I sat up in my bed and went downstairs for breakfast. Everyone was already arranged at the table. I saw an empty seat with food sitting in front of it. It must have been mine.
I sat down and started eating... grits and toast. They never had any five-star meals here, just simple ones, but they tasted ten times better than any other food.
“Good morning Taylor,” Andrew said.
“Morning,” I said, playing around with my food, not very hungry.
“Sleep well last night?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” I said. “Weird dreams though.”
“Like what?” he said.
“Like, if I accidentally picked up an X yesterday, and I had this weird dream where I woke up and went downstairs to eat cheese and crackers. I was with someone but I forgot.”
“Oh... well, you didn't lose and you were in your bedroom all night,” Andrew said. “Nothing to worry about.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“My bedroom is right by the kitchen, and I didn't sleep well, but I also didn't hear anyone come downstairs.”
“Yeah, I didn't think anything happened,” I said.
“So we need to practice more today,” Zinnia said.
“Why do we practice all the time? It's just practice, practice, practice. We don't even know what we're practicing for,” Jasmine said.
“That doesn't mean we should stop practicing,” Zinnia said.
“It's different every year,” Jasmine objected.
“Whatever. If you want to die because you didn't practice for whatever they are going to throw at us, then so be it,” Zinnia said, walking away with her plate.
I sighed. There was too much drama for my liking.
“What do you want us to practice today, Zinnia?” I asked, and Zinnia stopped in her tracks.
“We need to improve what we are already good at,” Zinnia replied.
“Like..?”
“Hm.. I don't know. You're good at rollerskating, aren't you?”
I shrugged. “Better at it than most people, I guess.”
“That's good enough – go find Jackson and ask for some rollerskates. I'll work with you one-on-one, since obviously these lazy people unconcerned for their lives are going to sit around all day,” replied Zinnia.
“Stop insulting people because they don't want to practice something they will never need to do,” Andrew said, calmly yet firmly.
Zinnia shrugged her shoulders and said, “What? It's true.”
“Besides, no one put you in charge – if anyone should be in charge, it's Andrew, since he's the oldest,” Phillip added. “Plus, Taylor is probably much better at rollerskating than you – if anyone should be teaching rollerskating, it's her.”
I blushed at the compliment, but decided to defend Zinnia. “Her brother won; she knows way more than any of you do about this game.”
“Whatever, why should we care? Stuck-up Zinnia and cruel Taylor can go learn about yet another useless talent,” said Jasmine.
“Rollerskating is not a 'useless talent' you–”
Andrew cut me off, saying, “Jasmine, Taylor, settle down.” His voice was on the brink of anger.
My eyes glared, I turned away. Zinnia put her hand on my back and we headed off to find Jackson for some rollerskates.
YOU ARE READING
Eliminated
Random“The Eliminated. The game that goes on every two years. There are two teams, and five people in each team, with a total of ten contestants. These teams go against each other in a series of odd challenges. You don't know the challenges unless you're...
