I’m struck by how real the other teams are. I mean, obviously they’re real, they’re standing right there, but for so long the people ofTheAdventureversewere just pixels on a screen. A team was reduced to whatever storyline or stereotype production grafted onto them. But now?
I watch them run past me. Matt, laden with both their packs, admiration in his eyes. Morgan, envelope in hand, sequins of her dress catching the light. Now they’re human.
It occurs to me that I’d feel bad winning the two million and denying real, actual humans their hopes and dreams. But not, like,thatbad.
Chapter 20
Tilted
I have been hit bya truck.
I did not survive a plane crash.
I am dead.
There is no other way to explain why I am allowed to watch Yumi sashay onto the stage in a deep blue dress, its fringe sweeping across the inside of her thighs with each step.
Oh God.
I should leave my face the way it is, let the show’s audience chuckle at the raw slack-jawed shock of someone seeing the world’s hottest woman in all her glory. But it’s too embarrassing. It feels too real for reality TV.
I can’t watch her, so I watch the dress, schooling my expression into a softer, more palatable appreciation of the art form instead of Yumi’s body. Her dancing isn’t as smooth or confident as Morgan’s was, but to my untrained eye, it looks pretty similar. Suddenly, the fringe comes to a total stop, and I let my eyes travel up to see her partner—a different instructor from Morgan’s—shaking his head and demonstrating a sort of swinging kick, then leading her back behind the curtain.
Wincing, Yumi shoots me an apologetic expression, to which I give a very non-dorky thumbs-up. I don’t know what the COOKchallenge is, but if it involves actual cooking, Team Football won’t be able to rush it. We have plenty of time.
But then the next team arrives, and Yumi still hasn’t come back out for another attempt. I try to put our thirty minute head start on group two out of my mind. There’s still a whole other flight. We have plenty of time.
The male High Elf jogs backstage and the female High Elf drops her bag a little ways away from me without acknowledging my presence. What is going on with the people in this cast? I suppose my season will be light on the usual B-roll of non-participant team members chatting. I hope Yumi learning tango is interesting enough to make up for it.
“I’m Noelle,” I say, leaning across the table. “My partner is Yumi.”
She primly takes my offered hand. “Bee. He’s Logan.”
Am I being pranked? Is getting people to speak more than ten words its own secret bonus challenge? If so, I’m failing.
“Where are you two from?” I ask, feeling like a little kid tugging on their mom’s sleeve at the park.
Bee keeps her gray eyes focused on the door that Logan disappeared through. “Miami,” she answers.
Huh. I expected somewhere with less sunlight. Like Forks, Washington. “Oh, nice. I’ve never been to the East Coast, but Yumi used to live in New York before she moved to Arizona. Have you ever been—”
“Yes.”
“To Arizona? Or New York?”
“Both.”
I’m saved from the rest of the interrogation I’m being forced to conduct when Yumi walks through the curtain again. The music starts, and no sooner have I thoughtThank God we’re donethan Yumi is stopped by her instructor. He points back the way they came.
No way. No way she has to do it again.
Yumi widens her eyes at me, expression murderous. And if that fury was turned at me or theAdventureversegods or another team, I would be able to handle it. But it isn’t. Yumi’s fury is directed squarely at herself and there’s nothing I can do to help.
I call, “You got this, Yumi!”
She nods, expression pinched. I practically watch the frustration wrap its hands around her and choke her. She storms off.
This moment of stunned silence is when Bee finally decides to take advantage of multi-clause sentences. “Wow, that was quick. Is the judge really strict, or is your partner struggling? How many tries has she taken already?”
