Tiana
"Where have you been?" Anurak questions me while he grips my right elbow. His voice is in an aggressive tone.
"Why do you care Mr Lee?" I interrogate him while using my left hand to try and get free of his grip. The councillors walk into the hall with a clipboard in one hand.
"We are going to do a little teamwork today; you will be put into pairs. In the pairs you are put into you will have to work together to win the competition," councillor Alec informs us as she looks at her clipboard, not making any eye contact with anyone.
"Cut the crap and tell me where the hell you were last night. You walked in while Stefani and I were busy, you looked like you had been crying for maybe an hour. Just before you left, you said something, but it was a whisper and I am pretty sure you did not return to the dorm, the whole night. Not that I care if you did or didn't, but you have new clothes on; specifically, boy clothes on, so I am guessing you slept with a boy. So, the real question is which boy is desperate enough to sleep with you," Anurak aggressively whispers in my ear while councillor Alec was talking.
"I was at your brother's dorm the whole night and I would not sleep with my best friend. It is kind of funny you do not recognise your brother's clothes, he decided to give me his clothes, so I would not have to go back to the dorm," I harshly answer him, trying to keep in my laughter in. Amber was already asleep when I went to his dorm, and I left before she woke up. I made sure she did not know I was in Taeyong's dorm.
"So let's start putting you in your pair," councillor Ahura speaks as he looks down to his clipboard and back up, he looks directly at Anurak, afterwards diverts his attention back to his clipboard.
Why are they all avoiding eye contact?
I look at Anurak, only to see he was already looking at me.
"Bullshit, you like my brother," Anurak whispers in my right ear, you can hear the aggressiveness and annoyance in his voice. He is getting agitated.
"Why does it bother you who I sleep with and who I do not. Why does it bother you if I like someone or not? Why is it any of your damn business to know about my love life? Didn't you say he would have to be desperate to sleep with me? So, I do not see the problem with me being with whoever I want to be with. I am not going to bother you about your love or sex life, so please stop bothering me about mine, it is really none of your business. I do not want you nor do I want to be with a boy like you and it is not your bloody business where I am. Do not mistake, Mr Lee," I snap, harshly moving my right arm out of his grip. I spin on my heel, making my long hair which is in a tight plate, hit Anurak in the face as I walk away.
Who the hell does he think he is? Why does it bother him, who I am with and who I like or who I sleep with? He does not own me! He probably took a bet to see if he can make me fall for him or get me in his bed. He would never really care about me? I mean he has a body sculpted by then gods, but a good body does not equal a good personality or heart or soul.
By the time Anurak and I had stopped bickering, the councillors had already called out the names of people we are paired with.
Aryan walks up to me. Why is he coming in my direction? He stops directly in front of me, "We are together."
Can this day get any worst, number one; Anurak is investigating me on my wear abouts at night and then Aryan is on my team. My ex-boyfriend who dumped me is my partner for some camp activities. Just great. If this is the universes or god's way of playing games, it is not funny nor entertaining.
I roll my eyes and rudely say, "Do not get in my way of winning this."
Barely getting any sleep, really makes me annoyed at everything and anything. I might have been harsh to Aryan. I didn't even have coffee to help me be less annoyed and in a mood. I might think about apologizing later, depending on if we win or not.
"I won't, I know you are competitive," Aryan says while smiling.
"Yeah, you know first-hand, how competitive I can be," I state while smiling like an idiot. As a memory plays in my head from grade eight.
"Yeah, first hand, I remember in eighth grade when we had a fitness competition and you got super competitive, I was so proud of you that day, that I invited you to my house and I ordered pizza for us," Aryan says as he crosses his arms in front of his chest. He starts smiling at the memory of us.
I start laughing and nod my head. "It was such a good day," I chime while the memory plays in my head of after we had pizza we started dancing to romantic music.
"I miss how we would get along and I didn't have to put in so much effort like I have to with other girls," Aryan murmurs while we start walking to the field.
"You were the one that broke up with me," I hiss back to his comment. He confuses me, he breaks my heart and then misses me after dumping me for a girl. He is confusing like he does not understand his feelings.
"Trust me, I know I screwed it up and I know you like Amahle," Aryan groans as we get to the field, "Also I am sorry that I broke up with you, I feel like you might need some closure. I started losing feelings and I started screwing Amber and Amahle's- girlfriends- Diya- behind your back, one of the nights Amber told me to break up with you because I started liking her. I talked to Amahle to give you company the night before Amber came over to my house. I would have never expected you two to date."
Haha! He thinks love is just screwing someone. It is more than that, but I only found the real meaning to loving someone when I was with Amahle. I guess him and I are late to the party for knowing what love is and how it truly feels. Loving someone is when they hurt you and you still love them. So Amber was with him the night we broke up. I doubt she did any comfort, maybe comfort between his legs.
We walk towards the field. The field has bandannas on the far-right side. In the middle, it has tiers and rope ladders on the floor. On the far-left side, flags are poking out of the ground with a silver poll. The flag colours are red, green, blue and yellow.
"You will be split into three groups and in the groups, you will stay in your pairs," a new councillor says. He has muscles that you could see, through the shirt. The shirt he was wearing defines his muscle. He is wearing a black work shirt with black ripped jeans. He is about 6'2 or 6'3. He removes his sunglasses and looks directly at everyone. Almost all the girls start drooling over his handsome face.
Do not get me wrong or anything but he is hot, but I have seen better on missions, especially the missions involving galas. The men in gala's are hot, they are a different type of hot- they are elegant in the way they move, speak, dance and respect females or seem to act like they respect the females while in public. Not all of them are that way but most of them are.
Well, I do find a man or boy hot when they wear tuxedo's or suits and at galas, they are always dressed up.
The way he is looking at us makes me suspicious of him. It is like he is looking for the fittest people in our group. He makes direct eye contact with me, I look into his eyes. His pupils are pitch black. He moves his attention from me to Anurak and Stefani. Stefani kisses Anurak on the cheek and smirks, enjoying the attention from someone older. Anurak on the other hand looks at me with a confused expression, once he realizes I am looking at him, his facial expression changes into an amused one.
Why are the councillors looking at Anurak? Why are they only making eye contact with him- he is the only one they all looked at. What are they hiding? But I guess once is accidental, twice is suspicious but three times that's a pattern that'll lead to a clue. It has only happened twice, but could Anurak be behind the attacks? No, he is too dumb for that. He only cares about the bets to make girls fall for him or get a girl to sleep with him. He could not be behind the attacks. He would need to get his dad to buy the camp, then make sure the people all have keys to the dorms while paying people to choose the right people to kidnap. Even with picking the right people, he would have to get a whole team because you will need someone to get medical fills of how healthy they are. That's it, to get medical fills, you would have to either have someone hack into the system or have someone in the medical field sending the information.
"Let's start," the councillors says, I was too busy in my thoughts to hear which councillor I am with for the first round of activities.
"Come, we are with the new councillor," Aryan says, dragging me with him. He seems enthusiastic, he pulls me all the way to the left side of the field with flags. Aryan finally stops pulling me, as everyone that was picked to be in this group starts bunching up around the new councillor.
"I am your new councillor, you can call me councillor Daniel," councillor Daniel says as he looks around at all of us, "So what will happen is you will get into your pairs, one of you will get a blindfold from me, the other one will be guiding you through the flags. Points are awarded for the best teamwork rather than who comes first."
Councillor Daniel is no longer attractive, he has the same name as my brother. Fastest way to get a girl no longer attractive.
"Tiana, Amber, Kevin, Jack and Santiago I have been told are really competitive, I do not want to see bad mouthing of others and or cheating. I want you to play fair," Daniel addresses us with a very serious tone.
"All due respect, I can not win because I was put with Jack and not Aryan, my loving boyfriend," Amber comments in an I-am-better-than-everyone-else-here voice. I roll my eyes at her smirking like a lunatic.
"If he was your loving boyfriend, would he have invited Amahle over when we broke up?" I propose to her, her smirk drops from her face turning into a pissed face. If eyes could kill, I would be six feet under from how her eyes are looking at me. Not even six feet under, maybe twelve feet under.
"Fine, what will happen is I will ask the other councillors if I can swap Aryan for Jack, Tiana are you okay with that?" Daniel questions as he starts walking away to the other councillors.
"Yeah, why not, Jack is better than Aryan 'cause at less he is all about winning and not losing," I rudely remark as I cross my arms over my chest.
"Wow! Someone is still mad at the fact that her boyfriend picked me over her. Wait I mean ex-boyfriend," Amber remarks, you can hear her ego coming out.
"Ooh, honey, do not get ahead of yourself, he only chose you because you are easier to take advantage of," I rudely snarl at her, she rolls her eyes at me.
"Keep rolling your eyes, you might find a brain back there," I interject, making sure she can not say or throw another comment my way. She walks up to me, hands in a fist. As she gets to me, she swings her fist at my face, Anurak swiftly grips her wrist before it could reach my face. Not only shocking me but others around us. Some start gasping others whispering comments to their friends.
"Calm down, so it was perfectly fine when you were pumping your mouth but the minute Tiana retaliates you get worked up. Just calm the hell down and breathe. And for your bloody information, Tiana is better than you in every way, I have no idea why Aryan would trade gold for a piece of plastic, but I guess it is easier to manipulate you than Tiana, she is smarter than you," Anurak mentions but it was not his normal playful annoying voice rather an angry voice. In the middle of his statement, he flings her wrist the other way, pushing her away from me. Amber walks away while pulling Aryan with her. Councillor Daniel starts walking back to us.
"Thank you Anurak," I awkwardly and shyly state.
"Do not sweat it, she was getting out of hand," Anurak says like it was nothing.
"But you still saved me from getting hit in the face so thank you," I grateful say as Daniel approaches us.
"So Jack, you and Aspara will swap places. Apsara will be Tiana's partner now," Daniel speaks as Aspara starts walking towards us.
"Yes, he is so cute," I think, not realizing I have said it out loud until Anurak, Jack and Daniel look at me with shock. I start blushing, I take my hands and cover my face. I remove my hands from my face, trying to stop blushing.
"Can we not talk about what just happened and what I just said please," I blush as Apsara approaches us.
They all nod but Anurak looks a little disappointed.
"Just because I find someone cute, all it means is they are aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. It does not mean I find them attractive for me to like them enough to date them. Finding someone attractive and wanting to date them are two different things," I murmur directly to him, having an urge to add that. At first, he looks at me confused but then smiles and nods at my explanation. I never thought there would be a day when I would want to explain myself to Anurak.
~
"Wow, you really are competitive," Apsara states as he sits next to me. He has two plastic water bottles in his hand. The water from the river is slow and peaceful. He hands me one plastic water bottle. I take the water bottle, the water bottle he is handing me from him.
"Thank you and yeah, sorry I really am competitive," I comment as I open the water bottle.
"Well sometimes it is good to be competitive, I am guessing you are also ambitious?" Apsara questions while I take a sip of water. I remove the water bottle from my lips and put it in front of me. I close the water bottle and put it in front of my crossed legs.
"Yeah, I have been told that many times from my brothers," I smile, looking directly into Apsara's eyes.
He starts laughing, while he is looking into my eyes.
"Well, I can not really make conversation with you because unfortunately at school we barely talk. We only talk in Afrikaans," I say while mimicking his smile. You can see his perfectly straight, white teeth.
"Yeah, we are always so busy in our own worlds that we forget to make conversation with our peers," he sighs, running a hand through his hair.
"Couldn't have said it better," I reply, while looking at the river, it was so calming, hearing the water flow. He starts cheerfully laughing.
He looks so more attractive when he looks cheerful. The way his eyes light up when he laughs makes him look cute.
"You do know, I never understood why Aryan left you. Like everyone knew you two were the power couple, he was the bronze, and you were the brains," Apsara murmurs as he gets closer to me, breaking me away from my thoughts.
"I also never understood but it is what it is," I reply looking at how handsome Apsara's face is as he starts laughing, making me giggle.
"He was the only boy at school that went against this other boy that said we should not date you, honestly, I would have but Aryan never liked that and the other boy would have probably killed me," Apsara admits, taking a sip of water.
What other boy? Who is the boy who would have killed Apsara? Why am I only finding out about this now?