January 30th. Tuesday, 10:38 AM.
"Guys, we need to talk".
The classroom talks faded as the whole of 1-B turned to face the front. Standing in front of the teacher's desk was Anastasia. A girl with golden blonde hair tied back and glasses resting over her pale blue eyes.
Their homeroom teacher left early and let them do some self-study, but, as you might guess, hardly any studying was happening.
"What's going on?" Anastasia asked, looking around the class. "Why are we barely getting any points?".
Everyone exchanged looks with each other. All of them were confused about what was going on. Her question was answered with silence. One, because no one could be bothered to speak, and two, because Anastasia being the one speaking up was a little out of place.
"You guys must have noticed it too", Anastasia continued with a bit more volume in her tone. "Our class had the lowest number of people getting points in the last challenge. Don't any of you find that worrying?".
"It's not that bad", Gabe spoke up from the back. "Ryan and Akari got the 2000 points".
"Other people got points too, you know", Kaylum told him. "It doesn't have to be only about the 2000 points".
"I know, but those two kinda represent our class", Gabe replied, brushing his hair with his hand.
"That's not good enough. Don't you care about your own points?" Anastasia seriously asked, concerned about what she was hearing. "More people from 1-E got more points than us in the last challenge".
Awkward glances were passed to each other around the room. It was embarrassing to hear that, but no one really had the answers or a response.
"Everyone in here can get more points this semester. Everyone can climb the leaderboard", Anastasia continued, trying to motivate them. She felt like the class's level was slipping. And because of the level dropping it felt like the energy was too. "Look how much the leaderboard changed after this challenge. There are new people in the top ten".
"Anna", Akari politely jumped in, lifting a hand. "This challenge wasn't a real show of everyone's abilities".
"Come on. It was simple. That's why even people from 1-E got 2000 points", Anastasia shot back. "We should've done better".
"It's simple, but it's kinda down to luck", Brittany said, leaning forward on her desk, chewing gum. "Some of us had really good hiding spots, but our devices still got found. Someone hid theirs in a bush, and they got 2000 points".
"Yeah, on another day, most of our devices probably wouldn't have gotten found", Liya added.
"But, guys, that's two in a row now", Anastasia replied, holding up two fingers. "I've heard people say 1-B isn't even all that. They think we're a joke".
"Who cares what other people think?" Liya replied, shrugging, looking like she didn't care.
"It's embarrassing. Don't you think?" Anastasia said with her arms out. "The other classes won't take us seriously".
"That might actually work in our favour", Akari replied, trying to make it seem like it wasn't that bad. "It will be their loss when they underestimate us".
Anastasia paused and looked straight at her with a straight face.
"Are they going to underestimate us?" she asked. "Or are we all just going to underperform again?".
Akari's face flinched. Those questions silenced her. And not just Akari, the whole class.
"Maybe we didn't underperform this time", Gabe said slowly, taking advantage of the silence. "Maybe someone in here snitched on everyone's hiding spots".
"No".
"What?".
"No way".
"How?".
That possibility caused people to raise their voices. Even people who weren't bothered before started to talk. Everyone was getting involved now.
"That's ridiculous", Anastasia said, pulling a face. "Most people kept their spots hidden".
"No they didn't", Gabe shook his head. "I knew a lot of people's hiding spots in here".
"So you snitched", Reece said bluntly, twisting his body to look at Gabe.
"No I didn't!" Gabe quickly denied. "Reece, be honest, you knew everyone's hiding spots here".
"Not everyone", Reece said, frowning.
"Exactly. Not everyone, but most", Gabe replied, pointing at him as he caught him out.
"I-" Reece hesitated. "Fam, I heard people telling each other their hiding spots. That's not my fault that words spread".
"So you could be the snitch", Gabe accused him, grinning while he continued to point his finger.
"Why the fuck would I snitch on anyone?" Reece fired back, pushing his chair back slightly
"Guys, let's calm down", Akari attempted to calm things down, standing halfway out of her seat, looking worried.
Luke lifted up his head, "What's going on?" he sleepily asked, rubbing his eyes. "Yawn. Why's everyone shouting?".
"Apparently, there might be a snitch in here", Lorenzo replied, watching everything unfold with his head resting on his palm.
"Hold on a minute", Brittany said suddenly, pausing everything. "Melody's partner was Malakai. He definitely did something".
The room fell silent. Heads turned in sync towards the right-hand side of the classroom, near the middle rows.
Melody was hunched slightly over her desk, thumbs moving across her phone screen as she typed lyrics, completely in her own world. It took her a second to notice the silence.
"Who said my name?" she asked, lifting her head and cluelessly looking around. Despite being detached from the conversation, she did randomly hear her name.
"Did Malakai tell the second years about our hiding spots?" Anastasia asked directly.
"What?" Melody replied, pulling a confused face. "No".
"How'd you know?" Brittany pressed.
"Because he didn't", Melody said plainly with her eyebrows still furrowed in confusion. "Why would he do that?".
"He's in first place. He wants to stay first", Brittany replied like she was stating the obvious.
Melody was still confused, not understanding her logic. "Telling the second years all of your hiding spots wouldn't help him".
"It does. It stops us from catching him", Gabe added.
Melody awkwardly looked at her classmates. It seemed like all of the eyes were judging her. "I think you've got the wrong idea about Malakai", she said. "He doesn't care that much. And he doesn't get along with the second years. So it wasn't him. I know it wasn't him".
"You're defending him a lot", Liya said, studying Melody's face. "I thought you hated him".
"I did", Melody replied honestly. "But he's not what I thought he was. He's actually... a good guy".
"You two looked close yesterday on stage", Hazel said, turning to her. "Are you two a thing?".
"No", Melody shook her head with certainty.
"Do you like him?" Yasmine asked, who was sitting next to Hazel.
"No", Melody shook her head with certainty. "He's not my type".
"You sure?" Hazel and Yasmine asked in sync.
"Yes! We're friends, that's it", Melody said, nodding with certainty. "Even Michelle is friends with him".
The girls around turned their heads like owls to Michelle.
"I wouldn't say we're friends", Michelle quickly said, instantly feeling the pressure. "But I have talked with him a little". She looked away. "He's not that bad".
"I can back Melody", Chris said, speaking up. "Malakai wouldn't do that".
"Of course you're going to say that", Gabe called out. "You're his friend. He got you points".
"I would've said that regardless", Chris replied, not liking Gabe's tone.
"Everyone, stop!" Anastasia sharply said.
All the commotion immediately stopped.
"Let's stop this talk about people snitching", she continued. "It's not even confirmed someone went around and told all of our hiding spots".
"Yeah, blaming each other will only break our class apart", Akari added.
"Maybe that's what we need", Owen randomly said.
Now, everyone's head turned to Owen. The people watching all of this had to turn a lot just to keep up.
"What?" Akari asked, unsure if she had heard correctly.
"This teamwork mentality we have going on isn't working and isn't going to work", Owen said, sounding so sure. "We're all here to win for ourselves. Helping each other only hinders ourselves".
"That's not true", Akari quickly denied, shaking her head. "Our teamwork and closeness are our advantages over the other classes".
"No. It isn't", Owen shook his head. "Look at the other classes. 1-A, everyone is basically solo, and they get points. 1-C has its own groups that get points. 1-D has what 1-C has, but smaller and not as good. And 1-E is weird, but I don't think they have this teamwork mentality", he explained, using his fingers to list the classes. "It's only our class that doesn't seem scary or threatening".
People glanced at each other. They were understanding his point. Compared to the other classes, it did look like their class was missing something.
"So do you think there was a snitch?" Gabe asked him, stirring the pot.
"I don't know. Probably", Owen replied with a relaxed shrug, clearly not interested in the snitch talk. "If there was a snitch, you should probably look to the people who got 2000 points".
Eyes moved to different people around the room. The people who got 2000 points.
"Don't look at me", Chris said immediately, seeing most of the eyes land on him. "Me and Melody are safe from this".
"No one snitched. Let's just stop this assumption", Christina said, quickly defending her twin.
"Who else got 2000 points?" Gabe asked, refusing to let this conversation die. "Ryan and Akari...".
"Gabe, stop trying to instigate!" Anastasia said, annoyed. "They wouldn't do that".
"I'm not saying they did. I'm just reminding everyone they got 2000 points", Gabe replied with a cheeky smirk, lifting his hands like he was innocent.
Luke smirked, "They forgot you got 2000 points", he said to Lorenzo.
"I'm used to it", Lorenzo said with the tiniest grin, seeing the funny side of it.
"Hey, even if no one snitched. I agree with Owen", Karim said, leaning back in his seat, getting involved.
"Me too".
"Yeah. It makes sense".
A couple of other voices found some confidence and joined in.
"Really?" Akari asked in disbelief, not liking the way things were turning out. "You guys can't be serious". She turned to Ryan. "Ryan, you can't think this is a good idea, too?"
Ryan's eyelids shot up for a moment. He'd been put on the spot. He knew he'd be involved, but this was sooner than expected.
"Um. If people think this way isn't working, then we can change it up. If that's what everyone wants", Ryan said, trying his best to be neutral. In truth, he didn't care.
The people who liked the teamwork mentality felt the tides changing. They felt like the minority.
"I'm not saying we should all hate each other", Owen said, making sure no one got the wrong idea. "I'm just saying we should focus on ourselves more. Be more selfish".
"But the reason we've done badly in the challenges is because we've been bad", Eris bluntly said. "Not because of teamwork".
"That's true. All the challenges have been team-based", Christina said.
Owen rolled his head. "I don't know. I'm just saying what I think".
The class fell into silence again. Owen putting that out there made a lot of people think. Anastasia awkwardly stood stiff at the front, suddenly very aware of the fact that she started all of this.
"Everyone", Ryan said, grabbing everyone's attention, sitting up and raising a hand. "I see both points. Having good teamwork and being selfish. There should be a balance between the two. We might've been leaning more towards the teamwork side, but I don't think that's a bad thing. It does have a lot of benefits. However, we should be selfish too because at the end of the day, most of us are here to win for ourselves, not each other".
Ryan scanned the faces around and saw all of his classmates carefully listening.
"The morale has been low since the results of the fifth challenge. I haven't said it out loud, but I take full responsibility for that. I wasn't good enough".
"Me too", Akari jumped in. "I take responsibility for that too. I let all of you down".
"It's fine, don't worry about it", Christina said, waving her hands dismissively. "It was a hard challenge"
"I still take responsibility for it", Ryan said, not backing down. "It was a big challenge, and I cost us a lot of points, so I understand if people feel a certain way, especially after how this challenge ended too". He paused for a quick second. "I don't think anyone snitched. I think all of you got unlucky. I don't want all of us to hate each other", he honestly said. "We should all be competitive but not bring each other down for no reason. I agree with Akari that our closeness will help in future challenges, so we shouldn't just split into separate groups. We should all still work together BUT keep in mind that we should all be a little selfish".
"I agree", Anastasia said, cutting in. "I might've started all of this, but I really like how our class is. I don't want our class to break apart".
"You say I was trying to instigate, but you caused all of this drama", Gabe smirked.
"Shut up", Anastasia smiled. "I cleared the air. I didn't like how the mood was. Tension was brewing, okay. Someone had to say something".
A few laughs broke out, easing the atmosphere. Positive conversations started to sprout, and relieved smiles were present.
Owen slid down his seat and pulled out his phone. He didn't continue to argue because he couldn't be bothered. He didn't change anything, but he did make his opinion known, which could be enough to cause some change in the future. Owen did feel like he lifted some weight off his chest.
Ryan's straight posture finally gave out as he slid a little down his chair, too.
Lorenzo glanced to his right, checking if Luke had his head down, which he did. "Are you the snitch?" he quietly asked Ryan.
"No", Ryan shook his head, looking offended. "I have no reason to be", he said, keeping his voice low. "...I did want to snitch on one person", he mumbled at the end.
"Oh. Is that what you wanted to do?" Lorenzo asked, knowing who he was referring to and remembering him saying he wanted to do something.
"Yeah", Ryan nodded. "He's done something. I know he has", he said, with a hand over his mouth, staring down at his desk.
"What did he do?".
"Something's changed. It's making me stressed", Ryan said, tapping his feet. "I need to talk to him".