"Would you give up on the money?" I bellowed. "It's not about that for me. Not anymore." I was getting a throbbing headache just trying to reason with Brodie. Why was I even trying? "You know what? Never mind, Brodie. Just never mind."
Summer rushed in a moment later, her eyes wide. She grinned happily at the sight of us. "I could hear you two yelling down the block. Led me right to this place."
"Only one of us is yelling," Brodie said in a sulky voice.
"Fuck off, Brodie," I said in my sweetest voice, and stuffed another pretzel in the tray.
“Language,” the cameraman said again, and we fell quiet.
Everyone twisted in silence for a while, the tension in the room utterly palpable. I couldn't help but notice that once Summer got set up with her table, Brodie propped up a few trays and made his own fort so she couldn't copy his hand motions. I peeked over at Brodie, and was discouraged to find that he'd started moving quite a bit faster than I'd hoped. If his pretzels looked halfway decent, he was going to make up a lot of time.
I finished the tray I was on and counted pretzels. Ten more. I got nervous at that, my hands shaking as I rapidly twisted and squished the pretzels into the proper shape. And then I was done. I leapt up, waving for the judge.
She strolled over to my table as if in slow motion and I twisted my doughy, flour-covered hands so I wouldn't reach out and shove her toward my table. As I hovered, she counted, and then nodded. "That's two hundred."
I hopped with excitement. "Now I do a delivery?"
She nodded and moved back to the mat. A large box of hot pretzels was waiting, painted black for my team color. It was about the size of a large ice-chest, and I hoisted it up, frowning. It was bulky and awkward to hold.
"You need to wear a delivery hat and apron," she told me cheerfully, and produced a boat-shaped hat with a big plastic pretzel on the front, and a plastic apron.
I set back down the pretzels, took the clothing from her, slapped the hat on and tied the apron around my waist. "Address?"
"Independence Hall," the woman said in a sweet voice. "Good luck."
"No street?" I didn't know where that was. This was Philadelphia — what if there were four different Independence Halls? "No directions at all?"
"No." Her smile remained in place.
"And I can't take a cab?"
"You have to walk."
Figured. I hefted the box and headed for the exit, trying not to panic. And here I'd thought twisting pretzels would be a challenge. I should have done the stinking flag task - Liam had been out of there within moments. Me, I'd spent the last hour twisting dough into knots and now had to hike across town with an enormous box of pretzels.
As soon as I emerged from the pretzel shop, I was greeted with polite clapping. "Good job, Katy," Polly called, and Tesla clapped her hands.
"Thanks," I said, touched by their encouragement. I squinted into the bright squinting sunlight and glancing over at my partner. Liam leaned against a wall, his pose utterly casual. But he was clapping, his hands slowly moving together, his gaze on me.
Did he hear me arguing with Brodie?
Our eyes locked for a long moment. Liam didn't speak.
Guess not. Feeling awkward, I hefted the box. "I have to deliver this before I get the next set of instructions."
"Good luck," Liam called as I turned to leave.
I glanced back at him, then hurried down the street. The hall surely couldn't be that far away. I just had to find it, and I had a lead on the others.
I'd been mistaken about one thing, though - the hall wasn't close. And all too soon, the Katy-curse came back to haunt me. I went down a few streets, asked for directions, followed the directions I'd been given, and twenty minutes later, was hopelessly lost. Downtown Philadelphia was kind of crazy. There was an enormous amount of buildings all clustered together, and I had no idea where I was going. Not only that, but the box was getting heavier by the moment. Why on earth did the five foot tall, direction-challenged girl get the task that involved delivering a heavy box?
Frustrated, I grimly hefted the getting-heavier-by-the-minute box onto my shoulder and kept walking, only to realize I'd passed by the same tree twice now.
I was lost.
And this was the final leg.
And Liam was going to think that I was doing this on purpose so Brodie could win.
I admit, I panicked. I ran to the nearest building. I'd just ask for fricking directions, if that was what it took.
There was a small coffee shop nearby, and I hefted the box under my arm, pulling the heavy glass door open. Someone was coming out at the same time as I was going in, though, and nudged my box. It fell to the ground, pretzels spilling everywhere.