Quiet Bus Ride

"Destiny and Kayla came here? Shiiiit", Malakai said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah. Destiny took two balls, so it wasn't that bad. It could've been worse", Delilah replied, looking at the floor, visible hurt that she lost those two balls.

Malakai kept quiet. He didn't know how to respond. He knew he messed up again. He quietly took the plastic balls out of his hoodie pocket.

"I've got two plastic balls from 1-A's safe zone", Malakai awkwardly said, not knowing if this was the right time to mention it.

Delilah looked up and was a little pleasantly surprised.

"You managed to get something from them", she said. "Did you shoot Alexander?"

"Nah", Malakai shook his head and looked down at his paintball gun. "I don't know what happened. I don't know if this jammed or ran out of bullets", he said, raising the paintball gun up.

"It didn't shoot?" Delilah asked, looking at the paintball gun.

"Nah, look".

Malakai pointed the paintball gun to the floor.

PAP! PAP! PAP! PAP! PAP!

"See".

Delilah inspected the floor to see if anything came out, but the floor was undamaged.

"You must be pissed", Delilah said.

"I am", Malakai replied. "I could've shot Alexander, and the gun didn't shoot".

Delilah kept looking at the gun, "I have a feeling the gun didn't jam. I think you ran out of bullets", she said.

"But there's bullets inside here", Malakai replied, shaking the gun and showing the rumbling sound to Delilah.

"Are you sure those are bullets?" Delilah asked, unconvinced. "I mean, think about it. Five bullets is enough for this challenge".

"Only five? Nah, man", Malakai was in denial.

"Running out of bullets makes more sense", Delilah said. "One bullet for each round. More than five bullets would be too overpowered".

Malakai shook his head and looked away, "so shit man", he quietly said, not liking how much sense Delilah was making.

"That means you shot your last bullet at Destiny", Delilah said, working it out.

Malakai didn't look at Delilah. He didn't want to look at anything. He had a paintball gun, and he only shot two people. Given that they were Dillon and Destiny, which was decent as they were both annoying, but leaving Ryan and Alexander untouched burned him.

Screeech!

"The final round has ended. That means the fifth challenge has finished".

Mr White's last announcement for this challenge.

"Finally", Delilah said, relieved.

And with that, the fifth challenge ended. The only thing left was the big reveal of the final standings. Who got the most points, and who got the least? The reveal was going to be done in the main hall in front of all the first-year students, so everyone had to wait a while for the results.

After that announcement, Mr White told the students to come out of their safe zones and meet back in the meeting room they were in at the start of the challenge. All the students gathered there except Malakai and Delilah, who were treated for their scratches and Destiny for her nosebleed. While that happened, teachers went into their safe zones and calculated how many points each class got. They popped all the balls in their safe zones and tallied the points. When they finished and got the results, it was time to leave. The students could finally leave this building after a long and tiring few hours.

Everyone was quiet as they walked to the bus. No one talked to each other. All of them were exhausted. Malakai was at the back of the group with three band-aids on the right side of his face. Even though he was treated for his scratches, he wasn't properly checked for the smoke he inhaled. Malakai was about to board the bus when,

"Malakai, come here", Mr White called, gesturing towards him.

Malakai stepped down from the bus and went over to Mr White.

"I'm still taking you to the nurse's office when we get back", Mr White said.

"Yeah", Malakai replied, deflated.

"I want to have a little talk with you as well when we get back".

"Aryt", Malakai said, deflated, not looking at him.

"Okay, well done for today", Mr White said, patting him on the shoulder.

Malakai didn't respond. He gave a little smile before turning around and getting on the bus. All that running had got to him because he was knackered. It didn't help that he knew he didn't do his best in the challenge. If he had performed amazingly, he wouldn't be this empty right now. The realisation of what he'd done in this challenge came crashing onto him in full force.

Malakai got inside the bus and looked up to see where Delilah was. No one on the bus made eye contact with him. It seemed like everyone else wanted to go home. Malakai walked down the aisle to Delilah and took a seat. Delilah was resting back in her seat, looking out the window. She didn't acknowledge Malakai was sitting next to her. Malakai looked in her direction, barely turning his head. He couldn't see any of her facial features. He could only see the back of her head and a bit of her left cheek. Malakai kept looking to see if Delilah would turn to him, but she didn't.

"Guess she wants to be left alone".

Just over twenty minutes into the journey, the bus had barely heard any noise. The bus held sixteen people, including the driver, and it was like a library. The teachers had their own conversations with themselves, and Nada and Justin quietly talked. The rest, not a peep.

Malakai was on his phone. He would've gone to sleep, but he wasn't sitting next to the window. He wanted something to lean on if he was going to close his eyes. He felt too exposed where he sat.

Delilah still hadn't looked at him yet. Her head stayed facing the window. Malakai thought she might've been sleeping because she wasn't making any noise either. He didn't want to check on her in case she was awake because then it would've been awkward. He didn't want to force a conversation when it was clear Delilah didn't want to talk. So Malakai kept his head down and stayed glued to his phone.

"Malakai".

Malakai's droopy eyes sprung to life after hearing a quiet voice call his name. He looked to his left and saw Delilah shyly looking at him.

"Yo", Malakai quietly replied, switching off his phone and putting it down.

"I… umm…".

Delilah was making and breaking eye contact. She kept moving her head and stopping between words. It was like she didn't know what to say.

"Haaah", Delilah let out a big sigh and wiped her face with her hand.

"I'm just going to say it", she said, looking into Malakai's eyes. "I know we don't know the points yet, but I've got this… feeling. And it isn't nice".

She was being as quiet as she could so no one else could hear.

"I know. You're pissed at me, and that's fair", Malakai replied, keeping the same low tone and failing to keep eye contact.

"No, I'm not annoyed. Well, maybe I am... I-I don't know", Delilah said, shaking her head, unsure of herself. "But I know I'm disappointed".

Disappointed.

That word cut straight through Malakai. Words didn't hurt Malakai, but that dealt a critical blow to him.

"I tried my hardest, and it was like you didn't even try. Like you didn't try to win. You just did what you wanted", Delilah said, slightly turning her head and glancing at him.

Malakai kept quiet and listened.

"And you left me alone to fight Destiny and Kayla. I don't think you understand how stressful that was for me. So much happened, and you weren't there", Delilah said, looking at her feet.

There was a long pause after that. Delilah expected Malakai to respond, but Malakai was looking at his feet too.

"Did I say too much?" Delilah thought. "Shit, I knew I should've kept quiet. Why am I being such a bitch?! He knows he's messed up, but I keep reminding him".

Delilah knew Malakai was feeling down, but there was something in her heart telling her to constantly remind him he messed up. Her heart was telling her that Malakai undermined her hard work. She thought she wouldn't be able to do well, and she smashed it, but Malakai didn't do what she thought he would. A part of her felt like Malakai didn't take it seriously, which ticked her off because she really tried. However, seeing how he was now, it was clear he was aware of his performance.

Delilah knew she couldn't end the conversation like this.

"Hey. I know I said the situation was stressful, but I think I defended our safe zone okay", Delilah said, thinking of positives. "I guess I was lucky punching wasn't allowed because then I wouldn't know how I would've managed, heh", she awkwardly laughed at the end to brighten up the mood and show she wasn't that mad.

The silence continued. Delilah didn't know what else to say.

"Imma say this now", Malakai randomly said.

Delilah looked up to him as he kept looking down.

"If we don't get the most points, I'm sorry. You can chat shit to me all you want", Malakai said, before looking up to Delilah. "But if we get the most points and we get first place. I don't wanna hear anything. I want an apology from everyone", he lightly smiled.

Delilah felt her body lighten up. The smile on his face wasn't his usual illuminating smile, but a little one. He may have forced it to show Delilah he was alright. Forced or not, it worked because Delilah didn't like seeing Malakai like this. Not seeing a smile on his face felt wrong. When she thought of Malakai, his smiling face was the first thing she thought of.

Delilah copied his little smile and said,

"Sounds good to me".