*ding dong, bing bong*

"Attention! It is now 7 am! Time to get up to another miserable day of being talentless!"

It's not like I had much of talent to begin with.

As per usual, I got ready and waited on my sister. Then I spotted someone that I did not except to see up this early.

"Zenith?" My eyes widened.

The chauffeur turned around. He was sluggish in his moments, but his face was shinier than ever. No signs of tiredness, or anything for that matter, in his expression.

"Ah, hello Felix," He awkwardly greeted me. "How did you sleep?"

I should be asking you that.

"Alright." I answered. "What about you?"

"I slept fine." He replied.

"Do you want to join me and Fawn on our way to the dinning room?" I asked the chauffeur.

"I suppose so." He reluctantly agreed. "I've missed speaking with you and the others."

"Really?" I gasped, before I could stop myself.

"Yeah..." He admitted. "I don't really want to talk to anyone, but I think getting myself out of my room will help."

Things fell silent between us. The silence was excruciating and it bothered me more than it should have.

I hate silence like this...

"Have you checked out the new rooms yet?" I questioned, desperate to break the silence.

"I haven't." The chauffeur replied.

"Do you to explore with me?" I offered. "I'm busy after breakfast but once I'm done we can explore the new room together if you'd like."

"I'd like that." The orangette replied. "Though, I am curios as to what you're doing after breakfast."

"I'm doing laundry with Gabriel." I smiled. "I would invite you to join us, but it's kinda of a me and Gabriel thing."

"I understand." Zenith said, giving me a tiny smile. "Have fun with that, Felix."

He does seem like he feels a little better compared to yesterday morning, but I can tell he's not up to a 100%.

Well, obviously he isn't up to 100%. Witnessing the corpse of your friend and then watching another friend die a brutal death isn't something you just "get over" like a cold.

Fawn eventually joined us. The three of us had a silent walk on the way to dining room. Everyone else was already there. It was a relief to see everyone cooperating with the plan of doing more things together.

Then I caught a glimpse of the two empty chairs that would remain empty for the rest of our time here.

I keep hoping that I'll blink and they'll be at the table eating breakfast with us again.

I blinked.

...

I don't like thinking about this. I need to distract myself with something.

"Hey Zenith?" I stopped him before he could leave my side to take a seat. "Wanna see if Rory needs help in the kitchen?"

"Sure." He was reluctant to answer.

The two of us went into the kitchen, finding Rory and Tabitha arguing.

"I just wanna help!" Tabitha crossed her arms.

"And I don't want any of your help!" Rory replied.

"That's because you just wanna be the person in charge." The blonde girl scoffed.

"Why does that matter?!" They grumbled. "I like things being done a certain way and as long as everyone gets their breakfast, it shouldn't matter how it's done!"

These two have only gotten worse with their arguing...

"What's going on in here?" I asked.

The two turned their head, both pairs of eyes lighting up upon seeing the man beside me.

"Zenny!" Tabitha rushed over to Zenith. "I really missed you yesterday. Do you wanna hang with me today?"

"I'd like that." He agreed with hesitation.

"Oh, Felix," Rory remembered. "I talked with some of the others yesterday and I think our activity today should be a pool party."

A pool party...

Pools...

Water...

...

I'm not ready. Maybe one day, but not here or now. Even with these people, I can't bring myself to get in.

"I can't." I simply said.

"You can't what?" Rory raised an eyebrow. "Swim?"

"Not that." I shook my head. "I can't get in the pool."

"Why? Is something wrong?" They weren't picking up what I was trying to put down for them.

...

Rory of all people would understand. Zenith and Tabitha are nice, plus I think they already know.

"I'm–" I was interrupted.

"I can't get my hair wet." Tabitha interjected. "And I don't want to get my nails wet either. I just got them done and don't wanna ruin them."

"What are we going to do then if not everybody comes to the pool party?" The food tester puzzled.

"I'll figure something out over breakfast." I assured them.

"Speaking of breakfast, I need to get back to work on that." Rory remembered.

"May I join you?" Zenith asked.

"Of course." The cyanette nodded. "It's good to have you back in the kitchen, Zenith."

"What about me?" Tabitha innocently questioned.

"Go with Felix." Rory commanded.

Tabitha huffed in protest, before leaving with me. She went to sit with Quartz, while I sat across from my sister and Isaiah.

"I'm going to try out the writing advice you gave me." Fawn told the blonde.

"Since I am stuck here, it wouldn't hurt to pick up drawing. Maybe I'll be good enough to where I can change careers." Isaiah sighed after mentioning his job.

Hmm... Writing and drawing...

"Do you not like your job?" I questioned.

"I have a love-hate relationship with my profession." He pushed up his glasses before glaring at me. "I'd rather not discuss it right now."

"Ah." I nodded, before changing the subject. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation about writing and drawing."

"Yeah, so?" The blonde male grew defensive.

"I need to find an group activity to replace the pool party." I explained. "I think we could incorporate the art room into this somehow."

"Like a group creative session?" Fawn guessed.

"That could work!" I excitedly said.

"The more people to bounce ideas off, the better." Isaiah said. "Well unless those people have shit ideas. Then you don't want them to taint your good ones."

"I think we have a pretty wide range of creativity in people here." I stated.

"When are we doing this creative session in the art room?" Fawn asked.

"Are you excited for it?" I replied with another question.

"Yes, but I need to prepare myself to be around everyone and probably talk to them too." She explained to me with a distressed tone.

"I'll ask Rory when they come out." I said. "But it'll more than likely be decided by the end of breakfast."

I chatted with Isaiah and Fawn. Minerva and Blane ending up joining us as well. Amelia sat next to Blane, but didn't talk with anyone. Gabriel moved to sit next to me, but he didn't talk much either. We ended up talking about books with Isaiah and Minerva carrying the conversation.

"Breakfast is ready!" Rory announced, as them and Zenith handed out plates.

Once the food was passed out, I told Rory about the plans I made with Fawn and Isaiah.

"That sounds like fun!" They enthused. "What time are we going to met in the art room?"

"What about 1 pm?" Minerva suggested. "That gives up time to do whatever we want in the morning, but it's not too late that the early bedtime people miss out on anything."

"And we can have the pool party afterwards." Nikolas added on.

"When is the pool party starting?" Amelia inquired.

"After the art session." Rory clarified.

"What time will that be?" The pinkette reiterated her question.

"How about 3 pm?" The cyanette recommended. "Two hours of group bonding sound like enough for the first day."

"2 hours..." Fawn mumbled to herself, distraught. She pulled her beanie down to help herself calm herself.

"Now that our schedule is set," Nora popped out of her chair. "It's time for today's fun activity!"

Sighs and groans filled the dining room. I dreaded the thought of having to take another test.

"Today is going to be much more fun, trust me." The bluenette assured everyone. "We're going to have a—"

"Scavenger Hunt!" Wolf the Cat jumped from behind a plant, finishing Nora's sentence for her.

Nora frowned, sitting back down at the table. Her spotlight had been stolen by a black and pink cat that barks. Again.

"A Scavenger Hunt?" Amelia asked, unimpressed.

"Yes. That's what I said." Wolf confirmed, annoyed.

"The test yesterday made a little sense, but what the fuck is a Scavenger Hunt for?" Rory asked.

"It's meant to force you into pairs and potentially work with people you don't like or know very well." Explained the small robot.

Fawn winced at this. Rory and Tabitha shot daggers at each other.

"Unfortunately, there aren't benefits to this experiment. Don't like the lack of reward keep you from trying your best, though." Wolf added on, malice in its voice. "The losing pair will lose their personal items until the next class trial period ends."

"Is that a m-m-motive?" Blane inquired.

"Nope." He shook his bead. "Just another gimmick to push you over the edge when the real motive comes."

The way it said that sent a shiver down my spine.

I have horrible feeling about the motive...

"Anyways, I hope you all know what a Scavenger Hunt is because I can't be bothered to explain it to you." The black and pink cat said. "Your Petal Pads will be updated with a list of the items you need to collect and your partner."

I checked my Petal Pad to see the list and who I was paired with.

Partner

Zenith

List

Scissors

Fork

Vase

Syringe

Towel

Laundry Detergent

Zenith? Maybe I could give him a mini tour while we gather our items?

"I'm really glad I got you as my partner, Felix." Zenith stated, as he approached me. He lowered his voice significantly before speaking again. "You're one of the few people I trust here."

"I trust you too, then." I replied, confused by his unprompted declaration.

I looked to Fawn to see who she was paired with. Hunter was talking to her, but she was giving me her panicked look. I gave her a thumbs up, before leaving the cafeteria with Zenith.

"I think Fawn will be fine with Hunter." I said aloud. "He's pretty nice."

"I haven't spoken with him much." The chauffeur commented.

She's be fine with him.

I hope...

"First up on the list is... scissors?" His eyes widened upon reading the word. "Where would we go about finding scissors?"

"One of the news rooms is an art room." I explained to him. "I remember seeing some in there."

We made our way to the art room. Amelia had just walked out when we got to the doorway. She held a pair of scissors in her hands.

"We're at the right place, I believe." Zenith deduced.

As the two of us walked in, Nora was trying to walk out. She stopped to let us in before stopping me.

"I see you and your partner are getting along well." Nora noted. "Amelia just wants to do everything by herself because she can't trust me or something."

You haven't exactly proven yourself trustworthy, so that checks out.

"I guess it helps that Zenith and are friends." I said. "I don't think I've you and Amelia every interact before today. Actually, I don't think I've seen Amelia interact with anyone."

"She not super friendly, haha," The bluenette awkwardly chuckled. She then turned her head to look around me. "Zenith has the scissors. I should probably go find Amelia."

"Yeah. You don't want to let her do all the work." I laughed.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind–" Nora cut herself off. "Well off to find Amelia!"

With that, Nora left. Zenith and made our way back to the dinning room to get to the kitchen.

"We probably should have gone in order of the rooms closest to us, instead of blindly following the list." The chauffeur pointed once we obtained a fork.

"Yeah, sorry about that." I apologized.

"What are you apologizing for?" He queried, grabbing a vase as we walked down the hall.

"We're doing this Scavenger Hunt in the most inefficient way possible." I sighed. "We could loose and you'd get your personal item confiscated."

"That wouldn't be that big of deal." Zenith stated, pulling out his key chain. "Don't get me wrong, I would miss this if it got taken up. But I can go without if I need to."

"You wouldn't be mad if we lost?" I questioned.

"I wouldn't." He assured, shoving the keychain down in his trousers.

"Are you sure?" I asked, again.

"Yes, Felix." The slightest amount of irritation could be heard in his voice. "You don't have to try and go out of your way to please me."

"I wasn't–" I tried to explain myself.

"You would have started trying harder to not come in last if I expressed discomfort in losing my keychain, right?" The orangette questioned me.

"Well, yeah." I nodded. "But anyone would do that."

"No. I'm sure if I was paired with someone I didn't know very well and they had no problem losing their item, they wouldn't care if I lost mine as well." He explained. "However, you would want to not come in last, not for your own sake, but for my sake if I cared more about my keychain."

"I guess that makes sense." I said. "What are you getting at?"

"I've noticed that you always try to please people." Zenith explained to me. "Your quite passive and you don't enjoy conflict."

I wouldn't necessarily call myself passive...

"I don't like conflict." I confirmed.

"I can understand that, but why do you always want to please people? I've never seen you turn anyone done." The chauffeur asked me.

"I want to be friends with everyone and keep the group happy." I admitted. "And, for the record, I turned down Rory's pool party earlier today."

"I am curious, though." He turned to look me eye. "What is your reason for not wanting to swim?"

A thought of seeing myself in third person, submerged underwater, flashed in my brain. However, I looked much more like Fawn than myself.

I shook my head and tried to think about something else to bury the thought back into a deep hole on my brain.

"Hey, we're at the infirmary." I pointed out. "Since your carrying the vase and the scissors, I'll go get the syringe."

I rushed inside the infirmary to escape Zenith. No. Not escaping Zenith. Escaping myself.

Minerva and Blane were both inside the infirmary when I barged in. Blane was cleaning his safety googles and Minerva held all of their items in her arms.

"Hey, Felix." Minerva greeted me.

"Hey." I waved to her. "Where the syringes?"

She pointed towards the drawer under the sink.

"Thanks." I thanked her.

"Are you okay?" She questioned. "You seem a little less chatty and enthusiastic than usual."

"Oh, yeah. I'm good." I lied, forcing a smile. "I'm just worried Zenith and I won't finish in time."

"Speaking of Zenith," The reporter frowned. "How is he? I haven't gotten a chance to speak with him since the trial."

"He's doing better than yesterday, but that's not saying much." I told her. "I think he's having fun with the Scavenger Hunt though."

"That's g-good." Blane said as he put his safety googles back on. "He was m-m-most effected b-by Skyler's d-d-death."

Skyler's death...

The memory of my head reaching for the closet door played in slow motion. It was painful to remember turning the door handle. That horrible, horrible door handle.

Skyler...

We had a wonderful conversation on the game room couch. I had fun with them at game night, despite them beating me the entire time.

Is dead.

The thought of their lifeless body filled my mind, my stomach bubbling a little.

"I can't leave Zenith waiting." I stated, speed walking to the door. "See you two around."

I closed the infirmary door and took a deep breath. I started walking to the laundry room, not saying a word to Zenith.

"Did I do something wrong, Felix?" He inquired, genuinely worried.

"No, not all at." I tried to smile to show him I was alright. "I'm not feeling very well right now."

"Do you need to rest? I can continue without you." Zenith offered.

"It's fine." I told him. "I just want the Scavenger Hunt to be over with."

We stopped by the laundry room to grab laundry detergent. Quartz and Tabitha were doing the same.

"You know," Tabitha held a solid square of blue and orange laundry detergent in her hand. "It kinda looks like candy."

"Don't it eat, Tabi." Quartz advised her. "It could kill you."

"Relax, Rose– Quartz!" The blonde assured the white haired girl. "I would never eat this. It's far too ugly to be eaten."

"Didn't you compare it to candy earlier?" The chauffeur reminded her.

Eventually, Zenith and I approached the final room to get the final item on the list. Unfortunately, there were no more towels left in the laundry room and there was only one other place to get them.

"Felix, are you shaking?" Zenith asked, concerned.

"No." I denied, ceasing my trembling at once.

"Please tell me what's wrong." He requested, sounding worried.

"It's that room and the water." I answered. "It makes me uncomfortable, and I can't bring myself to go in there."

Not yet, anyways.

I want to overcome my fear and self consciousness. I want to dive into the water, completely free of the worries that live brings me. I want to swim again, some day.

"Why were you scared to tell me that?" Asked the orangette.

"I'm embarrassed about being scared to get in the water." I covered my chest with my arms.

"You don't need to feel embarrassed about that when your around me." Zenith assured me with a smile. "I understand and you can come to me with anything that you need anytime."

"Thank you, Zenith." I felt myself warm up with joy. "You can come to me anytime for anything."

"Thank you." He thanked me. "Now how about I get the towel and we finish up this Scavenger Hunt."

Once we had collected a pair of scissors, a fork, a vase, a syringe, a towel, and laundry detergent, we returned to the dining room. When I saw a lot of people there my heart sinking at the thought of us being the last ones to finish.

I know Zenith said it was okay, but coming in last would bother me so much. It would give me another reminder that I've failed time and time again–

Wait.

...

2, 4, 6, 8... 10? We weren't last?

"Someone's going to lose her screen time privileges." Wolf the Cat snickered.

We weren't last!

Finally, the last pair arrived. Tabitha and Quartz.

"And the results of the Scavenger Hunt are in!" Wolf announced to all of us. "The losers are Tabitha and Quartz!"

"What?!" Tabitha screamed. "How did we come in last place?"

"Probably because you two took forever." Gabriel pointed out.

"We did spend a lot of time walking to all the rooms..." Quartz quietly come to a conclusion.