VI: A Quick Game: First Meeting

DEENA'S POV

Everyone was able to read one note and by this alone, I can already guess what kind of person they are. Making friends was never a problem to me, and that isn't the reason why I joined this show. Still, making friends won't be too bad, especially with Ethan here.

"Well, one thing's for sure, women will be doing the cooking and the cleaning." Zyke, a police officer, nonchalantly said with his hands behind his head.

And of course, his comment received a backlash, especially from his ex-wife, Natasha, a former cheerleader and now a coach of the volleyball team.

"You should have taken your Mom with you, then. No one here will be cooking and cleaning for you." Natasha hissed at her ex-husband.

"Oh, boy," I murmured and shook my head.

I think I can already guess the reason behind their divorce.

The ex-couple clashed not an hour later when we entered and we separated them. Vicky, a teacher and Ryan's ex-girlfriend, stepped up to create a list of who will do house chores each day and we were grateful to her. Men complained and protested when they were tasked with something, of course, but they needed to suck it up.

"Cross my name from the list. My wife—I mean—ex-wife here will be the one doing my chores." Trenton said smugly and I looked at him in repulsion.

The show only started so I didn't need to show everyone that we reconciled just yet. For now, I can take this chance and show him how his mere presence irks me.

"Says who?" My eyebrow rose and I kicked him in the shin so he would take his hand off my shoulder. He hissed and held his right leg. "I guess you better learn how to move your body now, Mr. Rich boy. You don't have a maid here."

Trenton gave me a look and pressed his lips in a thin line. Us, women, collectively agreed to find our room so we could unpack and leave the men behind.

We entered the girl's room which consisted of ten double-sized beds. We have our designated cabinets and bedside table. Just like the whole house, the room is modernly decorated. You can only see black, white, gray and cream colors which I didn't like because I like my room vibrant.

"At least they didn't paint the room pink." I snorted and picked a bed for myself and everyone else did the same.

"Hi, you're Deena, right?" The woman who chose the bed on my right, greeted me with a smile.

"Yes, and you're Patty." I smiled back, and sat on the bed. By now, I have all of their names memorized. Perks of being an actress perhaps.

"That's me." She grinned and looked around with a frown. "Wait, girls, where are our bags?"

I blinked and looked around. We looked under the bed and in the cabinet, but our things were nowhere to be found.

Just then, the intercom made a statistical sound before a deep voice spoke, "Ex-couples, we would like to officially welcome you to Ex-Factor, where you either reunite with your ex or perhaps find a new love."

"As you probably figured out by now, we still have your things, but before we give it to you, we would like to break the ice by playing a harmless game where you might or might not lose something precious."

We all had a surprised look on our faces before we panicked. What did he mean by losing our things? I packed everything I needed!

"The game would be called 'Our First Meeting', ex-couples need to guess how you met your ex-partner. If your answers matched, you are free to get all of your things, but if your answers don't match, you will both need to eliminate one thing off your luggage."

Moans of protest from us were heard but we really didn't have a choice as we were called back to the living room. We saw our bags chained up together and I shook my head.

We were asked to take one small whiteboard with a pen each where we will write our answers, and men and women had to stand with our backs on each other to prevent cheating.

'Does Trent even remember how we met? Surely he does, right? After all, I saved his life.'

"You will be given ten seconds to recall your first meeting and write the answer, and answers will be shown by couples."

The timer was shown on the huge TV and we were given the signal to start. My hand moved quickly to write my answer without thinking about it, praying that Trent won't be petty enough to mess this up for me.

I looked at the other girls to see that some of them must be struggling to remember how they met their ex, and it made me wonder if someone can truly forget the moment you first laid eyes on the one you love.

The loud alarm signaling the end of the ten seconds resonated around the living room and we were told to put the pen back in the jar, hold the board to our stomach, and face our ex-partners. I tried communicating with Trent with my eyes but the jerk is avoiding my eyes!

"Our first ex-couple who will show us their answers are... Patty and Mark."

Patty and Mark simultaneously flipped their boards for everyone to see and we can see the close-up from the TV. I nodded with my mouth forming 'o' when their answers matched, and I clapped along with everyone.

Their answer was 'Escape room', but Mark gave more details that Patty got lost and he was the one acting like a clown who was supposed to scare her, but helped her instead.

The ex-couple were given the key to unlock the lock and they took each other's bags without really looking at each other.

After them, three more couples were called; Zyke-Natasha, Gabriel-Tori, and Vincent-Kate, but unfortunately, all three answers did not match. We had to watch a live drama where the ex-wives and ex-girlfriend threw hateful words at their ex-partner.

The men grumbled but did not have a hard time picking one item off their bags, but the women cried and begged but in the end, they needed to throw away one thing.

"Ethan and Allyson." The Game Master called, and they flipped over their boards.

'In the music room.' I read Ethan's words and I was about to look at Allyson's answer when I froze.

Because our first meeting was in the music room where I had fallen asleep from practice and he woke me up. From then on, we became closer to each other.

Did he make a mistake? I stared at him in shock, not expecting Ethan to be looking at me too. My heartbeat suddenly quickened.