Bedroom Games (16 page)

As I slowly drank the shake, Jayme continued
to call out ingredients, delighted at our reactions. The list was
horrific: cottage cheese, butter, cat food, horseradish, raw egg,
beer, sardines, pickles, caramel, duck liver pate, and caviar.

When they mentioned caviar, Marla made a
choked noise of distress and put down her shake then ran off the
stage. She was out.

“Next ingredient, jalapenos,” Jayme called
after her. Fido laughed.

At my side, Brodie burped. I looked over just
in time to see him wipe his mouth and set his now-empty glass down.
He was done.

“Good job,” Jayme called, and she and Fido
clapped. “Brodie’s the first one finished. Anyone else?”

“Still drinking,” Sunnie said
breathlessly.

I nodded, grimacing around my latest
swallow.

“You guys have two minutes
left,” Jayme said. “Which brings me to the next
ingredient…
escargot
.”

My stomach heaved. Snails?

Bugs?

God, I
hated
bugs.

“Come on,” Brodie murmured. “You can do it,
Kandis. You’re over halfway through. Don’t think, just drink.”

My mind was picturing slimy little snails,
though, leaving mucus trails up and down the inside of my glass. I
had to pause, breathing hard.

Next to me, Sunnie put down her glass and
wiped the corners of her mouth delicately. “Done.”

I was the last one.

“Molasses,” Jayme called out.

“See, that’s not so bad,” Brodie encouraged.
“Just chug the rest and think of molasses, Kandis. If I can drink
it, you can, too.”

I nodded, breathing deeply. Chug. I could
chug. I could do this. I already had half of the snail soup in my
stomach. What was a bit more? I pinched my nose hard and lifted the
glass of chunky, greasy pink garbage to my mouth and took another
big mouthful.

“Shrimp,” Jayme called out.

Immediately, everything in my mouth tasted
like shrimp. Liquid shrimp. It was not a good taste. I squeezed my
eyes shut, valiantly trying to swallow. It wouldn’t go down. I had
to stroke my throat to try and encourage it to behave.

A long, tense moment passed, and there was
nothing but silence. Everyone was watching to see if I’d finish
drinking. I was starting to doubt if I could. I still had a third
of my glass left and my stomach was starting to churn
painfully.

“Thirty seconds left,” Jayme called.

“Come on, Kandis. You’ve come this far,”
Brodie encouraged. “Hurry up and drink. You can do this. I know you
can.”

I nodded, eyeing the rest of the drink.
Thirty seconds to swallow what was left. I took a big mouthful,
tipping the glass back to get the rest of it in my mouth, and
shuddered when a big clump of thicker stuff slid in after the rest.
Grimacing and gagging, I somehow managed to get that last mouthful
down.

My glass thumped to the table just as the
stopwatch beeped.

“All right,” Jayme said. “Kandis, Brodie, and
Sunnie all go to the next round. I’ll give you guys a moment to
recover.”

“Can we go throw up?” Sunnie asked in a small
voice.

Jayme shrugged. “Doesn’t say anything against
it in the rules here.”

“Oh, good,” I breathed. Sunnie and I both
raced to the bathroom, entering just as Marla was leaving.

Five horrible minutes later, we’d both puked
out guts out, rinsed our mouths, and returned to the challenge
area. Brodie was sitting off to the side, chatting with the others,
seemingly unfazed by the awful milkshake we’d just drank.

Sunnie, Brodie, and I lined up for the next
challenge. I winced when Fido spun the wheel again, watching the
colored panels spin past. I noticed that the milkshake panel was
still up, and cringed at the thought of getting that challenge
again.

To my intense relief, the spinner landed on a
blue panel. Fido removed the question mark and announced the word
underneath. “Makeover.”

“Uh oh,” Brodie said with a laugh. “The girls
aren’t going to like this.”

He was right about that. I was already
frowning. They were going to do their best to make us look heinous
on TV, weren’t they? But I’d suck it up and deal with it. Even if I
had to wear clown makeup all day, I could do that if it got me one
step closer to Power.

“Don’t you worry about us,” Sunnie said in a
determined voice. “I’m going to win this. It’s my turn to nominate
someone and that person can see how it feels to have a turn in the
chair.”

And she looked right at me.

All right, then. It was clear she was going
to hold a grudge, and that grudge was going to have my name all
over it. Realizing that Sunnie was out to get me upped my
determination. I’d just have to win this round to ensure that I was
safe.

Jayme went to the blue table and picked up
the card there and then read the instructions aloud. “Makeover
booths have been set up in the back of the challenge area. When I
say go, you will each go to a booth and complete the makeover look
there with the materials provided. You will have five minutes to
complete the makeover. If you do not complete it, you will not move
on to the next round.”

We nodded.

“Everyone ready? Okay then…go!”

The three of us raced for the booths at the
far end of the challenge area. I approached mine and pulled back
the bright blue curtain, noticing there was a big door on the other
side—this was the same soundproof booth I’d been in when the show
started. I stepped inside and closed the door. The back wall was a
mirror, and a camera was planted in one corner of the booth. On the
desk in front of me was a folder labeled “MAKEOVER INSTRUCTIONS”
and a box to the right of it.

I opened the folder…and gasped.

The picture was of a woman, seated. Her hair
was a mohawk.

No
way
.

Frantic, I opened the box to the right of the
picture. Inside was an electric shaver, a pair of scissors and a
bottle of hair gel.

I stared at the mirror and at my long, dark
waves of hair. It reached the middle of my back. It had taken years
to grow it out this long, and now they wanted me to cut it?

I could refuse. Walk out of the booth at the
end of the five minutes and take my seat with the others. Jendan
hadn’t tried the milkshake, after all.

But Sunnie wanted to win, and she wanted to
put me up for eviction. I knew that if I went up on the block, I’d
be the one going home.

I eyed the picture one more time. It was a
thick mohawk, at least. The entire top of the girl’s head was long
hair, but the sides were completely shaven. At least one part of my
hair would remain long. Well, long-ish.

I picked up the electric razor and stared at
it unhappily. If I didn’t cut my hair, would it cost me the million
dollars? It was just hair, right? Vanity wasn’t worth the price of
going home, was it?

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Mom, I’m doing this
for you.”

And I turned on the razor.

Five minutes later, I emerged from the booth,
still in shock. My long hair lay on the bottom of the booth. The
hair on my head was shaved against my scalp on the sides, and the
top was a handspan long. I’d spiked it with the hair gel and dug my
fingernails into my palms to keep from crying at how awful my
reflection looked. The only thing that kept me going was the
thought of how Sunnie would look with a mohawk. The celebutante had
to be upset over cutting her own long hair.

Gasps filled the air as I stepped out with my
new haircut, and I gave the bench a thin smile. Jendan was clapping
for me, grinning. Marla and Jayme looked shocked, and Fido looked
like he wanted to laugh.

The booth next to me opened, and Brodie
stepped out, his hair spiked into a shorter version of the mohawk.
It actually didn’t look all that different from his normal haircut,
which he kept short on the sides anyhow. His would grow out in
time. But he threw a pair of devil-horns in the air and headbanged
like he’d done something incredible and then turned to high-five
me.

I gave him the world’s limpest high five
back. At least I was still in this competition.

The third booth opened, and Sunnie stepped
out.

Her long red hair was intact.

I frowned, my hands going to my hips. “You’ve
got to be kidding me.”

“It looks like Sunnie has bailed out of the
competition,” Jayme announced. “Please have a seat with the other
losers.”

She gave a toss of her hair. “I refuse to
look ugly on national TV. Sorry.”

I flinched at her words and resisted the urge
to touch my hair. That little liar. She’d said she would do
anything to win. Guess not. I looked over at Brodie.

He winked at me and gave me a thumbs-up.

I was glad one of us was feeling good about
how things were going.

“This competition is down to Brodie and
Kandis,” Jayme announced. “They will go head to head in the next
round, and the winner gets the Power Play for the week!” She gave a
flourish of her hand. “Spin that wheel, Fido!”

He spun, and I crossed my
fingers, hard. I didn’t think I could take another makeover. Or
another milkshake. I held my breath, watching as the wheel slowly
spun around.
Please be an obstacle course
of some kind. I can do that.

The wheel landed on purple. Fido lifted the
card and read. “Make your momma proud.”

Jayme went over to the purple table and
picked up the card there. “This challenge is both easy and
difficult,” she read. “It’s easy, because all you have to do is
tear off all your clothes and streak across the challenge area
naked. It’s difficult, because it involves being naked! But if you
do it, you’ll win the Power Play. You both have five minutes to
complete this challenge. And don’t worry—any naked bits will be
blurred out for national TV. Ready?” She clicked the stopwatch.
“Go!”

I stood there, my jaw hanging slightly open.
Sunnie smirked at me from the sidelines. Of course she was
smirking. Not only did she have a full head of hair, but she wasn’t
going to have to get naked on national TV. I looked over at Brodie,
but he hadn’t moved a muscle yet. He was watching me, his gaze
curious.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “What if we
both refuse to do this?”

“Then we all start over,” Jayme said.
“Everyone re-enters the competition.”

“Fuck that,” Brodie said, and began to strip
off his athletic shorts.

The others laughed, cheering and clapping,
encouraging him on. I remained frozen in place. Brodie was going to
do it to ensure one of us would win. If I took off all my clothes
and streaked, I’d get to go on to the next round. And then what?
More milkshakes? Shave my head completely bald? Do a naked dance? I
shuddered.

My hands went to the hem of my shirt and…I
stopped. I couldn’t do it. I swallowed hard, feeling sick all over
again even though my stomach was empty.

I’d come this far. Could I strip to win?

I looked over. Brodie was down to his
underwear, his clothing pooled around his feet. He put his hands on
the waistband of his boxers and then paused, glancing over at
me.

Waiting to see if I was going to do it.

“I can’t,” I murmured
thickly.
I’m sorry, Mom
. “I can’t get naked on national TV.”

“I can,” Brodie announced.

Down went his boxers.

~~ * ~~

We’d drawn straws to see who’d end up in what
rooms since we were down to seven contestants. Brodie had the Power
room, of course. Marla and Jendan had taken the Queen room, and
Sunnie offered to pile into the Mirror room with Jayme and Fido
because she was scared to sleep in the Attic room by herself. We
weren’t in pairs anymore, but people felt comfortable with their
partners.

Brodie was practically doing flips with
excitement as he waited to get the key. There was always a delay in
the passing of the key from one team to another, as crews moved in
to clean the room between occupants and filled it with personal
items that the winning cast member would enjoy. So he waited in the
living room, chatting with the others enthusiastically and laughing
at some of the jokes Fido was telling.

I wasn’t feeling particularly social, though.
As we waited for a room, I grabbed my bag, stuffed full of my
things, and headed to the bathrooms to see if anything could be
done with my hair.

I refuse to look ugly on
national TV
, Sunnie had said.

I showered to wash the stiff gel out of my
hair, changed into my favorite yoga pants and a sloppy t-shirt, and
then played with my wet hair. If I brushed it all to one side, it
didn’t look like a mohawk so much. Mostly like it was shaved on one
side and then just long on the other. It made my face look long and
skinny, though.

I hated it. I’d loved my long hair.

And I’d cut it all for nothing. I hadn’t even
won the challenge.

“Got the keys,” Brodie called out to me from
the living room. “Come on, Kandis!”

Giving my horrible hair one last unhappy look
in the mirror, I shouldered my bag and headed back out to the
others, trying to mask my misery.

Everyone was heading up the stairs to check
out Brodie’s room, so I followed them up silently. I hung in the
back as everyone crowded in, admiring the decor. The room was
switched up depending on who won, and the room today was set up in
a 70s psychedelic funk. A thick white faux-fur carpet was on the
ground, and an enormous bed filled the center of the room. Black
light posters hung on the walls, and lava lamps were on each
dresser. Ropes of beads hung in the doorway from the bedroom to the
private bathroom. A mini-fridge complete with a basket of food was
in one corner.