Playing Games

by Jill Myles

  And chewed.

  And chewed.

  Then, I reached into the bowl for the next piece…and there was no more. I was done. I jumped to my feet, flipped the bowls over, and trotted over to the judge.

  He handed me my disk, and I gave him a nod of thanks, then ran down the path.

  I started out jogging, but as soon as I did, my stomach gave a sick little gurgle, and I had to slow down. Sure enough, my mouth filled with saliva, and I paused on the side of the snowy trail to puke my guts out.

  Mukluk splashed all over my shoes and the snow, and I grimaced, moaning at how awful I felt. I had to keep going, I told myself. We were in second place right now. I couldn't let anyone else pass me. Dragging myself forward, I headed down the marked path, following the trail.

  Over a crest, I saw a finish line ahead. Each race always had a mini finish line set up, complete with waving flags and a tape that you could break through. The tape was still unbroken.

  Two people milled by the tape, waiting for their partners. One was Abby, clutching her stomach…and the other was Brodie. Holy shit, where was Dean?

  Brodie gave a whoop of delight and a jump when he saw me, racing for me. "Come on, Katy! We're in first place!" He grabbed me and began to drag me forward, toward the tape. My stomach roiled in protest.

  I staggered with him across the finish line, and we landed in front of Chip Brubaker, who stood below a colorful World Games flag. "Brodie and Katy," he said with a beaming smile. "Congratulations on being the first team for the Greenland leg of the race!"

  "We did it," Brodie yelled, and grabbed me and spun me around. "You did fuckin' awesome, Katy!"

  My stomach gurgled again. "Put me down, Brodie," I whispered. He did, and I sank to the ground, resting my cheek in the snow. Blessed, blessed snow. I was pretty sure I was going to puke again.

  Overhead, I heard Chip talking to Brodie. "Here is your prize for winning the Greenland leg - an Ace. You can use this Ace to save another team at any time in the game."

  "Great," Brodie said enthusiastically.

  "Pepto," I moaned, clutching my stomach. "My kingdom for Pepto."

  Brodie came to my side and thumped me on the back, hard. "We did awesome, Katy! I totally smoked everyone in the kayak race."

  I gave him a weak thumbs up, still sitting on the ground.

  A moment later, Dean and Abby trotted up to take second place. Abby looked as green as I felt, and collapsed next to me in the snow a moment later.

  "You puke?" She asked breathlessly.

  I held up two fingers. “Twice.”

  She nodded. "Me too."

  Taking a cue from us, our partners sat nearby. One of the cameramen pointed us off to the side, indicating that we should get out of his shot, so we all sat on a nearby snow bank, drinking bottled water to settle our stomachs and watching other teams arrive. The girl Olympians were third, and not too far behind Abby and Dean. Over the next hour, the other teams crossed the finish line, pair by pair.

  Last to arrive? Tesla and Liam. I felt a twinge of pity for Liam, who looked a bit like death warmed over. He was sweaty and pale, and clearly had not done well in his challenge. Tesla looked unhappy with her partner, annoyance stamped over her pretty features. Her arms were crossed over her chest as they came to the finish line.

  "Tesla and Liam, you are the team that has finished last," Chip said in a dramatic voice. "Unless someone wishes to use their ace to save you, you will be eliminated from The World Races."

  I snorted. Not likely.

  To my horror, Brodie stood up, brandishing the sealed envelope that had been marked as our prize. "I'll use the Ace."

  CHAPTER FOUR

  "That douchebag just fucked me, all because he wanted to sleep with my partner. What? No cussing? Fine. That jerk just dicked over his sister and me. What? I can't say dicked on camera either? Come on." — Liam Brogan, Ireland Leg of The World Races

  ~~ * * * ~~

  "What the fuck, Brodie?" I called, staggering to my feet.

  Chip plucked the Ace from Brodie's hand, brandishing it triumphantly. "And we have our first Ace of the game in use! Yellow team is going to use it to save the black team! That makes this round a non-elimination round!"

  My jaw dropped. "Wait, don't we have to vote on this?" But no one was listening to me, it seemed.

  Tesla gave a small cry of happiness and jumped on Brodie, kissing his cheek and bouncing all over him as she squealed her thanks. I rolled my eyes at that, and eyed Liam, who was bent over, hands on his knees, as if he were about to hurl again.

  I didn't blame him. I kind of felt like puking at this moment myself, and it had nothing to do with a bellyful of mukluk. What the hell was Brodie doing?

  "But this Ace," Chip boomed, and held the envelope aloft, "has a twist!" And he tore the top off the envelope.

  I groaned. Of course there was a damn twist. Nothing was ever simple in this damn game. My stomach gave an uncomfortable anxious lurch (but it might have been the mukluk).

  I was going to kill Brodie for doing this to us.

  Chip pulled out the bright green card inside the ace packet with a flourish and read it aloud. "Since the teams are all safe on this leg, the next leg will be double elimination. In addition, since Yellow Team saved the Black Team, there will be a mix-up of those two teams. You will swap partners."

  I stared at Chip, aghast.

  Liam straightened, frowning.

  Tesla gave a happy giggle, and Brodie just hugged her again.

  "Swap…partners?" I said slowly, then looked over at Tesla and my brother. "So I'm with Tesla?" I asked, deliberately misunderstanding.

  Chip shook his head. "Since the teams were initially boy-girl, we'll keep them boy-girl. You're now with Liam, and Brodie is now with Tesla."

  "Seriously?" I stared at my new partner in horror. Liam had the grim expression of someone who'd just been told he needed a root canal.

  "Gee, that's a bummer," Brodie said, in a voice that didn't sound bummed at all.

  I turned and gave him a scathing look. "You? Do not talk to me. At all. Ever again. I’m here on this race because of you, and you just screwed me over."

  Brodie gave Tesla a look that said I was being tiresome, which just infuriated me all the more. "Quit being so dramatic, Katy," he told me. "Liam's a nice guy."

  "Yeah, and I'm a nice girl who had to shovel raw whale blubber into her mouth so we could get first place! Except now I've lost my partner and I'm paired up with the dude that pushed me to the ground and can't eat whale blubber to save his life! So you'll forgive me if I'm throwing a bit of a fit here."

  My new rock-star partner said nothing at my ranting, but that didn't surprise me. Heck, the guy never said anything around me.

  "So which one of us is in last place, then? Huh?" I gestured at the four of us standing in front of Chip. "Who's yellow and who's black?"

  "We'll draw straws," Chip announced, seemingly unruffled by my rage. An assistant rushed forward to hand him the straws, and he mixed them up in his hand and then held both of them out to us, the bottoms carefully masked. "Whichever one is tipped with black means that they will be black team…and last place. Yellow will remain in the lead."

  He held the straws out to Tesla. She glanced at me. I waved a hand at Liam. "Let him do it. Doesn't matter what I say around here anyway."

  Liam pulled a straw.

  It was black-tipped.

  I ignored Brodie's whoop of delight and shook my head. "Someone point me to my tent, because I'm done for the day."

  "Igloo," Chip corrected.

  I could have cheerfully pushed everyone into the icy waters of the bay in that moment.

  ~~ * * * ~~

  It was cold in the igloo. Not a surprise, considering we were in Greenland, in a shelter made of ice. I'd more or less sulked in there for the entire afternoon. Abby had come by to try and cheer me up, but I could tell she thought I'd gotten a shit deal, too. "If Dean and I get an Ace, we'll use it to save you, I promise," s
he told me. "And if we have a chance to sell your brother down a river, we'll totally do it. Dean thinks he did an awful thing today."

  "He did," I agreed. Hearing it from another person made me feel a bit better, at least.

  "Just hang in there," Abby had told me. "You've got to move up two places in the next round or else you'll get eliminated."

  Two places might as well have been impossible, since I was with Liam the Loser. But I kept that to myself and told her I'd do my best.

  My brother Brodie had swung by at some point to try and explain himself, too. "It's nothing to do with you, Katy," he told me in a patient voice, after I'd thrown snow in his face. "You know I want a TV career out of this. I have to make big moves in this game to get on the producers’ radar, and I'll do whatever it takes."

  I'd said nothing. Abby's earlier advice of make good TV rang in my ears. Hell, I hadn't even shared that with Brodie and he'd already known what to do. I felt a little less angry at him after hearing him say that. He had been totally honest with me about what he wanted out of this. He wanted a career. Me, I wanted a check for twenty grand to kick-start my business and a vacation in Acapulco at the Loser Lodge.

  But even as I told myself that, it felt untrue. I might have wanted to come into this race for the consolation prize, but now that I was here? The competitive spirit was catching up to me and I was in it to win it.

  So I laid in the sleeping bag provided by The World Races people, huddled in the icy darkness, and hated everyone. Well, except Abby. I hated my brother most of all for selling me out so he could make good TV.

  And I hated that I was stuck at the back of the pack. The only thing good about me probably getting kicked off next was that Liam wouldn't be getting the prize money either. Then again, I'd be stuck at the Loser Lodge with him for the next three weeks, so that didn't sound like fun either. I was screwed either way.

  A shadow moved across the entrance of the igloo, and I stifled a groan of irritation as I heard the rustle of Liam's thick parka as he came into the igloo. This team switch was awful - not only had my brother sold me out, but I had to bunk with Liam the Girl Shover.

  I said nothing as I heard him rustling around in his bunk. It got quiet, and I assumed he was laying down to sleep. Long moments passed, and neither of us said anything. I stared up at the darkness, practically vibrating with resentment.

  "I tripped," he said, in a voice that was so low I almost didn't catch it.

  "Huh?" I turned to look in his direction.

  "I tripped and fell on top of you. I wasn't trying to. I just tripped." His voice was low and even, the words so slow to emerge that they were almost hesitant. "I didn't push you."

  Oh. Some of my rage deflated. I thought about the scene with the footballs. It had been pretty chaotic. Horrifically chaotic, even. I could see someone tripping in that mess. And I remembered him offering me a hand after the fact. "You still stole my football," I told him.

  "You dropped it."

  "You could have given it back."

  "I could have, but it's a game."

  That wasn't the answer I wanted to hear. I rolled over and tried to go to sleep, but I was too angry and cold to do more than stare into the darkness.

  ~~ * * * ~~

  The next morning, I woke up and began to shove my gear back into my backpack. We had twelve hour rest periods between race legs, and the time was dependent on when we finished the last leg. Since black team was in the back, I had at least an extra hour before I had to get going.

  Which was fine, because I was pretty wrecked physically, due to sleeping in an igloo. I was also wrecked mentally, due to my brother, the selfish jerk. The only good thing about being so wrecked was that I was pretty sure my new partner was, too. He looked like he had a mukluk hangover, and his shaggy black hair hung in his face.

  Tesla, meanwhile, looked fresh as a spring rose as she giggled and cooed and hung on my brother as they paraded to the starting mat. That ratfink. I narrowed my eyes as the cameras moved in close to Brodie and Tesla to film their take-off. One of the Inuit appeared and handed them their next disk.

  I watched as Tesla grabbed the disk before Brodie could and flipped it over to read. This time? Brodie was forced to peer over her shoulder. Glad to see someone was turning the tables on my brother, at least. They glanced at each other and immediately shrugged on their packs and headed back toward Kulusuk, the small town on the shoreline that held the airport. Made sense, considering that was the only real town I’d seen so far. My eyes narrowed as Tesla twined her fingers with my brother’s and they held hands as they raced off. I glanced over at my teammate, but he was looking anywhere except at me. That was fine. I was pretty cranky as it was.

  After what seemed like eternity, Liam and I were the only team left. I huddled in my black jacket - better than yellow, at least - and headed toward the starting mat as the cameras zoomed in close. When the Inuit guide offered the disk to us, Liam gestured that I should take it.

  I did, grudgingly, and flipped it over.

  "Your next clue is at Blarney Castle in Ireland. The charter planes will take you back to Reykjavik, Iceland, and from there you may select your flight to Ireland. One hundred dollars has been provided for food, drink, and necessities." The hundred dollar bill was inside an envelope fitted to the back of the disk. "Have this disk - along with the others you receive - when you cross the finish line." I held it out to Liam to read.

  He declined with a wave of his hand, glancing at the distant horizon. "I suppose we should head back to the airport, then. I'm guessing we're going to be on the last charter flight again."

  "I'd say that's an accurate guess," I replied sourly. I shrugged on my backpack. "Might as well get it over with, then."

  One trip to Acapulco, coming right up.

  ~~ * * * ~~

  It wasn't surprising to me that when we arrived at the airport in Reykjavik, all the other teams were still there. A travel agent had suggested that we fly in to Cork, the next flight to leave, and sure enough, all the other teams were waiting at the terminal.

  They didn't look happy to see me and Liam, either. I supposed that if we hadn't caught the same flight, they would have been assured that we were one of the teams sure to go. This way, it was a toss-up all over again. I had a hunch that the producers were deliberately shoving all of us together just to see how the two new teams – mine and Brodie’s – reacted to each other.

  Too bad for them. I was still in a bad mood, so I took my water bottle and headed to a seat away from all the others, not feeling particularly social at the moment. I didn't care about getting to know the others or 'hanging out' with them, since they didn't seem to want to get to know me, either. No one had made any effort but Abby, and she was cuddled up next to Dean, her eyes closed as if trying to take a nap before the plane got here.

  Brodie was sitting in the center of the group with Tesla at his side, looking for all the world as if she'd always been his partner. His arm was loosely around the back of her chair, and she leaned into him, laughing at everything he said. I rolled my eyes and ignored them. Sitting down, I pulled my legs up into my chair and rested my arms on my knees.

  Liam glanced at me, and set his backpack down next to me. Then, he went to chat with Tesla, likely to talk strategy or to bitch about his partner. I didn't care. This wasn't fun anymore. If we were the first ones kicked off? I'd be just fine with that. I'd gone from being genuinely excited about being in first place and thinking we had a shot at the money to feeling abandoned.

  "Oh, don't worry about her." Brodie's voice rose above the crowd, and I could hear it from where I sat. "She's just in one of her Cranky Katy moods. She'll get over it soon enough."

  The teams around him tittered. I narrowed my eyes as a camera zoomed in on my brother, who didn't seem to give a shit that I was miserable.

  "Maybe she's cranky because her brother abandoned her to hook up with a hot girl." The voice was deep and smooth and held just a hint of reproach. "I imagine that any
one would be in a bad mood if that happened to them. She got sold out by her partner."

  I looked up in surprise. Liam’s back was to me, so I couldn't see his expression. But that voice had been his. Was he defending me?

  The crowd went quiet. Tesla wriggled in her seat, as if uncomfortable, and Brodie scowled at Liam.

  I glanced away, pretending not to notice that Liam abandoned their little crowd and came to sit next to me in the empty seat. He didn't look over, just grabbed his pack, put his headphones on, and began to drum a beat on his backpack, acting as if nothing in the world bothered him.

  Me, I was full of confused thoughts. I'd been nothing but nasty to the guy and he'd defended me. Meanwhile, my brother, who was supposed to have my back? Had been calling me by the childhood nickname that he knew drove me crazy – Cranky Katy. Brodie and I argued - that was just how siblings were - but on TV? It was kind of embarrassing.

  And yet Liam hadn't sat around and laughed at Brodie's words. He hadn't joined in the little party that was trying to make me feel bad for being unhappy. He'd chided Brodie to his face and then turned and left.

  At least someone had my back.

  ~~ * * * ~~

  "Blarney Castle, just up ahead," I told Liam, folding up the map I'd been reading. I was in the back seat of the small car with the cameraman, given the task of navigating while he'd drove, since Liam was better with a stick shift than me.

  We'd more or less reached an uneasy truce since getting off the flight at Cork. While we weren't exactly friendly with each other, we'd fallen into a working relationship of a sort. We were polite and efficient as we'd gotten into the car rented for us, bought a map, and found our way to the next location. Liam was a rather quiet sort, so I didn't know what he was thinking.