How To Survive Murder

Chapter 4 - Caleb

CALEB'S POV

God, she's beautiful. Her mermaid like hair, her sun-kissed, unblemished skin. The silky, black catsuit hugs her body in the most perfect way possible. Like an enchanted goddess, she floats through the room, all eyes on her.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" A roaring voice echoes across the room. A short girl jumps from her seat and marches across the room. If this wasn't real life, I'd be convinced steam is coming out of her ears.

"I'm here to win this competition of course!" The newly arrived blonde girl replies in an entitled tone, flicking her curls over her shoulder. Blondie flashes a mischievous smirk and shoves the shorter girl on the shoulder as she struts past. Furiously, the smaller girl reaches for the blonde. Her hands take a large chunk of the blonde hair and yanks it toward herself.

"What the fuck Selina! I had a blowout this morning!" Blondie is raging; her perfect curls now tangled into a lump.

"I said," Selina growls as she takes a deep breath and let's go of the matted clump of hair. Somehow Blondie still looks perfect to me. Maybe it was her pretty face that was distracting me. Or maybe it's the anger bellowing out of her that I find attractive. "What the fuck are you doing here?" the now calmer Selina huffs. It was like she had been defeated in the matter of seconds. The attitude from the blonde alone seemed to stab Selina in the stomach and leave her defenceless like prey in a room of predators.

At this point, all the other contestants are out of their seats. The emo looking girl playing with the ends of her sleeves, observing the cat fight. The nerdy boy flushed with rosy cheeks, looking apprehensive about the girls' next move. The blonde, built boy now approaching Selina and her what seems to be nemesis, shaking his head in disapproval.

"Let's all calm down," he says, grabbing Selina's shoulders gently to put distance between her and the other girl. Selina flashes the boy a distasteful look but complies, nonetheless.

"That is correct ladies and gentlemen, Finn is totally right," a familiar voice interrupts the commotion – Everett. He is a seriously strange bloke. "Save the fighting for the arena." Fighting? Nobody mentioned fighting. The group of contestants, now arranged in a semi-circle around the girls fighting ring, all as dumfounded as me by Everett's comment. "I'm just kidding guys! Gosh, young people are so gullible these days," his tone as cheery as ever, joking around like today isn't a big deal for all of us.

I wouldn't say that Everett is much older than us too, so I'm not sure why that comment causes so much laughter for him. He's a small, dark man who looks to be around two or three years older than me, making him in his early twenties. He's sporting an emerald, three-piece suit, which on first glance, seems extravagant. But if you really look closely, you can see frayed seams and torn off buttons, shoes that don't shine and hair covered in cheap hairspray. Despite his strange attire, Everett's face is innocent, child-like even. It's filled with juvenile silliness and youthful happiness. Happiness that me and my sister, Delilah, had before Jeremey Everest.

"I'm assuming you're Everett, right? I'm Penny, winner of your marvellous competition," the blonde warrior sticks out her hand to give Everett a handshake. In turn, Everett shakes her hand back.

"Winner?" a huff of sarcasm comes from Selina.

"Yes, the winner Selina," Penny takes a large step closer to Selina as she enunciates her words clearly, making each letter of her sentence very clear, staring into Selina's soul like she is ready to murder her. "I'm ready to kick some ass!"

"You? Kicking ass?" Selina spits, pushing Penny backwards, "You'd be scared of a fly on the wall."

"Maybe you're right Selina." Blondie runs her fingers through her mangled hair as Everett hands a contract to her. "But maybe I've been preparing for this moment for years," she says with a menacing grin, snatching a pen from the emo girl to sign her contract. "Turn around," she orders the nerd. Penny lays the contract on his back and begins to sign. He looks terrified. At this point I think everyone is terrified of both Selina and Penny. They have definitely got some unsettled beef to deal with, which will most certainly give them a competitive edge when we begin our tasks to win a large lump of money. "Competing that is Selina," Penny continues to talk as the ink from the pen covers the signature line with perfect handwriting. "I've had to compete against you for years."

Selina looks taken aback. Hurt even. The same look flashes over her face from earlier – defeated, shocked, wounded. Even so, she steps forward and begins to laugh hysterically. The ugly, high-pitched laughter echoes around the huge canteen style room and nobody dares to move. "Competing! Penny please, you don't need to compete for anything. You get given opportunities like a baby gets bottle fed milk." Silence falls in the room, everyone knowing what a long day it is going to be with these two at each other's neck for eight hours. Even Everett stays silent as Penny hands over her contract. It's kind of nice for him to be quiet. His jolly persona is becoming quite unsettling.

"I've been competing for my parents for years Selina," Blondie now has a look of betrayal – her voice becoming shaky, her eyes filling with tears. "You've always been their favourite," Penny's pointer finger throws daggers at Selina's face. "As soon as I met you in Nursery, it's like you couldn't wait to get your grotty, sticky hands all over them. Just because you have shit parents, a shit house and a shit life, it doesn't mean that you can take it all away from me!" Penny lets out a huge breath after her rant. I must admit, as much as I want to get cracking with the day, this girl drama is becoming increasingly juicy.

Before anyone can even attempt to diffuse the situation, Penny plummets to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Her head smacks the concrete with an indescribable force. I wouldn't be surprised if she was unconscious – a few lads have been knocked out by a football at training and even this looked more aggressive than that.

"What did you do that for? You crazy bitch!" The nerdy boy gasped, covering his mouth with his hands in complete shock.

Selina smiles demonically, "she was pissing me off, she deserved a punch in the face."