Scanning the crowd
The flight was calm and steady. So far, there hasn't been any further turbulence since after the takeoff. Everyone was peacefully seated on their various seats, enjoying the flight, everyone except Oliver, who was in a very uneasy state, having realized that he had mistakenly brought the blue elf along with him.
Most of all, Oliver was of good measure, mystified by the fact that the elf seemed to be somehow enigmatically able to speak to him from inside his bag up there in the cabinet, without the observance of any other person around. It was like telepathy like Ugly possessed some kind of paranormal ability to commune directly with another mind by extrasensory means, without having to make audible utterances with the mouth.
Oliver soon calmed himself down. Nothing could change the fact that Ugly was stuck with him on this trip, so he had to do everything in his power to see that the presence of the elf still remained a secret, and also try not to lose him, by keeping his bag closer than ever.
Oliver was back to his math, though he still stole glances at the bag, frequently, just to be sure the elf was still in the bag. He just couldn't help it, having known how nutty the nature of the blue elf was. Each time he looked away from the bag, he had this discomforting feeling that Ugly would just disappear within split seconds. Ugly would always respond with a slight reassuring budge, telling him that he was still there. It was as if the elf could read Oliver's mind.
Returning his gaze to his draft book Oliver noticed someone standing right there beside him. It was Lilah that stood there; the red curly-haired girl he helped during the selection test. Oliver's heart leaped into his chest as he saw her. He was scared she might have noticed him staring suspiciously at the cabinet.
"Hay, Oliver," she said, beaming with a smile.
"Lilah," Oliver managed to mutter.
"Uh... It's kinda my first time, you know; being on a plane. So far, it's been making me feel funny, but not funny haha," she said with a lower voice.
Oliver's forehead wrinkled with puzzlement, as his eyes narrowed inquiringly.
"Mind if I sit next to you?" she asked.
Oliver knew that this wasn't really a good time to have someone sit with him. He so much wanted to refuse Lilah sitting with him, but he couldn't resist those glistening expectant eyes of hers.
"Thanks," she replied with a slight giggle, as she blissfully settled down on the seat.
Oliver continued with what he was doing. He mentioned no other word to the girl that was beside him.
"You're not actually what they say you are, you know," Lilah said, after a brief moment of silence.
Oliver stared at her for a short while, then looked away, unable to come up with a suitable response.
"You're not an introvert, and maybe not as cold as they say you are. If you were, you wouldn't have helped me pass the selection, but you did, and for that, I owe you a favor," Lilah said.
"No offense, uh... I think you owe me nothing. I didn't help you at all, I just whispered randomly," he replied.
"Yeah, but apparently, that random whisper of yours is the reason why I'm on this plane. Own it, Oliver Logan, you're a real genius," she said.
"Actually, it's a jet, not a plane," Oliver muttered inaudibly.
"I'm just gonna... get on with my calculations," he added.
Lilah tried starting up several conversations with Oliver, but he purposely paid no attention to her, pretending he was merely fixated on his scrapbook.
"Are you gonna talk to me or what?" she whispered to him.
Oliver looked around, then turned to her.
"What?" he muttered.
"Okay I get it, I'm not trying to steal you from your girlfriend, trust me. Fel is like a sister to me, I would never do that to her," Lilah said to him.
Oliver was stunned by what he had just heard her say.
"Wait, what are you saying? Did you just say she's... Felicity is my girlfriend?" Oliver asked in an interrogative tone.
He scoffed shockingly.
"I don't even have a girlfriend," Oliver protested.
She was smiling at him now with that smile that could only be interpreted as; Nice try, not gonna fall for that.
Oliver was in serious tension at that point, he couldn't just imagine himself being in such an intimate relationship with a girl. He couldn't even cope with a mere male friend, not to talk of having not just an ordinary female friend, but a girlfriend.
There was a lot of question running through his mind right now. He wondered if other kids also thought Felicity was his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Lilah was still smiling at him, meaningly.
"What?" he muttered.
"Hay, I know you guys are keeping it a secret, but I'm Fel's roommate, I was still gonna find out anyways. She drew multiple pictures of yours in her diary, that was how I found out. But it's okay, your secret is safe with me," Lilah said.
"Wait, you mean she drew me in her diary?" Oliver asked.
"Mmhm," Lilah replied.
"Lilah, I don't know what you think, we're not dating at all, believe me. And besides, it's just an ordinary drawing you saw. Anyone else could draw me too, that doesn't mean she, you know, likes me," Oliver said, convincingly.
"I actually could have thought the same, but then I found out that the drawing is not just some random pencil drawing. Fel only has pictures of her parents in that diary, her other drawings are done in her large art book. I think you're something to her," Lilah said.
Oliver was totally lost in words at this moment. He remained silent, as he soberly pondered on the words he had just heard. Could it be that Felicity was actually into him, he thought. It all sounded so unreal and phantasmic to him, that someone of the opposite sex could possibly feel such a way towards him even as dreaded as he was, or rather, used to be.
"I guess we should talk about something else. No more talks about you and Fel," Lilah said.
Oliver replied with a casual shrug.
"Let's talk about you being incredibly smart enough to be her worst-case scenario," she said in a whisper while pointing at Olivia Anderson where she sat in front.
Oliver was puzzled at her statement, but he reminded silent.
"You're better than her, and that really pisses her off."
Oliver quickly turned to her.
"What do you mean I'm better than her?" he asked.
"You seem surprised, and that really surprises me. Everyone else knows she's jealous of you," she said.
Oliver's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What? How can you say she's jealous of me, how could you even think of that? You saw her performance at the selection, why on earth will someone that good be jealous of me?" Oliver asked.
"Let me tell you something, Oliver. Before you came to Melrose, she has always been regarded as the best in everything, loved and admired by all the teachers. Olivia was second to none, and she had no rival, not till you arrived. Because of you, there's now divided attention among the teachers, and it really pisses her off. I think she's afraid to compete with you. Think about it, you're taking all the attention away from her, and that's why she's jealous of you. Your her rival," Lilah explained.
"I hate the sound of that. I'm not in any way, interested in being some rival or competing with anyone," replied Oliver.
"Yeah, but you can't just get away from it. People just tend to have this unending ideology about comparing similar things," Lilah said.
The flight remained calm till the very end. They safely landed at the New York airport, and the next day they joined the vehicle provided to convey them to the venue of the event.
They arrived early at Madison Square Garden. The arena was filled up with so many people, and students from various schools throughout the country. There were roughly about sixty thousand people present live. Oliver was so nervous, he had never seen any crowd as large as this one. He was still wondering how he was going to perform in front of this many people. Even where they sat, he could feel his heart already hammering within his chest.
The event kicked off in earnest with the auditioning, seconded by the first stage of the competition; the quarter-finals. Oliver with his two female teammates performed well enough to gain advancement to the next stage.
The more the moments passed, the more difficult the words became. Oliver and the others jointly obtained an average score of 7/10 points to advance to the semifinals, whereas the leading school; All Elites academy, passed with an outstanding score of 10/10 points, solely obtained by just one of their contestants. The blonde-haired boy singlehandedly spelled all their words correctly, while the other teammates stood there doing nothing.
Oliver's concern wasn't mainly about the competition, he was persistently scanning around for any suspicious movements. With his eyes widely flashing from side to side, he was as vigilant as a cat, surreptitiously inspecting every little and meaningful detail he could find around his environment. He had been seriously warned that some mysterious danger awaits him if he comes for the competition, and here he was, in the heat of the contest, surrounded by the indistinct cheers and applauses from thousands of noisy spectators, packed in the power-filled arena of Madison Square Garden.
So far, Oliver hadn't discovered any strange movement, yet he still kept searching.