365 Days with the Celebrity

Chapter 9 - The Cooking Competition

"See, I knew you won't make it." Beth patted Ariel's shoulders as she stiffened by what she saw on her laptop.

"Beth!" Rita glared, "Just because we received no news doesn't mean she has lost yet."

It had been more than a week since their video was submitted, with no news whatsoever if their video stood a chance to be selected, or if it was ever seen. They browsed through other video entries, shrinking in their seats at what they thought were impressive and eye-catching videos unlike the boring, plain one they submitted.

"You know what guys? Beth's right," Ariel pointed at the videos. "Look at how much better they are than mine. I knew I can't win."

"Check out that karate one," Camila began to resign in defeat.

Andy's face fell.

"Cheer up Andy, it's just a competition." Ariel rubbed his back in comfort. "At least the best part is we had fun and we all tried our best. That's what matters."

Just then, Ariel's phone rang.

"Hello?"

Her countenance froze as she pressed her phone closer to her face.

What is it? Rita mouthed at her.

"Yes, I'll see you there. Thank you, thank you so much!"

"What's going on?" the group inched closer, watching her freeze with a lost look that looked like it was stuck forever.

"I've been...I've been SHORTLISTED!"

Everyone screamed in excitement, hugging each other and jumping on cloud nine.

"But how? I don't get it. Our video was not like the best one," Beth was still in disbelief.

"Does it matter? Leon Waltz chose her! I can finally fly into his arms!" Camila exclaimed dreamily.

Ariel laughed at her response, "Not quite yet. They want me to come down next week to do the final round with nine other shortlisted candidates."

"You mean we're not done yet?" asked a confused Andy.

"Not yet, sweetheart. I need to take one more round next week and we'll know the answer then."

———

Ariel had never been shortlisted in a competition before. The competition started quite early in the morning.

She tried to keep her face straight and optimistic despite feeling stressed and anxious inside. It was already nerve-racking to see those huge cameras everywhere in the big television studio that was converted into a large cooking area. The competition was televised like reality TV and all eyes around the globe were tuned in to watch the competition live and see the ten chosen lucky cooks who were handpicked from the thousands of entries that poured in.

Ariel knew that her son and her friends were cheering for her from their screens at home.

All the way at the front was the grand table before where the judges sat. Mr Ken Fujita, his son and chief operations officer, Hiroshi Fujita, and of course, the international pop star himself, Leon Waltz.

The moment Leon Waltz came out to greet everyone, it was obvious that all the cooks, especially the females were star struck and almost out of breath, except for Ariel who kept her cool. She could see why they were fawning over him and gluing their eyes onto him. Leon was strikingly handsome in person, more so than in the pictures. He was tall and dressed fashionably well with styled hair, and wore that boyish, captivating smile. Even Ariel herself couldn't help but take a few blinks at him.