The Devil's Smile

Chapter Thirty-Two 🤍

Finally, "Sophie Holt?" I jump at the sound of my full name, remembering him whispering it in my ear not too long ago. He looks up, scanning the room to find me. "Here!" I yell, and my voice cracks.

Fucking embarrassing.

He spots me in the back and moves to the side to see through the students stretching in front of me.

He raised his eyebrow, looking annoyed. What did I do now?

He goes back to calling out students names, but in between calling, he instructs, "Begin running around the gym, three full rounds."

As students finish their last stretches, Alex pulls Maya up by her arms to help her stand. She fixes her shorts. Elliot starts running, and the rest of us follow behind, along with the other students.

I begin to hear students huffing and puffing, and I don't blame them. Some are competing with each other to stay in front of everyone.

After two long, full rounds around the gym, my body starts to feel hot, and I'm sweating. I stop running and move over to the side, out of their way. I have some hair sticking to my neck because of the sweat.

Leaning against the wall, my shirt sticking to my stomach, I pulled it, moving it in and out to let the cool air in.

I reach for the hair tie on my wrist, but then I realize I don't have one. Instead, I start fanning my neck to cool down, holding my hair up.

Noah notices me struggling on the side like a roach, and he motions for me to come over to him. I hesitate for a moment, then look at him and run back into the crowd of students running.

I'm just upset about what happened today. I didn't see his reaction, but I can imagine.

A few minutes later, most of the students finish their last round around the gym and collapse on the ground. Noah looks at them, puzzled. "How are you not used to this by now? We've been doing this for months."

Ignoring his words, the students continued to catch their breath, lying on the floor. Noah shakes his head in disbelief. Finally, I finish my last round and sit down on the side, exhausted.

I looked at the crowd of students running and saw Mya chasing Elliot. He must've said something funny because she was laughing. Nate was in his own world, still running, while Alex lay on the floor, exhausted.

"Okay, come sit down, everyone." Noah motioned with his hands for all the remaining students who were still running to come and sit.

A girl sat beside me, also sweaty and looking worse than me.

He stood in front of the class, tapping his foot impatiently, his clipboard wedged between his right arm and pit. "Are we ready for today's activity?" he asked the class, who were still worn out. Most of them managed to say yes.

Noah said with a bright smile, "Today's activity is going to be fun, I promise. We'll get your energy up!"

The class is still dead.

"We will be playing capture the flag!" Noah announced.

The class groaned in response.

"Woohoo!" He's the only one cheering.

"Since there are a lot of you, I will split you all into groups of ten." Noah explained, then he walks over to a student in the corner of the gym.

"Remember your group number. You are one."

He moved down, giving each student a number from one to five, then repeating the process, starting at one.