All in the Game

by Barbara Boswell

  Ty winced at the memory. Well, when it came to his feelings for Shannen, he could safely rule out convenience. But sex was an integral part of their relationship. Was that all it was between them? A hot sexual infatuation fueled by the lush tropical setting, plus the enticing element of the forbidden?

  Shannen must think so; she certainly wasn’t pouring out her abiding love for him to her sister.

  “Pick up that camera and start filming us,” one of the twins said.

  Ty blinked. Which one had spoken, Shannen or Lauren? For the first time he was unsure.

  “I’ll start talking about how hungry I am for the fabulous silver dollar pancakes at the diner,” said Shannen. “We might as well get in a little free advertising for Gramma.”

  One telltale sign clued Ty that it was Shannen who was speaking; her lips were still moist and swollen from their kisses. But that startling moment when he couldn’t tell one sister from the other jarred him. It seemed symbolic. Of exactly what, he wasn’t sure. Right now he was sure of nothing at all.

  “Okay,” agreed Lauren. She picked up the camera and handed it to Ty.

  He didn’t turn it on. “You’re one superb actress, Lauren,” he said lightly. “After all those hours of filming, this is the first and only time I’ve ever seen you lose your temper or even display a hint of aggravation. Who knew that beneath that sweet serene exterior is—”

  “Lauren is sweet and serene,” Shannen jumped to her twin’s defense. “She only gets upset when she’s with me.”

  “You mean she’ll only allow you to see how she really feels,” corrected Ty. “Everybody else gets the Lady Lauren facade. As a control freak, your sister beats you hands down, Shannen.” He laughed. “I feel privileged to see the true inner Lauren. Makes me feel like family.”

  Lauren look at him, aghast. “Shannen, what have you done?” she wailed. “I can tell that we can’t trust this guy. He could make us lose the game. And we’re so close, I can almost feel that money!”

  “Ah, the sweet feel of cold hard cash.” Ty’s dark eyes glittered. “I can relate. You, too, hmm, Shannen?”

  Shannen shot him a glare and caught Lauren’s hand, dragging her away to join the others back at camp. Ty followed them, his camera rolling.

  Six

  Bobby Dixon showed up later in the day with food, money and another contest.

  “Today we’re going to have an auction. I’m going to give each of you five one-hundred-dollar bills. You can bid on all of these savory delights and spend as much as you want on anything you want—until your money runs out.”

  With a flourish, he unveiled an array of food: a cheeseburger with choice of condiments, a piece of chocolate cake topped with whipped cream and hot fudge, an enormous fresh fruit salad and a turkey sandwich on thick fresh bread.

  Shannen’s eyes connected with Ty’s over that one. She felt her stomach rumble because she knew exactly how that sandwich smelled and could imagine how it tasted. Ty merely smiled, and she looked away, scowling.

  Bobby was offering more food to be auctioned. A large bag of potato chips and a cold beer, a liter bottle of cola, a plate of nachos, a barbecued chicken, a tub of potato salad. A movie theater counter’s assortment of candy. A container of fruit-flavored yogurt, a container of frozen yogurt. A quart of designer ice cream packed on dry ice so it wouldn’t melt before the bidding concluded.

  “If we have any cash left over after bidding, can we keep it?” asked Konrad, fondling the stiff new hundred-dollar bills.

  “Sure,” Bobby assured him smoothly. “But I sincerely doubt anybody will have any money left. Did I tell you I also have a steak dinner, complete with baked potato and salad with the dressing of your choice? And I’ll throw in whatever you want as a beverage to go with it.”

  Rico gasped. “I bid three hundred dollars on the steak dinner.”

  “I bid three-hundred-fifty,” said Konrad.

  The twins exchanged glances.

  “Red meat, ick!’ exclaimed Cortnee. “I’ll bid one hundred for the fruit salad. And fifty for the frozen yogurt.”

  The auction unfolded at a lively pace, with the cameras filming each contestant avidly devouring what they’d won.

  Except for the Cullen twins. Neither bid on anything. Both stared resolutely at the five one-hundred dollar bills they held in their hands.

  Ty noticed right away, of course. Amid the auction hoopla, it took the others a while longer.

  “Shannen, Lauren, you haven’t bid on anything yet,” Bobby Dixon exclaimed at last, his dimples deeper than ever. “Let me tempt you with this—a monster BLT, with a pile of crisp bacon, fresh lettuce and tomato on the bread of your choice.”

  “No, thanks. Gramma makes the world’s ultimate BLT at the diner,” Shannen said blithely. “I wouldn’t want to settle for anything less.”

  “N-not even here, when you’re starving on an island?” Bobby’s dazzling smile faltered a bit, but he quickly recovered. “All right, then, here is something you won’t be able to resist…a made-to-order pizza. And whatever you want to drink. And fresh garlic bread. And dessert—which you’ll get to choose. Wow, I’m making myself hungry!”

  “We’re not bidding on anything,” Lauren said sweetly. “We’ve decided to keep the money instead.”

  The other contestants gasped.

  Bobby Dixon paled. “Surely you don’t mean that.”

  “Yes.” Shannen nodded. “We do.”

  Beside him, Ty heard Reggie Ellis chortle.

  “Bobby’ll be called on the carpet for this. He was supposed to get all the cash back. Guess nobody thought it was possible for any of them to hold out against all this food after what they haven’t been eating. But now there’s two holding out with a cool grand.”

  “Guess nobody thought the twins would love the feel of that cash in their little hands so very much,” muttered Ty.

  Reggie nodded, guffawing. “Think the network will deduct the twins’ thousand bucks from Bobby’s paycheck?”

  Bobby must have thought so, because he went into an auctioneering frenzy, offering every kind of food and drink imaginable to entice the twins to bid. Long after Konrad, Rico and Cortnee had spend every cent of their five hundred dollars and proclaimed themselves stuffed to the point of nausea, Bobby kept it up.

  And Shannen and Lauren refused to bid on anything.

  “Give it up, Slick B,” Konrad said at last. “They ain’t buyin’ whatever you’re sellin’.”

  “I guess not.” Bobby managed a tight-lipped smile. “Color me amazed at the strength of your willpower, girls.”

  Color me unfazed, Ty thought grimly. He’d already seen Shannen’s willpower in action, and Lauren had given him a hint as to how much they wanted money. Given a choice of a thousand dollars between them and a chance to eat, it was no contest at all.

  Bobby was visibly displeased. This outcome was obviously not what he and The Powers That Be had intended.

  “Okay, listen up, everybody! After bidding and eating all that food, are you ready for a surprise?” Bobby asked robotically, following the script as previously written without noting the twins’ unexpected lack of participation.

  “This auction is also an immunity contest.” Bobby’s flat tone failed to convey excitement. “The person with the most money left is the one who wins immunity at the tribal council vote-out tonight.”

  “Hardly the moment of suspense you were hoping for, huh, Slick Bob?” Rico cackled. “We all know right off the bat who gets immunity. The twins. Too bad they aren’t one person.”

  “Funny, that’s what our mother said when we were born,” Lauren piped up. “And many many times after.”

  Shannen gave her sister a censorial nudge that only Ty recorded with his camera. Everybody else was watching Bobby trying to smile deeply enough to get his dimples back in place.

  The twins’ mother was not entranced with the prospect of twins? Ty pondered that as he studied the sisters’ identical looks of chagrin. Both appeared to r
egret Lauren’s impulsive revelation.

  “Does this mean both Shannen and Lauren get immunity?” Cortnee asked.

  “No!” Bobby was quick to reply. “Only one can have immunity. Shannen and Lauren, one of you gets the totem pole and one of you goes to the meeting tonight without its protection.”

  “I can almost read your mind, so why don’t you go ahead and say it, Bobby?” Shannen challenged him. “One of us goes to the meeting tonight to be voted off, am I right?”

  Bobby went into a soliloquy that he’d obviously rehearsed, about one twin facing the prospect of leaving her twin sister on the island. Which one would it be? He gestured to the twins, directorially calling to the cameras to focus on them.

  “You girls will have to make the decision yourselves, to choose which one of you gets the immunity totem,” Bobby added dramatically.

  Ty zeroed in on Shannen. Her expression was priceless, and he came close to laughing out loud.

  “Do you expect us to have a catfight or something?” Shannen glowered at Bobby. “Not a chance! Lauren, you take the immunity totem. I’ll brave the council on my own.”

  Shannen waited expectantly for Lauren to make the same offer back to her. She would insist that Lauren keep the totem pole, of course, but she fully expected Lauren to refuse at least once.

  “Thanks, Shannen!” Lauren was all smiles as she threw her arms around Shannen’s neck. “You’re the best sister in the world!”

  “I’ll say she is!” seconded an admiring Konrad. “Because you know we’re going to vote you off tonight, Shannen. Nothing personal, but we can’t keep two of you around anymore.”

  “I understand. Two of a kind is one too many,” Shannen murmured.

  She managed to smile, though she felt sick with disappointment. It surprised her; she didn’t think being out of the game would bother her so much.

  Shannen kept her eyes away from Ty and clutched her money, smiling till her face hurt.

  She wanted a little time alone with Lauren, but the cameras constantly stayed on them both. Hoping for some sort of sisterly tiff?

  It didn’t happen. The twins didn’t mention the immunity issue. They recounted their hundred-dollar bills, all ten of them.

  For a change, Ty wasn’t filming them, Shannen noted. He’d staked out a place on the beach by Konrad and Cortnee.

  Cortnee was trying to teach Konrad some dance steps, and they both laughed uproariously at his failed attempts to match hers. Rico lay on the sand, clutching his stomach and groaning about the too-rich meal he’d eaten.

  “Do you think Shannen will get voted off tonight?” Heidi asked Ty as they set up for filming at the tribal council area later that night.

  “I didn’t hear Rico or Cortnee jump in to refute Konrad when he said they’d vote her off, but who knows?” Ty shrugged.

  “After experiencing Shannen’s PMS moments today, I have to say that I like Lauren better,” admitted Heidi. “She’s always so sweet.”

  “PMS moments?” echoed Ty. “I believe Shannen blamed her bout of temper this morning on being accosted by a germ last night.”

  The germ being him, of course. And he hadn’t accosted her! He frowned. Why had he prolonged this stupid conversation with Heidi, anyway? Because he wanted to talk about Shannen at every opportunity with anyone? He was bordering on pathetic!

  “A germ is just a euphemism for PMS, of course,” scoffed Heidi. “Like I used to call my ex-fiancé a germ because he made me sick.”

  Now that was definitely a discussion to avoid. Ty pretended to be completely absorbed in adjusting the angle of the standing camera.

  The contestants filed into the meeting place, and Bobby launched into a long monologue about the Final Four and Destiny.

  Shannen barely tuned in to listen. She was too preoccupied to pay attention and kept looking around, trying to prepare herself for the voting to come.

  She knew she was going to be voted off and so did everybody else. She wouldn’t throw a tantrum over it as some others had, Shannen vowed. She wouldn’t tear up and babble something insipidly sentimental, either. She was going to make a graceful exit, smiling, saying it had been fun and wishing the others good luck.

  Reflexively she located Ty behind his camera. He wasn’t looking at her; he was filming Cortnee, who was chatting quietly with Konrad while Bobby droned on. It was strange not to have Ty’s full attention, not to have him watching her through his lens.

  Shannen realized just how accustomed she’d become to having him focus on her. But from the time the auction had ended this afternoon, he had ignored her, filming everyone else but her.

  She thought back to the passionate kiss Lauren had interrupted this morning. No use kidding herself—that had been a kiss meant to lead to much more. And it was her last private interaction with Tynan and had ended on a sour note, with her snapping at him, glaring as she left him.

  But that was how most of their encounters on this island ended, and it had never altered his behavior toward her. Invariably, the next time she saw him, he would be watching her, that intense look in his eye as his camera rolled.

  But now…he didn’t even glance her way when he thought she might not be looking. She knew because she watched him covertly but constantly.

  She felt anxiety begin a slow, steady build inside her. Ty was acting as though he was completely uninterested in her.

  Because he was? Shannen fought against the sinking of her heart.

  We’ll make plans to see each other after the game, to continue what we’ve begun. To be together. She closed her eyes and could hear his voice as she relived their brief time together this morning at the spring. I want us to be together, Shannen. I want you to want that, too.

  She felt Lauren’s hand squeeze hers.

  “Shannen, don’t fall asleep during Bobby’s big talk,” she whispered. “Though it’s tempting ’cause he’s such a windbag.” Lauren giggled.

  Shannen opened her eyes. Cameraman Reggie was filming her and Lauren, and Ty still wasn’t looking their way. If—when!—she was voted out of the game tonight, she knew she would go to a nearby island to stay with the last seven contestants who’d been voted off the island.

  There was a hotel there where they all stayed until it was time for “jury duty,” when the ten rejected contestants would appear at the final tribal council to vote for a winner, choosing between the Final Two.

  She would be over there, and Ty would be here on this island, filming the surviving contestants all day and spending the nights in the crew’s camp. She wouldn’t see him anymore!

  Shannen inhaled a sharp breath of dismay. Though she’d told Ty repeatedly that she didn’t want to see him, that whatever was growing between them was over, at last she faced the truth.

  She wanted what Ty had said he wanted. We’ll make plans to see each other after the game, to continue what we’ve begun. To be together.

  But how could she tell him so, if she were on some other island? She knew the procedure: the rejects gathered their belongings immediately after the vote and were whisked away in a boat, not to be seen again.

  The departure was never filmed. A pair of production assistants accompanied the loser until the boat left shore. She wouldn’t have the chance to say anything to Ty.

  When would she see him again? When the jury of contestants were brought back to the island to cast their votes for the winner? There would be no chance to be alone with Ty then.

  The anxiety swirling through her was awful; she hadn’t felt this nervous about a man since she’d been back in high school, wondering if Ty would call her.

  In the midst of her unbridled emotional storm, the voting came as a distinct anti-climax. Shannen cast her vote against Rico.

  “Nothing personal,” she said, as the cameraman—who was not Ty—filmed her slipping her vote into the box.

  Konrad, Rico and Cortnee voted against Shannen, as she’d expected. No, it wasn’t personal, and she didn’t take it that way. If she’d kept the immunit
y totem herself, they would have voted off Lauren. The alliance had included both twins until now, when one had to go.

  What surprised her most was Lauren’s vote against Cortnee. Was this the second time she’d done so? Ty would think so.

  Ty. He was filming Rico, Cortnee and Konrad, who were trying to look somber over Shannen’s dismissal and not quite pulling it off. She knew the relief they were feeling at having survived another round. Until tonight she’d felt that same way after each vote.

  “Shannen, your light has been extinguished.” Bobby took Shannen’s flashlight, a symbol of her banishment. A torch would’ve been more dramatic, but Victorious had opted not to be totally derivative.

  “It’s better this way, Shan,” Lauren whispered into her ear. “I’ll be able to play Konrad and Rico against Cortnee. I know you wouldn’t do it that way, but it’s going to work, you’ll see. They like me better than Cortnee.”

  “Ready to go, Shannen?” The two male production assistants, Kevin and Adam, came to Shannen’s side.

  “Let’s get your stuff and put you on the boat,” said one.

  “You’re going to love the hotel,” enthused the other. “It’s a first-class resort with all the amenities. You can do anything you want and eat as much as you want. Think of it as a free vacation!”

  She knew they were being kind, trying to ease the sting of being voted off. She smiled at them as she slipped an arm through each of theirs. “Thanks, guys.”

  She cast a final look back. If she were on camera, it would appear that she was taking a last glance at the familiar setting, or maybe checking on her twin.

  But she wasn’t on camera. Filming had stopped, and the crew was packing up the equipment. Ty chatted with the female production assistants, one of them Heidi.