Aiden's pov:

Aiden woke up an hour and a half earlier than he was supposed to. The sun hadn't risen, but the few clouds that dotted the sky were tinted purple and the sky behind it was a few shades lighter than navy. It looked like a postcard, with the city clustered around the beach still glittering with lights. Aiden snapped a quick photo with Shadowfax - his camera and lifelong companion - before getting ready.

His room was - extravagant, to say the least. He had a kitchen, a double bed, a huge flat screen, an entire seating area, and a lot of cushions. Not really his sort of style, but nice anyway.

After sorting himself out, he walked into the hall and was about to get into the elevator... Only to find someone blocking him. She was tall, and beautiful but in a precise, plastic way, as if she had gotten up, decided to be pretty, and used everything she could get her hands on to achieve it. She was wearing a sparkly blue t-shirt and pale blue jeans. As soon as she saw Aiden, she arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow and whipped out a clipboard as if it had personally offended her.

"Identify yourself." She twiddled an obnoxiously fluffy pink pen and tapped her high-heeled foot impatiently.

"Excuse me," Aiden smiled politely and tried to step around her, but she immediately blocked his path.

"Identify yourself." She repeated, a steely edge in her voice. She sent him a smile that made her look like she was trying to spot spinach in her teeth.

"Aiden Acharya," Aiden answered, moving to the other side. "Now if I could get passed -"

"Access denied." She interrupted curtly.

"Please? I won't be long?" He stood up straight and tried to make puppy-dog eyes.

"Access denied." She repeated, scribbling on her clipboard aggressively, "and be glad of it, if I went out publicly in that outfit, I would have to hide for years."

Aiden was slightly offended. He had tried to tame his hair and was wearing jeans, a khaki green t-shirt, and a black sweatshirt; pretty similar to what he wore every day. He brushed off the comment and fiddled with his camera's strap.

"I just want to look around-" he tried.

"Don't you get what 'denied' means? Or are you too dense to even understand that?" She let out a high, cold laugh, which escalated into a grimace. "You're starting to irritate me."

Aiden knew 'the feelings mutual' was not the right response, but that didn't stop him from wanting to say it.

"Who are you?" He asked instead.

"You'll find out when you come back at the correct time." She sneered. Aiden opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out. Aru was always better at comebacks that him. She smirked, seeing him have no answer.

"Toodles!" She squeaked, dismissing him. He gave her one last pleading look, before turning back down the corridor, letting his smile fully leave his face.

After waiting in his room for 45 minutes, he heard a hammering on his door, and the same woman's voice yelling through the door. Aiden immediately ran out his room so the banging stopped, but she'd already moved on to Aru's door. Aru quickly appeared, in a pair of jeans and a Spiderman top that looked suspiciously like pajamas, but beautiful none the less.

Aiden stopped himself. He couldn't think like that, especially not here and definitely not now. Everything was way too complicated. Too much had happened. Too much since -

"I'm up." Aru said, not unenthusiastic. The woman wrinkled her nose.

"You must be Arundhati." She aggressively ticked her clipboard.

"You're not Kara..." Aru said slowly, mirroring the woman's look of distaste.

"Correct. I'm Opal. Your third chaperone." Before Aru could respond she moved on to her next target: Aiden. "Give me your camera."

"Excuse me?"

"Your camera. Hand it over."

Aiden pulled Shadowfax closer. "Why?"

"Because it's a rule. I don't need to justify myself to you. I also need both of your phones."

They both reluctantly handed over their devices a the woman - Opal - strode off down the hall.

"I get the feeling she doesn't like us. Don't know how." said Aru, to quiet for Opal to hear. Aiden snorted. Aru looked like she was about to say something, but Opal's voice cut her short.

"Come on pipsqueaks, you are the ones that wanted to be here: hurry up."

Aru rolled her eyes and sped up, muttering to herself. Aiden quickly followed.

~~~

"Please tell me I did not get up this early to stand in the dark."

Aiden couldn't tell if Aru was serious or not. He waited for his eyes to adjust, so he could see her facial expression, but the adjustment never happened. It was absolute darkness.

"I mean, if I wanted to be in the dark, I would have stayed in my room. Where I could sleep." Aiden heard her shuffle around the room as she spoke. Suddenly, a spotlight switched on in the centre of the room, highlighting a small table with a letter box red poster on top. A loud voice echoed from a hidden speaker.

"Hello! Theodore here! Welcome to your first challenge. " The audio paused. "Pretty cool right? Here are just some instructions: read the poster, carry each task out in order and have it done in under 10 minutes! You'll get a buzzer half way minutes through, and good luck! Theo, out!"

By the time the rest of the lights had come on, Aru was already at the table. She quickly went to try and reach for a rubix cube on one of the many shelves. Aiden went over to poster and read.

1. Read all of the instructions
2. Make one side of the 6 by 6 rubix cube red

Aiden stopped reading. "Did you read the whole thing?"

Aru stopped reaching for the shelf to look at him. "And waste precious time? No thank you."

"But it says read all of the list!"

"It would also take an age!" Aru pointed out. She stood on her toes to try and reach the high shelf, but couldn't. "Stupid legs."

Aiden continued reading.

3. Unlock the safe under table with the code 1290
4. Use the scissors inside to cut out a page of the notebook
5. Place the empty page back in the safe...

But as Aiden read even further, it got... Odd.

...6. Draw an ice cream next to the number "3"
7. Stand on the table and punch the air twice.
8. -

Aru jumped up and snatched the rubix cube. "Finally."

Aiden quickly skimmed to the bottom of the page before standing up. "Stop!"

"What?" Aru said, holding the rubix cube in one hand.

"Don't change anything on the rubix cube, it's important."

"But we're running out of time!" as if to prove Aru's point, the buzzer went off.

"Please?" Aiden looked into her eyes. Aru glared back, before sighing quietly.

"What's the problem?" She asked.

"The last instruction. It says:

10. Do not complete any of the prior instructions. Instead throw the rubix cube onto the ground and use the key inside to get out. - T"

Wordlessly, Aru dropped the rubix cube to the floor. It smacked into the ground with a satisfying crunch before breaking open and revealed a skeleton key. She picked it up and held it out to Aiden. "Wanna do the honours?"

Aiden smiled and nodded at Aru. She tossed it across and, after minimal fumbling, he unlocked the door.

It swung open to show Kara, Boo, Opal and Theodore waiting. Boo pressed a button on a stopwatch. "6 minutes and 27 seconds, not bad."

"Congratulations. you are the first to complete the challenge." Opal said tonelessly.

"Well done, you two!" Theodore exclaimed.

Aiden waited for Aru to say something, before feeling her elbow him in the ribs. Hard.

"Thank you, Theodore!" He managed through the pain.

"You deserve it. And just call me Theo. Now, go have a look around the hotel. And maybe try and get to know each other before the next challenge."

"Here's your stuff," Kara added with a smile.

Aiden smiled back weakly, before walking off with Aru. "What was that for!?" He hissed.

"You're the one who did all the thinking. And clearly you weren't going to say anything. You need to celebrate your successes."

"But why didn't it need to hurt?" He questioned, rubbing his ribcage and scowling.

"Because," Aru said, with a small grin, "I'm the one elbowing you."

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Very funny."

"That's what you get when you're friends with a comedic genius like me!" Aru said with a hair flick. They both burst into laughter.

An alert flashed up on Aru's phone and her face dropped. "No, no, nonono. Not again."

Aiden frowned and tried to look over. "What is it?"

She pulled the phone away and clicked it off. "Nothing that concerns you." She said sharply. And then she walked away.

Aiden sighed and walked in the other direction. Following her would only make it worse. No matter how much he wanted to know what had upset her, it would only make things worse.

Get to know each other Theodore had said. Aiden had thought he'd known Aru, but every time he was sure he did, something would shift.

He thought he knew what "that" was, but now he was wondering if they were even talking about the same thing.

He thought he knew who he was to her, but now he couldn't tell if he was a friend or enemy number 1.

A/N sooo, back again!

Sorry for the wait, my mum was sick (nothing too serious) so my dad and I had to take care of her for a while. But I'm back! :)

Also, happy New year!

K, byeee!

-Bea