Chapter 2
Two Days Later...
By the time the quiz rolled around, the excitement among the Bradlington students had turned to hysteria. For forty-eight hours, the school halls had been abluster with gossip and conversations over the two participants. Once school ended, the students were allowed home to change into regular clothes. The assembly hall was prepared for students and parents alike. The turnout had been so great that they'd had to raid the art block for extra chairs. Shannon and Jimi were sat on opposite ends of the table that had been set out for them and were waiting for the curtain to be pulled back. Maddy had made sure she was settled before joining her parents and Rhydian. She sat between him and her mum, gripping his hand tightly. She and Shannon had pulled an all-nighter for this and she prayed it was enough.
As Maddy sat and listened, she could hear Sam and Liam going around taking bets. They weren't giving odds beyond two to one, but it would still be enough to cripple them if they lost too badly. It didn't surprise her though that most of the football team were putting money on Jimi.
"Want to make a bet, sir?" Liam asked, sidling over to Jefferies who turned to him with a horrified expression on his face.
"Liam, you know I can't do that." Jefferies replied as one hand dipped into his pocket. "I can't be seen gambling on students. I mean hypothetically if I were to do that then I'd put ten pounds on Shannon, but I'm not allowed to so I can't." As he spoke, his left hand drifted behind Liam's back.
"I get the message, sir." Liam nodded as he took the ten pounds Jefferies had pressed into the small of his back and slipped it into the box. Liam jumped down and Maddy fought the urge to gag at what she'd just witnessed as Jefferies took centre stage.
"Good evening, everyone!" Jefferies grabbed the microphone as a cameraman took a knee in the centre of the isle to tighten up his focus on him. "Welcome to potentially the biggest quiz Bradlington High has seen in at least a decade. Allow me to introduce your contestants, Jimi Chen and Shannon Kelly!" The curtain was pulled back to reveal Jimi and Shannon sitting across from one another. "Furthermore, we have two invigilators to make sure there's no cheating. I would introduce the one from Bradlington but you're already looking at his handsome face."
"I'm not!" one woman at the back called out, holding up a white stick.
"You're lucky!" another one called over, setting off a round of laughter. Jefferies carried on as if nothing had happened.
"Now, the invigilator from Segolia, doctor Rebecca Whitewood!" As Doctor Whitewood made her way out onto the stage, Maddy felt Emma and Dan bristle next to her. She couldn't blame them. They knew they couldn't afford to go starting an incident in the middle of the quiz, but the scars still ran deeply for all of them. "Reading the questions, we have our beloved chair of the governing body Mr Shawn Ashmore." Jefferies pressed on. Ashmore stepped onto the stage with his questions list and took a bow. "And with that, I'm going to pass the microphone to him and let the quiz begin!" Everyone cheered as Ashmore took the microphone and Jefferies took his place next to Dr Whitewood.
"Question one: what is the melting point of Nitrogen?" Maddy fully expected Shannon to be all over it. Before she'd even blinked though, Jimi had hit his buzzer.
"Minus two-hundred and ten degrees." Maddy and Rhydian both did a double-take. Clearly, Jimi had been taking this more seriously than they'd expected. Now that he'd gained the knowledge for the science questions, it was literally a matter of who knew more about any random topics and who was quicker on the buzzer. But with Shannon being smarter on average and Jimi having quicker reflexes due to playing sports, it was anyone's game.
"Correct!" Jimi was awarded the point as Ashmore read out the next one. "Question two: Who played Cedric Diggory in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?" This time it was Shannon who hit her buzzer quicker. It was no surprise. He was her favourite actor.
"Robert Pattinson." Maddy suppressed a grin. Shannon only kept science posters on her walls, but the galleries in her phone were an entirely different matter.
"Correct. Question three:..." The quiz carried on with Jimi and Shannon furiously shouting answers, determined to deny each other a lead. Eventually, both of them were strung out and well matched, with Shannon only leading by two points. Neither was refusing to back down, though. They sat back, waiting for Ashmore's next question.
"It's closer than I expected." Dan noted. Beside him, Emma nodded.
"Well, it's certainly been an interesting game." Ashmore said, moving the sheet of paper up in his hands to look at the bottom. "But we are sadly onto the last question now. Question twenty-nine: how many children has Daniel Smith had?" Everyone went silent, unable to believe what they'd heard. Maddy looked up to see that Dan had turned pale. Emma on the other hand had turned bright red with fury. Ashmore himself did a double-take and re-checked the sheet. "Wait, that's not my writing. Someone's tampered with these questions!"
Seeing an easy point, Shannon hit her buzzer and answered quickly.
"One." Ashmore checked the sheet and scratched his head. "Look don't bother, sir. I know Maddy well. She's definitely an only child." Shannon told him. Ashmore's reply on the other hand only managed to stun the crowd further.
"I'm sorry, that's incorrect. I've got a different answer here. I mean, this shouldn't even be one of the questions on the sheet. I'm not even sure whether I should pass it over or not." Jimi, on the other hand, made the decision for him when he hit the buzzer.
"Two." He said it with such confidence. He clearly knew what he'd said and what he was doing. In Maddy's mind, there was only one way for him to know so instinctively he'd given the right answer.
"That's what I've got written here." Ashmore shrugged.
"Jimi sabotaged it!" Maddy called out on reflex, standing up. "He's altered the questions somehow to try and upset our family! That's how he knows what the sheet says!" At this, Jimi's dad stood up and turned to face her, attempting to stare her down. She knew he wanted to protect his son, but from the murmurs of the audience she knew that they were finding her explanation plausible.
"I hope you have evidence to support that." Jimi's dad said. It was a direct challenge. She knew she had to produce something right then and there, but she just simply didn't have it. At that moment, Doctor Whitewood made her way off the stage and over to Daniel.
"Well I can get the ball rolling straight away." She pulled out her phone and loaded up an app before holding it out to Dan. "This is directly tied to the Segolia database for births, marriages and deaths. Just place your thumb on there, it'll take your print and once I read out that you only have one child they'll all know it's fake."
"I don't see why he should!" Emma snapped. "We don't need to prove ourselves to everyone here! Our family history is none of their business and everyone can see plain as day we only have one child!" Maddy nodded and turned to Jimi's dad, anger plain on her face.
"I think I'd know if I had a brother or sister out there! God only knows I spent long enough asking for one!" At that, Emma let out a sigh as the memories came back to her.
"Don't even get me started on that." She buried her face in her hands and rubbed her eyes. "She was asking us to go into shops and buy her a sibling." As she spoke, Dan reached up and put his thumb on the scanner. Emma and Maddy turned to him with angry glares. Rhydian gripped Maddy's hand nervously.
"Look, I've got nothing to hide." Dan shrugged. That was when the phone bleeped and the results were in. Dr Whitewood stared at it in disbelief before resetting it.
"I think it glitched out. Do that again for me." Dan did. When it bleeped again, Whitewood took another look at the screen and shook her head. "Well according to this, he's right. Two children. Madeline and Maya." At this, Jimi's dad grinned smugly. Maddy, Rhydian and Emma were left staring at Dan in utter shock.
"Who's Maya?" Maddy demanded. Dan was also lost for words, barely able to formulate a sentence.
"Well, it must be... Look, it's..." Eventually, he was able to pull his thoughts together. "Look, Daniel is a very common first name and Smith is a common enough last name. She must be from another Daniel, another Smith or maybe even another Daniel Smith. They've just registered her birth certificate under the wrong name. I'm sure that's all it is. What I want to know is: how did someone who isn't even affiliated with Segolia know about it to write a question on it?"
"Yeah and what are they doing trying to air our family's dirty laundry?" Emma snapped. "I trust that you know someone we can go to and get this sorted out?" Whitewood thought for a moment before nodding.
"There are contacts you can go to. I'll send you some phone numbers tomorrow." Emma nodded in thanks just as Jimi's dad got ready to butt in again. But he was cut off as Jefferies sensed the tension boiling over and grabbed the microphone.
"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's champion Miss Shannon Kelly!" The crowd erupted into applause as Shannon stood up and made her way to the front of the stage and tried to smile while numerous camera flashes went off. But she was smart enough to know the same thing Maddy did: her victory didn't matter anymore. The quiz had done its job and it wasn't to determine who a cheque went to. This had been an attack on her dad and her family as a whole. But whether whoever did it knew about them or not, a campaign into her family's personal life could risk exposing them all.
Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is so late up today. I've had important errands to run so I'm only just getting around to it. Also I didn't manage to put an Author's Note on the last chapter so this is the first one. Now as I've said before, this story is already completely written so I just have to upload the chapters. I am sticking to a weekly update schedule so Mondays are the update days for this story. I have other stories for other fandoms that update on different days. Hope you're all enjoying it so far. Please feel free to leave a review to let me know what you think. I've said it may times but I truly mean it, your feedback and support is what inspires me to keep writing.