Greenhouse || Xavier Thorpe x Male Reader

community day || chapter 27

We all turn to Weems, waiting for her next words. She takes a dramatic pause, looking around at the fifteen-or-so faces in the quad.

"The main events will begin after breakfast. We'll start out slowly with some easy community builders and the afternoon will culminate with a random-team collaborative Poe Cup," she announces. "A reminder that whereas everyone must participate in at least one event, you can't all just do the Poe Cup."

The quad fills with a small smattering of applause as she steps away from the microphone.

"This is going to be so fun!" Enid squeaks in excitement.

The quad gradually fills with more students as it gets closer to breakfast time. Everybody wants to be early so as to not miss any of the event announcements. Even Ajax manages to arrive before the bell.

"You're actually early," I say jokingly. "What universe is this?"

"This one, bitch. I'm not missing a chance to prove to you guys that I can actually function before noon," he responds with a laugh.

The breakfast bell tolls and Weems steps up to the microphone. "Before you go to eat, I would like to introduce our first event which will take place in exactly one hour. The event will be small, but I hope you will all enjoy it. I have hidden several small flags in various locations around the school, some of which you cannot access without the help of another student. Everybody will need to work together, and not against each other, to collect them all."

Nobody is used to non-competitive games, but the looks on their faces show that they're all willing to try. Weems dismisses us to eat, and the whispers of excitement that filled the quad before her announcement have grown to a dull roar.

~=~

The people choosing to participate in the first activity group together and form a sort of a huddle. Included in this group is Enid. The rest of us weren't so sure about a school-wide flag scavenger hunt, so we stayed out to watch. They seem to have decided to split into three teams, one to cover each floor of the school.

"We're ready," one of them calls. Weems nods and raises a start gun filled with blanks.

"GO!"

They sprint off into the building, soon splitting as two groups run up the staircase. The group on the bottom floor disappears around a corner, running in search of the flags. Weems told them beforehand that there were nine flags in total, three on each floor. It only takes five minutes before a triumphant cheer is heard. The ground floor group has found their first flag.

The quad also cheers, excitement spreading like wildfire. I let myself get swept up in it, in the joy as the groups find flag after flag. Even Wednesday shows mild interest in the event, most likely only because of her girlfriend's involvement. Eventually, the last group comes charging down the stairs, led by Enid waving the final flag.

"And that's the last group to find their flags! This activity was not about finding all the flags first, but working together to find them. Our next activity will be announced after a fifteen minute break," Weems announces. Enid rushes over to us with a wide smile on her face.

"That was amazing," she tells us. "Everybody was so coordinated. It was some serious power-of-friendship type shit."

Ajax laughs. "You mean you're finally accepting that your other friends and you are essentially the main cast of My Little Pony?"

"Shut it, Ajax, or I will claw your face open. Anyways, I hope the next event is as good as this one was!"

~=~

The next event, according to Enid, was even better. Xavier and I joined her for that one as it was a collaborative distance/logic puzzle. The team had to work together to figure out a fast and efficient solution to transport the entire group across a distance without a single foot touching the ground. Eventually, we figured out a method after many attempts and failures.

Ajax took the next event, a strange activity where a team of people stands on a box and must figure out how to keep everyone on as it shrinks. No one liked the activity, but it is what came after that the students were truly excited for.

After a quick recap of the day's events so far, everyone makes their way down to the docks for the Community Cup. Instead of a race with the objective being to make it across without sinking, the groups is given a canoe and a scrap of metal. They have to piece together the metal to form a key of sorts, cross the lake, and then unlock a door to the Community Cup. Both Enid and Wednesday are participating here, as the lack of competition takes the fun out of it for Xavier. I just dislike boats.

Weems hands out the metal and raises her starting gun.

"Ready!"

"Set!"

"Assemble!"