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Chapter 5
Matt
As we stand on stage, the crowd is cheering all around us, but it sounds like a muffled roar. Everything’s hard to hear with the helmet on and with the face shield down it’s hard to see too. I’m looking down at Isaac a lot, just checking on him, and he looks like he’s loving it.
The MC starts making announcements, but I’m not sure what he’s talking about. Then he pauses and the crowd cheers. I turn around and can barely see him introducing the judges. The only ones I know are there was the Masquerade girls, because they were already sitting at the judges’ table when we walked in. I think the other two judges are a guy and a girl, but it’s hard to see through the eye slits. The crowd cheers again after the MC says something else.
“Isaac, let me know when they call me.”
“What?” he yells.
I lean in closer, yelling through the helmet because I don’t want to lift the face shield yet. “Tell me when they call my name!”
“Okay!” He gives me a thumbs-up.
There’s about twenty of us that are registered for the contest, and we’re towards the back of the line, waiting while each contestant goes on stage and does their thing. The Street Fighter guys are separate contestants, but they put on a little karate show. There’s a Harley Quinn who struts around with a huge mallet. Another guy jumps on stage, and I can’t tell what he’s wearing at first, but after straining my eyes through the eye slits, I can see it’s a character from Attack on Titan. A piece of me wants to lift my mask to get a better look at all the costumes, but I want to stay in full character.
I hear the MC say something, and it sounds like Iron Man, but I can’t tell. I look back down at Isaac, and he’s shouting at me. I look back at the MC, and then back at Isaac again and he’s giving me a thumbs-up.
I hit the stage and walk around, pulling out a couple Iron Man poses and the lights on my palms shine out. I hit a little button I put on the side and stand as tall as I can, pointing my chest out to the crowd, and the light on my chest comes alive, shining over them. It’s muffled again, but it sounds like they are really digging the display. I hit one more Iron Man pose and then walk off stage.
Isaac grabs my arm, yelling into the side of my helmet, “That was totally awesome!”
The rest of the contestants go up on stage and pose for the crowd, each one getting a round of applause. When the last gets back in line, the MC gets back on to the mic. I try to focus, so I can hear what he’s saying; it sounds like it’s something about the judges deliberating.
Isaac pulls on my arm. “Matty, you’re totally gonna win!”
“Wouldn’t that be cool, huh?”
“What?”
“I said, that’d be cool!”
“Yeah!” He smiles, nodding.
* * *
IZZY
* * *
The MC gets on to the microphone and announces to the audience that it’s time for our deliberation.
“Oh, my God!” Megan cries out. “That Groot was awesome!”
“Totally,” Ryan agrees. “But what about the Iron Man? Those light effects were pretty sweet.”
“And that Harley Quinn looked almost identical to Margot Robbie,” I chime in, wanting to add to the discussion.
“Okay,” Ryan says. “It sounds like we got our top three. So, what do you two think?”
“Well, okay,” Misty goes first. “As awesome as the Groot is, it looks like a lot of papier-mâché. I’m not saying that’s bad, but Harley Quinn and Iron Man’s outfit both looked handmade with a lot more detail.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “I mean, where does anyone even get a mallet like that. She had to have made it.”
“Okay, so between Harley Quinn and Iron Man, who’s was better?” Ryan asks.
All four of us look at each other, silently deliberating with ourselves. Megan speaks up first.
