Thirst - The Dark Side (Book I of the Thirst Trilogy)

Chapter 47 - Victory Is His

Arien's POV

"Gather up, everyone. Boys and girls, eleventh and twelfth. Come in front."

The teacher announced and we followed her, where she stood in the middle of the field, together with the other teachers.

When we were finally there, I looked around the place and my sight passed by the seven Levid brothers. They seem irritated by something because of their crunched eyebrows and grumpy looking faces.

"Okay. Listen up students. We will be having a poster and slogan contest."everybody groaned. "Now, now. I already told you that this field trip is still part of school. You are not just here to have fun, but also to learn things about this place."

She explained the rubrics about the contest and what the theme would be. Of course it was all about the forest and everything that includes in.

When we finally understood everything, everybody finally noised about the ideas that formed inside their minds but the teacher hushed us for the nth time.

"Before you talk about your ideas, this will be a group contest."some students groaned again, but others were somewhat excited.

"Okay. Here's the grouping. Everyone will be divided into eight. And were down to thirty groups. Four students are from the eleventh grade and the other four are the twelfth graders. Two boys and two girls from each grade. Understand? Well, we already picked the groupings, sadly for you guys."

"Oh come on!"

"I thought we could actually pick out our own group mates."

"What a shame."

"I should have known."

Everyone murmured as they all disagree with the teachers. Some teachers grinned and others remained serious. But my mind remained outside of my skull, still thinking about the things that happened to me inside the forest.

Having a lot of questions inside my mind makes me go crazy over this unbelievable matter.

"Ms. Walter? Arien Walter? Where are you?"

"Arien, hey Arien."Poly elbowed me lightly. I finally came back to my senses and turned to her.

"Y-Yes?"

"The teacher have been calling for you for the nth time."she answered. Oh dang.

"I-I'm here teacher!"I put my hands up behind the swarm of students.

"Come here."and I obliged to her. I pushed myself in between the students and thankfully they also made a way for me.

When I finally made it in the middle, she ushered me beside her. Once I was standing next to her, she then called out another name that I think that was from my class.

"Mr. Rain Ellicott, join Ms. Walter."

"Next is, Ms. Daisy Flora."

"Fredd Hailman."

"Wendy Mckenzie."

All of them raised a hand before joining me in front.

"The next students I'll be calling out are from the twelfth grade that'll be joining our first group."

"Sarah Harkins, come in front."

"Paul Williams."

"Faerie Dandell."

"And lastly, Ethan Levid."

My eyes widened when I heard his name. Oh great. We just had to be in the same group. You've got to be kidding me...

I had my head low as I watch his familiar looking shoes getting near to our group and surprisingly, he stopped just beside me. And now I'm uncomfortable.

"That's it for our first group. Here,"the teacher presented us a huge illustration board. I took it from her when she glanced at me briefly.

"I'm expecting that you all brought your art materials. You can start now if you want. Find a comfortable place to make your poster."she said and moved on to calling out other students to be grouped.

"Ohhkay... Who knows how to draw?"I asked them. Everybody went silent. Daisy raised her hand at me.

"You can?"

"Uhm...no, not really. But I can color really nicely."she said and expressed a cute little smile.

"Okay then. Let's find a place to make this poster."

A few moments later, we settled at a nearby picnic table and started drawing the theme of our poster. It was all about nature so it's more on greenery and biodiversity. Good thing I know how to draw, I didn't really attend art classes. It was already my talent, like thankfully.

As we girls draw and add some colors on the illustration board, the boys are the ones who give us what we needed.

Sometimes, I caught Fredd and Paul looking at me quite differently. I don't know why but I feel like there's something behind it.

As of Ethan, I was wondering why he's looking at those guys like he wanted to kill them. I just shrugged my shoulders and continued to draw some artistic landscapes and tress and rainforest.

At last, we were finally done even before the teacher could tell us that our time is up. In the end, we took fifth place and was thankful that we still have a prize. Only the top five can have prizes.

While we were getting our prize, I looked around only to find the other three boys missing. Where have they gone to? I just took their prizes to give it to them later.

It was already dawn and the teachers ordered the male students to make a bonfire.

I was resting and watching them by the picnic table when I noticed some silhouettes coming from the woods. When they were finally visible, I finally recognized them. They were Paul, Fredd and Ethan.

The first two boys looked pale and terrified, but the other one? He looked so cool as he looked around and he's eyes landed on me.

He smiled.

Holy sh*t.

He smiled. What the heck?

Is he high? I've never seen him smile at me before.

He tapped those two guys on the back and ushered them to go towards me. I had the gifts resting on the picnic table. I saw him whisper something to them that made them more fear stricken.

The two guys slowly approached me with calculated steps as if they were afraid of me. What would be the reason for them to be afraid of me?

"Uhm.. hi guys. We won fifth place. Here are the prizes for you two."I told them. They took theirs from the picnic table and slowly backed away.

"T-Thank you, Arien. We'll be off now."Fredd said and they ran, away from me. I sighed.

Then, the last guy that I wanted to talk to in this field trip went near me.

"Is this for me?"he asked, still have that smile on his face. I cleared my throat.

"Y-Yes. W-We won fifth place."I answered stuttering. Oh dang it! Why can't I just talk to him in a normal way?!

He picked up the medium sized box on the table and grinned at it.

"But all I felt was victory."

~~~

A/N

Weeee.....