Vault

Fifty-Three

"Today is the fourth and final challenge before the big finale. So far, Ava is in first place, Ty is in second place, Taggs is in third place, and Nolan is in last place. Today's challenge should be the quickest one yet. Today, they're starting with extreme hopscotch! We've created four hopscotch paths that are one mile long! After hopscotch, they have to climb up a net to the top of the wall and complete the challenge by climbing down the rock wall. While they're racing, we have dodgeballs that are coated in paint and buckets of slime. We are going to be using the dodgeballs and slime to try to mess them up. If they fall at any point, they go back to the beginning of that section of the race," Jimmy explained to the camera, "is everyone ready?"

The four of us nodded, ready to do the fourth challenge in this series. As much as I want to win, because I want to win, competing in this series has been a lot of fun and I would gladly do it again. I thought I would absolutely hate being on camera, since I've always hated having my picture taken, but the camera didn't bother me. I don't think I could ever just sit in front of a camera and stream like Karl does, but I don't hate this.

When Jimmy gave us the signal, we each started to make our way down the hopscotch path. It was a normal hopscotch path, just a super long one. The hardest part was keeping the rhythm to keep skipping between the blocks without stopping. It would royally suck to make it a significant distance and then have to restart.

Thankfully, they were choosing to wait just a little bit before they started throwing dodgeballs and slime at us. It gave us the opportunity to get the hang of this. The concept was super simple and it was an easy task, but I definitely have an advantage over these guys. I'm a lot smaller than they are and I think that makes me much more agile for hopscotching. However, I'm also in first place and I know they all are going to try to make me restart as much as possible so their team can pass Karl and I. If Ty wins this challenge, he's back in first place so Ty can't win.

I felt the hit of a dodgeball knocking into my back as I kept hopscotching. Here it comes.

"Don't hit her so hard!" Karl protested, "I swear if she ends up with a single bruise from this challenge, I'm going to kill all of you."

I laughed as I kept hopscotching. Hopscotch was never something I did as a kid so this was different for me. I wasn't an art kid. I was a science kid. I mean, my mom did the whole daughter thing with tea parties and fairytales and princesses until I could start making my own choices. And then we replaced the pink paint on my walls with a royal blue and my parents painted the solar system on one of my walls. I didn't play with dolls or barbies, I had chemistry sets and robots and a set of blocks that had the elements from the periodic table on them. Even playing outside, my dad and I would fill my kiddie pool with oobleck and we'd fly model airplanes. I wasn't what my parents were expecting when they had a girl, but I'm glad I was different. It really speaks to who I am.

I kept getting hit with dodgeballs and slime, so much that you could barely see the red of my shirt anymore or the hopscotch path in front of me, but I kept my balance. Despite my boyish hobbies as a kid and a teenager, I was a cheerleader. And I was a good one. It's kind of funny how much this ridiculous task of extreme hopscotch reminded me of cheerleading. I haven't even thought about cheerleading since I graduated but I did have fun with it when I was doing it. Actually, I don't even think Karl knows that I was ever a cheerleader, it's such a simple part of my life that has never come up.

"Ow!" I exclaimed with a laugh as a dodgeball slammed into the side of my head.

"Karl!" Chris, Jimmy, and Chandler all yelled at the same time.

"Baby, I'm sorry! I was aiming for Ty and I missed! Are you okay?" Karl panicked.

"I'm fine, there's just paint in my ear now," I laughed as I kept hopscotching.