200 days

The Second Task

"Well.... How was it?" Bailey asks as soon as I step out of the door. "It was fine, the questions were weird, but I get why they asked them" She grabs my arm, bringing us both to a halt. "What now Bay?" I ask, taking in her paler-than-usual face. "Uhhh Dolly, look over there," she says, pointing to a group of officers guarding the entrance. It takes me a moment to realize that they're not there to keep people out, but to keep people in.

"Hello everyone," a voice sounds over the loudspeaker. "Last tournament we decided to scratch the physical portion of the Evaluation because we wanted to focus more on intellect and emotional performance. This year, we have decided to re-include that. So ladies, if you would please follow Michelle and gentlemen please follow Marcus, they are going to take you into the changing rooms.

Bailey and I follow Michelle, along with Teresa and two other girls that I don't recognise. "Okay ladies, please each of you take a shirt and pants. You can choose if you want leggings or shorts, but you all must wear them with your color shirt. I will call your name and shirt color. Bailey; green, Madison; yellow, Teresa; blue, Dahlia; pink, Mariah; purple." She calls all our names one by one, and I learn the two other girls' names.

This time, we are all doing our task as a group. "Gentlemen, if you would please head towards the exit door, Marcus will show you where to go from there. Bailey turns to me saying, "Do you think we should stretch?" "Probably," I say, leaning over to touch my toes. "You suck at that," Bailey mocks, touching her toes perfectly. "You suck in general Bay," I smirk, knowing that her mind just went to the dirtiest possible thing. "That's not what I meant you whore, get your mind out of the gutter." She opens her mouth to counter me, but is interrupted by the comms. "Ladies, it is your turn now." Bailey eyes meet mine, "Here we go," she whispers.

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"So where exactly are they taking us?" I question for the third time. "They won't tell us, that's what makes it a task. It has to be a foreign area so none of us have an advantage." Bailey snickers at Mariah's words, "Something funny Langley?" Mariah questions. The bus jolting to a halt stops Bailey before she could even respond. "I think we're here," I say, pointing out the desert through the window. "A desert? That's our middle ground?" Teresa questions

"Okay ladies," Michelle starts as we all get out of the bus and examine our surroundings. "Holy fuck it's hot!" Bailey exclaims, probably regretting wearing leggings instead of shorts. "Language Bailey," Michelle says, turning to face us. "Wait one second girls, I forgot something in the van. Here Teresa, hold this for a second." She goes back into the van, and the car immediately speeds off. "What the-" "WAIT FOR ME!" One of the girls shouts, sprinting after the van. "GET BACK HERE SAVANNAH!" Teresa shouts, running after her friend. Too far away to hear her, Savannah continues running.

"Welp, there they go. What do we do now?" Madison questions once the two girls disappear from our line of sight. "THE ENVELOPE!" Mariah shouts, picking something up from the ground. "The one Michelle gave Teresa?" Bailey asks. "No, the one Barney gave Papa Smurf. God, you're not pretty enough to be this stupid Bay," I laugh at my words, getting a weird look from Madison in the process. "It's okay guys, we always joke around like this," Bailey assures them. Sometimes I forget that not all people use being mean as a form of expressing love, that it's just a me and Bailey thing. That's why we get along so well, we're both morons, but together, we're also assholes.

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"Come Back" was all the note said. "Well, that was anticlimactic. What does that even mean?" I grab the note from Mariah's hand, hoping to find some secret clue she missed. "Uhh guys, what if they literally mean that they want us to come back to the Evaluation Hall, or maybe Montague in general? It would make sense, and then the ones who don't make it have a higher chance of being Chosen? I had a sinking feeling that what she said wasn't true, but I pushed it aside and tried to focus on the task at hand. "That's actually not a bad idea, but how do we get back?" I ask, hoping for some good ideas.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna walk back. Think about it, they didn't make a single turn the entire drive, or else we would've felt it. Which means that they went straight the entire time. So technically, all we have to do is follow the tire tracks and they should take us back." Madison says, looking to us for better ideas. "I'm sold," Mariah admits, shrugging. I turn to Bailey, who has the same exasperated look on her face.

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"And then there were two," Bailey jokes, trying to lighten the mood. I don't understand why Madison and Mariah decided to walk all the way back, the drive was at least an hour, they'll be walking for days. I sit down on a nearby boulder. Suddenly, I see something, "Let's walk back," I start, getting a "huh?" from Bailey. "No, hear me out. See that over there? Those are foot prints, none of the girls walked this way, which means that these are from the boys. It makes sense that we have the same task as them. Maybe we can follow the footprints and see where they are, then maybe we can come up with something better." Bailey walks over to where the footprints are, "I dunno, aren't we supposed to do this on our own?" She turns back to me, "Not really, the envelope said nothing about not getting help".

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"This isn't working," Bailey sighs, sitting down. "We have no other choice, how else are we supposed to get back?" I take a deep breath, and take a seat next to her. "I don't wanna do this anymore Dolly, I'm gonna go walk back. Hopefully they'll bring the van back around." She stands up, "If that's what you want to do Bay, I won't stop you. But I'm gonna keep going this way."