Magic Mansion by Jordan Price (best fiction books to read .txt) 📕

Except that he didn’t. He just watched, while the handhelds circled. And when Muriel finally pulled free from the embrace of her team, she was smiling—but her teammates were all in tears. Ricardo, crying freely. Bev with her glasses off, wiping them on the hem of her blouse. Sue with mascara making twin tracks down her cheeks.

“I love you guys,” Muriel said, walking backwards with the dry wind whipping her gypsy skirts and her long gray hair as she blew them all elaborate kisses. “Remember—Gold Team rules! Now go kick some ass!”

Once Muriel exited the set, the contestants were situated by their fake tigers while a pair of stylists repaired the damage to Sue’s makeup. Kevin, Jia and John studied the course. John rehearsed the moves in his mind: jump, jump, jump. The hoop would be the trickiest part for him, because of his height. But he was also a fast runner. He’d do well on the straightaway return trip. “A’ight,” Kevin said, “I’ll go first, y’all can watch, and plan your strategy.”

Jia shrugged. John wondered if by helping the Red Team win, he was stacking the deck in favor of keeping himself around, or making it more likely that Ricardo would get voted off in the next elimination. He didn’t know. But if Ricardo was as popular as Marlene had said, he stood less of a chance of being voted off. Plus, John would feel insulted if he knew Ricardo was holding back on his account; wouldn’t Ricardo feel the same? And so John set his sights on a brown peg, and he said to Jia, “I’ll go next, if you don’t mind.”

She shrugged.

An assistant came around with clear mouthguards for all of them to wear, two individual pieces, top and bottom. John bit them into place. They tasted terrible.

“How’m I supposed to grab a peg with this hunka plastic in my mouth?” Kevin complained to Iain.

“Take it up with Marlene. She’s worried you klutzes will knock your teeth out.”

“What difference does it make?” Jia said, muffled through the plastic. “We’re all wearing them. Everyone will have trouble. Not just you.”

Not to be outdone by a girl, Kevin pressed his mouthguards in, crossed his arms, and waited for the signal. An assistant brought Monty an airhorn, which he raised above his head, blasted, and cried, “And you’re off!”

Sue started for the Gold Team. She raced through the course, athletic and strong, while Ricardo and Bev cheered her on.

John, however, kept his eye on his teammate as Kevin navigated the obstacles. He wasn’t a very surefooted jumper, though his hours of inclined crunches had given him a certain amount of physical control. Three jumps across the platforms, through the hoop, roll the ball, and a head-first lunge into the pegboard. Even from where John stood twenty yards away, he saw the flash of white Kevin held between his mouthguards. He’d found a two-point peg.

So, however, had Sue.

Jia elbowed John in the ribs, and whispered, “Cheer.”

John supposed he should. He clapped his hands and called out, “Come on, let’s go, almost there!” While Jia yelled, “Whooo!”

The moment Kevin spat his white peg into the tiger’s mouth, John was off.

The Gold Team had sent Ricardo second, and Ricardo was already at the hoop. Apparently Sue was quite the runner. She’d put her team in the lead already. John didn’t waste any time watching Ricardo—he focused only on himself. Three jumps—there, easy. Through the hoop, with mylar streamers tickling his cheeks. Roll the ball…and then, the pegs.

Brown?

Yes.

He grasped a brown peg in his teeth and ran back toward his tiger, fast enough to begin closing the gap between the Gold and Red Teams. He spat his peg into the tiger’s mouth, and then Jia took off.

Jia was small, but she was fast and agile. The jumps were no problem, and she made it through the hoop much faster than either Kevin or John. Her opponent, Bev…was not quite so dexterous. And that was putting it kindly.

It appeared that Bev was afraid to make the short jump between the platforms, despite the desperate “you can do it” cheers of her teammates. She moved between them with large, cautious steps instead, and rather than jumping through the hoop, she climbed through it one foot at a time.

Jia was already back to the Red Team’s tiger by the time Bev reached the pegboard. Kevin took off.

Gasping for breath, Jia took out her top mouthguard and said, “I could tell that damn thing was green. I could see it past my nose. If I get another green peg, I’m gonna spit it out and take a different one.”

“They didn’t say we could do that.” John cautioned.

“They didn’t say we couldn’t.”

John didn’t like the risk. “Don’t give them a reason to disqualify us.”

“There’s no rule against it.” Jia scowled at the obstacle course. “And to do that whole circuit for just one damn point? I don’t think so.”

Kevin was running back with a one-point green peg in his mouth. John told Jia, “Don’t risk it,” and focused hard on the jump to the first platform. He was ahead of Ricardo now—Bev’s slowness had cost the Gold Team any advantage Sue’s speed had initially won them. Three jumps, through the hoop, roll the ball…and dare he take another brown? There were fewer brown pegs than the others…but not so few that it would be terribly suspicious of John to take a second brown. He seized the three-point peg from the top row with his teeth. That left one in place lower down on the board for Jia. It was tempting to simply point it out to her to keep her from spitting out pegs and costing the Red Team a potential penalty.

But since John wouldn’t be able to explain how he’d come by the information, he supposed he would need to let the cards fall where they may.

As soon as he spat his peg into the tiger’s mouth, Jia was off, and Ricardo, who’d been