“Annabelle,” Chip said, turning to me. “This is your first time up for Judgment. Does that make you one of the strongest players left in the game?”
Internally, I winced. Way to point a bulls-eye on me there, Chip. “I don’t know about that. Strongest, no. Maybe one of the luckiest. And I can’t be that strong if I’m up here now.” I gave him my sunniest smile. “Right?”
“Yes, but you’ve made it this far. We’re past the halfway point.”
I simply shrugged. “I don’t see myself as one of the strongest players, no. Look at Kip and Kissy. They’re definitely stronger. Kip’s never been to Judgment at all, and Kissy destroyed all of us in that challenge.”
Their eyes narrowed at me and I continued wearing my angelic smile. How ya like that target? In theory, it was a bad idea to call out another team, but I knew they weren’t going to vote for us anyhow.
Chip turned toward the Green team. “Emilio? How are the team dynamics with you and Leslie? Are you struggling or working well together?”
“Struggling,” Emilio said flatly. “Leslie wants everything done her way on the beach. Which is fine for a while, but when you don’t catch any food and you have to sleep in the sand, it gets old, Chip.”
“If you would listen to what I said,” Leslie said tightly, “then we wouldn’t be sleeping on the sand.”
Emilio just rolled his eyes and looked at Chip. “What did I say? Unless you do things her way, she’ll make you miserable.”
“Leslie, do you think you’re being unreasonable?”
“Of course not,” she said, crossing her arms over her bare breasts. “I just know I’m right, and I refuse to waste time with his silly ideas.”
Emilio rolled his eyes again.
“Well. With that, it’s time for our teams to vote. Red team, please proceed to the voting booth.”
Kip and Kissy got up, proceeded to the booth, and wrote on a slate. They didn’t even look as if they’d debated it. Next, the Purple team - Alys and Saul - went to vote. Again, there was little debate.
Yeah, we were doomed.
Once both teams were seated again, Chip hopped down from the podium and went to retrieve the slates. He returned to the podium, picked up the first one, and looked at us grimly. “I’ll read out the votes. These are for the team you wish to remain in the game.” He flipped around the first slate. “One vote for the Green team.”
No surprise there. I watched Emilio and Leslie exchange looks.
“Second and last vote — Green team. Green team, you are safe.”
I glanced at Jendan. He didn’t seem surprised by the results either. We’d known we were screwed the moment we lost the challenge.
Chip turned to us. “Blue team, this means you have been Judged. Now, you will compete against each other to determine who will stay and who will continue on in the game. Do you have anything to say before we proceed?’
Jendan looked at me, a faint smile on his face. “Just that Annabelle was the best partner a guy could ask for. I’m sad that we’re parting today, but happy for whichever one of us moves on.”
A knot formed in my throat. Jendan, why do you have to be so darn awesome? It was just going to make things that much harder.
“Jendan’s a great partner, too,” I said, somehow managing to keep my voice steady. “Whatever happens after this, we had a blast together.” I held my hand out, and he clasped it with his own and gave me a comforting squeeze.
He didn’t hate me…yet.
“All right, then. Before we get to the competition,” Chip said. “Have either of you found Pandora’s Box?”
“Not me,” Jendan said.
I licked my lips. This was the moment. Did I want to do this to Jendan? Annabelle’s the best partner a guy could ask for.
That was about to change. I thought about all the ways the game would change for me after this moment. If I didn’t use Pandora’s box, I’d be an idiot. If I did, I’d be a bitch and ruin a fledgling relationship.
I thought…and thought. And thought.
And then, hating myself for what I was about to do, I spoke up. “I found it.”
Jendan looked at me with surprise. “You did?”
I felt like such a bitch. Resisting the urge to cry, I nodded and kept my gaze focused on Chip. “The secret word is ‘kere kere’.”
“That is correct!” Chip said.
Jendan just stared at me.
“Since you have the secret word, Annabelle, that offers you automatic protection in a Judgment challenge. This means that your partner automatically exits the game without going to the challenge. Is this what you want to do?”
It wasn’t what I wanted to do…but I was low on choices. My lower lip trembled and I felt the urge to bawl. I dug my fingernails into my palms to keep my shit together. Kip was still in the game, and I didn’t want to leave until he was finished. “It is.”
“All right, then. Jendan, you have been Judged and are now officially our second member of the jury. Please get your things and leave the game.”
I gazed down at my knees, unable to look Jendan in the eye as he silently picked up his canteen and headed off on the hastily constructed stone walkway that led out of the Judgment stage.
No one said anything. The stage was utterly silent.
“We’re down to seven,” Chip said in an ominous voice. “Big moves are happening, and this just shows that if you think you’re safe, you’re wrong. Everyone head back to camp.”
Numb, I picked up my canteen and headed out with the other contestants as we waited for the boats to take us back to our camps. No Jendan. No sexy, laughing partner to help me get out of my funk. No tall, delicious guy to cuddle with tonight. No hope of picking things up after the game, either.
I’d selfishly cut him off at the knees so I could keep playing. Hadn’t even given him a chance. I glanced at the other contestants, and they were giving me curious looks. It was clear everyone was surprised that Pandora’s Box had shown up. My partner, most of all.
When I got back to camp, my fire was out. Half-heartedly, I picked through the coals with a stick, looking for one I could encourage back to life, but it all looked dead. Figured. My stomach ached after the challenge, and I knew I should have eaten something, but I just crawled into the shelter and pulled the blanket over my body.
Jendan’s blanket.
A sob escaped my throat, a big, ugly, sob. I’d wanted to vote Kip out, not Jendan. Kip, who’d dicked me over in the last game, was still here, while Jendan, who I found myself incredibly attracted to, I’d had to betray. It wasn’t fair.
I clung to the blanket and sobbed myself to sleep. I don’t know if I was more upset that Jendan was gone…or that he was going to think I was using him the entire time to get ahead. How could he ever trust me after what I’d just pulled?
Chapter Seventeen
“Remember what I said about hating that I was still in the game? Be careful what you wish for and all that.” — Jendan Abercrombie, Day 24, Post-Judgment Interview
Being alone on the island sucked. Bad. I woke up stiff and sore and hungry as could be. My water was gone, and my fire was out. I had to gather wood, make a fire using Jendan’s flint and steel, get water from the well, start it boiling, and then try to gather food to feed myself. There was no one to talk to. It was just me.
It was depressing as hell.
I moped at my campfire for hours. I was hungry and thirsty, but I just kind of lay next to the fire in the sand, thinking about Jendan.
Was he back at the loser lodge right now eating his fill and telling Rusty how I’d betrayed him? Was he furious? I thought of his smile, and how I’d loved to cuddle with him in the shelter. I thought of the way he made me laugh, and how he was always helping around camp. He’d been an awesome partner, and I’d screwed him out of his chance for a million dollars.
I already missed him.
I’d also destroyed any hope of us getting together after the game, and that was the thought that kept c
rushing my spirit. I liked Jendan. So very much. I knew that whatever hope we’d had of seeing this thing past flirtation and a few stolen cuddles was gone.
Blinking back more tears, I shoved another log on the fire.
“So, uh,” someone said.
I sat up and looked around, and there was a cameraman nearby filming me as I laid on the beach and wallowed in my misery.
He nodded back at the trees. “We’re not supposed to coach you guys or anything, but I’m told production’s been waiting a few hours for you to check your camp mail and they’d really like to hurry things along.”
“Oh.” I got to my feet, brushing sand off of my body. I was pretty sure it said nothing good, so I didn’t get excited. Was this another back to back challenge? I didn’t think I had the strength in me today for another Judgment.
I was just too sad and lethargic.
Sure enough, there was a rolled up note inside the red chest. I opened it and read silently.
All colors are bright under the Fiji sun - gather your things - all teams have become one.
Another shitty poem, and reading it just made me more depressed. My lower lip trembled, and I sniffled hard to hold back the tears.
If I’d just held on in that challenge, Jendan and I would have made the merge together. One more day was all I’d needed.
And I blew it.
I wiped my nose, trying to pull myself together as I headed back to my lonely camp. I didn’t want the others to see me cry.
~~ *** ~~
Two hours later, I stepped off the boat at an old, familiar campsite - my first one, with Kip. Six others were already there, talking excitedly and hugging each other. There was a big woven basket in the center of the group with a lid on it. “Here,” one of the production people said and held out a key to me. “Take this with you.”
I took the key she offered me and jumped off the side of the small speedboat, then began to swim for shore. I headed toward the others, dreading this. Now I had to fake a good mood so they wouldn’t see how upset I was over Jendan leaving the game.
As I emerged from the water, I pasted a cheery smile on my face and waved the key in the air as I arrived. “I hope this party didn’t start without me!”
The others surged forward to hug me, and for a moment, things were awkward. We’d been naked for so long that we tended to forget about it, except at times like this. I’d been on the beach naked for over three weeks now, and I was finding I no longer cared who got a look at my hoo-ha. Modesty had left somewhere around week one. Nudity was quickly forgotten as we hugged and greeted each other. It was day twenty-seven - almost a month into the game - and we were just now getting to really meet each other for the first time. Seeing each other at challenges wasn’t the same as having real conversations with people, and my gloomy spirits lifted despite my funk.
Kissy clapped her hands together like a child, her face lit up. “Can we see what’s in the basket now that we’re all here?”
“Sure,” I said, handing her the key.
Kip snatched it before Kissy’s hand could touch it and he grinned. “I’ll do the honors.”
“Oh,” Kissy said, looking abashed. “Sure.”
Why couldn’t Kip have gone instead of Jendan? For a moment, a surge of anger coursed through me, directed at Kip’s sea-tousled waves of black hair. That absolute jerk. He’d probably been making Kissy absolutely miserable because she wasn’t hot or athletic. He was such a high-handed prick that he deserved to be taken down a notch.
I made that my goal, then. I’d started this game with the intent of getting Kip out of here, and it hadn’t changed. Come hell or high water, that asshole was going home before I was.
The basket was full of goodies for the new camp: rice and beans, a bottle of wine for us to celebrate with, and a long, distinctly phallic sausage. There was cheese and crackers and cookies, and at the bottom of the basket, underneath the food, there was an orange flag and some paints, along with a note.
“Decorate your new home,” Alys said, reading the note aloud as we stuffed our faces with cheese, sausage, and cookies. “Kick back and enjoy your feast - you deserve it. Today is a day of rest, but tomorrow, the game begins again.”
“So Judgment tomorrow, do you think?” Leslie asked. “We just had one yesterday.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” Saul agreed.
“Then we should set up shelter and get a good night’s sleep tonight,” Emilio pointed out.
I said nothing. I was going to let the others talk things out and observe the dynamics. I was on my own while everyone else was here with a pair. I’d need to watch the dynamics, see where there was a schism amongst teams, and then wiggle my way in.
By the time the new shelter was set up, I had a pretty good idea of how things were working. Kip was bossing everyone around, especially Kissy, who worked hard all afternoon, gathering wood for the fire and stoking it when the flames died down. She cringed unhappily every time Kip reprimanded her - which was often - and it just made me hate him more. Kissy and Kip clearly weren’t the best of friends, but she was still following his lead despite his doucheness. That told me that she wasn’t good at making decisions on her own. She’d follow the lead of others, but she wouldn’t be one to make a big move.
I couldn’t use her.
Ditto Alys and Saul. Despite coming from separate teams earlier, they’d formed a pretty good bond. They talked a lot, laughed a fair amount, and looked as if they enjoyed each other’s company despite the twenty-something-year age difference. That wouldn’t help me.
Leslie and Emilio bickered like an old married couple. That hadn’t been an act. And I remembered from the last game that Leslie tended to be paranoid. I wondered if she still was or if she was confident in her place now.
The shelter went up that afternoon, and someone claimed my blanket before I had a chance to protest. By the time everyone had piled into the new team shelter, it was clear to me that I was on the bottom of the pecking order. Everyone slept next to their partners.
I didn’t have one. I ended up on the edge of the shelter, hanging off the side and without my blanket.
That was fine. All I had to do was be patient, I told myself. Someone would show a crack soon enough. It was lonely, but I could deal with lonely. Lonely with a million dollars would make everything okay.
As I closed my eyes, I thought of snuggling with Jendan under the blankets in our old, cozy shelter, and had to sniff back my tears.
Maybe lonely and a million dollars wouldn’t be okay. Not if it meant I’d lost Jendan forever.
~~ *** ~~
The next day dawned cool and windy, a sure sign we were going to get a mid-afternoon storm. I gathered wood with Kissy all morning. She was a sweet lady, and I really liked her. She was just so genuinely excited to still be in the game. We avoided the subject of Kip, since I didn’t feel like talking about him, and I was pretty sure she got enough of Kip on her own time. Alys came and helped us a bit, and the others worked on fishing and reinforcing the shelter for the upcoming weather.
I didn’t talk strategy to a single person. I kept my mouth shut and listened, and remained pleasant at all times. Someone would come to me soon enough. And if they didn’t, that was a sign that I was the one going home and there’d be nothing I could do…
Except win the challenge, of course.
“We’ve got mail,” someone shouted.
Kissy and I hurried with our firewood back to the beach. Saul stood there, Kip at his side, and they were examining the note. I’d noticed that the two men had paired up immediately, and I didn’t like it. Saul plus Alys plus Kip plus Kissy equaled winning numbers. I had to break that up.
“Challenge this afternoon,” Saul announced. “Here’s what it says: Today’s Judgment challenge is simple - last one standing wins.”
“That doesn’t help us very much,” Leslie pointed out.
“Maybe they got tired of silly rhymes,” Kip said, then looked over at me thoughtfull
y.
“Maybe,” I agreed, and moved to put my wood next to the fire. “We should probably bank this if we’re heading to the challenge soon.”
Kip nodded, and to my surprise, he came and squatted next to me as I pulled a big log over the fire. “We need to talk later,” he whispered. “Post challenge. Last season, they got rid of the reward challenges and staggered Judgment with the actual vote days. We’ll have time to form a plan.”
I know that, idiot. I played last season. But I hid my dislike. “Okay. We’ll talk later.”
This ought to be good.
~~ *** ~~
Six hours later
I squatted miserably atop a pole, my arms wrapped around my legs as the rain poured down on me. My teeth chattered as lighting blasted across the sky, but I remained locked in place.
It had been hours since the challenge started. Hours, and my legs were killing me, my entire body was wet and numb with cold, but I held on.
Today’s challenge was theoretically simple; we’d gotten to the beach to see seven colored poles in the water, each one topped by a wooden disk the size of a dinner plate. Our task? Stand atop the pole until everyone else gave up.
It wasn’t so bad the first hour. My bare feet ached a little and the sun had come out, but it was do-able. Everyone was still up on their platforms while Chip lounged in a director’s chair under an umbrella and drank fruity cocktails.
After that first hour passed, though, Chip got up and pulled out a big tray. “Anyone want to jump down for some nachos?”
Kip had immediately jumped, and Saul after him. No one else had moved. We watched with watering mouths as they devoured the biggest plate of nachos I’d ever seen.
An hour later, Chip brought out cake and ice cream just as the skies clouded up and began to drizzle. At that point, Emilio and Leslie jumped. Kissy, Alys and I had to endure watching them lick their fingers and then their bowls as they moaned with delight.