Games We Play

05: Scrabble

Games We Play

"Only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided."

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

05: Scrabble

The days leading to the first game were most certainly not enjoyable.

The anticipation increased day by day, making everyone lose focus of everything around them. None of us knew what we could expect for the first game to start the Victor's Tournament and there were no hints being given around either.

Everyone had to satisfy themselves solely through the uncertainty. People prepared themselves through familiarizing themselves with their big groups, making predictions and keeping the game alive through their words.

Finally, on the morning of the day, the anticipation could be put to ease. As soon as the day began, all of us made our way to the main campus gardens, quickly arranging ourselves into our groups.

"This can not end well," Caius laughed, mockingly to me as he eyed the chaotic manner in which people walked around. "Just look at how many people there are."

Safe to say, he wasn't wrong. Our grade of almost sixty students had been divided into four groups, each with at least ten people. But it was clear to see that none of us were equipped with enough organization skills to be able to handle so many people at once.

"I don't even know any of the people in our group."

"You know me," Caius replied, resting his hand on my head. I groaned, trying to push his arm off but he refused to move, laughing at my feeble attempt. He was far too tall for me to fight back.

He continued to chortle at my displeasure until we were both deafened by the screeching sound of Counselor Clara trying to handle the microphone.

"Uh, is this thing on?" our counselor said, grabbing the microphone roughly causing it to screech loudly again. "Ah, oops," she laughed unapologetically. "Well, students, welcome to the first game of your senior year's Victor's Tournament!"

Although I stayed silent and stoic to her sickly cheery attitude, most of the students around me began cheering loudly.

"Okay, first things first, please make sure you're split up in your groups," she began, as many people continued to shuffle around the area. "Now, I'd like to introduce our first game... today, we all will be playing a treasure hunt in your groups!"

"A treasure hunt?" Caius scoffed to me. "Has the Swiss cold frozen Xavier and Clara's brains or do they genuinely not know treasure hunts are played by 9 year old kids at birthday parties?"

He wasn't alone in his sentiment. An echo of groans went around the area.

"Now, I get that you think this is probably childish... Head Xavier seems to think otherwise," Counselor Clara mumbled. "But yes, the point of this is teamwork and to get along with your group a bit better. Most of you don't know your groups and unfortunately, you're stuck with them for the rest of the semester," she laughed. "Each group gets their clues on a card, taking you on different leads until you reach the last clue, which will be the same one for all of you. The group to reach it first, solve it and complete will have the most points accumulated to the scoreboard," she explained. "That's it."

I looked ahead, seeing boys up front in our group receiving an enveloped card.

"The clues have been handed to one person of all of your groups," Clara added in haste. "And your time officially starts... now."