Today was the day!!! Finally, I can actually use what I know. I tiptoed my way into the auditorium and sat in a row that was almost completely packed to the brim with competitors. I managed to find Alex and we sat next to each other. "Now students," The headmistress began, "I know you all are very excited about this but rules have to be set." as she ended her sentence, I could hear strings of: 'boos' and 'awhs' from the many disappointed and now bored students. After she confirmed the rules, she set us up into pairs so we could start. I felt Alex nudge me, "Partners?" he raised a brow, "Partners." I repeated.
Mental Health was last, so we all had the joy of listening to the cheers and chants toward to other teams. The Academics Team was brilliant, boring too, but hey, I guess everyone has their 'thing'. (not that you dirty minded children 😂) Stefan came up soon enough, going up to sit with his crew, against Celia and some other of the top graders. Alex and I had our eyes glued, it was not only suspenseful but definitely annoying to see almost all of them pushing their minds to the point in which they were sweating. All except one.. Stefan seemed as tense as a customer in a massage parlour. He looked like he was in Heaven, Hell I wonder how we'd go.
"5 MINUTES LEFT!" The teacher announced. I gazed at the sum on the classic blackboard:
(*=square cause I can't do that on phone)
'$2a* =(70/4)+6'
I left my brain to do my thing, working out the sum as fast as I possibly could process aka the speed of a slug at war, until a mono-tone voice echoed throughout the auditorium,
"3.428"
No way..
"That is..."
How the Hell..
"Correct!"
He did it!!!
Among all of the panicky and obviously stressed students, Stefan, who had managed to stay calm the entire time gave his team the winning point! Thousands of kids spread out stood up and gave them a round of applause to them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Celia tearing up, her chest rose and dropped heavily. Was she crying??? I swiftly excused myself to go find her backstage. "Celia..?" I tapped her head, feeling pity when she just shook her head and rocked back and forth in trembles. I got on my knees and gently stroked her hair, "Hey now.." I whispered, she looked up at me with puffy red eyes, "Itll be okay, you did good!" I brought slight amusement in my tone, giving her a thumbs up. She shook her head, "My mom— she wanted me to win..." my eyes saddened, "Celia, we don't always win. Its impossible." She stayed silent for awhile, staring at the ground and just nodded quickly. "Okay..?" I touched her shoulder, she nodded, sniffling a bit.
"okay."
-Sports Competition-
Sports! We still remained in the hall for it though, so it really made me wonder on what kind of sport would've been put out for this competition. I saw Brendan and Prudence on opposite teams, "Students this part isn't really a competition. Its about having fun, so this will become a 'team building' excercise and there will be no winner." The principal stated, looking towards the competitors. We all nodded and waited for it the game to begin. Which it did, it was like an army camp! All the nets and races, even bridges!! Brendan and Prudence passed all of them, my little soldier (just saying, no shipping these two) beating her in three of the 4 activities and tieing in the last.
There werent any winners but the fastest got medals, top three got gold, then silver and bronze. Brendan got gold, along with Prudence who got 3 silvers and 1 gold. I laughed cheerily as I watched the little ball of Sunshine (literally) jump up and down with the clinks and clanks of gold on his chest. Prudence was just as happy, smiling as wide as she can possibly do so, clutching her medals together and placing butterfly kisses on each one individually. So cute and silly... I giggled.
-Mental Health Competition-
•Third-person p.o.v•
Each competition had three rounds, growing exceptionally tougher as the competition progressed. That's the first thing the young girl noticed, second was that the so said 'pairs' will not be necessary anymore as they managed to squeeze the time. So each would be going individually. And last? Well, last was that she found out she's going first. "CRAP!" The ravenette almost shouted, letting her hair down and tying it again into a neat bun. She was scared, but there wasn't any way she was backing down now, even if she had wanted to.
'ROUND 1'
Camila's goal was the read the expression of various students, and guess their emotion based on the expression they displayed. It was easy to her, as easy as writing the letter: 'L', she was given a small white board for her to write down the emotion she saw. She aced all, but the last one was rather difficult to say the least. The girl that came up on stage with her was smiling intensely, her bright brown eyes glistened with whatever light shone on her as she sat down in front of Camila. With one glance, the 16-year old girl began writing something down on her white board. The rules was that she wasn't allowed to ask questions of any sort but she showed the girl her white board anyways. The smiling student took one look at her board but her expression didn't change. Camila took instant notice and brought back her white board, writing down something:
"DEPRESSED"
The girl nodded her head, getting up and ready to walk backstage again when a boy from the crowd stood up, "SHE CHEATED! SHE ASKED A QUESTION!" he accused but Camila shook her head, "Im afraid you're wrong, I hadn't written anything on the whiteboard when she looked at it, don't believe me? You can look at the camera facing it." She smirked. And so, the video was shown, to which she was proven right.
'ROUND 2'
Next was to try and explain the difference between a few words like studying and learning or brave and reckless, to which she passed as well.
'ROUND 3'
The last round was to explain what it means to be 'self-destructive', 'depressed' or 'anxious'. She chose: 'Anxious'.
"The topic I choose is Anxiety. People often confuse it with depression, saying if a person is sad, or, 'different' they're depressed but that's completely false. Anxiety makes you over think, it makes you believe that you aren't good enough or that you're something bad. Depression is when you can't help but feel sad at random. Not numb, because Anxiety does that, numb in a sense that you don't feel the right emotions at the right time or enough. I wont bore you guys since there's no time, so thank you."
She bowed and heard instant claps and whistles through the room.
Camila headed backstage since she was finished and headed to her powder-room to chill. Alex was up next and she felt guilty that she couldn't see him but smiled when she heard various claps and screams, cheering him on.
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