Jason & Akari

Malakai was sitting in the car on his phone; that was all he could do. He tried to pull up the livestream but couldn't as he had no connection. So his phone was useless. He couldn't do anything except play offline games without an internet connection. Malakai looked out the window and saw a guy with a cameraman standing facing towards the cars that had arrived. It looked like he was getting shots of the cars coming to location A. Malakai rolled his window down to see him more clearly; the cameraman noticed and started walking towards Malakai. Malakai hung one arm out the window. While the cameraman was walking towards him, Malakai asked,

"Why aren't you filming inside?"

"We can't film the challenges at the different locations", he replied.

"So you're only filming the cars?" Malakai said, looking into the camera lens.

"Yeah, it would be unfair if we broadcasted the challenges", he answered.

"Them lot are basically watching F1 then", Malakai said, pointing into the camera. "A shit version".

"You're live right now", the cameraman told him before he said more.

"I know" Malakai smiled at the camera.

"I don't like how he's smiling at us", Lucas said, knowing Malakai was going to say a lot of stupid shit.

"Guys, get ready for an interview of a lifetime", David said, preparing himself for what was to come.

"How are you finding the challenge so far?" The cameraman asked.

"It's good, apart from my teammates screaming the whole time", Malakai replied. "Oh yeah. Jason's a pussy, the guy on my team, he's a big guy with big muscles, but he's a pussy. Kept telling me to slow down", Malakai continued, smiling ear to ear.

"How fast were you going? It looked like you were going very fast. You got to this location first", The cameraman continued to ask.

"I don't know. I wasn't looking at the speed. I remember one time, everyone was screaming at once. I quickly looked at the speed, and it was a hundred and something", Malakai said, quickly glancing away from the camera when he mentioned the speed.

Benjamin laughed, "He definitely knew what speed he was going the entire time".

"But yeah. Ladies, if you want Jason, remember, the guy is a pussy; he can't handle high speeds. At one point, I think he was about to cry; he was holding his door so hard, screaming 'please slow down' and 'I don't want to die'", Malakai said towards the camera, adding a few lies towards the end.

Dillon, lying in his bed, smiled at that comment; he wished he had seen that.

"What else you wanna ask me?" Malakai said to the cameraman, liking how the interview was going.

"Oh uhh", Malakai's approach caught the cameraman off guard. "Do you have a crush on anyone?" He asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Yeah you", Malakai replied, pointing at the cameraman.

"Be serious", the cameraman knew he was joking around.

Malakai smirked, "I don't know". He thought for a second. "Oh, I know. Ms Green. She kinda bad", Malakai replied, smiling.

The boys were laughing,

"This guy is never serious", William laughed.

"You know what? I might believe him", Delilah said, grinning.

"He might be telling the truth. How Ms Green replies to him is different from everyone else", Tanisha replied, supporting Delilah's point.

"Stop. My friend is not going to be a victim of a student-teacher relationship", Lucas said, not wanting to imagine it and stopping the conversation from progressing.

"Mally would probably like that though", Ray replied. The boys started laughing again because it was probably true. Maria went along with the crowd and smiled and laughed, but deep down, she wanted to hear her name out of his mouth. She knew there was no way it would've happened, but somewhere in her heart, she hoped he'd say it. Maybe one day.

"Got any final words to your friends?" The cameraman asked.

"I love all my friends. Except William. Fuck you, William. I know you're watching", Malakai smiled with his middle finger to the camera.

"Why always me?" William said, smiling, knowing it was a joke.

"Anyone else you wanna call out that you don't like?" 

"I like everyone", Malakai replied, then remembered. "Actually. Ryan", he called out. He paused for a moment.

"Heeeeyyyyyy", Malakai said in a weird voice and waved while saying it.

Ryan watched with a stone-cold face. Hoping Malakai crashed the car and severely get injured in the process. He hated him.

Malakai looked past the camera and saw his teammates leaving the tent. "They're finished already?" He said, surprised they didn't take longer. "YO RAPUNZEL GET IN THE FRONT. JASON GET IN THE BACK!" He shouted towards them. 

"WHY!?" Jason shouted back, jogging with an envelope in his hand.

"SHE NEEDS TO TELL ME THE DIRECTIONS!" Malakai replied, pointing at Luna.

"Is one of them called Rapunzel?" The cameraman asked, believing him.

"Naa. She's got long hair, so I call her Rapunzel", Malakai replied. Luna reached the car and got inside. "Look at my passenger princess, she's pretty innit. She might be an emo, though", Malakai said to the camera, presenting Luna by leaning back in his seat.

"Shut up, Malakai" Luna smiled, putting on her seatbelt, happy that Malakai was talking to her like a friend. Everyone got in the car.

"Malakai drive!" Jason hastily ordered him.

"I'm doing an interview", he replied, pointing at the camera.

"Malakai, go!" Nina pressured Malakai by shaking his shoulders from the seat behind him.

"Aryt aryt", Malakai accepted. He looked at the camera one last time, raised his middle finger, smiled, and stepped on the gas, zooming forward.

"Lu, Mally might have stolen your girl", William said, tapping Lucas's shoulder.

"Bro, she isn't my girl; I talked to her once," Lucas defended himself.

"Will, remember when you said you wanted to ask her if she was an emo? It looks like Mally probably asked her," Benjamin said, recalling the minigames when they first saw Luna.

"Mally says anything", William replied. 

"Rapunzal's a cool nickname", Delilah said, snacking away.

"Does he call you by a nickname?" David asked her. 

Delilah thought for a moment. "No, he doesn't", she answered; Malakai had always called her by her name. Maria, does he have a nickname for you?" Delilah asked, looking at her, thinking it was something Malakai would do—giving the daughter of a well-known celebrity a nickname like they were close.

Maria shook her head. "He just calls me by my name," she answered. Hearing that now, she wanted a nickname. Thinking about it, she could count on her hands the number of times she had heard Malakai say her name. It made her a little sad. They did talk a bit, but that was mostly on the balcony. He didn't really need to say her name if she was right next to him. Being called out by him would be nice, she thought.

"He doesn't call me by a nickname", Ray said.

"That's because you don't need one. Ray is easy enough to say", William replied.

"What about me then? He still calls me David", he joined in.

"All of us call you David. You don't have a nickname", Lucas laughed, which caused everyone else to laugh at David. Instead of William, David was getting bullied for a change.

"What'd you get?" Malakai asked, looking in the mirror and seeing an envelope in Jason's hands. Jason opened the letter and looked at it before showing it. "What's that?" Malakai couldn't make out the image shown on the paper.

"It's a picture showing location B. It's a bunch of houses, but three of them are highlighted red; the rest are blacked out", Jason described the image.

"What's it for then?" Malakai kept rolling with the questions.

"We don't know; the person inside said it will make sense when we arrive at the next location", Luna replied, looking at her map.

"Aryt, tell me what happened inside the tent".

The group then told Malakai what happened, the masked individual and the five riddles they had to answer. All this was done while Luna gave directions; Malakai followed them and stressed his team with his driving. 

"Take this left!" Luna quickly said. 

Malakai nonchalantly turned the steering wheel with one hand. When they arrived at the next location, they saw a billboard announcing the next challenge.

'Find a red key in one of the houses".

Malakai looked ahead and saw a road ahead with houses on either side; there was also a road going right. He slowed down and looked right; he saw more houses. Malakai stopped the car.

"What does the envelope show again?" Malakai asked. 

"A lot of houses", Jason replied, not giving enough detail.

"Tch, Show me man", Malakai turned around and held out his hand. Jason handed over the piece of paper. Malakai looked at it properly and tried to figure it out. He saw the houses that were highlighted red were on the second road.

"It's not this road", Luna said, pointing ahead. 

"Yeah, it's the next one", Malakai replied, finishing her sentence.

In the distance, they could hear another car approaching,

"Let's go", Malakai started driving, not recklessly like before but still with haste. Malakai turned right and took the next left. They pulled up to a street with three houses on either side. The houses didn't look big, but they weren't tiny. It looked like a house a middle-class family would have. He looked down at the envelope again and saw the three houses that were highlighted red were on the left side.

"The key is in one of those houses", Malakai told them, pointing toward the houses on the left.

"Is it really?" Nina asked, unsure of Malakai's answer.

"You didn't read it wrong, did you?" Jason doubted Malakai.

"I'm not an idiot", Malakai replied, offended by their doubts.

"I checked, he's right", Luna said, opening her door. Everyone except Malakai followed.

"We should split up", Akari suggested, walking around the car.

"I'll take the house on the end", Luna said, walking away to the house on the right.

"I'll take this house", Nina said, pointing in front of her. The house she took was the one in the middle.

"Guess I'll take this house", Akari said; she then noticed Jason slightly out of place, not knowing what to do or who to go with. "Jason, you can help search upstairs while I search downstairs", Akari told him.

"Okay", Jason agreed, and they both entered the house on the left. 

"I feel like they're gonna take long. Should I sleep?" Malakai asked himself, looking at his teammates disappearing into their houses. "Fuck it" Malakai put his hood up, tilted his head down and closed his eyes.

15 minutes passed. No one had found the key yet. Luna and Nina had to search the whole house, so for them, it was longer, but,

"Have you found it yet?!" Jason shouted to Akari from the top of the staircase. 

"No!" She replied loud enough for him to hear. Jason walked down the stairs to help search downstairs. All the houses had the same layout. Downstairs had three rooms, including the kitchen and three rooms upstairs. However, despite the limited rooms, there were many objects and props in them to disguise and throw them off. It could take them a long time before they found it, and this was with the help of the reward they got in location A. Imagine if they decided to skip location A; they would've had to search every house until they found the key. The clue narrowed it down to three houses. Jason walked into the living room without saying anything and saw Akari digging her hands into the sofa.

"Nothing here", Akari said out loud. She turned around, "AHH!" She gasped. "You scared me", she said, with her hand over her chest; she didn't notice Jason entering the room.

"Sorry, should I help you?" Jason asked, looking around the messy room.

"Have you finished searching upstairs?" Akari replied.

"Yeah", Jason lied. He did check, but he could've been more thorough. The reason he wasn't was because he had a gut feeling the key was downstairs. "Have you checked under the couch?" Jason asked.

"I've put my hand under it", Akari replied."But I couldn't reach the back".

Jason walked over to the couch, "Let me lift it for you". Jason went to one side of the sofa, lifting it high enough for Akari to see underneath.

"Thank you", Akari said before she knelt down to get a better view.

"Is it there?" Jason asked.

Akari tilted her head and even brushed her hand to see if she could feel it, "No, it's not here", she answered. She moved her head from under the couch, and Jason gently put the coach down. 

"I thought this would be easy", Jason said, looking around the room. 

"Me too", Akari replied. She looked around the room again. The room was a mess; Akari had flipped it upside down to find this key. She noticed that there were still some items at the top of the bookshelf that still needed to be checked. The bookshelf was cleared out; the lower shelves had nothing on them, but the higher one had a few things on it. She went over to it and went on her tiptoes to try and reach it. Akari was 5'2, so she needed help to reach the top. She grabbed hold of one of the shelves to try and climb it. As she tried to climb it, the bookshelf wobbled. Akari had no support; both her hands and feet were on the bookshelf. Big problem. Holding on to the bookshelf without the support of the floor caused an imbalance of weight. Despite Akari's petite and light frame, her weight was still too much for the bookshelf to handle. The bookshelf began to fall towards her while she was still holding onto it. She was going to get crushed. 

"WATCH OUT!" Jason shouted.

CRASH!!!

Akari opened her eyes. She wasn't on the floor. The bookshelf wasn't on top of her. She was still clinging to the bookshelf. She didn't get crushed. She looked up and saw Jason pushing the bookshelf up with one hand and the other hand on her back to support her. Upon noticing, Akari put both her feet on the floor.

"I'm so sorry", Akari apologised. She frantically looked Jason up and down to see if he was hurt.

"It's fine, don't worry about it", Jason replied, putting the bookshelf back in its original position. Akari stared at Jason while he did; this was the first time she had properly taken a look at him. She noticed how strong he was; he protected her. She also saw his green eyes glistening. Or was it her imagination?

"Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" Jason asked, looking at her for any injuries. Akari was silent for a moment as she stared at Jason too hard. She quickly noticed and got flustered.

"I- I'm fine" Akari quickly turned around to hide her blushed face. She could feel her body heating up. She looked down at the floor and started fidgeting with her fingers. She didn't know where to look; she didn't want to turn around. She was too embarrassed. Her gaze stayed fixed on the floor, looking at the scattered objects. The floor was more of a mess due to the objects falling from the top of the bookshelf. One was a plant pot, which was now shattered; it had soil covering the carpet. A brown mess with something red sticking out. Wait, something red?

"The key!".