Opening my locker to relieve myself of some books, a pink note pops out with a razor attached to it, landing on the floor. Suspecting that it might be another challenge, I pick both up and turn it over, not wasting time in running my eyes over the words.

Freedom.

That alone tells me far more than needs be. I need to free my partner.

The only clue given is that the room is big, fit for all activities and quite a distance to run to.

My first thoughts are on the school gym.

With that thought alone I throw everything in my locker, shutting it closed before falling into a full sprint towards gym.

"Out of the way!" I scream at people who are in my way.

I don't even look around to see who's behind me nor who's ahead of me, my only goal being to free Roman of whatever may lock him down.

Such strength and speed I don't know where I get it from, in which has me arriving in no time , bursting through the door.

I notice three things whilst frantically looking around.

1. Only two girls have made it and one looks to be struggling, whilst running up and down the stands. The other is on her knees, looking for something.

2. We are given an obstacle of running up the stands three times, turn around two times and then start freeing your partner, who's tied up by black tape from mouth to toe.

3. Roman, who's eyes have already found me.

Holding on to the razer cutter and the last of my strength, I start for the stands, trying to keep a good pace and watch my step.

I know that I haven't fully recovered but I really want to complete this challenge, and not disappoint him. He's put in so much effort into this and I want to do the same, that's why I push myself to keep focused.

Running up for the third time, this time being my last, I can feel exhaustion coming at me, my breathing laboured but still, I continue on.

I don't forget to turn around twice , so as to not delay my progress and not start all over. Dizziness threatens to overtake me but a sound coming from him, knocks me back to the race.

Once I'm done, I step right in front of him, meeting his eyes. His eyes tell me everything, that he believes I can do this.

" 10 minutes!!" Someone announces at the background and that's when I panic.

I break eye contact, looking him over to try figure out where I should even begin.

In my search, my eyes start getting blurry and I stagger back a bit, almost missing a step due to something like a flash invading my mind. I gasp, shaking my head and blinking hard to get rid off the blurriness.

Something about that second flashback felt like some sort of memory or thought, but I can't be too sure.

I sneak a glance at him again and his eyes push me to continue.

Stepping forward once again, I reach out my hand to start cutting through the tape, starting with his mouth and being careful to not hurt him. Once I'm done, I frantically continue on down to his shoulders.

" Hazel Grace!" My head snaps up to him.

"You can do this." Roman says to me and I nod my thank you, getting down on my knees.

I decide to change my strategy.

I don't know what those words do to me but they do something, because my hands move in unimaginable speed and strength, figuring out the best parts to cut.

" 5 minutes!" I block out that voice, wanting to remain calm and not panic again.

A sigh of relief overcomes me when I realize that it's not all black tape that's on him, but a black plastic bag underneath the tape. I bite at my lip trying to suppress a grin as I cut right through the middle, freeing him completely.

I hold up my razor to tell them that my team is done, once we are announced, I rise to my feet with a victorious smile, expecting to see the same from Roman but I don't.

" Shocked, yeah me too, didn't think I'd finish in time but we did it." I say excitedly.

I frown, my smile wavering now, the longer he stares at me.

" Roman." I stop, when he takes a step forward, his eyes holding me captive.

He lowers his head to my level, his eyes searching." Are you okay?"

" I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?....I mean yeah I'm kinda tired now because of - "

"No, are you really okay?" The second time he asks this, I frown, the adrenaline I'd felt going down quickly.

" I'm fi-"

" Hazel sit the fu - just sit down!" He gestures for me to sit down.

Taking a seat, he follows suit, placing his hands on my shoulders so as to keep me in place.

" I saw everything." He says quietly.

Oh no please don't tell me you -

"Saw what?" I say in his level of tone.

"Everything." He says, looking me straight in the eyes.

There's no more doubt now that he saw me almost lose my footing.

"What happened just a few moments ago?"

" Roman?" I whisper call his name, breaking eye contact and looking far into the distance.

"Yeah?"

" I thought I saw, I'm not sure of what I saw but-" I look back at him." Something like - "

"Everybody come down and get to class!" Someone calls out.

"We should go."

"Tell me what you -"

"Hey guys?!"

"Give us a minute." Roman cuts the person off not even looking at them.

"But -"

"Give us a f*ck'n moment!!!" He snaps, making me jump.

" Roman, calm down it's nothing." I say, rising to my feet but his quick to be on his, blocking my way.

" I don't believe that." He argues quietly.

" Roman, I said I'm fine. Now can we drop this and go ?" I raise my brow in a challenging manner.

He sighs, backing off.

"This conversation is not over." He says, walking down the stands ahead of me, though he glances at me every now and then, to see if I'm coming.

We walk on in silence, until we are stopped in our tracks by a beaming Sam.

"They surely didn't make a mistake with partnering you two up, what happened back there was totally bad ass." I chuckle, shaking my head.

" I'm waiting for it Desai." Roman waves his hand in a ' say it ' gesture.

"Okay, so Hazel was like the flash, running through the hallway trying to get to you on time. She literally demanded everyone to move out of her way and to top it all off, she was the only one to not stop moving up and down those stands. Now, moving on to Roman, you literally looked so chilled, showing total confidence in your partner."

"What can I say, I've got the best partner here." Roman says proudly, lightly bumping my shoulder with his, and my lips twitch into a small smile, feeling so shy right now.

" And where did you see all of this, because last time I checked, all guys were tied up."

"Well not all and I lost last time. So I'm free to observe."

"You mean be a creepster?...Cool." I shrug.

He playfully glares at me.

"Uh, I'll see you guys later." Sam suddenly says, taking a few steps back before rushing off.

A moment later, Avery and one of her classmates, walks past, heading in another direction.

Glancing up at Roman, he arches his brow.

" Did he just -"

" I know nothing." I hold up my hands in surrender.

" Hazel?"

" I'll see you at the next challenge tomorrow." I turn around and quickly walk off.

I don't want to continue with the conversation, what happened back there has never happened before and I don't know what could have caused such a reaction like that from me.

Thank God I have a free lesson today, with it being my last lesson and unfortunately I share it with Ingrid, who surprises me by coming over to where I'm seated.

"Just like old times right?" I look up at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your partnership with Roman, you two have always been good partners, no wonder he couldn't keep his eyes off you two. Mhm, Danny must have figured it out by now."

My heart hammers hard against my chest at the mention of Danny, this surely reminding me of what happened when I went to watch him.

"Figured what out?"

"That maybe if he hadn't been distracted, we wouldn't have lost. But then again, it's hard not to, when it's who, is the distraction?" She walks away and out of the class, before I can call her.

I can't believe Danny and Ingrid lost.

I dash out of class once the bell rings, going in search of Danny, needing to talk to him.

The fact that something might be bothering him doesn't sit well with me, so that's why when I notice him by his locker, I rush over to him.

" Danny?!"

" I can't really talk right now." He says, closing his locker.

"Oh uh, could we talk later?"

"Maybe." He walks past me, leaving me standing there.

*******

I watch on as Danny talks and laughs with his friends, I try make sense of his mood yesterday. I feel that he's upset with me and not knowing what I may have done wrong, is bothering me because if I knew by now, I would have done everything possible to fix it.

I don't like when he's upset with me.

I sigh, not tearing my eyes away from him.

"Sure, make it obvious that you're staring." Avery says, settling down beside me.

" I just can't figure out what's put him in such a mood."

"Maybe he's got a lot on his mind."

"But he seemed okay just yesterday morning, well before the mention of.... " I trail off, glancing at her.

"Maybe you're right" I say, rising to my feet, thanking God that the challenge is about to start.

" I'd better get down there." I say, already heading down the stands to where Roman and his friends are standing.

Before I can even reach them, Roman's head snaps in my direction. He says something to his friends before coming over, meeting me halfway.

"Are you ready? "

"Yep, three more challenges to go."

"Alright partners, line up!" The announcer says.

Roman and I go on to where we need to be, ready for the challenges ahead.

The remaining partners have gathered here in the gym for three more challenges and then we're done with the challenges, yet the end of the partnership is two days away.

Thankfully we are in our gym clothes and the principal has been quite lenient on us, giving us two free lessons for this.

I can't explain what overtakes me, the minute the challenges begin and Roman's eyes and mines meet. A mental communication, that's what we've always been good at, since childhood.

Everything else around us disappears and it's just us, with one goal in mind, to finish.

3 Challenges.

The first : One partner has to carry the other on their back, blindfolded. Then the one on the back will direct the blindfolded one through small obstacles like getting into the circle, dodging something and so on.

Out of all 10 partners, Roman and I actually come out third, because as he said one time, I'm bad at direction. So we almost fell a few times and I had to promise a few treats just so he didn't strangle me, before we even got to the next challenge.

The second challenge : The second challenge required us to use our brains and negotiating skills.

Big puzzle pieces were thrown in the center of the gym, these pieces had letters written on them and when you pieced them together, you'd have to form the right word.

So the partners would rush to the center and collect 5 pieces, the team would try figure out what the full piece is, if there's a missing piece, one partner would go to the neighbouring teams and try find the piece. The next thing is that you'd have to negotiate with the other team.

Once you've completed that part, you'd move on to part 2.

With this part of the stage, Roman was the one to volunteer to collect the pieces, then I tried piecing everything together and try figure out what the masterpiece is. We later discovered that two pieces were wrong, so one of us negotiated and unfortunately it was Roman, who literally demanded the pieces from people.

Time was surely wasted and I had to intervene, one glare from me got him back into the game.

After we were done, I figured it out that it was the name of a song, and so we were required to do a 2 minute performance with that song..

Luckily it was a song that we'd listened to back in our childhood, and performing it reminded me of the time Roman and I would listen to the radio.

The performance got us into a tie in second place.

The third : The third and last of the challenges was quite different. We used different places, the pool area and gym.

Each partner would be in each place.

The last challenge required you to have a lot of trust in your partner. To have patience. The one in the gym would have to race against time to reach their partner, who will be on the diving board.

In this challenge there are two choices for those in the pool area, either jump without your partner and prove that you do not trust your partner. The other is to go back down and forfeit the challenge.

The one in the gym had the choice to either not compete and ditch or compete.

You would have to prove how much faith you have in your partner to make it in time to save you.

In such a challenge, I had to keep my mind in the now, on the challenges we've faced in these 2 weeks.

As I stood on the edge, I waited patiently for him and kept on telling myself that he will make it. Each time, I kept on glancing at Sam, who stood on the bottom with the rest of the audience.

I've glanced his way four times now, in the last I don't know how long and each time, Sam has shook his head no.

It was 5 of us before but now it's two, one quit before it started, the other jumped, proving that she couldn't wait for her partner. The third also quit after some time.

Now two remained, me and the other girl.

I could see that she was losing faith in her partner, yet tried keeping a strong face. At some point, my mind threatened to take me back to when I waited for Roman and he never came.

I shook my head off those thoughts and told myself that he would come. He had to come.

We've done so much in these two weeks to not complete it now, I didn't even care about winning anymore but for him to just make it.

" 5 minutes remaining!" The announcer called out.

My heart started to thud hard against my chest, praying that just this once, may he not disappoint me. I didn't want a repeat of years ago, though it was only a game, to me, as time passed, it grew to more then that.

The doors suddenly burst open and my heart stopped for a second. Right then and there, I saw both guys rushing towards to where the girl and I were, yet Roman, after glancing around, did the unexpected.

Instead of running for the ladder, he literally stepped into the pool and swam in his gym clothes to stop just beneath me.

" Hazel, jump!" He called up to me.

"Are you out of your mind?!" I said, glancing around.

The other guy was getting close now.

"Hurry!" The girl called out to her partner.

" Hazel Grace, just this once, trust me on this, jump!"

I gulped and closed my eyes for a second, taking a breath and focusing on him alone, everything else disappeared.

A memory shot in at the last minute, one where we were young and I'd tried saving a cat from a tree, though we were kids, Roman had such confidence that he would catch me.

I trusted him then and I chose to put the same trust now. Just this once.

"Oh what the hell." I mumbled before jumping off.

"Aah!!" I cried out as my body descended down to the water.

I can't even recall when I closed my eyes and when my body touched the water, but one thing I know is that I felt his arms around me.

He did catch me.

"Hoo ooh!!" Roman shouts once we swim back up on the surface.

We are soon helped out of the water , as wet as we are right now, I literally have no care in the world.

When we get out of the pool, Roman and I glance at each other , our chests heaving up and down, awaiting the results and possible consequences of our actions.

"Well quite an interesting finish to the challenges." The headmaster throws our way, before calling the other team to join us.

I block out the rest of what is said, with the mention of working together, lessons that were meant to be learnt along the two week journey, and the fun it should have been.

We are then congratulated on our participation and commitment and that, this has marked us as a different group of seniors. We would surely be remembered for this.

"Now onto the fun part, it is fair, today's challenges. Looking at the scale, I'm proud to announce, because today it was a competition and on thorough observation, both lasting teams win by a tie."

Roman rolls his eyes at this while I shrug my shoulders.

"But!" We all turn to him.

"On the last challenge, it's only fair to announce the winning partnership and that is Roman O' Connor and Hazel Lovett!!"

I literally launch myself at Roman in excitement, wrapping my arms around him.

" I can't believe we won!" I say excitedly through the round of applause we receive.

"Yeah me too." He says so quietly I almost don't hear him.

Stepping back from him, an emotion I can't quite figure out passes through his eyes before his victorious grin takes over.

"Don't tell me you were getting all soft on me now?" I tease, nudging him.

He rolls his eyes at that.

A few come congratulate us, before it's announced that we'll all have a little celebration done on Friday night here at school.

"You guys have made history today. I should start calling you legends." Sam beams, coming over with Avery.

I shake my head at that, chuckling at him.

"You really are good partners. The way you trusted each other today and helped one another, it looked so easy, well you made today look easy." A sense of awkwardness takes over me at the mention of trust, my smile now wavering.

"They've always had this understanding between them. Sometimes - ," I block out Sam's voice the minute my eyes take notice of Danny, looking at us.

Something twists at my heart at the look he's wearing, making me feel cold for the first time since I got out of the water. Even the towel is not doing anything on me.

It almost looks like he's disappointed, better yet not happy and I don't like what I see.

"You guys are really good partners, imagine if this was a month long thing." Avery says.

"Well things do have to come to an end, and we can go back to our lives now. In the long run, this will be a distant memory."

I don't realise I've said this out loud, until there's silence around me. Glancing at them, I find them already looking at me.

" I should dry up now." I say, quickly escaping from there, before it became too awkward.

I rush over to the girls locker rooms, almost running into Hailey and Amber, who look to be in a deep conversation.

The words I'm able to catch, just before they notice me and keep quiet, is that ' they can't keep doing this ', one day it will blow up in their faces and they wish it never happened.'

When Hailey's eyes meet mine, I quickly notice surprise and then the avoiding of my eyes.

"We were just leaving." Amber says, already sensing someone behind her.

She coughs awkwardly when she glances over her shoulder to find me standing at the doorway, the two nod their greeting before the two girls rush out of there, leaving me alone.

I shake my head, not wanting to over think what I've heard, telling myself to mind my own business.

Heading over to my locker, my phone suddenly rings. When I take it out, the caller ID reads ' Aunt Karen.'

"Hey aunty." I greet.

"Young lady I'm mad at you." I frown at this.

"Why, did I do something wrong?" I ask worriedly.

"Yes, you couldn't even inform me of all people, that you had been in hospital not so long ago!"

A sigh escapes me then, my shoulders slumping.

"It's nothing serious and I didn't want to worry you." I try explain.

"Ofcourse I would worry, I have every right to, you're the most important thing to me, and I hurt when you hide things like this from me." She says, her voice full of hurt.

Guilt shoots at me then.

" I'm sorry aunt Karen, it's just that -"

" I'm coming there." She suddenly says, cutting me off.

Oh no, if she were to come this time around, she'd surely see Roman, who in her mindset, he's hurt me and anyone who's hurt me, she'll go way over protective.

She'll lose her mind if she sees him. No, not yet.

"Wait what?"

" I want to see for myself that you're alright, I'll come first thing in the mor-"

"No, don't!" I cut her off.

"And why not?"

"Because I'm a big girl now and I've taken care of myself, I'm fine."

" Hazel listen -"

"Can't talk right now aunty, I've got homework to do. Don't worry I'm fine. Thanks bye." I quickly cut off the call, exhaling deeply after.

I hope she doesn't come because alot can happen then.

At the mention of Roman I just freaked out. Why's that?

Is it because.....

Wait a minute, did me preventing Aunt Karen from coming mean, that I was protecting Roman right now.

I protected him without second thought.

Like it came naturally to me.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Wow.....Another long chapter.

This chapter is dedicated to all those who have been waiting for an update.

Alot of activities are happening here

I do hope you enjoy it.

Don't forget to tell me your thoughts, I do appreciate them.

Vote, Comment or just a halla.

I love hearing from you, reminds me that I'm not only writing for myself, but you as well.