Chapter 18
The party was fancier than Joel had anticipated. After a quick shower and nap, Joel got dressed in accordance with Bobby’s fashion guidance and met up with his dormmates to head to the Top Seed Kickoff party. Apparently, most of the challengers, including Ken, June, and Jax, had already gone upstairs for the event. So Bobby, Bailey, and Joel made their way to the Spire’s elevator and up to the ‘All-Star Loft’ level.
The loft was decked out in tasteful “God and Goddess” themed décor, and the amassing crowd in black tie attire. Joel’s group passed The Show’s interview stage as he was in the middle of interviewing a statuesque blond woman of divine beauty that Joel instantly recognized as Jasmine Morgan: The Coin. As a hero, Goldenrod was the most powerful female of her generation. As The Coin, she was a ruthless businesswoman and politician who could obscure her nature beneath a veneer of charisma and sophistication.
Joel stared at the Hamachi roll on the tiny gold plate in front of him, trying to figure out what was edible and what wasn’t. This party had been exactly what he feared, a fancy shindig where he didn’t belong. He felt like everyone was waiting for him to mess up so they could kick him out of the room, the building, and the competition as a whole. Of course, these feelings were likely his anxiety talking, but the emotions still felt real as Bailey made eye contact with Joel, so he grabbed a Toro roll, smiled, gave an awkward “cheers” with his sushi, and popped it into his mouth. Oh god, it was worse than he thought. He fought the urge to gag. How could anyone eat this? He was on a new mission now. Mission: “Get rid of this horrid ‘food’ without anyone knowing.”
“You ok, roomie?” Bobby asked as he noticed his new roommate's face contort.
Joel snapped to attention, realizing he was inadvertently making a scene. Everyone stared at him, waiting for a response. He nodded vigorously and was serendipitously interrupted before having to make an even bigger fool of himself by speaking.
“Can you believe these fucking people?” June was stage whispering to her brother and Ken as they approached the buffet. “People don’t want us here. We’re a fucking joke to them. If they don’t want us here, we can just go. I'm exhausted anyway. Fuck that elitist, prissy, bitchy…” Her hushed voice was doing a poor job of containing her anger.
“Whoa, Sis, calm down. Let's just put her in the rearview.” Jax tried to calm his sister’s building rage.
"Your brother has the correct idea.” Ken broke in. “I assure you, not everyone feels the way my cousin does. I will have a word with her in the coming days when the power trip from hosting this party has subsided.”
Joel used their arrival as a distraction to covertly spit the disgusting, half-chewed fish, rice, and seaweed mush ball into a cocktail napkin and stuff it into his pants pocket. As he finished this tricky maneuver, one of the Top Seed producers walked up next to Joel, again pulling the group’s awareness in his direction. From the choice of food to the forced attention, maybe this whole event was a challenge specific to Joel, to see how much torture he could endure.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The producer looked directly at June. “Ms. Bradley? It’s time for your first one-on-one confessional interview. Would you please come with me?” The producer asked in a pleasant but stern tone, making it entirely clear that this was an order, not a request. “You will be able to express all your thoughts and feelings about The Culling and the party directly to the viewing audience. These interviews will be edited into the episodic format of the show.”
June grinned. “Oh, I’m ready to express. I'll be expressing a whole fucking lot. You’ll be astounded by the extent of my expression. Just show me where the camera is.” June walked away with the producer.
Jax groaned “I’m sure that’s gonna go great.” Everyone in the group chuckled a bit but realized that Jax wasn’t really joking. “Sorry, It's just that I’m sure they only want us to talk about our mom to stir shit up, and I’m also pretty sure that my sister is wound up enough to take the bait.”
“Wow. You guys are going to be stars!” Bailey’s tone-deaf response filled an awkward silence. “What? Haven’t you all watched reality TV? Stuff like this makes for great TV! Well, great reality TV anyway.”
Before it could become a huge debate amongst the group, Joel gagged on a lingering piece of raw tuna, and everyone once again looked in his direction. “That makes me sick!? Yeah, I’m sick at the thought that they’d manipulate people like that just for ratings!” he said indignantly.
“Joel, that’s like the entire point of every reality show in existence.”
“Well, it doesn’t make it any less egregious.” Joel was really testing his acting skills, and judging by everyone’s reaction, they weren’t buying it.
Bailey changed the subject to save her new friend. “How about we explore this place? I think I overheard someone saying there was an indoor pool and piano bar below this level. I’ll bet this place holds tons of fun secrets. Maybe there be treasure in them thar woods.” She winked at Joel, who mouthed a thank you.
“I doubt there is treasure here, as this loft was built fairly recently. Or if the treasure exists, I predict it will not be particularly valuable.” Ken said. “But I, too, would like to see my cousin’s new residence. If this is where the All-Stars will be living, it could provide some useful insight. Know your enemy.”
“I'm down,” Jax followed up. “Hopefully, this will give June some time to cool off.”
As they moved through the party toward the stairwell, Joel noticed a flash of red hair. He focused through the crowd of people and caught the gaze of the last person he expected to run into here, considering she had stressed so vehemently that they have absolutely no public contact of any kind once the competition started. He froze. Ariella was here, and she was talking to Richie. Did The Show discover their plan? Was she caught? Were they caught? She didn’t seem like she was in danger, but in this world, looks could be deceiving. He considered heading over to her but decided not to. Ariella had specifically told him to keep his distance, and if that rule were to be broken, it wouldn’t be by him. Then he saw it. A small shake of her head. She confirmed his decision to stay away. Joel breathed a sigh of relief as an arm wrapped around his neck, pulling him into a sort of side hug.
“Don’t get left behind, roomie,” Bobby said cheerily. “We wouldn’t want you getting into any more trouble on your own. Plus, you’re going to need a friend to distract the others when your pants start smelling of rotting fish.”