The screen went black. The recording ended.
"That is the secret escape route", Ms Harper said, walking back to the centre of the stage as the room lightened up.
Murmurs between the students came after the recording finished. Most of the conversations were in agreement that the secret escape was bullshit. They didn't understand it, all he did was mess about in the room. Some questioned what he did to escape; others wanted to know what was on the note.
"Ms!" Malakai shouted out with his hand up. "So, like, what do I get?" He asked, eager to know.
The conversations stopped; they all wanted to hear his reward.
"If you remember what Mr Miller said, he said one escape will give you more points". Students' faces were dropping. "For finding the secret escape, you get 2000 points".
Eruption. Shouts from students came from all directions. Shouts of injustice and unfairness. Opinions were making themselves known.
"WHAT!?"
"HOW IS THAT FAIR!?"
"ALL HE DID WAS MAKE A SONG!"
"IF WE KNEW AN EXIT GAVE US 2000 POINTS, WE WOULD'VE TRIED HARDER!"
"HOW CAN HE GET 2000 POINTS!".
All this commotion while Malakai smiled.
"500 more points for making a song. Are you fucking kidding me", Destiny bitterly mumbled, dumbfounded. She clenched her fist, regretting trash-talking Malakai earlier. Malakai smiling appeared in her memory, "There is no way he planned this".
Alexander rolled his eyes. "It makes sense. Finding the secret exit would've been harder with five people. It was easier for him because he was by himself. No team would decide to waste $20 on a mic. Only an idiot would do that, but his idiocy paid off", he thought. Alexander quickly accepted the result, he wasn't hurt or spiteful that Malakai got more points. He didn't dwell on it too much because to him, it was like there was nothing that could be done. He did all he could. He did the best he could. What more could he have done?
Ryan could only smile at the situation. It was like this was all written by the academy. The guy who was on a team by himself was the only guy to find the secret escape, and now he was getting more points.
"Every time he does something, I find a new level of hate for him", Ryan thought, glad he hadn't confronted Malakai earlier. "Ha, it's quite impressive".
"Maybe I should stop underestimating him", Adam thought.
Adam's team came 15th, which was pretty decent. He had Nada on his team, who helped the team a lot. When Nada said she wanted to be Malakai's apprentice, she wasn't lying. She tried to adopt Malakai's way of thinking and make it her own. Surprisingly, it worked as it led to their team finding many clues for the escape room. They escaped by getting the code. Malakai and Nada talked quite a bit, and most of the time, Nada questioned Malakai about what he would do in certain scenarios. At first, Malakai found it weird, but over time, he found it fun. From this, Nada has benefited massively. She still needs to improve academically, but she's become a recognisable figure for 1-E. Anyway back to Adam.
"It's not only impressive he got the secret exit, but he also came 10th. He could've come 30th and got the same amount of points", Adam thought. "He might be the most dangerous person in this academy. Maybe I was wrong, he does belong here".
Dillon wasn't angry at Malakai, he was angry at the challenge for having a secret exit that gave you more points. The whole thing didn't make sense to him. All his frustration was to the challenge, not Malakai, which was new.
Jason, like in the minigames, raised his respect for Malakai. Every chance Malakai got, he came up with new surprises. Jason didn't particularly like Malakai, but he had a lot of respect for him.
"I got some crazy plot armour boy. Is that plot armour? Probably not. I wasn't close to dying or anything. What is plot armour again? Doesn't matter. Thanks, author", Malakai mumbled.
"What did you say?" David asked, hearing Malakai say something.
"Nothing", Malakai replied.
"Malakai, do you want to talk to your year group?" Ms Harper asked, holding out the mic to him.
Malakai grinned. This was an opportunity, and he was going to take it. "Yeah, wait, imma come on stage", he replied.
David slowly crouched down so Malakai could get off, Benjamin helped get Malakai down, too. David stood back up and stretched his shoulders by moving them around.
"Don't say anything stupid", David told him, placing his hand on Malakai's shoulder.
"I won't".
"Mally, don't make yourself more of a target", Benjamin told him.
"I'm already the biggest target there is".
"Don't say anything that will make people angry with you", Ray told him.
"Everyone already hates me".
After that last warning, he walked towards the stage. Students moved out of the way and made a path to the stage for Malakai. He walked down the path with his hands in his pockets, his default walking position. Malakai briefly looked into random people's eyes while passing them, seeing jealousy and envy. Malakai knew he wasn't liked, but this was the first time he could see it in person. He arrived at the stage and climbed up the steps on the side.
"Hi, Ms", he greeted, walking closer to her.
"Hello, Malakai", Ms Harper replied, handing Malakai the mic and giving him centre stage.
He walked to the centre and faced the crowd. A view he was already familiar with. A similar view he got on the first day, but this time, they were standing up and not sitting down.
"Yooo. You all good?" He asked the crowd with a big smile on his face. He acted like he was going to start a performance or a comedy act. "There's a lot of people here innit".
"Booo!/Shut up!/Get lost!/No one likes you!/Fuck off!" abuse was getting thrown at Malakai from all angles. He hadn't even done anything yet, and they were so loud.
"Why am I getting hate?" he questioned with a smile still on his face. "Wait, I've got an idea".
Malakai placed the mic on the floor and pulled out his Polaroid from his hoodie pocket. He turned his back to the crowd and prepared to take a selfie with them, including as many people as he could. The noise only got louder, and middle fingers were being put up to ruin the picture.
Shutter!
Malakai took the picture and waited for the image to come out. He took out the image, put the Polaroid back in his pocket, and picked up the mic. he shook the image in his left hand and had the mic in the other.
The noise was still loud. Malakai looked over at Ms Harper, but she could only raise her shoulders. Basically telling him this was his problem. Malakai looked back at the crowd. He had to talk to them.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Aryt, listen. Let me talk, let me talk", Malakai said, slightly raising his voice.
"Shhhh! Shhhhh!" some people wanted to hear what he had to say. Those people were his friends. His friends came in clutch, helping calm the crowd by shushing them.
"Aryt. I know a lot of you still don't like me, and that's fine. If I were you, I wouldn't like me too", he started off with a smug look. People were rolling their eyes already and had annoyed looks. "I mean, I was by myself, and I escaped the room. I got 2000 points while first place only got 1500 points".
"YOU GOT LUCKY!!" someone shouted.
Malakai tried to spot who said that, but he couldn't locate the voice. "Lucky? That's what you think. You think all I did was make a song to escape, but it was more than that. I know what I did", Malakai confidently replied. At the time Malakai had no clue what he was doing. It was only after he saw the note he realised he did a lot more than mess around.
"YOU DIDN'T DESERVE IT!"
Malakai smiled, his teeth showing, and looked at the floor. He took a moment before lifting his head again.
"Let me say this one thing. You're all my kids".
Everyone heard what he said, but did they really? It took a few seconds to process. Students looked at each other and they all had the same expression. Before any protest or noise riled up,
"Hehehe", Malakai giggled. "Look, a guy from 1-C escaped on his own. I've been at the top of the leaderboard for three challenges in a row. Three months. Every second year I've talked to said this isn't normal. So guess what?" Malakai smiled, his face was beaming. "Imma talk my shit".
"Oh boy", David said. He warned him not to say anything stupid, but it was bound to happen.
"Get ready for another great speech, boys", Benjamin said.
"Here's the thing, I could be humble because three years is a long time", Malakai said, slowly walking around the stage. "I know I ain't gonna be first the whole time. I know karma's gonna bite me like a bitch, but while I am at the top, imma make it known I'm here. Before you overrate me, you're gonna underestimate me".
"NO ONE CARES!"
Malakai smirked and stopped shaking the picture. "This is a nice picture", he said, holding it up and looking at it. He put the picture in his pocket.
"I'm just saying, thirty 1-A students can't beat me", Malakai said. "Actually, I take that back, twenty-eight students because I like Luna and bodyguard", he said, pointing in Luna's direction.
The 1-A students looked at Luna. "Who's bodyguard?" they asked.
"It's Frank", she shyly answered, overwhelmed by everyone's attention. Everyone turned to Frank. He didn't know where to look; this was new for him. People were looking at him. Alexander was slightly amused by it. He smiled slightly, seeing Frank's flustered reaction.
"I don't hate any classes, imma be honest. 1-A, I don't mind you lot cuz you got Luna. 1-B, I like you lot cuz you've got the twins, but I don't like one guy. 1-D is aryt. I don't really know anyone from there. I like 1-E. You lot are good", Malakai listed.
"We're lucky you made friends with him, Christina", Eris said, nudging her.
"Me and Chris didn't have much of a say. He practically adopted us".
Malakai turned to Ms Harper. "Wait, Ms. Is the leaderboard updated?" he asked.
"I believe so", Ms Harper replied, unsure herself.
"Can it be shown on the screen?" Malakai asked, pointing to the screen.
"I'm not sure. Maybe the teachers could put it up", Ms Harper replied.
There were other teachers in a different room; they monitored each escape room and watched what each group did. If someone bought or sold something, they would get a notification to inform them. They would also check if each team did their tasks correctly. A lot of people were involved behind the scenes in this challenge to help it work. That is how this challenge went so smoothly, thanks to the people behind the scenes.
Ping!
The screen turned on.
LEADERBOARDS
1) MALAKAI JUNIOR (1-C) - 3683 POINTS
2) ALEXANDER BURRELL (1-A) - 3144 POINTS
3) FRANK CARTER (1-A) - 3131 POINTS
4) DESTINY SIERRA (1-A) - 3071 POINTS
5) LUNA WOLFE (1-A)- 3068 POINTS
6) ISABELLA GRACE (1-A) - 2867 POINTS
7) ALEJANDRO PEREZ (1-A) - 2815 POINTS
8) SABRINA HALEY (1-D) - 2742 POINTS
9) BRI LOPEZ (1-A) - 2651 POINTS
10) EVE MASON (1-A) - 2645 POINTS
The screen shone in front of everyone. Most of the names were familiar. Familiar and boring. The top three didn't change, but the rest did.
Malakai looked at the screen, and a big smile covered his face. He started giggling. Malakai turned around and put the mic to his mouth.
"Destiny, where you at?" Malakai said with his eyes scanning the crowd.
"Shit", Destiny said, averting her eyes and putting her head down.
"There you are", Malakai found her. "Hehehehe. What did you say before? Your name will be higher than mine? I don't think it is", he said, pointing at the screen.
Destiny wasn't looking, she couldn't look. She was burning inside. She was biting her bottom lip in frustration. Just like everyone else, she underestimated Malakai and said things that should've been said after confirmation. Some of the girls in 1-A were enjoying seeing her like this, smirking and seeing her sour face.
Malakai looked at the crowd in front of him and then back at the leaderboard. "This would be a sick picture", he mumbled. "Yo, David, come here and take a pic of me", Malakai said, taking out his Polaroid again.
"He always knows how to make the most of an opportunity", David quietly said.
David and the others walked towards the stage. When David got close enough, Malakai threw the Polaroid at him. Malakai looked at the Polaroid and pointed towards the top of the leaderboard on the screen.
Shutter!
David took the picture.
"That's cold", Benjamin said, proud of his friend. He got chills from what he saw. Benjamin turned to his other friends, and they all had similar expressions. This memorable moment captured in a picture.
The picture captured the back of the heads of some of the audience and Malakai on stage, staring at the camera and pointing towards his name at the top of the leaderboard on the big screen.
David took the image from the camera and started shaking it.
Malakai saw the picture was taken. "Aryt, I think that's me done. This whole speech will probably backfire on me at some point, but who cares? I just wanna have fun. The person who'll take first place from me will be boring as shit, I know that for a fact", he said, obviously hinting at a particular someone.
Everyone knew who he was talking about; they were all sneaking glances at him to see his reaction. But he was unfazed, or he didn't care. I don't think he was listening anymore.
"But yeah, stay safe everyone. If you wanna be my friend, just come chat to me. I need more people to like me", Malakai concluded with his regular smile.
His friends started applauding, which then slowly caused others to join. Not everyone clapped, but it was a decent applause. Malakai walked away from the centre and handed the mic to Ms Harper as he passed. He walked off stage and stayed on the side, he didn't bother going into the crowd to join his friends. His friends, however, were getting out of the crowd to join him.
"That was some speech", Ms Harper said, taking centre stage again. She was momentarily speechless, trying to figure out what to say next. "That's all for today. Well done to all of you for completing today's challenge. Your phone and other belongings are in the other room with your homeroom teachers, so if you want to make your way there now", Ms Harper quickly concluded. She didn't want to hold them up much longer.
Malakai's friends met up with him on the side. They all shook his hand and gave him a hug. David handed the picture to Malakai.
"This looks like an album cover", Malakai said, admiring the picture.
"It turned out really good", David commented.
"You should make it into a bigger picture and frame it", Ray added.
"It looks iconic", William said, looking over Malakai's shoulder.
"Iconic?" Lucas questioned.
"It'll only be iconic if he ends up first in three years", Benjamin said.
"Three years, huh?" Malakai thought. He felt happy. Really happy. He created a memory for life, and it was captured in a photo. Something he could look back on in fifty years' time. He made this. Never once in his life did he think he could do something like this.
Malakai sincerely smiled at the picture and said,
"Guess I know what I have to do now".