S. F. - 14

***

New.

The embers of the coal hissed as I covered them with wet sand, completely putting the fire out.

I could feel P'Tay's presence behind me as he watched me the whole time like I was an inmate under surveillance.

"I'm already done, Sir," I informed him as I brushed off the sand from my hands and clothes.

"Turn around," he ordered for the nth time.

"Why? Are you gonna kill me from behind?" I snickered but still complied to his order.

He didn't say a thing and I just waited for him to do something but nothing happened. We just both stood there like complete idiots in the middle of the beach. Tss.

"What are y-" I was about to turn around to ask but then I felt a light tap on my back.

"G-good job. Go back to your room now," he muttered lowly and pushed me lightly to the direction of our rooms.

"Tsss. You're as vague as a murky puddle of mud," I mumbled as I made my way towards the room.

"Where have you been? Did Mr Tay punish you without us knowing??" Gun asked the moment I came in.

Gun, Mond, Pluem and I shared the same room. Gun was the only one awake as the two were already sound asleep in their beds.

"Uh, just went out for a walk after extinguishing the bonfire," I lied and started preparing for bed.

"Ohoooh. You snake! You went out on a date, didn't you? So who was it??" Gun exclaimed and I immediately shushed him down to avoid waking up the two.

"What date? Are you crazy?" I exclaimed in a low voice.

"Then what's this?"

I flinched when he got something from my back and shoved a pink paper heart directly to my face.

"Who gave this to you???"

I grabbed the paper heart from him and I could feel my throat drying up the moment I realized what it was.

I wish you luck on your graduation.

"I-I forgot to remove it after the activity earlier," I stammered as I blurted out the most logical reason I could think of at the moment.

I immediately pocketed the heart and went to bed to avoid Gun, but being the inquisitive person that he was, he followed me towards my bed.

"Tsss. You can't lie to me, New. I didn't see any pink hearts earlier. There were only red, green, and blue. So tell me, who is it from??"

I quickly covered myself with the blanket and yawned hoping that would stop Gun from incessantly questioning me.

"Just go to bed, Gun. You have to sleep so you can grow."

"Tsss! Okay, you're the one who's tall then," he ranted and stomped his way to his own bed after turning off the lights.

I stared wide awake in the dark whilst thinking about what just happened. No matter how much I tried to deny it, I noticed that P'Tay's treatment towards me definitely changed after Kao broke up with him. Or was I imagining things?

Okay, I should definitely get some sleep before I could think of more nonsense.

***

"Okay, today's activity will be done in groups. You can choose whomever you want to be with. Each group must have at least five members."

Gun immediately grabbed my arm and grinned at me.

I looked for Gunsmile and White but they were already being dragged into a group.

"I know you need a handsome man in your group."

I scowled as Mond approached us and flashed his arm muscles at all of us. We still needed two to be a complete group.

"Can we join you?"

I glanced at Earth and Peter, okay fine Pete, who were approaching us.

"Of course! We're already complete then!" Gun then raised his hand and the officer nodded in approval.

"Okay, has everybody found a group? Around the resort are hidden treasures. All you have to do is to find one for each member of the group. And again, this is a group effort. If a member doesn't have a treasure, the entire group will be punished later at the closing event. You have 30 minutes to complete the task. Questions?"

The area was then filled with buzz from the students who already laid out their plans on how to achieve the task but no one raised a question.

"Okay, if you don't have questions, your time starts now!"

The students immediately scampered towards the beach and started looking for treasures. Some started digging in the sand whilst some looked behind the trees and cottages.

Gun, being the competitive one, started digging in the sand with his bare hands. Mond and Earth joined him whilst Pete just watched them with a disinterested look on his face.

"Aren't you helping?" I raised an eyebrow at him as I adjusted my shorts so I could crouch and start digging.

"Nah. Don't even want to be here in the first place," he grimaced.

"Tsss. Then what are you doing here? I didn't even see you participating in the activities yesterday."

"Kao told me I should go. I can't say no."

"Soo, are you together now?" I was hesitant to open the topic but the curious soul in me was definitely starting to wake up the moment he mentioned Kao's name.

"Yeah, sort of. I guess."

I furrowed as I heard his answer. Like, how vague could it be?

"You mean fling?"

"Nah, I don't know. We're only allowed to be with each other, but we haven't put a label to it...yet."

I didn't say a thing as I knew that I didn't have any right although I wanted to know more about their relationship.

"So has he told you yet?" Pete asked after a moment of silence.

"Who?" I asked in confusion. I glanced at the three who were still digging in the sand. Gun had already tied a bandana around his head showing how determined he was to win the game.

"Kao told me he likes you. Didn't he tell you yet?"

"Wait. Who are you referring to? Who likes me?" I asked continuously as I was confused and at the same curious about whom he was referring to.

"Didn't Tawan tell you?" he stopped for a moment and then bit his lips. "Oh, shit. Kao's gonna kill me."

I looked at him quite confused as he palmed his own face.

"J-just forget what I just said," he said dismissively

"Hey, you can't just—."

"Yah! Are you two just gonna chitchat there the whole day??" Gun shouted at us.

Pete then made his way towards the three. I still wanted to inquire more but the others might hear us so I just dismissed the thought and decided to help them look for the so-called treasures.

***

Gun was sulking and he had been glaring at us for quite some time already. After minutes of relentless digging, we failed as Pete didn't even move a muscle to look for treasures. Only Gun and Mond managed to get one.

"Tsss. You look like giants but you can't even win a simple game. I swear to God I'm gonna kill all of you if we end up getting humiliated at the closing event later," Gun whined.

I just scowled at him and sat on the bench. We were gathered around at the resort grounds for the closing event.

I couldn't actually focus on what was happening at the moment as I was rather preoccupied with what Pete said earlier.

I unconsciously swallowed the lump in my throat as my eye caught him (yeah, you already know whom I was talking about) standing under the shade of the tree. He was talking to the other teachers and it seemed like they were in the middle of a joke as he was smiling from ear to ear.

I gasped as his eyes landed on mine. I quickly avoided my gaze as I was feeling rather conscious with the kind of stare he was giving me, especially after what Pete said. Or I could have just misinterpreted what he said.

Okay, stop overreacting. It probably meant nothing.

The officers then announced the commencement of the closing event. Everybody cheered as the winners from the game earlier were given cash gifts.

"Ugghh. I could have won that prize if it weren't for you, you useless creatures!" Gun started throwing tantrums for the nth time.

"Tsss. The cash is not that huge. Why are you so fixated over it?" Mond complained and attempted to choke Gun but the latter just pushed him away.

Soon, the teams who failed were called to the makeshift stage. Each team was told to pick a punishment from a glass bowl.

"See, the punishments are not that severe. There's no need to freak out," Pete scowled as the team onstage picked singing as a punishment.

I consciously glanced at P'Tay's direction as we were called on stage.

"Tsss. I've never been a loser all my life," Gun grumbled as he walked ahead of us.

He then picked a paper from the bowl whilst sporting an annoyed expression the whole time.

"Okay, here's the punishment for our last losing team....Dancing the crab dance!"

"Wait what??!" The five of us all together said.

I mean, I couldn't dance for heaven's sake!

The entire area was then filled with cheers from the other students.

Gun was glaring at the four of us.

"This is the humiliation I'm talking about!" he exclaimed.

We all together jolted as the air was filled with music.

"COME ON DANCE! COME ON DANCE!"

Mond, being the most confident among us started swaying his hips as the audience anticipated for the main part, the chorus.

Gun, who was whining earlier also started doing some moves with Mond whilst Earth just stood in utter hesitation. His ears were beet red as he watched the two dancing.

I glanced at Pete who was standing with an unamused look on his face. It seemed like he was also hesitant to join such crazy antic, but I could see that he was suppressing a smile whilst watching the two.

"Oh, come on! If you won't dance, you're not allowed to get off the stage," the department officer declared through the mic.

Ayi ca ma soy pii nee...

I groaned as I closed my eyes to somehow lessen the humiliation that was starting to creep into my system.

Puni ipi ipi ipi ipi ipi ceb layPuni ipi ipi ipi ipi ipi keb tay

I bit my lips as I executed the dance steps. The others then started shouting and cheering and went as far as singing along to the song.

I glanced at Mond and Gun and stifled a laugh as I saw them thrusting their hips like it was their last chance to dance.

Earth was dancing beside them, glancing at Gun once in awhile to copy the steps whilst Pete just moved his hands up and down as nonchalantly as ever that he looked like he was participating in a statue dance.

Ma ay ipi ipi ipi ipi ipi ne aySi kay ci tay yo na pu ni pi...

The crowd roared as we capped off the dance and immediately went off the stage.

I almost tripped on my way down as I my eyes landed on P'Tay who was obviously suppressing a smile.

I just rolled my eyes at him that made him break into a smile.

What? I mouthed but he just grinned even more.

He mouthed something back, but I could only figure out the word "you" and nothing else.

"Shit, that was freaking embarrassing!" Gun exclaimed behind me.

"Wow, coming from someone who danced like it was the end of the world," I taunted as we went back to our place.

"Well at least, Mr Tay looked at us," he beamed at me.

"What? Wait, do you perhaps like him?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

He grinned at me and tucked his hair behind his ear. "I just find him cute, okay? My heart already belongs to someone."

"Tsss. Don't keep your hopes up. He's already taken," I immediately blurted out.

What the fuck, New? Where did that come from??

"Tsss. Okay, then he's taken. I only said he's cute," Gun pouted and grabbed his phone from his pocket to take some selfies.

I looked around just trying to look for no one in particular but my eyes eventually met P'Tay's and I could feel my throat drying up as he flashed me a wide grin.

Fuck. What was that for??

***

I tightened my grasp on the straps of my bag as I got on the bus. We were bound home that day which only meant that I had to face yet another struggle of motion sickness.

"New! Sir Tay's looking for you!" the department officer called me before I could completely get on the bus.

I quickly looked over at his direction and furrowed as I saw him leaning on his car.

I trudged towards him, dragging my feet as slowly as possible whilst thinking of possible reasons he wanted to see me.

"Sir?" I asked the moment I reached him.

But instead of answering, he just grabbed my backpack and shove it at the backseat of his car.

"You're coming with me," he declared without even giving me an opportunity to complain as he already opened the passenger seat and literally pushed me inside.

What the fuck is happening??!

***