Partner Games
Page 48

And who might or might not be lying about his dad being sick. I frowned at that as I offered the lip gloss to my twin. Surely he wasn’t lying about it so we’d help him win? That seemed incredibly…shady.
Then again, he also hadn’t told me if he was really in a biker club or not. I was starting to worry I knew less about Swift than I thought.
Someone in production came forward and handed us a disk. “Countdown in thirty seconds,” she said. “Don’t flip that until you get the go-ahead.”
Georgie took the disk and glanced over at me. “You ready to do this, Clemmy?”
“Let’s kick some butt,” I told her. “Only five teams left. Four away from the winner’s circle.”
She grinned.
The production assistant wandered away, her gaze on her watch. I chewed on my freshly-glossed lip, worried. I wasn’t being played, was I? I wished I had half the worldly experience Georgie did.
Then I thought about her terrible confessions and felt like a jerk. Maybe it was better to be the innocent one after all. I put my arm around Georgie’s waist and gave her an impulsive one-armed hug.
“What’s that for?”
“For being an awesome sister and racing with me.”
For a moment she looked surprised, and her eyes gleamed. Then she nudged me with her elbow. “You bitch. Don’t make me cry or I’m going to have runny mascara on camera.”
“Five seconds,” Production bellowed in our ears.
“Sorry,” I said meekly. Not sorry, though. I loved my twin, and I was glad we were here together, on the race.
Production waved at us, and the cameras all started rolling at the same time. We were a go. I looked at Georgie and smiled, and she gave an excited wiggle and flipped over the disk.
I peered over her shoulder, even though I couldn’t read the writing without my glasses. “What’s it say?”
“Make your way to Huangshan, China,” Georgie read. “Look for the Hot Springs in the Yellow Mountain Tourist Area and there you will find your next clue. On this leg of the race, the two teams to arrive last to the mat will be eliminated once again. Also on this leg of the race, there is a penalty challenge for one team. Be fast!”
Oh crap. Two teams eliminated again, and the guys were at least three hours behind us?
This was not good.
 
 
Chapter Thirty-One
 

“Oh look, it’s just us, being royally screwed all over again. I swear this game is rigged.” – Swift, Team One Percent, The World Races  
 
“The next flight to Tunxi is not until seven AM tomorrow?” I repeated, not sure I was hearing correctly.
The woman at the travel agency nodded and turned her computer monitor so we could see the flight. “You will leave Agadir at seven in the morning and it is a four hour flight to Orly airport. From there, you will need to go to Charles De Gaulle airport and take a flight to Guangzhou. That flight leaves Charles De Gaulle just before midnight, and you will arrive in Guangzhou at about five PM the next day.” Her pen tapped the screen and pointed to the next line. “From there, you will fly from Guangzhou to Tunxhi, which is a very short flight. Two hours.”
“So two layovers and lots of hours in the air.” Georgie’s eyes crossed and she looked at me.
I scooted forward on the edge of my seat. “There’s nothing sooner?”
The travel agent frowned at my question. “There are different flights of course, but they have more connections. Do you want more connections?”
“No,” Georgie said quickly. “We want fast.”
“This is fastest,” the agent said with a nod.
“That means we’re all going to be on the same flight,” I murmured to my twin.
Georgie sighed. “So much for our lead.”
“Yeah,” I said, and did my best to sound glum, but the truth was…I was kinda stoked. This would give Swift and Plate a chance to catch up. Granted, it would also give the Green Machine the chance to catch up, too, but we couldn’t do anything about that.
We booked our tickets – in separate rows, because the flight was pretty full – and headed off to the airport. “Man, I’m so bummed that our lead is disappearing,” Georgie said.
“Me too.”
She snorted. “Girl, please. I thought you were going to jump out of your chair with excitement when you heard we were all going to be on the same flight. I’m your twin. You can’t lie to me.”
I could feel a hot blush on my cheeks. “Um, well, there are worse things?”
“Yeah, like potentially being stuck on a fifteen hour flight seated next to Drew or Foster?”
There was that.
 
~~ * * * ~~
 
Team by team, people trickled in to the Agadir airport, and we compared seats on the final leg for when we’d arrive in Huangshan. Well, that is, we compared seats with the Black team and the Orange team. Jendan and Annabelle were at the very back of the flight, which was depressing. I was near the front and Georgie was somewhere in the middle. Plate was also in the middle, in the front half and Swift in the back half.
The Green Machine and the Red Hat ladies deliberately sat away from us at the gate, their heads down and talking amongst themselves. No doubt they were strategizing against us.
I sat between Swift and Georgie on a row of seats, and I nudged both of them when the Green Team leaned in to whisper at the Red Hat ladies again. “Should we be talking strategy too?”
Georgie glanced over at me. She was drawing another penis on Plate’s fluorescent cast. “About what?”
“About the penalty task that’s going to be on this next leg?”
Swift’s arm was over the back of my chair, and he toyed with one of my braids. “Do you have a strategy to share?”
“Well…no.”
“Yo, how are we gonna talk strategy if we don’t know who gets the penalty? I mean, do we vote on it? Is it for the team that comes in last?”
“Well, penalizing the team in last doesn’t really make much sense,” I commented, tapping on my lip with my forefinger. “So it’s either got to be random or a vote.”
“It’ll be whatever creates the most drama,” Annabelle said with a knowing nod. She was stretched out on the floor, her head resting on Jendan’s thigh as we waited for our plane to arrive. “You mark my words. If they could have us hop around on one leg, naked, and it would increase ratings? They’d do it.”
I was horrified at the thought. She was probably right, though. They’d made everyone play Endurance Island naked on her season. “God, I really hope not.”
“Me too,” said Plate. “I’m behind on my manscaping.”
Swift snorted. A giggle escaped me.
“It’ll be fine, Tiny,” Swift said, leaning in and whispering in my ear. “You worry too much.”
Of course I worried. Only three teams out of the five left were going to move forward. Things were getting awfully close. And Annabelle’s comment made me wonder at the penalty. Ideally, I was hoping for a Red Hat and Green Machine fourth and fifth place finish…but that wouldn’t be good for ratings, would it? It was in the producers best interest to keep at least one of those teams around to be the villain.