Ch. 2: All In The Will [3] (Daily Life)
Author Note:
I have a Discord server for this Fangan now! You should join and come hang out. (Link in comment box.)
_____
*ding dong, bing bong*
"Attention! It is now 7 am! Time to get up to another miserable day of being talentless!"
It's not like I had much of talent to begin with.
As per usual, I got ready and waited on my sister. Then I spotted someone that I did not except to see up this early.
"Zenith?" My eyes widened.
The chauffeur turned around. He was sluggish in his moments, but his face was shinier than ever. No signs of tiredness, or anything for that matter, in his expression.
"Ah, hello Felix," He awkwardly greeted me. "How did you sleep?"
I should be asking you that.
"Alright." I answered. "What about you?"
"I slept fine." He replied.
"Do you want to join me and Fawn on our way to the dinning room?" I asked the chauffeur.
"I suppose so." He reluctantly agreed. "I've missed speaking with you and the others."
"Really?" I gasped, before I could stop myself.
"Yeah..." He admitted. "I don't really want to talk to anyone, but I think getting myself out of my room will help."
Things fell silent between us. The silence was excruciating and it bothered me more than it should have.
I hate silence like this...
"Have you checked out the new rooms yet?" I questioned, desperate to break the silence.
"I haven't." The chauffeur replied.
"Do you to explore with me?" I offered. "I'm busy after breakfast but once I'm done we can explore the new room together if you'd like."
"I'd like that." The orangette replied. "Though, I am curios as to what you're doing after breakfast."
"I'm doing laundry with Gabriel." I smiled. "I would invite you to join us, but it's kinda of a me and Gabriel thing."
"I understand." Zenith said, giving me a tiny smile. "Have fun with that, Felix."
He does seem like he feels a little better compared to yesterday morning, but I can tell he's not up to a 100%.
Well, obviously he isn't up to 100%. Witnessing the corpse of your friend and then watching another friend die a brutal death isn't something you just "get over" like a cold.
Fawn eventually joined us. The three of us had a silent walk on the way to dining room. Everyone else was already there. It was a relief to see everyone cooperating with the plan of doing more things together.
Then I caught a glimpse of the two empty chairs that would remain empty for the rest of our time here.
I keep hoping that I'll blink and they'll be at the table eating breakfast with us again.
I blinked.
...
I don't like thinking about this. I need to distract myself with something.
"Hey Zenith?" I stopped him before he could leave my side to take a seat. "Wanna see if Rory needs help in the kitchen?"
"Sure." He was reluctant to answer.
The two of us went into the kitchen, finding Rory and Tabitha arguing.
"I just wanna help!" Tabitha crossed her arms.
"And I don't want any of your help!" Rory replied.
"That's because you just wanna be the person in charge." The blonde girl scoffed.
"Why does that matter?!" They grumbled. "I like things being done a certain way and as long as everyone gets their breakfast, it shouldn't matter how it's done!"
These two have only gotten worse with their arguing...
"What's going on in here?" I asked.
The two turned their head, both pairs of eyes lighting up upon seeing the man beside me.
"Zenny!" Tabitha rushed over to Zenith. "I really missed you yesterday. Do you wanna hang with me today?"
"I'd like that." He agreed with hesitation.
"Oh, Felix," Rory remembered. "I talked with some of the others yesterday and I think our activity today should be a pool party."
A pool party...
Pools...
Water...
...
I'm not ready. Maybe one day, but not here or now. Even with these people, I can't bring myself to get in.
"I can't." I simply said.
"You can't what?" Rory raised an eyebrow. "Swim?"
"Not that." I shook my head. "I can't get in the pool."
"Why? Is something wrong?" They weren't picking up what I was trying to put down for them.
...
Rory of all people would understand. Zenith and Tabitha are nice, plus I think they already know.
"I'm–" I was interrupted.
"I can't get my hair wet." Tabitha interjected. "And I don't want to get my nails wet either. I just got them done and don't wanna ruin them."
"What are we going to do then if not everybody comes to the pool party?" The food tester puzzled.
"I'll figure something out over breakfast." I assured them.
"Speaking of breakfast, I need to get back to work on that." Rory remembered.
"May I join you?" Zenith asked.
"Of course." The cyanette nodded. "It's good to have you back in the kitchen, Zenith."
"What about me?" Tabitha innocently questioned.
"Go with Felix." Rory commanded.
Tabitha huffed in protest, before leaving with me. She went to sit with Quartz, while I sat across from my sister and Isaiah.
"I'm going to try out the writing advice you gave me." Fawn told the blonde.
"Since I am stuck here, it wouldn't hurt to pick up drawing. Maybe I'll be good enough to where I can change careers." Isaiah sighed after mentioning his job.
Hmm... Writing and drawing...
"Do you not like your job?" I questioned.
"I have a love-hate relationship with my profession." He pushed up his glasses before glaring at me. "I'd rather not discuss it right now."
"Ah." I nodded, before changing the subject. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation about writing and drawing."
"Yeah, so?" The blonde male grew defensive.
"I need to find an group activity to replace the pool party." I explained. "I think we could incorporate the art room into this somehow."
"Like a group creative session?" Fawn guessed.
"That could work!" I excitedly said.
"The more people to bounce ideas off, the better." Isaiah said. "Well unless those people have shit ideas. Then you don't want them to taint your good ones."
"I think we have a pretty wide range of creativity in people here." I stated.
"When are we doing this creative session in the art room?" Fawn asked.
"Are you excited for it?" I replied with another question.
"Yes, but I need to prepare myself to be around everyone and probably talk to them too." She explained to me with a distressed tone.
"I'll ask Rory when they come out." I said. "But it'll more than likely be decided by the end of breakfast."
I chatted with Isaiah and Fawn. Minerva and Blane ending up joining us as well. Amelia sat next to Blane, but didn't talk with anyone. Gabriel moved to sit next to me, but he didn't talk much either. We ended up talking about books with Isaiah and Minerva carrying the conversation.
"Breakfast is ready!" Rory announced, as them and Zenith handed out plates.
Once the food was passed out, I told Rory about the plans I made with Fawn and Isaiah.
"That sounds like fun!" They enthused. "What time are we going to met in the art room?"
"What about 1 pm?" Minerva suggested. "That gives up time to do whatever we want in the morning, but it's not too late that the early bedtime people miss out on anything."
"And we can have the pool party afterwards." Nikolas added on.
"When is the pool party starting?" Amelia inquired.
"After the art session." Rory clarified.
"What time will that be?" The pinkette reiterated her question.
"How about 3 pm?" The cyanette recommended. "Two hours of group bonding sound like enough for the first day."
"2 hours..." Fawn mumbled to herself, distraught. She pulled her beanie down to help herself calm herself.
"Now that our schedule is set," Nora popped out of her chair. "It's time for today's fun activity!"
Sighs and groans filled the dining room. I dreaded the thought of having to take another test.
"Today is going to be much more fun, trust me." The bluenette assured everyone. "We're going to have a—"
"Scavenger Hunt!" Wolf the Cat jumped from behind a plant, finishing Nora's sentence for her.
Nora frowned, sitting back down at the table. Her spotlight had been stolen by a black and pink cat that barks. Again.
"A Scavenger Hunt?" Amelia asked, unimpressed.
"Yes. That's what I said." Wolf confirmed, annoyed.
"The test yesterday made a little sense, but what the fuck is a Scavenger Hunt for?" Rory asked.
"It's meant to force you into pairs and potentially work with people you don't like or know very well." Explained the small robot.
Fawn winced at this. Rory and Tabitha shot daggers at each other.
"Unfortunately, there aren't benefits to this experiment. Don't like the lack of reward keep you from trying your best, though." Wolf added on, malice in its voice. "The losing pair will lose their personal items until the next class trial period ends."
"Is that a m-m-motive?" Blane inquired.
"Nope." He shook his bead. "Just another gimmick to push you over the edge when the real motive comes."
The way it said that sent a shiver down my spine.
I have horrible feeling about the motive...
"Anyways, I hope you all know what a Scavenger Hunt is because I can't be bothered to explain it to you." The black and pink cat said. "Your Petal Pads will be updated with a list of the items you need to collect and your partner."
I checked my Petal Pad to see the list and who I was paired with.
Partner
Zenith
List
Scissors
Fork
Vase
Syringe
Towel
Laundry Detergent
Zenith? Maybe I could give him a mini tour while we gather our items?
"I'm really glad I got you as my partner, Felix." Zenith stated, as he approached me. He lowered his voice significantly before speaking again. "You're one of the few people I trust here."
"I trust you too, then." I replied, confused by his unprompted declaration.
I looked to Fawn to see who she was paired with. Hunter was talking to her, but she was giving me her panicked look. I gave her a thumbs up, before leaving the cafeteria with Zenith.
"I think Fawn will be fine with Hunter." I said aloud. "He's pretty nice."
"I haven't spoken with him much." The chauffeur commented.
She's be fine with him.
I hope...
"First up on the list is... scissors?" His eyes widened upon reading the word. "Where would we go about finding scissors?"
"One of the news rooms is an art room." I explained to him. "I remember seeing some in there."
We made our way to the art room. Amelia had just walked out when we got to the doorway. She held a pair of scissors in her hands.
"We're at the right place, I believe." Zenith deduced.
As the two of us walked in, Nora was trying to walk out. She stopped to let us in before stopping me.
"I see you and your partner are getting along well." Nora noted. "Amelia just wants to do everything by herself because she can't trust me or something."
You haven't exactly proven yourself trustworthy, so that checks out.
"I guess it helps that Zenith and are friends." I said. "I don't think I've you and Amelia every interact before today. Actually, I don't think I've seen Amelia interact with anyone."
"She not super friendly, haha," The bluenette awkwardly chuckled. She then turned her head to look around me. "Zenith has the scissors. I should probably go find Amelia."
"Yeah. You don't want to let her do all the work." I laughed.
"Actually, I wouldn't mind–" Nora cut herself off. "Well off to find Amelia!"
With that, Nora left. Zenith and made our way back to the dinning room to get to the kitchen.
"We probably should have gone in order of the rooms closest to us, instead of blindly following the list." The chauffeur pointed once we obtained a fork.
"Yeah, sorry about that." I apologized.
"What are you apologizing for?" He queried, grabbing a vase as we walked down the hall.
"We're doing this Scavenger Hunt in the most inefficient way possible." I sighed. "We could loose and you'd get your personal item confiscated."
"That wouldn't be that big of deal." Zenith stated, pulling out his key chain. "Don't get me wrong, I would miss this if it got taken up. But I can go without if I need to."
"You wouldn't be mad if we lost?" I questioned.
"I wouldn't." He assured, shoving the keychain down in his trousers.
"Are you sure?" I asked, again.
"Yes, Felix." The slightest amount of irritation could be heard in his voice. "You don't have to try and go out of your way to please me."
"I wasn't–" I tried to explain myself.
"You would have started trying harder to not come in last if I expressed discomfort in losing my keychain, right?" The orangette questioned me.
"Well, yeah." I nodded. "But anyone would do that."
"No. I'm sure if I was paired with someone I didn't know very well and they had no problem losing their item, they wouldn't care if I lost mine as well." He explained. "However, you would want to not come in last, not for your own sake, but for my sake if I cared more about my keychain."
"I guess that makes sense." I said. "What are you getting at?"
"I've noticed that you always try to please people." Zenith explained to me. "Your quite passive and you don't enjoy conflict."
I wouldn't necessarily call myself passive...
"I don't like conflict." I confirmed.
"I can understand that, but why do you always want to please people? I've never seen you turn anyone done." The chauffeur asked me.
"I want to be friends with everyone and keep the group happy." I admitted. "And, for the record, I turned down Rory's pool party earlier today."
"I am curious, though." He turned to look me eye. "What is your reason for not wanting to swim?"
A thought of seeing myself in third person, submerged underwater, flashed in my brain. However, I looked much more like Fawn than myself.
I shook my head and tried to think about something else to bury the thought back into a deep hole on my brain.
"Hey, we're at the infirmary." I pointed out. "Since your carrying the vase and the scissors, I'll go get the syringe."
I rushed inside the infirmary to escape Zenith. No. Not escaping Zenith. Escaping myself.
Minerva and Blane were both inside the infirmary when I barged in. Blane was cleaning his safety googles and Minerva held all of their items in her arms.
"Hey, Felix." Minerva greeted me.
"Hey." I waved to her. "Where the syringes?"
She pointed towards the drawer under the sink.
"Thanks." I thanked her.
"Are you okay?" She questioned. "You seem a little less chatty and enthusiastic than usual."
"Oh, yeah. I'm good." I lied, forcing a smile. "I'm just worried Zenith and I won't finish in time."
"Speaking of Zenith," The reporter frowned. "How is he? I haven't gotten a chance to speak with him since the trial."
"He's doing better than yesterday, but that's not saying much." I told her. "I think he's having fun with the Scavenger Hunt though."
"That's g-good." Blane said as he put his safety googles back on. "He was m-m-most effected b-by Skyler's d-d-death."
Skyler's death...
The memory of my head reaching for the closet door played in slow motion. It was painful to remember turning the door handle. That horrible, horrible door handle.
Skyler...
We had a wonderful conversation on the game room couch. I had fun with them at game night, despite them beating me the entire time.
Is dead.
The thought of their lifeless body filled my mind, my stomach bubbling a little.
"I can't leave Zenith waiting." I stated, speed walking to the door. "See you two around."
I closed the infirmary door and took a deep breath. I started walking to the laundry room, not saying a word to Zenith.
"Did I do something wrong, Felix?" He inquired, genuinely worried.
"No, not all at." I tried to smile to show him I was alright. "I'm not feeling very well right now."
"Do you need to rest? I can continue without you." Zenith offered.
"It's fine." I told him. "I just want the Scavenger Hunt to be over with."
We stopped by the laundry room to grab laundry detergent. Quartz and Tabitha were doing the same.
"You know," Tabitha held a solid square of blue and orange laundry detergent in her hand. "It kinda looks like candy."
"Don't it eat, Tabi." Quartz advised her. "It could kill you."
"Relax, Rose– Quartz!" The blonde assured the white haired girl. "I would never eat this. It's far too ugly to be eaten."
"Didn't you compare it to candy earlier?" The chauffeur reminded her.
Eventually, Zenith and I approached the final room to get the final item on the list. Unfortunately, there were no more towels left in the laundry room and there was only one other place to get them.
"Felix, are you shaking?" Zenith asked, concerned.
"No." I denied, ceasing my trembling at once.
"Please tell me what's wrong." He requested, sounding worried.
"It's that room and the water." I answered. "It makes me uncomfortable, and I can't bring myself to go in there."
Not yet, anyways.
I want to overcome my fear and self consciousness. I want to dive into the water, completely free of the worries that live brings me. I want to swim again, some day.
"Why were you scared to tell me that?" Asked the orangette.
"I'm embarrassed about being scared to get in the water." I covered my chest with my arms.
"You don't need to feel embarrassed about that when your around me." Zenith assured me with a smile. "I understand and you can come to me with anything that you need anytime."
"Thank you, Zenith." I felt myself warm up with joy. "You can come to me anytime for anything."
"Thank you." He thanked me. "Now how about I get the towel and we finish up this Scavenger Hunt."
Once we had collected a pair of scissors, a fork, a vase, a syringe, a towel, and laundry detergent, we returned to the dining room. When I saw a lot of people there my heart sinking at the thought of us being the last ones to finish.
I know Zenith said it was okay, but coming in last would bother me so much. It would give me another reminder that I've failed time and time again–
Wait.
...
2, 4, 6, 8... 10? We weren't last?
"Someone's going to lose her screen time privileges." Wolf the Cat snickered.
We weren't last!
Finally, the last pair arrived. Tabitha and Quartz.
"And the results of the Scavenger Hunt are in!" Wolf announced to all of us. "The losers are Tabitha and Quartz!"
"What?!" Tabitha screamed. "How did we come in last place?"
"Probably because you two took forever." Gabriel pointed out.
"We did spend a lot of time walking to all the rooms..." Quartz quietly come to a conclusion.
"According to the rules of the Scavenger Hunt, I'll be confiscating the losers special items until the end the next class trial." The cat explained.
It snatched up Tabitha's phone before disappearing behind the plant he jumped out from. The influencer started to tear up at the sight of her empty hand.
"Why didn't he snatch anythin' from you?" Hunter asked the hand model.
"My nail polish is in my room." She explained. "I'm guess Wolf is taking it up right now."
"That makes sense." I said. "Tabitha had her phone on her, after all."
Tabitha starting to fully cry, before leaving the dining room. I debating going after her, but Quartz and Zenith did that for me.
"I suppose our breakfast meeting is adjourned now." Amelia announced.
With breakfast over, I decided to met up with Gabriel in our usual spot. From the looks of things, he was excited to do laundry with me.
"Your really excited to do laundry, huh?" I chuckled.
"Correction." He pointed out. "I'm really excited to do laundry with you. It wouldn't be as fun if I did it by myself."
Gabriel and I sorted the laundry before putting in a load. We both sat in the laundry room floor, chatting about lives before the game.
There wasn't much for Gabriel to tell about his life that he hadn't already told me before.
"What was your life like before game?" He curiously asked me. "You already told me about your talent, but what the rest of it like?"
"Well..." I found myself unable to say anything.
What was it like? Can I even remember?
I've adjusted to this game so much and anything before is fuzzy. And everything before I moved out is a blur, as if it never even happened.
...
I'll start the story after Fawn and I moved out.
"Fawn and I live in an apartment together." I informed him. "She makes a lot more than me, so she pays for a majority of the rent. In exchange for that though, I do all the stuff to upkeep apartment."
"That's cool." He said. "What's it like living on your own? Or, well, without your parents."
"It's amazing." I replied, awkwardly chuckling a little. "But I think I'm biased because I desperately wanted to move out."
"Why?" Questioned the tennis player.
"My parents..." I stopped, thinking carefully about what I was going to say.
No! I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm going to say exactly how I feel about them. They don't deserve to be painted in a positive light.
"My parents are the fucking worst." I simply said.
"Mine are shit too." The brunette sighed. "They don't actually care about my sister and I. They only cared about our achievements and the publicity that our talents brought our family. That was made clear to me when I lost my talent."
"Hey, Gabriel," I turned to look at him. "Do you have any interest in getting your talent back?"
"No." He answered immediately. "I only came here because my parents disowned me. I didn't have anyone else besides them, so I thought that getting my talent back was the only thing I could do. But since I've been here, I've realized that I don't need them."
"That's great." I told him.
"...I wish that I could have come to that realization before I found myself in a killing game to get my talent back." He sadly, sighed.
I wish I had realized that I didn't need an exceptional talent to get through life. And I wish I didn't spend so long tearing myself up over not standing out.
When the washing machines stopped, we put the clothes in the dryers. Once again, the two us found ourselves on the floor waiting for the machine to finish. However, neither of us knew what to talk about this time after previous conversation.
"What are your plans after this?" Gabriel asked me.
"I think I'm going to eat a grilled cheese for lunch." I excitedly told him with a smile.
"No, I mean after this game." He corrected himself.
I haven't thought about that.
Will there even be an afterwards?
"I don't know. I guess I'll go back to doing what I did before." I shrugged. "What about you?"
"I want to move out." He said.
Gabriel abruptly sat up. He pulled on his visor, before looking away from my gaze.
"If I got my own apartment, would you visit me?" He quietly inquired.
"Of course!" I grinned. "You can come visit me too."
"Thanks." He told me, releasing his grip on his visor. "Making a friend has made me realize I don't like being alone. It's... lonely."
"I'll make sure to visit you a lot so you don't get lonely." I assured him.
Gabriel's face turned red as he gave me the tiniest smile. His smile was rare, it was contagious.
We continued to chat until all the clothes were dry. Then we went around and returned everyone's clothes. By the time we were down, it was lunchtime.
Upon entering the dining room, a tiring argument was being held. Most of the others at the table were too afraid or didn't enough to say anything to the two.
"Zenith already agreed to hang out with me today!" Tabitha announced.
"He agreed to hang out with me when we were making lunch." Rory stated.
"And he said he would hang with me at breakfast." The blonde reminded them.
"I'm sure he's spent plenty of time with you; you're always around him." The food tester pointed out.
"He's probably sick of your company since you two always cook together!" The influencer remarked.
"I enjoy both of you—" Zenith's attempt to speak was quickly drowned out by more arguing from the other two.
"Why do you always want to hung out with Zenith anyways?" The food tester asked, crossing their arms.
"I don't always want to talk to him." Tabitha explained. "I just just want to hang with him because I've haven't gotten a chance to in these past couple days."
"I haven't gotten a chance to do that either, you know." They sighed.
"But Zenith is hanging with me today." The blonde restated. "Not you."
"Didn't we already talk about this?!" They questioned, frustrated. "He already agreed to hang out with me."
"I can hang out with both of you." Zenith finally said, sighing.
"Both of us at once?!" She panicked.
"I could do that if you want–" The chauffeur was cut off yet again.
"No!" Rory quickly refused. "I don't want to third wheel you and Tabitha, if possible."
"Yeah!" Tabitha agreed, without considering what they had actually said. "Felix is already the third wheel!"
"A forth wheel would make it a car." Zenith commented. "And I have no problem with hanging with all three of you–"
"NO!" Tabitha and Rory shouted at the same time.
I guess we aren't going to have a car.
"What do you two have against each hanging together?" The orangette questioned the two.
"Rory's super bossy." Tabitha explained to Zenith. "I like talking to you, but not them."
"I find it annoying how Tabitha is always bothering me while I'm trying to cook." Rory added. "Your my friend, but she is not."
"I wish you two could get along..." The chauffeur mumbled. "I don't like it when my friends fight."
The memory of the game night played in my head. I did my best to think about earlier interactions from today and suppress the memory.
"There isn't really much you can do if Tabitha and Rory don't want to get along." I shrugged.
"You right, Felix!" He acclaimed.
"Am I?" I blinked, not getting it.
"Right now Tabitha and Rory have no incentive to try and work out their differences and attempt to get along." The chauffeur pointed out.
"Yeah." I nodded.
"But if I, for example, refused to hang out with them until they got along with each other would give the two of them a reason to get along." The orange haired male suggested.
"Isn't that a little mean?" I asked him, feeling bad for Rory and Tabitha.
"Maybe." He said. "But I don't want my friends constantly arguing with each other over my attention either."
"If you are going to hang out with me, who are you going to hang out with?" Tabitha questioned him.
"I suppose I'll be hanging with Felix." He pulled me into a side hug. "If that's okay with him?"
Why would you put me on the spot like that after canceling your plans with two people?!
But I guess he really wants Tabitha and Rory to get along.
"Sure." I felt an obligation to agree. "We should probably held to the art room. It's getting close to 1."
Zenith and I made our way to the art room. The amount of time we were spending together was jarring in comparison to yesterday. But throughout the day his former livelihood has been seeping through.
I hope it stays that way this time...
"Felix." Fawn walked over to me. "Isaiah wants me to teach him how to draw."
"That sounds fun." I told her.
"Are you not mad that I'm not hanging with you that much anymore?" She questioned.
"No? Why would I be?" I queried in response. "I'm really glad your making friends and doing your own thing."
"Oh. Okay." She said, glancing at the table where Isaiah sat. "I'll be over there."
My sister left to met with her friend, leaving Zenith and I. I looked around for a group to join, when I noticed Nikolas gesturing for me to join him.
"What's up?" I asked, taking a seat beside the ice skater.
"Can we talk about this alone?" Nikolas requested, looking at Zenith.
"Of course." The chauffeur agreed.
I watched as Zenith wondered over to a table with Minerva. Any attempts by Tabitha and Rory to get his attention were ruthlessly ignored.
"Do you remember what I talked to you about yesterday?" He questioned.
I thought back to our conversation yesterday.
"I do." I nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
"Can you ask Hunter to hang with me?" Nikolas requested. "Also, can you invite someone as well? I think it would be easier with other people around, but I don't want you to feel like your just tagged along because."
I know just who to invite.
...I hope he'll say yes.
"Alright!" I quickly stood up. "Any ideas for what the four of us could do?"
Please don't say swimming. Please don't say swimming. Please don't say–
"What even is there to do in this mansion with small group?" The skater asked me. "Sometimes, I go to the library when I get bored, but that's not really a hang out activity."
"Actually, there's a crate full of board games and card games." I explained to him. "We could play one at the tables."
"I can't believe I didn't notice that..." The man with icy blue haired mumbled. He then looked back to me. "I think we've got our plan for tomorrow."
"I'll go ask Hunter and Gabriel if they want to join." I stated.
I approached Hunter's table. He sat with Rory and Quartz, the three engrossed in their glue heavy project.
"Hey, Hunter." I greeted him. "Hello Quartz. Hi Rory."
Rory glared me at me, before returning to their glueing. It was safe to assume they were mad about their plans with Zenith getting canceled.
That was mean of him to cancel his plans with both Rory and Tabitha so suddenly like that.
...
"Hello Felix!" Quartz responded cheerfully.
"Howdy Felix." Hunter grinned. "What brings ya over here? Wanna join us?"
"We only have three glue bottles." Rory informed.
"Oh? I coulda swore we had a fourth..." The equestrian frowned.
"I just here to invite you to play a board game with Nikolas and I in the library." I told him, cutting to the chase. "Gabriel might be there too, but no confirmation on that."
"I'd love to join ya!" The ginger enthused. "What time do I gotta be there?"
Nikolas and I didn't set a time!
"Does after lunch work for you?" I inquired.
"Yep." He nodded. "I'm looking to forward to play board games with ya'll."
"Me too." I smiled. "I should probably get going. I haven't even started any art yet..."
"You're welcome to join us if you'd like." Quartz offered.
"If we can find some more glue." Rory added.
"I think I'd prefer to make something myself, but thank you." I told her. "Bye!"
I left the those three and migrated to the table with Gabriel, Blane, and Tabitha. I don't know who those three ended at the same table, but it was certainly a sight to see them in such a close proximity.
"I need to use this." Tabitha swiped a ruler from the biologist grasp. "Thanks, bestie."
Blane let out a long sigh, before covering his the of his safety googles with his hand. He appeared like he was used to it.
"Hey Gabriel!" I smiled when he saw me. "How is your art going?"
"I wouldn't really call it art." Gabriel flatly said. He show me a piece of loose leaf paper with words on. "I'm just writing."
"Words are a form of art, I think." I tried to assure him.
"I guess." He shrugged. "It's all subjective anyway."
"I wanted to ask you something." I got to the point.
"What's that?" He tilted his head curiously.
"I know you said you don't really like group activities, but I wanted to ask you if you wanted to play a board game with Nikolas, Hunter, and I." I explained. "I understand if you don't want to."
Gabriel stayed silent for a moment. He weighed the pro and cons in his head, before abruptly turned his head up to face me.
"I'll do it." He agreed.
"Really?" I checked. "I don't want you to feel pressured to do anything."
"I'm not." The brunette assured me. "I'm agreeing because I want to hang out with you. Plus, Nikolas and Hunter aren't that bad."
"It's after lunch tomorrow in the library." I informed him. "See you there."
"I'll see you there, Felix." He gave me a tiny smile.
On my way back to tell Nikolas the good news, Fawn stopped me at her table.
"We've got an idea for how to end this." Isaiah explained to me.
"End what?" I blinked, confused.
"This creative session that we've having as a group." The blonde spelled out for me.
Oh right.
I've spent all my time taking to people, that I haven't had time be creative yet.
"What's your plan?" I questioned the two.
"Everyone is going to present what they worked on." The man with glasses explained.
"Isaiah and will act as judges," Fawn added on. "But we judge solely off of creativity, not performance."
"What does the winner get?" I eagerly asked.
"To clean up the mess everyone made." My sister answered. "Don't tell anyone. It's a secret."
Why did you tell me if you didn't want me to tell other people?
"Can you go tell everyone to finish up and prepare something to show off?" The blonde man requested.
"Why can't you two do it?" I asked them. "You two haven't moved from that table since you sat down."
"Busy." Fawn simply said.
"Okay, I'll go tell everyone." I agreed. "But I'm not going to have time to make anything."
"That's fine." Isaiah decided, not invested in the idea of me making something.
"It probably would've won and then you'd be stuck cleaning the art room." Fawn followed up.
"I can't even draw a stick person." I laughed.
"It's the creativity that counts, remember?" She reminded me.
I'm not creative though...
Fawn of all people should know that.
I left the Isaiah and my sister. I made mt way around, informing everyone of the 'art show'. I was intrigued by a few people's pieces, but I didn't look for too long as to not spoil it for myself later. After informing everyone of the art show, I told Nikolas the good news that Hunter and Gabriel would be joining us for a board game.
Eventually the time for presentation came. It was weird not having anything to present; I was always the person in the group project left with doing most, if not, all the presenting. While I wouldn't have made anything good if I did make art, showing it off would be where I could persuade people that my piece was worth their time. Being the only person not presenting aside from the judges left a sour taste in my mouth.
...
"Any volunteers to go first?" Isaiah question the 11 others.
Amelia immediately stood up. Her expression was annoyed, as if she was going first just to get this over with. She held a paper in her hand, keeping the side with a drawing hidden from our sights.
"All I have to do is show this off, right?" The pinkette inquired.
"You need to talk about it too," The romance novelist explained. "Explain what it is and why you created it."
"Ahem," Amelia cleared her throat. She then held her paper in two hands. "I drew this."
The coroner held a paper with a pink stick person on it. It had messy scribbles for hair, which was oddly reminiscent of Amelia herself.
"Is that a self portrait?" Tabitha blurted out before she could stop herself.
"Yes." She nodded. "I modeled this piece I call, Amy Lia, after myself. I made it because I was told I needed to have something to show off at the close of this mandatory social gathering."
Amelia walked to her seat after speaking, ending her presentation on her own accord. She lied the Amy Lia down in front of her, smoothing it out with her hands, despite the paper already being smooth.
"I'm not going to say next unless I have to. Just come up whenever your ready." Isaiah said, pushing up his glasses.
The blonde influencer stood up. She excitedly gripped onto multiple sheets of paper. I could only catch a glimpse of a pair of purple bunny ears before she was in front of everyone. Tabitha held up her stack of paper's with the first page titled Roxie's New Clothes with a picture of a brown haired girl in a purple bunny hoodie. Underneath the title were words that were written smaller that read: Wrote and colored by Tabitha (that's me!)
"I couldn't decided whether to draw or write," Tabitha explained, looking at the judges. "So I did both and made a book."
"You made a book just for this...?" Fawn questioned with widened eyes.
"Mhm!" Tabitha nodded, turning back to face the rest of us. "Now I'm going to read it to you!"
It didn't take long for Tabitha to read her book to us, considering it was only eight pages. Every word had the blonde girl smiling. She didn't even look at the words on the page, she presumably had them memorized. Once she was finished, she put her pages back in order.
"Any questions?" She asked the group.
The hand of a beautiful model shot up. Her teal nails caught my eye, reminding me of yesterday.
I glanced down at my black nails. I had completely forgotten about them. But I couldn't deny that I liked the way that they looked.
"Quartz!" Tabitha excited called on the hand model to ask her question.
"This is more a compliment rather than a question." The white haired female stated. "I love the metaphor of the story."
"What's a metaphor?" The blonde question, tilting her head in confusion.
An awkward silence came between the two before Isaiah intervened.
"Moving on." He said.
Tabitha sat down, frowning that she was no longer in front of everyone.
Hunter went up next. He showed off a surprisingly detailed drawing of a horse.
"I drew my horse, Ransom." Hunter explained to everyone. "He's back at home with my mama, so I'm sure he's havin' lots of fun without me."
"I didn't know y-you could dr-draw." My sister stated, impressed.
"I can only draw horse 'n stuff like that." The ginger haired equestrian elaborated.
"You're really good at drawing horses, Hunter." Nikolas complimented.
"Thanks!" He smiled, his face turned red.
After Hunter, Minerva volunteered to go. She showed off a paper where construction cut outs of squares and diamonds were glued close together. After starring at it for a minute or so, I realized it resembled a person.
"This piece is called C- err, no." Minerva pondered for a second, thinking of name for her are. "Old Friend. Inspired by an old friend of mine."
Everyone here is so talented.
Next up was Rory. They held up a styrofoam sphere that been colored on. Yarn and googly eyes had been glued on to make it resemble a human. However, one of the eyes kept popping off.
...I retract my former statement.
Next was Zenith. He had a picture of a hand drawn car. The car drawing had been cut out and glued to a background of equal level of art skill background. In the foreground was an orange character and a blue character standing beside each other.
"Who are those people?" Tabitha curiously asked him.
"I'm not sure," The chauffeur smirked. "They don't have names yet."
Quartz went up next. She had a paper full of swirled glitter and glued on heart cut outs. It was definitely more on the abstract side, bit impressive none the less.
"I love all the glitter!" Rory exclaimed.
"So sparkly..." Tabitha starred at the paper in awe.
"I'm glad you two like it." Quartz smiled in reply.
There was a pause in presentation after Quartz left the front. Blane kept anxiously eyeing Nikolas and Gabriel from across the room. Gabriel sighed, preparing to stand up.
However, someone else beat him to it.
"I can go next." Nora announced, running to the front of room. She held a black piece of construction paper close to her chest.
Everyone has done such a good job ignoring her, I forgot she was even here with us in the first place.
"I call this piece..." She paused, hoping to insight suspense before flipping over her paper. "Disappointment."
Nora's paper was blank. Nothing was on it. We were left to glance into a black void of well... disappointment.
"That's just a piece of black construction paper." Isaiah pointed out, annoyed with her.
"It's Disappointment." The bluenette corrected him.
"It's very disappointing." He told her. "You're disqualified."
"Yes!" She cheered, before running back to her seat with Disappointment in hand.
After Nora sat down, Gabriel got up. He had the same loose leaf paper in hand that he did when I talked to him earlier. He awkwardly cleared his throat, before holding up the paper to read it. He opened his mouth to read, but then he closed it and lowered the paper.
"No amount of words I write is going to feel good enough to express myself." The tennis player stated, before going back to his seat.
Isaiah whispered something to Fawn as Nikolas reluctantly stood up. He had a paper in his hands, much like most of the others. He didn't look at anyone on his way up to the front of the room. Once he was up their his hands shook as she turned his paper around to reveal a shaky sketch of a pencil.
"I didn't know what to draw," Nikolas sheepishly admitted. "So I just drew the pencil on the table beside me."
Nikolas left the front in hurry, not a fan of the spotlight.
"Next?" Isaiah said, looking around the room. "Who hasn't gone yet?"
"I don't think Blane has gone yet," Tabitha stated.
"Hurry up, Blane," The romance novelist demanded. "I don't have all day."
Blane didn't move from his seat. He had a death grip on his paper, the ends where he held it crumbling slightly.
"Blane?" Fawn quietly said his name.
"Don't waste—" Isaiah was cut off by the loud crumbling of paper.
Blane stood to his feet, his paper completely crumbled in his hands. He was shaking, yet he seemed much angrier than he was scared.
"How come y-you and Fawn d-don't have to present?" He questioned.
"Because we're the judges." The blonde man replied, pushing up his glasses.
"It's not f-fair that you two d-don't have to present." The biologist said.
"I agree." Zenith stood, as he spoke. "It's only far that you two present when we do this again tomorrow."
"We're doing this again tomorrow?!" Rory groaned.
"W-We are." Blane confidently announced.
"You too, Felix." Zenith eyed me.
"I have no problem what that or doing this again tomorrow." I said.
"Then we're doing this again tomorrow!" Tabitha cheered.
"Can you two just announce the winner so we can go to the pool party?" Rory begged, disliking being in art room.
"The winner is Tabitha." Isaiah stated.
"OMG!" The influencer had a wide smile on her face. "I won!"
"Now you get to clean the art room while we go to the pool..." My sister mumbled.
"What?" The blonde girl blinked, confused.
No one stayed any longer than they had to. Everyone quickly filtered out of the room, leaving only Tabitha and I in the art room.
"Hey, bestie," Tabitha walked over to me. "Wanna help me clean all this up since you aren't going to pool?"
I might as well. I have nothing else to do, plus I enjoy hanging out with Tabitha.
"Sure." I nodded.
Tabitha and I began cleaning up the art supplies and scraps that were left on the tables.
"How are you holding up without your phone?" I questioned her.
"Terrible." Tabitha sighed. "Everything is so boring. Was being here always this boring?"
I don't think being here is boring. I've made a lot friends here.
"What's with you being so against boringness?" I asked, chuckling.
"Nobody likes boring stuff." She replied. "If want people to like you, you need to interest them or catch their attention in some way."
I guess she has a point, but I don't understand what she's getting at.
"That's the neat part about being an influencer." She smiled. "In order to gain a following, you have to be interesting."
"How did you become an influencer anyways, Tabitha?" I curiously questioned.
"It started when I discovered Roxanne's streams. I overheard some kid in my class talking about her and I got curious." The blonde explained. "I started watching her because I thought she was really cool."
"How so?" I asked.
"She had over a million average viewers at the age of 16." Tabitha recounted from memory. "She's about 2 years older than me and managed to achieve that kind of following!"
"That's really impressive." My eyes widen.
"I guess seeing her inspired me to try out vlogging and whatnot." Tabitha clarified her point. "I spent countless hours trying to take off... And then one day it happened! A couple months later after I continued to grow, I scouted and given my talent at the age of 16. Just like Roxanne!"
"Wow..." I didn't know what else to say.
"Yeah. I'm that impressive." She boosted.
"You know what else would be impressive?" I glanced around, spotting paper all over the floor. "Picking up scraps off the ground and throwing them away."
Tabitha seemed buffer at my comment, before the two of focused on cleaning the art room. Eventually, we restored it to how it was before the group creative session. Afterwards, my best friend and I parted ways. I went to my room in fear of losing track of time.
Today was pretty good.
...I can't help but feel that tomorrow won't be like this.
_____
Author Note:
This chapter is 7000 words, which is longer than the entire Prologue in all its parts.
Who's your favorite character(s)?
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