Chapter 34:

My Girlfriends Better Than Yours

Entertain Us

The next round was about to start. After washing her face, Maria came out of the restroom; she wasn't wearing any makeup, so it was fine. Like everyone else, she hoped there was no more running. She walked back into the hall, opened the doors, and looked around to see if she could see Ray and Malakai. She saw Malakai with Nada further down, but Ray had yet to turn up. The doors behind her suddenly opened. She thought it would be Ray, but when she turned around, she smiled instantly.
"Heeyyy!" Tanisha greeted, hugging her.
"Hii, why are you here?" Maria asked in the hug, happy to see her friend.
"Me and Delilah got eliminated, so we came to check if you were still in", Tanisha said, leaving the hug. Maria looked around Tanisha and saw Delilah standing there.
"Hey, I'm Delilah" " she said, waving, as this was the first time they'd talked with each other. Maria went closer and hugged Delilah, "Hii, I'm Maria. I know who you are; Malakai told me about you", Maria said to her, still in the hug.
"He did? what did he say?" Delilah asked curiously.
Maria thought back, trying to remember the conversations from the balcony. "He said you're really nice, and it's fun annoying you", Maria said, smiling, remembering his words.
Delilah giggled, "I'm glad he says nice things about me behind my back".
"Is he your partner?" Tanisha questioned, with a concerned look, hoping he wasn't.
"No, Ray is. But I don't know where he is now", Maria said, scanning the hall again.
“Who's Malakai with then?” Delilah asked.
Maria moved aside and pointed.

"So what you wanna do is hop and point your right foot outwards. Then you hop again and point your left foot outwards".
"Like this?"
"What are you doing?".
"I'm doing what you told me".
"No, that's wrong. It's like this".

"Who is that?" Tanisha asked, squinting to look at the pink-haired girl.
"Her name is Nada; she's Malakai's partner", Maria replied.
"Okay, what are they doing?" Tanisha continued to question, trying to figure it out.
"I'm not too sure," Maria answered, confused, looking at what they were doing.
"I know", Delilah said smiling. "Malakai's teaching her his dance".
"A dance?" Maria said, continuing to look towards their direction.
"Yeah, he taught me it." Delilah started to do the dance. The dance was simple: just a hop, pointing your left foot outwards, then a hop again, pointing your right foot out this time. This was all done while also moving forward. "It looks pretty cool when everyone does it together, and you all move together. Me, Malakai and Benjamin did it and recorded it. I can show you."
"What about the other boy?" Tanisha asked, not knowing Williams's name despite seeing him half an hour ago.
"William? He's got no rhythm. No matter how many times we tell him he can't do it", Delilah replied, pulling out her phone to try and find the video.
"AAYYYYY!!"
"Sounds like she did it." Delilah looked up, knowing what was happening. Malakai and Nada were dancing together in synchrony. Maria watched on like a child stuck inside while their friends were playing outside.
"Hey Tanisha!" A voice called out behind them.
"Oh my God. Hey Ray, how have you been?" Tanisha waved to Ray.
"I've been good; why are you here?" He asked, joining their circle.
"We got eliminated, so I came to watch Maria. I heard you're her partner. You better help her win", Tanisha pressured him while nudging him.
"I'll try", Ray replied, feeling more pressure now.
"OKAY, I'LL ANNOUNCE THE NEXT GAME NOW!" The teacher shouted.
"It sounds like we have to go," Ray said, looking at the students walking to the teacher.
"Okay, we'll be watching. Good luck, make sure you win", Tanisha said, walking to the side where the spectators could watch.
"We'll try", Maria responded, smiling while waving at them.
Everyone gathered around the teacher to hear him more clearly.
"Everyone is here. Well done, you've made it to the third round. The game for this round is dodgeball". Everyone was excited and relieved it wasn't running. "You'll be split into two teams; I will give you five minutes to split yourself into two teams." The teacher walked away to let the students handle it themselves.

"Should we pick Malakai?" Jason asked, looking at Dillon.
"No! We're eliminating him this round," Dillon was quick to answer. It was clear what he wanted.
"Think about it. We can use him this round, then eliminate him next round", Jason suggested. It was a logical thing to do and something to consider, but.
"No! I'm not teaming up with him. Should we team up with him this round and move on to the next? He'll get more points because of us. It's better to eliminate him now. Make sure he doesn't get any more points." Dillon wasn't trying to hear it; both sides had a fair point for their argument, but whatever Dillon said would be final in the end.
"What about that guy? He was at that meeting", Jason said, secretly pointing at Adam. " If he was at the meeting, that means he must be good", Jason said, eyeing Adam.
"I don't trust him. Look, we have a strong team. We can handle it." Dillon shut down Jason's ideas and took control. "DANIEL, ASH. COME HERE!"

"It looks like the teams are already decided," Nada said, looking at the group forming across from her.
"It's calm. I didn't wanna be on his team anyways", Malakai replied, looking at Dillon calling people over to him. "Tell me who's who". Malakai asked Nada, as the rest of the pairs were in 1-E. Surprisingly, there were no pairs from 1-C left. The only people from 1-C who were still in the games were Malakai, Maria, and Ray.
Nada looked around, "I'm not sure who that boy is, but the boy next to him is Kyle. That boy with the black hair is Justin, and his friend is Marcus. The girl with the glasses is Monica, and the girl next to her is Rachel".
"Who's the standouts?" Malakai questioned, looking at them.
"Probably Justin and Monica. Those two are the smartest in class, and everyone likes them", Nada answered.
"Aryt (Alright)", Malakai knew that wasn't the case. He looked at Adam and thought to himself, "Who is he? No one knows who he is; not even someone from his class knows him. But Ryan knew him."
"It looks like there are two teams, so we'll start immediately". The teacher said, walking back towards the students. "Can everyone line up in their teams in their half?" the teacher instructed.
Everyone in their teams stood in the line facing the other team in the middle of the court.

TEAM 1
DILLON SOMER 1-D
JASON DECKER 1-D
DANIEL LYNER 1-D
OLIVIA HILLS 1-D
ASH DAVIS 1-D
GABRIEL JEDA 1-D
LEDLEY RITE 1-D
WILSON TURNER 1-D
MIKE MICHEALS 1-D
JEFFEREY WAYNE 1-D

TEAM 2
MALAKAI JUNIOR 1-C
NADA PEREZ 1-E
RAY BROWN 1-C
MARIA RODRIGUEZ 1-C
ADAM LEDGE 1-E
KYLE JEFFERSON 1-E
JUSTIN TYME 1-E
MARCUS HEARD 1-E
MONICA ARMER 1-E
RACHEL DAINE 1-E

The teacher explained the rules while everyone stood in front of each other. Malakai looked in front of him and saw a boy and a girl holding hands.

"Are you two couple?" He quietly asked, pointing at them.
The two of them nodded. Malakai leaned to his right, covered his mouth, and whispered to Nada. "We need to eliminate them".
"Why?" She questioned, looking at him
"They're a happy couple. Why do they get to be happy together when I'm single and alone?" Malakai answered.
"I see. That makes total sense", Nada quietly replied.
The teacher was still explaining while Malakai had his own conversation. Malakai faced the couple again, smiled and said in a tone that was not loud enough for the teacher to hear but loud enough so the couple could hear,
"My girlfriends better than yours".
This statement turns heads around them, Maria being one of them who was directly to his left. Who was he talking about? Girlfriend?
"She's your girlfriend?" Daniel asked, pointing at Nada.
"Na, I've always wanted to say that." Malakai was taking the piss.
"So she's your friend?" Olivia questioned.
"Na, she's my student", Malakai replied.
Olivia and Daniel looked at him like a weirdo, which he is. It wasn't just them looking at him; the majority of the people around him were looking at him like that. The teacher finally finished explaining and ordered the students to go to the end of their area.
"When I blow the whistle, you can run to the centre and get the balls".
Three balls were being used in the game. The two teams were standing at the end of their areas.
"What should we do?" Nada asked Malakai, expecting to hear an extravagant plan.
"Just chill. We don't have to run for the balls", he told Nada. He looked at Ray and Maria and told them, "Don't go for the balls; wait at the back".
"Okay", they all trusted Malakai.
FWEEET!!!
The whistle blew, and everyone on Dillon's side ran towards the centre to get the balls. On the other side, no one ran; some did at the start and saw some of their teammates hang back, so they copied. Now, all three balls were in the hands of the opposition. If the ball hit them anywhere on their body, they were out, but if they caught it, the person who threw the ball was out. Dillon was one of the people who had a ball, and he immediately looked for Malakai. Malakai stood with his hands in his pockets, but he was far. That didn't stop him. Dillon hurled the ball towards Malakai's direction.
"What an idiot", Malakai said, amused at Dillon's decision. It didn't take much for Malakai to dodge; the ball missed him. "That's one", Malakai said, going to get the ball. While he went to retrieve the ball, another ball came flying towards him. He easily dodged that one, too. "That's two". Malakai constantly checked his shoulders before getting the ball, so he noticed someone winding up a shot while walking to get the ball Dillon threw at him. Now Malakai's side had two balls. Malakai grabbed one of them and threw it towards Adam. Nothing was said; he just trusted Adam to do something. Adam bounced the ball on the floor a few times like a basketball and walked closer to the centre. He looked up and saw Olivia. Adam telegraphed a shot to make it look like he was aiming at Olivia. Olivia started to move frantically, like a deer in headlights. He threw the ball at such pace and with such a curve. At the last second, he curved his wrist before he released the ball.
"OUT!" The teacher announced.
Adam eliminated Ledley, who had the last ball in his hands. He thought he was safe, so he stood still. But the shot hit him on his right arm.
"LETSS GO!" His 1-E classmates celebrated but didn't let their guard down, as the other side now had two balls. The game continued, and Malakai kept hold of the ball he got at the start. At the same time, Jason and Ash each had a ball in hand. They both threw their ball simultaneously, and they were pretty strong guys, so their throws had a lot of power and pace to them.
"OUT!"
Kyle and Rachel got eliminated without even doing anything to impact the game. On the bright side, their team had all three balls now. Ray picked one up and Justin the other.
"Ray! Justin!" Malakai called out. The two of them walked towards Malakai. "Yo, don't hit the girl. We keep her in until the end", Malakai instructed Justin.
"Okay", Justin nodded, walking away.
"Ray, aim and throw your ball at the girl", Malakai said.
"But you said", Ray replied, confused as Malakai contradicted himself.
"Trust me, throw it at her and aim low so she can't catch it".
"Sure, it looks like you got a plan", Ray said, walking forward; Malakai followed him.
Ray had the ball in his hand and cocked his arm back to throw the ball; he was making it obvious he was aiming at Olivia. Ray let it fly, fast and low. It bounced before it reached her, but someone caught it before it hit her. Daniel stepped in to protect her.
"OUT!"
Daniel was out. Even though Daniel caught the ball, Ray wasn't out as the ball bounced before he caught it. If someone caught a ball but it bounced before it got to them, it didn't mean anything. So why was Daniel out? Daniel couldn't protect himself from Malakai's shot. When Daniel stepped in to protect Olivia, Malakai threw his ball at Daniel, as Daniel caught one ball, there was no way he could defend himself.

"Malakai's sly", Tanisha said, spectating from the side.
"Wouldn't expect anything less", Delilah said, leaning forward, enjoying the game.
"Is he always this calculated? He doesn't look like he is or act like it for that matter", Tanisha questioned, as she didn't really know Malakai. She could only judge from what she saw and heard, and what she heard from the classroom wasn't promising. All she heard from him was laughter and stupid jokes.
"Not really. He acts childish most of the time, but I think in certain situations, he knows when to act serious".
Ray turned around to look at Malakai.
"I'm a genius, bro." Malakai grinned. He looked to his left, where Justin was, and saw no ball in his hands; his gaze travelled across to the other side, and he saw three different people holding a ball: Dillon, Jason, and Ash.
"Shit". Malakai stepped back and stood beside Maria, who was on his left. "Stay close to me", he quietly said to Maria. Maria shuffled closer to Malakai. It was looking dangerous; Dillon, Jason, and Ash had a ball in hand, which meant anyone was a target.
"Aim for Malakai", Dillon ordered.
The three all fired their shots, Ash the first to throw. He completely messed up his throw; the ball slipped from his hand and went high before coming down slowly. It ended up being caught by Nada, so he was out.
Jason's and Dillon's throws were on target for Malakai. Jason's shot arrived first, trajecting towards the right side of Malakai; Malakai shifted to the left. Dillon's shot was directly on Malakai, but as he shifted to the left due to Jason's shot, he was behind Maria, so now that shot would hit Maria. Malakai hugged Maria from behind, grabbing her waist with both arms, bringing her closer to him and swiftly moved to the right with her. It barely missed them.
"Close call", Malakai said, still having Maria in his arms.
Maria's heart was beating heavily. Was it because of the shock? How quickly everything happened? Or because Malakai was holding her? Malakai unwrapped his arms from her waist and peered over to see her face.
"You good?" He asked, with a concerned look on his face.
"Y-Yeah", Maria replied, starstruck, looking up to meet his eyes.
"That's good."
Malakai gave a smile she hadn't seen before. A new face she unlocked for herself. Her stomach was infested with butterflies; her legs felt weak; her heart was skipping; her body felt hot; her hands were shaking; her fingers were tingling; her mouth was opened in awe; her ears were ringing with Malakai's voice; her mind was clear; her eyes only saw Malakai everything else was just a white background.
She was in love with Malakai.