Chapter 7
Zacharias
I looked around. There wasn’t a building in sight. What I could see ahead was a bunch of obstacles. I grinned. “Guys, let’s do this thing.”
The first obstacles were things to climb and jump across. Fizz was far ahead of everyone. Then came Snowy. I was last, of course. Chang was pretty good at it, which surprised me. She was such a slip of a thing that I did not expect that she would be better than I was. Not that I was jealous, of course. Not at all.
Angelina
I loved the first set of obstacles.. All the climbing and the running and the jumping. I was far in front of everyone else, but not too far. I slowed down a little for them. I felt like the head of the pack. I grinned over my shoulder, “You guys coming?”
They smiled back. It was perfect, until; “Ahhh!” screeched Snowy, at a volume I didn’t think would do much long term good to my ears. “What is it?” I screamed back. Everyone had stopped dead in their tracks.
Vincent
I had slipped on a stray twig on the climbing wall. Now I was hanging from the wooden step jutting out of the climbing wall by one hand. I had been lagging behind marvelling at the pulley system that suspended this obstacle course. Everyone had overtaken me.
I looked up at the tiny weak looking thing I was holding on to. That piece of rotting wood couldn’t hold me long, I knew. Cho looked down at me from her position at the platform, realizing the same thing. I could see she was bracing herself to do something she did not want to do.
Cho
“Whatever you’re gonna do,” yelled Vincent, “Do it quickly!”
The wooden piece began to crack. It was too late for anyone to start climbing down. He would have fallen long before they reached.
I steeled myself and undid the hairpin that was keeping my bun in place. It immediately unravelled into a long thin braid. It reached far below my feet. I lay down on the platform. “Someone hold my legs,” I said. I dropped my braid down and said. “Grab on!”
Zacharias
Snowy grabbed her hair and hung on it for a few seconds, searching for a foothold. He found one and let go. Fizz was holding Chang’s legs tight. Chang’s eyes were screwed up in wordless pain.
I watched in open mouthed shock. I was amazed at the gesture that Chang had made. To have someone hang by your hair must be pretty painful. When Snowy reached the platform, Chang stood up, her plait swirling around her body.
Angelina
I signalled to Zacharias, Come on!. He looked at me curiously. I gazed at him annoyance and mouthed to him, Let’s go! . He paused and then joined me in climbing the last of the physical obstacles that I could see.
The reason I did this was so that Snowy and Chang, no wait, Snowy and ’Punzel (short for Rapunzel) could have some alone time. I knew that Snowy wanted to thank her. I tried to give them that space and engaged Sandy in conversation. “I think I’m gonna call Chang ’Punzel from now on...”
Vincent
I looked at Cho in gratitude. We didn’t say anything to each other for a few moments. Then I said, “Hey, that was a really nice thing that you did for me. You saved me from certain and rather painful injury. Thank you.”
She gave me a rather impish grin with a twinkle in her eye, “In my country, we would do that on one knee.”
Cho
I had just been joking about the on one knee thing, of course, but Snowy took it seriously. He came down to one knee, held me palm reverently, and repeated his words. I smiled sincerely at him. He got up and asked, “Did I do it right?”
I didn’t say anything but I impulsively hugged him. He didn’t seem very shocked at all but just hugged me back. When we let go, we stayed still for a few moments without moving. I felt the heat rise up on my cheeks and detected the same on his.
Vincent
I was just shocked. More shocked than when Cho had let me use her hair to climb up.She didn't seem to be comfortable with touch and closeness but she had still hugged me. My mind was all a whirl.
I knew that I was blushing, but I wouldn’t let this get awkward. I suggested, “Why don’t we go on?”
“Sure,” she answered. and we climbed up, helping each other up at the difficult parts