The round started, and everyone sprinted towards the mess. The foot race was competitive, with Malakai leading the race and a few others following behind. Eventually, Malakai reached the mess and analysed what was in front of him. He couldn't see a cube in sight. He started moving objects, not throwing them, just moving them out of his way. He looked to his right and saw various random objects that looked promising, so he moved to the right to try and find them but had no luck. Now, he started using more force to move the objects to get through more objects quickly. Ray found a teddy bear and got up to return. Malakai noticed and got an indication that he had to pick up the pace; he started throwing objects to his right; he felt something with the outside of his left hand and picked it up. It wasn't the cube. He threw the object to the left.
"Hahahaha".
Malakai turned to the laughter and saw Dillon holding a cone. Dillon made eye contact with Malakai, smiling in his face, elated to see him struggling. Dillon got up, violently pushing Malakai's head down with his left hand as he stood up. Before Malakai could turn to look at Dillon, he had already started running. Was Malakai about to be eliminated in the second round?
Ray returned to the start and saw Malakai still on the floor, looking for his object.
"What's taking him so long?" Ray thought to himself, watching his friend, who looked so lost. It was the complete opposite of how he acts. This was the first time he'd seen Malakai struggle with something.
Nada watched anxiously; she had hope, but seeing people run back made her doubt Malakai. Was he struggling to find the cube? Surely, this was a part of the plan.
"I can't do shit", Malakai thought. He wasn't even looking properly at this point; he let his hands wander in the mess. A last-ditch effort to salvage something. As his hands grazed against various objects, he felt a poke on the back of his right hand. He turned his hands and grabbed the object. He had the object in his hand. It was the cube. As he pulled the cube up, he noticed a cube reveal itself under a whiteboard. He picked up that cube with his left hand while his right hand eventually pulled out the cube from under the mess. Malakai had found both cubes in one go; he instantaneously returned to his lane and put one of the cubes on top of the mess, so Nada had no work to do. As soon as he placed it down, he ran. Maria had just reached the mess before Malakai took off. Malakai speeded past people running past him, changing gears. He arrived at the start back to Nada and told her,
"Nada, run".
Nada heard what he said and did what he told her. When she saw Malakai return to the lane instead of running back from where he was, she thought he might have done something to help her. Nada had little legs, but she was quick, so Malakai wasn't worried about her speed. He was worried about how much time he wasted. If they lost, it was on him. He watched on as he saw Maria run back. He also noticed Dillon's partner run back and saw multiple people running back. He tried to calculate the numbers but couldn't; he had to keep an eye on Nada. So much was happening around him. Malakai was nowhere near tired; he was confident until he thought of Nada's stamina. She was running right now; then she had to run back and then run again to the finish line. She might gas out; no, she will gas out. Malakai saw more and more people running to the finish line with their partners. He looked straight ahead and saw Nada running back with the cube in her hand. It seemed like it was a quick collection for Nada, which was good. However, as she was running back, it looked like she was slowing down. She blew all her pace and stamina in the first run to the mess. Nada was halfway through, and her pace dropped by half; it was clearly noticeable that she was slowing down. Malakai knew they couldn't qualify if she had to run again; Malakai readied himself and stretched his back,
"NADA! JUMP ON MY BACK!" He shouted to Nada. Nada looked ahead to see Malakai squatting down, getting ready to give her a piggyback. Nada, out of nowhere, got a boost and pushed her limits to reach Malakai. She understood what was going to happen, knowing that gave her confidence to run until she dropped. When she reached Malakai, no words were said; it was just one fluid motion to get Nada on Malakai's back. Both of them had their cubes in hand. Malakai held Nada's legs, and Nada wrapped her arms around Malakai's neck to ensure she didn't fall.
"What are they doing?" Maria watched from afar at the finish line; it wasn't clear what they were doing. Ray looked up and was speechless.
"Bae, we should've done that," Olivia said to Daniel, both standing at the finish line. Everyone looked at them, confused about what was happening.
"Hold on tight", Malakai said to Nada.
Nada buried her face between Malakai's right shoulder and neck and tightened her grip. Malakai sprinted—he wasn't as fast as he was alone, but he was still rapid compared to some people. He looked ahead and saw people in front of him; he wasn't sure if he would make it. He had no time to concentrate on others; he just had to go. He reached a new gear and leaned forward, getting closer and closer and closer to the finish line.
"THE GAME IS OVER. TEN PAIRS HAVE CROSSED THE LINE!" The teacher shouted.
Malakai looked around and saw everyone looking at them, "Did we make it?" He questioned, out of breath.
"Just about, only one person from the pair behind you crossed the line. If both of them crossed the line, you would've been eliminated", the teacher told them.
"YESSSS! WEE DID ITT!" Nada celebrated by hugging Malakai, who was still on his back.
Malakai crouched to let Nada off his back; Nada got down and hugged Malakai properly. Malakai didn't say anything; he couldn't say anything. He was too tired. What just happened? The two stayed in the hug for ten seconds before breaking it. It was a tired hug; they were basically leaning on each other. Ray and Maria came over to the two and congratulated them,
"You nearly got eliminated", Ray said, smiling, relieved Malakai got through.
"Me, eliminated? Never", Malakai responded, still breathing heavily.
"That was close, I was worried for you", Maria told Malakai.
"It was all part of the plan", Malakai said, putting a finger to the side of his head before taking a seat on the floor to catch his breath.
Nada started ruffling his head as she could reach now. "I was wondering why you were taking so long, but you were finding the other cube to make it easier for me. I expect nothing less from my sensei".
Malakai kept his head down and smiled to himself so nobody could see. He knew he got left off the hook. He got insanely lucky he found both. Even if he had found one fairly quickly, Nada would have taken a long time to find the other cube. The position of the objects were unlucky, but Malakai got lucky finding them. He more or less gave up but somehow managed to save himself.
Dillon and Jason watched on as Malakai and his friends celebrated.
"Fuck sake, how did he qualify?" Dillon said out loud, visibly pissed.
"You can't deny he is good", Jason replied with his arms crossed.
"Next round, he's gone for sure".
The break had finished, and the boys returned to the hall.
"What'd you think the game will be?" Lucas asked David, walking next to him.
"I have no idea, but if it's more running, I'll be happy to get eliminated", David replied. The four boys were the last to enter the hall.
"IS EVERYONE HERE?" Mr White called out, wasting no time. "Before I announce the game, I will split you into two teams".
Everyone looked at each other.
"Stand together", David told his friends, standing close to Benjamin and Lucas.
"Why?" Benjamin questioned.
"Trust me." with those words, the four boys stood close together.
Mr White came over to them, "What's the pairing?" he asked.
"Us two", Benjamin and Lucas said, stepping forward.
"Okay, you two go stand over there, and you two stand over there." Mr White split the boys up, sending them in different directions.
"We're on different teams now", Benjamin complained, not understanding David's plan.
"Believe me, it's better this way because whatever team wins, at least two of us will go through. It's better than all of us getting eliminated", David explained.
"Or all of us qualify together. Did that cross your mind?" Lucas asked, not in favour of his plan.
"It did. But then I remembered what we were competing against," David replied. It's for the best, believe me." David felt like he had done the right thing. As they parted ways, they saw people coming their way.
Lucas looked at the faces coming towards them and then looked across. "Bro, their team is stacked" " he said in shock.
"Who would've thought the main guys from our classes were on one team?" Ryan said, looking at his team.
"You got what you wanted; we're working together", David replied in a lower tone than usual.
"Ha, for now", Ryan coldly replied.
William looked at Alexander and Frank; he wasn't too keen on starting a conversation with them, so he turned to the four remaining people in his team. "Hey, who are y'all?" He asked enthusiastically, wanting to make friends.
"Mark, I'm in 1-A", he introduced. Mark had light brown hair slicked to the side and dark brown eyes. He looked friendly, and he also looked normal. William thought that people in 1-A would be different and look different. By different, he thought they would look rich, extravagant, or kinda scary, but Mark looked like a regular guy.
"Kennedy, I'm also in 1-A." Kennedy had wavy ginger hair and glasses; the two boys were welcoming. However, the two girls weren't so friendly; they brushed Williams's question and had their own conversation.
"They're in our class as well. The girl with the short black hair is Bri, and the other girl is Sydney." Mark introduced them to William.
"Thanks", William said, smiling at him. "We got a good team", William said to keep the conversation going.
"Yeah, it looks strong," Mark replied, looking at his teammates. What you did in the first round was incredible, by the way. I have to shake your hand for that," Mark said, turning to William and offering his hand.
"Thanks, man, I didn't expect to be complimented this much", William embarrassedly said, shaking his hand.
"Looks like we'll qualify", Frank quietly said to Alexander.
"We were always going to qualify regardless of who was on our team", Alexander said, staring at the opposite team.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the other team members introduced themselves and talked with each other. Lucas and Benjamin stood next to each other,
"We're fucked", Benjamin said, looking at the other team.
"Yep".
"OKAY IS EVERYONE READY?" Mr White shouted. "The next game is", he paused.
"Dodgeball".
TEAM 1
ALEXANDER BURRELL - 1-A
FRANK CARTER - 1-A
MARK HARISON - 1-A
KENNEDY SMITH - 1-A
BRI LOPEZ - 1-A
SYDNEY HAYES - 1-A
RYAN LEE - 1-B
LORENZO DEMARCO - 1-B
DAVID SMITH - 1-C
WILLIAM JACKSON - 1-C
TEAM 2
EVE MASON - 1-A
ELIZABETH MOORE - 1-A
FELIPE GONZALEZ - 1-A
HANSEN BERG - 1-A
CHRISTIAN MARS - 1-A
GIOVANNI COSTA - 1-A
CHRIS HOPE - 1-B
REECE WEST - 1-B
BENJAMIN SCOTT - 1-C
LUCAS CAMPBELL - 1-C