After the egg and spoon race had concluded, it became apparent to Cassandra and Meghan why Emily was so keen to enter.
Her grip of the spoon on which the egg rested was at times quite questionable. A few times the wobbling appeared so severe it a chick inside was about to burst out.
Yet the pace she put forth served to be unmatched by the others who chose to enter. And so, with a wide grin on her face she was awarded a plastic first place ribbon, Cassandra coming in a not-so-close second.
Meghan lifted up her camera, saying "cheese" as she got ready to take the photo. The two looked at each other before they reluctantly smiled. Meghan checked her camera to see how it came out. Upon doing so she smiled satisfactorily.
"Meghan can I see it?" Cassandra asked noticing Meghan's satisfied smile.
Meghan just shook her head "Not yet, I'll print the good ones out for you guys tomorrow. If I show it now you'll get a bad impression of my amazing photography skills" she said smugly.
"I know your photography skills aren't bad so let me see. Come on you've shown me a lot of other stuff before please please please." She whined.
"Not yet, there's a few things that need touching up."
"Such as…"
"Lighting"
"Screw lightning"
"Excuse me?"
"I said-"
"I don't mind waiting until tomorrow" Emily interrupted and smiled.
"See someone gets it" Meghan said triumphantly. "It'll be worth the wait."
"I can't believe I got double teamed again" Cassandra muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" Emily asked.
"Nothing"
"Alright then, shall we check the schedule again?" she suggested.
"Hmm yeah let's check it. Oh right" Cassandra slinked over to Meghan and casually draped one arm around her shoulder and smacked the other shoulder a few times with her other hand. "You never told us what events you wanted to do did you? There must be something here that peaks your interest"
"I have no interest in novelty events"
"You're so boring. Not even one"
"No."
Meghan didn't participate in the egg and spoon race, on the grounds that the deal was made exclusively between the other two. With this she happily considered herself to be exempt. She had also earlier blatantly rejected Cassandra's plea to join the three-legged race with her and so thus far had expressed no intention to join any novelty event.
"You have to pick something" Cassandra coerced. "I'll pick for you if it's that hard."
"I'd rather pick myself."
There we go. There must be something she secretly wants to do. Cassandra thought satisfactorily.
"Then… I'll pick…" there was a long pause before she shamelessly looked down at the schedule in her hands and skimmed through the options. "How about tug of war?"
Emily was surprised, "I never thought you'd be one to like tug of war of all things"
"It's bearable."
"It's bearable" Cassandra mocked, "If you want to join something then tell us, I promise I won't judge."
Meghan scoffed, "We have half an hour. We might as well wait on the field." She started walking in the general direction.
Shameless, both Emily and Cassandra thought simultaneously and exchanged a glance. She really just picked the next event.
As they were walking over Meghan asked curiously, "by the way Emily are you ambidextrous?"
"Oh? How'd you tell?" Emily asked surprised.
"You used your right hand for the egg and spoon race, but you seem to prefer to do most things with your left, like eating for example."
"I think I am at least partially ambidextrous although my left hand's grip is quite weak, so I prefer doing physical things with my right."
"Hmm makes sense, that's pretty cool it's a pretty rare trait isn't it? What was it, ten percent in the world or something."
Emily just nodded and replied, "Yeah, I heard something like that haha…"
Cassandra meanwhile silently made a crab claw with her hand and smiled.
"Cassandra!" Isabelle called out, running towards her. "Enough is enough. I told you to tell her "soon enough", its been almost three weeks since I warned you. Just when do you plan on telling her? Answer me!"
Cassandra sighed and looked down guiltily, "Look I-, it's harder than I thought, I tried but-"
Isabelle scoffed, "I knew prolonging it wasn't a good idea. Look at you. Disgraceful. I'll tell her then, put the both of you out of your misery."
"No don't. I'll tell her"
"Yeah right, what will it take, another three weeks? Three years?" She lowered her voice "Have you already forgotten what it was like with Meghan? How long it took you guys to-"
"Enough Isabelle!" Cassandra shouted. "Enough" her voice cracked slightly. "I'll tell her at the recreation day."
"Really? How are you going to get the courage then? Manifest it out of thin air. Poof?"
"Alcohol."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. I'll tell her. If not then…."
"Then what?"
"Then I guess you will…"
Isabelle smirked and extended a hand, "deal?"
Cassandra reluctantly shook it, "deal."
Cassandra looked at the crab claw she had made and sighed, running a hand through her hair. "If you don't tell me I won't ask". Emily's statement echoed in her brain, a sense of insurmountable guilt rising within her. It was a betrayal, unfair to both herself and to Emily.
She stared at the two walking slightly ahead of her. Unaware. Oblivious. And she envied them for it. She was unworthy of oblivion. After all, she was a coward.
Only a coward would shamelessly disclose their crime of alleged murder under the guise of drunkenness.
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Emily positioned herself behind the tripod looking on eagerly as Meghan who was standing right beside her was describing the basic instructions for its operation. After the camera was set up she joined Cassandra in one of the lines, which already contained a few others. Emily watched them through the camera lens, too afraid to press any buttons in case she interfered with the video.
Meghan's role of photographer meant that there was clearly a significant amount of bias regarding which events or people she took photos of. However, before the day had started she carefully reassured them that their photos would be for the three of them only, unless explicit consent was given otherwise.
As the event commenced, Emily couldn't help but notice that Cassandra seemed slightly spaced out and so afterwards she approached her with a water bottle ready in her hand.
"Cassandra are you feeling alright? You spaced out a little during the event…" Emily asked hesitantly.
Cassandra just smiled and replied, "it's nothing, I was probably just a little tired that's all."
"Couldn't sleep well?"
"Not really aha… I'll get some more coffee with lunch, that should do the trick."
"Caffeine is not the solution, you need rest."
"I need energy first, I'll rest later"
Meghan scoffed and asked Emily, "What time is the three-legged race again?"
"Ahhhh I forgot I agreed to join that, um let me see…" she stared at the schedule, her finger tracing over the times.
Cassandra stared at the rope on the ground, her thoughts wandering…
A boy sat in front of her, his spoon laying horizontally on the table in front of him.
"The concept itself is not that hard, it's like how during a game of tug of war, the more effort you put in the more effort they put in right? So, if you use less effort, they will too." He demonstrated this using by shifting the spoon back and forth.
Cassandra rolled her eyes, "But then they can control you easier."
"Yes that's true, but once the momentum gets going and you get pulled more and more towards their side prolonged resistance becomes harder."
"The point being?"
"It is true that prolonged resistance becomes harder but, if instantaneously you gave it your all, tried to stop, what can they do? They'd be caught off guard, and for a second, even just one second, perhaps you can regain control."
"You'd still lose."
"Isn't that the point? We're here to lose."
Cassandra shook her head and clenched her fist. What was that? My memory? It can't be. Why would anyone want to lose? But, no matter how hard she tried convincing herself otherwise, she couldn't help but recall the boy's face from her brief dream in the morning.
"I need more sleep" she muttered.
Emily laughed and linked arms with her, "Of course you do genius."
"What's next?" Cassandra asked.
"The three legged race of course." Meghan replied.
"Why are they all consecutive" Cassandra whined. Emily and Meghan both laughed as they looked to sit down in the shade to wait before the event.
It was a few minutes before the race was scheduled to start and there were already a few teams gathering around the courtyard. Most had gathered in groups, and it seemed they were planning to play strategically, eagerly measuring up their heights and stride lengths.
Emily and Cassandra were of a similar height, Emily being a few centimetres taller. Yet, due to Cassandra's slight limp and Emily's natural tendency to take larger strides they felt they were almost destined for failure.
After she had set up her tripod and walked around taking photos of the other groups, Meghan returned to see them strategizing gloomily and laughed.
"Don't be so negative, you guys have a better chance than I did with Cassandra before" Meghan teased.
"With Cassandra? You guys did the three legged race before?"
"Yeah, at the orientation day."
"Woah. How'd you go? Completely fail?"
"We won actually" Cassandra said smugly.
Emily was beyond surprised. Out of the three of them, Meghan was clearly the shortest, being just over half a head shorter than Cassandra. Although, due to her voluminous 3c curls, the height difference was not too apparent from a distance.
"How did you guys do it?" Emily asked curiously.
"Well, my stride length and pace happens to be quite similar to Cassandra's. It was a walk in the park really." Meghan explained.
"Oh, that makes sense. It must be fated to work out that well. Congratulations on your win by the way."
Meghan and Cassandra looked at each other and smiled. Fated huh. Cassandra thought. Perhaps it was, it was our first encounter after all. What a way to meet…
"You have to tell me about it sometime" Emily said.
"Of course!" Cassandra grinned. "I have loads of stories to tell about Meghan, her poor innocent, emo self-" she teased.
Meghan glared at her and raised her hands mockingly, "You wanna go?". She then proceeded to chase Cassandra around in circles.
Cassandra ran to hide behind Emily, peeking out cautiously from over her shoulder before sticking her tongue out. Emily just laughed as she was spun around as a human meat shield against Meghan's "attacks".
Eventually, Meghan was able to land a light tap on Cassandra's shoulder and, seemingly satisfied, she went back to make sure her cameras were still in order as the group who had organised the event walked over.
Cassandra and Emily were handed a long piece of fabric and they immediately sat down to begin tying their ankles together, leaving the recommended small gap to allow for mobility and to avoid injury if they were to fall. They decided it was best to tie Cassandra's right and Emily's left, as the centre foot would serve to keep the pace as unanimous as possible.
The race involved walking up to a set of cones around 10m away, turning around and coming back. There were ten teams who had joined, and each was lined up behind a designated cone.
Once the race commenced, Emily and Cassandra found themselves unexpectedly in great form and when they were nearing the turning point they were in the lead by a decent margin.
However, upon reaching the cones they simultaneously realised that due to their eagerness and focus on correcting their difference in pace they had failed to decide on a direction to turn in.
Emily had already made to turn right with her outside foot when Cassandra called "left". Once she attempted to correct herself she lost her balance and she fell over, tripping Cassandra over in the process.
Emily fell on her backside whilst Cassandra fell onto her hands and landed almost on top of her. After staring awkwardly for a split second Emily burst out laughing and, in between laughs she managed to say "sorry, sorry I tripped".
Cassandra's face was flushed as she looked to the side, averting eye contact, "Don't worry, we should've decided on a direction earlier."
They both looked towards the finish line and knew they were going to finish in last place. Cassandra managed to stand up and extended a hand to Emily, "let's finish it."
Emily smiled as she grabbed her hand, "alright".
Once they approached the finish line Meghan cheered them on with a series of claps and was soon joined by the other participants as well. "At least you finished" She said as they crossed the line.
"Of course we finished."
Meghan grinned, "I took some great photos by the way, but again, you'll have to wait until tomorrow'.
"Come on don't tease, let me see"
Not this again. Emily thought, rolling her eyes. She looked down at the piece of fabric on her ankle and smiled contentedly. I guess the three legged race isn't so bad after all… that is… if you have someone more than willing to complete it with you, even if you don't win.