The Watch - Part 20

We decided that we would browse a couple of shops before moving to the next activity, just so that we can wind down in between. This shopping centre has everything you need, much like the market place back in that other world. I don’t have to worry about money because I am lucky enough to have a mum and dad who are lucky enough to land a well-paying job, even if that does mean going away for days or weeks on end. They have enough money in their bank account for all the necessities and a few leisure activities as well. Tom doesn’t have to worry about money either as he recently inherited a lot of money from his grandparents who passed away a couple of months ago. They made some of their fortune from being in the right place at the right time, getting lucky with how things played out, but most of it was down to his granddad being incredibly tight with his money, only spending it when he absolutely has to and no other reason.

After we had stocked up on a couple of DVDs, Games, and a tonne load of sweets that we both knew we wouldn’t get through without feeling ill - but we certainly had a good stab at it. We decided, after eating far too many sweets, that we would pick an activity that was less intense. Something that we don’t have to move too much for.

‘Hey, how about this,’ I heard Tom’s voice say behind me. I turned around to find him standing a couple of feet away, staring at a sign. I joined him and said.

‘You do know that if you hadn’t have said anything, I would have carried on without you, possibly talking to myself, don’t you?’ I asked.

‘You talk to yourself anyway,’ he countered before pointing to the sign, drawing my attention to it.

‘The country’s hardest quiz is in town,’ I read curiously, moving down to the next paragraph. ‘The country’s hardest quiz is not for the faint hearted. If you believe you have what it takes, then have a go, but be warned, it’s tough.’

‘Shall we?’ Tom asked smiling.

‘What are the topics?’ I counter asked, ‘because we don’t know much about trivia.’ Tom sighed and pointed to the list of topics at the bottom of the sign.

‘Oh,’ I said casually. ‘Science (all of them), IT, and films are the three main topics, but there might be a few random questions here and there to spice things up a bit,’ I read.

‘So,’ Tom pressed, ‘how about it?’

‘If you think we will be able to stand a chance?’ I answered with a question.

‘What do you mean by that,’ he was a little hurt, ‘we’re smart; you just have to be confident about it, that’s all. Look, think about it this way, we know a lot about, you know a lot about science, and I know a lot about films, and I know everything that you don’t know and visa-versa,’ he said, ‘we’ve got this in the bag.’

Tom is right in saying that I’m not confident when it comes to showing my knowledge. I do know my stuff, but sometimes the nerves shut all the necessary doors needed to answer questions or figure out stuff, and as a result of that I crack under pressure during exams. A teacher had to ask me why I got such a low score during my science exam when I clearly knew all the answers. My GCSEs suffered because of that and so I had to work my way up through college from the very bottom, which I have nothing against, but everything that the teacher taught I knew how to do and know how to do it well.

When I’m at home, however, I can really flex my grey matter, show myself that I can do so much when I put my mind to it. But the one thing that is making me want to do this, that I don’t have to use my watch to manipulate the situation. I am smart, and as strange as it must seem, after the bowling incident, I feel like I have to prove it to myself that I don’t have to use the watch for everything.

‘Well, if you put it that way,’ I said smiling, giving Tom the answer he needs.

‘Awesome,’ he said leading the way inside. Immediately, I knew that we would be facing some tough competition. A lot of smart-looking people were sitting in groups of two around five tables. There were two tables left, but they were quickly filled by us and two other people, a man and a woman, who look like they know everything. They were wearing the clothes those stereotypical nerds in films would wear, and sat bolt upright. They look around about the same age as us. Compared to their rigid positions, our relaxed state made us look as if we were only here to have fun, which we were. However, I think we underestimated the seriousness that these people take in this quiz.

‘Morning,’ they said one after the other in their posh voices.

‘Morning,’ we repeated together, making us smile and look at each other, already giving the impression that we aren’t taking this very seriously, creating that typical situation that I see in films many times when a person or a group of people enter a competition, give off all the wrong impressions, only to win. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we were re-enacting that?

‘My name’s Timothy,’ the man said.

‘And mine’s Josie,’ the woman said.

We introduced ourselves. We gave our names and they looked at each other as if to say that we do not stand a chance. Well, now I am more determined than ever. I looked at Tom and he looked at me and both said silently through our facial expressions that we are going to win this. A woman came around and handed us two sheets of paper: One had numbers from 1 – 20 running down the margin where we were obviously meant to write our answers next to, and another one that we need to write out team name on.

‘We need to come up with a team name,’ Tom said.

‘What like?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you,’ Tom said waving his arms.

I exhaled as I thought about what we could call ourselves. I thought about all the references that we know.

‘How about Database,’ Tom said. 'A database holds a lot of information about either one topic or many topics at once.'

‘Team Database,’ I said testing it out. ‘OK,’ I said smiling.

‘You see, you’re getting the hang of this already,’ Tom said. We wrote our names down at the top of the sheet of paper in front of us and handed it to the woman who was coming around, collecting the names for the quiz master to read out at the end of the quiz along with the number of questions that we got right.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the quiz announcer said suddenly, making us jump. We didn’t notice him get on stage. The two other people at our table glared at us as if to say that we shouldn’t be here. ‘Are you ready to take on the country’s hardest quiz?’ he asked rhetorically. I could tell Tom wanted to shout ‘yes’ as loud as he could but stopped himself just in time. That would have been the funniest thing if it did, though.

‘Then I shall begin by explaining the rules,’ he continued. ‘There will be twenty questions in total. The topics are all the sciences, films, and IT, plus a few random trivia questions dotted here and there just to spice things up a bit.’ This is going to be fun, I thought, getting into the swing of things. Who am I and what have I done with myself?

‘Now that you know what to do and what this quiz is about, then we shall begin with question number one.’

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)