12th September...
"It's - THE DAY !!! " said Betty and Linda waking me up at 7 in the morning.
"Get ready, you have to assemble at 10 right? " Linda said unduly concerned about me.
"Let me sleep a little more; after all, I'm going to go on a mystery contest, "I said yawning and chuckling at the same time.
"Yes why not sleep, lazy girl; you're acting as if you've accomplished something !" said Flare who got out of bed and went to use the washroom.
We ignored her.
I tried not to think of the previous scenes; it was exhausting to overthink; with no defined answers to the endless suspicions.
So I decided to get up and pack the stuff required.
I got my earphones and played the "Breathe" song by Kenzie to have an upbeat morning.
Song playing...
"So breathe like you know you should," I sang shamelessly.
We were told to dress in normal shirts and trousers which were comfy enough for all types of rigorous tasks in the competition.
I took out my favourite pink top and white trousers to wear.
After getting ready I adjusted my golden locket again (just in case it loosened ) and then set out to the dean's office which was on the 4th floor.
My roommates left me with Matt and those selected.
The office was a small glass cabinet where the Dean sat. I noticed he kept his desk pretty clean and had placed colourful pens on the pen stand. There were post-it notes on top of his diaries (just like me). It was a mere coincidence I guess. I also noticed a small photo frame, but before I took a closer look, the Dean stopped me and told me to stand outside.
He later came out and commenced discussing the rules with all six of us participants.
I looked around. Two students were dressed too formally; the girl had worn a red blazer paired with dark black jeans while the boy wore a blue blazer and dark black jeans; they were definitely from The Brookwood university (like its brand name, too formal ).
The other couple was decent looking; the girl had worn a regular light green coloured floral frock and the boy wore a light blue t-shirt with black pants; they were from The Calm Meadows University.
"Good Morning students,
Good to see all of you have assembled here on time. We have with us Susan and Ricky representing Brookwood; Tim and Riya representing Calm Meadows. Their deans are waiting for all of us on the 5th floor where this competition will take place"
(I got goosebumps as soon as I heard 5th floor; Matt noticed my response and came to pat on my back and whispered - I'm there for you)
"You'll all be given an individual smartwatch, specially designed for the different levels in the game"
(Watches were given and we all wondered what the three dots signified inside the watch ?)
"The three dots are equivalent to your lives in the game. You have to work as a team or else you won't survive the game. There will be three levels to judge your 'Young love' and the watch will be your emotional judge. If you get carried away with your hatred or emotions otherwise, both partners will lose their life. Since it's a Love battle, you and your partner are both tied in all situations. After the three levels of your Love and Trust judgement, the final level will lead you to your treasure, and thus back to the university. I know all of you are random pairs but that makes this competition more interesting, and might give you a chance to get to know each other better. Oh yes! And your smartwatch has an in-built voice system that connects you to your respective partners. So throughout the game, if you get separated, you need to still keep your trust levels high or you'll end up losing a life. Also, as each round begins and end, the watch will guide you with riddles leading to the next level. It will begin in 15 minutes from now (he looked in his watch ). Bon, Voyage my students !!! , "said, Mr Fisher (with a heavy voice).
We followed our dean upstairs.
I had checked my voice configuration with Matt's watch. We shared a glance and before he said something...
I said, "A lot of things are going on and I thought a lot about this; I don't mind if you like Flare; she is a girl after all. For now, since we are a team let's just pretend we are in love and make this work, can we? "
"Okay," Matt agreed without opposing.
Just "Okay", like seriously.
What was I expecting anyway? I tried to debate with the voice in my head.
Maybe he was tired of explaining or maybe he loved Flare too much, I guess.
"Kids come over here, " our dean called us waving, near the wooden mystery door.
The professors still considered us as kids even after being in our senior college years.
Mr Sanger stood there along with the other two deans. I spotted the blue rusty laptop opened up and placed on a stool nearby.
I was too conscious to go near with my locket still on my neck.
"Grace"
"Grace, are you okay? " Matt asked again gently patting on my hand.
"Yes I will be, let's go ", I said letting go of his hand (feeling uncomfortable around the person, who I once poured my heart out to).
The locket didn't shine with so many people around.
No energy drain.
No supernatural power acting up.
We six stood there silently listening to the rules.
Mr Sanger explained, "The competition will take place on the other side of this huge ancient styled door. A biochemical formula has been used to create a MIRROR WORLD similar to the world we live in. All the tasks easy or hard will take place in this mirror world, and I will be monitoring the weather changes and clues through my laptop you see here. Now get in there and make your university proud kiddos !!! ".
We were dumbfounded by the word "MIRROR WORLD".
I observed a metal ring with a weird shape engraved on it - on Mr Sanger's index finger.
It looked quite familiar; I just couldn't remember where I saw it before.