02 Pick Your Arrows

Thalia counted the ballot boxes on the tables. Three on the left, three on the right. Six boxes; three on each table.

That meant another pair of couple had been born in the previous voting.

They had started with twelve boxes in the first voting and following the second voting, there were eight boxes.

Now there were only six left.

Damn, Thalia had thought there won’t be another pair since getting two pairs were quite a feat already for the show. And it was on the first voting too! Getting one pair from the first voting would be a miracle enough but two?? Would it rain money soon then?

So the chances of another pair turning up would be pretty low, she had initially thought. But bummer, another one? Three in the span of two voting session?? Did the production rig the show or something?

The only thing is, nobody knew who was pairing up with who because after the first voting, four names were left out altogether in the second voting, only leaving eight names so anybody could be together with anybody among the four names, to be honest.

But since it involved her vital survival skills, Thalia could successfully guess of one pair.

Her surviving skills involved her observing the other participants as much as she could, and as scrutinized as she could be. Therefore, she could confidently say that Yohan Theyne and Nyla Oakie were now definitely a matched pair. Considering that there were four names that were not there in the second voting, taking out those two now left her with another two, which conclude the other matched pair was Rhett Neumann and Hunter Iller.

Although the latter pair was something she didn’t expect because Iller was indifferent all the time so it’s hard to guess who she actually had her arrow for. Even more so, she’s the type of person who Thalia expected would be the last person on earth to be seen joining this kind of show willingly. Hence, the prizes or the money were the only palpable reasons Thalia could think of on why she was here.

On the other hand, Thalia’s observing skills did brought the deduction that there was more than just a slight interest from Rhett towards Hunter. It was a weak hypothesis at first because the golden boy Neumann was sparkling at everyone but it came to a point where Thalia sometimes saw him took it down a notch when he’s around Hunter. Who would have thought that it was really the case of fluttering feelings.

Unlike the Rhett-Hunter pair, the Yohan-Nyla pair was pretty obvious with their interests towards each other from the first get-go. They communicated a lot with each other and they’re always glued to each other’s side. Thalia wasn’t sure that everyone else was seeing what she was seeing of the two. Nonetheless, their outcome was to be expected, frankly speaking.

That’s why Thalia purposedly chose her arrow for Yohan for her first voting, knowing damn well that he’s interested in someone else. Since it’s not reciprocated by the person who the arrow was given to, her arrow was cancelled out—as per she had intended to.

She needed her arrows to be cancelled out.

It was irksome that she suddenly got scammed by her mother, dragged into the show that she clearly had no interest in and now she even had to wreck her brain to survive when she should had been at home resting. She had a few project assignments in line so she had carefully planned her schedule for absolute rest for a few days before she went all out doing her work—which she knew would cause her a lot of stress later. Hence, the rest at the beginning.

But now she’s stuck here, her brain’s wrecking from working overtime repetitively over tiresome stuff. She hates anything troublesome and this show was at the peak of her list now. She found it bothersome that she had to exert energy in something that she found pointless in, but she’s sure as hell not gonna leave the show with a man on tow.

So she made sure to pick someone who definitely would not return her arrow.

So that all her arrows would be cancelled out.

She needed to cancel them out. Every time.

So now that there were only three other male names left, she had to pick properly. This would be the final voting because tomorrow would be the last shoot. It’s been almost ten days now that she had been stuck here.

Thalia scanned the name on each of the three boxes on the left and was surprised to see that Keegan Alvarez’s name was not on the list. Her head spun to the right table and found that Anna Uffelman’s name wasn’t on any of the boxes either.

Damn. Does that mean…?

She was pretty sure Kiefer Yamin was interested in Anna but it turned out it was Keegan who caught her interest instead. It was rather a gamble for Thalia to vote for Kiefer on the second voting. She wasn’t hundred percent sure but she figured Kiefer would be a safer choice for her arrow to get cancelled out than Keegan.

Keegan Alvarez’s arrow was very ambiguous. There was no telling who he actually had his arrows aimed at. Because he made it seemed like he was in the show just for fun and it would be fine if he partnered up with just anyone. It didn’t matter to him. So Thalia could not risk, even the tiniest possibility, of him aiming his arrow at her.

So she picked Kiefer, on the basis that she’s quite certain that Kiefer might like Anna. Although not hundred percent certain, she figured it would be a wiser choice than the cryptic Keegan. Since his arrow was double-edged for Thalia, she would rather bet on something that she had more confidence in than something she felt she couldn’t quite put her finger on it—Keegan’s vague arrow, that was.

For Thalia, it didn’t matter if Kiefer’s arrow towards Anna got reciprocated or not. If it got reciprocated, good for them and at the same time, good for her too because hers got cancelled out. If it didn’t get reciprocated, she didn’t really care because what’s important was that hers got cancelled out at the end.

Just like how she tried to make sound assessment with her observation skills of where everyone’s arrow might be, she also tried to consider where Anna’s might go to. Just because.

There would be no way in hell that her arrow would be aimed at Izek Wolf because he got two Siamese cats who made it pretty obvious that they had their arrows aimed at him with the way they were marking their territory prey. Anna was a soft bubble yet right-minded person so she would definitely choose to avoid something as conflictive as putting her arrow that leading up to a more tensed discord between the two Siamese cats--Luna Kafka and Sage Schafer. So it was unquestionable that Izek was not in her arrow’s radar.

There wasn’t much of interaction between Anna and Theodore Acheson either except for their friendly short conversations with each other every once in a while, and the times he helped her scooped up scrambled eggs onto her plate, which she always ate for her breakfast. So he was assumably not a palpable option, Thalia reckoned. But Thalia didn’t brush aside the smallest possibility that he could still be an option for Anna though.

Either way, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter who her arrow was aimed at.

Because, again, what’s important for Thalia was, her own arrow got cancelled out.

And thankfully, it did in the second voting as well.

However, she forgot to take into account that even if it got cancelled out, there would still be the third voting. Yes, the final voting. She had failed to think one step ahead, Thalia inwardly groaned. She had assumed there won’t be another more pair—because two pairs was already a miracle outcome, duh—so it would fine to pick Kiefer again in the third voting.

But now that Anna and Keegan were out of the picture, picking Kiefer for her third voting would be her committing suicide. Also, only her, Luna and Sage were left. She’s sure as hell that Kiefer won’t pick either of the Siamese cats. On the notion that the soft and kind Anna was his type, none of the Siamese cats fit into any of his ideals so it’s only logical that he would pick Thalia. Thalia would be his definite—and safest—choice. It’s safe to say that Thalia was hundred percent sure this time.

It’s not even the case of her making up hypothesis from her observation skills, it’s the matter of logical decision-making from a man who’s stuck in a bind.

Hence, this would indicate that his arrow would be reciprocated if she were to pick him again this time.

And Thalia couldn’t have that. She would be screwed if that were the case.

Even so, crossing Kiefer’s out from the list only left her with little choice. Izek Wolf or Theodore Acheson. Honestly, the alternative was equally unappealing—she was caught between a rock and a hard place.

There was almost little to no interaction at all between her and Izek. It could be said that the Siamese cats might be one of the contributing factor but frankly, his whole presence just straight-out overwhelmed her. Even without wanting to avoid Luna and Sage who tend to always hang around him all the time, she would still not go anywhere near him when he’s alone.

She felt like Izek’s the type that she would feel uncomfortable around with. While he’s bold and charismatic, Thalia found those winning traits slightly foreboding on someone like him. Not that anybody had pointed it out but it was blatantly obvious that Izek’s a ten. She bet everyone and even the staff would agree that he’s a solid ten. Rhett was a solid ten too, but Rhett was easier to get a read on compared to Izek. But nonetheless, tens always made her feel restless and self- conscious for unexplainable reasons.

Despite that, the sparkly blonde was nice to everyone so Thalia naturally found him more easy to interact with. Hence, she felt less uncomfortable with him. Unlike with Izek. The only time she found herself in the same place as him was when everyone else was also there.

With Theodore, it was just a bad case of mismatched personalities. If there was a scale, Theodore’s level of extrovertness would break it. It might as well be an exaggeration but Thalia personally felt like it was just like that. His extrovert personality was truly something else. She’s sure everyone else noticed it too.

He’s definitely the type that Thalia would always steer clear of. He’s not a bad person per se, it was just his abundant energy that Thalia found to be difficult for her to cater. Everytime he talked to her, her energy went down the drain just as quick. His outgoingness was one thing, but he’s too carefree, too free-spirited and his interest in wanting to try everything was scarily overflowing. Like, really everything, meaning each and all the games the show gave them. And when he wanted to do that everything, he liked to drag people along with him doing that everything together with him. He has THAT much energy.

Not only Thalia found it troublesome and tiresome, it’s also annoying. Their energy just didn’t match.

She didn’t understand at first why he wasn’t as popular as Izek and Rhett on the show. His height would be his winning perk and he was quite attractive—as the rest of the whole male casts were, but maybe not as superior in the looks department as both of them but still good-looking nonetheless.

It was only later she could finally deduce that it might be his personality that the other female participants found hard to deal with. Hence, none of his arrows were answered. God helps whoever the person he aimed his arrow at though, Thalia silently prayed.

On the contrary, while his energy was always a hundred, Izek’s energy was like, always zero. Weirdly enough.

If Theodore likes to be included in everything, Izek was the opposite. He looked like he wanted to be involved with no one. Thalia would had labeled him as unsociable but deemed the accuracy of the word was a little off, when he interacted with some other people just fine—albeit they were all small talks. His disinterested face was apparent though. He’s like another version of Hunter, only the lack of interest he gave out was heavier. For Hunter, Thalia suspected the money and prizes, but for Izek, she drew an ultimate blank on why he would participate for the show.

But of course, that didn’t stop the two Siamese ladies from latching themselves onto him. Just his luck, Thalia shrugged nonchalantly.

This third voting really caught her in a double bind. More like, triple bind instead. Thalia sighed. She was hundred percent sure Kiefer would pick her so she could not give her arrow to him, knowing it definitely would be reciprocated. Izek made her uncomfortable, but so did Theodore.

They didn’t click with her as a person so she had never considered putting her arrows towards them. Thus, Thalia had already established from the beginning that they would be crossed out from her potential list of saviors who would unknowingly rescue her by having her arrows cancelled out.

However, left with little choice between Theodore and Izek, she would rather tolerate Izek’s character of disinterest rather than Theodore’s character of over interest.

Whenever she found herself avoiding Theodore, it was precisely then that this guy with the height of a mountain, managed to spot her. Did he have a runaway sensor or what..? There wasn’t anything worth remembering about between her interaction with him but she could made do with forgetting a few. Especially that karaoke incident where in the midst of avoiding him and pretty much every other male casts, he manage to catch her and purposefully dragged her to sing a duet with him. It’s safe to say that the whole world will know how tone deaf she is when the show hits the screen.

In Izek’s case, Thalia remembered there wasn’t any memorable interaction with him throughout the show whether onscreen or offscreen—okay, it’s a lie. Forget memorable, the interaction was NONE AT ALL because she had avoided him from the first get-go.

So even the teeny, tiniest chance that his arrow was aimed at her, it was practically nonexistent. At least that’s what she had believed in, and hoped for.

Thalia dropped her arrow with her name in Izek’s box, silently praying that her luck would save her once again and her gamble this time too, would be successful.

TBC.