A/N: Okay, sorry it took longer to get this chapter out; but this chapter is lucky number 13, so I wanted to get it right =) Also, I will try to get up the next chapter as soon as possible, but Chinese New Years is coming up, and as a girl who grew up in Taiwan, I tend to go all out for it. I think that my preparations will not disrupt my writing schedule; but if I do not post a new chapter within the next few days, you will know why. Hope you enjoy this one.
Why, Why Love
Chapter 13
Sam and Artemis just stood outside their room, both of them wondering how they were going to get Jin to talk about his father. Now usually Jin would talk non-stop about anything when given the opportunity, but this was a more delicate situation.
Jin poked his head outside of the room and saw Artemis and Sam, leaning pensively against the wall.
"Hey, what's wrong with you two?"
Both teens looked up suddenly at Jin, as though they had been startled out of their thoughts. Jin frowned at them.
"What did Killian say that upset both of you so much?" he asked. Artemis looked at the ground, mind racing, trying to come up with a good story.
"Oh, it was nothing," Sam said quickly, trying to satiate Jin.
"No Sam, no need to try to hide this," Artemis said quickly, causing both Sam and Jin to look at him in shock.
"Sam what are you hiding from me? What did Killian say to you?" Jin asked, grabbing the girl's shoulders. Sam just stuttered, not sure of what to say.
"Sam doesn't have any place to go for winter break," Artemis said smoothly, "I was going to invite him to spend it at my house, but it turns out that my parents are going on vacation with Killian's parents and therefore cannot host Sam"
Sam gaped at the boy. What in the world was he hoping to accomplish by spreading this odd story?
"Is that true?" Jin asked Sam, excitedly.
"Yes," Sam said quickly, deciding to just play along with whatever Artemis had in mind. After all, he was the genius in the group.
"That is perfect then!" Jin cried, beaming down at her.
"Perfect? I am going to be spending Christmas alone," Sam said, frowning, forgetting for a moment that this was all a lie, "how can you be so heartless?"
"No," Jin said, hurriedly, "I didn't mean it like that. I was just saying that it was perfect because now you can come and spend winter break with my family."
"Your family!" Sam said in surprise. Now she understood what Artemis was trying to do, "you mean I can actually meet your family?"
"Of course," Jin continued, oblivious to Sam's growing excitement, "now I know that Taiwan is very far away, and you might not want to travel so much, but…"
"No," Sam said quickly, "Jin, I would love to spend winter break with you"
"Really?" Jin asked, eyes lighting up at Sam's enthusiasm.
"Yes," Sam answered, clasping his hand. Jin almost fainted at the movement, "Jin, meeting your family seems like it would be so much fun"
"No need to act so excited about this," Artemis mumbled from the side. Though he knew Sam was only excited by the prospect of being able to catch Chairman Lai, the girl didn't have to give such a convincing performance.
"It is settled then, Sam will spend winter break with me," Jin said, turning around to Artemis, eyebrows raised. Score one for Jin.
Artemis looked away from the boy, refusing to succumb to the boy and his inane challenge. Why would he want to win Sam anyway? It wasn't as though he really cared about losing her. But as those words flew into his head, he knew they were a lie. If they weren't then he wouldn't be so upset over the fact that Sam and Jin were now smiling so brightly at each other.
"Yes, it is settled," Sam said happily.
"No quite, actually"
All three teens turned around to find Patrick walking up to them.
"Why do you always appear out of nowhere?" Artemis asked, "it is slightly scary"
"Dorm leader, what did you mean by your comment?" Jin asked. Patrick leaned against the wall and brushed a few long, brown hairs out of his smoky eyes.
"I mean that Sam might not be able to go home with you over break," he said.
"There is no rule in the handbook that forbids students traveling home with one another," Artemis said
"I know that," Patrick snapped, "I am a dorm leader after all. I was saying that Sam might not be able to travel with Jin because we might not have a winter break at all."
"WHAT?' Sam cried, "why wouldn't you have a winter break?"
"How could you not let us have Christmas off?" Jin asked, frowning deeply. He was not going to let anything get in his plans about spending a wonderful two weeks with Sam by himself.
"Getting winter break off is the reward this year," Patrick said lightly. Artemis and Jin both groaned loudly, while Sam looked on in confusion.
"The reward?" she asked, "reward for what?"
"The inter-dorm competition," Jin said, his frown deepening.
"So what you are trying to say is that our ability to go on winter vacation depends on if we win the inter-dorm competition?" Artemis asked.
"Yes, that is exactly what I am trying to say," Patrick said, "the dorm that wins the competition will get to go wherever they want during the break. The two dorms that lose will have to stay behind and clean the campus during break".
"Isn't that a little too extreme?" Jin asked, "That has to violate some type of rule."
"Oh please, the school president makes up the rules here," Patrick said, suddenly sounding very annoyed.
"And everybody knows that the president is a bit mentally unstable," Artemis said.
"More than just a bit," Patrick added in, darkly. Sam frowned. It was a bit obvious that Patrick didn't care much for this mysterious school president.
"So is this serious?" Sam asked, "will we really not be able to leave SB during break unless we win the competition". She still had trouble wrapping her mind around this outlandish fact. It just seemed so unbelievable.
"Yes," Patrick answered, "unfortunately, this is absolutely serious"
"Well what is the competition?" Jin asked, "if it's sports then Sam and I have it, if it's anything academic then that kid has it"
"I do have a name," Artemis muttered to Jin, the corners of his mouth turning down a bit.
"I really have no idea what the competition is," Patrick answered, "all I know is that I was supposed to round up all of you and bring you to the dining hall. I think the president is going to tell us what we have to so"
The three teens nodded and followed Patrick around to the other rooms, gathering all the students in Dorm 2. All the while, Sam's mind raced. She had never even heard of a situation like this; where students had a win a competition in order to go home over break. It sounded like something out of a bad drama or cheesy novel. What type of man would this president have to be in order to make up such an insane competition?
Sam shuddered at the thought of what the president could look like. He is probably some sort of towering, intimating man, she thought, one that carries the rule book in one hand and a large cane to swat students with in the other. The small girl shuddered at the image that came to her head.
"What are you thinking about now?" Artemis whispered to her, "shuddering like a little girl."
"I am just worried about meeting the president," Sam said, "he is probably some huge, scary man, isn't he?"
Artemis gave her one his very rare smiles and looked away without saying a word. Sam stared at him in confusion for a moment. She was about to ask him what exactly that smile meant when they entered the dining hall.
Sam looked up and saw that the dining hall was packed. On the very left side stood a group of students, all wearing capes in various colors. The students standing in the middle were all donned in some type of sports attire. And then there were them, the students of Dorm 2, standing nonchalantly at the right of the hall. Standing on a table in the middle of the hall was a small women. She was very pretty, with light brown hair and twinkling sky blue eyes. She looked to be in her forties and was very slim. She was wearing very informal clothing, jeans with a very casual shirt on top.
"Ah, I am glad to see all of my students here," she said, chirpily. Her voice was high and sweet, sounding as though it should belong to a teenager or a little girl rather than a grown lady.
"Wait… is that… is that the president?" Sam asked.
"Doesn't quite resemble a huge, scary man, does she?" Artemis answered. Sam slapped him gently on the shoulder, frowning. So that is what the boy's smile had been about.
"Where is my little baby?" the president called out. Jin snickered from beside Sam and Patrick groaned loudly.
"Honey, where are you?" the president called out again. Jin pushed Patrick forward. The dorm head stumbled a little and fell to the front of the group. He turned around and glared angrily at Jin.
"Baby, there you are!" the president cried, smiling brightly when she saw Patrick, "I was worried that you had gotten lost"
"Mum, I told you not to call me baby," Patrick mumbled, his cheeks turning a furious shade of crimson as the boys around him started to snicker.
"Wait! Patrick's mother is the president of the school?" Sam asked. Jin nodded.
"Yes she is; and it is very obvious that she favors him. How do you think he got the dorm head position even though he is in the same grade as us?" Jin said.
"I guess I never thought about that," Sam whispered. Now that she thought about it, Patrick was indeed in all of her classes. I guess I never wondered about that, she thought ruefully.
Sam looked up and saw Patrick's mother staring at her. Sam looked at her with a mix of fear and anticipation. Why was she just staring at her like that?
Suddenly the president let out a little yelp and jumped down from the table. She hurried over to Sam and grasped her hand. Artemis automatically, subconsciously, moved closer to the small girl.
"You are the new boy, right?" the lady said, looking Sam over, "you are absolutely adorable!"
"Oh thank you," Sam said, embarrassed, "um…and yes, I am the new boy. My name is Sam."
"I know that, of course!" the lady said, "what kind of head of the school would I be if I didn't keep a track of all my students? My name is President Janice."
The lady clasped Sam's hand and shook it firmly. Sam smiled nervously at President Janice, who was turning around to face Patrick.
"Baby, why didn't you tell me that you had such a cute new classmate?" she asked. Patrick just shuffled his feet and mumbled something incoherent.
"Are you going to tell us what we are doing here?" Artemis asked the woman, "or do you plan to just keep all of us confined in here for the rest of the day?"
"As chipper as always, Artemis," President Janice said, smiling, "and yes, I will tell you exactly why you are here. This year, I decided that instead of having many mini-competitions throughout the year that we would just have one big one, with one large prize"
"So you are really serious about denying people the chance to go home over winter," Jin asked.
"When you say it like that it sounds heartless!" the lady cried.
"Because it is," Killian interjected in his normal, frank manner. President Janice turned around and looked at him, confused.
"Another new student?" she asked.
"He just transferred here today," Patrick said quickly, "but that doesn't matter. Why in the world are you using winter holidays as a reward?"
"Because, it makes the competition more spirited, I think" President Janice said, "plus the cleaning crew just left so I need somebody to clean the school" she mumbled to herself.
"The cleaning crew left because you forgot to pay them again! Why are we getting punished for your incompetence?" Patrick asked, angrily.
"Talking to your mother like that! Such a rude little boy" President Janice cried, "but either way—this has already been decided. So if you would like to travel over winter holidays then your dorm will need to win the competition."
"Fine, what is it then?" Jin asked. He was willing to do any sort of thing so that he could travel back home with Sam over break.
"Well…" President Janice said, hopping back on the table, "this year I would like to reintroduce the Miss SB contest!!"
Her statement was met with dead silence as the hall full of boys stared up at her.
"The what?" Killian asked finally, after what seemed like a whole minute of silence.
"The Miss SB contest!" President Janice repeated. Patrick walked up to the table where she was.
"By Miss SB… do you mean a beauty contest?" he asked, looking thoughtful.
"Yes, that is exactly what I mean!" the woman said happily. Patrick turned back around and faced Dorm 2, a wry smile spread on his lips.
"Well then, boys, we have this down, don't we?" he asked. The other two dorms erupted into angry shouts.
"That is absolutely no fair!" Oscar, the head of Dorm 3 shouted, "everybody knows that Dorm 2 would win a contest based solely on looks!"
"Who said it was based solely on looks?" President Janice said. Everyone became quiet once again and looked back up at her.
"The Miss SB contest will run just like every other pageant. Looks will only count for one third the final score. Another third will come from the talent portion." She said, looking pointedly at Dorm 3. If anybody was known for having outlandish and pageant like talents, it was the students of Dorm 3.
"And the other third," she continued, "will come from a special sports competition round"
With that, the Dorm 1 students started to mutter in approval.
"A sports competition round in a beauty pageant?" asked Patrick, "isn't that a little weird?"
"Isn't having a beauty pageant in a boy's school a little weird to begin with?" Killian asked. Jin frowned at him.
"Hey, whose side are you on? You are Dorm 2 after all," he whispered furiously to the young vamp. Killian just shrugged. He had never imagined that coming to a human boarding school would be so entertaining.
"Alright, then it's settled," President Janice said, "each dorm with pick four members to represent them in the Miss SB contest. Each member will have to compete in all three rounds and will be judged by a panel of young ladies from our sister school!"
"Alright, President! I accept this competiton!" Oscar yelled out dramatically.
"I accept too!" Mike, the leader of Dorm 1, cried, flexing his muscles. Both of them looked over to Patrick, who sighed loudly.
"I still think this is too extreme," he said lazily, "but I suppose I must accept as well"
"Then the Miss SB competition will be held in out auditorium in two week's time!" President Janice cried out. She leaped off the table and walked out of the dining hall, leaving three dorms full of confused, slightly angry, and highly competitive schoolboys on their own.
"Don't think that your dorm can win just because this is a beauty pageant" Mike yelled, pointing his finger at Patrick.
"That is right," Oscar said, "a third of this competition is based of talent, and we all know what the most talented Dorm is"
"Please, singing opera, acting, twirling batons? What do you expect to win?" Patrick asked.
"Don't get too confident in yourself, pretty boy," Mike said, "after all, this is a school based on good looks. Everybody who goes here can pass the beauty standards"
"My dorm," Patrick said, slowly, walking up to the other two dorm leaders, "was handpicked my me. I have not only the best-looking boys, but also the most talented, athletic, and smartest of the SB students. There is no reason for me to not be confident."
"Oh really?" Mike asked, "well if you are so confident then let us place a little wager on this."
"Fine!" Patrick said. Oscar inched away from the two, not wanting to get involved in whatever wager they were going to make.
"If you lose the competition then you will have to shave off your precious hair," Mike said. Patrick's hand immediately went up to his perfect, brown hair. He frowned slightly.
"Alright," Patrick said. Everybody in Dorm 2 gasped a little. Patrick was always known for being extremely vain. If there was one thing he loved more than anything else it was his looks.
"But if you loose," Patrick continued, "then you will have to give up your position as captain of the basketball team and give it to me". He saw Mike's hands clench into fists.
"Alright." Mike said. Everybody in Dorm 1 gasped. SB was known for having one of the best basketball teams in all of Ireland, if not all of Northern Europe. Being the captain of the team was an illustrious, powerful title.
"It is settled then, let's go" Patrick said, turning around and motioning for the rest of Dorm 2 to follow after him.
"It is," Mike answered back, storming out of the hall, the boys of Dorm 1 hot on his heel.
Oscar and the rest of the Dorm 3 boys were left in the hall, staring in wonder.
"Alright!" Oscar said happily, after a few minutes, "all we have to do is stay out of the way and let those two dorms destroy each other!"
"Do you really think they will try to?" one of the Dorm 3 boys.
"Of course," Oscar said, "If I know Patrick, which I do, I am sure that he has already starting to assemble his boys and is creating a battle strategy right now"
And it turned out that Oscar really did know Patrick. The Dorm head had already assembled all of the Dorm 2 boys in the 4th floor kitchen, a thick binder in front of him.
"What is that binder?" Sam asked. Patrick held it up.
"This binder is my little cheat sheet into the minds of the SC girls," Patrick said, "it has little bios on every single student as well as the things that they like."
"That is so creepy," Killian muttered. Sam nodded her head in agreement.
"But most importantly," Patrick continued, "it has the list of best looking boys, as ranked by the girls"
"Wait, you mean the girls actually have a list of us in order of looks?" Jin asked. Patrick nodded.
"Every month, the girls rank the top ten SB students in order of looks and who they would want to date."
"Well, then let us see this list!" Jin cried. Everybody else in the dorm nodded quickly.
"Fine," Patrick said, pulling out what seemed to be a thick stack of paper. But then he suddenly started to unfold it, and Sam saw that it was actually some type of banner.
Casually, Patrick strung the banner across the top of the stove. Everybody leaned forward to read it. The banner had pictures of ten boys, and their name written in gold writing next to it.
"The bottom three don't really matter in this competition," Patrick said, "and if you look at the top 7…well…"
Killian leaned forward and read the list of the top 7 students out loud.
"Number 7, Dorm Leader Oscar". The crowd gave a little groan.
"Number 6, Liam". Everybody patted a very surprised looking Liam on the back.
"Number 5; Dorm Leader Mike". The crowd groaned again.
"Number 4; Jin". Jin smiled and waved at the crowd.
"And now for the top three," Patrick said. Killian looked over the top three names with a very amused expression.
"Number 3 is Patrick, number 2 is Sam, and number 1 is Artemis," Killian said, reading out the names quickly.
"I used to be number 2 in the school," Patrick said, leaning towards Sam, "I guess the girls decided they liked the effeminate look better"
Sam looked at the sign, shocked. Her, the second best looking guy in SB? She knew it was probably some sort of honor, but she couldn't help but feel a little queasy at the thought. Did she really look like a guy that much?
Artemis looked down at Sam, amusement clearly written in his eyes. Sam looked up at him with a look of utter shock and a little disgust.
"Am I really a good looking boy?" she asked him. Artemis wanted to laugh out loud at the girl's outlandish statement.
"I suppose so," Artemis answered, looking back up at the sign.
"Look— Sam is second," Jin said, coming up to the small girl and hugging her tightly, "I knew that I picked a good one to chase after!"
Artemis blanched a little and pushed Jin away from her.
"Do you want to crush all of his bones?" he asked. Jin just stood up straighter.
"What I want to know is why Artemis is in first place. What kind of attractive qualities does he even have?" Jin asked.
"Jin, Artemis has been in the top position ever since the list first came out," Patrick answered, "though as to what the girls see in him, I can't answer that".
Artemis just sighed and leaned against the table.
"Well it is fine that you unraveled you little list," Killian said, "but what are we going to do with it now?"
"We pick the four contestants that will represent Dorm 2," Patrick said, pointing to the banner, "and as you can see the top four students on the list are all part of this dorm."
"So Sam, Artemis, Jin, and you will be our representatives?" Killian asked. Patrick nodded his head.
"With a team like this, there is no way I am losing my hair."
"No," Artemis said suddenly. Everybody turned to look at him.
"What?" Patrick asked.
"There is no way that I am going to enter some school beauty pageant." Artemis said coolly, "the inter-dorm competitions are for those who have nothing productive to do with their lives".
"Artemis, you have to do this!" Patrick cried, "if we don't have you there is a possibility that we can lose, which means that MY HAIR WILL BE GONE!"
"Sometimes I think you are as insane as your mother," Artemis mumbled. Killian sighed, grabbing Artemis and pulling him away from the group.
"Do you not see what you are doing?" Killian whispered angrily, "Dorm 2 needs to win the competition"
"I didn't know that you had such dorm spirit," Artemis replied, drolly.
"Are you a flaming idiot?" Killian asked the boy. Artemis frowned a little, not used to being called an idiot.
"If Dorm 2 doesn't win the competition," Killian continued, "then we cannot get to go to Taiwan over break and all of our chances of confronting and bringing down Chairman Lai would be ruined".
"There is always another way of meeting Chairman Lai," Artemis said, "one that doesn't involve a beauty contest".
Killian was just about ready to physically knock some sense into the boy when Jin came up behind him.
"Killian, let me try to persuade him," Jin said. Artemis almost snorted.
"How in the world do you plan on convincing me about anything?" Artemis asked. Killian looked at Jin and nodded, patting the boy on the shoulder and leaving. Killian knew that Jin would bring Sam into the picture; and if Artemis had one weak spot, it was that tiny girl.
"Jin, I really do not think that there is anything…."
"This is the challenge," Jin said, interrupting Artemis.
"What?" Artemis asked, utterly confused, which was something very rare normally; but very commonplace whenever he conversed with Jin.
"This is the challenge over Sam. Whichever of the two of us that gets the higher score in the pageant gets to chase Sam freely," Jin said. Artemis looked at him, aghast.
"Why would you think that I would ever want to chase Sam?" he asked. Jin sighed out.
"Because you don't want me and him to ever be together," Jin said. Artemis actually gave out a slight laugh at that statement.
"There is no way that you and Sam will ever be together, so I actually could care less about that," he said. Jin frowned.
"If you don't accept my challenge, then you have no right to ever chase after Sam," Jin said, "I told you I was willing to fight for him, and I will. I will not give Sam up this easily, and deep down, I don't think you will either."
"Jin, you can do whatever you would like. There is no way that I am going to accept this challenge of yours," Artemis said. Jin just looked at the boy for a good minute.
"Fine then," he said. And with that Jin turned his back and stormed away from Artemis, heading straight towards Sam, who was in the midst of a discussion with Killian. Without any warning, Jin grabbed Sam's shoulder, spun her around, bent down and kissed her deeply before she had a chance to react.
Artemis watched in shock as the whole thing happened. His blood started to boil when Jin grabbed Sam, and he was seeing red when Jin actually kissed the girl. Artemis saw Sam's eyes widen in surprise as Jin continued to kiss her. It looked as though she was paralyzed in fear.
Quickly Artemis walked up to Jin. He pulled the boy off of Sam and glared at him.
"Fine, I accept," Artemis said icily, "you said that you were going to put up a fight? Well you better have meant it, because I do not think you know what you are going up against".
"Oh, trust me, I won't lose," Jin said just as icily.
"So are you going to do the pageant?" Patrick asked Artemis. The boy nodded his head solemnly. Sam, who was still in utter shock of having been so suddenly kissed by Jin, was standing completely still. Her head was spinning and her mind felt a bit fuzzy. She felt herself starting to fall forward.
Artemis saw the girl starting to sway and caught her just as soon as she fell. Jin reached forward, as to take Sam from him.
"I think you have done enough today, Jin." Artemis said, hoisting Sam up, "I am going to take Sam back to the room. "
And with that, Artemis left the kitchen. Jin just stood where he was, stewing.
"I am a bit confused about what just happened," Patrick said, "but as long as Artemis is going to participate, then that's all I care about".
Killian just nodded, a very amused smirk spread on his face. He had a feeling that this pageant was going to be quite interesting…
A/N: Okay, how was it? I know it was a lot for one chapter, but like I said-- it was lucky number 13 so I felt like I had to make it big! haha. As always, please give me your feedback on the chapter. Everything you say really helps me improve and expand on my writing! Gracias y besos!
Also, happy New Years everyone. 恭喜发财!! May the year of the Ox bring you all much happiness and luck.