Losing to Win

“I’m sorry.” I squinted in the direction of Darcy and the other trainers. “You want us to do what now?”

Jim tried to look sympathetic but didn’t really pull it off. “Form new teams for this event. We’re shaking things up today. We’re going to do girls versus guys. So you, Niecy, and Suzette will compete against Mal, Jordy, and XJ.”

“Why?” Niecy was even less pleased than I was.

“We thought it would be fun,” Jim answered.

“What exactly are we doing?” Malachi asked with enough impatience that I knew he was close to the end of his rope.

These were long hot days of physical torture and sensual deprivation. We were tart, testy, and tired. And we hadn’t hit the halfway point of this competition yet.

“It’s kind of like a treasure hunt!” Jim announced with way more enthusiasm than any of us felt.

“For real, though?” XJ asked with a scowl.

“I’m afraid so. Are we ready to get started?”

Niecy waved a hand in a “bring it on” motion. “Let’s do it and be done already.”

“Ladies, if you could line up to my left and fellas to my right.”

I resisted the epic eye roll and stepped into place. Instead of standing on the other side of me where there was plenty of space, Suzette jammed in between me and Jim. I sighed and slid over a step. Jim handed Suzette the first envelope. She opened it, read it, and started walking away. Jim called her back.

“Suzette, this is a team event. Your score will depend on your entire team finishing ahead of the men’s team. In addition, there will be a bonus or penalty for teamwork, leadership, skill, and speed.”

“What he’s saying is,” I snapped, “do you mind scooting back over here and sharing with the rest of us?”

She looked not the slightest bit chagrined as she handed over the note card.

Niecy read, “Head to the center of town, find the historical landmark commemorating the town’s founding father. Somewhere nearby is your next clue.”

I frowned. “There are three landmarks with Josiah Somers.”

Malachi groaned. “Why do you know that?”

“Some of us paid attention on the field trips?” I teased.

“Do the guys have the same clue and we’re wasting time listening to Mal and Carissa flirt?” Jordan asked.

“If you think that’s flirting, you’re a little rusty,” Mal zinged.

Jim put his hands up. “Contestants, please. The clues are the same. You have to solve them perfectly and get through them quickly to maximize your point totals.”

“Any other rules?”

“We’ve taken all your keys so you can’t drive from one place to the next. Oh, and the losing team is on kitchen cleanup for the rest of the week. Is everyone clear?”

“Clear,” we all intoned.

“Ready, set . . . go!”

I would like to say that we took off running, but really... we girls did not. We’d been biking all day. Which gave me an idea. As the guys headed down the road on foot at a fast pace, I stepped over toward the gym and motioned for the girls to follow me.

“Carissa, what are you doing?!” Suzette shrieked. “The guys are getting ahead of us! I am not scrubbing dishes for a week because you always play by your own rules.”

“Just this one time, Suzette; can you just trust me?” I reached into the equipment shed and started pulling out the bicycles.

“Ah yeah.” Niecy grinned and hopped on.

I held a bike out to Suzette. “Unless you’d rather walk it?”

“Okay, this wasn’t a bad idea,” Suzette conceded grudgingly.

Quickly, we caught up to the guys. “See you in town, fellas.” I grinned and pedaled faster, ignoring the screaming in my thigh muscles.

“Hey!” Jordy called out as we whizzed by. “Is that against the rules?”

“He said we couldn’t drive our cars.” Niecy waved and followed behind me. Suzette was behind us and managed a giggle or two. A camera crew pulled alongside us and started filming.

Once we were on the main street back into town, I started complaining. “My thighs hate me.”

“You? Girl, everything from the neck down is in rebellion.”

“God, you two like to hear yourselves talk,” Suzette complained.

I exchanged a glance with Niecy and held onto my thoughts about kettles and pots. We rode the rest of the distance in silence. When we pulled up to the main square, I said, “Niecy, you take the one on the left, Suzette the middle, and I’ll take the right.”

“Why can’t you take the one in the middle? It’s bigger and in the middle of some bushes,” Suzette argued.

“Mary, Margaret, and Joseph. Fine! I’ll take the middle statue.” I swear to God if I’d said the sky was blue, she would say it was pink just because. We rested the bikes against a bench and started scouring the statues for clues. Five minutes in and I still hadn’t found anything. With a sigh, I pushed between the scratchy bushes and started searching the hind parts of the horse Josiah Somers was seated on.

“Doesn’t it just figure that you would be staring at a horse’s ass?” Suzette cackled.

“I find I spend a lot of time around horses’ asses these days,” I shot back before turning my attention back to the statue. Was that? Yes! There under the back hoof was a long thin envelope. I pulled it out and waved it. “Got it!”

We met back by the benches and opened the envelope. Puzzle pieces fell out. “They are killing me,” Niecy said as we settled down on the sidewalk to put it together. Every time I set a piece down, Suzette picked it up and moved it.

“This right here is going to lose us teamwork points. Let’s do the outside first and work our way in, okay?”

“Why do we have to do it your way?”

“Do you want to clean up after XJ for the next seven days?”

She subsided and slid the right corner piece into place. A few minutes later we stared in confusion at the picture we’d put together.

“It’s a picture of a box sitting on top of something?” Niecy wondered.

“It’s a boat deck.” I tilted my head.

“Yeah, but which one?” Suzette lamented. “This is the kind of town where every other body has a pirogue or shrimping boat tied up out back.”

“But this is a nice deck, and here in the reflection, what is that?” I looked closer and made out the letters R-H-O. “I know where this is.” I saw the guys straggling toward us and lowered my voice. “I’ll tell you on the way there.” We quickly took apart the puzzle, slid the pieces back in the envelope, returned it to its hiding place, and hopped on the bikes.

“Where ya’ll headed?” Mal called out.

I rolled my eyes. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I surely would.”

“Figure it out.” When we’d peddled out of earshot, I announced, “It’s the Bissets’ boat by the marina.”

Niecy shook her head. “How did you figure it out?”

“The lettering on the reflection is the beginning of Taylor’s shop. Rhone’s Fine Arts, Gifts, and Framing.” Though I was hot and cranky, I was glad Taylor’s store would get some exposure.

When we peddled up to the marina, one of the crew was kind enough to hand us some bottled water. I was tempted to dump it over my head but knew from past experience that this tank top and capri pant combo stuck to you like glue when wet. I settled for drinking almost half of the bottle as I retrieved the box from the deck of the boat. I handed it to Suzette and she opened it.

“Go fly a kite.”

“Beg pardon?” I asked, frowning at her.

“That’s what it says.” She showed us the writing on the unfolded box.

Niecy closed her eyes. “Please tell me that Taylor sells kites.”

“She does sell hand-painted kites.” We turned toward the store next to the marina when a huge pickup truck pulled up beside us. Mal, XJ, and Jordy climbed out of the back. My eyes narrowed as the windows rolled town and two young women peeked out.

Mal smiled at them. “Thanks, ladies. I appreciate your kindness on a hot summer afternoon.”

I rolled my eyes as they giggled. “Anything for you, Blue Streak. We just love you. Good luck with the competition! Call us when you have a night off or something.” The more forward of the two handed him a business card out the window. He accepted it with another smile.

“Again, much obliged, ladies. Have fun in New Orleans.”

They spun off and all eyes turned to Mal. He shrugged. Then, making sure I noticed, he ripped up the business card and discarded it in the trash can. “They were headed through town and were kind enough to offer a ride.”

“Um-hmm.” Of course they did. That was the kind of stuff that happened to Malachi all the damn time. I wasn’t sure why it still irritated me so. I had no claim on him and no say-so about whom he decided to spend time with.

XJ laughed. “That kind of thing never happens to me.” He looked over Suzette’s shoulder. “So kites, huh?”

Niecy and I gave Suzette a look. After all her bitching, she couldn’t even hide the clue? Without a word, I walked into Taylor’s store and pushed the door open. “Hey, Tay. We’re here for the kites.”

Taylor stepped out from behind the counter dressed in her nicer jeans and a funky tunic top. “I’ve got them right here for you.” Strategically, she had our kites at the back of the store so that the cameras followed us past all of her merchandise on the way there. Along the back wall, she had a variety of kites hanging—some with scenes of the Louisiana countryside, others with inspirational messages, and a few with abstract designs. There were box kites and traditional diamond shapes, along with complicated swirls and others.

“Which one is ours?” I asked.

She smiled slowly. “Well, here’s the tricky part. You have a choice of three designs to choose from, and you have to put it together. Take it to Belieux Fairgrounds and fly it for five minutes without crashing. And you do have to walk or run to the park from here. No riding of any kind.” She pointed to a table with six kite-assembly kits stacked. “Choose wisely.”

“I think we should get the box kite with the picture,” Suzette announced.

I bit my tongue. The old-school diamond with lettering looked like it would be easier overall, but I didn’t want to get into it.

“I vote diamond with Belle Haven written across it,” Niecy said.

“No,” Suzette said. “I have kids, I know kites, and we’re doing this one.”

I reached out, grabbed the one she wanted, and turned for the door. “Fine. Later, Tay.” Stepping outside, I finished my water and started stretching. “The fairgrounds are two blocks over. Y’all ready to jog?”

Suzette opened her mouth to argue and Niecy cut her off. “Girlfriend, you got your way on the kite. Take the win and let’s get through the rest of the day, shall we?”

To my surprise, Suzette backed down and took off at a slow trot. Thank God we didn’t have far to go. As I suspected, Mal and the guys came out and quickly passed us by. I noticed Mal had the simple diamond kite box in his hand. Right then, I knew I would be spending the rest of the week wiping out the microwave in the common kitchen.

We got to the park, and though we wanted to collapse on the ground, we took out the kite pieces and the instructions and got started. Four long sticks, four short sticks, string, connectors, and the fabric. Suzette looked at the instructions, looked at the materials, and announced, “This isn’t right.”

“Yes, it is, you’re just doing it wrong.”

“I am not!”

“Let me see the instructions.”

At this point, I was so weary and frustrated that I wanted to lie down on the grass and weep like a child. I was PMSing, I wanted chocolate, and I wanted a bubble bath. Instead, I was handed some Powerade, a protein bar, and a cool cloth to mop my brow. I sat cross-legged and watched Niecy and Suzette battle. This was the challenge from hell.

Niecy snatched the instructions out of Suzette’s hands. “These four make the box. We cross the small ones at the top and the bottom for support, wrap the fabric, and we’re done.”

“I don’t agree,” Suzette said. “I think you wrap the fabric around the short and use the long to extend the kite.”

Niecy almost snarled. “How does that make a box, Suzette? What laws of geometry make that work? Please share.” She looked at me. “Cari, I know you’re trying to play nice with Princess today, but ain’t nobody got time for that. I need you to get on board and kick this kite’s ass. C’mon, now.”

With a sigh, I sat up. “Niecy’s right, you’re wrong. Connect the support sticks so we can attach the others.” Suzette didn’t move. “Please?”

Giving a dramatic huff, she started snapping the pieces together. We hadn’t even built the frame when the guys shouted. “We’re done!” Sure enough, we looked up to see Mal running up and down the field with the blue and green Belle Haven kite high in the sky.

Suzette snapped two of the sticks in half and threw them. “Dammit! If you had let me do it my way, we’d be done by now.”

“If you’d picked the kite Carissa wanted, we’d be done by now,” Niecy hissed.

Ren came over to us. “If you can’t finish, it’s a forfeit.”

I walked over to the remains of the poor defenseless kite sticks and picked them up. “Maybe we can tie some string around them and bind them back together, just enough to get it up in the sky?”

Mal came over and looked. “Maybe, but then you need to use less fabric so the kite won’t be too heavy.”

“Good idea.” I nodded and started trying to fit the pieces back together.

Suzette yanked the sticks away and broke them again. “I’d rather lose than have you save the damn day.”

Everyone’s mouth fell open and we stared at her in disbelief.

“And there it is.” Niecy shook her head and fell back onto the grass. “The entire reason we’ll be scrubbing pots and taking out trash: Suzette would rather sink the boat than have Carissa be the captain. Jesus.”

The production truck pulled up and Jim climbed out. “So it’s settled?”

“I’m afraid so.” I used his words from earlier.

“No one completed the hunt?” he asked.

XJ put his hands on his hips. “Man, listen. We hot, we mad, we funky. The girls forfeited. Can we be out?”

Jim flashed his smile. “Perhaps the ladies would accept a blind challenge to make up for the loss?”

“Perhaps I’d rather slit my wrist and swim with sharks,” Suzette said.

“So that’s a no.” Jim smothered a laugh.

“A no,” Niecy agreed.

“That’s it for today, then. Good job, guys. Ladies, we’ll see each of you separately in the confessional.”

Ren waited a few moments and then called out, “That’s a wrap for this location.”

We nodded and headed for the van to take us back to campus. Mal sidled up beside me. “I may be in possession of a Snickers bar. What will you give me for it?”

I may or may not have whimpered. “Fun size? Regular? Whatcha working with?”

“You know I only deal in king size.” He smirked.

My mouth watered. Not for his innuendo but for that chocolate wrapped around nougat; that caramelly, peanutty goodness. “What do you want for it?”

His eyes darkened. “I can think of so many ways to answer that, girlie.”

I shook my head. “I look beat from tip to toe and must smell like all of the bayou and you’re thinking nasty thoughts?”

“Around you? Always.”

“Boy, I’m not about to do you for a Snickers bar.”

“What will you do me for?”

“Are you that desperate to be done?”

“Like I said: With you? Always.”

“How about I let you take the first shower tonight and we call it even?” I offered.

He considered for a minute. “Care to join me?”

“Boy, give up.” I chuckled.

“Not likely. But I’m easy—I’ll take the first shower and you can have the Snickers. Will you save a piece?” He climbed onto the bus and we settled into the back row.

I slid him a sideways glance. “Will you save me some hot water?”

“Deal.”

“I don’t know, Mal. I might’ve got the better end of the deal on this one.”

“Which one of us is on kitchen duty for a week?”

My face fell. “Oh yeah. And I ache all over. I could use a hot shower.”

“I could give you a little massage later, work out some of the kinks?”

I smacked him on the shoulder, though the offer was hella tempting. “I’ll just enjoy the Snickers and worry about my own kinks, thank you.”

He whispered in my ear. “Sounds nasty.”

“Everything sounds nasty to you.”

“You used to love that about me.”

“Hmph.” Yep. That was my witty comeback. I was spared having to say anything more intelligent as we pulled up in front of the dorm.