“Today, our three teams will be competing against our new interns in everyone’s favorite test of endurance, mental fortitude, strength, and most of all, teamwork!”
The crowds cheered.
“The winners,” Max said into the microphone, gaining everyone’s silence and rapt attention, “will each receive honor and the ability to call themselves champions!”
“That’s it?” Mark said under his breath.
“Oh!” Max laughed. “And did I forget to mention? Two brand new cars courtesy of Reid Emory. His donation’s a favorite every year. God, I love my brother, unless he’s being a jackass, which is at least half the time, thus me forcing him to donate cars every year.” He grinned. “But I digress. If our interns win, they will both be awarded a whopping hundred points. If they lose and also fail to understand the true meaning of teamwork…points will be retracted from their overall score, and they’ll be headed to the losers’ room for the evening.”
“Losers’ room?” I hissed. “What the hell is the losers’ room?”
“We are literally primed to lose!” Mark added. “I don’t take steroids, which already puts those idiots at an advantage.”
“There will be a judge at each station, enjoy your mile trek through the land of Sparta, and remember, only the smart survive.”
“We’re smart,” I encouraged. “We’ve got this.”
“I hate my truck.”
“I hate my car.”
We looked at each other, high-fived, and walked toward the start line.
Max held up a horn and counted. “Three, two, one, go!”
I charged ahead and then realized that Mark’s shoe was untied and nearly killed him on the spot as I yelled his name. “Mark, hurry!”
“Sorry!” He ran after me as we caught up to the rest of the group.
“Do you see the first challenge?” he called.
I blinked over at where the contestants stopped in front of a large target.
“Hatchet throwing!” Mark came up behind me. “Let me start; I practiced this in college.”
“For what reason?” I yelled.
“Um, fun?” He threw the first, hitting a direct bull’s-eye.
The judges kept yelling, “Three hits and run on.”
“Also, they had cheap beer.”
“There it is.” I crossed my arms as he threw the third one.
Direct hit.
We were already past two teams when we came to an entire pool full of mud.
“Go through the mud!” a judge yelled. “The only way out is in!”
“Off we go!” I jumped in, and Mark followed as our clothes started to drag off of us. In an effort to get the heavy weight away from my body, I dumped my shirt, only keeping on my sports bra.
“Damn.”
“Do not get distracted!” I yelled behind me.
“No, not that,” Mark yelled again. “That!”
He pointed to a giant rope ladder with a pool on the other side that looked like you had to jump into once you reached the top.
“That’s twenty feet!” I screeched.
“What? Can’t swim?” he teased.
The other two teams were gaining on us. “Come on!” I reached for his hand as we started climbing the ladder, using our speed against the strong ones who seemed to be gassing really early.
Mark reached the top first and held down his hand. I took it and wobbled on top, looking down, ready to pass out.
“Hey, hey,” Mark whispered so only I could hear. “You’ve got this. You’ve been wanting to drown me for years. Think of failing this as a missed opportunity.”
“Well, now that you say—”
He gave me a little shove, and off I went from the platform into the deep water. From the splash as I pushed to the surface, Mark had followed.
I didn’t have any time to follow through on my threat, but the minute we got back to the apartment I was turning on the bathtub and shoving his head under the water until his legs stopped moving.
“Come on.” Mark swam across to the other side and reached back to help me as I threw my wet body over the pool and nearly collapsed to the ground. “Almost there.”
“I hope so.” Pulling air into my lungs was getting difficult as we raced along a dark dirt road lit with torches.
Finally, we got to the end, where it said Finish Line.
“Thank God.”
I spoke too soon.
Without any warning, several men came out of the clearing, wearing the freakiest masks I’d ever seen in real life. They were clowns and monsters; it was like Halloween come to life and the most random thing I’d ever seen.
“Mental fortitude,” Mark cursed. “They’re blocking the finish line, which means we need a way to get around them.”
“Are you sure?”
“If we go through them, they catch us, and the others go past us.” He started looking around wildly and then grabbed my hand as we raced into the woods where there was a clearing and then a giant tree with a rope swing.
“Wait a minute, you want us to Tarzan into the finish line?” I screeched. “Like through the air?”
“Do you have any better idea?”
I was terrified of heights.
I didn’t want to admit it.
Couldn’t.
Then again, I mean, he’d passed out from snake meat!
Shaking, I followed him toward the tree ladder and was thankful to at least see several judges and a volunteer near the top with harnesses. Okay, so this wasn’t going to be as bad as I thought.
And then we reached the top.
Assuming we grabbed the rope, I reached for it only to have the judge shake his head, “Sorry, princess, you’re only halfway; let’s get this harness on you!”
I had no time to think.
Or cry.
I just let them put the harness and all the other gadgets on me, along with a helmet.
“You go first.” Mark pointed to the rungs that led the rest of the way up, “That way, I’m behind you, so you’re not scared.”
“I’m not scared,” I said super unconvincingly.
“Okay.” He shot me a sweet smile. “So climb.”
I forced a smile back and nearly slipped when my wet hands hit the rungs. Tears filled my eyes as I climbed and climbed and climbed only to reach the final
