A moment later, the results pop onto the screen.
“No.” My hands scrub through my frizzy hair when I see yet another X. This time, Colton and I have switched. While I chose a monetary reward, he chose the food reward.
But when I look at the other team’s results, I’m slightly relieved that two additional teams have struck out in this round. Both Legend and Silver and Joseph and Tyrone’s choices weren’t matching either. However, Bill and Maria both chose the safetyreward, making them the first team to tap out of this challenge and solidify themselves as competitors in the final Mayday Challenge ofSunsets and Sabotage.
Seeing Bill and Maria choose the safety reward so soon makes me second-guess my game plan. Maybe I should choose the safety reward in the upcoming round. But there are still so many rewards to get and three teams left in the challenge. It still feels relatively low risk to keep seeking food and monetary rewards. But what if it’s not?
I feel debilitated by indecision when Niall starts to introduce the rewards for round three, but as soon as the food reward comes out of the PA system, I know exactly what I’m choosing. Tossing my overthinking tactic out the window, I slap my hand over the food icon.
For round three, the food reward is any food item of your choosing. I don’t know if I’m delusional or if I’ve just been in the sun for too long lately, but an image of dancing steak fries flits into my mind. Each fry is wearing adorable little tap shoes and matching bow ties, holding black canes that they flick about while doing a song and dance next to a vat of creamy ranch.
Please, Colton, please.
My dancing French fries get twenty-four seconds of mental airtime before the timer runs out and I hear the happiest ding followed by a bright green check mark.
“Yes.” I pump both fists into the air, slamming them right into the roof of the cockpit. “Ow. Yes. We did it.” I cheer once more, shaking out the pain in my fingers. That’s when I notice that Silver and Legend have both chosen the safety reward. My stomach bottoms out. Already? They’ve tapped out already? With them and Bill and Maria safe, that means there’s only one spot in the finals left.
My eyes zip across the columns, finding Joseph and Tyrone’s results, and to my great relief, I see they’re still in this challenge. While Joseph chose safety, Tyrone chose food.
The PA system starts up again, and I don’t even listen to the rewards. All I can think about is one thing: safety. So when the options pop up, I press the house icon. The seconds tick down in slow motion; all the while, I can’t stop repeating the wordschoose safety, choose safetyas if somehow Colton will hear it despite the distance that separates us. Because if Joseph and Tyrone both choose safety this round and Colton and I don’t—then we’re eliminated. Done for good.
A crunch sounds throughout the cockpit, breaking my concentration from the slowly turning seconds. I look down, realizing I’ve split open my bracelet in my nervousness. Without thought, I tear the bracelet into tiny pieces as I count down the last few seconds. 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 …
And then the screen goes blank.
Chapter 22
MISSY
· DAY 16 ·
“What’s happening?” I say to the screen in the cockpit that is no longer showing a clock or reward icons, but is now as transparent as glass. My heart beats frantically with what I don’t know. Did Colton and I both pick safety? Did we win? Did we lose? “Hello?”
Just then, the PA system crackles to life, and Niall’s voice comes through the speaker once more. “Congratulations to the following three teams.”
My heart jumps to my throat.Please say Team Teal. Please say Team Teal.I’m fresh out of bracelets to squeeze the life out of, so instead, I grip the leather edges of my seat, letting my nailssink in. “Team Amber, Team Fuchsia … and Team Teal. You have made it to the finals ofSunsets and Sabotage.”
I’m so happy I think I’ve grown wings, because suddenly, I’m floating out of the cockpit and embracing Simon with a giddy hug. “We’re in the finals! Can you believe it? We’re in the finals!”
I let out a squeal, then take off for base camp, flying through a forest of twining roots and leafy branches, certain that not even my sore foot can bring me down at this moment.
Somewhere during my run through the jungle, I register that Team Lime has been eliminated. And while Tyrone did try to sabotage us yesterday when he attempted to get Colton off the pole in the ocean, I know without a doubt that I’m going to miss him and Joseph.
By the time I spot bits of base camp through the treeline, my heart is a strange mix of excitement and loss, realizing that I will never see Team Lime on that beach again. I’ll never hear Joseph as he wakes up at the crack of dawn to go for his morning swim before getting a fire started for breakfast at precisely 7:15 a.m. And I’m going to miss Tyrone’s infectious woodpecker laugh and the way he turns everything into a comedy show.
I feel the shift of environment beneath my feet, my shoes graduating from the hard dirt path and melting into the grainy sand. I look down the stretch of familiar beach and find that my drone and I are the only ones here since Simon parted with me several minutes ago to return to wherever the staff comes from.
Then I see a tall, handsome figure step out of the jungle near the airplane. Just the sight of Colton skyrockets my excitement back up to a hundred.
“Missy Jean!” Colton starts running toward me, his smile beaming, and I can’t help it—I frolic. Yes, frolic, because there is no other way to describe the giddy run-bounce I’m doing as I meet Colton, matching his wide smile with my own. Without thinking, I leap into his embrace, my arms wrapping tightlyaround his neck. His strong arms encircle the small of my back, lifting me off the ground.
“We did it!” he says with all the excitement I feel.
“We did it!” My happiness spills into laughter. “I can’t believe it. That really happened.”
His warm laugh fills my ear as he eases me to the ground. My shoes sink into the sand once more, but our arms remain around one another, our breath mingling.
I feel the moment come. The moment where two friends would let go of one another—but daring to hope, I let it pass, not moving. My eyes find Colton’s. Suddenly I’m swallowed whole in his electric blue gaze. The way he looks at me makes me feel as transparent as glass—like he’s seeing all of me. My fears, my hopes, my flaws, and yet, he pulls me closer.
