Chapter 46.1: The confession

When the bus arrived at their destination, thanks to Mr. Dong's roaring to get everyone prepared to alight the bus, Ivy woke up groggily but was glad her headache had dissipated. She noticed she was lying on Jason's shoulder as she quickly sat up straight awkwardly while rubbing her eyes.

"Drink some water first…" Jason told her. "Sorry…" She mumbled. "It's alright… Here drink first…" He urged as she obediently obeyed before joining the crowd to alight the bus.

"You're alright?" Sandra whispered as Ivy nodded with a smile. 

"Yea, had a good sleep… You?" Ivy mumbled as Sandra nodded. 

"I slept too… Their shoulders are the best comfort, aren't they?" Sandra teased as Ivy snarled at Sandra playfully and couldn't control her smile as both girls ended up giggling while walking to gather at the entrance of the camping ground.

"Alright everyone gather here!" Mr. Dong roared once again as everyone quickly gathered around him. 

"We shall start to split into teams for the activity right after we check in. Please form a straight line and repeat numbers from one to ten. Each team will only have three members in it… Let's start!" Mr. Dong clapped his hand to urge everyone to start moving. 

Lance, Laura and Belinda quickly split themselves up as they calculated carefully for the three of them to be in one team whereas Sandra and Andrew did the same and hoped Ivy who had headed to the end of the line would be lucky enough to join them in the same team. Ivy was stalling as she could feel her body was getting weak but she forced herself to endure as she stood at the end of the line next to Marcel and counted herself as team ten. "You're joining too?" Ivy whispered to Marcel as Marcel smiled and nodded. He noticed Ivy was looking quite pale as he supported her from losing her balance. 

"You're alright? You don't look very well…" Marcel asked as Ivy nodded. "Just lack of sleep… Had too much fun with Sandra…" Ivy chuckled lightly as they scurried off to their respective team. Despite being worried, Marcel chose to believe Ivy as he tried to find his team members.

When everyone gathered in a team of three, Ivy found herself with Lance and Laura as Belinda fumed that she was with another team of losers as categorised by herself and Laura. Andrew and Sandra were equally surprised to find themselves with somebody who wasn't part of the college student, Marcel.

"Why are you participating, bro?" Andrew asked as Marcel chuckled. "They are lacking with participants… Is it alright for the both of you?" Marcel asked as Sandra smiled and nodded.

"Tell me bro… Are you replacing somebody?" Andrew teased as he placed an arm on Marcel's shoulder. Marcel could only chuckled awkwardly as they all proceeded to check in to their campsite which they had split by gender and could only fit two people. Sandra automatically dragged Ivy into a camping tent set up by the college admins as they were way behind schedule and had to skip setting up the tent.

"Stay with me tonight alright?" Sandra nudged Ivy before they split. Ivy smiled and nodded as she dragged her tired self to join her nemesis, Lance and Laura. Jason noticed Ivy didn't look very well after they returned from checking into their respective camp. He wanted to exchange with her team's guide but it was too late as Mr. Dong was pushing aggressively for the program to start instantly since they had already cut out the first part of the program. 

Each team was brief before they started their treasure hunt in the jungle trekking session. They had to hunt for clues and collect their team's color ribbons in exchange for necessity required to cook tonight and prepare for dinner. They will not know what essentials they are bringing back till they complete the mission and all ten materials were important.

Ivy could only sighed at her bad luck for being stuck with Laura who cannot unattached herself from Lance who was walking ahead of her. She also noticed they had missed clues along the way as she had to collect the ribbons herself. Lance took pity on her at Laura bullying her as he secretly signal Ivy to the clues after he distracted Laura and tried to slow down for her to catch up. The lecturer who was looking after them could only shake her head at Laura's selfishness.

Midway, they met with Sandra, Andrew and Marcel which cheered Ivy up a lot. "Marcel! Andrew! Sandra!" Ivy greeted excitedly although she sounded weak. "Ivy!" Sandra jumped excitedly with her before Andrew pulled her away and charged forward with Marcel trailing behind them. "Gotta go! Bye Ivy!" Andrew hastily greeted Ivy before rushing to a different direction as her.

"Have fun! Good luck!" Marcel quickly greeted her too as the sound of thunder rumbled and forced them to split their ways.

"See ya!" Ivy waved at the trio as she noticed Laura was seated on a stone not far away with Lance checking on her leg. She ran over and checked on them.

"What's wrong?" Ivy squatted and inspected as Lance shook his head. 

"Does it hurt so bad?" Lance asked as Laura nodded.

Ivy stood as Lance did the same. "I think she cannot continue…" Lance announced that the lecturer who was in charge of the team approached them with a medical team. After a while, the medical team was prepared to escort Laura back to the base but she made a fuss to have Lance following her as well.

"I'm scared… Please come with me… Please…" Laura pleaded as Lance was left in a dilemma. Ivy rolled her eyes at the exaggerated act from Laura as she waved her hands at Lance to go ahead with her.

"I'm fine. We have a little more clue. So go ahead. I will complete it myself." Ivy assured as Lance nodded and everyone left her alone in the dim lighted jungle as she quickly walked forward to finish finding her clues and get the essentials before it rained.

At the base camp site area, most teams were already returning with the essentials such as flint and wood. Other than these two items, the majority were stock of food for everyone. Marcel went up to the medical team and saw Laura on the stretch with Lance by her side. A part of him was relieved that it wasn't Ivy on the stretch but his mind wondered where Ivy was.

"Where is Ivy?" He asked Lance as Andrew and Sandra approached them. Jason was also paying attention to their commotion.

"She …" Lance began to notice he was selfish of leaving Ivy all alone to complete the quest when they were all rushing for time. "She volunteered to complete the mission herself…" Laura said nonchalantly as Marcel was overwhelmed with anger.

"Everyone of you is here and Ivy is alone in the jungle? Yet it's going to rain! How could you all be so selfish!" Sandra scolded as Andrew tried to hold her back. "If anything happens to her, I will hold all of you accountable!" Sandra continued to scold.

"Where did you all leave her?" Jason asked as he walked over hastily. 

"Somewhere close to a crossroad… It's nearly the end of the quest area…" The lecturer guiding them updated as Jason instantly rushed off into the jungle to find her.

"Chill my dear… Chill…" Andrew comforted as Sandra snapped. 

"How can I chill when Ivy isn't well? She hasn't rested well last night and yet she is all alone! Do you know what she had been through? I should have barred her from coming!" Sandra stormed off to one corner as Andrew chased her and pulled her in for a hug as she sobbed in his arms.

Marcel was getting more worried as he sent a text message to Jason updating him about Ivy's condition. Thereafter, Marcel prepared the other lecturers to alert the camp site management to prepare for a search and rescue party on standby but none of the lecturers thought it would be that serious since Jason had run in to search for Ivy. Marcel could only bite his tongue. Instead of waiting anxiously, he trusted his guts which was telling him it wouldn't be that easy especially when Ivy and Jason had a conflict at the moment that he went to find the campsite management himself.

Ivy came upon a cross road not long after and could not see any clue to tell where to head to as she took the turning to the left as the light cardboard signboard left by the crew was blown off by the strong wind. She was half enjoying the breeze along the way although the looming darkness was intimidating her a little. 

Soon, she realised she had been turning in circles on a small spot after leaving traces on the trees and leaves to find her way back. She was a little frustrated as she sat down under a huge tree to rest. She cursed at herself for being unlucky and yet had to play nice as she forced herself to continue.

Jason reached the cross road to find the signboard went missing and headed to the right turning which was where the ending was but couldn't find her. He instantly sprinted to the left turning and called out to her along the way. "Ivy!"

Ivy who was beginning to feel exhausted could hear someone calling out to her. A sigh of relief overwhelmed her knowing there was someone to come to help her out.