Chapter 32: Chapter 32

Isabella's pov;

"Wow! It tastes so good. Here, have a bite." gave my steak to Sophia to have a taste.

She showed me the piece in her hand and said, "I have one. Eat yours."

"Okay." And continued eating my steak and said, "I thought Ms Devlin was going to give another activity. Thank gosh, she didn't. I felt so tired after returning back from the peak." And laid back.

"Yeah." Said while eating her food.

Peter and others were having vegetables since the winners got the steaks for dinner.

I took the steaks and walked to them and gave it to them saying, "I've eaten my part. So take it."

"Are you really going to give this to us?"

I nodded and gave it to him. Peter and others thanked me and got the steaks from me. I walked back to Sophia and sat beside her.

"I can't bear your kindness."

I laughed and continued eating the BBQ steak.

After finishing dinner, we went into our tents which we set up in the camping sites for the visitors.

I got a call from Big Brother and I answered.

Big brother asked me, "How's it going?"

"Yeah, it's fun here. Today, We went hiking to the peak of Mount diablo. It was tiring but still we had fun in the end."

"What about dinner?"

"Yeah, I had steaks for dinner."

"Okay."

"Big brother, where are you? Are you at Mr Martinez's house or did you go home?"

"Yes, I'm at my place."

"Is yuyang there? Is she awake? If she's awake, can you give the phone to her? I want to speak with her."

"Yeah, she's doing her homework. Wait, I'll give the phone to her."

After some time, yuyang talked on the phone.

"Belle, did you go on a trip? Why didn't you say it?"

I laughed and said, "I forgot, I'm sorry. Big brother said you're doing homework. Why are you staying awake late at night? Don't you have school tomorrow?"

"I have that's why I'm doing my homework. Is Ms Devlin there?"

"Yes, she's here. Wait..."

I came out of my tent and went to Ms Devlin's tent and asked her, "Ms Devlin, are you there?"

She opened the zipper and said, "Yeah, what do you want? Do you need something?"

I signalled my phone and whispered, "Someone wants to talk to you."

"Who's it?"

I gave the phone to her and returned to my tent where Sophia was.

When I entered, Sophia looked like she was waiting for me.

"Didn't you sleep?"

"Have to."

I sat on my blanket and took the manga to read.

"Aren't you sleeping?" She asked me.

"Ms Devlin has my phone so gotta wait for it."

"Who's on the phone? You looked so happy while talking with that person."

"It's Big brother. You would have seen him at the hospital."

"The guy who came to pay the bills?"

I nodded and said, "Yeah."

"I'm sorry for being rude."

I softly punched on her shoulder and said, "It's fine. It's all in the past. I already forgot it."

"But I didn't. Bella, I want to know. I want to know what really happened? Can you say it to me?"

I nodded and said what happened and why I signed the contract with Mr Martinez.

After hearing my part of the story, she said, "It looks like the person who you were calling Mr Martinez is a good person."

"Yeah, he is."

"What happens after the contract?"

I remained silent.

She shook me and asked again, "What are you going to do after the contract?"

"I didn't give it a thought about it yet."

"Yet? Bella! you're already getting attached to those people. Can't you see that? If it goes on like this, the person who's going to get hurt is you. Remember that."

I remained silent since I didn't know how to answer her.

Peter called out for us outside our tent.

I came out of the tent and asked him, "What is it?"

He gave me my phone and said, "Ms Devlin said to give this to you."

"Okay. Thank you."

Peter left and I got back into the tent. I laid on the blanket and went to sleep.

The next day,

We all gathered in the camping sites and waited for Ms Devlin's today's activity announcement.

I asked Noah, "Can you guess what they'll say?"

"Anything is fine for me unless it's hiking. I'm still tired from yesterday."

I turned to Liam, he ignored me and started talking with Evelyn.

Ms Devlin said, "Listen up everyone! Today's activity is this." She waved a sheet of paper over her head and said, "It's a map, if you're wondering what it is."

I asked Sophia, "A map?"

"I think it's hiking again."

Noah let out a sigh and said, "No. I bet it's a scavenger hunt."

"Scavenger hunt? Are we also going to walk today too?" Evelyn asked us.

Ms Devlin said, "I bet you would have guessed it by now. It's right! Today's event is a Scavenger hunt!" Showed the map and said, "Can you all see the foods marked in different places? Yes, using this map, you're going to find the ingredients for your breakfast. What are you waiting for? Spread and search for the ingredients you want for breakfast."

Noah, Evelyn, Sophia, Liam and I grouped together for the scavenger hunt.

Ms Devlin said, "I forgot this. The pairing will be done by colours. I have a pot filled with folds of paper, having colour names in each paper. People who have the same colour will pair up together and search for the ingredients."

Sophia whined, "Sounds bad."

One after another took each paper and went searching for their partners. When my turn came, I took a paper and looked for the colour. Cardinal red.

I went to my friends and asked them, "Guys! Who has cardinal red?"

Everyone shook their heads and said 'no' in sync.

Evelyn said, "I thought the colours will be the primary colours and we'll get into groups but she's a genius. She wrote shades of colour. Lol."

I walked away from them and asked for the person who has cardinal red while students who got their partners and went for scavenger hunt.

I couldn't find the person with cardinal red. Why is it so difficult? And it's already time.

I walked to Ms Devlin and said, "I think you wrote only one cardinal red. I can't find my partner, Ms Devlin."

"Wait." She turned to the remaining students who's still searching for their partners and asked, "Who got the cardinal red?"

After some time, Harry walked forward and showed his paper to Ms Devlin saying, "I got cardinal red, Ms Devlin."

My eyes almost popped out when I came to know that it was Harry who got cardinal red. I peeped and saw the colour name on the paper he gave to Ms Devlin. It was written as cardinal red.

Ms Devlin said, "Okay. Go with Isabella for the scavenger hunt."

He looked at me with a surprise expression on his face and asked, "Really?"

I gave a nod , a smile appeared on his face.

He received a map from Ms Devlin and said, "Let's go. We're running out on time." I held my hand and started running in the mountains.

After some time, I pulled my hand and said, "We don't have to hold hands."

"Okay. Then, be careful since there's a lot of bugs and insects here."

I let out a sigh and took the map from him and looked at it and said, "Meat, fish, shrimps are located far away from each other. If we go look for those, we'll get tired eventually so we'll look for spices and vegetables since it's near and which is needed for the basic cooking."

When I looked at him, he was staring at me.

"What are you looking at?"

"You are good."

"What?"

"I mean you're good at this. So, where shall we head first?"

"Potatoes. Let's find potatoes." Pointed a direction and said, "Let's head in this way. It'll lead us to the potatoes. Following that, we'll search for garlic."

He gave a nod and followed me.

After a while, We got the first ingredient which was potatoes. I put potatoes inside his bag and said, "Since I'm the one who's finding the ingredients, you should be the one to carry them. Can you do that?

He gave me a smirk and said, "I can."

"Let's see."

We found ingredients like vegetables and spices. He walked slowly since his bag was heavy. I enjoyed the view and continued walking searching for the ingredients.

"Since we got the basic ingredients, we'll go for the main ingredient. What do you want to eat? Meat, fish, shrimps, crabs... What shall we look for?"

He thought for a while and said, "You said earlier that finding meat is more difficult than other ingredients. Do you think we can find them now? Why don't we go back to the camp and cook whatever we have?"

I walked to him and placed my hand on his bag while asking, "Why? Does this bag feel heavy already?"

He stood straight and said, "Let's go find the meat." And started walking.

We walked for thirty minutes but we still didn't find any meat.

He asked me, "Are you sure we're walking in the right direction?"

"Yes." And continued walking in front of him.

After another forty minutes, "Harry, we got fish!" Screamed and turned to show it to him but he wasn't there. Where did he go? Should I go back to the camping site? Urgh! He's the one having all other ingredients? Do I have to search for him now? Urgh!

When I looked for him, I came across a stream.

Ah! Found him! He was sitting near the stream. What was he doing here?

"Hey!" I shouted at him.

He didn't give a response.

I went closer and asked, "What are you doing here? Come on, let's head to the camp. I got the fish."

He looked at me and didn't answer.

"Why are you still sitting there? Get up!"

"I hurt my leg."

"What?"

I looked at his leg and saw his leg bleeding and shouted, "What the hell is this? How did you get hurt? You were walking behind me, right?"

"I slipped and fell down."

"Why is it bleeding?"

"I'm forced to continue following you."

"What!? Are you blaming me for this? Sh*t!"

"I'm not blaming. I explained what happened."

"Show me your wound. Let's see how deep it is."

His pants were fully covered by blood so I couldn't see properly. I took scissors from my first aid kit and cut his pants up to his knee length and removed the cut piece. I took water from the stream and poured it on the wound to wash off the blood.

He gripped my shoulder as soon as I poured the water on his injured leg. I shove it away from my shoulder shouting, "Keep your hands to yourself!"

After washing the blood, I saw the wound. It was deep. It looked like a cut from a sharp object. Did he hurt himself? No, the cut wasn't straight and looked crooked.

"It's a deep cut. It seems like you didn't get slipped. Tell me the truth."

He pointed somewhere. When I looked in the direction where he pointed, I saw a broken tree having many sharp branches.

"Don't you have eyes?"

I let out a sigh and cleaned the wound using antiseptic wipes from the first aid kit and said, "It's going to hurt when I use this ointment so don't try to grab me again."

He nodded.

I used the antibiotic ointment on the wound and looked at him. He was biting his lips to bear the pain.

"Hey! Hold my shoulder."

He stopped biting his lips and placed his hand on my shoulder while I was applying the ointment.

I put the ointment on it and covered the wound with a gauze roll with the cotton. I finished treating his wound quickly since he was gripping my shoulder tightly everytime I rolled the gauze around his leg.

I shoved his hand away and said, "It's done. Argh! It hurts!" I stood up and said, "Come, let's go."

He tried to stand up but he couldn't on his own so he tripped and fell on the ground.

"What now!?"

"I couldn't stand it. It's painful. You head to the camp first. I'll come back after sometime."

I looked around and couldn't find anyone so I took his bag and gave my hand to him and said, "Hold on to it. Let's go."

"I'll carry the bag."

"Don't be a show-off. Get up."

He held my hand and stood while shaking here and there and tried to trip again so I put his hand over my shoulder and started walking.

While we're walking, he said, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You're not that weight. I can handle it."

"No, I'm apologising for what happened last night."

I gave a stare at him and said, "I don't want to talk about that."

After sometime, "Was it fun when you're playing tricks on me during middle school?"

"Yes. I had fun. Stop talking. I'm already tired carrying the bag and you."

We two reached the camping sites. Everyone came before us and they were cooking their food. After seeing Harry, his friends came and took him. I dropped the bag and sat on the ground.

Sophia came and asked me, "Hey! What happened?"

"Harry got hurt so I helped him."

She whispered, "Even though he harassed you?"

"That has nothing to do with this."

"If it's fine with you. Okay for me too. Your bag looks heavy? Did you get everything?"

I nodded and showed the bag.

She screamed, "Wow! You got fish! That's awesome! We got shrimps. Shall we cook together?"

"Then, invite everyone. I think probably not everyone got all the ingredients."

"Good idea. I'll invite everyone."

Everyone put every ingredient and cooked everything together as one.

I helped them with cutting the onions which is the only thing I know in cooking.

Harry walked towards me leaning onto a stick and said, "Thanks." And left to others who are cooking.

Show-off!

I continued cutting the onions for the cooking.

Liam gave me a basket of carrots and said, "Cut them as well."

"I won't. Take it back."

Liam tried to take it back, I stopped him saying, "Wait, wait, I was just kidding. Give it to me. I'll cut it." and took the carrots from him.

When he was about to walk away, I asked him, "Why are you avoiding me?"

"When did I?" asked while looking somewhere.

"Even now. When you talked to me in the hospital, i thought everything got well between us but you started avoiding me again when i came back to school. What happened?"

He let out a sigh and said, "I didn't avoid you. I just didn't know how to talk with you."

I pointed to the place beside me and asked him to sit and said, "You didn't know how to talk? We're friends. Friends don't need reasons to talk, Liam."

Peter, who came to collect the onion from me said, "Don't say you two got back together. Hey, Liam, Harry and Bella are together now so don't try to mess up with them. Okay, once you are done with the carrot, bring it to the cooking spot." And took the onions.

After Peter left, I saw Liam's face, he looked upset.

"That was a rumour. You know how much I hate him, right?"

He gave a nod and said, "Even if you did, I don't have anything to do with that."

"Ahhhh! Why do you sound like you're mad?"

"I'm not mad. Come on, let's cut together. There are so many. Why did they give you this much? Are we going to cook for all the visitors who come here?"

"What did you do on your part?"

"I-I helped them with searching the firewood."

I let out a sigh and said, "Good god. I didn't get that." And laughed.

He smiled and helped me with cutting the carrots.

After preparation was done, some of them from our class started cooking breakfast.

Ms Devlin said, "Listen up everyone, eat all you can since the activity following the breakfast will be hard. Thank you. Enjoy the breakfast." And left.

I laid back on the bare ground and said, "I'm not ready for another activity." And whined.

"Get up. Let's eat." Sophia said.

"Did they finish cooking?"

"Yes, come on."

I stood and walked along with her for breakfast. We stood in line and got food one after another.

I got meat curry, fish fries and rice on my plate and started eating with others.

After we finished eating breakfast, Ms Devlin announced the next activity which is dodgeball.

As soon as I heard Ms Devlin, I stood up from my place and said, "I'm going to the tent. Please don't disturb me."

Sophia pulled me and said, "Hey, it'll be fun. Come on."

"No! I don't wanna play."

Noah pulled my other hand and said, "Without you, it'll not be fun."

"I know you are all planning to pin me down. I'm not going."

Even though I tried to escape from them, they took me forcibly and stood together.

Ms Devlin said, "Let's pick the teams now!"

I got teamed up with Peter and others. Liam was the only one on my team from our gang and my friends got in another team.

"Don't ever plan to hit me!" I shouted at them.

Noah shouted back, "No one's interested though." And laughed.

I threw a ball at him and he got hit.

Ms Devlin gave a whistle and officially started the game.

Once the game began, my classmates who's on the opposite team started throwing balls at us. I hid and tried to dodge it as much as I could. But I missed a ball and it came straight to my face. Suddenly, someone blocked the ball before it got to my face. I turned to see who it was, Harry.

"How did you do? Why about your leg?"

While I was asking him, someone threw a ball on him and it hit him right on his head. I held him before he fell down. I couldn't bear his weight so I called Liam to help me. Liam ran to me and held him. We asked permission from Ms Devlin and came to the infirmary.

Liam helped me to lay Harry on the bed and said, "I'll call the doctor."

"Okay. Hurry up. I'll be with him."

Liam left in search of a doctor.

"Harry! Harry! Wake up!"

His head was bleeding which made me worried. I tore my shirt and cleaned his bleeding.

"Wake up, Harry!"

He gained consciousness and uttered, "Why do you look worried?"

"D-Don't try to speak. Stay calm. S-Stay awake. Liam went to bring the doctor. So please, stay awake. Why did you help me? If you didn't come..."

"You would have gotten hurt." He finished my line but with different words.

The doctor rushed in and I came out with Liam.

"He'll get better." Liam consoled me.

"I don't care." I left the infirmary and came to the tent.

I changed my blood stained shirt into a cleaned one and got out of the tent.

Harry was walking along with Liam somewhere. There was a bandage around Harry's head. I think he's heading to the tent.

I followed them behind. Liam left after leaving Harry in front of his tent. I waited for sometime and got into Harry's tent.

He got up from the bed and sat when he saw me.

"You can lay down."

"It's fine."

I let out a sigh and asked, "Are you trying to get killed?"

He laughed at what I asked.

I continued, "Don't ever do that again. Don't ever try to save me. I'm not weak. I can take care of myself. Even if that ball hit me, I wouldn't be dead. Understand?"

"Is it bad to protect the girl I like?"

"When will you stop teasing me? Listen, the reason why I approached you before was..."

"What's the reason?"

"You won't believe me even if I said that." And tried to leave.

He grabbed my hand which I slipped and fell on top of him. He wrapped his hand around me and didn't let me get up and said, "I never hated you." And caressed my cheeks.

I got up from him and laughed, "Oh, really? Then why did you steal my mosquito repellent in middle school?"

"I didn't do it. It was my friends."

"What about throwing a bucket of dirty water on me during the spring festival?"

"That was an accident."

"What about spilling the waste from the garbage?"

"It fell out of my hands."

"Scribblings in my notebook?"

"Not me."

"Disappearance of my slam book?"

"I-I don't know."

"Ink on my sports uniform?"

"My friends."

"Disappearance of my homework?"

"Not me!"

"You made me fall in the cafeteria!"

I let out a sigh.

"You hate me for those stupid things?"

"What's stupid? They aren't stupid things when you're poor as rat!" And tried to leave.

Suddenly, He hugged me from behind and wrapped his hands over me and laid his head over my shoulder.

"Why am I not pushing you away? Why doesn't this feel wrong?"

"Don't say anything and stay like this for a moment."

"Why do you like me?"

"I said don't talk."

I turned to him and asked again, "Answer me, Why do you like me?"

"Do you really want to know?"

I nodded and waited for his answer.

When he was about to say it, his friends called out for him so Harry shushed me and said, "Don't come out and stay inside or we'll end up in another rumour." And left.

They talked outside the tent for a while and it became silent.

Harry came inside the tent and said, "They left. You can leave now." And gave his hand for me to go out.

I pushed him away and said, "Stop treating me like your girlfriend." And walked away from him.

I looked around for my friends and found Ms Devlin talking to someone on her phone. She looked tense.

I walked to her and asked when she's done with her call, "Is something wrong, Ms Devlin?"

She shook her head and put on a fake smile and said, "It's nothing."

"I know it's wrong to ask something like this to a teacher but can I ask this personally?"

"What is it?"

"Who was on the call, Ms Devlin?"

"It's my mom."

"Then, why did you sound mad, Ms Devlin?"

"She asked me to get married."

"Aren't you interested in marriage?"

"How could I marry a stranger if I'm already in love?"

"Who's that, Ms Devlin?"

"Someone from my college."

"Didn't your mother accept this man?"

She shook her head.

"What happened? Why didn't she accept it?"

"Because he's dead."