"HEY!" WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

That shout stopped Anthony's charge. He took a look at where the shout came from, and it was like the adrenaline he had to fight drained out of him.

"Shit! She's here. We need to get out of here. We can't get in trouble again", Anthony said in a panic.

All he needed was one glance at the person to decide what he wanted to do. Anthony turned around and looked at his friends. One was untouched, and the other was unsteady on his feet. His legs were trembling, and he had a hand over his nose with blood leaking through his fingers. Anthony looked at the floor, and there were drops of blood next to his friend's feet. While he was losing his fight, one of his friends completely lost his own. Anthony knew what choice he had made when he saw the person; he just had to act on it. Anthony looked around and saw a few bystanders watching the scene. He only noticed now because, during the fight, it was like it was only him and Malakai outside. Everything else was white. Seeing the number of people watching made him panic more. He had to go.

"Let's get outta here", Anthony said, running away.

His two friends didn't question, they followed behind him. The friend with the bleeding nose was still a little disorientated, but he could still run away, even if it were slowly. They all left without saying a word to their opponents.

"They ran?" Lucas said, confused like the rest of his friends.

They all looked at the person who shouted. It was a small girl with brownish hair. She was far away, so her details weren't clear. The girl looked towards the guys.

"HEY!"

"I think we should go", Benjamin said, gearing to go.

"She's not a teacher, she's wearing our uniform", Ray said, spotting that detail.

The girl started walking towards them.

"Yep, let's go, she's coming towards us", William said, already stepping away.

The girl quickened her pace, which caused the guys to run. The six of them fled the scene.

Malakai looked back while running, "Who is she? She's kinda scary".

At the courtyard. 12:40 PM.

"Woah, is every class really here?" Maria asked, looking at the crowd. It was like a packed-out convention.

"This looks like when we were in the lobby for the last challenge, but worse", Tanisha replied, not liking the view.

Maria checked her phone, "20 minutes left. It's good that the main office is only a 5-minute walk from here".

"15 minutes to find one person in this mess", Tanisha said with a grimace on her face, not too keen on mixing in the crowd.

"What's the plan?"

"Ahh!" Tanisha jumped in fear. "Delilah? Where did you come from?"

Delilah snuck up on them. "I just came here now", she replied.

"Why are you alone? Where are the rest of the guys?" Maria asked, looking behind Delilah and seeing her alone.

"They ran into a little problem", she replied, not wanting to go into detail.

"A little problem? What happened?" Maria worriedly asked.

"It's nothing, they'll be here soon", Delilah reassured her, waving her hands.

"Everywhere they go, they cause problems", Tanisha said, unsurprised. "It's not even them. It's Malakai. I feel bad for the rest of them".

"They're fine, don't worry about them", Delilah replied, not making it sound like a big deal. "Anyway, where should we start?" she said, looking around.

"I see Alejandro over there. We could ask him if any of his classmates got the same pictures", Maria suggested, pointing to where he was. There were 1-A students around Alejandro.

"Yeah, let's do that. I haven't spoken to him in so long", Tanisha replied, also spotting Alejandro, feeling a little better after seeing someone familiar.

However, before they made their move, someone walked towards them through the crowd alone.

"Hey, how are you doing?"

The girls looked up at who greeted them. An unexpected encounter.

"Good, how about you?" Tanisha replied, taken back.

"I'm doing great, thanks for asking", Ryan replied with a smile. "I think this is the first time we've met. I'm Ryan".

"I'm Tanisha".

"I'm Maria".

Those two introduced themselves, but Delilah didn't join in on the introductions. She looked at Ryan with a straight face, which looked like a glare. She didn't want to talk to him.

"Hi Delilah, it's nice to see you again", Ryan said, trying to get her to speak. "Remember when we saw each other at the minigames". The way he talked was friendly as if they were already friends.

"Yeah", Delilah curtly replied, not looking at him. Only Delilah knew about Ryan's true nature; Tanisha and Maria only knew the good side, the facade everyone else saw.

"I don't see Malakai anywhere. Has he found his partner?" Ryan asked, looking around. He still wanted to talk to him, he hadn't had a chance.

"Not yet, but he'll be here soon", Maria replied. "What about you? What image do you have?"

"I have a picture of the sky".

"REALLY?!" Maria reacted. Tanisha and Delilah had surprised looks on their faces. One was because of Maria's reaction, and two, because Ryan had the same image as her.

"Y-yeah", Ryan replied, a little startled by the sudden reaction. "Do you have the same picture?"

"Yes! I have a picture of the sky, too", Maria said, lifting her phone to Ryan's face.

Ryan took Maria's phone and compared the pictures to see if they were different. "They're the same", he slowly said, not expecting this outcome.

"Do we go to the main office now?" Maria asked, extremely happy. Looking back and forth between Ryan and her two friends.

"Y-yeah, let's go", Ryan was still processing what was happening. He didn't approach these girls to find his partner; he approached them to get information on Malakai and potentially sow seeds for later. Lucky for him, he completed the challenge.

Maria started walking away. "See you. Good luck finding your partners", she said, waving while walking away beside Ryan.

"That was quick", Delilah said, watching Maria walk away.

"For sure. Lucky for Maria, in more ways than one", Tanisha replied, quietly saying the last bit. She turned to Delilah. "Did something happen between you two? You were kinda rude to him".

Delilah shook her head. "Nothing happened, but I don't like him", she said, deciding not to tell Tanisha about the real Ryan.

Tanisha sighed and looked at her hopelessly. "Delilah, you can't be like that to everyone you don't know. It would help if you had friends from other classes too. Having only Malakai and his friend group as friends is okay, but in the long run, you need more", she told her. "And Ryan's nice, everyone likes him. Not liking him would look bad on you".

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Delilah held her tongue. It wasn't right to tell her the stuff she heard about Ryan. The stories about the few interactions Malakai had with him, as well as Benjamin's brief interaction with him in the second challenge. For Delilah, it was easy to see through Ryan's act as she knew the truth, but she could see why everyone else would call her crazy if she called out Ryan for being a nasty person. Ryan hasn't set a foot wrong since joining the academy. He's done everything to make people like him without even trying; he has just been himself. Maybe Ryan was a nice person, but he wasn't nice to her friends. For that reason, she didn't want to get involved with him.

"Delilah, you should smile more. Your straight face scares everyone away", Tanisha said, seeing Delilah stare at the floor, lost in thought.

"No, it doesn't!" Delilah took offence.

"Yes, it does. Look, no one is approaching us", Tanisha replied, pointing around. People were walking past them.

"Ryan approached us".

"He's friendly to everyone, that's why".

"We're still on the outskirts of the courtyard, let's go near the middle of the courtyard", Delilah said in denial.

"Fine, but you can't ask anyone what their image is. They have to approach you", Tanisha replied.

"Deal".

"This is a little surreal to me, I'm walking with Maria Rodriguez".

"Don't say that, I'm no one special", Maria replied, shyly looking at the floor.

"It's just that your mom acted in a lot of my favourite shows and movies", Ryan said, slightly embarrassed, scratching the back of his head.

"I'm not my mom, so this shouldn't feel surreal".

"I mean, you're famous too. I've seen some of your photos in magazines", Ryan replied, giving her props. "I hear some of the girls in my class talk about you".

"No, they don't", Maria said. She didn't know how famous she was.

"They really do. I'm surprised we haven't talked properly until now", Ryan said.

"A lot has been going on. Every day, I'm busy doing something", Maria replied, looking up at the sky. "Someone told me you organised a study session with your whole class a few weeks ago".

"Yeah, it wasn't anything big. We collectively agreed to study together so none of us would fall behind", Ryan replied, thinking back to it. It's true he did organise that, but not to study. By observing them, he wanted to get to know everyone in the class and see who was useful and where they ranked in the class.

"Your class must be really close then", Maria said.

"You could say that. Everyone is friendly with each other. What about your class?".

"Our class is kinda close, everyone has their own groups. I've seen you talk to some people in our class. Are they your friends?"

"I don't know if they're my friends, but they're people I can talk to. I've tried to befriend people from all classes", Ryan replied.

"Have you talked to Malakai? Are you two friends?" Maria asked, looking at him.

"I need to be careful with what I say here", Ryan thought.

"Not properly. I've introduced myself to him, but I haven't had a proper conversation with him", Ryan replied.

"Hmm. I think it would be cool if you two became friends, then both our classes could team up", Maria got hyped up just by thinking about it.

Ryan kept his composed smile. "Does she not know that I hate him? Why hasn't Malakai told her about me? Lorenzo told me they were neighbours. Are they not that close? I thought they were friends? Delilah knows, but she doesn't?" Ryan thought. "I guess this is a good thing. Having Maria dislike me would be a problem". Ryan was confused, but was glad that Maria was ignorant.

"That would be cool if our classes joined together", Ryan replied. "I need to find the time to talk to him. He's all over the place, I can't get a hold of him".

"Hehe, yeah".

The conversation died down for a bit, and they were walking in silence. There was nothing to talk about until,

"I've got a question about Lorenzo", Maria said, breaking the silence.

"Lorenzo? Nobody ever asks about Lorenzo", Ryan replied with a shocked look in his eyes, questioning himself if he was hearing right.

"Well, he was on my team in the second challenge, and he didn't talk much. I always see him next to you, so I'm curious about how he is".

Ryan was speechless, this was the first time someone had asked about Lorenzo. "Lorenzo. He's my best friend. He's not good at socialising, and he's really antisocial. His face doesn't help because his straight face makes it look like he's always annoyed".

"How long have you been friends for?"

"Like four years. I remember he was always alone, no one used to talk to him. One day, I saw some people picking on him, so I helped him out. After I helped him out, he was still rude to me, but I found him interesting, so I kept talking to him", Ryan replied, feeling a bit of nostalgia picturing his high school days.

"He used to get bullied?"

"Yeah. He didn't bother to defend himself, he just let it happen", Ryan replied. "After we became friends, everyone stopped looking at him weird, and no one bullied him again".

"Did he have a lot of friends after you became friends with him?"

"Nope", Ryan smiled. "He didn't want other friends. People talked to him and forced him to become their friend, but I don't know if he considers them friends. Even at this academy, he's got a small circle".

"I tried talking to him, but he kept ignoring me or giving me short answers", Maria said.

"Don't hold it against him, he's not a bad person", Ryan quickly replied. "If you want to befriend him, keep talking to him".

"I'll keep that in mind for next time", Maria said.

The conversation died again, and silence was brought back to life.

"Why does she want to be friends with Lorenzo? Does she like Lorenzo?" Ryan thought, side-eyeing Maria.

"I doubt Lorenzo would want to talk to me again. I thought Lorenzo and Malakai were similar, I guess not", Maria thought, looking up at the sky.

Start of a misunderstanding?

"This is harder than I thought", Frank said.

"We need to be patient, we don't need to rush", Alexander replied.

Alexander and Frank were struggling to find someone with the same image as them. People approached them, but no matches thus far.

"I can't see Benjamin anywhere. I need to ask him if any of his classmates have our images. He said his friends didn't have our images, but I want to check myself", Frank said, scouting the area, looking over heads.

"I thought an image of a boat and a cat would be easy to match", Alexander replied. "They're common objects".

While they were preoccupied, someone crept up behind them,

"I can help you".