His echoing laugh follows me, trailed closely behind by the team with the biggest chance of sending us home. A team who had to make an entire pizza as a penalty. How could we have screwed this up so thoroughly?
“Can’t we go any faster? We’re in a competition for a million dollars,” Yumi pleads, using the passenger seat to leverage herself forward over the center console, as if the driver will be any less annoyed with us if we can get just a little closer to his face.
It’s approximately the hundredth time we’ve asked and the hundred-and-first time he’s said, “No.”
The only saving grace here is that I see Logan and Bee’s car a few lanes over from us, going the same meandering speed we are. And the reason that I can see them is because we are the only two cars on the road.
I’ve never met a driver so hellbent on going the speed limit.
We pull up to the check-in site for the second time, Bee and Logan’s car taking the parking spot beside ours. Yumi shoves the cab fare into the driver’s hand as I whip our bags, the bucket,and the tarpout of the trunk.
Yumi grabs our items, slings her pack over one shoulder, and takes off running toward the mat once more.
My pack jostles against my back as I run. Yumi is far ahead of us, but Bee and Logan don’t have to be faster than her, they just have to be faster than me—the slowest gazelle on the prairie.
This is my fault for forgetting the tarp, for not paying attention, for losing my patience and taking so long on the challenge. If we get eliminated here…
We won’t.
My feet pound the pavement, each step jarring my entire body. I don’t look at Bee or Logan as we race, but I sense them keeping pace on either side of me.
Yumi reaches the mat, her chest heaving with exertion as she looks expectantly back at me. In the final stretch, I lunge forward and cross the finish line just ahead of Bee and Logan, my breath coming out in short gasps.
“Noelle, Yumi,” JSP intones, drawing out the moment. “Welcome back. You are now team numberfive, and your adventure continues.”
He turns to the High Elves. “Logan and Bee, I’m sorry to say you are the last team to arrive to the Checkpoint here in Iceland.”
They stand there, expressions distant, which isnotwhat I would be doing if—that could’ve been me and Yumi.
I grab her hand and she immediately steps into me, wrapping my arm around her.
“But luckily for you, this is a non-elimin—” Before JSP even finishes his sentence, Bee collapses forward into a crouch, sobbing. Logan drops to his knees beside her, whispering as he helps her up, his face a mask of concern. JSP gives them an approvingsmile before continuing, “As I was saying, this is a non-elimination leg. Your adventure will continue.”
Relief spreads over Bee’s tearstained face. She nods at JSP, her voice thick with emotion as she thanks him. Logan nods silently, arm hooked in Bee’s.
“Bee, I notice you’re having some very strong emotions right now. Tell us what’s going to change for you and Logan in the next leg so you don’t end up here again.”
Bee turns her watery gaze on me and Yumi. “What’s going to change, Jonathan, is we won’t let a team that we’re better than beat us again.”
And with that, any sympathy I’d developed for her in the past few minutes completely disappears from my body.
Chapter 32
Midnight Sun
“Girls,” Aliona singsongs as wetake our seats. “Scary Adventure today.”
The good news, apart from not being eliminated, is that wedoget to sleep in beds tonight. Our hotel “rooms” are individual, isolated glass igloos under the northern lights. Or, rather, they would be under the northern lights, if it weren’t midnight sun season. It’s nearly ten at night when Aliona calls us for our interview, and Iceland appears to have settled into a perpetual raspberry-sorbet pink twilight.
“It was definitely a scary Adventure today,” I affirm, keeping my eyes on the gold-streaked horizon instead of looking at my partner.
“How do you feel about your performance today?” Aliona asks bluntly.
I take a deep breath. “I’m really disappointed in my performance. AnyAdventureversefan will tell you that you have to read the clue. I let us down today.”
“You did read the clue,” Yumi protests.
“But I read it wrong.” I cross my arms.
