Ping!
The boys glanced down in unison, screens lighting their faces. They opened their emails and checked who their partners were.
It was a little anticlimactic. The reactions were muted as the email only showed a name and a class.
"Does anyone know who this is?" Malakai asked, breaking the silence and showing his phone to his friends.
They all looked at his phone and shook their heads.
"Nah". "No". "Nope".
"You got someone from 1-B?" William said with his eyes lit up. "I did too. Do you know who he is?" he flashed Malakai his phone.
It took Malakai a second, but he recognised the name. "Oh, you're fine, bro. I know him. He's calm", he replied. "You'll get along with him".
"I've got someone from 1-E", Benjamin said, showing his phone. "What's about you guys?".
"I've got someone from 1-A", David replied.
"I've got someone from 1-D", Lucas replied.
"I've got someone from 1-E", Ray replied.
They were all showing their phones to each other, seeing if they knew the others' partners. Unfortunately, none of them recognised the names.
"So what do we do now?" William asked, glancing at each of his friends.
"We have to find our partners and get our devices innit", Malakai said.
"But how are we going to find our partners?" Ray asked. "We don't know where anyone is. They could be anywhere around the academy".
"We could go back to our homeroom class and wait", David suggested
"Nah, I'm gonna go to their class", Malakai said.
"You're gonna go to 1-B?" David asked.
"Yeah, man. I wanna go to their class?" Malakai replied with a grin.
"Yeah, Mally, let's go", William said, suddenly energised. "I wanna see what their class is like".
"Does that mean we're gonna do the same?" Benjamin asked the other three.
"Us four can still wait in our class", Lucas said.
"We could check our partner's classes first", David replied, swayed by Malakai's idea.
"Someone's tone changed", Lucas said.
David smirked, "Going to 1-A's class is interesting me", he said, raising his shoulders. "It's gonna be a bit intimidating, but I want to at the same time".
"I think you'll intimidate them", Benjamin joked, squeezing his arm.
David smirked and shook his hand away, "Ha, funny".
"Heh, Ray, let's go", Benjamin said. "Going to 1-E should be fine".
"Yeah, I know a couple of people there", Ray replied.
"Yo, Willy, let's go", Malakai said, walking away. "I wanna find out who this person is".
"Wait up, dude. We're all going the same direction anyway", William replied, hurrying behind.
"Shit, that means I have to go to 1-D's class by myself", Lucas said.
"That's calm. Just text your firl innit", Malakai smirked over his shoulder.
Lucas smirked back, "Good idea".
"Damn, this class is dead".
Malakai and William reached 1-B's homeroom class and stood in the doorway. Looking at who was in the class. The class was half full, with everyone inside whispering to themselves, wondering why Malakai and William were just standing in the doorway, staring at them.
"I don't see anyone I know", Malakai said, brushing his eyes at faces.
"I don't know anyone from this class", William said, trying not to stare at faces.
"Actually?" Malakai asked. "In challenge two, who was the person from 1-B on your team?".
William squinted, thinking back to challenge two and tried remembering who was on his team. He couldn't even remember what happened that day.
"I can't remember", William replied, looking at Malakai, clueless. "It was a girl... I think".
Malakai's eyes were looking for one person, "I can't lie, I wanted to see Ryan".
"Why?" William asked.
"I don't know. I wanna piss him off", Malakai replied, shrugging his shoulders.
William grinned, "Well, we're here. Now what?".
"I need to find my partner, innit", Malakai replied. "I don't know how imma do that though".
"You don't know who your partner is, right? Why don't you go ask those girls?" William said, secretly nodding to them. "It might be one of them".
"I hate when you come up with a good idea", Malakai muttered.
"Dude, every idea of mine is a good idea", William said, lightly pushing him. "Go on. Go ask them", he urged him.
"I don't wanna", Malakai replied, furrowing his eyebrows, not budging.
"How are you going to find them then?" William asked, confused.
"They're gonna come to me", Malakai said.
William gave him a look of disgust, "You planned to come to their class to find them... and now you're saying you don't wanna", he said, not understanding Malakai's logic.
"Nah, but I thought I'd show up, and my partner would be like, yo, it's Malakai. My partner", Malakai said, roleplaying the last bit.
"You're not him, dude", William said, trying to humble him.
"I've got motion", Malakai said. "Watch, my partner will come to this class and find me".
"Everyone knows you because you're an idiot. That's not motion", William shook his head. "Why are we still standing here? What should we do?".
Malakai looked at the class, "Should we go sit down?",
"On a random desk?" William asked back.
"Yeah. What are they gonna do?" Malakai replied with a smirk.
"Haha. Let's go", William said, copying his smirk.
"Malakai, what're you doing here?".
A voice from behind stopped them from going ahead with their plan.
The two of them turned around, and Malakai was faced with one of his younger siblings. Not his actual sibling, but someone he claimed to be his younger sibling a couple of months ago. (See chapter 44).
"Yo, Chris. What you saying?" Malakai asked with a smile, putting his hand out. "It's been ages, man".
"I know, dude", Chris replied, shaking his hand and going in for the hug. "I've been doing good. What about you?".
"I'm aryt. Where's your twin?" Malakai asked.
"Bro, I know she's my twin, but we're not together 24/7", Chris replied, laughing.
"You're twins, though. You should be telepathic with each other, innit", Malakai joked.
"Haha. That would be cool if we had that superpower", Chris grinned. He turned his attention to the guy next to Malakai. "You're William, right?".
"Yeah. Nice to meet you", William politely said with his hand out.
"Nice to meet you too", Chris replied, shaking his hand. "Come, let's go sit down".
"Aryt".
Malakai and William let Chris take the lead and take them to a free desk. The people in the class watched them as they walked in. Now, Malakai and William were inside the class, and the whispers could be heard a little clearly.
"why are they here?".
"who's their partner?".
"why does chris know them?".
"i hope i'm not with them".
The three of them sat down at the empty desk near the back of the class. Malakai and William dragged chairs closer to the desk and sat down.
"I'm happy I got someone I know I'll get along with", Chris said, settling in his seat.
"Aye, Chris, I feel sorry for you", Malakai said.
"Why?" Chris blinked.
"You've got him", Malakai smirked, thumbing at William.
"I knew that was coming, but I couldn't stop it", William sighed, shaking his head.
Chris chuckled, knowing that Malakai was playing around.
"Hold up. Malakai, why are you here?" Chris asked. "Is your partner supposed to be here?".
"Yeah, I think so", Malakai replied. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and showed Chris the email,
"Do you know who Melody is?".
"Oooh", Chris made an "o" with his mouth. "Good luck".
Malakai's face froze, "…Why?".
"If it were anyone else, they would've been fine", Chris said. "But you… She doesn't like you".
"That's normal, though. No one likes me", Malakai replied, putting his phone down.
"No, but Melody has made it clear she doesn't like you", Chris said. "You two will not get along".
"I told you", William said. "Everyone hates you. You don't have motion".
"Aryt whatever", Malakai replied, brushing that comment off. "Aryt she hates me, cool. I ain't tryna be her friend. I just wanna complete the challenge".
"You can definitely complete the challenge", Chris said, nodding his head. "I doubt it will be fun though".
"Will she sabotage him?" William asked.
"Nah, cmon, that ain't fair", Malakai said.
"She won't sabotage him", Chris shook his head. "She doesn't like you, but she still wants points. Who doesn't want to do good in a challenge?".
"Fuck sake", Malakai tilted his head down and put a hand on his head. "Okay, wait", his head shot back up. "Does she hate me at the same level as everyone else, or is it more?".
"It's more", Chris answered with no hesitation.
"That was quick", William commented.
"I remember hearing a few girls talking about you a couple of months back", Chris said. "The things they said weren't nice".
From the expression on Chris's face, it was clear the content of that conversation wasn't pleasant.
William, annoyingly laughed right beside Malakai, "You've got negative motion".
Malakai slumped in his chair, looking defeated. "Why? What have I done to her?" he rhetorically asked. "I don't even know what she looks like".
"When you see her, you might recognise her", Chris said.
Malakai picked himself up from his chair, "Eh, it's whatever".
"That was quick", William commented.
"You don't care?" Chris asked, seeing his mood do a 180.
"The challenge isn't that hard, so it's fine", Malakai replied. "We don't even have to do much".
"Do you already know where you're going to hide your device?" Chris asked.
"No way you do", William answered for him.
"Nah", Malakai said. "I've got an idea, but I don't know exactly. I need to see what the device is first".
"True, the device might be massive", Chris said.
"Do you know what is massive?" William asked.
"Shut up, man", Malakai shut down his joke before it could land.
"Okay", William accepted. "Chris", he leaned to Chris and lowered his voice. "Why is your class so dead?".
Chris looked around the class, "Only half the class is here", he said, still smiling.
"I know, but... the vibe is still kinda dead", William whispered.
Chris puffed air through his nose, "I get what you mean", he admitted. "Compared to other classes, ours probably seems that way".
"Is your class always dead?" Malakai asked.
"Not really. It probably looks this way because of what happened in the fifth challenge", Chris said. "That result killed the vibe of everyone in this class".
"That makes sense", William said, glancing around the class.
"Doesn't your class feel the same?" Chris asked. "I'm pretty sure your class was disappointed with your results".
"Yeah, they were, but they were pissed at Mally", William said. "Everyone else is still vibing with each other. It doesn't look like anyone cares that much anymore".
"We still got a lot of points, so it wasn't that deep", Malakai added.
"We could've gotten a lot more", William slyly said, side-eyeing him.
"It's part of the plan, don't worry", Malakai replied.
"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask", Chris said. "In the last challenge, how did you run through that smoke and still find Ryan?".
"Smoke.." Malakai slowly said, tilting his head up. He thought back to the chase, well, what he could remember of it. "I don't know", he shrugged. "I'm tryna remember, but my mind's blank".
"I remember seeing from our camera you running out of the smoke", Chris said. "It looked badass".
Malakai smirked, "I don't remember shit. I must have been in flow state or something".
"You can't have been in a flow state", William said. "You missed both of your shots".
"Dickhead", Malakai said, raising his hand and slapping William's head. William couldn't dodge it in time.
William raised his hand and was about to attack, but Malakai was on guard. "I'll let you off this time", he said, lowering his hand, not wanting to cause a scene.
"Ha, bitch", Malakai smiled, then he realised something. "Wait, why are you guys still here? You can go get your devices".
"I wanna stay here and see your partner find you", William said, leaning back. "That's gonna be hilarious".
"My partners lost, bro. I might just go and look for her", Malakai said. "Chris, where do you reckon she is?".
Chris didn't answer. Malakai looked at Chris, but his eyes weren't even looking at him. They were looking above him.
"Malakai".
A voice from directly behind called him. It didn't sound like a friendly voice like when Chris called him earlier. Malakai swivelled on his chair and looked at who called him.
A girl with dark skin, long, shiny, curly black hair, and circular glasses stood over him with an unimpressed gaze.
Malakai raised an eyebrow, "I know you", he said, recognising her face. "You're Ryan's fan girl", he pointed at her.
"Shut up", she bitterly snapped.
"Yo, relax. I'm just tryna find my partner", Malakai said with his palms open. "Do you know who Melody is?".
The girl gave him a long, distasteful stare.
"I'm Melody!".
Malakai's jaw dropped. "You're Melody…." he said, flabbergasted. He slowly looked at Chris... then William... and then back to Melody, "Was your name always Melody?".
William turned away to put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Chris had to bite his tongue to not crack up.
Malakai was genuinely serious when he asked if her name was always Melody. Finding out her name was Melody was mind-blowing to him. He knew her as Ryan's fan girl, so this was one of the last things he expected. He might've heard it before, but he'd clearly forgotten. This was like a plot twist for him.
All of Melody's friends were standing behind her, making sly comments about Malakai.
Melody frustratedly sighed, "Why do I have to be your partner?".
Meanwhile, the 1-A classroom was full of students from other classes. It seemed like everyone who had a partner from 1-A wanted to go to the 1-A classroom. It was the most lively it had been in that classroom.
Alexander was scrolling through his phone, waiting for his partner to come to him. Frank had already gone to track down his partner. He could've stayed with Alexander, but he wanted to check out other classes.
Alexander didn't bother. He didn't know who his partner was, so searching for them would've been pointless. Instead, he waited in his class because he knew his partner would find him. And he was correct.
Alexander saw from his peripheral vision that someone was standing in front of his desk. He looked up from his phone,
"Are you Adam?".
"Yes".