Page 51 of Jinxed
I swallow, hard. That means that Jinx and Oka are expected to fight. But how is that possible? We’re on the same team. At least – I think we are. Tobias looks at me with disgust, pacing backwards until there’s physical distance between us, and I wince.
‘Jinx! Come back here!’ I finally find myvoice.
‘Well, aren’t you going to go in?’
I spin around to see Jake, who’s standing behind the team box. He’s looking at me with one eyebrow raised. ‘I’m not impressed that you didn’t tell me you were the wild card. You know that this is going to ruin all my bets today. You owe me one, Lacey Chu.’
‘The wild card? But...’ I’m torn. I don’t know what Jinx is playing at, I don’t know what awild card team is, but I do know that I need to somewhat pretend that I am in control of the situation if we’re going to keep up any semblance of normality. I have to go along with it. I avoid admitting or denying anything with a shrug of my shoulders.
‘Good luck, Lace. You’re going to need it.’ Jake smiles at me encouragingly – probably out of pity, to counteract the waves of animosity slammingtowards me from Tobias’s direction.
I take a deep breath, then vault up and over the barrier. I drop down into the arena, landing with a thud. I walk into one of the circles. As I pass Kai, he hisses in my ear: ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Nothing,’ I murmur as I move inside a circle. ‘This is all a big mistake, I promise you.’
‘Yeah, I don’t think yourpromisesmeans very much rightnow. Shame I’m going to have to destroy your little baku. He was a cool one.’
I step into one of the silver circles. My face flickers up on to one of the screens, my fear and nerves writ large. Under my name are the words: WILD CARD.
It’s as if this has all been planned.
And once again, I’m the one that’s in the dark.
Jinx, what is going on?
>>I couldn’t let Jupiter be destroyed.
Even thoughI know he entered the arena to protect Jupiter, I’m filled with fury. Especially as now he’s going to have to take down Oka.
Let’s get this over with, then.
Oka doesn’t stand a chance against Jinx. Jinx knows every move Oka is going to make before Kai does – he knows all of his weaknesses, all of the ways to bring him down in the minimal number of moves. And Jinx is ruthless. He doesn’t stopat 25 or 30%, giving Kai an opportunity to pull his baku. He takes it all the way down to zero.
But of course, Kai thinks that it’s me. Any good will I might have built up over the past month evaporates with the final wicked swipe of Jinx’s paw that levels the husky baku.
The whistle sounds. The audience is stunned into silence – there’s no roar of applause. Unfortunately, I can hear every singleone of my heartbeats resounding in my ear, loud as gongs.
Mr Baird is illuminated in the centre of the arena again. ‘Well.’ He clears his throat. ‘That was an unexpected turn of events. It appears that we had a wild card entry into the Baku Battles. That means there will be one additional team for the Baku Battles final at Moncha HQ this year.’ He looks down at me. ‘I hope that you and your bakuare up for the challenge. At least, you’ve done well to start. Team Lacey – your team has been awarded two hundred points for winning the second round of the Baku Battles. The other teams have twelve hours in order to challenge you for a share of the points. Although, by the looks of things... I don’t think that’s going to happen.’
I suppose I’ve got my chance after all.
The chance to competefor the summer internship. To go behind the scenes at Moncha HQ. I’m the captain of my own Baku Battle team.
A team of one. Against an entire group who hate me.
IWISH THAT JINX COULD PICK ME UP AND fly me away to some faraway island where no one knows me. I would give up my left arm to not be sitting at a desk on the front row of Mr Baird’s classroom, mybutt falling asleep on the hard plastic chair, Jinx nonchalantly licking his paw at my feet, while the other team captains gather around Mr Baird’s desk and yell.
‘It’s notfair,’ says Gemma. She jabs her finger in my direction, and I think if she’d had a sword long enough, she would have stabbed me right through the heart with it. Instead, she suffices with pointing at me with her Shellac-ednail. ‘There’s nowhere in the rules of Profectus Baku Battles that states this is a possibility.’
Mr Baird shrugs. ‘The rules are pretty clear when it says to expect the absolute unexpected. And thereisa precedent with wild card entries – it’s a decision that comes from the upper echelons of Moncha Corp. It’s all registered in the system. I’ve taken it up with the Profectus board, and thoughthey find it highly unorthodox, they don’t see a problem with another team competing at this stage. Don’t tell me you are afraid of a little competition, guys,’ he says, rubbing his unshaven chin, his shirtsleeves rolled up and stained with oil. ‘You still have until the morning to fix up your injured bakus to try and take back some points.’ He turns to Tobias. ‘Your team pulled off a miracle lastround. Shouldn’t be too difficult to do that again, should it?’
I swallow, hard, not daring to catch Tobias’s eye. We both know he won’t have the companioneering skill to fix the broken bakus. I was his secret weapon.
Mr Baird continues. ‘Besides, almost all of you have level 4 or higher bakus left. Shouldn’t be a problem to defeat Lacey’s level 3.’
‘That’s right. Stripe was already weak bythe time your baku entered the arena,’ says Gemma. ‘That was a cheap move coming in at the end. You must have known about this for ages. How long have you been preparing thatstrategy?’
They all turn to look at me now, and my cheeks burn.I didn’t send Jinx into the arena, is what I want to say. But that would open the door to questions I’m not prepared to answer yet.
