For You

Why were they all so sad? They wondered if they should be afraid as they sat nervously in their seats.

Daniel gave a sigh of relief when he saw that Sam wasn't one of the people to leave the room. He mentally slapped himself for even thinking that Sam would fail. That was bad luck! Plus, Sam was a great singer and actor. Daniel mentally roasted himself.

Back in the audition room, the judges told them to get into groups of three to act out a skit. Sam was looking around before Eric walked over cooly with an indifferent aura, Ryan following after him with shorter and faster steps since his legs weren't as long as Eric's.

"Hey, do you want to join us?" asked Eric nonchalantly.

"Pleassseee?" begged Ryan as he looked up at Sam, cutely.

Sam agreed and they started to introduce themselves.

"As you may already know, I am Ryan and I am 16. I like sweets and naps and hate the cold. I have 4 older siblings and one younger sister."

"I have a little sister too," said Sam with a smile as he thought about his cute sister Annie. "Her birthday is coming up. I am Jupiter Aleado, but I prefer to be called Sam. I am 16. I love rain, blue, and taking naps, but I can't stand the heat of summer."

"I am Eric Yamamoto and I am 17. I dislike lazy people and enjoy reading in my free time when I am not dealing with work."

The three chatted for a bit and got to know each other a little bit more before the same judge that ruthlessly roasted the people who failed clapped to get everyone's attention.

"Okay! Now that we all have our groups, you will be performing a skit about a pair of teens kidnapped by an equally young but much more crazy psychopath. You will improvise and we will judge your performance. All of you can pass, there is no limit to the number of people who pass, but everyone can also fail. You have 5 minutes to decide roles."

"I don't want to be the psychopath," said Ryan.

"I'm fine with being either," said Eric.

"Same," replied Sam.

"I'll be the psycho I guess. How about a model student who is jealous of his competition in the grade rankings?" asked Eric.

"That sounds great."

They worked out the main outline of the plot before their time was up and they all had to sit and watch the first group.

The first group decided to do a jealous boyfriend who captures his love rivals. The rivals couldn't save their lives and died. The skit ended with the boyfriend looking at his phone and muttering the name of a guy who's post his girlfriend had liked, already planning what to do with the next victim.

They got into their places and began. Ryan and Sam were sitting on the floor, hands behind their back and heads down. Eric stomped towards them before he ripped imaginary bags off their heads. Sam's head was thrown back and he blinked rapidly as he squinted, as if there were bright lights above him. Ryan groaned and his head went back down.

Eric raised Ryan's head with his foot and sneered, his handsome face morphing into a cruel mask.

"Look at you below me. Higher grades? I will be on top."

Sam looked in Eric's direction, eyes unfocused. "Wait a minute. Sean? What the f*ck is going on?"

"Hah, so you were the first one to recover. After all, you are the one with the best grades. June the number one"

"Grades? What grades? What does grades have to do with you kidnapping me?" asked Sam with confusion clearly displayed on his face.

"Hold up, this is about grades?"asked Ryan, finally coming to.

"Yes, this is about grades. I hate being the third one. Not the best. Not the second best. Third place is the place for losers! I don't want to be a loser. I have to be number one!" said Eric, his face twisted in an ugly frown.

"We can give you first place! Please just let us go!" begged Ryan.

Eric smiled, "Not so smart after all. Don't you know that it's too late? I've already kidnapped you. All I have to do is get rid of you two and I'll be number one."

"Why do you want to be number one so badly? Why go so far?" asked Sam calmly.

"I have to be number one. For mother. When mother heard that I was number three, she pretended to be happy, but I saw that deep inside, mother was disappointed in me. I want to be number one so that Mother will be proud of me!" Eric seemed to have regressed into a child for a moment before he snapped back to his crazy self.

"We can negotiate to make your Mother proud of you. If the top two people suddenly disappeared, you wouldn't have earned it. Mother won't be as proud of you as when you earn it yourself. We'll help you study and even deliberately get lower marks," reasoned Sam.

Eric nodded before his face became doubtful. "How do I know that you won't go to the police?"

"We promise that we won't tell," promised Ryan, desperation on his face.

"Call your parents and tell them that you are going to stay at my place for a couple of weeks. You get to go to school, but you have to wear your tracker. If I discover it isn't on you. I'll kill your family. If you tell anyone, I kill them. I kill your family. I kill you. Got it?"

Sam and Ryan both nodded quickly.