‘You told me on the first night that I didn’t know who I was messing with,’ she said, that infuriating smile on her face again. ‘I’m trying to find out. It’s been so difficult, you know, what with you being eliminated and all.’
I opened my mouth. There was a clever retort on the tip of my tongue.
There were so many cameras.
I was going to say it any second.
Everyone was looking at me.
Any second now.
‘Lily, stop being such a bitch,’ Hero Nurse Dylan said, wading between us. ‘This is completely unnecessary, and you know it.’
The cameras focused in on them. I slunk back to my team, feeling like a complete and utter failure.
Team Convent barely noticed me join them. They were huddled up, talking strategy. ‘Okay,’ Rani said. ‘We can all see that Lily Fireball and girl-Dylan hate each other, right? That’s our opening. If we can turn them against each other and make them fight among themselves, we’ve got this.’
‘One hundred per cent,’ Kanda said. ‘We’re still in this, right? There’s still time.’
I clutched my fingers tighter around my ridiculous flamingo.
Kanda was right. There was still time.
‘Besides,’ Samantha said, ‘at least we’re on camera, right?’
‘Juliets!’ Z called. ‘Take your positions! It’s time for the second half!’
Marija stuck her hand into the middle of the huddle. ‘No backing down!’ she yelled.
‘No backing down!’ I repeated with the rest of my team, and meant it.
We trudged back onto the field. I deliberately took a spot opposite Lily.
She mouthed something at me. ‘You okay?’
I glared back.
I could feel the cameras on us, the lenses like gaping black eyes. The flamingo felt slippery in my fingers. I gripped it tighter, so hard my knuckles turned white.
‘Play!’ Z called as Dylan threw the heart-shaped plushie ball high into the air.
All ten of us ran for it. It turned into a scrum of elbows and flamingos and ridiculous satin blouses. Someone hit the heart with their flamingo (or maybe their foot, who could tell) and it flew away, towards the edge of the lake.
I extricated myself and ran towards it. Someone was beside me, a streak of red and black. Lily.
I threw my foot out. She tripped. There was a scream behind me, but I kept running. I got to the heart and turned around so I could hit it towards our goal.
But suddenly Lily was back on her feet, waving her flamingo around like a magic wand she was about to curse me with.
‘Get out of the way!’ I yelled.
‘Never!’ she yelled back.
I belted the heart with my flamingo, but that gave her an opening. She whacked me in the leg with hers, hard, and I fell back into the muddy shallows of the lake.
Lily had pushed me into the water. Again.
She’d won. Again.
