Iris

Chapter Four

Thursday 21st May (Day 4)

7:00am – Breakfast

8:00am – Task three (wear something to walk in)

3:00pm – Practice

6:00pm – Dinner

7:00pm – film time (The Holiday)

10:00pm – Lights out

The next day six girls were told they were going home that afternoon. I wonder what that felt like, to be told you have to go. Living in a mansion wasn’t actually that bad.

“Yo earth to Iris, you coming?” Georgia waved her hand in my face.

“What? Oh yeah...coming” I mumbled. The task today was to follow sets of clues which will lead to more clues and activities, probably. This was to start in the forest and then the clues should make you end up in the hall again. Everyone was in groups of four this time so I knew I didn’t have to go with Blade. There was going to be one group with three members, but that wasn’t too bad. I sometimes wondered who did the maths in this place, they kind of sucked. The last twelve girls that arrived last were going to be evicted from the mansion. At the moment there were 355 girls, after this there would be 343...we were cutting down the numbers slowly. The way things were going I was guessing that the next task would eliminate twenty-four girls. It was amazing that all the elements were still here. I guess Blade kind of liked us. Then again maybe it was completely Blade’s choice...

“My father expects me to be married by the age of twenty five and wanted me to find my girlfriend now” Blade had said that day we had our first task. His father might be pulling the strings behind this whole thing too.

“Iris, are you ok? You seem kind of spaced out today” Raven asked as she touched my arm gently.

“I’m fine. I just am a bit out of it but nothing to worry about. Let’s go and win this thing!” Iris smiled. Raven nodded but she didn’t seem completely convinced.

“We have to find this...” Georgia pointed to the paper in her hand.

Find a tree which has the same name as something you drink from...

“A Bottle-Tree?” Raven suggested.

“That has to be it, right?” Sabrina nodded. Did I mention we were given a map? It wasn’t saying where everything was but it showed a few locations, probably so people didn’t get too lost.

“I know where that is, Blade and I pasted it on the way back to the group, after I got us lost...” I drifted off. The four of us managed to make it to the bottle-tree, next to it was a yellow envelope.

“Find a place that will turn into a skating-rink in winter...” Georgia read out the note.

“The lake?” Georgia suggested. Some of these clues were easy; if the whole thing was like this it was going to be a piece of cake. Once we reached the lake there were two groups standing around arguing.

“Blade is mine!” one girl cried.

“Leave him alone you bi...” the other girl began.

“Guys!” I yelled and the two groups looked at me like I was an alien or something. I had no idea what I was doing but something had to be done.

“Fighting is not going to solve anything, if you want to stay with Blade then complete this task and don’t be last, ok?” I suggested.

“What do you know?” the first girl snapped.

“Yeah you’re here for the competition too” the second girl growled.

“I think what Iris is trying to say is that we all just need to calm down” Raven joined in. This was going nowhere. The girls were just getting more annoyed and we weren’t helping either. I had to think of something, why couldn’t Blade come and save the day. If he was here the girls would be their angel-like selves and this wouldn’t be happening. When did Blade become the knight in shining armour?