Akari questioned the team.
"Yeah, if it helps us with location B. We might as well", Malakai answered as he was the driver.
"What happens if it's a waste of time?" Jason asked.
"It is what it is", Malakai shrugged like it was something light.
"For someone at the top, you're not really stressing to be number one". Luna said, looking at Malakai's calm body language.
"I'm just here to have fun. It's only the second challenge. Why stress?" Malakai replied, stretching his arms. Hearing that made the three girls relax, knowing how calm he was, but Jason wanted to win, so he didn't like this laid-back approach. If this was anyone else, he would've said something, but it was Malakai. He knew what he was capable of. Or did he? That is what held him back from giving Malakai an earful and giving him a hard time.
Mr Miller had a megaphone in hand, "IT LOOKS LIKE EVERYONE IS READY! I WILL START A COUNTDOWN! WHEN YOU HEAR THE AIRHORN YOU CAN GO. IF ANYONE GOES BEFORE THE AIRHORN, YOU WILL HAVE TO STOP AND WAIT FOR FIVE MINUTES! DON'T GO TOO EARLY!" Mr Miller announced.
"CMON MALAKAI!" Willaim shouted.
"Imagine all of us on a team with this challenge", Ray said.
"That wouldn't work; there's six of us", David replied.
"We can kick Will out", Benjamin grinned.
"Shut up, man", William smirked, used to the mean comments. Everyone laughed at the joke, so it wasn't serious. Everyone was pumped up as it was about to start.
"TEN! NINE! EIGHT!" Mr Miller started counting down.
"Is everyone ready?" Malakai asked his team.
"Yeah!" "Yup!" "Let's go" "Make us win, Malakai",
"ONE!"
BBEEEEEPPPPP!!!!!
Malakai did his usual smile,
"Hang on tight".