"Alright, I'm sure everyone already understands all the rules. Whatever you do, you need to be back here by 6:30." said Ms Leah while looking at the eager expressions of the students.
Ms Leoah continued, "Let the games... Begin!"
Immediately group leaders began ripping the envelopes with the clues apart and opening them. Inside they found 7 numbered flashcards with riddles on them and a Notepad and pen for writing down the numbers.
Some groups immediately began rushing out, while some groups stayed and read through the riddles. Group 11 was one of the latter.
"What do we do guys, some of them are getting away." said Thabo while anxiously looking around.
"Let them. We need to come up with a plan anyway." said Rosaline. She unconsciously looked in the direction of Leonidas who was seemingly in bothered with all that was happening around him.
"I say we split up into two teams, cover more ground" said Bianca resolutely.
"I agree." said Priya.
"Okay we'll split up into two teams. One team takes 3 riddles while another takes 4" said Max confidently.
"Is everyone okay with that?" asked Priya while looking around.
Everyone nodded their heads in response. But Leonidas interrupted the atmosphere, "Wait, I feel like we're missing something"
"Leonidas? What do you mean?" said Maya. She had been paying attention to him for a while. She thought he would keep to himself but she was wrong.
"How are we going to communicate? What if riddles are linked? What if riddles are a dead end? We need a way of collaborating."
"Oh I see. Who here has their phone and their phone has data?" asked Max after his realization.
"I do..."
"Same."
"Me too"
Several voices rang almost at the same time.
"It would be great if Max could set up a group chat, add everyone he can, and then take pictures of all the riddles and add them to the chat so that everyone can see them. That way if a group is done with their riddles they can start doing the other ones." said Leonidas dismissively. This was pretty obvious to him. There were more reasons, but he didn't have to explain them right now.
"Yeah! That's smart, guys give me your numbers"
"Damn if anyone told me it was so easy to get pretty girls' numbers, I would have taken the group leader position no matter what." said Juju. Immediately after that, he was glared at by all the girls and pitied by all the boys.
Oof. He didn't know at the time, but he had just become the resident creep.
It didn't take long to set everything up and by the time they had split up into teams, all the other groups had already left the starting area.
The teams went as follows:
Team 1:Maya, Khanyi, Leonidas, Gene, Juju... Tackling 1,2,3,4
Team 2: Rosaline, Priya, Bianca, Max, Thabo... Tackling 5,6,7
After some debating, Rosaline insisted on swapping teams and Juju, being the gentleman he is, acquiesced. Although the boys obviously knew that he would do anything to be next to his goddess Priya.
People couldn't help but look at Rosaline doubtfully. Why was she so insistent on swapping teams anyway? None of them noticed when a strange glint of cunning flashed in Maya's eyes as she possibly knew why.
"Okay. Meet you back here at 6:30." said Max with a bright smile on his face.
"Don't forget to take your brochures. There's a map on page 3." said Leonidas lazily.
Everyone nodded and started moving towards the houses except Leonidas, Maya and Rosaline. They clearly had their brochures with them.
Rosaline flashed a brilliant smile at Leonidas before she said, "You were right. They really did get us to explore this place using a game. You're really smart."
"I know right... He even guessed that Max wanted to be leader. How did you even know that?" asked Maya.
Before Leonidas could respond, Rosaline looked strangely towards Maya and asked, "You heard our conversation from before?"
"Sorry, I was right behind you guys. It just happened" said Maya apologetically with slight embarrassment coloring her cheeks. She was never the type to be nosy.
"It's fine. Anyway you also understand how crazy that was right?" Rosaline said, flashing a brilliant smile, her eyes shining with curiosity and cunning.
Seeing the girls getting along, Leonidas interjected.
"To answer your question. I didn't." said Leonidas while glancing at Maya. After being added to the group chat, he had been reading through the riddles and he had some ideas about their answers.
"You didn't know?" asked Maya doubtfully.
"That's right. The first time I spoke to that guy was 30 minutes ago." said Leonidas while shrugging his shoulders.
"Then how?" said Rosaline with interest.
"I knew that he wanted to create positive first impressions on Certian people. I also knew that if you guys wanted the position, you would just go for it. So I gave all of you an opportunity. I gave him the opportunity to look good, and I gave you guys the opportunity to tell how you really feel. Everything worked out perfectly in the end." said Leonidas while not even looking at the girls. He was sharing some ideas about the riddles in the group.
"..."
"..."
*ding ding *
The girls' phones rang with notifications at the same time. When they checked the group chat, they realized that someone called "rawr xd" had provided answers to the riddles and their possible locations on the map.
Leonidas put his phone in his back pocket and looked at the girls while smiling and said, "If we finish this quickly, we could have some free time to really explore this place. Wouldn't that be great?"
"..." Maya could only stare speechless at this weird boy. He seemed laid back and out of touch with reality, but in actuality, he was constantly observing everything and everyone around him.
Rosaline on the other hand started giggling sweetly. After some time she said, " That's true. If we can finish this quickly we could definitely do whatever we want afterwards"
Needless to say after the team members converged back together, they solved the riddles and gathered the numbers in quick succession. After the space of two hours, Max managed to hand in the the filled sheet and their group became the winners.
"Well done guys. This was supposed to take you a long time but it's clear you guys understood the rules and capitalized on the major clue we gave you even before the game started"
"The brochure?" asked Priya tentatively
"That's right. You guys will receive your rewards at 6:30 pm. For now it's 6 pm. I suggest you wait around until we start moving to the dining hall later on."
"Okay. Thanks Ms Leah" said Max.
"Any time" said Leah with a smile that could calm even the most wildest of seas.
So they went back to the rest area, which was located outside the house and started chatting to pass the time.
Leonidas was met with strange gazes after it was revealed who "rawr xd" was. Some looked at him with awe and amazement, while others looked at him with unbridled jealousy and envy.
Of course Leonidas characteristically took the backseat and merely smiled while he was receiving praises from his team mates.
It didn't take long for the rest of the teams to flood back in on time for supper. Unknown to Leonidas, a pair of eyes was staring at him with disbelief and anger.
Julian had just found out that Group 11 had already finished their hunt almost 30 minutes ago. He was unresigned. Even he, while running around everywhere, had only gotten 5 clues.
Not wiling to take this lying down, Julian and his group went towards Group 11's quarters, where there were various different other people from other groups sharing their experiences.
Of course Juju was at the Frontline telling tales of his bravery and brilliance in figuring out clues and embracing the unknown. Actually, if Juju hadn't been bragging to his classmates on social media, none of the other groups would have known that the challenge was already over.
As Julian approached group 11 he spotted Leonidas, who was seemingly busy on his phone. But he became livid when he saw the person sat next to Leonidas. It was Rosaline, the girl Julian was persuing.
Julian had found out from Irna that Rosaline had declined his invitation all so that she could sit and read a book next to Leonidas. Julian of course heard of Leonidas' involvement and immediately put the blame on him. His fixation on destroying leonidas wouldn't let him think otherwise.
Rosaline was destined to be his. Everything was destined to be his. No one else's.
Withholding his killing intent and the unsightly expression on his face, he flashed an inviting smile as he looked at Rosaline.
"Congratulations Rosaline. If there was someone who could solve the riddles this quickly, it would definitely be you" said Julian as he approached with a charming gait.
But would Rosaline entertain him?
"Actually it wasn't even me. I just went around and found numbers." said Rosaline with a gentle smile.
"there's no need to be humble. Or maybe was it Maya? Or someone else?" asked Julian, withholding the surprise in his eyes.
What Rosaline did next shocked all those who were around.
She gazed intently at Leonidas and placed her soft, fragile hand on Leonidas' shoulder. Then she continued" It was Leonidas. He's actually a genius, even I was impressed"
Julian saw the expression on Rosaline's face and immediately became angry. She had never looked at him that way, but now she's paying attention to that orphan?!
Julian looked meaningfully to his left at one of his friends, who had already been waiting to impress Julian.
The boy, with full lips and dark brown skin stepped forward and pointed at Leonidas while saying "Leonidas there's no way you solved those riddles so quickly, you must have cheated!!"
All the sore losers who were previously holding back their grievances saw a chance.
"yeah, there's no way."
"I saw their group. They were the last ones to leave the starting area. They must have bribed the teachers while we were busy working hard."
"Despicable... Cheating just for a small game like this?"
Leonidas merely looked around lazily before sighing loudly. He didn't even entertain these people. But he was definitely surprised by Rosaline's actions.
It had to be said, Rosaline had a reputation of never having interacted with a male physically before. Her pride and purity was one of the reasons why she was so popular with the boys even in the higher grades.
Who didn't want to conquer a prideful girl who was more beautiful than any other?
Julian sneered at Leonidas' reaction. There was no way he was letting this end easily.
Julian, with a concerned face, said "Leonidas how could you? I understand that you wanted to impress Rosaline, but going this far... You're a disgrace to our grade."
"Julian we were there the whole time. How could he have cheated?" said Rosaline with a cold expression that Julian ignored.
"Who knows, maybe he did it while you guys weren't there. Maybe they told him even before
Rosaline was livid. Wasn't this the same as saying that her judgment was wrong? Wasn't this a slap to her face?
But before she could say anything Leonidas' face had a smirk as he taunted.
"Do you have any proof for your claims? Or are you just gonna keep rambling on like a sore loser?"
"We're not sore losers. We just want you to admit that you cheated.", said the tall guy beside Julian.
"Oh really?! So you're saying the teachers are helping students cheat?! How do you think our teachers will feel if I tell them that you're spreading damaging rumors about them?"
"I-I-I'm not spreading damaging rumors. Are you telling me that you figured all the riddles out?"
"Just because you can't do it, doesn't mean I can't" said Leonidas. Then he turned to Julian, a devilish smile coloring his face, as he continued, "Not all of us are incompetent."
Julian had a unsightly expression on his face. The disrespect.
"Why you...!!" the tall guy approached Leonidas menacingly, but before he could do anything, the teachers interrupted.
Ms Ane stood in the middle and bellowed as loudly as her body could, "As you guys may know, there was a group vhich managed to solve the riddles wery quickly. Give it up for gruppe 11."
*clap clap clap clap*
"Group leader, come up here and take your prize!"
After being coaxed by the teachers and the group members, Max stood up and confidently went forward to take the award. It was two picnic baskets, one with snack and sweets and another with canned drinks. The group members were very happy about this.
"Oukay guys. Now that we're done here, let's go to supper! After that, we'll give you guys free time to do whatever you want until 9:30. " said Ms Anne.
The students were elated at this. Free time? On a lodge? Surrounded by beautiful girls? And handsome boys? And beautiful sights? There's no way they're not taking advantage of this.
Some boys and girls had already started flirting and making couples among eachother. If they had free time... they could do some romantic stuff...
Leonidas secretly shook his head at these beasts in human skin suits. Perverts. The whole lot of them. Disgusting perverts.