Page 64 of Foes & Cons
“Is that supposed to be an insult?” She rolls her eyes. “Please.”
She looks me up and down until I step out of her way, then walks through the doorway. I try to follow, but the steward puts her hand up again.
“You’re not getting through without a badge.”
I swallow and look at my phone. I have four minutes to race back, get my badge, if I can even get into my room, and get back again. My lip wobbles and I back away from them, not even sure where I can go to lick my wounds.
“I’m sorry,” says the steward, shrugging.
“Sorry doesn’t raise the dead, lads.”
I spin round as Roxy rushes towards us, winning back my love with a perfectly timed quote. She’s laden with bags and a pair of straighteners thrown around her neck, waving both our lanyards at the stewards then pushing me through the door.
“I’m so sorry, babe,” she pants, squeezing my hand.
I look back at her as she ushers me towards the changing rooms, equal parts anger and relief squeezing up to my eyeballs.
“Do not cry and ruin my masterpiece.” She reads a sign taped on a door with duct tape. “This is us, get in.”
She swings me through the door, and I can’t say I’m a huge fan of all this pushing and shoving and I would very much like my serene Roxy right now, but I think she might be in a pre-competition trance, like those pageant mums, ormoms. She drops the bags, then pulls something long and red out of one of them.
“My cape!” I cry, my voice cracking as she shakes it out like a matador then fits it on my shoulders. “You got it. Thank you.”
She looks down at me as she fiddles with the fastenings.
“Kind of, yes.”
“What?”
“We do not have time, Eliza Gellar!” she says, squeezing my shoulders. “Have you seen the others?”
“Others?”
“Team Awesome! Have you seen them?” I shake my head as she sticks an earbud in her ear, like a frenzied wedding planner. “Good, that probably means they’re in position already.”
“In position?”
She ignores me and pulls my sword holders out of a bag then starts wrestling me into them like a toddler into a backpack.
“Roxy, stop!” I say. We managed some time in the conference room that afternoon so I could practise my routine. An alarmed-looking man in a suit and tie walked in while I was swinging my swords round. “Please, what are you talking about? Why are Team Awesome in position? What position?”
“Just trust me!” she snaps, which makes me not trust her, quite frankly. “Focus on your routine and character, OK?OK?!”
“OK,” I whimper (totallyunfocused, by the way).
“Good. Vivian is about to start, then it’s you, then it’s Rashawn. Do you want to watch her?”
I don’t know what the right answer is.
“Yes,” I try.
“That’s my girl.”
Roxy grabs my hand and we head out to the back of the stage area. TheVampire Fallssoundtrack plays out front, which doesn’t calm me down as much as it usually would, but it does remind me that I’m here, among my people, among my friends.
Vivian steps out of the shadows as if my very thoughts summoned her from Hell. She’s in full cosplay mode now, no cute dalmatian onesies here, and I gasp at her incredible height increase. Roxy puts an arm across me like she’s a gang leader and we’re about to have a rumble.
“Bitches,”Vivian says, putting her hand on her waist and, you guessed it, flicking her hair over her shoulder. I don’t know what shampoo she uses but I got a waft and she smells like Heaven.
