“Oh, really? So you’re saying you’veneverseen a perfectly kind couple build an alliance only to pull out their fangs when least expected?”
Missy goes silent, proving my point, then faces me. “I’m just saying, they’re nice, is all.”
I nod. “I agree.”
“And?”
“Noand. I agree. I like them.”
Missy leans back into her seat. “Finally, we agree on something.”
Just then, Niall steps onto the platform and the cameras track his movement. Once again, he’s dressed in his familiar pilot’s shirt, except, just like the chairs, his shirt is now torn in places and speckled with dirt, as if he, too, has been fighting to survive on this island after a crash landing, when, in fact, he’s likely been in some cabana on the other side of the island doing whatever it is show hosts do when they are not hosting. And from the energy he’s exuding and the smile on his face, I bet he had more than a baby coconut to eat.
Niall does his classic opening intro and welcomes the viewers to the first live Black Box Meeting of Season Twenty-Three. He then directs our attention to the airplane wing sticking out of the main platform. The clock and rankings fade, and the screen glows to life as Niall explains to the cameras that we’ll be watching a recap of the first Mayday Challenge as well as the most pivotal moments of the game so far, just like we’ll do at the start of every Black Box Meeting.
For the next five minutes, all fourteen contestants, plus Niall, watch a boiled-down version of all that’s happened on the show. The recap does a thorough job of highlighting the crucial pieces that someone might have missed had they not been watching the twenty-four-hour live feed. We watch Teams Peach and Lime scrambling to find their oars after Heartbreaker and Tearjerker hucked them into the ocean, Bill and Maria nearly being tipped over by Team Violet’s attempt to capsize them, and Team Fuchsia planning their winning strategy. It’s all there.
I cringe when we get to the replay of me telling Missy that I’ll have her back, only for her to jump out of the boat like a glittering sea bass that couldn’t stand to be in the open aira moment longer. When I glance at Missy, she goes rigid, her knuckles whitening as she grips her teal armrest. What had I said that made her react so sharply? I thought having someone’s back was a good thing.
My attention veers back to the screen when I hear Carolyn and Juliet from Team Violet get into a heated debate on the recap. After trying and failing to row past an onslaught of waves, Juliet asked Carolyn to paddle, which resulted in them arguing over who was more suited to row. They’d lost a lot of time hashing it out in the middle of the ocean, and it seems they’d lost America’s votes that way, too.
My gaze flicks to Missy once more, and I’m surprised when I find her looking at me. Two lines appear between her eyebrows, emphasizing the worry in her hazel eyes. I wonder if we are thinking the same thing. Was our argument during the challenge last night what put us so low on the leaderboard? Missy breaks our eye contact and focuses on the screen.
I let out a breath, feeling restless until the screen switches off and Niall starts questioning teams at random about their impressions and feelings during Mayday Challenge One. Niall asks Team Violet about their argument, and both Carolyn and Juliet express regrets on how they handled the situation. Then, he asks Team Lime how they felt after Team Ruby threw their oars into the ocean. And then Niall moves to Team Fuchsia.
“Now, in less than twenty-four hours, your team has managed a huge win as well as done some stealthy sabotaging,” Niall says to Team Fuchsia, referring to the part of the recap video where Legend and Silver slithered under our bunk bed like two slippery snakes in the night and divested us of our goods. Meanwhile, Missy and I were so busy snoring our faces off, I doubt either one of us would have noticed if our backpacks had been raided by a horde of lawn mowers.
“Is there a reason you chose to take Team Teal’s supplies, or were they just the easiest team to steal from at the time?” Niall asks Legend and Silver.
Silver sends me and Missy a sly smile. “They look like a team clearly used to having it their way. The pageant queen and the rich senator’s son. It’s good for them to get a little real world experience,” she says, doing us no favors.
I can feel my lips twitch, wanting to scowl at Team Fuchsia. Silver knows exactly what she’s doing, making Missy and me look spoiled in America’s eyes. But I’ve been trained to keep my thoughts to myself and to never reveal my true emotions on camera, especially when goaded. So I don’t give Silver or Legend the satisfaction. Instead, I school my features into a passive mask.
Legend’s cool gray eyes settle on me. He’s quick to follow his sister’s taunts as he makes a show of fiddling with the Swiss Army knife he stole from our packs. “I hope you like coconuts, Future Senator.”
I wince involuntarily at the name. The wordsfuture senatordig under my skin like a needle piercing a nerve. I swallow hard, trying to cover up my agitation, but the smile in Legend’s eyes shows me he knows his arrow hit its target.
Future senator. I roll the nickname around in my mind, the one I’ve been called since my brother William, who is nine years my senior, refused to take it on. He had dug in his heels, fighting my dad at every turn. He’d wanted to become a professional snowboarder and get as far from politics as possible. On his eighteenth birthday, he and my dad got into a fight, which ended in my dad cutting him off and my brother running away for good.
I’d seen Will several times over the years. He was now a snowboard instructor up in Vail, Colorado. He lived in a small apartment with a small salary and an even smaller circle ofinfluence, something that, to my dad, looked like failure. But to me, he looked happy. Though, as much as I respect Will’s decision, I don’t want things to end with my parents as they did with Will. I want Dad to be proud of me.
My attention resurfaces when Team Peach and Team Violet are called up for the Black Box Elimination. I scoot closer to the edge of my seat as a crate full of colored blocks is brought onto set. Carolyn from Team Violet and Hugo from Team Peach are both blindfolded as the prop managers place the colored blocks from the crate in a line. Then the prop managers place two additional crates of colored blocks at the competing contestants’ feet. Once ready, both Carolyn and Hugo remove their blindfolds in tandem, and they get busy memorizing the colored pattern of blocks set before them.
After twenty seconds pass, the line of blocks is covered, and the two contestants individually try to replicate the color pattern using the blocks they’ve been given. They both scramble and rearrange their blocks in the hopes that they will match the original pattern.
Five nail-biting minutes later, Carolyn places the most colored blocks correctly, beating Hugo. In an instant, Team Peach is eliminated from the game and quickly ushered off the platform as the sun sets behind swaying trees.
And just like that, we are down to six teams.
Team Peach has barely exited the platform when Niall walks to the center of the set, standing by six metal boxes that wait atop little aluminum pedestals. “Well, folks, that was a rousing game of memory, but our eventful night is not over. It’s time to call up our winners of the first Mayday Challenge, Team Fuchsia.”
Legend and Silver both rise from their seats, their normally sinister faces tucked under big smiles as they walk toward the center of the platform to stand next to Niall.
“Team Fuchsia, the sun has set, and now it’s time for your reward. As always, you get the choice between an upgrade for your team, which will take the form of a ten-minute head start in a challenge of your choosing,oryou can choose to sabotage another team during the next Mayday Challenge.”
Unsurprisingly, Team Fuchsia chooses to sabotage another team. As a result, Niall hands Legend and Silver a laminated card that looks like one of those folded-up safety pamphlets you find shoved into the pocket of an airplane seat.
Inside the card are various methods of organized sabotage that Team Fuchsia can choose from to hinder another team in the next Mayday Challenge. Legend and Silver scan the pamphlet like they’re looking through a SkyMall magazine, shopping for revenge. They keep their expressions cool and collected as they draw out the decision process, taking the time to whisper their strategy to one another while also making pointed stares at each team, giving everyone a reason to squirm in their seats.
