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Chloe snorts. “Ignore her. Don’t let her get to you.”
I nod. “I’ll try.”
“Focus on me and only me.”
I shut my eyes for a second. “Chloe, I don’t deserve—”
“Now for the elimination challenge,” Viraj announces. “Contestants, please draw wooden spoons.” He gestures to a box with ten wooden spoons sticking out.
The box is passed around, and each contestant yanks out a spoon. I pull one out with “Greece” written on it.
“As you can see, each contestant has chosen a spoon with the name of a country. Your challenge is to prepare a dish from that country. Liam has an extra ten minutes and will start cooking first. The rest of the contestants, please take a seat.” They all sit down at their stations.
“Ready, Liam?” Viraj asks.
I nod. “Ready.”
“One, two, three go!”
I’ve cooked Greek food before, but I’m not one hundred percent familiar with it. I’ve seen many cooking shows that featured such food, though, so I’m feeling okay. Chloe also knows the food because she’s watched the cooking shows with me. I hope we’ll do fine.
We grab our ingredients and return to the kitchen, starting to cook. The ten minutes pass like the blink of an eye and the rest of the contestants are hard at work on their dishes.
Chloe and I are making something quite difficult because I need to knock this out of the park if I want to move on to the final round. We’ll be cutting it close with time, but I have confidence in us.
It’s not long before time is up and the judges are examining everyone’s dish. I wipe the sweat from my forehead and bend over. Man, I’m beat. That was hard.
When the judges come over to our station and ask questions, I start getting nervous. I have no idea if they like the food or not. They’ve got poker faces on again.
Chloe takes my hand, giving it a squeeze. I squeeze hers back.
The judges thank us and move on. They seem to like Sienna’s dish a lot and she smiles proudly, like she already won the prize.
The judges take a few minutes to deliberate before they order us to gather around so they could announce the top three contestants who will move on to the finals. I know I did well, but seven people are going home today. The odds are not in my favor.
“Can Sienna, Harper, and Liam please step forward?”
I look at Chloe with wide eyes. Hers are even wider. My legs shake as they bring me forward, along with Sienna and Harper.
Viraj gives us regretful looks. “I’m sorry to say this, but…” He grins. “You three will not have to pack your equipment and go home. You’re moving on to the finals!”
Arms wrap around my waist as Chloe presses her face to my chest. She’s squeezing me so tightly she’s cutting off my circulation. The audience goes wild with cheers and whoops and yells.
“I’m so proud of you,” Chloe whispers against my chest. She slowly lifts her head and smiles at me. “I knew you’d do it. You’re amazing.”
My throat burns again and I’m pretty sure tears flash in my eyes. And that’s not because I moved on to the next round.
Chloe must mistake my tears for happiness and disbelief because she pulls me closer and murmurs in my ear how much I deserve this.
No. I don’t.
“Your dreams are coming true,” she says.
Maybe. But what about her dreams? For weeks she’s been dreaming about her secret admirer and…he doesn’t even exist.
“We’re so proud of you,” my cheer team enthuses as they crowd around, fighting to hug me and Chloe.
I don’t have time to think about how much I hurt Chloe because my friends and family keep praising me and treating me like the special person I’m not.
