rookie - chris "ct" tamburello

chapter six

I was really scared for this challenge. I didn't have good balance, like at all. However, I knew if I lost this one, not only would I be the laughing stalk of the season, CT would be disappointed in me, and I would probably have to go into elimination. That would happen either way. Unless we won today's challenge, then we couldn't be put into elimination.

The order had been randomly selected, and CT and I didn't have to go until later.

"Alright rookie, if we're not going first we have to watch everyone closely and see what their strategies are and see what works and what doesn't work," he looked at me as if being like, do you understand, and I nodded my head.

The first ones up were Sarah and Michael.

"Alright guys you ready?" TJ was yelling really loudly, I knew he was loud, but that wasn't what I expected.

He blew his little air horn and they were off. They started going a little fast but it still looked slow. Michael seemed to be afraid of heights, but Sarah wasn't letting him just give up.

"Come on Michael, you got this," she shouted. When Sarah got to the middle, she stopped.

"What the hell?" I questioned. Why was she stopping? When I looked closer, I saw that there was this little square. It was small, but it was there. I guess TJ didn't tell us about that.

It took Michael about another three minutes to make it to the middle. You could hear Sarah yelling words of encouragement to him.

"CT don't you dare yell at me if you're going to say I'm doing it wrong. Tell me calmly I'm not afraid to quit," I wouldn't actually quit, but yelling at me if you aren't encouraging me isn't gonna help me.

"Alright you got it boss," he saluted me like he did on the first day. I fake punched him and rolled my eyes.

We watched as Sarah and Michael finished their challenge in about 20 minutes. Next was Ninja and Zach went up.

"Come on Ninja, you got this!" I yelled.

She was still standing on the platform and TJ wasn't ready to go yet so she was able to yell back, "Thanks," I could tell she was a bit nervous, it most likely wasn't the heights, she did this as a job. I think she was more scared of the switching. I was too honestly. CT and Zach are both "bigger" dudes. That isn't meant in a mean way, but it would be a lot easier balancing as a smaller person. This would definitely be hard for our guys, and the switching would be hard for us.

"Alright you're doing good," I yelled, "Keep up your steady pace," They were both doing well.

"Okay so if you're watching," CT started, "so far, keeping a steady pace is the best way to go," he sighed, "There way of switching didn't really work."

"Well I say that one of the best ways to do it would be to take your outside foot, and put it on your half of the little square, then one at a time, we put our inside foot on the other side of the bar, and then I could go around you first since I have smaller feet. Then, you could use the square to regain your balance before moving on," I paused for a second, before taking again, "I mean I'm not sure if that will work, but it would be a great strategy I think."

"That's actually a really good plan, I think we should do that," CT seemed to be very genuine when he said that.

"Okay, we'll keep watching but if we can't find a better plan, that will be it," I looked at him for confirmation

"Yeah, that's what we'll do."

Eventually, it was our turn and we went up there. I was scared mainly because I do know that CT is an amazing competitor and I didn't want to blow anything for him.

I looked over at him and he gave me two thumbs up, "You got this baby," that made me blush a bit even though I knew it was his form of encouragement.

"Alrigh, Ready?" TJ shouted, "Go!"

And we were off. I was keeping a steady pace and we had a lot of really good teams to beat, who had good times. I was mainly focused on winning this for CT because he deserved it.

When we got to the middle, we went with our plan and it worked. When we got past each other, I tried to go a little faster. When I was close enough, I kind of jumped onto the platform. Luckily, I made it. I turned to look at CT and he was almost there.

"You got this Chris!" I yelled. He made it not long after me and I cheered. "Good job, if I wasn't afraid of falling off, I run over there and hug you," I laughed.

"Hey, that just means you owe me one down there," he winked and I just rolled my eyes.

We walked down to where the camera was, and he hugged me, lifted me up in the air, and spun me. It was fun.

"I don't know about you rookie, but I'm pretty proud of the way we preformed," he sighed, "I just really hope that it was enough to help us win tonight," he looked and cringed at me.

"I mean I'm proud of us, and I feel like  no matter what, we did really well," I smiled and he half smiled back. I knew that this win was very important to him since it was the first one, and I was just really hoping for the best, for the both of us.

We watched as everyone else went, and I was suprised that by the end, only two teams had someone fall off. That balancing was very hard.

"Alright guys, that was an incredible performance today, but there can only be one winner. The winning team will get to pick two girls to go head to head at an elimination, this means that whichever guy loses his partner, is automatically going into the next elimination," That was crazy. I knew if we didnt win, I was going in, so I just hoped for the best. "The top two fastest teams today were, Jordan and Kayla, and CT and Katie," I looked at CT when I heard our names get called. I grabbed his hand and he grabbed mine, "The winners who will be choosing two girls to go into elimination will be," he took a pause for dramatic effect, "Jordan and Kayla," CT immediately dropped my hand.

"Hey you oka-" I tried asking before he interrupted.

"No rookie, can you stop talking for just a second, please?" That really hurt. I knew he was probably upset, but I still didn't think he should've yelled at me,"You know what, please just get out of my face for like ten minutes, please."

"Oh," was all I could get out before I walked away. I couldn't help but start crying. I'm not sure what I did, but I knew that next time, I'd just have to do a lot better.

Authors Note: Hey! This chapter is on the longer side, but oh well. Sorry this was how it ended but I promise CT won't be mad forever. I hoped you liked this. I'm trying to decide if I should eventually add some spicy stuff, but I can't decide so if you want me to, please tell me. Okay that's all bye!