The next morning, Tia and Elijah rode the elevator down to the lobby rather early.
"I guess I proved you wrong, huh?" he said. She looked at him, confused.
"In what way?"
"You said I was incapable of waking up early. But here we are riding down to the lobby more than ten minutes before we're meant to be there," he explained, proudly.
"Congratulations," she said, rolling her eyes. But Elijah noticed the corner of her mouth turn upwards. He had amused her, and he was happier about this than he thought he'd be.
Finally, in the lobby, Figg waited until they were all calm, fed, and quiet before telling them all what was on the agenda for the day. "I'm sure you all know that today is – yes – fear day. But I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that today is the final fear day of the trip!" she exclaimed, which made everybody cheer rather loudly. Elijah prayed this fear was not his fear. "Yes, yes. Settle down. Now, the final fear to be conquered is – spiders!" she revealed, excitedly. Almost everybody made a disgusted face, clearly not looking forward to it. Elijah gulped. This was his fear. He was rather afraid of spiders, but he couldn't show it. Tia would never let him hear the end of it.
"Yes, I understand a lot of you are a little squeamish, but it'll be fine, I promise. You're going to go to bed tonight, completely in love with spiders!" she assured. Elijah gulped again, quite sure he wouldn't become infatuated with spiders by the end of this activity.
-
Figg had the group pile into their minibus and Maurice drove the group to a warehouse quite far from the city. This made Elijah more nervous, still. He felt like he was on Fear Factor where there was no room for any fear.
"Okay, gather around, everybody!" Figg called to the group as they walked into the warehouse. Everybody was busy looking around. The ceiling was higher than any ceiling Tia had ever seen. Behind Figg there was an enormous white curtain concealing something and everyone was itching to find out what it was. "Listen up, guys, come on," Figg urged. She had been joined by a man about a metre taller than her.
Finally, the group quietened down and directed their attention to Figg and the stranger.
"Thank you. Now, this is Steve. He will be going through the activity and the rules with you all," Figg explained. "I think I'll leave you to it, then," she said, craning her neck to look up at him. "Have fun," she smiled at the group. She then sat on a chair on her own and proceeded to pull out a book from her bag.
"Excellent," he replied, flashing a grin. Elijah looked at him. This guy looked very excited about this activity, a little too excited. That wasn't a good sign, since the activity involved spiders. "First up, I just want to welcome you to Australia," he said. There were mumbles throughout the group.
"Thank you," Tia replied, enthusiastically, to which Steve smiled, appreciatively.
"I know the other activities you're going to be doing, and let me tell you, they're amazing," he said, earnestly. Tia beamed but wished he would say more. She could die of the curiosity and anticipation. "Of course, the activity you'll be doing today is quite thrilling too. Today it's about spiders, though. And I understand some of you don't like them very much," he said. Elijah squirmed. Tia noticed but didn't react. She would bring it up soon, though. She had to. "But just know that the spiders we have today aren't poisonous and won't harm you at all. So, you'll all be fine," he assured.
Steve moved closer to the white curtain behind him. "Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what's being hidden by this white blanket," he said. Everybody nodded and leaned forward, some excitedly, others nervously, waiting to see what horrors awaited them. "Then maybe I should show you," Steve added. With that, he pulled a string on the right side of the curtain and it was pulled upwards.
What was before them was a baffling sight, indeed. There were six glass boxes, attached to metre high poles. The box was seemingly empty. At least three metres away from the glass boxes, there were six sets of two lockers beside one another, both locked. Behind the set of lockers stood flagpoles five metres high. The group began to murmur and look around at each other. Nobody seemed to know what it was about, but the excitement level had definitely amplified. Elijah studied everything very closely for any sign of spiders but couldn't find anything. He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but he knew there was another aspect to this 'game' that they just hadn't been told yet.
"Now that you've devoured this spectacle with your eyes, let me explain," Steve said from the side. All eyes turned to him and followed him as he walked to one of the glass boxes. "We're going to play a little game and here are the rules," he began. "In each glass box, there are two small keys. On both sides of the box there are two circular openings. You're all going to pair up. Both of you will have to, one at a time, put your hands in the circular openings and try to retrieve the keys. Each of you must retrieve one. One person cannot get both the keys. Sounds simple enough, yes?" he asked.
The group mumbled and nodded, clearly understanding and following his explanations, not really seeing the difficulty yet.
"Good. So, once both of the keys have been retrieved, you will go to these lockers," he said, walking to the set of lockers behind the box. "You will proceed to unlock the lockers and open them. Inside each locker there is small box – this one is not glass but it does contain the next thing you need to continue. It contains a piece of paper. You put your hand through the opening in the top to retrieve the paper – it's laminated so you'll know it when you feel it. This will have a riddle. You will have to solve both riddles. Each riddle has a one-word answer. The two words together are the next clue," he continued. "Still following?" There were more nods and mumbles.
He then walked back to the glass box. "After you've got the two words from the riddles, you move on to the flagpole up the back. Set up there is a computer. You type the two words into the system and this will raise your flag. If the two words are not correct, you can go back to stage two and re-read the riddles, if need be. But if the words are correct, your flag with rise. The team to get their flag all the way up first is the winner!" Steve exclaimed, excitedly. There was louder mumbling from the group. "Yes, there is a prize," he continued, knowing that was on everyone's mind. "And it's absolutely grand. You wouldn't want to miss it, believe me," he winked. The chatter grew louder and louder. Tia looked excitedly at Aladdin, who shared her happiness. Suddenly, a hand flew into the air.
"Excuse me, uh, Steve?" a girl asked quietly. He nodded at her. "I thought you said this was an activity about spiders. I didn't notice any spiders throughout this game," she said. Elijah sighed, annoyed. He really wished nobody had brought it up.
"Oh!" Steve exclaimed. "I can't believe I forgot the most important thing!" he said. He tapped the top of the glass box. "Well, the spiders – they're in this glass box," he said. Almost everyone's eyes bulged.
"W-what do you mean?" Elijah asked, finding his voice. Tia looked up at him. She could see the panic in his eyes.
"When you put your hands in these circles," Steve said, playing with the flaps covering the openings in the boxes. "The spiders come out of this pole the box is attached to. You didn't all think it'd be that easy to retrieve the keys did you?" he asked, laughing. "Oh also! The boxes in the lockers...they have spiders in them too. But you can't see those ones," he informed. Elijah swallowed. He didn't like the sound of putting his bare hands in a pit of spiders. He prayed they weren't big ones. "And yes, there are some big ones in there," Steve said, as if reading Elijah's mind, who suddenly felt nauseated.
"Do we get to choose our partners?" someone called out.
"Uh, whoever asked that – no," Steve replied. "You may not have noticed, but each flag has the initials of one school on it, and there's a sign in front of each glass box with your school initials on them. So, we're pitting school against school for this challenge. Whoever wins can go back home and boast how much better their school is than all the rest," he explained, giddily. Tia would've normally grumbled but, knowing that Elijah was feeling very squeamish, she felt good about the situation. Elijah's mouth was suddenly dry. He didn't want to pair up with Tia. She was sure to get him back for what he did to her at the Eureka Skydeck.
"Let's get to it!" Steve cried suddenly, and everyone ran to their respective stations, as dictated by the initials before each glass box.
Tia stood beside Elijah at a glass box near the end. "Ready for this?" she asked, entertained already.
"Huh, why wouldn't I be?" Elijah replied, trying to sound casual.
Tia shrugged. "Oh, I dunno. It's just, spiders – they're kind of creepy. Don't you think?" she said. Before he could reply, she added, "Oh, wait! I remember now. You're not afraid of anything. This should be a breeze for you." She grinned smugly.
He laughed uneasily. "Y-yeah, of course. Spiders aren't scary," he replied, averting his gaze.
"Good. Because I really want that prize they're offering," Tia said.
"But you don't even know what it is," he answered, looking at her for the first time.
"Well it's bound to be something exciting that's related to Australia. Got my name all over it," she explained. "So, since I'm not afraid of spiders, and you're not afraid of spiders, we should be done first for sure!"
He cleared his throat. "Aha."
Suddenly, they heard Steve call out, "Ready. Set. Go!" and the whole warehouse went into a frenzy.
"You wanna go first?" Tia asked, loudly.
Elijah jumped back from the box quickly. "What? No. You go. Ladies first," he replied. She laughed.
"Fine. But you're going to have to do it eventually," she reminded him, making him squirm. She approached the box and took a deep breath. She wasn't afraid of spiders, but she didn't particularly like the idea of them crawling all over her hands. But she had to do it. She wanted that amazing prize Steve promised the winners.
She breathed and then plunged her hands into the glass box. As soon as her hands made contact with the circles, spiders came piling out of the bottom of the box. She didn't even know where they were coming from, but they were everywhere in a matter of seconds. Elijah watched on, horrified. Tia shook out of her shocked daze and tried to numb herself to the feeling of hairy legs crawling all over her hands. She began to feel around for a small piece of metal, since she couldn't see through the thicket of spider legs now filling the box. Her sense of touch was all she had. Finally, she felt a cold piece of metal.
"I got it!" she cried, and Elijah cheered. Just then, a giant spider appeared at the top of the box and sat atop her hand, which she'd balled into a fist with the key safe inside. She shrieked and almost dropped the key, but she balled her fist tighter just in time. She began inching her way to the circles on either side of the box, squishing spiders all over the place, trying not to disturb the big spider. At long last, she reached the end and her hands flew out of the circles, bringing a couple small spiders with them. The big one stayed inside though, which Elijah was a little disappointed about. Tia shook the squished spiders off her hands and opened her fist. The key was there in the middle of her palm. "Excellent!" she said, then looked up at Elijah. "It's your turn." She smirked, holding the key rather arrogantly.
As Elijah approached his box of doom, Tia looked around. A few other teams had a key, but none had two. If she wanted to win this, she had to make sure Elijah didn't suffocate in his fear and freeze. This is where she had to make up her mind. Did she want the prize more than she wanted to taunt Elijah because of his fear? She wanted to win but she wasn't sure she could do that if she called Elijah a wimp. Or could she?
Beside her, Elijah was doing breathing exercises to calm his nerves. He tried to be as discreet as possible, but he knew Tia knew he was afraid. He put his hands on either side of the box and continued his calm breathing.
"Come on. You can do it!" Tia said from beside him. This shocked him so much his arms fell to his sides.
"What?" he asked, looking at her.
"I said 'you can do it' – unless you're afraid. You're not afraid, are you?" she teased.
"I'm – I'm not afraid," he stammered.
"Well, I never really understood the fear of spiders," she commented, casually, smirking. He gasped. She was using his own material against him.
"I told you, I'm not afraid," he said again, more confidently.
"Prove it," she said simply, staring up at him.
"I will!" he said loudly, and without thinking, he plunged both hands into the circles.
The spiders came instantly and almost covered his entire hands in a matter of seconds. They crawled all over his hands. There were spiders everywhere, even in his mind, clouding his thoughts. This woke him up to himself and he tried retreating his hands, frantically. He had almost escaped when two hands stopped him. Tia was standing in front of him and had one hand on either arm. He looked at her, incredulously, continuing to struggle against her grip. She was stronger than he thought.
"What are you doing?!" he panted. "Let...me...go!" His breathing had become very uneasy.
"No!" she shouted. They had to win that prize. She would say whatever she had to in order for that to happen. "I said 'you can do it' and I meant it. Now just forget about the spiders and focus on the key," she said, looking him straight in the eye. He shook his head, still struggling. "Just close your eyes, breathe and think about the small piece of metal you need to find," she advised. He had stopped struggling but still looked doubtful. "Trust me," she added. Finally, he nodded and tried breathing normally. She let go of him slowly, as he closed his eyes. She stood beside him. "Picture the key in your mind and picture yourself finding it," she said. He nodded.
He breathed deeply and forced the spiders out of his mind. He focused his thoughts on the small key identical to the one Tia had retrieved. He pushed the spiders away, their hairy legs becoming less and less horrid by the second. Finally, he felt cold metal. He balled his hands into fists and began moving his hand across the box. Tia cheered on beside him and looked around. Still nobody had two keys. They just may be the first. A second later, Elijah's hands broke through the circles on the sides of the box and he opened his eyes.
"Did I get it?" he asked, quickly.
"Open your hand!" she urged. He did so. Several spiders had to be thrown off, but it was there. Flat on his palm, the second key lay. "Yes!" Tia celebrated.
Elijah, still a little dazed because of what he'd just done, looked at her. She had supported him, like a friend. She helped him conquer his fear, even after what he'd done to her at the Skydeck. He didn't feel very good about himself just then. "Hey," he said. She looked at him. "I – uh – just wanted to say..." he began but she didn't let him finish.
"You can thank me when we win. Let's go to the next bit!" she replied, quickly, feeling a little guilty that she'd only helped him to win.
"Oh right – okay. Let's go," he agreed, excited. They both ran off to the lockers as fast as their legs could carry them.
They heard Steve's voice over the crowd. "Looks like Franklin High is winning!" he announced. They grinned at each other as they heard that and quickly unlocked each locker.
Inside both lockers was an identical black box, with a flap on the top that looked like a trap door.
"Do you want to do it at the same time?" Elijah asked her.
"Uh, no. You go first and then I'll go," she replied. She didn't want him to freeze again. He nodded.
"Okay," he said and begun breathing.
"Hey. You can do it," she said, from beside him. He nodded and took a deep breath. He opened the flap of the box and quickly put his right hand into it. He felt the hairy legs everywhere. There were even more in here than there were in the glass box. Was there even a slip of paper in there? All he could feel were spider legs and bodies. He moved his hand around the box, really feeling quite comfortable with the spiders in the box. Finally, he felt something plastic-like. He grasped it and tried pulling it up. A spider's leg seemed to be in his grasp as well and he quickly tried to let it loose. It took some shaking, but he finally freed the laminated paper from its box prison. Tia jumped and cheered, "Fantastic!" He beamed at her.
"Okay. You go next and then we'll figure out the riddles together," he said. She nodded. She plunged her hand into the flap of the box. She almost gagged at the number of spiders in there. They were everywhere.
"Whoa! There must be at least thirty spiders in here!" she exclaimed.
"Just breathe. If I could do it, anyone can," he assured her. She nodded and began searching for the paper. It took a while, seeing as the spiders kept wrapping their hairy legs around her fingers. It disgusted her much more than the glass box because she couldn't see them. It was horrid. But finally, she felt the plastic-covered paper and pulled it out, as quickly as she could.
"Yes!" she grinned. "Okay, what's your riddle?" she asked him.
He cleaned off his paper and read the riddle, "It says, 'You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?'"
"Hmmm," Tia murmured, thinking.
"Okay, let's think it through in order. The first bit that says, 'you throw away the outside' is obviously referring to a peel, right?" he asked her. She nodded.
"Yeah that makes sense. And then, it says you cook the inside and eat the outside, right?" she asked.
"That's right. But I think the inside that you cook is the outside that you eat. Get it?" he said, a little confused himself.
"Oh, right," she replied, after a second's thought. "Because the inside becomes the outside because you've thrown away the original outside. Right. Then the last bit – 'you throw away the inside' right?" she asked.
"Aha. Which could only mean that it has a seed or is something like a corn cob," he answered. She raised her eyebrows.
"It's corn!" she exclaimed, excitedly.
"Huh?"
"Well, you peel the corn – the outside, then you boil it or barbeque it or whatever – the inside. Then you eat the corn – the outside – and then you throw away the inside – the cob!" she explained, animated. His eyes widened.
"That makes perfect sense! Excellent!" he grinned. "One down. Now read yours," he said.
"Okay. Mine says, 'Give me wood and I will live. Give me water and I will die. What am I?'" she said and began thinking.
"Hmm," he said. "Okay, I think I got it."
"Already?" she asked, impressed.
"Maybe," he replied. "Well, what is the most afraid of water?" he asked.
"Fire," she answered, instantly.
"Exactly," he nodded.
"So, the answer is fire?"
"I'm pretty sure. Because the more wood you put, the stronger it gets. The only way to 'kill' it is with water," he explained.
"Ahhh! That's true! Perfect. We're on to our last stage!" she shouted, elated. He nodded, grinning and ran with her to the next stage. Clearly, they were the first ones to this stage as well and they heard Steve announce it too.
"This is great!" Elijah shouted above the noise, unable to stop beaming.
"I know!" Tia agreed, as she started up the machine to write up their words. "So, the words were 'fire' and 'corn'? Yes?" she asked. He nodded.
"Yes. But do they have to be in a particular order?" he asked. She shrugged.
"I dunno. But we'll try the other order if the first doesn't work. We seem to be way ahead of everyone else," she replied, looking around.
"I know! We're not such a bad team after all," he said, looking at everybody else. She smiled to herself. Finally, the machine started up and she was able to type in both words. She tried the order 'Corn Fire' first but it didn't work. As quickly as she could, she tried the other order and slowly but surely, their flag began to rise. She looked up at him.
"Do you think it'll make it up there first?" she asked.
"Of course! It's the first one to start rising," he replied. She smiled big at him. "Looks like you'll be getting that prize you want so badly." She squealed and turned to watch their flag rise. He watched her. Happiness was radiating from her again. She looked completely content and he liked seeing her like that. She was conscious of him staring at her, but she didn't dare look at him.
Finally, though, their flag reached the top. She screamed, excited. She almost hugged Elijah but stopped herself. Instead, she put her hand up for a hi-5. He slapped her hand in complete happiness. They'd won the elusive prize and they'd done it as a team, a team that co-operated.
A short while later, Elijah and Tia stood in front of the group with Steve and Figg, eagerly awaiting their reward. Tia saw Steve holding an envelope and she eyed it as he addressed the group. What could be in there?
"I hope you all had a great time. And I hope some of you conquered your fear," Steve started. Tia looked at Elijah, who smiled at her. "I know I enjoyed watching you all compete for this grand prize. But there was a clear leader right from the beginning, a team that really worked rather well, and that team is standing right beside me. Tia Anderson and Elijah Jones, congratulations. You deserve this!" Steve said, slapping Elijah on the back and handing Tia the envelope.
"Thank you so much!" Tia gushed, looking the envelope all over.
"Yes, thank you, Steve. It's been a great day, right everyone?" Figg asked, loudly. Everybody nodded and spoke all at once.
"It was amazing, thanks," Elijah answered, grinning hugely at Steve. "I don't think I'm afraid of spiders anymore," he admitted.
"That's what I like to hear!" Steve exclaimed, clapping his hands together.
With one final thanks and a farewell to Steve, the group piled into the minibus once more and were on their way.
"Come on, guys! Open the envelope!" Aladdin urged Tia and Elijah in the minibus. The other students were rather interested to see what it contained as well. Tia looked at Elijah.
"I want to know what it is, too. Don't you?" he asked.
"Yes, of course," she replied. After taking a deep breath, she finally caved. "Okay, fine!"
She slowly opened the sealed envelope and took out a square card. She read it to herself first. It was a double pass for a hot air balloon ride over the city of Melbourne. She gasped. It sounded wonderful – but the height issue wasn't something that excited her very much.
"Well?" Elijah asked. She handed the card to him and he read over it quickly. "This is awesome!" he exclaimed.
"Well?" Aladdin said, annoyed.
"Oh!" Tia laughed. "It's tickets for a hot air balloon ride," she explained. There were 'oohs' and 'aahs' all through the minibus.
"That sounds fantastic!" Vanessa grinned. "And kind of romantic, don't you think?" she whispered to Tia, who rolled her eyes and didn't respond.
"When is it?" Aladdin asked. Elijah looked at the card again.
"It says it's on Tuesday. But it's at, like, 5am!" he said, sounding a little put off.
"Yeah, we'll see the sun rising above the Melbourne city!" Tia said, already imagining it. She could leave her fear of heights behind for this.
"I guess. But we'd have to sleep really early the night before," Elijah added.
"Yes. Especially you," she said.
"Oh come on. I already proved you wrong today. I can do it again," he said.
"We'll see," she laughed. Vanessa and Aladdin looked at each other, impressed with this conversation. It was very unlike the one they had just one day before. If only they knew what happened when the pair were alone in their room.