Duncan got closer, though he didn't seem to read it. "Forty two is the year I was born," said Duncan though he wasn't sure he was helping any. I was proud, thinking back to when I'd guessed his age. He was sixteen, a year younger than me. He was the youngest in our group, but none of us were older than eighteen.

"That could be it, hurry what was the month and day you were born!" Yelled Victoria, not because she was trying to be rude but because it was the biggest lead we'd had all night.

"Twelve, twenty five, forty two," Duncan replied quickly. Parker was the one putting the numbers in, when he finished the box opened.

"Christmas baby, huh?" I asked.

"You bet," he replied, but before he could make any better comeback we looked to see what the box held.

At the top of the box there was a note, before reading it we looked beneath it to see that there was indeed a shape. A circle, to be exact. The circle was completed by the color orange. "Read the note," I told Amberline quickly, because she'd been the one holding the note.

She quickly complied, the note said, "We figured you'd know this box first. The rest of the boxes are unlocked by the birthdate of a member in their team. Look around more carefully this time, for papers that match the boxes."

We quickly headed off, I searched in the books while Amberline took the second bookshelf. Parker and Victoria were looking in the various spread out files in the garage and Duncan was putting the circle in its place, using the bar we found to untwist the lock. He then took the stuff back to the table and started helping us with books.

W rapidly flipped through pages, again feeling the time sensitiveness of this all. We were finally so close to winning, that had to have meant that the others were close to finishing as well.

"Found one!" We had heard Victoria yell from outside. She was on a role. None of us went out because we'd agreed to put them on the table, once we had three combinations we would come back together. Parker was the next to find one and tensions were high. Duncan picked up the book I found the box in, and there was a combination.

"I'm so ignorant," I said with certainty, staring at the combination. It was right there, there wasn't any color associated with it because the rest of the book was black and white. The fact still remained, papers had been cut to put a box there and on the last paper that was cut was a box with nothing but a six number combination.

"At least you found the box, I couldn't say I have," Duncan replied as we walked to the table.

"We've got the last one!" Yelled Parker, noticing that Duncan was distracted momentarily and wasn't informing the rest of the group. I snapped back into reality and we started matching the other two combinations to their boxes. Unlike the one in the book, the other two were colored. We quickly opened each box and rushed all the shapes to the vent. Victoria took it upon herself to finish opening it, because she said the rest of us were too slow.

We handed her the shapes and she untwisted them rather quickly. We were taking turns crawling through the vent as quickly as possible. When we were all there a button appeared and without thought Parker slapped it. This competition showed me another side of Parker, and though he hadn't seemed particularly happy he was confident. More so than when we were doing a fighting game.

Instantly we were in our cubicles again, I actually drank my milk this time because it had helped. As soon as I finished I went to the lobby and was filled with anger because I'd thought we did so well. Every other team was standing in their respective boxes around us, although nobody seemed happy. I thought that part was weird, but maybe everyone had just waited so long for us to finish that they were bored with winning already. My teammates had the same reaction I had it seemed, but right as we were all together the people in charge said, "congratulations, D2! You have won the Escape The Room challenge."

The people around us weren't excited, but showed their respect by clapping. "How?" Duncan whispered in my ear. I shrugged, I still wasn't coherent enough to put the pieces together myself. In a few minutes we were all scattered around the lobby.

I found a group of people that had looked friendly enough from our past encounters and asked them, "how did we win?"

They looked at me, as if trying to figure out whether or not I truly didn't know or if I was trying to rub it in their faces. After a few moments I was about to walk away when one of them started talking again, "The rest of us got disqualified."

I was still confused, Duncan had happened to be nearby and walked up to us. Next to me he asked, "how?"

The girl looked exasperated and rolled her eyes. "We all put the wrong combination, we were eliminated from the game and got to watch the other teams fall one by one until you were the only team left. You would have won anyway but we got to watch you succeed in what we'd failed. So I'd watch who you ask, because it might come off as rude."

"Oh," I said brilliantly.

"Thanks for telling us," said Duncan when my ability to say anything failed.

"No problem, anyway, good job. You've officially passed D3 for first place. I heard there was some tension between you..." she said. Both Duncan and I looked to the leaderboard to see what she'd said was true. We both smiled and turned back to the girl and her team.

"Not between us and D3, more like us and Jasper," I corrected.

She looked like she shared the problem, "we had to face them once. We were second to them, he lead their team to victory but I could tell his teammates were more afraid of him than anything."

A guy from their team decided to add to the conversation by saying, "Everyone was afraid except for Erin, that is. Rumor has it they're both wildcards." Duncan looked like he was about to tell the guy all his theories but decided against it knowing of all the cameras around. In his off time I was sure he would find a way to tell everybody who'd listen about all of his theories.

"Yeah, I heard that too," said the original girl who'd talked to me. I could tell they were drifting in their own conversation and felt it was rude to stay in listen.

I pulled lightly on Duncan's arm and said, "C'mon, let them talk in peace."

He followed but pretended to be reluctant to leave at first. "What harm is a little eavesdropping?" He'd asked.

"A lot, actually," I told him in reply. We stopped at the leaderboard, again looking at our score. It made me proud to have finally passed D3 in the competition. "Why haven't you told me about being born on Christmas?" I asked, looking at him curiously.

He smiled down at me, "You never asked. Besides, it's not like I take pride in knowing my mom was in pain all Christmas because of me."

I shrugged, "still, two special occasions in one day," I commented. Before he could reply something behind me caught his eye. Instantly, his face hardened and I really didn't want to turn around. Nothing good was to come of this, absolutely nothing. I had no choice when Duncan started walking in that direction, I followed and saw that it was Jasper and some other girl from D3 harassing Parker again.

When we got close enough Duncan pushed Jasper in a way that positioned him away from Parker but hadn't caught the attention of the authorities. The cameras, on the other hand, refused to ignore us for even a moment.

"What's wrong with you guys? Can't you just give us a break?" I asked, incredulous.

"Why should we? This is a reality competition, after all," said the girl. Her thick wheat colored hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, she looked like she hadn't known what to do with it and just did what was the best way to effortlessly contain it. It occurred to me that this had to have been Erin.

"Who would watch this show if there wasn't any drama?" Asked Jasper.

"Said 'drama' doesn't equate to bullying, you shouldn't try to intentionally hurt someone's feelings," said Duncan, he was angry but did well in containing his anger.

"Awe, he calls it bullying," said Erin sarcastically.

"It's a wonder he passed the age requirement... what was that, fifteen?" continued Jasper.

"I'm sixteen and at least I got accepted on the same terms as everyone else. You're just wildcards barely good enough to be here, it's luck that you're in second place right now. Wait, you'll slip further and further down the ranks on the leaderboard, all because you aren't good enough to be accepted on regular terms," snapped Duncan.

Both of them reacted differently to that statement. I knew Duncan's control was gone and he was waiting for them to say something so he could reply worse. Jasper seemed offended, like it was an insult being called a wildcard, like he hadn't come to terms with the fact that he almost wasn't here. Erin, on the other hand, was more than ready to embrace being a wildcard. I knew she was about to say something that would add to Duncan's anger so I stopped her and said, "We should really go. I'd rather not spend any more time with you," they both looked at each other and put their hands up in mock surrender.

Right as we had turned and was ready to leave, I heard Jasper say to Parker, "Just wait. Those two won't always be here to save you." Parker, next to me, took a deep breath in. I put my hand on his back and tried to make him feel that I'd always be there for him, no matter what Jasper tried to say.

By this point, I realized that our whole team had come by to help us. As we started to walk away together, I saw that Victoria stopped and said something to the both of them. It seemed that whatever she had said made them pale slightly before she walked off with the rest of us. I could only imagine what she'd said, but I decided I didn't actually want to imagine it.

Our long walk to our flat was fairly silent. Usually, Duncan would be joking and entertaining us as we walked but he was too caught up in his inner turmoil to be light and happy. Jasper constantly harassing Parker was bothering him. I liked that he cared, but I had to think about why he cared so much. I figured that I cared because I had seen so much harassment in my life, but something told me Duncan was upset about the act of bullying itself.

When we finally made our way to the flat, Parker seemed to want to talk to Duncan and I. I was unsure if it were a good thing or a bad thing or bad thing, so us three went to my room and we started to talk.

"You guys can't keep stepping in like that, it makes them think I'm weak," said Parker. He was standing across the room while Duncan and I sat on my bed.

"Were we supposed to let them get away with it?" I asked. I knew the answer for him was different than my answer. Of course it was, because he was telling me to stop interfering. "Don't answer that. Because yes, I had to do it. We both had to because you're our friend and we can't watch them do that to you."

"I was fine. You're just feeding them more to use against me, I will be fine, I can handle it," I knew as he said it he was unsure of himself. He didn't know if he actually could handle it but he wasn't about to admit his weaknesses to us.

"From personal experience, Parker, sometimes standing up to them yourself will get them to back off a little," Duncan said calmly. He seemed more calm now than either of the rest of us.

"I don't need them to back off. I need you guys to bud out and leave me alone," he said. I was trying to figure out how to counter him when I found myself at a loss of words. He wanted me to bud out, but I remember when when I was in a situation similar to this and I wished someone would stand up for me. I wished someone would help me defeat The Monsters and it wasn't until I knew the right steps to take that I finally got rid of them in my life for good. But how was I supposed to help Parker? I couldn't tell him how to deal with this, and he refused to accept my help anyway. I couldn't make him do something that he doesn't want to do. If he truly doesn't believe he needs the help, then how am I supposed to help him without him hating me for it? "Plus, it's not like they're hurting me," continued Parker.

"They're not hurting you physically, but in some ways verbal bullying hurts worse," said Duncan. "Pain is awesome in virtual reality, but not in real life."

Parker didn't say anything more. He left and it was just Duncan and I sitting together. I let out a giant sigh, thinking of how terrible I felt for Parker. "We really need to get revenge on them, they've affected our happiness," I said in the most immature tone of voice I could muster.

"Let's get revenge by winning. The best revenge is when you won't get in trouble," commented Duncan. I couldn't help but agree with him.

"Since when did you become the voice of reason? I agree and all, but isn't actual revenge more satisfying?" I asked jokingly. Suddenly, alone with him I felt all warm and fuzzy, it was as if I'd wanted to spend time alone with him for a while. It couldn't have been that though; because I'd never found myself consciously thinking like that, well, ever. I'd never thought about people in that way. Now, though, sitting so close to Duncan I felt like maybe there was something I was blocking myself from. Just maybe, there was a barrier in my mind I hadn't been able to get rid of until now.

"It can be, until you start feeling regret, that or you get in trouble. Let's just stick to winning this competition, okay?" He asked as he smiled at me. I nodded, pretending to be reluctant to agree. I really was mad about Jasper but right then all those worries seemed to dissipate.

Amberline walked into our room and said she'd be washing all our suits downstairs. They'd just been talking about needing to clean them soon in the living area, and she offered to go do it. Both Duncan and I got our suits around for her to take, and after that she went to Parker as we went to talk to everyone else. As soon as Amberline came in, though, the feeling of warmth was gone and there wasn't going to be a return of it any time soon. It had yet to find an efficient way to escape its cage, and I thought that maybe it was because I didn't want it to escape.

Hey lovely readers, thanks for the support you've shown my story thus far! All feedback is appreciated and welcomed, feel free to vote if you liked the chapter. I thought I'd remind you to keep the girl we met in todays part in mind; she will come back a few times later on.