The New Champion (14 page)

“So I guess they taught you to wave in pageant land but not to throw,” said Jig.

“Oh, I can throw kisses with the best of them.”

“Show me how you do that,” he said.

Dacey put her hand on her hip. “I get the point. You can stop teasin' me.”

“No teasing,” said Jig. “I'm gonna use that to teach you how to throw.”

“Fine.” Dacey put her hand to her mouth, then flung it toward the heavens.

“Good. Good,” said Jig. “Same motion, but just the reverse. Hold the ball to the outside of your body, then do the kissing motion forward.”

Dacey tried, but the ball sailed way to the left.

Jig stood next to her. “You have distance, and I have a new tactic. Use your normal kiss-throwing motion, but”—he grabbed her shoulders and turned her so her right side faced the nostril—“start with the ball at your waist, as if your lips were there; then throw that kiss.”

The ball bounced short, then sideways, then back, then it rolled and rolled and
in
!

“Do it again,” he said.

It took her three more tries, but she got it.

“You done, Estella?” said Jig.

“I took care of it while you were all watching the Dacey show.”

“Everyone!” Clio called. “Green area!”

They squeezed in. Steam poured from the nose. It let out some gasps.
“Ah-ah-ah.”
It stopped.
“Ah-choo!”
Out flew hundreds of slime-covered, acorn-sized brown balls, dodgeball style.

Dacey started retreating, but Cameron grabbed her arm and held her in the green area.

The slime balls stopped coming. Now what? Nothing came. No clue, no lights, no noises, no nothing.

“Bless you?” Clio said to the nose.

Out shot some boxes of tissues.

“Don't tell me we need to wipe the slime balls,” Estella said. “I wipe enough boogery noses at home.” She pulled out a hunk of tissues and wiped one ball down anyway.

Cameron followed her lead. So gross, but underneath the slime? Words.

I
f they needed every slime ball for the next puzzle, they'd be hunting them down through Thanksgiving. All the balls they saw, though, had the same two words: “green wall.”

Three of the warehouse walls were sky blue; only the fourth was the color of grass. Without saying a word, they raced toward the front corner, then made their way along the green wall. A table near the middle had their choices: Who's There?, Things that Go Bump, and Baby Chat-a-Lot.

Bill jumped off a refrigerator.

Dacey screamed.

“Good,” said Bill. “You're awake.

“Great job on the nose, but not good enough. You picked up only thirty-one seconds. Somehow, you need to find nearly five and a half minutes or I'll be wearing my little maid outfit for a year. And that could be ugly. Now go!”

Estella opened the envelope.

 

Puzzle #4

* * * * * * * * * * *

trenchcoat bookmark window whiplash however bubbly igloo otter noodles scratchy nefarious xylophone serpent elephant trunk tickle trench hurricane eyewash frumpy artichoke femur ragamuffin hopscotch butterscotch moss projectile meanwhile end

 

“Well, this is pretty much garbage,” she said. “It's like they threw the dictionary into a shredder.”

“Only after they let a bunch of words escape,” said Clio. “Why these?”

“Isn't that the point of the puzzle?” Dacey said.

Clio took in a deep breath. “Right,” she said on exhale.

“At least
end
is at the end,” Jig said.

“Which isn't good,” said Estella. “If it weren't at the end, it might give us the tape bump.”

“The what?” Dacey had that tone in her voice again.

Cameron tensed, but Clio leaned in, ready to handle it.

“You have a roll of tape, but you can't find the end, right? Then you hold it to the light and see where to pick at it to get it going. That's the tape bump.”

Cameron liked the comparison, but Dacey's mouth was gearing up to disagree. Five minutes. They needed to make up five minutes. He needed to head her off. “You mean, a clue,” he said. “Like how the first two words are compound words. So are some of the others.” He'd already thrown away that idea, but anything to stop the sniping.

Estella nodded.

“So, compound words,” said Dacey. “That's our tape bump?”

If he said no, she'd probably yell at him for throwing out a lame idea. “Um, well . . .”

“So that's a no,” she said.

“Pretty much.”

“Then why—”

Clio took a step toward her. “It's called brainstorming, Dacey. And now we know: no compound words. No definitions, either. Too many words to connect. They wouldn't do that.”

“They can be mean,” said Dacey.

“Not that mean.”

Not counting the ongoing crackle of tension, it was quiet. Even so, Cameron wanted to find that cave and buy himself some space to find the tape bump.

“Some of the words look connected,” Estella said, apparently ignoring the tension. “
Window
and
whiplash
both start with
W
.”

“And?”

“I wasn't finished, Dacey, because there's
elephant trunk
, which is a term. And
hurricane eyewash
. And before you say anything, I know hurricanes don't wash their eyes. All I'm saying, there's such a thing as a hurricane eye, and it's interesting how those words are in that order. Also
hopscotch
and
butterscotch
, both end the same. And
projectile
and
meanwhile
.”

“But what does that mean?” Dacey asked.

“I'm just throwing it out there. Isn't that what we do?”

“Fine.”

There was something in what Estella just said. Cameron wiggled his fingers in the air as if he could almost feel a bump.

“Twenty-nine words,” said Jig.

“Huh?” Estella said.

“There're twenty-nine words in this puzzle. None of the choices have that many letters, but like the last puzzle, all the letters of all our choices appear in order.”

“They wouldn't do that again,” Clio said. “That's not how they work.”

“Unless it is,” said Dacey. “What if they're trying to throw us off?”

Clio gave a small nod. “Possible.”

It was possible. At least it was a place to start. First on the table: Who's There? All the letters in order. There were two
W
's in
window
, then a third, immediately, in
whiplash
, which had two
H
's. And the second
H
butted up to the
H
in
however
. He put his index finger near the adjoining
W
's and his middle finger on the neighboring
H
's.
O
's next. It was swimming with them:
bookmark
, then
igloo otter noodles
. Two together, three in a row, then two more. But the choices had only one
O
each.

“Hmm,” he said, or breathed, really. “Could be two letters together, just not—”

“Don't get all quiet on me,” said Clio. “What are you thinking?”

He turned to her. “It's—”

“No,” she said. “Faster if you say it to everyone.”

They were all looking at him.

“I'm not sure if I'll make sense and—”

“Just spit it out,” said Dacey.

“Double letters. There are all these double letters.”

He pulled the puzzle toward him.

 

trenchcoat bookmark window whiplash however
bubbly igloo otter noodles scratchy nefarious xylophone serpent elephant trunk tickle trench hurricane eyewash frumpy artichoke femur
ragamuffin hopscotch butterscotch moss
projectile meanwhile end

 

“It's almost like double letters in this list spell out a choice, but there are too many double
O
's. Even a triple
O
.”

Silence. They kept looking at him.

“Explain,” Jig said.

“I keep wanting to use double letters to spell the name of, say, Who's There?” said Cameron. “First letter,
W
.
Window
ends in a
W
, and
whiplash
starts with a
W
. So two
W
's together. But that means we've already thrown away the first set of double letters, the
O
's in
bookmark
, and none of our choices start with
O
.”

A pair of arms had him in a headlock. But it wasn't Spencer. It was Jig. “You got it.”

“But—”

“Forget all the double letters. It's when one letter ends a word and the same letter starts the next one.
Those
letters spell out
this
!” Jig bonked Cameron's head with Who's There?, then opened the box.

None of the game's pieces were inside; just small, black boxes, each with a single button in its center. Remotes. At least that's what they looked like. Also a small card:

 

Stunt #4

* * * * * * * * * * *

Point your signalers to the top of the green wall. Press your buttons at the exact same time (or as exact as humanly possible). You'll know if you weren't exact enough. No penalty for trying again, unless you count the time you wasted. Go!

 

Jig handed out the signalers. “On three. One, two, three!”

They pressed, but nothing happened.

“Again,” said Jig. “One, two, three!”

Nothing.

“Who's not pressing at the same time?” he said.

“Here!” said Clio.

“Then get it right,” Dacey said.

“No. Here on the back. There's an arrow! Find your arrow, and point it toward the ceiling. One, two, three!”

The green wall started parting in the middle, slowly, spotlights swirling overhead, revealing behind it a glimpse of yellow and orange and—

“It's the Rainbow Maze!” said Jig. “They let me try it last year. It's incredible, it's fierce, it's—”

Estella gasped. “It's the pig.”

Behind the wall stood a guy.

Estella turned to Clio. “What's he doing here? Stephen. My ex-boyfriend.” She reached over and dug her nails into Cameron's arm. “Oh my gosh! He's my person. When they interviewed us, who we didn't want to compete against . . .” She shook her head and let go. “Why didn't I put my best friend?”

Lined up behind him were two girls and then . . .

Cameron felt a little ill. “It's my brother Spencer. He does not lose.”

Before the wall finished opening, a voice came from nowhere. “You have three free minutes to greet your visitors. Your game clock will pause, starting . . . now!”

Spencer ran up and thumped him on the back. “Your team's losing, dude.”

“Why do you have to rub it in?”

“Because I'm so good at it.” Spencer grinned. “So what are you gonna do about it?”

“I don't know. It's hard with . . .” Cameron looked in Dacey's direction.

She was all smiles around her person, her very beautiful, very tall person.

“Dude. Just deal with Dacey,” said Spencer. “Clio is.”

Clio was jumping around with her friend, and she'd included Estella with them. The ex-boyfriend was standing by himself, tapping the shell of the four-foot ladybug.

“So, when did you find out about this?” Cameron asked Spencer.

“They told me and Clio's friend this morning after you left us. The other three jokers found out yesterday and had private planes pick them up. Lucky.” Spencer shook his head. “Hey, what do you think about him?”

“Who?”

Spencer turned Cameron's head toward Jig and his person.

“I've seen that smirk somewhere before,” Cameron said. “Holy cow!”

Spencer laughed. “Can you believe Golly had the guts to bring back the cheater?”

Jig and Rocky Titus were heading straight toward them, laughing over something.

It got Dacey's attention, too. She looked straight at Jig. “Why him?”

“Because I'm me,” said Rocky.

“Meet Rocky. Toughest competitor I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot.”

“Not tougher than mine.” Dacey switched on a smile and reached out to the tall girl. “Meet Laura Ramirez, ultimate pageant queen and my competition again, it appears.”

“I'm Spencer. Cameron's my brother.”

“And this,” Clio said, “is my best friend, Janae. Whatever I don't know, she does. Whatever I can't do, she can.”

Estella shook her head. “That, over there, is Stephen and—”

“You have twenty seconds,” the voice said.

“And,” said Clio to Estella, “you were saved by the voice.”

Their little circle started breaking up, the Blue Team backing a bit toward one side, the new people toward the other.

“Three, two, one, and start!”

The giant ladybug buzzed, sending Stephen stumbling way back. One of the ladybug's legs came forward with a big envelope: “STUNT #4.”

Clio took the envelope, slid her finger under the flap, and winced. Blood was already rising from the paper cut, but she pulled out the card and read out loud:

 

Who's There?

Now you see who's here!

It's a face-off between each pair.

One-on-one combat.

Your challenge will begin in
3 minutes.

WHERE:
You'll find ten computer monitors farther down the wall.

HOW TO PLAY:
Your monitors will show a sea of faces. Study them. After 30 seconds they will disappear; then, one at a time, 5 faces will appear. For each face, answer yes or no: Did you see that person in the group picture?