"You should've seen their faces; they were so confused", Leroy said, laughing between words.
"What answer did you say?" Ray asked, surprised it worked.
"I don't know, I think I said some shit like milk. I didn't even hear the riddle; I just snuck in and said milk", Leroy replied, proud of what he did. Ryan scoffed.
"I didn't think you would play so dirty, Ryan", Bri said like she was looking down at him from the backseat. Bri is a girl from class 1-A. She has black hair and is Dominican. She's currently in 7th place behind Ryan in 6th.
Ryan rested his head back, "Realistically, we didn't need Leroy for the riddles. All I did was make him do something that would benefit us", Ryan said. He then turned his head slightly so he could see Bri in the corner of his left eye. "You want to stay in the top ten, don't you?" Ryan said in a tone that showed arrogance
Bri noticed, "I'm not complaining. I just thought you would be a goody two shoes", Bri replied, looking out the window so he didn't have to look at him.
"I don't think it was that dirty", Ryan said, shrugging his shoulder.
"You sent someone to sabotage someone else, and now they have to search more houses just to find the key. Pretty 'dirty' if you ask me", Bri replied with attitude, as she didn't like Ryan's tone. Bri was the only girl on the team, so Ryan didn't mind dropping the act. Bri was smart enough to know Ryan wasn't what he seemed anyway. Ryan didn't care if she knew; she was bound to find out eventually.
"Who cares, bruh? He's helping us," Leroy intervened. "Anyway, what are we doing next? Am I going to sabotage someone else?" He excitedly asked, clearly having other priorities.
"We'll see. There are two teams following close behind us. If it comes down to it, we might have to do something", Ryan said. He then glanced at the mirror to look at Adam, who was sitting silently. "There's no point in talking to him; he's not going to reply", Ryan thought. "I don't see how we lose this; our team is great", he continued, sitting back comfortably.
He wasn't wrong; at the last location, Ryan and Adam both answered 2 riddles, and Bri answered 1, while Leroy sabotaged another team. The driver didn't matter as there was a speed limit, so everyone on the team was comfortable. Adam came third in the minigames because he expected too much from his teammate, but he wasn't taking that chance this time. Even though he knew they were strong teammates, he wouldn't risk letting them do something he could do easily. So, if the opportunity arises for him to do something, he will do it without hesitation. At the last location, he would have answered all the riddles comfortably, but for three of them, his teammates answered them before the riddle was read out. It didn't matter; he still didn't trust their ability. He won't make that mistake again.
"Who was on team 2 again?" Benjamin asked, looking at the car in front.
"That was the team with Ryan", Frank replied.
Benjamin smirked, "We can't let him win", he quietly said to himself. Before the game, Benjamin got on well with Frank, and the two hit it off. They both established they didn't like Ryan. It seemed like, despite the majority of people liking Ryan, there were a few who didn't. The few who didn't were the people Ryan considered the main characters.
They do say an enemy of my enemy is my friend. The two of them recognised each other. Frank saw Benjamin as Malakai's friend, and Benjamin saw Frank as Alexander's friend. Benjamin knew who Alexander was, as Malakai had shown him, and he also saw Alexander dominate in the minigames, but at the time, he didn't know how good he was. Only after he heard the opinions of others he found out he was THAT good. Either way, they would probably go up against each other down the line, but right now, they were on a team and worked well together. They easily cleared location A, getting 5/5 riddles correct, and moved to the next location. This was the real test: how quickly will they find their key? This was make or break for the entire game. The team that found the red key first would most likely win.
Ray's team reached location B.
"We're here", Page announced before parking the car. The street they were on already had another team's car parked on the left. Another team was looking for their key in the three houses on the left, and Ray's team was looking for their key on the right.
"Let's look for the key quickly", Daniel said in a hurry before rushing out of the car. They all exited the car and split up to find the key. Meanwhile, across the street, Ryan looked out the window and noticed another team pulled up,
"Leroy, you're up!".
"Is there a team on the same street as us?" Leroy questioned, walking down the stairs.
"We got lucky", Ryan replied, grinning.
Leroy smirked, "Wish me luck". He said, walking out of the house.
Leroy left the house and saw the driver on her phone. He walked behind the car so she wouldn't notice him. Leroy had two options: the house in the middle or the one on the right. He couldn't go into the house on the left as he would get noticed by the driver. Leroy chose the one on the right. The door was open, so Leroy quietly snuck into the house. He had no clue who was in the house, what team they were on and who was on that team. He knew Benjamin was on a different team; Leroy hoped this wasn't Benjamin's team and prayed that Benjamin wasn't in this house. If he was, he knew Benjamin would not let him go so easily. Leroy heard noises coming from a room downstairs, and with that information, he tiptoed up the stairs. Upstairs, there were three rooms, and they all looked untouched. Leroy had free reign. However, he had to be quiet. The person downstairs would hear and find him if he was too loud. Leroy carefully inspected each room, moving objects around slowly and cautiously. He was fighting the urge to smash up the place. It was looking like all the rooms were a bust; this house probably didn't have the key. Leroy could still hear noises downstairs, which showed they were still searching.
"How have they not found the key yet?" Leroy asked, thinking about his team. `'How did people find it in less than 10 minutes?" Leroy walked over to the desk in the corner of the room. He had already removed everything from it, so it was bare. Staring, he was lost in thought.
"Leroy?"
Leroy jumped at the call of his name and turned to the call. He saw Ray standing at the top of the stairs.
"Ray? What are you doing here?" Leroy asked. The question came out as a reaction; he didn't think when he said it, that's how off guard he was.
"My team has the clue that the key is in one of these houses", Ray cautiously replied. "Did your team get that as well?"
"Y-yeah", Leroy stuttered.
"You're lying," Ray quickly replied. His quick change of tone took Leroy aback. "You stuttered when you answered, and if you did have the same clue as us, you wouldn't have snuck around and searched quietly", Ray said, looking at the messy rooms, knowing he searched them. "So why are you here?" he asked, walking into the room Leroy was in.
"Okay, okay. You got me", Leroy replied with his hands up. "My team's key is somewhere in the houses across the street", Leroy answered.
"That doesn't answer why you're here", Ray said.
Leroy broke eye contact, "My teammate thought I would be more useful if I searched another house", he replied.
"Right?" Ray said, confused. "Can you leave?" he asked.
"Ray, c'mon. It looks like this house is empty, so you can leave and help your teammates. I'll do the same", Leroy said.
"Okay, but you leave first", Ray replied, stepping aside and leaving a path to the door.
Leroy sighed; he knew this wasn't going anywhere. He had to do something.
"Ray, you're cute".
"Huh?!"
"No homo. I don't swing that way", Leroy clarified. "I'm just saying you could easily get a girlfriend". He was diverting the conversation in a different direction to waste time. Ray stayed quiet; he didn't know what was going on. "Do you have a crush on someone?" Leroy asked.
Ray hesitated, "No", he answered.
"Heh, you hesitated, and you looked away. So you do have a crush", Leroy did a 180 on Ray. First, Ray caught Leroy lying, and now Leroy caught Ray lying. "Who is it? Actually, why am I asking? It's Maria, isn't it?" Leroy was waffling, but he wasn't talking nonsense.
"Everyone has a crush on her", Ray shyly replied.
"Not me", Leroy replied. "I do find her attractive, but I don't have a crush on her", Leroy got Ray where he wanted him. Ray's mind was somewhere else. Leroy went to pick up a book that was on the chair next to the desk. "It's none of my business. BUT I think you should shoot your shot at Maria because if you don't, someone else will get her". Leroy opened the book and started flicking through pages, "I think you two will look good toge-".
CLING!
A red key hit the floor. The key was hiding in one of the book pages Leroy randomly picked up. Leroy dashed the book and dived to the floor to quickly retrieve the key. After picking up the key, he picked himself up from the floor and saw Ray blocking the doorway.
Leroy sighed, "Ray, I don't wanna fight you", he said.
"Same. So can I have the key, please?" Ray asked, holding out his right hand.
"Ever heard of finders keepers?" Leroy questioned.
"You're in my house. I'm sure your teammates will find their key in one of their houses," Ray answered, emphasising the fact that he was in the wrong house.
'You're not going to let me through, are you?" Leroy asked, holding the key tightly.
"Nope".
"You do realise if we fought, I would win", Leroy said, edging forward slightly. Leroy was taller than Ray (Leroy being 5'11, and Ray being 5'9). He was also bigger than Ray; Ray was skinny compared to Leory, who had an average build.
"What's stopping you?" Ray tried aggravating him.
"I'm sure if I hurt you, your friends will hurt me ten times more", Leroy replied.
Ray smiled, "Yeah, Lu, Ben and David will be pretty pissed. They're strong too; picking a fight with them is not the smartest idea".
"Tch, you're wasting time", Leroy interrupted, clearly annoyed.
"Give me the key, and I'll let you go", Ray said.
"No! That means your team will be ahead", Leroy replied, getting more frustrated.
"That's not my fault", Ray lifting his shoulders.
"Forget this", Leroy said. He put the key in his pocket and walked to Ray. Ray put his hands up to guard, but Leroy pushed his hands and swatted them away. Surprisingly, Leroy didn't swing. Instead, he tried getting Ray in a headlock.
"I mean it, Ray. I don't want to hurt you", he said, attempting to subdue Ray. Ray didn't reply; he was struggling against Leroy's attempt. Ray tried to push Leroy away, but Leroy was grabbing him; he didn't budge. A lot of nothing was going on; even Leroy was confused about what to do. He didn't think this far ahead. All this grabbing, pushing and shoving led them out of the room and into the hallway. Leroy was unsuccessful in getting Ray in a headlock due to Ray's constant squirming. Ray's head also stayed low the whole time, so it was difficult for Leroy to do anything. He genuinely didn't want to hurt Ray; he knew if he punched him, it was too far, but he didn't know what to do. He hoped Ray would punch in self-defence, but he knew Ray wouldn't do that. Ray lifted his head and slowly took control because he knew Leroy wasn't going to hit him. Ray could feel the balance changing, so he had a plan. Ray reached for Leroy's pocket to get the key. Why waste time when he could get the key and run? He freed one of his hands; his target was Leroy's pocket. Leroy saw Ray's hands reaching for the pocket. Out of instinct, Leroy shoved Ray. He shoved Ray. Shoved him. He shoved him straight into the corner of the stair railing.
"ARRRGGGHHH!!" The stair railing had a cube top with a cylindrical body. The sharp corners at the top poked Ray in the left side of his back. Ray dropped to the floor, holding his back, with a wincing face. Leroy froze. Did he seriously hurt him? Ray groaned in pain, and with his hands rubbing the area where he got hurt. He looked at Leroy not with anger, but with betrayal. They weren't on the same team, but Ray trusted Leroy not to hurt him. Ray tried to get up, but the pain caused him to fall back down. As soon as Leroy saw that Ray was trying to get up, he made his way to the stairs. Before he declined them, he said,
"Sorry Ray".
Leroy rushed down the stairs and ran out of the house. He went back to the house Ryan was in and shouted, "I GOT A KEY!". Ryan heard him from upstairs and came to the front door.
"Good, now tell the others", Ryan told him. On his orders, Leroy went to the other houses to tell his teammates. While he did that, Ray slowly managed to reach the front door.
"EVERYONE, HE STOLE OUR KEY!!" he screamed. Upon the screaming, Page looked up from her phone and looked at Ray. Ray was looking across the street. She looked across the street and saw people rushing to a car.
"THEY GOT OUR KEY!" Ray shouted again. After shouting again, Ray's teammates exited their house to see what the shouting was about. "Someone took our key? No way".
They all stood outside and saw a car driving off, with Ray trying to follow it. The pain caused Ray to move sluggishly; he couldn't move much. Ray stood in the middle of the street and watched the car disappear. He looked down at his hands, clenched them, and defeatedly mumbled,
"fuck".