The Wednesday morning was met with the same routine that was previously established on Tuesday with people getting ready, and then having breakfast together.
After breakfast, the guide, who was a burly man with a large scar across his face, stood in front of the students with a smile on his face. He said "Today you guys will be visiting the museum and after that you'll visit the workshop where we'll have an animal exhibition ready for you. So you guys are definitely gonna have fun"
"Animal exhibition..."
"Woah, we're gonna touch wild anilmals"
"I'm scared."
Murmurs resounded in the dining hall after the man's announcement.
Ms Anne continued, "But before that, you'll have us for the morning session. Ve are going to be wisiting the gaming house where you vill be competitively playing games against eachother"
"Yeahh!"
"Fuck yeah!"
"Let's win this time guys!"
Ms Anne continued "Oukay Oukay, listen. You will be competing for Fizerrs. Every game will be played with a Fizerr on the line, and each group will get a set number of fizers"
The other teachers handed over a twenty pack of Fizerrs, which are sweet snacks, to every group leader.
"Oukay, are you ready leute?" asked Anne
"Yes ma'am!"
And so they left and entered a massive building lined with chairs and cupboards full of board games. After getting set up, the first game was chess.
Group members would rotate and play games with students from other groups. Winner gets a fizzerr from the other group. At first group 11's chess campaign went badly, with Juju and Thabo losing their games, this leaving the group with only 18 fizerrs remaining.
But after a dazzling display from the girls, they managed to win back 4 fizerrs, bringing the total to 22. After some time, the groups rotated and it was group 11 against group 6.
"Leonidas, why don't you go against me?" said Julian with a sneer.
"Fine. I haven't played anyway. Should be fun." Leonidas said dismissively.
"Let's make it more interesting. You have to bet 10 fizerrs for this game. Hmm?" said Julian, but before Leonidas could say anything back, Julian continued.
"Of course you don't have to... If you're a PUSSY."
"Pfft... He's definitely a pussy." said a group 6 member menacingly.
"Heh, what a loser. All he knows is how to fight. Does he even know the rules?" said another group 6 member mockingly.
Leonidas calmly looked at Julian and said "Sure, why not."
While group 6 cheered at Leonidas' seemingly stupid actions, group 11 was angered by Leonidas' seemingly selfish behaviour.
"Heyyy, that's 10 fizerrs..." said Gene
"I heard Julian plays chess competitively. This is going to be a nightmare." said Juju
"Stop trying to be macho and just play normally" said Bianca.
"It's fine. It's fine. I'll take responsibility. And losing is something I do very rarely anyway." Leonidas said with a charming smile, while preparing the board.
"Oh no we're doomed" said Thabo
"Let's Just believe in him a little. He's smart. He can do it." said Priya with a nervous smile on her face. Rosaline and Maya stayed silent by the side, watching intently as if they didn't want to miss a thing.
"Why don't you take white Leonidas, so that at least you'll be first in something."
"Wow... Thank you so much for your generosity" said Leonidas with a beaming smile on his face. After that, it was a quiet and tense match with none of them taking longer that 5 second to make a move.
[
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 Bg4
4. d4xe5 Bxf3
5. Qxf3 d6xe5
6. Bc4 Nf6
7. Qb3 Qe7
8. Nc3 c6
9. Bg5 b5
10. Nxb5 c6xb5
11. Bxb5+ Nd7
12. 0-0-0 Rd8
13. Rxd7 Rxd7
14. Rd1 Qe6
]
By this time, it had been almost 2 minutes. Leonidas had a lazy look on his face as he said "Checkmate in three moves, five moves if you're lucky."
Everyone was surprised... What?! There's no way right?
Julian ignored the cold sweat going down his back and sneered while saying "Heh, Leonidas you're talking about yourself right? I'm a regional chess champion. What are you?"
Leonidas smiled.
'Me? I'm just a cultivator'
[
15. Bxd7+ Nxd7
16. Qb8+
]
"Check!" said Leonidas lazily.
"No no no... How could this be possible?" said Julian scratching his head. He hadn't seen those two moves coming.
"Are you gonna resign? Or are you gonna play? PUSSY?" said Leonidas with a sneer on his face.
Rosaline began giggling in response. Maya smiled to herself. That was really well played. Even they hadn't seen it coming. A queen sacrifice... Brilliant.
Julian could only grit his teeth and play his final move.
[
16. ... Nxb8
17. Rd8#
]
"Checkmate. That was boring. I thought you were a regional chess champion... Which region was it again?" Leonidas asked in a daze.
Rosaline and everyone else started laughing hysterically as Julian had the most unsightly expression on his face.
Group 6 could only give away their 10 fizzerrs and move on to the next table.
It went like that till the teachers announced that it was time for the next game. Cherades. Each group would choose one player and the in for the game would be 5 fizzerrs. But in exchange, the winning group would get 30 fizzerrs. Second place would get 20 fizzerrs, third place would get 10 fizzer,fourth place gets 5 fizzerrs.
Group 11 chose the biggest and fastest guy, Gene, to be their man. And Gene did not dissapoint, grabbing second place, and putting the group at a total of 48 fizzerrs.
After playing an assortment of other games, losing and winning, Group 11 had a total of 50 fizzerrs at the end of the program, which they split 5 each. After that they went to lunch, which was busy ND loud as always.
"I had no idea you could play chess like that" said Priya, while looking at Leonidas in awe. Although she didn't understand what happened fully, the fact that Leonidas could predict and play accordingly just went to show how brilliant he is.
"Yeah... It's something I do occasionally online." said Leonidas, trying to brush off his accomplishments and the attentions of this girl.
Priya ripped off the packaging of the fizzer and licked the long pink sweet cone slowly while looking deeply into Leonidas' eyes.
"Really..? Can you teach me?" she said playfully while sucking on the cone.
"Oh my God..." said Juju while possibly holding off a premature ejaculation.
"Jesus..." said Thabo while possibly calming his heart palpitations.
Everyone else watched this with shocked expressions and closed mouths. They really couldn't believe this. Priya was flirting?!
"Hmm... I don't know. I'm a really busy guy" said Leonidas while busying himself with his food.
Priya merely giggled and continued eating as well. She was really surprised. Most guys would at least have a reaction to what she just did. Leonidas' reaction was a bit more interesting.
'Maybe he really is different as they say he is'
The rest of lunch was normal and went off without a hitch.
The students went to the Museum. The Museum was humoungous place, split up into sections about the history of the park, and some cool interesting moments in park history.
There were some skeletons of prehistoric animals, some pelts of famous animals... There were even wildlife videos captured live.
One of those videos depicted elephants giving birth. The boys, being the brutes that they are, laughed about the size of the female elephants vagina, making all the girls swear that they would never have babies.
After another hour, they were lead to a warehouse. But the warehouse was more like a stable, with animals lying everywhere. This was the place they would bring wild animals if there was something wrong with their health or they were infected with something that needed to be contained.
There were zebras, kudus, hyenas, a leopard, even a lioness.
Some students were made to volunteer then when they saw that they were to hold a 6 meter long boa, they all almost lost the feeling of their legs.
"Oh come on... Does anyone want to actually touch Pretty here?" asked the ranger with some dissapointment.
Ms Leah pointed to Leonidas and said "He's fearless. Take him"
Although Leonidas could feel that she did it out of the spirit of fun, he was still very aggrieved. Why him? But he smiled inwardly as he thought of this in another way.
A bunch of adults watching kids play with a long shlong.
Disgusting.
Leonidas sighed and stepped up. After being given the mid section, which was arguably the heaviest section of Pretty the female boa, Leonidas held it without feeling the least bit disgusted. The brown patterned slimy skin. The feral eyes that other people found to be scary. He found Pretty the boa to be beautiful.
Actually the animal kingdom as a whole was almost perfect. Beings doing their best, trying to survive, no matter what. He knew how that felt.
After handing the snake back he walked back and flashed a charming smile at Ms Leah who couldn't help but be amazed. This kid...
After the boa came other animals.
A large tarantula, which was brown with black spots, was brought forth. After convincing the kids that it had been treated so that it had no poison, the first person who stepped up was surprisingly Maya. She held it without the slightest fear in her eyes, impressing both other girls and boys.
Then came the smaller animals like the meerkat, which girls started cheering for because of how cute it was, and the porcupine, which boys started cheering for because of how cool it was.
After some time, and some wandering around, it was time for supper so the kids were let out. Soon enough, Leonidas was congratulated by the rest on how well he handled the boa.
Leonidas reminisced "It was nothing much. Just a bit slimy. It was warmer than I expected"
"I wish I had a snake..." said Juju.
"Really..?" questioned Khanyi.
"Yeah. A snake in my pants" said Juju and immediately sounds were heard all over the table.
"Pfft"
"hahaha"
"Juju just leave"
Maya spat out her drink. Rosaline choked on her stew. Priya started laughing hysterically. The boys slapped themselves in realization that this guy was definitely gonna ruin their chances with women in the future.
After dinner, they were given free time and after thinking about it, some groups started organizing some crazy games like "Spin the Bottle" and "Truth or Dare". After learning that group 11 was invited to such a game, Leonidas told them he really couldn't play.
"You're really gonna miss the chance of hugging and making out with some cute girls?!" asked Max uncharacteristically. Even he didn't want to miss this chance. During the past few days he had gotten to know Leonidas and realized that he was actually a pretty cool guy. That's why he decided to probe.
"No thanks. If I want to hug someone, I'll hug them. If I want to kiss someone, I'll kiss them. I don't need a game for that." explained Leonidas calmly.
*oouuuuhhhhh*
Sounds resounded the whole table. Priya of course instigated even further.
"So who does Leonidas want to hug~ and kiss~" asked Priya seductively, stirring all the boys into a crazy fervor.
"Who knows... Anyway, I decided that I'm way too young for that kind of stuff. Maybe after I turn 18... Then I'll do it."
"Woah! Really? That's... rare..." said Priya doubtfully with a glint of awe in her eyes. She really didn't expect that.
"NO ways, you're lying. Isn't that in like 5 years. You're gonna be missing out." said Gene temptingly
But Leonidas wasn't perturbed. He had prepared this speech really well and now was the perfect time to test it out.
"Do you know that many adult relationships don't last because of habits that people built up in their teenage years? They treat relationships as if they're a joke. As if they're just playing around. I genuinely dislike that. I dislike wasting time, especially on people who don't know themselves. So I think it's better if I wait, that way I'll be mature, and hopefully, they'll be mature as well."
"..."
"..."
"That totally makes sense. Man, I don't know about you guys, but I respect it." said Max in a contemplative manner. Everyone else nodded their heads in unison.
"I really like that. To know yourself, before trying to get to know other people..." said Maya in contemplation.
She was the type to dislike boys and always aimed to do better than them. She had not expected that she would ever think this, but she felt like Leonidas was someone she could definitely get along with.
Rosaline looked at Leonidas with a weird look. She really could never have imagined this. But considering his weirdo status, she felt it must be true.
Of course some people made fun of him. Especially people from another table who were listening in.
"Wait, so you wanna be a virgin? What a loser kukuku"
"Not only is he a psychopath, but he's also a Monk... Pfft hahaha"
"Does that even go together? Hahaha"
After more minutes if back and forth talks on Who do you like, and Juju getting thoroughly rejected by Priya, Leonidas felt that it was his time to leave. As he stood up he heard a startling "Wait!".
Leonidas looked back only to see a beautiful blonde girl. "Let's go back together" said Rosaline
"Sure..." said Leonidas, pushing the doubt he was feeling to the back of his mind. If anything funny happened he would handle it appropriately.
After a few seconds of walking Rosaline and Leonidas were side by side walking towards their houses.
"I have a question." said Rosaline. Leonidas nodded for her to continue, so she did. She stood right in front of him, gazed deep in his eyes and said.
"Hey. Who are you?"
A smile crept up Leonidas' face. Isn't this what he said a few days ago? He decided to play along anyway. He brought his face closer to hers and said.
"My name is Leonidas Mira. Who are you?"
Rosaline was stumped. This was way too close. Mission abort.
"See you tomorrow" said Rosaline as she turned around and scurried away.
Leonidas merely laughed and went his own way.
That night, a bonfire was lit and cheers and laughter could be heard even at late hours of the night. Some people were sleeping, some people were doing anything but sleeping, while others were doing what they wanted to do. Cultivating.