Shivley: A Now United Story

Ch 5: Real Friends

"Okay everyone! Now that everyone's names in the basket, we can start picking!" Kyle walked over to Any from Brazil who reached into the basket. 

"I got Josh!" He ran over to stand next to her. 

"Wonderful Any from Brazil and Josh from America will be paired. Also I forgot to mention that once your names are picked, you can head over to the room next door with Simon." Kyle moved on to Sofya from Russia who was paired with Diarra from Senegal, Ylona was paired with Arshia, the other girl from India, Lamar from the UK was paired with Sabina from Mexico, Heyoon from South Korea was paired with Hina from Japan, Sina from Germany was paired with AC from the Philippines, and a couple more pairs were decided. 

Eventually the only people still in the room were Shivani, Bailey, Noah from America, and Joalin from Mexico. 

Shivani had been pretty calm up until this point. The probability that she would be stuck with Bailey was still pretty low - a 33.33% chance. She risked a glance towards Bailey, making eye contact with him. He rolled his eyes and his brow furrowed as he stared at the basket in Kyle's hand.

"Okay everyone! Final four - lets go!" Kyle walked with his basket towards Joalin. "Okay Joalin, whoever you pick will determine the partnerships! Drumroll please...." As everyone started to drumroll Joalin reached into the basket, "Okay, the person I will be partnered with is-"

"Wait." Everyone's heads turned to look at Bailey. "Before you read the name, can I volunteer to be partners with Joalin? I feel like a voluntary partnership might be better you know? Plus, I haven't gotten to know Joalin yet and I've already met Noah and the other girl so it could be better for everyone. So, um, yeah that's all."

The other girl? The other girl. Was he seriously that petty? Obviously Shivani did not want to be partnered with the evilness that seemed to define Bailey May, but did he have to be such a jerk about it? Great, now if they were partnered, things would be beyond awkward.

"Bailey. Bailey, Bailey, Bailey... so that's not really how we do things here. I appreciate you taking initiative in an attempt to... well I'm not really sure what you are attempting to do, but let's just let Joalin read the card, okay?" Kyle turned back to Joalin who looked confused and Noah just shrugged awkwardly. 

Shivani knew Bailey's outburst was directed at her, but she could not understand why. Hello! She was supposed to be mad at him! It wasn't supposed to be the other way around!

"So the name is actually Bailey." Joalin laughed awkwardly as Bailey smiled as wide as ever confidently strutting over to stand next to Joalin. They shared an awkward handshake as they walked over to the next room with the rest of the pairs. 

"Well, Noah and Shivani, as luck would have it, you two will be partners!" Kyle clapped his hands together. "You are now welcome to join the rest of the pairs and I will be seeing a lot of you all this coming week!" Kyle walked towards the elevator as Noah turned towards Shivani.

"Hey, what's up? I'm Noah." 

"I'm Shivani."

"I know. Unlike some people, of course I know your name." Noah winked at Shivani who smiled. He was obviously referencing Bailey referring to Shivani as "the other girl" during his unnecessary outburst. "So I don't know what we're about to get ourselves into, but let's make a pact that we will both support each other and work together, okay?"

Shivani smiled and for the first time she noticed just how cute Noah was. He had floppy brown hair, light brown eyes, a silver earring hanging from one ear, and a sweet smile. 

"Of course! Let's go, we got this!" Shivani and Noah shared another smile as they walked to join all the other pairs. When they walked into the room, everyone was sitting down next to their partners facing Simon who stood at the front of the room.

"Wonderful! Now that we have the partnerships all figured out - it's time to tell you guys what your first partner challenge will be! There will be three rounds of partner challenges that will start tomorrow and last two days. For the final round, your assignment is to choreograph a dance to a song that you feel best represents your partner. Obviously this means you need to get to know your partner well, so your first task is to spent 4 hours handcuffed to your partners, asking each other whatever questions you want to know. The only condition is that you must answer all the questions and you must answer honestly. The answers will be confidential and you are not allowed to share them with anybody, is that understood?" Simon looked around the room.

Everyone nodded their heads. 

"All right wonderful, with that we will now pass out the handcuffs and let the trust building begin!"

Shivani turned Noah. "Well this should be interesting, we just met and we're already being handcuffed together."

Noah raised his eyebrows. "That's what-"

"If you make a 'that's what she said' joke I will slap you." 

"That's what she said." Shivani laughed and playfully hit Noah's arm.

"Ahem." Shivani and Noah looked up to see Bailey standing over them. "Well if you two are done flirting or whatever you call it, take a pair of handcuffs from this basket and pass it down." He turned on his heels and walked away.

"Okayyy then." Noah said as grabbed a pair of handcuffs. "Something tells me that guy does not like us very much."

Shivani frowned, "Correction - something tells me that guy does not like me very."

Noah smiled, "See that's what I was going to say, but I figured if I said 'us' you would feel the trust being built. You know, seeing as that is the whole point of the exercise."

"Well thank you, but whatever. Just cuff me."

"Ha. You know, that's what she said."

"Shut up." But Shivani was laughing, thank god for Noah. He seemed sweet and nice UNLIKE some people in this room. She smiled knowing that Noah was the only person she would have to get to know and she could now avoid Bailey for the rest of the week. Little did she know that the future held plenty of moments for her to get to know Bailey... a little too well.