"we're going to crash," Justin quietly said as the car spun. It was like Justin was seeing everything in slow motion. Only his thoughts were playing at normal speed. His life wasn't flashing before his eyes, but he saw everything as it happened. Justin thought this experience only happened in movies, but it was happening to him now. As Justin was lost in thought, he felt the wheel turn to the left.
"BRAKE SLOWLY!!!" David shouted while leaning over to try and take over the wheel. Justin snapped out of it. It was like everything sped back up to normal. Without thought, Justin immediately put his foot on the brake. He did what David told him and slowed down the car gently. Before David intervened, the car was swerving to the right, almost at a 90-degree angle to the road. Thanks to David's help, the car didn't go off-road. The car began to slow down and came to a complete stop. The vehicle was in the middle of the road, not facing straight ahead but pointing to the left. Smoke came from the exhaust pipes at the back of the car. The car left skid marks on the road behind them. They didn't crash.
"Oh shit! They nearly crashed", Luke said, slowing down the car. He watched the whole thing unfold in front of him.
"2", Lucas read the number on the back of the car. "Wait, David's in there. We have to stop. I need to check if he's okay!" Lucas worriedly said, jumping out of his seat.
"They didn't crash, so they should be fine", Marcus replied, only thinking about getting second place. He had a front-row seat to the show, and although it did look dangerous, the outcome didn't look bad. They didn't crash into anything; they only swerved on the road and nearly spun out. If they had spun out, it wouldn't have been dangerous as there were no barriers on the side of the road, so they would have just gone off-road on some dirt. However, if the car flipped over, that is a different story.
"What do you mean!" Lucas lashed out, looking at Marcus and furrowing his eyebrows. Marcus didn't look at him; he knew his words were heartless. "Bro Luke, please. Just drive slowly next to the car. We don't have to stop", Lucas begged, taking off his seat belt to lean ahead closer to Luke.
"Okay", Luke agreed after seeing Lucas's desperation. Luke was glad Lucas had more things on his mind than girls. They got closer and slowed down. David's team's car was at about a 50-degree angle, so if they drove past, Lucas would be able to see the front of the vehicle by looking out of Jessica's window. They arrived at the scene, and Lucas leant over Jessica; not caring about personal space, he pushed down the window. David was sitting in the passenger seat, looking at Justin and checking if he was hurt. David noticed the car pulling up, looked up, and saw Lucas wide-eyed and slightly pale. Lucas put a thumbs up to ask if he was okay. David put a thumbs up and accommodated with a toothy smile to show he was good. After seeing that smile, Lucas sighed in relief and smiled, glad his friend was alright. He relaxed back in his seat.
"You can drive now", Lucas said, wiping his forehead. "Sorry about leaning over you", he apologised to Jessica.
"N-No, it's fine. You were looking out for your friend", Jessica replied with rosy cheeks. Lucas didn't notice, though; he was looking down at his feet. He was still in shock. David, his best friend, could've been seriously injured, and it would've been because of him and his team. The whole car was sneaking glances at Lucas to see if he was okay. Lucas could feel them but didn't make much of it. For some reason, he was feeling guilty. Lucas was only a passenger; he wasn't the driver; if he had to blame someone, it had to be Luke, but it still weighed on him.
"Lucas".
Lucas looked up. Luke called him.
"No one got hurt. Everyone is fine", Luke said. "If you want to blame someone, blame me, not yourself. I'm the driver".
Lucas put his head down and covered his eyes. He smirked, "Was I making it that obvious?"
Meanwhile, everyone was quiet in the other car. Awkward silence. It was one of those moments where everything could've gone horribly wrong, but it didn't. If everyone were close friends, maybe everyone would've been laughing right now. Jokes would've been flying over the place. However, all of them were strangers to each other. The other team overtook them and were soon out of their vision. Surprisingly, Dillon had yet to pipe up. Deep down, he knew it was his fault. But it wasn't all his fault. He wasn't driving the car after all. All of this wouldn't have happened if Justin knew how to drive the car properly. There was no point in lashing out now. Dillon had so much to say but kept it in. The two girls, Sydney and Sasha, didn't say anything either. It wasn't their place to talk; if they did, it would probably piss Dillon off. I mean, they were also scared for their lives; they nearly lost their lives. Shaking off an experience like this wasn't a task for ordinary people. Silence was the only answer, it seemed.
"C'mon, let's go." David broke the silence. He was the one person who could talk and not worsen the atmosphere. His tone was neutral; he wasn't angry, annoyed, scared or shaken. Instead of neutral, his tone was calm. "We better get a move on; we don't want to get fourth now," David said with a single empty laugh at the end. David was the perfect person to have in this situation. Calm. That was what the team needed, and David had that in abundance. Justin rubbed his eyes one last time before driving off. He wasn't crying, but his vision was blurry for some reason. The rest of the journey was a defeated one. Not a single word was said. A positive was that there wasn't another car close to them, so third place looked like their final position. Eventually, they reached the final location; everyone exited the car, still not saying anything. All of them had to walk over to their safe—the safe that said number three. It should've been number two, and everyone knew that. It was an embarrassing walk, walking past the team that overtook them and saw them almost crash.
"Wait, we got the code for safe number two", David realised after almost entering the code. How could they open safe number three if they didn't have the code? No one on their team remembered or thought about it. David looked to his left and saw that safe number two was opened. Lucas and his team were seated, and they all had a silver medal on hand or around their necks.
"How did they open our safe?!" Dillon asked, pissed off upon realising.
"Does every safe have the same code?" Sydney rhetorically questioned, hoping that wasn't the case.
"No way", David replied, hoping that wasn't the answer.
"Attention!" A voice called out from the speaker. "I know you may be confused. Let me explain; you were slightly correct; every safe has the same code".
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Dillon reacted.
"Let me finish", the voice interjected before Dillon could rant. "The first four numbers of the code are the same for all the safes, except for the last digit".
That explained it. When Lucas's team arrived with the code for safe three, all they had to do to unlock safe two was use the first four digits of the code they got and then use trial and error for the last digit until the safe opened. To the students, it was bullshit, but it made sense for when a situation like this appeared. The question was, is it unfair? You could look at it from the perspective that one team worked hard to get the code, so they deserve to open the safe with the code they got.
On the other hand, you got a team that, despite being behind at location C, still managed to arrive first at the final location, granting them the opportunity to open a better safe. There was an argument both ways, but to the higher-ups, this solution made sense. While David tried opening the safe, Dillon couldn't believe it. They came third. They had second place in their hands. How did they get third? David opened the safe and got the paper and the medals; he handed out the medals to his teammates, giving Dillon his medal last.
"Here", David said, holding the medal in front of Dillon. Dillon's mind was empty; he lost out on 200 points. He looked at the bronze medal, and then his eyes wandered to his surroundings until
"YOU!" His eyes locked on Justin. Dillon turned his body and quickly set off, charging at Justin. Justin took two steps back and raised his hands. He didn't take a fighting stance, but a stance that clearly said stop. Dillon was moving towards Justin until,
"CALM DOWN!" David shouted at him, grabbing him from behind and wrapping his arms around his body.
"LET ME GO!" Dillon replied, trying to fight out of his grasp. Dillon was 6 foot, while David was 6'3. David was also stronger, so David could contain Dillon. But it was challenging.
"HE'S THE REASON WE LOST!" He said, thrashing around in David's arms, trying to escape.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER! HE MADE A MISTAKE. EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES", David replied, trying to calm him down. David was getting elbowed, trying to keep Dillon still. "LU HELP ME!" he called out.
"Why are my friends always involved in shit", Lucas said under his breath. He stood up and walked towards them. Lucas was also tall at a height of 6'1, taller than Dillon, But Dillon was bigger.
"Dude, calm down", Lucas said, standing in front of him, blocking Dillon's view of Justin. "I bet he feels bad about messing up. What's hitting him going to do?" Lucas questioned him. "Venting your anger on him for a few seconds won't do anything."
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!!" Dillion shouted at him, still struggling against David.
Lucas gave a sinister grin and leaned closer to Dillon's ear. "Think about it. Do you want everyone in the school to know you as the guy who punches his teammates when he loses? You've already got a bad reputation. You don't want to make it worse", he whispered.
In the corner of Dillon's eye, he saw a cameraman pointing a camera at him. What kind of pitiful face was he making? At the thought of that, he stopped struggling.
"Tch, get off me", he said, forcefully shaking off David's arms. He shook his head and walked in the opposite direction, away from Justin.
Surprisingly, Alexander was interested in the scene and watched it closely. Sitting around doing nothing seemed to make Alexander slightly excited; something nearly happened, but it ended quickly.
"Maybe these lower classes are good for something. Entertainment".
Everyone was on the bus on their way back. David, Lucas, Delilah and Nada were sitting at the back of the bus together. David had just finished explaining to Delilah and Nada what happened.
"That's... a lot", Delilah said, not knowing what to say. "Were you scared?" she asked.
"A little", David replied. "It would've been a lot worse if other cars had been in the way. We were lucky it was a clear road".
"Did Dillon snap in the car?" Lucas asked.
"No. In the car, he was silent, everyone was", David replied. He saw Lucas's face; it was clear he was feeling down. "You came second man. Why are you sad?" David nudged him.
Lucas couldn't look at David, "I don't know. I can't shake this feeling off. It feels like I made you crash", he replied.
"Don't be like that," David said. Look, I'm fine", he said, arms out and smiling.
"Winning like this doesn't feel right", Lucas replied, shaking his head, still not looking at David.
"You didn't even win, they won", David said, gesturing to Nada and Delilah. Delilah and Nada both smiled; David was clearly trying to cheer Lucas up with that joke.
Lucas blew air out of his nose and gave a weak smile, "You know what I mean", he said dejectedly.
"Why are you acting like this? If this were Mally or Will, they would be mocking me right now; even Ben would", David replied. Lucas couldn't answer. He couldn't sort his feelings out.
David put an arm around him and brought him closer, "C'mon bro, it happened, you can't do anything to change it. Just be happy I'm okay. I nearly got into a crash and got hurt, so what? It's an experience. Life's about experiences".
After hearing that quote, Lucas lifted his head to look out the window at the pale blue sky, still feeling guilty. To cheer himself up, he slowly and quietly mumbled,
"Life's about experiences".