“You both want to show each other that you’re the best. You both want a face off with each other. So that you both would be satisfied. These stupid pranks would get you nowhere,” Tristan said.
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that you two should meet me out near the pool exactly after one hour. I’ll need Olivia’s help in this though,” he said happily.
I shrugged. “Whatever you have in mind is not going to work. We’ll still be at each other’s throats after this.”
“Trust me. After this you both would be in each other’s arms.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right.”
“Okay, not exactly in each other’s arms but you two might actually be friends.”
“Okay, that’s bullshit.”
“Just wait and watch.”
Tristan disappeared off into the mansion, probably to Olivia’s room. I doubted she would even want to see his stupid face but I was shocked out of my mind when the two came out of the library together, sporting mischievous smiles.
The two then proceeded towards Olivia’s room and shut the door. I had no idea what they were doing inside together but I was positive that I wasn’t going to like it one bit.
Half an hour later, the two finally got out of that damn room. I was sat outside, staring at the door as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. I was continuously stuffing my mouth with ice cream, chocolates and a piece of chocolate cake while I waited.
When they came out, Olivia instantly started dragging me away and into my room where she locked me in, ignoring my protests. I pounded on the door and yelled for them to let me out but to no avail.
What the hell were these two planning?
I heard yelling and complaints from the other side of the door and I could make out that Ethan was annoyed as he was shoved into his room too.
After that, it became deadly silent. There was no one around to let me out of my room and I was sure Tristan and Olivia had warned the servants to not open our room doors.
I was bored so I decided to take a nap.
It felt like hours had passed until I was rudely woken up by Olivia who was bouncing on the bed, yelling for me to wake up.
In my sleep ridden state, I didn’t know how she managed to drag me out in the pool area, just where Tristan wanted me to be.
Ethan was also present there, along with Tristan. Ethan looked pissed, more angry than he had been in the morning. It made me smile.
“So, you little kids ready for this?” Tristan asked us enthusiastically.
“What the hell have you dragged me here for?” Ethan asked angrily.
“We four have gathered here for a fair competition between Ethan Noel Evans and Juliet Katie Jenson.” I stared at him with my mouth open, not because of his announcement of the competition because frankly I saw that coming, but because of Juliet’s middle name, Katie. It was too similar to mine. So similar that it was starting to creep me out.
I was Julie Kate James and I was pretending to be Juliet Katie Jenson, the daughter of a billionaire.
It couldn’t be another coincidence, could it? It seemed impossible to me. How could our first and second names be so similar? It was too close.
“Before we start this, I want you two to promise us something,” Olivia said.
“What?” I asked cautiously.
“The one who wins this, is the better one between the two of you. You two will have to accept that fact and move on with your lives. We don’t want to hear of any more pranks that you two pulled on each other. Don’t even try and hide it because that’d be useless.” Tristan said, pointedly glancing over at Ethan.
“After the winner is declared, we want you two to at least be civil to each other. Please try to be friends, you don’t know how amazing you guys are individually and we would love it if you two try to get to know each other’s amazing side,” Olivia added.
“I’d love something else too, babe,” Tristan whispered in her ear but we all heard it. Olivia turned red and jabbed her elbow into his stomach.
Tristan groaned in pain, which he tried his best not to show.
“You’re mistaken. All the amazing stuff is right here.” Ethan said, gesturing to himself from head to toe. “Not over there,” he said, pointing at me.
“It’s sad how delusional you are.” I sighed, shaking my head at him pitifully.
“Guys, this is what we’re talking about. You two have an image of each other set in your mind and it’s not pleasant at all and you just don’t want to see each other in a different light. You both are so stubborn,” Olivia said.
“So we want you two to promise us that after this face off, you both will be friendly and not say nasty things to each other.”
Olivia looked at me expectantly. “So you agree to do that, right?”
I thought a little over it. If I emerged as the winner, I wouldn’t have to worry about Ethan’s silly pranks. I was getting tired of how childish we had started to act. It was so unlike of me.
“Yes, I agree,” I said, nodding at Olivia as she gave me a wide smile.
Ethan snorted. “You’re such a coward.”
“Agreeing with making peace with you doesn’t make? me? a coward. It makes? you? a coward. You’re so scared to be friendly with me. You’re scared that I’d turn out nothing like you think of me till now. So Ethan Noel Evans, tell me, are you afraid of me?”
He stared at me for a long moment. It must be a first that he wasn’t glaring at me. I kept my gaze on him as he exhaled sharply through his nose.
“Fine, I agree.” He said somewhat reluctantly. “But I’m not afraid of you. I’m perfectly sure you’re just like what I think you are.”
“Well then, you’re in for a surprise because I’m nothing like that. You don’t even know me,” I said, smiling victoriously at him.
“We’ll see about that.”
“Ooh, yes! I didn’t expect you two to give in so soon. Anyways, Tristan tell them about the game!” Olivia said excitedly.
“Okay. So this has three rounds. The first one is where you jump into that pool,” he said, gesturing behind us towards the pool, “and collect an object – a key to your room. We’ve locked your rooms and both of your room’s keys are similar so it doesn’t matter which key you find. The first one who manages to find it, will win the first round.”
I look around the vast pool in front of us. “But the stupid key would be? anywhere? in that pool. Don’t tell me we have to search the entire pool for that key,” I whined.
“Well, what did you expect? Nothing easy, I hope,” Tristan retorted.
“The second round?” Ethan asked casually.
“Is hide and seek. The one who got the key first will have an advantage. She or he will go second so they might know the strategies. It’s not really hide and seek. All you have to do is get to your room without being caught by the other one.” This one seemed pretty easy. The mansion was huge and one could get lost easily. I was sure I could sneak up to my room without any problem. “However, if you were to encounter your enemy outside your room, then you? have? to get to your room. How? I don’t know. You can wrestle past them, do anything to get into your room. But make sure you don’t end up killing each other. Once you enter your room, you’re safe. Then you have to search for three notes where we’ve wrote riddles from the internet. The one who takes the least amount of time to complete the task is the winner of that round. If you win these two, you’re the winner! If not, then you two must enter round three!”
“And what is it?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. This better be a little easy.
“Nothing strenuous, we’re all going to sit around and let you two figure out the answers to the riddles. No cheating allowed, meaning you’re not allowed to search the answers up. The one who takes the least amount of time will be the winner. That’s it. I think it’ll satisfy you guys.”
“Okay, let’s start. Shall we?”
“Wait, are we supposed to jump into the pool with these clothes on?” I asked, looking down at my shorts and tank top.
“Unless you want to do this in a bikini,” Tristan said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“No,” I said quickly.
“Let’s start round one!” Olivia said excitedly as she clapped her hands.
Here? goes? nothing.