Your Dangerous Game

Chapter 12. The Scavenger Hunt

(Mindy Esmond’s Perspective)

Mindy decided to leave him for good. She felt like she could find her own inspiration in the woods without him. And she could write down her assignment on the paper without him disturbing her.

It was time to be set free in the wilderness. She could do it. She was an independent girl who could take care of herself.

As she walked further into the walking trail in Fairmount Park, she saw pine trees everywhere she went. The autumn view looked beautiful around here. She could breathe the fresh air while taking some inspirational pictures of nature on her phone.

When she looked back, Alain was not following her. She was all alone in the woods. That guy was probably walking in a different direction from her. He was probably enjoyed being in his own company without her. He seemed independent and wild. He could also take care of himself.

For a second, she took a deep breath and tried to enjoy the environment around her. She was all alone. She would be just fine. It was time to find the inspiration that would get her an extra score from Mister Saltzman. She really needed a good grade to gain the perfect GPA.

“Let’s go and find that one inspiration here!” Mindy motivated herself as she walked passing the trees and bushes.

After a while, she went sightseeing alone in the woods. She heard the chirping birds among the tall trees. The wind swooshed in the air, touching her cheeks lightly.

Once she knew what she wanted to write about, she hurriedly took out her notebook and a pen from her brown sling bag. Then she quickly tried to find a rock nearby for her to sit down.

She started writing anything that came across on her mind. She tried to connect the dots between the pictures of nature that she had taken earlier.

She was finally writing down some paragraphs about the love of mother nature. And Mister Saltzman said that every student could write anything creatively and freely. Therefore, she thought the topic was lovely and she had to write it down as soon as it got into her head.

It took her about fifteen minutes to write the short story. And once she was done, she stared up at the bright sky.

The sun was set above her head. The air felt hotter each time. She could feel her sweat started falling on her forehead.

For a second, she asked herself, “Alright, I think it’s enough. I have written my short story. And now what?”

As she looked around her, it was so quiet, except for the sound of chirping birds in the trees.

All of a sudden, his face came across on her mind. She flinched when she just remembered about Alain again. She wondered where he was at the time. Was he okay? Had he done his assignment?

“Gosh, why should I be worried about that guy? It’s so unbelievable, ugh!” She muttered.

And then she raised to take a walk throughout the woods again.

She walked for a while until she heard noises nearby. She wondered where the noises came from. Thereafter, she carefully followed the direction of the noises in the woods.

She thought maybe they were the students who were still working on their assignments. But when she finally got closer to hear the noises, she stopped in front of a big tree. And then she carefully peeped behind the tree to see what was over there.

“Alain? Brandon?” She murmured as she saw those two boys standing in the middle of the walking trail.

There was nobody but just those boys in the trail. They were talking about something. She didn’t intend to eavesdrop on their conversation, but when she unintentionally heard the illegal biker thing was being mentioned by Brandon, she immediately was alert to hear more.

She carefully eavesdropped about what they were discussing at the time. She was curious to know if the rumor that people said about Alain and his biker gang was true or false.

And when she finally did, she heard Brandon said, “Come on, man. It’s only an overnight bet. You won’t lose anything to Johnny or those stupid cops.”

Alain seemed uneasy. He kept on rubbing his neck. Then he muttered. “I don’t know, man. I don’t feel like doing another bet until people will forget the rumor that they made about me.”

“Yeah, that fricking rumor ain’t true anyway. You said you don’t care what they think about you,” Brandon murmured. “Just take it easy, man. It will be gone with the winds.”

Alain chuckled out. And then he wondered, “How much is the bet?”

Brandon immediately threw out his smoke on the ground as he answered him, “50 dollars for each member participating in the racing.”

“And how many members are interested in joining the racing?” Alain wondered again.

“Well, that depends, but Johnny makes sure there will only be ten slots,” Brandon informed him. “So, just multiply that. You can get a lot if you win. And I’ll bet on you, man.”

Alain punch his shoulder lightly and muttered, “500 dollars for the overnight racing? Come on, I’d rather join the boxing competition.”

“Don’t forget, Johnny has a grand prize bonus for the first winner. He said he will give another 500 dollars, so that will be 1000 dollars, man,” Brandon told him excitedly.

“Sounds intriguing for such an overnight racing,” Alain murmured as he grinned widely. “I’ll think about it, man.”

Behind the tree, Mindy was still eavesdropping on their secret conversation. She just remembered that Brandon once introduced himself as a biker like Alain when they got into the same classroom on the first day of college back then.

“Gosh, those bad boys are just dumb jocks,” Mindy muttered.

When she was about to walk away to leave the two of them, she suddenly stumbled on the medium-sized rock behind her. She immediately fell down hard on the ground. And the slippery road made her body falling further into the steep slope.

She screamed out of pain. She felt her whole body went numb instantly.

“Oh, damn it!” She cursed emotionally.

She couldn’t move her body for a second. She felt tremendously hurt.

Soon after, her heart was beating anxiously when she heard a footstep sound came closer.

She stared up to see who was coming to find her there. She was pretty nervous when she started to see the shadow of a tall man walking toward her.

Whether that man would be Brandon or Alain, she would be so embarrassed. They would find out that she was eavesdropping on them earlier. But she hoped they didn’t notice.

And then she heard a voice called out her name. She knew that voice.

“Mindy! Hey! Are you hurt?” He exclaimed out as he walked closer to get her.

“Damn it,” she muttered again. She felt frustrated to be stuck here on the ground. She still couldn’t move her body since she felt the pain in her back.

“Mindy!” He was calling out for her name again.

When she stared up again to see who was that, he was Alain Elwood.

“A-Alain!” Her voice was kind of breaking. She glanced at him nervously.

“Hey, what the hell happened to you?” He looked bewildered when seeing her laid down frozenly on the ground.

Then she snapped, annoyed, “Don’t you see? I was falling hard on the ground. I hurt my back. I think I can’t move—”

Once he came closer to see her condition, then he bent down for a second. Then he said, “Let me help you—”

And then he thrusted his hands to help her standing up from the ground. She whined when he forced her to stand up. It was painful for her.

“Be careful! You are about to break my back!” She yelled at him peevishly.

“Sorry, Mindy, I’m just trying to help,” he muttered as he helped her to stand steadily.

Nevertheless, she was still surprised to see Alain was the one that came rescuing her. She wondered where was Brandon at the time. And then she asked him, “Where is Brandon? I thought you were with him earlier.”

Alain pinched his eyes bewilderingly for a second. Then he said, “Wait, were you—”

She immediately gulped down her saliva down her throat. She was feeling nervous when he just noticed what happened.

“Oh, you’re so sneaky,” Alain muttered.

“What? No! I’m not—” she blinked restlessly.

And then Alain added, “Don’t tell me that you were sneaking to eavesdrop on my conversation with Brandon earlier.”

“Well, it was not my intention to do so!” Mindy defended herself. “I was just passing by. I was looking out for you, dumb arse!”

“You’re so harsh,” Alain snapped. “I just help you. And you’re being harsh to me. You’re being ungrateful now.”

“What?” Mindy narrowed her eyebrows peevishly at him. “Gosh, you’re so annoying! You just want to pick a fight with me all the time, right? Just tell me!”

Alain rubbed his forehead for a second, ignoring what she said.

Mindy shouted out emotionally again, “I heard all about it. You want to do an overnight racing for 1000 dollars grand prize! So, what? The rumor about you being a super bad boy is probably true!”

Alain rolled his eyes as he chuckled out. Then he muttered, “Believe whatever you want, Mindy. I don’t give a damn.”

And then she was yelling out at him, “Keep denying it!”

He chuckled again. And this time, he walked away from her.

She was feeling numb and speechless when he finally left her quietly.