The Deal || Luke Hemmings

    The noise was unbearable.

But for those who had someone to talk to...well, they probably thought otherwise.

And sadly, even the sound of the door opening wasn't enough to keep everyone's mouth shut.

The teacher, who came in ten minutes before the class was about to end, was used to such noise, but today was an exception.

"Take your seat everyone. I've got an important announcement," our teacher told us this quickly, cheeks red with excitement. Mr. Stanley a jolly teacher of fifty, had a smile which resembled that of a seven year old child upon being given a bag of candy. For the most part, Mr. Stanley was well liked around. He was an energetic man who was seen wearing different colored suspenders everyday of the week and was usually referred to as the "hip grandpa" even if he wasn't that old.

"I bet it's about the contest." I heard the people whisper around me. "The other classes told me all about it." I chose to believe this statement, even if batch gossip wasn't exactly the most accurate.

"Can I have some silence?" the teacher, although he was known to be cheerful, looked at us sternly for once.

Now the class kept quiet, which made me feel sort of uncomfortable, hearing that no one was saying anything.

"Good. As I was saying, does anyone know what's going to happen two months from now?" he grinned widely, returning back to his joyful roots.

Everyone knew what they were going to hear from our teacher, but they gave him blank stares. I gave him a blank stare too, but really because I had no idea what this certain "contest" was.

"Ok, ok. Of course you don't." he chuckled heartily, earning him more empty stares from the class. "Well, we're going to have our annual school fair!"

Nobody spoke, until one person in the back laughed.

"Oh come on." He flung his arms in the air in frustration. "No one's excited?" he paused for a while, then continued. "I know last year's fair was boring-

"It's boring every year." I muttered, realizing that the contest I was so clueless about was just another school activity to promote unity. Been there, done that.

"But this year, we'll spice things up." he continued happily. "So today, each of you will pick a piece of paper from this box, without looking, of course. Only look at what it says after I tell you to do so."

The teacher passed a small box around, and as expected, no one paid attention to him the moment they grabbed the paper. They all eagerly took a peek at what it said, and some were able to do it without getting caught.

As soon as everyone had a paper, he continued.

"Now you can see what it says inside...that's if you were patient enough not to take a peek not like some people," he said, glaring at the raven haired boy who smiled sheepishly.

I unfolded the piece of paper only to see the word "Band" in it and I felt my stomach churn.

"Each one of you either got a paper that says 'dance', 'food', or 'band'."

The class now lent their ears to him because they didn't know what to expect. See, every annual school fair, there's always something different that happens, just so they don't bore the students out.

"Who got the paper that said "dance"?

10 people raised their hand.

"Good, good, good," he rubbed his hands together. "I want you to divide yourselves in to two groups, making 5 in each group, understand? The two groups will compete against each other on who dances better."

The class was still silent, except the ten people who raised their hands previously. They looked amongst at their future groupmates and were not pleased.

"For the people who got "food", you will do the same thing. Divide yourselves and compete against the other group on who cooks better."

Before the ten others could erupt with chatter, Mr. Stanley raised his hand up and no noise was heard. We were given the look, which we all understood. It meant that what he was about to say next was something he took very seriously.

"Oh, this is my favorite part!" he looked like he was about to jump from the looks of his exhilirated face. "Who got the paper that says "Band"?

I raised my hand, while I surveyed the 9 other people who did the same.

"You guys will have the battle of the bands. Divide then compete on who plays better music."

I looked at the paper on my table and it was my new enemy. The teacher didn't seem to notice my threatening look. Instead, he looked at his watch in disappointment.

"My times up already?" he frowned. "Hmm see you tomorrow class...and start picking your groups. Boy," he spoke to himself as he slowly made his way towards the door. "I was such an early bird. Back in my day...!"

He stopped, looked back; and seeing how idle we looked, added, "Oh, and how could I forget? This activity is just a mere thirty percent of your grade."

Now everyone started to panic while looking for a group. Never was our school fair graded. This idea caused me to slump back in my chair thinking how my grades just jumped out off the cliff. Thirty percent didn't seem much, but it meant a lot to me. Especially because I wanted to get out of here so I could enter a good college, become rich and laugh at everyone while riding in my yacht.

I sat alone, looking at the paper again when a hand slammed on my table with the paper that said "band". I looked up to see a face that I learned to despise over the years.

"Luke?" I scowled.

He smirked.

"You're going down."

-

Lucas pls

-God Bless!-