Wednesday: December 8th, 2015

I had dressed too lightly again. For some reason, I never got this quite right. You'd think it was my first time in England. As my body shivered from the cold, and my breath blew visible, and my teeth chattered, I checked my phone again for the time.

He was already five minutes late.

I know, I know. 'Zara, five minutes isn't that long. Give him a chance. It might just be crazy traffic.' Shut up. He pissed me off and now here I am, on the eight day of Christmas, cold and bitter.

As the minutes ticked on, I had concluded I would leave if it got to ten minutes past. Because surely at that point he was just clearly having a laugh. If I was still standing here past then, who knows what might happen. He'd probably turn up with a gaggle of our old school friends to point and giggle at me.

'Look at Zara,' they would say, 'she fell for it again.'

I had almost really pushed myself into a deep hole of doubting Jasper's intentions when finally the boy in question appeared in my line of sight, jogging towards me.

"Sorry," he panted when he stopped a few steps away from me. Doubling over, he caught his breath for a moment before saying, "My tube broke down between stations and I was caught on it, so I couldn't find another way. And I had no reception to text you."

As his gaze met mine, genuine worry and remorse emanating from him, I muttered a, "Whatever," and turned on my heel, expecting him to just tag along behind me. And he did.

We grabbed our tickets and then navigated our way through the masses towards the sign up desk.

"If we have to come here every afternoon for the next twelve days," I started, "Isn't this going to add up?" It was five pounds at least for an afternoon ticket.

Jasper shrugged. "The prize money will still outweigh the cost."

"Yeah but... what if we don't win?"

He came to a stop, a deadpan expression washing over his face.

"What?" I asked, pausing in step and turning to look at him.

"What happened to the overly competitive Zara I knew from childhood? She'd always believe we'd win everything." He was trying to be lighthearted when he said it, but unfortunately I couldn't carry his mood.

"I'm not the person you once knew, Jasper. And you're not the boy I used to know either," I said, voicing the harsh truth both of us needed to admit.

All light in his eyes blew away with the breeze that caused the hairs on my neck to stand up. And just like that, we were walking again in the direction of the booth. Only this time in silence.

∘◦ ❈ ◦∘

Just like last time, it took half an hour to get to the front of the queue. And every minute of it we spent in silence. He was busy playing a game on his phone, and I was trying to look anywhere but at him.

When we finally got to the front, to my dismay, fake Santa was there. One look at me had him grimacing—because of course my appearance was memorable to him.

"I told you it's for couples," he started before I could say anything.

Jasper slipped his phone away, arm coming around my shoulder as he leaned into me. "And we're a couple."

Fake Santa's eyes narrowed as he glanced between us. "But you weren't the other day."

"What can I say," Jasper countered, "We were having a fight. And now we made up. Isn't that right Zare-bear?"

I could taste the vomit in my mouth at that comment. Tight lipped, I turned to face Jasper as I said, "For sure. Though you still owe me, Jazzy-wazzy."

His eye twitched at the nickname, but he sported a similar smile back at me before turning to the rotund man. "So can you please put our names down?"

Heaving a sigh, the man pushed forward a piece of paper and said, "Fill this in with your details over there and give it to the elf. Then she will give you the event schedule." The man skeptically looked between us as we picked up the paper and forwarded over.

They asked for quite a bit. Our names, ages, addresses, contact numbers, parent's names and contact numbers (for those underage), length of relationship, and how we met.

Upon handing it to the elf lady, she also gave us a wary look as she gave us the itinerary.

"If you pass the first round," she said in a monotone voice, "Then you will get a free entry pass for the next day and so on so forth."

After thanking her, we immediately took off away from the booth until we were out of their sight before properly inspecting it.

Both of us peered at it, shoulders touching as our eyes skimmed the page.

"Do you really think we will be able to crack the clues in enough time and get back to Hyde Park?" I asked him.

With a sigh, he said, "I'm mostly worried about public transport causing issues. But I don't want to have to ask you to do it alone."

Lips pressed together, I said, "It's just this week that you still have classes, right?"

"Yeah, but I have two exams next week on Monday and Friday morning."

"Well... how about I still come early those days to see if I can solve the riddles? If I can't, you can just meet me wherever and help me. But if I manage to crack them before, then all we will have to do is meet for the competition in the afternoon."

"I couldn't ask you to—"

"Just give me an extra £100 from your half and we will call it even."

Jasper pursed his lips as his eyes studied me for a moment. Then he said, "Deal," and held his hand out for me to shake. And so I did.

Turning back to the leaflet, my eyes skimmed the names of the events again, grimacing. "Did you see the name of day twelve?"

"Yeah," he breathed.

"You think they're going to make us—"

"I imagine it will involve it, yeah. Considering everyone is supposed to be a couple, I assume they expect everyone will be able to do it."

"What do you think it actually involves?"

"Who knows. But it seems we will have to..." Jasper slowly shook his head and shuddered.

"Geez, thanks," I snapped at him.

"I'm cold," he said gruffly. "We will... just suck it up and get it over with when the time comes, okay? And if we're too uncomfortable and we have to throw the competition then I understand."

"If we somehow make it to day twelve, I'm not throwing my chance of winning £1500 just because I have to kiss the likes of you."

Brows furrowing, he barked an offended, "Hey!"

"Suck it up, princess," I replied, snatching the itinerary from his hand and began walking towards my tube station.

"What about me? I need the event schedule, too, Zara," he called after me as I walked away.

"I'm the one doing the riddles, so I'm the one in more need of it. I'll send you a picture," I replied, not even looking back at him.

_____

Tomorrow the riddles begin. So, to allow you to join in on the fun, I'll include the riddles a day ahead for you to try to crack before the Zara and Jasper have a go.

Good luck!