I am going to do a little twist this time... can you figure it out by the time you're done reading?
ღღღღღღღ
Chapter 10 - New Rules || Cassidy's POV
"Mic check. 1. 2. 3."
I forgot how I hated those kinds of mic checks that could just ruined your ear drums. I guess the program is getting started.
I see people walking around less and the audience is almost filled.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the elementary Spelling Bee Contest! I'm your host, Laura, and our judges are Ms. Victoria, our very own discipline officer, a round of applause." Ms. Victoria stood up from her seat and took a curtsy.
"On the right side of our very beautiful D.O. is Ms. Marvil, our English department head, looking good, Ms. M." Laura winked at her, as if they were close. Hmm, maybe they are.
"And our last judge is...... have you guys guessed yet? We intentionally left it blank to surprise the audience and the judge itself. This year, we have changed some rules a little, so you guys better listen up!" Laura informed us. All of the audience gave each other a confused look. We have the same rules since.... Forever.
"There is a lot of changing of rules going on now and then," I said to no one in particular.
"I don't think one of the new rules is likable, either," Connor said beside me.
"We have collected all the names of the teachers and high school students who are right here, in this gymnasium, and we are going to raffle it and whoever owns the name I call in, please come out of where you are sitting and come up right here!" Laura said cheerfully. The audience clapped whilst some students are nervous. How could they let anyone just judge this event? What if they are not appropriate for being the judge? How could they compare to the English Department head and the D.O.? Also, the students who are on extra credits attendance not only going to watch this event but would probably wish they have a good luck because this day is getting worse.
"Now, who would this lucky person be?" Laura chuckled then her hand kept on searching for the paper inside the ball. I never noticed that ball around here.
"Is it possible to call out someone who is a helper?" I asked nervously.
"Unfortunately, she said all the people in here. So if you're a high school student and in the gymnasium, then you're in that box," Connor said, pointing at the raffle box.
I curled my fingers, wishing Connor would say otherwise. "You do have a point," I mumbled.
"Of course I do," he said with a smile. For the first time, I looked at Connor's eye closely. It was.... dreamy. I know it sounds cliché in the stories at how they sparkle and shines but Connor's different. His eyes are dark brown, so heavenly. Like chocolate. That's how dreamy and heavenly it is. I think I'm craving for chocolates.
I didn't know I was staring it for too long until Connor snapped me.
"I know girls fall their heels over my attractive features, but I didn't know you're one of them," he winked at me.
I can feel my face turning apple red and faced away to him. I punched his arm, not so lightly, and I was satisfied to hear him grumble a few words that are not appropriate for elementary students. Instead of thinking about how I embarrassed myself, I turned to Laura. She's picking out a name that's one in thousands of students here so there's a slim chance that she will even pick me.
"Come on stage ..." there was a long pause and Laura gave a smile.
This is way too suspense.
You could hear birds chirping outside and the silence is way worse than the screeching noise of the mic a while ago.
This silence is that loud.
".......Xavier Princeton of Desden High School's very own basketball captain!" Laura announced.
There were a lot of cheers and claps from the young audience and I turned around to look for Xavier. I wonder where he might be. I do know that he is somewhere in the audio to help with the guys but he is nowhere to be found.
"Where is he?" Connor asked me.
"I don't know. Hiding, maybe," I said and smiled to myself.
"He better be," Connor said as he smiled back at me and crossed his arms.
This thing called karma just found its rightful victim.
Xavier's POV
".... Basketball captain!" I heard a girl's voice said.
Nick and Jack were busy talking to the audio guy, which I never learned what his name is whilst Asher was busy playing something on his phone.
"Dude, it's you!" Josh congratulated me as he held my hand and shook it. I looked at him confused, what on earth is he talking about?
"You! Basketball captain, Mr. Princeton, is the lucky judge," Josh smiled lazily at me then patted me at the back.
To be flabbergasted is an understatement. Out of all the population of Desden High School, they picked me? "You've got to be kidding me."
"Go!" Asher said suddenly, pushing me towards the stage.
I gave Asher a scowl. "I thought you were too busy to listen what's the introduction about," I told him.
"Xavier Princeton, please come up to the stage! Everyone's waiting!" The speaker said.
"Anyway, they would never find me. We're behind the wall. They can't see us," I pointed out. It's bad that I'm here already, I don't want to make things worse.
"But they will know where you are. Some other people might tell them where you are and it will turn out that you are hiding your face to everyone. Do you want to get embarrassed by her?" Asher said to me, talking about Cassidy.
"She won't tell... I mean, right?" I raised my eyebrow. I can already imagine her face filled with evilness.
"One way to find out." Josh smirked at me.
"Do you want to risk it, man?" Nick put his hand on my back.
This is not my league. No way. My friends are here, they should just support whatever decisions I make, and times like this are when they let me down.
"They wouldn't risk on delaying the contest because the person they picked out doesn't come out, right? They would probably call out another name. Plus, they would need me here to help out. They need me here more. " I reasoned.
"I dare you not to show up," Jack said to me.
Asher rolled his eyes. "No way, one way or another, he'll end up sitting on that judge's chair," he said, waving his hand.
The guys were all looking at me expectantly. I didn't think of another second for the dare and quickly shook Jack's hand to accept his deal.
"I bet he won't." Jack smiled with glory.
"Well, game's on." Asher looked at Jack.
Somewhere deep inside me, I feel a little guilt. I can't let the audience down or the little kids who have been waiting to start the game and end this boring introduction. I know how they felt because we've all been there. Who knows, I may show them my hidden talent of poetry. I just hope people won't laugh at me. Maybe this is the time that's meant to share my talent to everyone and I wouldn't feel stupid on telling my works to my hamster, Casper. I'm still smart even though I don't study--I'm just putting it out there.
"Xavier Princeton? Where are you?" The speaker blasted.
"Who's the host anyway?" Asher asked to us.
We all shrugged our shoulders. The voice does sound familiar ... I think I heard of it already. Suddenly I registered the voice, it's --
"Mr. Princeton, everyone is expecting you in the auditorium," A voice behind me said.
The guys all looked behind me then giving me a look.
"You lost the bet, bro. Come on, twenty bucks," Asher said victoriously to Jack.
I heard Jack cursed, "I didn't say anything about twenty bucks-"
The person behind me cleared her throat and I turned around to her.
"Tell them I'm not here," I said without care. I continuously sat behind the wall and looked at my friends making and losing money.
"I don't think that's possible. Laura knows you're here and I'm just asked to go here. So it's up to you if you want everybody to know that you're afraid to show up." She has a point. Laura's the one who told me to be in this position, of course she would know where I am. I hate it when I don't have a good comeback.
I took a second to think about what she said. I gave a loud sigh and covered my eyes with my hands. This will be a big risk base on my reputation. This is not High School Musical wherein Troy Bolton showcases his other talent than basketball.
I stood up and followed Cassidy. She smirked at me and walked to the gymnasium. She is walking ahead of me so I can see her hair bouncing off, I wonder why she never curled them unlike the other girls here in the school.
"There it is everyone, our very own last judge for the Elementary Spelling Bee Contest! Now, we can start the contest." Laura, I figured out when I saw her smiling widely and holding the mike, was indeed the host.
"Where do I sit?" I asked the helpers, also known as Connor and the devil.
"Last chair," Connor answered me as we both knew that the-devil-who-is-now-ignoring-me turned away her face.
I walked to it, not sure what's going to happen next. When I sat down, I opened the folder and saw a table chart of the scores.
"Let's start! There will be three rounds, easy, medium, and difficult. The points are five, seven, and ten respectively. Now, -" I lost her because she was saying too much about the rules, which I knew already since it was always the same since forever.
"Every mistake will be deducted five points on the easy and medium round. Any mistake made on the difficult round will not be deducted. Have fun, kids!" Laura ended.
There's deduction? Wait, I didn't know about that! When did they change the rules? I looked at Connor for help but he was looking at the kids on their positions. I then looked at devil and she just rolled her eyes at me.
I looked around me, wondering who I can ask for help. I know I should be angry at Cassidy because she let us into trouble for telling about the party we went when we left her at the art class, but I am on crisis now. This would only make my reputation worse. Basketball player being a helper in this elementary event? Bad. He also is the judge? Worse. He happens to be the worst judge ever? Dead. Not only am I buried in my bad reputation, but also to the school.
"Pssssst! Pssst! Casssssssssssss!" I whispered.
Cassidy ignored me at first, but when I kept calling her, she shushed me.
"Cassssssssssss! You're a helper in this event so help me!" I said for the last time, hoping she would help me before the contest officially starts with the spelling.
"What!?" She said in a low voice.
I gave her a come-over-here look, but she pulled her tongue out at me. I narrowed my eyes and thought of something.
"Excuse me, Laura." I raised my hand so Laura can see me.
"Yes?" Laura looked at me, putting the mike away from her so the whole gymnasium - who is now our auditorium, thanks to our decorations - wouldn't hear what she was saying.
"Can I have an assistant? I'm kind of new in here, can I at least have someone to assist me in case I need something?" I smiled at her sweetly, using my old charm.
"Well, I think Cassidy won't have a problem, right? I have Connor to help me, don't worry," Laura said to the devil when Laura saw Cassody's face that clearly says no.
I gave myself a pat in the back when I saw Cassidy starting to stand up and sat beside me. I picked Cassidy over Connor because I know she listens more than he does so it's like adding more trouble if I asked Connor with me.
"Does annoying me make you happy?" she said sarcastically.
"I was just calling you to help me. I didn't know that they changed the rules."
"Well then, good luck to you because I'm not helping you." Cassidy smiled evilly at me. This is the reason why I call her devil.
"Seriously, I called someone to help me," I said helplessly.
I don't want to embarrass myself because of my geeky-ness but it's worse if I get embarrassed because I didn't listen to the new rules and what if I made a mistake? I hate seeing kids go home with a sad face when they should have won but because of me, they didn't.
She continued to ignore me and when the game started, I knew that by the end of this contest, there would be poor kids which futures have been changed because of my mistake.
"Let's start," Laura's cheery voice filled the gymnasium.
"For Group one, they now have thirty-points. Group two has twenty-nine points. And Group three has thirty-nine points!" Laura said, after finalizing the score board.
I saw Cassidy looking at her watch and looking as bored as ever. I rolled my eyes as I remembered how she doesn't want to help me.
"It's the end of the easy round! We'll move up to the next round, are you ready for more challenging words?" The kids' faces look so cute, if I had to admit, because they look so concentrated.
I looked at my paper filled with a lot of words. I can see that there's a mini dictionary on the drawer, I think they forgot to remove it, oh well. I think I'm doing things right, so far.
I sighed as I realized that until now, I don't know what my job is. All I know is the judges are raise their hands if there's one group with a word wrongly spelled. So far, I've been sitting here doing nothing, because I'm new with the rules which clearly I have no idea about.
I looked on my left and saw that Ms. Victoria and Ms. Marvil smiling and waving at the kids. I imitate them but I ended up giving them a nervous smile, hoping they wouldn't remember me when they get older.
"Do you really not know the rules?" Cassidy asked beside me. Her eyes are a bit tired and her face is as annoying as ever.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" I retorted. I put the dictionary in my lap, not showing it to anyone so I can't embarrass myself more.
"Are you going to answer my next question with another question?" The devil asked.
"Fine, I'll help you," she sighed. "Only because I'm bored that's why I am telling you the rules which you didn't listen and -" she explained.
"Okay, okay. I got it," I cut her off, not wanting to hear that from her.
"Well, I suppose you heard about the points. You, as judge, need to know whether or not the word they made is correct. Since I suppose you know the game Scribble. It's similar as that. But instead, they get same points for everything, whether the word is very hard or easy. Simple as that," She clapped her hands when she finished explaining to me.
The second round started and I now know what the paper I am holding and is what for. Only the teachers and principals ever judged at contests so no one beside me, I think, knows what insides of the folders is/are for.
I finally enjoyed the contest, since I already knew the new rules. Now I won't regret anything when the contest ended.
"What's the difference between this year's rule and last year?" I asked, looking at Cassidy.
"This year's rule about the points is stricter and it's no longer four rounds. Laura didn't say they changed the rule entirely," she said, rolling her eyes.
I turned to face the little kids, not saying any "thank you" because she was snappy since she called me behind the audio. Speaking of audio, I looked at the sound system and found the guys busy talking to the guy and some are running back and forth from the stage manager to the audio.
Good thing I wasn't sitting there anymore. Who wants to run back and forth? Not if you expect us to run every now and then during practices with the coach. And I think I saw Nick sweating. Although girls love making boys being macho in front of them and as much as we, guys, love to show off what our muscles are made for, it is kind of annoying sometimes when they made us do something way too much.
"Group three has the word apocalypse, syllable, and nacelle. Twenty points!" Laura said after she read the words on the board.
I looked closely at the board, something's wrong. I tried to look at their spelling and I am tempted to look at the mini dictionary but then, after I finished reading it, round two will be over and their boards will be removed and I will only be correcting something that's gone.
I turned around to Ms. Victoria, our discipline officer, if she noticed anything. Base on her white hair and her old eyeglasses, maybe she didn't see that they spelled it wrong.
I looked at Ms. Marvil but she's not looking in my way. I looked back from the group two then to Laura, who was talking about Group three's answers.
"Is there a problem?" Cassidy asked me, her face filled with worry.
"I think so. But I'm not sure," I said.
"Are you going to tell me?" Cassidy raised an eyebrow.
"Did they spell nacelle right? I don't think I saw an "e" on the last letter," I mumbled.
"You know what a nacelle is?" she said back to me.
"Are you going to be useful and do your job as my assistant or not?" I answered back.
"Let me check," she stood up to see a better view. I can see some of the audience looking at her and giving questioning looks at why she stood up suddenly.
"I don't think so," she said, sitting back down.
"Well, what do I do if their answer is wrong?" I asked Cassidy. But she just shrugged her shoulders, not knowing what to do. We were both new at this new "rule" that they made.
"Clean up the boards so we can move to round three," Laura said to the mike.
"Hold!" I shouted as I stood up from my chair.
I can see a lot of pairs of eyes looking at me and I cleared my throat before I say my message.
"Group two has spelled wrong with the word nacelle. They lack the letter "e" at the end," I said with a louder voice so that everyone can hear it.
"I think ... Mr. Princeton is right! Good eyes, sir. Thank you, you may sit down," Laura smiled at me when she saw Group two's mistake. I can see the kids' faces were sad since they were about to win but I pulled them down. Ha, now that's the right way to see sad faces.
I sat on my chair, surprised that I pointed out something wrong and I'm doing my job. I didn't bother looking at Ms. Victoria or Ms. Marvil because I can feel their eyes on me already.
The show went on and everything went back to normal as if the incident I made didn't happen.
"You know, it doesn't mean I have this reputation, I'm stupid," I told Cassidy, remembering she asked me if I knew the word nacelle.
"I know. Sorry," she mumbled, avoiding my eyes.
I was surprised for the third time of this day. First when they called out my name as a judge. Second when I said the correct spelling of nacelle. Third when I heard Cassidy giving up on me so easily. I expected her to fight back at me and give mean comments and might include things about bullying when I didn't do anything about it.
"What are you staring at?" Cassidy gave me a dagger look. "Nothing," I said, smiling at myself. Ha! Take that, I won the argument with just one comeback.
"Why are you smiling now?" The devil asked with an annoying face.
"Why do you care?" I smiled cheekily at her. She rolled her eyes and went back to the game. And I did, too, until I noticed something disturbing my focus.
I can feel table shaking a little. I looked around to see if there's any earthquake or something but they all looked fine. I looked at Cassidy and saw her face on her right hand and on the other hand, she was holding a pen that was making the noise on my table.
"Stop with the pen, will you?" I said annoyingly.
She pulled out her tongue and continued tapping her pen on my table.
"You're distracting me," I snapped.
"It's not my fault you find me undeniably attractive," she said nonchalantly, mimicking me.
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. "I didn't know you're fond of my words," I smirked at her.
"You're not the only one who usually use them," Cassidy replied back.
"Well you don't usually use them, you use harsher words and you're not the flirty type," I said in disgust.
"Good thing you know what you have been doing all the time," Cassidy rolled her eyes. She seemed to roll her eyes a lot of times.
"Don't change the subject," I huffed. It's not my fault that girls are throwing themselves at me. I know that ignoring them would be the best but I know those girls' are just showing off to their friends and they are looking so I tried to act as polite as possible to let her know that I'm not interested. When people don't even have a clue that I'm politely rejecting the girl, they call me "playboy". I guess I just can't satisfy anyone. Correcting them would just waste my time and energy. As long as my reputation is good, I don't care anything else.
"I'm not. You are," she retorted back.
"You know I wouldn't be surprised if your eyes would fall off if you keep rolling them," I said sarcastically. She flashed me a forced smile that showed her perfectly white teeth and then looked serious and turned back to the contest.
I checked the score boards if there were any mistakes. I would admit that I like the idea of correcting someone and it would prove the others that I'm not all looks.
But it looks like I just can't convince everyone.
ღღღღღღღ
a u t h o r ' s n o t e :
So you guys figured out what's different?
Well if you didn't. then I'll tell you. I put Xavier's POV, finally!
The song on the side is about Xavier's P.O.V. =)
Can I have a free vote or a thoughtful comment? Please? Merci.
P.S. Did you smile? If no, then SMILE! If you already did, then smile again because it's not a crime.
"'You're doing it again,' he said. 'Doing what?' I asked, wondering if I had done something wrong. 'Melting my heart with your smile,' he said." ― Mary Ting, Crossroads