My Unconventional Lover: Seeing A Different World

284 Teamwork (1)

(Jane’s PoV)

After watching those girls leaving our sight, I was met with Daisy’s calm eyes. I thought she was going to confront me about something, but to my surprise, she wasn’t.

“Go clean yourself. They will be delivering breakfast soon.” I flinched when she reached out to my face, only to find that she was moving a strand of my hair away from my cheek.

“Ah, I’ll go now.” I nodded obediently and went to retrieve my things in the tent before I went towards the public bathroom.

“I’m going with you.” Alivia chased after me with her own basket and a towel in her hands.

I waited until we were a bit far from the tent before I looked at my junior who was walking behind me obediently. It was still early in the morning, so not many of the girls had woken up.

“What happened just now? Who were the girls before?”

Alivia sighed. “I remembered seeing them with the girl from yesterday. You know... who got into a scandal.”

“And? Why did they look for trouble in our tent?” I honestly couldn’t see the relationship between them.

.....

“Actually the girls next to our tent came first and told us about what happened last night since none of us came out to see the show. We said that we were deeply asleep probably because we felt tired after the long trip here. Then, they came and started to find fault, saying that we could sleep well because the boys were guarding the night and what’s wrong with accompanying a boy for a bit during their night patrol? Why would their friend be accused of such a scandal when she was just accompanying him? Also, they thought that we were pretentious since we refused to accept any boys into our group for the activities later.” Alivia didn’t sound timid and shy at all while telling me the story that I missed.

I smirked slightly when I heard their defense against the accusation being thrown at their friends. If only they saw what was going on between them last night, I was sure they couldn’t say that they were doing night patrol. Also, who said two most suspected people were assigned to do night patrol? We all knew that they were supposed to be locked up in their tents and the ones who were doing night patrols were the lecturers and the committees. If only they realized how stupid they were.

Even those who were involved in the scandal didn’t mention that they were on duty last night, why would their pig teammate make up such a stupid story to defend them?

“I’m sure they just wanted to find a punch bag. Are they stupid to pick on our group? Didn’t they hear about Daisy? Even though she is called as a Goddess, but she wasn’t a pushover. Her reputation didn’t come on baseless rumor. Or, maybe it is because our team has more juniors than senior that they came to find trouble?”

Alivia frowned as she pondered my words carefully. She might have noticed it, too, but she didn’t have the answer.

If it wasn’t one hundred percent, then it must be more than fifty percent that the reason they picked our group was not only because we slept through the ordeal last night, but because the most well-known quiet girls in the department were in our group. The girls who would usually ignore the dirty talk aimed at them would be the perfect outlet for them to release their anger and annoyance.

Again, I pitied their ability to judge someone’s character. How did they come up with the idea that a quiet person was the best to bully? Alivia might stutter and look timid, but I knew she was a time bomb. Yuni was a whole different person. She even might have a psychotic tendency when she was triggered. Why would they think these people were the weakest?

Indeed, one needed to speak up when they were being treated badly. It didn’t necessarily have to be regular, but at least, one or two times and it had to be unexpected and leaving a deep impression so that no one would dare to mess with them.

I looked at the still silent Alivia and shook my head. Maybe this outing could help her to be more fierce towards those rude people around her. Hopefully, Daisy could rub her confidence and powerful bearing on her.

“Shout if something bad happens.” I told her before I entered one of the public bathrooms. Alivia nodded and entered the one next to mine. The location of these public bathrooms were the closest to the forest and I could still feel the sinister aura hiding in the woods. Who knew what these creatures were planning to do to us?

Fortunately, nothing bad happened and we could return to the camping area safely. No one talked about the incident this morning and we had our breakfast peacefully. After having breakfast, we were gathered in the middle of the camp and led towards the outer area.

The most exciting part of the outing began!

“Our first schedule for today is Treasure Hunt. Each group will get an envelope with your own mission to do and a map of route. The route is mostly the same for everyone. You will set out as a group and make sure you will also return in a group. The first five groups who can maintain their teamwork and return as one within thirty minutes will receive a gold card. The rest will get silver and copper card according to their efforts.” The Supervisor of the activity, a middle aged lecturer named Sir Fikri, loudly announced while the committee members were handing out an envelope to the groups and a group of workers in this facility was handing out a two ways radio.

“Bear in mind that you need to keep your safety first and contact the committee with the radio if something dangerous happens to you or your teammate or the people around you. Of course, we don’t want that to happen, but just in case it does happen, immediately let us know. There will be security guards and committee members in the checkpoints where you will submit the item you get and get a stamp as a return, so you can stop there and announce your withdrawal from the game. They will send you back here to the camping site if you do so.”

“Of course, once you withdraw from the game, the whole group will be disqualified as well.” The blinding smile on his old face looked mischievous instead of his usual friendly image.

Sir, I think you’re enjoying it too much than you should be, I said inwardly.

“Ah, I almost forgot to remind you. This morning trial is just a quarter of the real one later. So, be prepared. Let’s pray together before we start the game, shall we? Begin.”

Any complaints were swallowed when the word ‘begin’ was heard. We all bowed our head and prayed for our safety to the one and only God as sincere as we could be. I, at least, was sincere with my pray. I prayed so that no one would get hurt from whatever it was hidden in this place.

A few minutes later, we set out with a map in our hands and a list of objects that we needed to bring with us to the checkpoints to get our stamps. Daisy and Yuni led the way and Alivia and I jogged behind them acting as their supports. It was supposed to be a peaceful morning with woods, fresh air, and birds, but the shouts and laughs totally ruined it.

“What should we find first?” Yuni asked while maintaining her breath.

“A gold medal.” I told her while reading the clues written on the paper.

“A what?” Daisy stopped in her tracks and turned her head towards me.

I stopped jogging and showed her the paper in my hand. It was written ‘a prize of a champion, loved and wanted by many, a symbol of fortune, hidden beneath the warm blanket of green.’ Whoever made this clues must be out of ideas.

“It could be a trophy.” Alivia shrugged her shoulders after reading the sentence.

“We can only check.” I sighed.

“There’s no number on it. How do you know it is the first?” Yuni flipped the paper repeatedly to see if there was something hidden in the paper.

I didn’t need to answer, though. Daisy opened the map carefully and scanned the map. “Because the map has the number.” She said.

I smiled. She was right. There were numbers on the map to mark the sequences of the items we needed to retrieve. The closest to us was the number one mark, which happened to be in the next corner. Since we already had the coordinate, we continued our jogging and only stopped when we reached the place where it was supposed to be the point from the map.

“There’s nothing here.” Alivia looked around. “The others have started to look around for their item. Maybe we should, too.”

Sounds of cheers of excitement and disappointed groaning could be heard from various directions. I bet the ones who was discouraged didn’t read their clues and maps carefully. Even though we were almost at the first checkpoint, it didn’t mean that the first item would necessarily be here. It could be around the checkpoint instead. But, these people were drawn to the commotion and assumed that their first item would be here.

How laughable!

“Let’s go.” I recollected myself and turned myself away from the chaotic scene to enter the woods on our left.

“What are we looking for here?” Yuni looked around, totally clueless with what we were doing.

“Green blanket.” Daisy jogged ahead of us. Her eyes were fixated towards a certain direction and she gradually moved faster in approaching that spot.

But, something flashed towards her and I instinctively shouted, “Daisy, stop!”