"Mally, let him win", Lucas said, clapping his hands and looking at Ray celebrating.
"Yep, it was obvious", Benjamin replied.
"Wait, all of you knew he was going to do that?" Delilah questioned, turning to him, beginning to think this was planned.
"Kinda, if he didn't let Ray win, that would've been surprising", William told her.
"Why would he do that? He could've gotten more points. Someone might close the gap now", Tanisha disappointingly said after hearing Malakai didn't try. Even though her friend won, it felt less like a win after hearing her opponent let her win. It didn't sit right with her.
"Think of it this way. Imagine you're in Mally's position. Would you let Maria win?" David asked her.
"Of course I would", Tanisha answered, slowly realising she answered her own question.
"I should've known, to be fair", Delilah said, looking at her friends on the court.
"Mally's selfless; he would do anything for his friends".
Malakai and Nada were talking with each other.
"You let us win, didn't you?" Ray asked, walking towards them.
"Na, you won fair and square", Malakai replied, putting his hands up like a cop told him to.
"Liar, how could you beat the other guy and not me?" Ray kept piling on the questions, knowing what his friend was like.
"Cuz you're better than him. Besides, Maria got past Nada; the most we could've got was a draw", Malakai said with a smile.
"You told Nada to let Maria go past her", Ray said, not believing he won fairly.
"Bro, you won; why are you complaining?"
Before the match started.
"The final. What's the plan?" Nada excitedly asked with her hands clasped together.
"We let them win", Malakai casually replied.
"Huh? Why?" Nada questioned, shocked by the reply.
"For the greater good".
"Greater good of what?" Nada was confused.
"Of the universe", Malakai exaggeratedly said.
Nada didn't get it, but "Okay", she agreed.
"Unless you don't wanna do that. Do you wanna win?" Malakai asked to make sure. He was only thinking about his friend and not how Nada felt.
"I don't mind. You're doing this for your friends, I understand", Nada replied. "You did say you wanted to have fun, and I've had a lot of fun today", Nada smiled. "It's kinda cool knowing we could've won if we wanted to".
"Yeah", Malakai happily replied, relieved by her response.
"How are we going to let them win?" Nada asked, happy to go along with it.
"You good at acting?" Malakai questioned.
"I think I'm good enough".
The teacher came towards the students. "Congratulations, you got first place. You've won 100 points," he congratulated Ray and Maria. He then turned to the crowd that stayed to watch. "CAN I GET A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE WINNERS PLEASE!" He shouted. The crowd began to clap and whistle. Would Malakai and Nada get this reaction? I guess we'll never know. "THANK YOU ALL FOR TODAY! I KNOW IT WAS DIFFERENT BUT THANK YOU ALL FOR TAKING PART. YOU ARE ALL FREE TO GO HOME!" The teacher announced before walking off.
"Let's go to the others", Malakai suggested. Everyone agreed and started walking towards them. Malakai and Nada were walking behind Maria and Ray, who were discussing the win. Malakai put his right hand on Nada's head and quietly said, "Remind me to give you an Oscar later".
When they reached their friends, they were greeted with smiles and laughter.
"Mally, you let them win!" William loudly said so everyone could hear, even the bystanders.
"Why's everyone saying that? I didn't", he replied, smiling, not making himself look innocent.
"You did well against that guy, though." Benjamin praised him for the semi-final.
"Did you think you were gonna lose?" David asked.
"Naa, I had it covered", Malakai confidently replied.
Lucas put him in a headlock, "Be honest".
"Aryt, aryt. It looked a bit shaky, but I clutched it. It was all part of the plan", Malakai let out while in the headlock.
"Who do you think won in the other building?" Delilah threw the question out there.
"Alexander, most likely", David answered, stroking his chin.
"Who cares? Let's go get something to eat", Malakai said, still in Lucas's headlock, trying to break free.
"Yeah, let's go out to eat, all of us", William excitedly said after hearing the idea.
"Really?" Nada questioned, wondering if she was invited.
"Yeah, if you wanna come?" Benjamin said, welcoming Nada.
"Yes, I'd love to", Nada accepted.
"Delilah?" Benjamin asked, checking if she was coming.
"Yeah, after all of that, I need something to eat," she replied, happy to be involved because she was starving.
"What about you two?" David asked the two girls, who were having their own conversation.
"Us two what?" Tanisha didn't hear what they asked as they were talking to each other and not listening to each other.
"Do you want to eat with us?" David repeated the question. Tanisha was unsure,
"Yeah, we'll come", Maria eagerly replied, speaking for them both.
Tanisha looked at Maria, smiled and sighed, "Yeah, we'll come". If her friend wanted to go, then she didn't mind going. The truth was that Tanisha was hungry, but she wanted to go with Maria alone to eat somewhere. However, this offer came first, and Maria accepted it. Overall, Tanisha was happy; she felt like she had made a few friends here, and it looked like they were going to bond further. They all agreed to eat, so the ten left the building, searching for a place to eat.
On the other side of campus outside of the other building.
"Are you pissed?" Lorenzo asked, scrolling through his phone.
"I'm not too sure", Ryan answered, looking up at the sky. The two were walking together back to their dorm.
"Third place isn't that bad. I'm happy with 85 points", Lorenzo said, showing he wasn't that fussed about not reaching the final.
"First place would have been nice, but they are from 1-A, I suppose", Ryan said, keeping his gaze up at the sky.
"You should stop underestimating them; they are legit in a higher class than us", Lorenzo replied, trying to bring up to reality.
"I'm not underestimating; I'm just confident in myself", Ryan said, looking at Lorenzo, who was, as usual, staring at his phone.
"Do you think Malakai got first place?" Lorenzo questioned to make the conversation interesting.
"I don't care, he probably did. I'll ask a girl from class D or E later." Ryan got annoyed thinking about the possibility of Malakai finishing higher than him.
"You got connections everywhere. D, E, second years, even some third years", Lorenzo said, listing the options.
"I got none from A or C. I can probably persuade a girl from C, but I don't see anyone from A telling me something." As soon as Ryan stopped talking, he got a notification on his phone; it was a message. "Malakai came second; his friend came first", he read out the text.
"He definitely let his friend win", Lorenzo's first reaction to hearing that.
"So useless", Ryan frustratingly said, thinking about Adam and Dillon.
"I thought everyone at that meeting was good?" Lorenzo asked.
"I don't care about Dillon; he's a big guy who scares people. But Adam was supposed to be good. No, he is good; how the hell did he lose?" Ryan rhetorically asked, putting his phone back in his pocket.
"Maybe Malakai is that guy," Lorenzo said, knowing Ryan would not take kindly to that statement.
Ryan was annoyed but didn't show it, "Patience is a virtue. His time will come".
Alexander and Frank were also walking out of the building.
"100 points just like that", Frank said, cracking his fingers
"If the opportunity for points comes this often, it won't take me long to pull ahead of everyone", Alexander replied, sounding bored.
"What did you think of Mark and Kennedy? They were pretty good in the final", Frank asked to get a conversation going.
"I found no trouble getting past the person who was defending me. You didn't cross the line, but it worked," Alexander said condescendingly out of habit. He didn't mean it in a bad way; he said it how it was.
"I'm a big guy. I had to defend the guy", Frank replied, defending himself. The final was over quickly; Alexander crossed to the other side as soon as he ran to the centre. He went behind Frank so he was out of sight of Mark, who was defending him, and changed direction to mislead Mark. Mark couldn't keep up with Alexander, so Alexander ran past him. As he crossed over, the 30-second timer was set. Frank didn't try getting past Kennedy. He focussed on defence, and it worked. They won as Alexander was the only one to cross.
"Do you want to get something to eat?" Frank asked.
"Sure".
Frank didn't bother mentioning Malakai and closing the gap between him. He knew what Alexander would say and refrained from mentioning his name. They would eventually see the point gap at 6:00 PM.
"What are we ordering?" William asked the group.
"I'm not your dad, bro. Order yourself", Malakai replied.
"I'm asking everyone!" William snapped back.
"Everyone's gonna want something different", Malakai argued back, smiling, knowing what he was doing. The ten of them were at a restaurant and found a place where they could all sit together—five people in one row and five across them in another row. The row went like this: David, Malakai, William, Benjamin and Lucas. Delilah, Maria, Tanisha, Nada and Ray were in the other row.
"Do they always argue like a bunch of kids?" Tanisha asked Benjamin, giving them a look as she was sitting in front of William.
"Yeah, them two always argue, but Malakai does it to take the piss and William gets pissed every time. It's funny to watch", Benjamin replied, showing it was normal.
"I don't get pissed", William said, turning to them.
"It's a skill issue", Malakai said, trying to piss William off.
"Shut up, that makes no sense." It worked. Everyone focused on the menu and looked at what to order.
David lifted the menu in front of him, "Mally", he said, nudging him.
"Yo".
"Lemme ask you something", he quietly said, looking at his menu.
"Aryt," Malakai replied, leaning towards David to look at the menu he was holding, making it look like they were discussing what to order.
"Can you trust that girl?" David asked.
"Nada?" Malakai replied, still looking at the menu.
"Yeah, you randomly became close with her, " he said, glancing at her. Nada was talking to Ray, and she was all the way on the other side, so she couldn't hear what they were talking about.
"We ain't that close," Malakai said, leaning back in his seat. He looked at David. "Talk quietly," Malakai continued.
David put his menu flat on the table to avoid looking suspicious. "I find it weird how you two randomly became friends", David said, looking at him.
"It's fine, she's harmless", Malakai replied, reassuring him.
"I'm just saying she might be using you. Worse, she could stab you in the back later on", David warned him, as he didn't know Nada well.
Malakai smiled, "Na, it's nothing like that. I can't lie; I think it's the other way round. I used her in the mini-games".
"I don't mean now; I mean later on." David continued to caution him.
"You're worrying too much. I got it under control. She won't stab me in the back, and if she does, it will probably be with a butter knife", Malakai told him, making a joke out of the situation.
David smirked at that comment, "Whatever you say", he shrugged.
Everyone ordered, and instead of waiting until they finished eating, the waiter gave them the bill before the food came.
"All of that will cost 458 credits", the waiter told them. Looks went around the whole table,
"Who's paying?" Malakai asked. Everyone looked at him. "Why's everyone looking at me…. I ain't paying!" He refused, sitting up.
"Put your hand up if you think Malakai should pay", Lucas said, putting his hand up. Everyone had their hand up except Nada; Maria had her hand half-heartedly.
"Why? What did I do?" Malakai asked in desperation for answers.
"You let Ray win", Benjamin told him.
"What?! That makes no sense", Malakai was confused.
"You didn't try; if you tried, it would have been a different story", David explained, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Bro, a win is a win", Malakai admitted to letting Ray win. He looked around the table, and no one supported him, so he gave up and shook his head. "Aryt, how much was it again?" He politely asked the waiter.
"458 credits".
"The fuck are you lot ordering", Malakai whined, looking at everyone with a dumbfounded look on his face.
"You told me you were rich", Delilah said, using his own words against him. Malakai looked at her, betrayed. He couldn't even respond because he did say that. He pulled out his phone and sighed.
"I can pay for half if you want", Maria offered.
"Na, it's calm", Malakai replied, waving his hand. He then scanned his phone to pay for the bill; as soon as he heard the ping noise to notify that he'd paid, he felt a pain in his chest. He took damage with his credits. He then looked at Nada, who was hiding behind her menu.
"Why didn't you offer to pay half?" he complained, pointing at Nada.
"No one said my name, plus I was doing what you told me. If you told me let's win, I would've done it", Nada replied.
Malakai shook his head and said, "I'm disappointed".
"I'm sorrryy", Nada tried apologising.
Malakai turned his head to the left, placed his head on his palm, looked out the window, smiled and quietly said to himself,
"What a day".