“Hi, guys!” I waved to the others. “You excited?” A few ignored me, a few looked disgusted, one smiled and one snarled.
The girl with a snarl said, “Excited to win, yes. I will win, I am soooo good at games. Mini and large.”
My smile faded.
“Well, we all have a good chance.” I informed her. She glared at me and turned away. The smiley one said, “Hi! I’m Lyli. Like L-Y-L-I. Not L-I-L-Y.” She giggled. Lyli had pale-ish skin and blonde hair. She wore a pink blouse and blue jeans.
“I’m Annabeth.” I said. “I’m thirteen.”
“I’m fifteen.” Lyli chirped. “I thought I was the youngest, but here you are!” I smiled.
“I can’t wait to play!” I sang. “It’s going to be SO. MUCH-”
“All contestants! All-oof!” We turned to see a short guy with crazy gelled hair and a clipboard fall over some boxes.
Lyli’s long blonde hair whipped around as she addressed me with a grin.
“We’re starting!”
“All-geez! All contestants!” The short guy stumbled over to us. “Starting! We. Are. Starting!” All the contestants got up and walked to the curtain. I could see now there were about fifteen. We waited a while while we listened to Dan Chris Atole announc. I had time to count everyone. There were twelve. The rude girl looked about seventeen or eighteen. Five-ish people looked like they were in their late twenties or thirties. A couple people were about forty and a couple more looked in their fifties. They were probably very smart. Oh boy. I thought.
“And now, this week’s contestants! We have, er, some people!” I heard Dan announce. “Martin, bring ‘em in!” The audience cheered. The guy with the clipboard, apparently named Martin, clicked some stuff, he had an Ipad now, and the curtain opened. There were about seven hundred to a thousand people in the audience. Dan addressed us, cheering.
“Welcome! Each of you have a spot-well, if you’re on here, you’ve seen the show. You know what to do! Let’s get gaming!” The audience shrieked their heads off. I did know what to do. There were fifteen spots, all different colors about four feet away from each other. We each went to stand on one. The one I ended up with was blue. My favorite color. Dan announced Carla (some lady on the end) to play a game first. She won, then Dave went and lost, then Marty went and lost, then Sal went and she actually did a really good job. The snarly girl, whose name was Angelina, lost. Stan went, and won. Liam, Olivia, Noah, and Louise lost. Emma went, and won, then Lyli went right before me, and won. I cheered for her.
“Last but not least, Annabeth Randman!” Dan called. My face got kind of red at all the attention and stepped forward.
“You will be playing the same game as everyone else, Twist, and Live or Die!” Ooh, terrible name. I guess it was a game of chance, you put your plotter on a spot and spin, and if the arrow points at your plotter, you’re out. There were about twenty spaces, and one arrow, and you had to survive five rounds of this. Oh man!
“Pick a spot!” Dan said cheerfully. I picked a random spot and marked it with the plotter. I spun and...safe.
“Pick another spot!” Dan said in that cheerful voice that was starting to get annoying. I did, and this went on for four more rounds. I was safe every time, which means I won! I couldn’t believe it!
“I won? I won? I won I won I won!” I jumped up and down and cheered. Dan smiled and put me with the other winners, Carla, Sal, Stan, Emma, and Lyli. Me and Lyli jumped up and down. Carla and Stan went against each other on another game for two people., Carla won. She went against Emma and lost. Emma and Sal went against each other and Sal won. Lyli went against Carla (she went twice) and won, and I went against Sal and we tied. Soon, Sal, Lyli and I were the last ones.
Dan led us to an area with three large curtains.
“One has a joke, so a not that good prize, one has a decent prize, and one has the BIG PRIZE! The number one prize! The super amazing-life-changing prize! Okay, that’s exaggerating a little bit. Anyway, you can choose curtain8 one, two, or three!”
Lyli chose one, Sal chose two, and I chose three. Lyli’s curtain opened first, and it was a recliner. I guessed that was the big pr ize, because Sal’s curtain was a jar of mustard and pickles (probably the joke one) so that meant I got the decent prize. Until…
“Okay, that means Annabeth has the big prize!” Dan yelled. My eyes widened.
“Wait, really? Wouldn’t the recliner…” I was so amazed. I finally spotted my parents in the audience who were screaming madly.
“Now, I don’t know what the prize is. They wouldn’t tell me because I have a habit of, er, sharing too much. So, Martin, open the curtain!” I waited to see the grand prize. Maybe a new bed, or a computer or new TV! The curtain didn’t open.
“Martin!” Dan complained.
Martin’s voice yelled from behind the curtain, “Sorry, the, uh, internet….it went out? Uh, yeah...it went out.” Dan rolled his eyes, but quickly put on his smile.
“All righty, um, now, Annabeth can see her prize!” Dan announced. Please be a TV, please be a TV, pleeeeease be a TV. I thought. The curtain opened. My mouth dropped.
“THAT’S MY PRIZE? SERIOUSLY?” I exclaimed. It was a brand new sparkly car. I saw it in a commercial. It had heated/air conditioned cushy seats and mini screens in the back of the seats. It had like seven seats total.
“WOOHOO!” I whooped.
“It’s a car!?” Dan and my parents shrieked.
“Uh, MARTIN!? She’s ten!” Dan yelled.
“Thirteen.” I corrected. “I’m thirteen.”
“She can’t have a car!” Dan yelled again.
“Well, I can’t drive now, but I learn how in two and a half years!” I exclaimed. “Pleease let me keep it!”
“I’m sorry, but-” Dan started. Martin rushed out and whispered, (he had his microphone on so we could all hear) “You are not allowed to deny a winner their prize!” He explained. “Especially not someone who won the grand prize!”