The New Champion

by Jody Feldman

  Jig handed out the signalers. “On three. One, two, three!”

  They pressed, but nothing happened.

  “Again,” said Jig. “One, two, three!”

  Nothing.

  “Who’s not pressing at the same time?” he said.

  “Here!” said Clio.

  “Then get it right,” Dacey said.

  “No. Here on the back. There’s an arrow! Find your arrow, and point it toward the ceiling. One, two, three!”

  The green wall started parting in the middle, slowly, spotlights swirling overhead, revealing behind it a glimpse of yellow and orange and—

  “It’s the Rainbow Maze!” said Jig. “They let me try it last year. It’s incredible, it’s fierce, it’s—”

  Estella gasped. “It’s the pig.”

  Behind the wall stood a guy.

  Estella turned to Clio. “What’s he doing here? Stephen. My ex-boyfriend.” She reached over and dug her nails into Cameron’s arm. “Oh my gosh! He’s my person. When they interviewed us, who we didn’t want to compete against . . .” She shook her head and let go. “Why didn’t I put my best friend?”

  Lined up behind him were two girls and then . . .

  Cameron felt a little ill. “It’s my brother Spencer. He does not lose.”

  Before the wall finished opening, a voice came from nowhere. “You have three free minutes to greet your visitors. Your game clock will pause, starting . . . now!”

  Spencer ran up and thumped him on the back. “Your team’s losing, dude.”

  “Why do you have to rub it in?”

  “Because I’m so good at it.” Spencer grinned. “So what are you gonna do about it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s hard with . . .” Cameron looked in Dacey’s direction.

  She was all smiles around her person, her very beautiful, very tall person.

  “Dude. Just deal with Dacey,” said Spencer. “Clio is.”

  Clio was jumping around with her friend, and she’d included Estella with them. The ex-boyfriend was standing by himself, tapping the shell of the four-foot ladybug.

  “So, when did you find out about this?” Cameron asked Spencer.

  “They told me and Clio’s friend this morning after you left us. The other three jokers found out yesterday and had private planes pick them up. Lucky.” Spencer shook his head. “Hey, what do you think about him?”

  “Who?”

  Spencer turned Cameron’s head toward Jig and his person.

  “I’ve seen that smirk somewhere before,” Cameron said. “Holy cow!”

  Spencer laughed. “Can you believe Golly had the guts to bring back the cheater?”

  Jig and Rocky Titus were heading straight toward them, laughing over something.

  It got Dacey’s attention, too. She looked straight at Jig. “Why him?”

  “Because I’m me,” said Rocky.

  “Meet Rocky. Toughest competitor I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot.”

  “Not tougher than mine.” Dacey switched on a smile and reached out to the tall girl. “Meet Laura Ramirez, ultimate pageant queen and my competition again, it appears.”

  “I’m Spencer. Cameron’s my brother.”

  “And this,” Clio said, “is my best friend, Janae. Whatever I don’t know, she does. Whatever I can’t do, she can.”

  Estella shook her head. “That, over there, is Stephen and—”

  “You have twenty seconds,” the voice said.

  “And,” said Clio to Estella, “you were saved by the voice.”

  Their little circle started breaking up, the Blue Team backing a bit toward one side, the new people toward the other.

  “Three, two, one, and start!”

  The giant ladybug buzzed, sending Stephen stumbling way back. One of the ladybug’s legs came forward with a big envelope: “STUNT #4.”

  Clio took the envelope, slid her finger under the flap, and winced. Blood was already rising from the paper cut, but she pulled out the card and read out loud:

  Who’s There?

  Now you see who’s here!

  It’s a face-off between each pair.

  One-on-one combat.

  Your challenge will begin in 3 minutes.

  WHERE: You’ll find ten computer monitors farther down the wall.

  HOW TO PLAY: Your monitors will show a sea of faces. Study them. After 30 seconds they will disappear; then, one at a time, 5 faces will appear. For each face, answer yes or no: Did you see that person in the group picture?

  WHY YOU WANT TO WIN: Every Blue Team member who wins his or her one-on-one will earn your team an easier versus harder piece to the next puzzle.

  WHY THEY WILL TRY TO BEAT YOU: They will receive money. Thousands of dollars. And if they try to let you win? No money for them, and 25 penalty minutes for you. How will we know if they’re slacking? We know how fast they should go. We gave them two warm-up rounds and recorded their speed. Now walk to your monitors.

  That was all Cameron needed: a warmed-up Spencer. “Warm-up round?”

  “They had us do the same thing with a group of animals, then junk in a desk. They told us to go our fastest, but I didn’t know it counted for anything.”

  “You’d never take it easy on me anyway.”

  “I might have. The more you win, the more you’ll give me.”

  Cameron shook his head.

  A woman’s voice came out of nowhere. “You have two minutes. Please find the monitor with your name. Blue Team will be on the blue side of the table; guests, on the white side.”

  The setup had them face-to-face with their direct competitors, the monitors their only buffers.

  Estella was glaring at her ex-boyfriend.

  Clio and Janae were chatting about a trip to Washington, D.C.

  Rocky and Jig were laughing at each other.

  Dacey’s plastered-on smile looked like it might crack her face.

  “You know you’re going down,” said Spencer across the two monitors.

  Cameron took a deep breath and managed to look him directly in the eye. “Not if I can help it.”

  Cameron’s screen started a countdown. “3. 2. 1. Go!”

  His monitor showed twenty kids on four rows of risers. Boys, girls. Every hair color; every skin shade; every type of clothing. He stared and stared, but how could he remember all twenty? What would happen if he didn’t? Spencer would have bragging rights again, that’s what. Nine seconds left. Tan girl, medium blond hair. Asian boy with black glasses. Kid who grinned like Walker. Girl with a mole near her lip. Dark-skinned girl with bright green—

  The screen went blank to a chorus of groans.

  “Finally!” said Spencer.

  Cameron suspected that was for effect, but he couldn’t let Spencer’s confidence, fake or not, suck all his concentration.

  The screen lit back up with the kid who grinned like Walker. Underneath him it read: “Was this person in the picture? Yes / No.”

  Cameron touched Yes.

  Next, a girl with medium brown hair and a pink shirt. He didn’t remember her, but he couldn’t rule her out. What should he do? Really, time was what mattered. He touched No. The computer didn’t buzz him wrong. Was that a good sign?

  Next. A boy in a baseball cap with a purple M. He remembered the cap, but was it that boy? Just go. Yes.

  Tan girl, medium blond hair. Yes.

  Asian girl, black glasses. Yes? No. The black glasses were on the Asian boy.

  The screen blanked, then blinked back on. “4 / 5. Almost. Try, try again.”

  “Doing great over here, Cameron,” Spencer said. “Doing good?”

  Cameron didn’t answer. He touched the screen, and all the people came back. Twenty seconds on the clock. And that girl with the pink shirt was there. Would they give them the same five kids? Probably not. He studied harder. The boy with the white shirt who looked like a thousand people. The kid who was a little cross-eyed. One who looked like his friend Franklin. One who looked like Darla from algebra, o
ne—

  Blank screen. Same choices?

  Nope.

  “Oh, man,” he heard Estella’s boyfriend say. “Different people.”

  “I got it this time,” said Spencer. “Beat me, Cameron. Just try.”

  Cameron wished he had earplugs. Okay. Pale boy with freckles. Never saw him.

  Girl with a pink streak in her hair. No.

  Girl with the mole. Yes!

  Bright green shirt. Yes!

  Dark-skinned boy who looked like his friend Sameer. No!

  That had to be right. The monitor went blank. It blinked back on: “5/5 but sorry. Spencer beat you by 0.3 second. Please take a seat in the blue chairs and remain silent.”

  It was just Spencer and him making their way to ten blue chairs. If he’d been up against anyone else, he would have won.

  Sorry, Spencer mouthed. But that smile wasn’t the least bit sorry.

  Cameron had just sat when Clio trotted over, arms raised in victory. Janae came around, and they gave each other a big hug.

  Clio raised her eyebrows. You win? she mouthed.

  Cameron shook his head.

  She patted him on the back anyway.

  In just moments it was apparent that Dacey had lost to Laura, that Jig had won and Estella had, too. She took a chair as far away as possible from Stephen.

  Now what? How long were they supposed to be silent?

  “A-a-ahh!” Bill ran out from near the Rainbow Maze, arms and legs flailing like a crazy man.

  They all laughed.

  “It was so quiet here,” he said. “I couldn’t stand it. Say good-bye to our visitors. You’ll see them again in a little while.” He handed Estella an envelope. “If you want to, that is.”

  “Come, visitors!” He walked them back toward the Rainbow Maze wall.

  Before Estella could open the envelope, Bill turned around. “You picked up a minute thirty-nine. Now go!”

  “We’re less than four behind,” said Jig. “We can do this.”

  “We can,” Clio said.

  “We can,” Cameron echoed with the other two.

  Estella held out the puzzle card.

  Puzzle #5

  * * * * * * * * * * *

  Your questions and choices are near the huge blue entry door.

  They took off, but when they rounded the sailboat, there was no blue-lit table. There were three blue-lit doors. Embedded in each was a framed screen lit with a string of five numbers, all ones and twos.

  Dacey reached for a doorknob.

  Clio flew in front of her. “No. What if opening one is like opening a box?”

  Dacey backed away. “You’re right.”

  Jig had peeled their envelope off a suit of armor. He read its card aloud.

  Puzzle #5

  * * * * * * * * * * *

  Congratulations! You have earned three easier questions for this round! Answer all five questions correctly and you will know which door to open. Open only that door.

  P.S. Need a hint?

  And there was a small right-pointing arrow at the bottom of the card. Jig turned it over. “There’s nothing here.”

  “They tease,” said Dacey. “But where are the questions?”

  One arm from the suit of armor rose and pointed behind them to a bank of five more monitors mounted on a wall. Each read “Touch Here.”

  Clio touched the one on the left, and the screen fully lit.

  QUESTION #1

  HOW MANY COUNTRIES COUNT GLACIERS AS PART OF THEIR TERRITORY?

  CHOOSE 1 IF THAT ANSWER IS GREATER THAN 18.

  CHOOSE 2 IF THAT ANSWER IS EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN 18.

  “I still don’t see a hint,” said Dacey. “Where’s . . . our . . . hint?” she called to the ceiling.

  “Did you expect an answer?” asked Estella.

  “C’mon,” said Clio. “Maybe we don’t need a hint. Glaciers. All I know is they’re massive bodies of ice and provide water and are shrinking with global warming.”

  “If only my brother George were here,” said Estella. “He’s got this thing about icebergs and glaciers. Rain forests, too.”

  “What if we start naming countries with glaciers,” Clio said. “Up in Alaska, so the United States. Canada. Antarctica. Greenland.”

  “Iceland?” said Dacey.

  “Don’t know,” Clio said. “We learned Iceland is green and Greenland is icy. Anyone?”

  “Russia,” said Cameron. “China, I think.”

  Dacey sighed. “If that’s an easy question, we are in serious trouble.”

  “Maybe not,” said Clio. “The doors will tell us.”

  “Because doors talk,” said Dacey.

  “No. Suppose the answer to question five is definitely two. If only one door has a two in the fifth position, it’s the right door. I say we go to the next question.” Clio touched the second screen.

  QUESTION #2

  WHAT IS A NORMAL DECIBEL LEVEL FOR EVERYDAY CONVERSATION?

  CHOOSE 1 IF THAT ANSWER IS GREATER THAN 85.

  CHOOSE 2 IF THAT ANSWER IS EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN 85.

  “Over eighty-five in my house,” said Jig, “over eighty-five hundred probably.”

  That wasn’t right. Cameron started raising his hand again, but his mouth took over. “I was at a basketball game with a decibel meter. It only got as high as one-fifteen, and it was deafening in there. It’s probably number two.”

  “Are you absolutely positive?” said Jig.

  “Ninety percent,” Cameron said.

  “Right now we need one hundred,” said Jig.

  They moved to the next monitor.

  QUESTION #3

  HOW MANY DIMPLES IN A STANDARD GOLF BALL?

  CHOOSE 1 IF THAT ANSWER IS GREATER THAN 200.

  CHOOSE 2 IF THAT ANSWER IS EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN 200.

  “Seriously?” Dacey said. “Hey, Bill! Which ones are the easier questions?”

  “Tell me about it,” said Estella.

  “But golf balls are little,” Dacey said. “I can’t believe they even have a hundred dimples. It has to be number two.”

  Jig let out a laugh. “And your fact-based reference is . . .”

  “Fine. If no one else has anything, move on.”

  QUESTION #4

  HOW MANY SPECIES OF FLIGHTLESS BIRDS CURRENTLY EXIST?

  CHOOSE 1 IF THAT ANSWER IS EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN 4.

  CHOOSE 2 IF THAT ANSWER IS LESS THAN 4.

  “Okay,” said Clio. “There’s the ostrich and emu. Also penguins.”

  “What about the ones that look like penguins?” said Jig. “Puffins?”

  “They fly,” said Clio. “That’s one of the differences.”

  “Really?” said Dacey. “And you know this because . . .”

  “My kindergarten teacher was obsessed with penguins. But what’s important, I think there are more flightless birds in Australia, and two more would make five. But I’m like Cameron with the decibels, only ninety percent sure.”

  They moved on.

  QUESTION #5

  WHEN WAS THE FIRST JUNGLE GYM BUILT?

  CHOOSE 1 IF THAT ANSWER IS BEFORE GOLLY TOY AND GAME COMPANY WAS ESTABLISHED.

  CHOOSE 2 IF THAT ANSWER IS AFTER GOLLY TOY AND GAME COMPANY WAS ESTABLISHED.

  “Got it!” Dacey said. “If you don’t know, you don’t deserve to be here. This is Golly’s fifty-first anniversary.”

  “So before or after fifty-one years ago?” Jig said.

  “Oops,” said Dacey. “Not sure.”

  “I might be, though,” said Clio. “My grandma has this story about getting over her fear of heights on a jungle gym, and she’s, well, I think she’s over sixty years old.”

  “And we have nothing definitive,” said Jig.

  “All we can do is use our closest guesses.” Clio pulled paper and a pen from her pocket. “More or less than eighteen glacier countries?”

  Cameron, Jig, and Estella voted more; Dacey and Clio, less.

  “Majority rules for now,” Cli
o said, writing down a 1. “But the underlining means we’re not unanimous. More or less than eighty-five decibels?”

  They were unanimous. She marked down the 2.

  “More or less than two hundred golf ball dimples?”

  Split decision, boys versus girls. She underlined the 2, for less.

  “More or less than four flightless birds?”

  More. Unanimous. She wrote the 1.

  “Jungle gym. Before Golly or after.”

  Before. Unanimous again. Another 1 on the paper.

  “Let’s see what matches up best,” she said.

  They ran back to the doors, with their choices.

  First door: 1 2 1 1 1

  Second door: 2 2 1 1 2

  Third door: 1 1 2 2 1

  They compared those with their paper: 1 2 2 1 1

  “If you look at the ones we’re unanimous on,” said Clio, “it’s the first door.”

  “We can’t be sure, can we?” said Dacey.

  “What’s the question we feel most confident about?” said Clio. “Jungle gym?”

  They agreed.

  “So we’ll eliminate door number two.”

  “If we do,” said Jig, “majority was right on the glacier question because the remaining doors are both choice number one.”

  Silence. Cameron was more than ninety percent on the decibels, but what if he was wrong?

  “Hey!” said Dacey. “Weren’t we supposed to get a hint? Where’s the puzzle card?”

  There was still nothing on the back.

  “Wait!” Cameron pulled the packet of lemon juice from his pocket and ripped it open with his teeth, spraying half of it on his shirt. He sprinkled the rest onto the back of the card and spread it with his fingers. Letters started appearing: Cas . . . But he didn’t have enough juice to reveal any others.

  “Genius!” Clio said.

  She and Estella pulled out their packets and spread more juice over the card. It finished the first word—Cassowary—and started the next, Ki. “Two birds, I think. More juice!”

  Jig rubbed his to the end of the first line, then underneath from the right.