"I can help you".

Alexander turned around, "Who are you?" he asked, looking at him up and down.

"I'm Jason, I'm from 1-D".

"How can you help us? What's your image?" Frank asked, a little wary. Jason didn't look the friendliest, so Frank was cautious.

"My image is a pillow, it's different from yours", Jason replied. After hearing that, Alexander looked uninterested and was about to walk away. "But I heard that you had an image of a boat and a cat. I know two people in my class who have those images", he quickly said, stopping Alexander from leaving.

Frank saw some desperation in Jason's face, "Are you sure?" he asked, not fully believing him.

"Yeah, I can take you to them", Jason replied, nodding.

"How do you benefit from this?" Frank asked, thinking Jason was up to something. He didn't know how he could gain from this; they weren't friends, so what was he up to?

"Do you know anyone with an image of a pillow?"

Alexander blankly stared at Jason. "I can't remember anyone's image", he bluntly replied.

"Don't mind him", Frank quickly intervened and apologised for Alexander's sake. "From what I remember, no one in our class has a pillow".

"Tsk". Jason kissed his teeth and looked away. His hopes were too high.

"Does that mean you won't show us who has our images?" Frank asked, seeing Jason's disappointed reaction.

Jason contemplated for a moment.

"I'll still take you to those people".

"And you don't want anything back? We're not friends, so this is a bit weird", Frank said, still sceptical.

Jason smiled. "This could be the start of our friendship", he replied, putting his hand out for a handshake. Alexander and Frank glanced at each other. "Fine, we don't have to be friends", Jason retracted his hand, embarrassed and ticked off they left him hanging. From that glance, he could tell that they weren't too keen on being friends. "Just put me in your good books", he said, walking away.

Alexander glared at Jason's back as he walked away. "Just say you want us to owe you a favour", he coldly said.

Jason stopped. "What?" he turned around with furrowed eyebrows. "I was being genuine when I said we could be friends", he said, pissed off by Alexander's attitude and walking back to them.

Frank stepped in front of Alexander to block him from Jason. "Alright, we'll help you when you need it in the future", Frank diffused the situation before it escalated. Frank didn't like the idea of being indebted to Jason, but they had an easy path to completion. It would be dumb and immature if they refused his help now. They would only waste time if they didn't take it.

Similarly, Jason regretted helping Alexander. He knew Alexander was looking down at him. He thought helping them would be a good thing, but it looks like he's sucking up to them. He underestimated his arrogance.

"There's only fifteen minutes until we get new images", Frank said, looking at his phone, and making Jason aware of the time.

Jason had one last chance to decide whether to help them or not.

"Follow me, I'll take you to them", Jason said, walking away with an annoyed expression. It didn't take him long to decide despite his negative feelings. He chose to help them. If he didn't help them only negatives would come from it, he had to swallow his pride this time. He didn't want them to hold a grudge against him.

"Thank you", Frank sincerely replied, following behind. "Who are they?" he asked, trying to start a conversation because he felt bad.

"They're two random girls in my class", Jason said, his tone a little upset. His pride took a hit; luckily, only he was there to witness it.

Jason led the way for them. Frank and Alexander silently followed behind. While Jason had numbers two and three follow him, Dillon saw him.

"Where's he going?" Dillon mumbled, seeing Jason stroll through the crowd. He saw the two people behind him. "What's he doing with them?" It didn't take long for him to realise. "That's where he went".

Dillon continued to watch, plotting what to do and deciding whether to approach or not. He saw Jason talking to a group of six girls. A few exchanged words later, two of those six girls started to walk away with Alexander and Frank.

"Did he just help them?" Dillon couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Why is he kissing their ass? Is he stupid? They're not going to help him back".

"What did you say?" Ash asked, not hearing him.

Dillon didn't notice Ash standing next to him. "Nothing", he didn't bother mentioning it to him, because Ash and Jason were close. "Have you found anything yet?"

"Nah, but Gabriel found his partner. Some girl in 1-A", Ash replied, blowing a bubble with his gum. "There's too many people here, yo. I keep forgetting who I asked", he said, looking around.

"This image is a dud, I'm not finding my partner", Dillon said, looking at his image and gripping his phone tighter than usual. "For the next image, I've got a new tactic".

"We don't need to stress. We've got two more attempts", Ash replied, shaking his dreads. "Huh? Look over there", he noticed something while shaking his head. "Malakai and his friends are pulling up now".

"We've got no time left", William said, stretching his arms.

"It is what it is", Malakai replied, looking at his right knuckle, which was still tingling.

"You should've seen my face when I saw Mally punch that guy", Benjamin said, noticing Malakai looking at his knuckles.

"Same, I didn't expect you to actually fight him", Ray excitedly added.

"I had to. I couldn't dodge forever", Malakai replied, putting his hands in his pockets.

"You gave him two punches to the face, and he never got knocked down. Your punches must be weak", Lucas joked, putting an arm around Malakai's shoulder.

"You can't talk. You had a staring contest with your guy", Benjamin said, defending Malakai.

David started laughing, "Lu, why didn't you throw a punch?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I couldn't, the guy was guarding the whole time", Lucas replied, not liking the pressure being put on him now.

"You should've punched him in the face like David did", William said like it was a piece of cake.

"I told you I couldn't!" his joke on Malakai backfired on him.

"So, it's confirmed Lu is the worst fighter", Malakai instigated.

"I'm not! I'll fight you right now", Lucas replied.

"Nah, I don't want a staring contest", Malakai joked.

"Son of a bitch", Lucas smiled as he put Malakai in a headlock.

"Look, Delilah and Tanisha are still here", Ray said, pointing ahead, causing everyone to look ahead.

Delilah and Tanisha were in front of them, but they weren't standing together.

"Why are they standing apart like that? Did they argue with each other?" William asked, seeing them having some distance between them.

"Maybe, Delilah looks angry", Lucas said, seeing her straight face.

"Nah, she just looks like that", Malakai replied, squirming out of the headlock. "Yo!" he called out.

Delilah and Tanisha both heard him and saw everyone walking towards them.

"Malakai", Delilah said, walking towards him with a worried expression. "You need to teach me how to smile".

"What?"

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Tanisha stood beside Delilah, "I said no one would approach her because of her straight face, so we tested it, and not one person approached her", she explained.

"Pfft hahahahaha", William started laughing, leading to the others smirking and smiling.

"Try smiling now", Malakai said.

Delilah tried to force a smile, but,

"Yeah, smiling isn't for you", Malakai said, covering his smile.

"No! I need to know how to smile. I can't have everyone think I'm a bitch", Delilah desperately replied.

This social experiment made Delilah come to a realisation. She knew she had an angry-looking resting face, but she didn't know it was that bad that it made people scared to approach her.

"You smile normally when you're laughing and joking with us", Benjamin said. "Just imagine those scenarios when you smile".

Delilah tried picturing those scenarios in her and smiled.

"Hahahaha. Delilah, you don't need to force a smile, man", Malakai laughed. "Smile when you wanna smile".

"Fuck", Delilah gave up.

"Don't worry, we'll teach you", Benjamin said, looking away and covering his smile.

"At least guys won't approach you", Tanisha said, looking at the postives.

"The wrong ones will", Lucas commented.

Delilah looked worried after hearing that. She put her hands together, "Please teach me how to smile", she begged.

"Heh. Aryt, aryt. Later".

"Why did you guys come so late?" Tanisha asked, changing the topic. The boys looked at each other, not sure whether to lie or tell the truth. "Did you get into a fight or something?".

"Nnoo", William couldn't lie to save his life.

"You got into a fight?" Tanisha asked, surprised. She only suggested that because it was a typical boy's behaviour, she didn't think they actually did.

"Mally, Lu and David did", William answered.

The boys looked at him like he was an idiot.

"What?" William asked, feeling the stares.

"Why did you snitch?" Malakai asked.

"She knew", William replied.

"She didn't. She was being sarcastic", Benjamin said.

William realised now that she was being sarcastic when she said that. "It doesn't matter, she's our friend, not a teacher", he said. Malakai lightly slapped him on the back of the head.

"Did you win?" Delilah asked, looking at Malakai, trying to see if he had any injuries.

"Does it look like I lost?" Malakai replied, smirking

"Only Lu lost", Benjamin snuck that diss in.

"I didn't lose!"

"Here's what actually happened. David won his fight, Malakai was winning his fight, and... I don't know what Lucas was doing", William said.

"I was waiting for the right opportunity to punch!" Lucas was trying to save himself from embarrassment.

"Did your fight not finish?" Delilah asked Malakai.

"Nah, they ran away after a girl shouted at them", Malakai replied.

"A girl?"

"Yeah, I don't know who, though. She looked like a kid".

"Where's Maria? Did she find her partner?" Ray asked, noticing she wasn't there. He noticed from the start but didn't have a chance to say anything.

"Yeah, she found her partner early on", Tanisha replied.

"Who?"

"Ryan".

"Ryan?!" Malakai said in shock. He looked at his friends, who all had the same look. Out of all the names to hear, they didn't expect that one.

"What's wrong with Ryan?" Tanisha asked, seeing their wide-eyed reaction.

"Nothing", Malakai was quick with his response. He made sure no one else gave the wrong answer; he didn't want other people to know about Ryan. Not right now.

Tanisha smirked, "Are you jealous of Ryan?" she asked.

"I'm so jealous, Tanisha. You don't understand. I want to be just like him".

Tanisha rolled her eyes, she should've saw it coming. "Even though we're not friends, I've gotten used to your sarcasm", she replied, not liking the sarcastic response.

"What, we're not friends? I thought of you as my friend", Malakai replied.

"Hell no".

While those two conversed, Delilah went over to the other guys.

"Don't you think it would be better if we told her about Ryan?" she asked.

"I don't know, I think it's better if we don't get her involved", Benjamin replied.

"It's better if she doesn't know", David said. "She's our friend, but she's not that close to us".

"Yeah, and even if we did tell her, she wouldn't believe us", Lucas added. "It's better if everyone found out naturally, he will show his true face soon".

"How did he approach you guys?" William asked.

"We were going to go to a guy that Maria and Tanisha knew, then Ryan came to us and introduced himself to Maria and Tanisha", Delilah replied. "Then Maria asked him what image he had and they both had the same picture, and they left together".

"Do you think he was waiting for you?" Benjamin asked.

"Nah, I think it was just bad timing", Delilah replied. "Well, good timing for Maria.

"He probably saw you and approached you. If we were there, I don't think he would've", David said.

"Malakai!"

An unfamiliar voice called out his name. Eyes darted to where the voice came from.

Malakai couldn't help but smile after seeing who it was, "What do you want?".

"Nothing much. I want to complete my challenge, that's all", Destiny replied, grinning, approaching him.

"You still wanna punch me or nah?" Malakai asked.

"Not anymore. You calling me a bitch was unexpected, and I reacted in the heat of the moment", Destiny replied, lifting her shoulders. "It's water under the bridge now".

"How can you call a girl a bitch? You really are a jerk", Tanisha judgingly said. Her view of Malakai only continued to decrease.

"I didn't. I said she speaks like one", Malakai replied to Tanisha. "I never said you are one, but you speak LIKE one", he said to Destiny.

"It's whatever, I don't care anymore. Looking back, I may have spoken to you rudely", Destiny replied, looking unbothered by it.

"Apologising now because you realised I'm not a joke?" Malakai asked.

"I haven't apologised, I'm reflecting".

There was a lot of tension between the two.

"Who are you?" William asked, standing behind Malakai.

"Destiny".

That name rang a bell. "Oh, Malakai called you out in his speech", William replied.

Destiny could've replied but stopped herself. If she said something out of pocket it would be everyone against her.

"Forget the small talk what image do you have?" Lucas asked, walking closer to her.

"Does it really matter? There's only a minute left until we get a different image", Destiny replied.

"A minute?" Lucas looked at his phone and it was 12:59 PM. Time flew by, and they didn't notice.

"If you really want to know, I had a picture of a belt", Destiny answered regardless.

"We wasted our first hour", Lucas said with a little regret. He didn't even hear Destiny's answer.

"I don't think me and David wasted it. We had a good fight", Malakai said.

"And we watched two good fights", Benjamin said.

"I think you wasted an hour. Instead of fighting, you had a staring contest", William said.

Lucas clenched both his fists. "I'll punch all of you right now to shut you up".

Ping!

1:00 PM.

Everyone got an email with a new image. All of them checked their phones instinctively.

Destiny opened her email, saw her image and smiled.

Malakai checked his image. "What did you get?" he asked Destiny after seeing her smiling.

Destiny smirked. "Let's show each other our phones at the same time. It'll be more fun", she suggested.

“Aryt”, Malakai agreed.

"Three. Two. One".