December 8th. Friday, 8:27 AM.
"How long until we get there?" Dillon asked, growing impatient.
"About another 15 minutes", Mr White answered.
The representatives of each class were on a mini-bus with Mr White and a few other teachers. They were currently driving to the location of the challenge. Their journey had already taken half an hour and still had not reached. The students didn't know what to expect. Some were excited, while others were nervous.
The mini-bus had fifteen seats. Ten were occupied by students, and the other five by teachers. The students obviously sat with their partners, so each class was together. With the names on the bus, you would've thought it would be hectic, but it was surprisingly peaceful.
Alexander and Destiny sat near the front. They didn't interact with one another. Alexander stared out the window the whole time while Destiny stayed on her phone. Dillon and Kayla were behind them. They also didn't talk. Dillon listened to music, and Kayla watched videos on her phone. Justin and Nada were behind them. The two of them spoke the whole journey, getting to know each other. This was their first time conversing, so they had a lot to discuss. They talked about the academy, their lessons, and what had happened to them during previous challenges. On the other side, Ryan and Akari sat near the front. Ryan and Akari talked a little but did their own thing after a while. Behind them were Malakai and Delilah. At the start of the journey, they spoke for about five minutes, but Malakai felt sleepy, so he pulled up his hood and rested his head back on the seat. We all know Malakai doesn't have a good sleep schedule, so him sleeping now isn't out of pocket. Delilah was on her phone to pass the time until,
"Delilah, are you excited?" Akari asked, kneeling on her seat to look behind.
"I don't know how to feel. I'm nervous if anything", Delilah replied, putting her phone down.
Akari looked next to Delilah, "How long has he been asleep for?" she asked, seeing Malakai with his hood up and head down. She couldn't see his face.
Delilah glanced over at Malakai, "Basically, the whole journey. We talked for about five minutes, and then he wanted to sleep".
"Have you taken pictures of him?" Akari asked, smirking.
"Only one", Delilah replied, disappointed. "I was going to take some more to make fun of him, but he sleeps normally. He doesn't snore or dribble. There's no point in taking pictures. He makes the same face".
"Are you sure he's not dead?" Akari joked, trying to get an angle on Malakai's face.
"He might be", Delilah giggled.
The two of them were quiet so as not to disturb Malakai and the others on the bus.
"What about you? How are you feeling?" Delilah asked.
"I can't wait", Akari happily replied with a smile beaming on her face. "We don't know what the challenge is, but it seems fun already".
"Are you not nervous? Your whole class is relying on you", Delilah said.
The whole class relying on her was getting to Delilah. She knew Akari was excited, it was all they talked about yesterday in their dorm.
"A little, but my class is confident in me. So I have to be confident in myself", Akari replied.
"Right…" Delilah said, looking away, a little jealous.
"Doesn't your class feel the same way?" Akari asked, tilting her head.
"Um. I don't know how my class feels about me", Delilah slowly replied, avoiding eye contact and scratching her cheek with her index finger.
"Delilah", Akari looked at her hopeless. She sighed. "It doesn't matter. This could be your chance to prove yourself", she said. "If you do well, everyone in your class will like you".
"And if I don't?" Delilah asked, having doubts about herself.
"That's not a possibility", Akari said, motivating her. "Look who your partner is".
Ryan could hear their conversation. Hearing that line ticked him off a little.
"I'm sure if you're in trouble, Malakai will help you and vice versa", Akari said. "He will help you win no matter what. I should know, I was on his team not long ago", she thought back to the second challenge and Malakai's reckless driving. She felt a bit of fear remembering that.
Delilah broke a slight smile. "Akari, how about we team up?".
Akari broke into a mischievous smile. "Nuh-uh", she shook her head. "Us two are rivals today".
Delilah broke into a full smile, "I knew you would say that", she said.
Delilah turned to Malakai,
"He would've been against it too", she thought.
8:58 AM
"Malakai, wake up. We're here", Delilah said, shaking Malakai's shoulder.
Malakai slowly opened his eyes. Everything felt still. The mini-bus wasn't moving. They arrived.
"I had that dream again. The good one", Malakai thought. "But... I already forgot what it was about".
He slowly lifted his head, looked out the window, and saw that the mini-bus was in a car park (Parking lot). Malakai wanted to go back to sleep and remember the dream, but his time to sleep was over. He turned his head to the left and saw everyone else on the bus stand up and make their way out of the bus.
"Tch", Malakai kissed his teeth. He wanted to sleep again. Malakai took off his hood and rubbed his eyes. He fixed his hair with both hands and stood up. Delilah watched his discombobulated state and waited for him to ready himself.
"After you", Delilah said, making a way for Malakai to get out as his seat was next to the window.
Malakai was still half asleep, so he didn't respond. He got out of his space and walked to the bus exit.
Malakai stepped out of the bus, "Yawwwnnn".
"Wake up. I need you to be at your best right now", Delilah said, shaking Malakai's shoulders from behind while stepping out of the bus.
"My best? What is my best?" Malakai asked. "The challenge could be something I'm shit at".
"Don't say that", Delilah replied, pushing him lightly.
Malakai cleaned his eyes and looked ahead, "We going into that building?"
"Looks like it", Delilah replied, catching up and walking beside him.
The building had multiple floors, and it curved around. It wasn't a block, but it was a circular building. The building looked new and freshly renovated. You would think this building was built for this challenge, but it wasn't. This building is an office for a business that is associated with and works with Astral Academy. The higher-ups got permission to use this building for the day. All the employees who worked here got a day off, which was lucky for them.
"Every place we go for a challenge, it feels like a movie set", Malakai said, admiring the building.
"Tell me about it".
Mr White led them inside the building. All the students and teachers followed him inside. When they entered, they were introduced to the reception of the office. It was evident what type of building this was when they all saw their settings.
"What are we doing here?" Destiny asked, furrowing her eyebrows and gazing around the place. The place didn't impress her. It was just a bland office building. From the outside, it looked interesting. Complete opposite inside.
"Follow me in here", Mr White said, holding a door to another room.
Everyone went towards him and entered the room. The room they entered was a simple meeting room. White walls, windows with blinds, a large shiny black round table that could fit ten people, standard office chairs and a monitor at one end of the room.
"Can you all take a seat, please?" Mr White told the students, gesturing to the seats.
They all sat sitting next to their partner and the people they liked. Malakai sat next to Delilah and Nada. Delilah had Akari on her left. Akari had Ryan, and beside him were Dillon and Kayla. Destiny and Alexander sat to Kayla's left. Justin sat next to Alexander completing the table.
The table was silent, and all the students either looked down at the table, fidgeted with their hands or awkwardly looked at each other. This continued until the monitor switched on. Mr Donald's face appeared on it.
"Welcome to challenge five. The last challenge of this semester", Mr Donald said. "This is a recorded message explaining the challenge. Unfortunately, I cannot be there with you, but you will have Mr White with you. If there are any problems, he should be able to help you".
"This better be a good challenge", Dillon thought.
"This better be a good challenge", Ryan thought.
"This better be a good challenge", Destiny thought.
"In this challenge, you will be competing against each other. As you can see, you are in a huge building with a lot of floors. Fifteen floors, to be exact. This building is filled with plastic balls. In those balls, there are cards that tell you how many points that ball is worth. In this challenge, you have to get your own points", Mr Donald said. "You are responsible for how many points you and your class get".
"This is a good challenge", Dillon thought.
"This is a good challenge", Ryan thought.
"This is a good challenge", Destiny thought.
"Let me explain in more detail. The main aim is to get the most plastic balls you can. Each plastic ball has a different number of points, some of which are more valuable than others. However, you don't know that as you can't see inside the balls. You have to collect the most balls to increase your chances of getting more points. There will be five different rounds. The rules for those rounds will be told to you before each round starts. Each pair has a safe zone. A safe zone is a place where only you and your partner can go. No other team can enter your safe zone. The purpose of the safe zone is to store your plastic balls so another team can't steal them, and it's a place to rest between rounds. There are also items hidden around the place. These items will help you in different ways. I won't tell you how, but I'm sure they will help you in tough situations. In this building, there are a lot of rooms, so you could easily get lost. This is where your classmates will help out. They will help you navigate and find the plastic balls. To do this, you will all be given a small camera that will be strapped to your body and an earpiece so you can talk to your classmates".
Malakai was smiling ear to ear. He was excited now. The whole table was. This sounded like the best challenge so far.
"Don't worry. I'm awake now", Malakai quietly told Delilah.
"These are the rough rules of this challenge. If you have any questions, Mr White should be able to answer them for you", Mr Donald said. "I wish you the best of luck for the challenge, and do your best for yourselves and your classes".
The recording stopped, and the screen went black. Everyone on the table looked at Mr White and waited for what was next.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Mr White asked, seeing that everyone's attention was on him. As Mr Donald explained the challenge with minimal detail, he knew there would be questions. He was annoyed at how poorly he explained the challenge, but he didn't voice his thoughts in case there was a snitch in the room. He wanted to keep his job.
Ryan raised his hand, "Can you explain the safe zones? I didn't quite understand".
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"Yes. Safe zones are essentially your home base. That is where you will stay between rounds and is a place you can return to whenever you want. As you heard, you can store the plastic balls you gathered in there, and no other team can take them from you. Only you can enter your safe zone, and you cannot enter anyone else's safe zone", Mr White explained.
"What happens if another team enters your safe zone?" Akari asked.
"That team will be punished. They will get three plastic balls taken away from them", Mr White answered.
"Are everyone's safe zones close together?" Ryan asked.
"No. You can see this building is very big. Your safe zone is on a random floor in a random room. No team will know where it is unless they find it", Mr White replied. "Once we're finished here, I will take one team at a time to their safe zones".
"Is there even a point in knowing where the other's safe zones are? We can't go into them", Destiny thought. She would've preferred if they were close together. She wanted to sabotage everyone.
"How many points can we get?" Dillon asked without raising his hand. He wanted to know the juicy information.
"In this building, there is a total of 5000 points".
Everyone glanced at each other. That was a lot of points.
"If one team were to collect every ball, they would end up with 5000 points, but that is highly unlikely", Mr White said. "Each ball has a card with a number on it inside it. The number represents how many points it's worth. Every ball has a different number, so some balls will have single digits, most will have double digits, and a few will have triple digits".
"What's the most valuable ball?" Dillon asked, curious to know.
"One ball has 500 points, but you won't know which ball that is because they all look the same. The balls are a solid white coloured. There is no way to look inside it".
"Can the balls pop?" Malakai asked, swivelling left to right on his chair.
"They're not balloons", Destiny condescendingly said, thinking he was crazy.
"They can still pop though, innit", Malakai replied, shrugging his shoulders, thinking his question was normal.
"He's right, they can pop. They are plastic balls", Mr White said. "But they won't pop so easily. They can be popped with a sharp object and enough force. Therefore, they can be popped. However, if they do pop, that ball becomes useless. The card inside is useless. For example, if you pop a ball with a card that says 100, you must leave it on the floor. You cannot cheat and sneak the card into your pocket. At the end of the challenge, we (the teachers) will pop the balls you've got and count your points ourselves. You won't know the results until we've announced them".
Cheating hadn't come to anyone's mind, but that issue looked like it had a solution already.
"How long are the rounds?" Nada asked.
"Each round is different. You will be told the instructions and time limit before the round starts", Mr White replied.
"Will our classmates really help us?" Akari asked, wanting to know more about their involvement.
"Yes. As this building is big and confusing to get around, they will help you guide it and find some of the plastic balls. You will not have a map, and there are no directions anywhere, so communicating with your classmates will be vital".
"Do our classmates have the map of this place?" Justin asked.
"Their situation is a bit different. They will explain it to you when you get the chance to talk to them. You have to put on the camera and the earpiece. If you don't, you will be put at a disadvantage".
"What are the items he was talking about?" Destiny asked.
"I can't tell you. You will have to find out yourself. There are a lot of items", Mr White said. "All I will say is that they will be a big help if you get them".
The table went quiet. It looked like the questions were done.
"Any more questions? If not, we'll get started right away", Mr White asked to make sure.
"The aim of this challenge is to basically get the most balls", Malakai said.
"To put it simply, yes", Mr White replied.
“Aryt”, Malakai smiled.
Mr White walked to the door and opened it,
"Okay. Alexander and Destiny, come with me. I will take you to your safe zone".
9:31 AM.
Class 1-C.
The rest of the class was sitting in their classroom. They had just seen the video of Mr Donald explaining the challenge, but their video had an extra bit to it.
"That is their involvement in the challenge, but your involvement is different. Your representatives do not have a map. They can't navigate the building well. Your job is to help them get around the building and guide them. To do that, you will have to build the map. Each floor has a layout, so the maps of each floor are different. You have been given one piece of the map of each floor. As there are fifteen floors, you have fifteen pieces. The map of each floor consists of three pieces. Therefore, you have to find those pieces. The pieces of the map are hidden around the academy building. None of the pieces are hidden outside the building, so you do not need to go outside. You will be able to see and hear what your teammates are doing. You will also be able to talk to them through the mic given to you. Your job in this challenge is as important as theirs. If you want you and your classmates to get a lot of points, you have to pull your weight. That is all. If you have any questions, you can ask your teachers. Best of luck, and do your best".
With that, the recording stopped, and the screen went black.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Ms Green asked.
"Do we go searching for the pieces now?" David asked.
"No. There will be different rounds. It will be announced when you are allowed to search", Ms Green replied. "I will give you some advice. I would rearrange the tables and bring some of them together. You have some time because I need to set everything up with the cameras and connect the mic to their earpieces".
"Teach, is there anything else we need to know about the maps?" Benjamin asked.
"Anything else?" Ms Green thought for a second. "Oh, right, there are different versions of the maps. For example, some versions have dots on them. Those dots represent the plastic balls, so you can tell Malakai and Delilah exactly where they are".
"So not all of them have the dots?" David asked.
"No, it depends on how quickly you find the pieces. Let me explain it like this. As there are five classes, there are five versions of a piece of floor one. Not all versions are the same. Some have dots, and others have nothing. It all depends on which one you find", Ms Green replied.
"We can help them a lot if we find those pieces", Tanisha said.
"This really is a class challenge", Maria replied. "Everyone has a part to play".
"If no one has any more questions, I suggest you set up the classroom in a way you would think would be the best", Ms Green said. "Before I forget", she went to her desk and picked something from under it. "Here are the pieces of the map you have".
She placed them on David's desk as it was the closest desk to her. David picked up one of the pieces. The pieces were laminated pieces of paper that had diagonal cuts across them. The majority of the pieces were triangled-shaped. David turned around one of the pieces.
"Twelve", he read out a number written on the back. "This must be the floor number". Feeling motivated and excited, he smirked,
"Guys, let's sort out this room".
9:42 AM
"You can take off your blindfolds".
Malakai and Delilah took off their blindfolds. They had to be blindfolded so they couldn't see or know what floor they were on. And they also used the elevator to keep them from counting the number of stairs they were going up. This made them clueless about their location.
Both of their eyes readjusted to the light, and they saw where they were. It was a bare room with green flooring, a single rectangular table, two chairs and a long vertical locker in the corner in the corner of the room.
"The green flooring represents a safe zone. If you open a door and the floor is green, that means you found another team's safe zone. Every other room has a white floor", Mr White told them. "The cameras and the earpieces are already connected to your classroom. Go ahead and put them on", he said, pointing to the table. "Press the button on them, and they should instantly turn on and connect to your class. While you do that, I'll sort out the next team. Wait in this room, you will hear an announcement soon telling you what will happen", he said, pointing at the speaker above the door.
Mr White left the room and closed the door behind him. Both of them walked over to the table.
"That was a lot of information", Delilah said, picking up the camera vest on the table.
"This is sick", Malakai said, putting the camera vest on and the earpiece in and ignoring what Delilah said. "How do I turn them on again?" he rhetorically asked.
He pressed the button on the top of the camera and the button on the earpiece.
Beep!
The camera turned on, but Malakai didn't know if the earpiece was on.
"Can you hear anything?" Delilah asked, putting her earpiece in.
"Nah", Malakai replied, shaking his head.
"Hello?" A voice came through the earpiece.
"David?" Malakai could hear David's voice in his right ear.
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
"Yeah, yeah. I can hear you", Malakai replied. "Can you see my hand?" he asked, putting his hand in front of his camera.
"Yeah, I can. I can see you on Delilah's camera as well", David said.
"You can?" Malakai looked at Delilah's camera and put his middle finger up to the camera. His instinctive pose when a camera was on him. "What's the set-up you have?" he asked.
"The screen in the classroom has both of your camera angles. On the left is yours, and on the right is Delilah's", David replied.
"Mr White told us that you would help us, but he didn't tell us how. He said you will tell us", Delilah said.
"Yeah, we can help you guys a lot", David replied.
David went on to explain their roles in the challenge. After explaining that they had time to talk as they had nothing to do, they talked about what they had done to the classroom and their strategy for finding the missing pieces of the map.
"Can Ms Green talk into the mic? I wanna hear her voice", Malakai joked.
David looked towards Ms Green. She shook her head.
"She doesn't want to talk to you", David replied.
"I meant Delilah wanted to hear her voice", Malakai said.
"No I don't", Delilah said, but she quickly realised what she said was kinda rude. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that".
"Wow Delilah, You're gonna break Ms Green's feelings", Malakai said, taking the piss.
"Tell Malakai to shut up and concentrate on the challenge", Ms Green told David. She was at her desk and away from the mic. It was unlikely Malakai heard that.
"I heard her voice, I'm happy now", but Malakai still heard her. "David, are you gonna be talking to us the whole time?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm the leader, somehow. But, if anyone else has some input, they can talk too", David replied. "Why do you want to talk to someone?"
Malakai smiled. "The real question is, do they want to speak to ME?".
David looked back at his classmates. He got their answers from their expressions.
"None of them want to talk to you".
"Damn. I'm actually the most hated".
Screeeech!
The sound of a speaker turning on rang in the ears of Malakai and Delilah.
"Is everyone ready?".