Talented Teens - 8. Invitations

~ Genevieve ~

"Thank you SO much, Tammy. I'll call you back tomorrow and let you know what I've decided! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!"

"I look forward to hearing from you. Bye-bye now," the voice on the other side was keen to hang up.

Genevieve excitedly brushed the long blond hair behind her shoulders and squealed into her hands. Letting her giddiness subside, she got up from the edge of her bed and barrelled from the room she shared with two foster sisters into the sitting room, where six pairs of eyes looked up at her.

"They want me to do another Teens episode!!"

"Woo woo!" Sherman cupped his ivory hands around his lips to celebrate for her.

Ma, Pa, Justin and Amy also applauded and congratulated the eldest of the foster children, though Amy couldn't help herself with a cheeky barb.

"Even though you went out on the first round last time?"

Though Ma gave Amy a disapproving tut, Genevieve merely ignored her. "I also get to bring a friend!"

"Me!" Amy switched completely and decided she was now Genevieve's biggest supporter. "Me, please!"

"Can I?" Justin asked.

Genevieve didn't care too much for Amy. She was the worst of fourteen, just now deciding she was extremely witty and cool. Justin was only twelve, not old enough for the producers of Treacherous Teens - though Genevieve didn't know much more than just the title of the new special. Thirteen through seventeen - and thus she turned to the eldest of the four fosters, the one she was closest to and really considered her brother.

"I think Shermy's the best one for the job," Genevieve brushed the younger ones aside, and Sherman's freckled face beamed up at her.

"You think so?"

"I don't know what we'll be doing - but it's called Treacherous Teens instead of Talented Teens this time, so we get to go on the offensive."

While Pa clinked away at the cornflakes in his bowl and a disappointed Amy and Justin watched intently, Sherman did his little happy dance seated at the table.

"So you'll teach that witch Sona a lesson for voting you off?" Ma teased her young wards.

"Oh yes!" Genevieve tented her fingers together.

"I'll do it! Anything for you," Sherman popped up to hug her. "Except I get to marry Topher."

"Nooo! If anyone’s marrying Topher it’s going to be me!" Genevieve insisted. “You can marry Veikko instead, if you like.”

"As if!" Sherman let go of her as if she'd told him she was COVID-positive.

~ Vanessa ~

"Are you going to do it?"

"I don't know. I don't really want to see any of them again," Vanessa complained.

"Girl, it's up to a hundred thousand dollars!" Diana objected, gently polishing a powder blue over her cousin's ring finger. "I don't care who I gotta put up with to get a chance like that. Do I gotta go and knock on Elijah's door instead to get an invite?"

Vanessa scrunched up her face. She couldn't believe that she'd been voted off so early - and that Elijah, the teenager who went to the boys' campus of Oakfield as one of those weird boarders, almost choked against Tyson. She wouldn't have taken so long to win, that was for sure. She was the only person in the game who hadn't even gotten a question wrong, but they voted her off anyway because she banked too often.

"I'll go. This time won't be the same," Vanessa suddenly changed her mind. "Will you go with me, though?"

"I thought I was already! Was there a point I wasn't?" Diana pretended to be offended, grinning at her friend. "But I wasn't lying, girl. Elijah will be going as well, won't he? Why not work together to make sure the money comes back to Oakfield again?”

"We don't even know what the game is yet. Treacherous Teens - can we even make an alliance?"

"Better to have one and not need it than to need it and not have it," counselled Diana.

Vanessa nodded slowly. "Alright, that makes sense. Let's go and see if he'll work with us. Maybe if we offer to take out Tyson?"

"Oh, that guy, don't even go there! I wanted to throttle him through the TV!"

The girls laughed. Vanessa appreciated her cousin. She wasn't fond of many people - and apparently, they weren't fond of her either - but she did love Diana.

~ Candice ~

"You are?" Ember's black eyes lit up excitedly.

"Yes! I'm going to be on TV again!"

"With the same people?"

"Yeah - which is fine! I didn't have any issues with anyone. Everyone else had beef," Candice remarked, playing with the tip of her long, orange braid. "This time I'm definitely going to beat Topher - I know I might not have been the best player, but it’s embarrassing to lose to him!"

"You’ll crush it. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer," Ember agreed. "Make sure you beat Veikko, too. He was so annoying to watch."

"Sure! Why not? Why not beat all of them?" Candice laughed, but then sighed. "I still don't know why they chose Veikko to go instead of you. You’d have done so well - and we could have looked out for each other!"

Ember violently shook her head and waved her hands. "Nooo way, I'd die! I can't stand the thought of being up there with all those people and cameras. It makes me retch."

"It's not that bad! You get used to it," Candice sighed again, knowing there was no way to change her friend's mind. "So… I’m guessing that means there's no chance you'd come with me as my partner to Treacherous Teens, then?"

Ember blushed a little under her neat black hair. "No - I don't think I'd do well. I can't perform under that kind of pressure, you know?"

Candice wanted to tell her to stop being so stupid. Ember was almost a prodigy - she was taking VCE classes already, and they were both only in Year Eight. Had she agreed to represent Peatsland Academy for Talented Teens, they wouldn't have sent Veikko instead. Ember probably would have beaten all of them - Sona, Tyson, even Elijah. If they went to Treacherous Teens as a pair, she was confident they'd walk away with whatever prize they scraped together!

"Fine," she sighed. "I don't know who else I'd pick, then."

Ember twisted her lips in the way she did when she was thinking, and quickly she had a light bulb moment. "I think Maverick would be a great choice for you."

"Maverick?" Candice's thoughts shifted to Ember's brother. "I don't-- do you think so?”

“He’s smarter than he looks and he’s pretty fit, too. I don’t know what you need to win whatever Treacherous Teens is, but he’s good at a lot of things.”

“Would he even want to?”

“Of course he would. He’s super competitive - and you know he’ll do anything to win.”

“That’s kind of what I’m afraid of.”

Candice furrowed her brow as she pondered. She adored Ember, and they had a great deal in common, but there was a reason she always invited her friend over rather than visit her. Her family was super weird. They called themselves a commune, but a lot of people called them a cult. Ember had one dad, five mums and seventeen brothers and sisters, and they all had weird hippie names.

Maverick, Ember's biological brother from the same Japanese mum, had always been nice to her - or as nice as Maverick ever was to someone. However, he was unpredictable, and he had piercings and tattoos somehow despite only being a year older than them. Was it a good idea to associate with him? She wasn't representing Christian Girls' College this time, but people might think she was a weirdo by association if she hung out with him on national television.

"I don't know, Em. He's-- y'know. Rough. Scary?"

"I know, but do you want to win?" Ember asked her, and Candice thought long and hard about it.

"I really do. At least, I need to beat Topher this time."

“Maverick will eat Topher for breakfast,” Ember reassured her.

~ Topher ~

"Hey Toph, isn't it funny how the word 'queue' is just a letter with four silent letters?" Kevin teased.

Topher thought the joke was getting old by now, but his friends never seemed to grow tired of it, just as he'd predicted on the night he'd managed to make a fool of himself.

"Is there a queue of people lining up to be the friend you take to the new episode?" Zachary added.

Though he laughed it off outwardly, he didn't like being the target of one relentless quip that never died. His blue eyes traced the outline of the beachside horizon, and he wished he were there instead rather than at the picnic with his friends. He'd love to let his hair free, throw off his shirt and shoes and dive into the cold waves, but instead, he was keeping up appearances, collared shirt tucked immaculately into his chinos, hair waxed into a sleek blond sheet over his head.

"Who will you take with you, though?" Harper asked him, her hazel eyes assessing him as he failed to be discreet about not wanting to be present with company.

"I'll protect you from your boyfriend," Zachary offered cheekily.

"Nah, Toph can outrun that Elijah geek any day," Kevin laughed.

"Don't be ferals," Harper snapped at them.

Despite being six feet tall at fifteen and sixteen, respectively, Kevin and Zachary gave each other a look and let the youngest quartet member call the shots, settling down. It wasn't uncommon for her to step in and stand up for Topher. Harper looked like a pretty, proper young lady, but she had an edge to her tongue and wasn't afraid to boss them around. The two boys also knew she was madly in love with their friend, but he had his head far too high up in the clouds to ever notice.

Topher looked at her, then at his shoes. "I haven't decided, actually. Maybe you?"

"Her?" Zachary blurted out, but Kevin shoved him.

"Why not me?" Harper scoffed.

"Toph, you're going to pick a girl? Do you want to win or not?"

"Why wouldn't we win?" Topher's eyebrows furrowed. Though he feigned ignorance, he knew what his friend was suggesting.

"Anything you can do, I can do better," Harper insisted fiercely, drawing an amused laugh from Kevin and a derisive snort from Zachary.

"You've done it now, idiot," Kevin shoved Zachary again, and the two began to wrestle together.

"Definitely you," Topher remarked, smiling to Harper, whose eyes appeared to gloss over. “I don’t think they’d be able to keep their eye on the prize.”

Harper’s eyes were definitely on a prize, but probably not the same one as Topher's.

~ Veikko ~

After clicking the play button, two petite, slender teenage boys sitting side-by-side on a bed began to animate. They looked exactly the same down to their hair, even wearing the identical white shirts and tight black jeans - but one of them was considerably more flamboyant than the other. That was the only way a stranger could tell them apart.

"HASHTAG REAL TALK friends, this is Veikko, and today I've got Reima with me--"

"Hi, friends!" Reima waved to the camera.

"And today we've got the BIGGEST news for the Flawless Finns channel!" Veikko beamed, much more animated than he usually was.

"You got a new sponsorship deal?" Reima played dumb.

"Nope!"

"We got a new puppy?" Reima looked at his twin brother, confused.

"Try again!" Veikko encouraged him.

"You're going to be on a new TV special!" Reima announced excitedly.

"WE," Veikko pointed between them, then the pair looked back to the camera. "Are going to be on another TV special!"

The pair hooted together, and as if rehearsed, they pulled a pair of party poppers into the air above them, Reima cringing as the confetti piled up on his messy brown hair.

"That's RIGHT! I get a chance to redeem myself after the Weakest Link special - we can all agree that I was robbed blind, can't we?"

"Hundred per cent!" Reima agreed, throwing his arm clumsily around his brother's shoulders and squeezing him close. "But this time, I'll have your back!"

"So we'll be playing Treacherous Teens - I don't know what that is, but it sounds much more fun than Talented Teens! This time, we all get to bring a friend, and I can't think of anyone better than Rei!"

"We've been on a team since before we were born!" Reima added. “Are we scared of Sona?” He asked his brother.

“Ahh, who?” Veikko looked confused.

“Tyson?”

“LOL, he wishes!”

“Elijah?”

“Can you say tragic?”

“Yeah, they’re all going DOWN!” Reima insisted.

"So make sure you watch for Treacherous Teens, friends! This episode's winners will definitely be--"

"The Flawless Finns!!" The two beamed to the camera together, and the video with eighty-nine thousand views finished.

~ Sona ~

"I still don't know why you felt the need to gloat on your way out," Maa sighed thoughtfully, pausing the replay to give the commentary Sona was so used to. "You won’t have any friends this time. They won’t trust you again.”

"How was I to know we were returning to do another game?" Sona, whined with the irritability of a freshly turned fourteen-year-old. "Nobody said we would come back for Treacherous Teens when I was there!"

"It was still careless. That's not a good look for you. Now it'll be even harder to win this time, and you came so close last time. So close!"

"You won't make those mistakes again, will you?" Pita asked her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Come, stop pouting. Maa's right; you need to think about your strategy now that they see how clever you are."

"Strategy? How do I make a strategy? I don't know the rules of Treacherous Teens!"

"Sona, you're being petulant," Maa warned her.

"You went into the last game with a plan, and you almost succeeded," Pita was more patient than Maa but no less strict. "Elijah failed you - that was out of your control. The final vote in the Weakest Link isn't fair. Neither is life. But your vanity has cost you the advantage in the second game. We need to be honest about this. That doesn't mean you can't do it right this time and win!"

Sona had all of four seconds to digest and reflect on her father's words when Maa spoke to her again.

"Who will you take with you?" When Sona didn't answer within three seconds, Maa responded for her. "How about Jing? She's a competitive girl. Very smart, very athletic; I think she'll do a great job."

The conversation was moving much too fast for Sona to dwell on the criticisms from her parents, and she was forced to consider. Jing was on her gymnastics team - and Maa's assessment was accurate if nothing else. She wondered if she'd rather take a real friend instead. It wasn't that she didn't like Jing, but they were business partners and little else. Maa adored her, though. It was worth agreeing to let this conversation come to an end.

"Jing would do well. Can I call her now?"

"Good idea! The sooner we start some strategy, the better off we’ll be,” Paa agreed.

“Vengeance is the strategy,” she whispered aloud, quietly enough that her parents wouldn’t hear her.

Coming first wasn’t the primary objective this time. She had a score to settle, not only with Tyson, who had humiliated her on national television, but with the reigning champion Elijah as well, after his terrible judgement led to her losing the chance to win the substantial prize.

~ Tyson ~

“Why do you always think I must have crapped the bed? Why can’t you just think that maybe I'm not a loser and he could just be really good?”

“Because he’s not good - you choked! We watched the episode, and you made so many stupid mistakes. That was an easy win, and you just let it slip through your fingers. Kelly’s going to make sure you don't screw it up again.”

"I'm not taking her. No way," Tyson insisted.

"It's not up for discussion. You and Kelly will go to Treacherous Teens together, and this time you won’t mess it up," Edith did not give him any room to argue. "Your father will be running for state premier in the next election. Your failure in the Weakest Link reflects poorly on him. Don't be so selfish as to give up another opportunity to represent the Belmont-Lovetts as winners."

"I'm not doing it!"

"You will, and you'll do it without the attitude!”

Kelly observed the argument with her brown eyes, not drawing any of their mother's wrath towards her by being the perfect, compliant little lady. Tyson hated her for it.

"Do you even want to do this?" Tyson asked her, deliberately dragging her into the argument to put an end to her habit of flying under the radar. It was about time she had her turn in the firing line.

"Of course. Unless you're going to be a complete pain the whole time," Kelly remarked snidely, making her younger brother roll his eyes. She really was just a miniature of their mother.

"Right. Dunno why I bothered to ask.”

"What is your problem anyway?" Edith's voice reached critical mass, just enough to make her younger child's eardrums quiver. "You ran roughshod over the entire group last time! You voted off the gutless wonder who banked all the money, you got rid of that annoying little queer boy and you taught that little brat a lesson for trying to stab you in the back. Then you let that greasy nerd make a fool out of you. Now you have a chance to redeem yourself, so how can you possibly be upset about it? I don't understand you! Why do you choose to make everything so difficult all the time?"

Tyson glared at her, not giving an inch until Edith's cheeks turned puce under her Kris Jenner pixie cut and sparse brown makeup. Before either could explode at the other all over again, Kelly stepped in.

"Look, it’s whatever, Tyson. All I need you to do is get me in the door, then I’ll take it from there. You don’t need to do anything. I can do it solo.”

Edith's eyes swapped to her daughter. She was much less combative than her son, but still not immune to going off-script. She was a Belmont-Lovett after all. To the woman's surprise, appealing to Tyson’s competitive side and thirst to prove himself was precisely what was missing from her original pitch.

“I don’t need you to carry me,” Tyson folded his arms indignantly. “Whatever. Fine. I'll do it, but not for you,” he snubbed his mother. “Not for Chase either.”

"You'll do it for the family," Edith didn't believe his answer was good enough. "And you'll do a great job, and you’ll represent us as winner! Kelly isn't going to do all the work herself! We will not be looked at as slackers!"

Kelly sighed and looked out the window at the gorgeous rose bushes as her brother and mother's war of words and threats started all over again.

~ Elijah ~

"Why wouldn't you want to go back?" Owen seemed personally attacked by Elijah's answer.

"You could win so much more money!" Tiger reminded him so helpfully.

The curly-haired teenager was bundled up in the corner of the couch, his favourite spot in the shared recreational room of the Oakfield boys' campus dormitories, knees drawn to his chin in a way that didn't look like it could possibly be comfortable.

"I don't know if it's for me," Elijah admitted quietly, putting his bookmark in place as he realised this conversation would happen whether he liked it or not. "It's so much pressure - that sudden death round had me feeling like I was about to die, then there was that cricket question that destroyed my whole future. And I don't even know what Treacherous Teens is! I don't want to go."

"I'll go in your place then!" Reggie beamed at him.

"They might notice, Reg," Owen pointed out. It didn't need to be pointed out, though. Aside from both wearing glasses and a lack of both muscle and fat, the pair couldn't look less alike.

"No pressure, Silverman. Except man up, you wuss. ...What?" Reggie appeared shocked when three sets of eyes peered at him disapprovingly. "If I got the chance, I would have beaten Tyson and gone back to win the second game too, then I don’t know, buy a country or something. Why would you waste an opportunity like this?"

"I don't want to go," Elijah huffed, picking up his novel and irritably leaving the conversation and his friends behind as they continued to talk without him.

Shortly before dinner, Elijah was suddenly yanked again out of his book trance by Tiger barging his way into the dorm room the two shared with Owen and Reggie. Elijah looked up, annoyed, unable to wait until next year when he could share with just one person - preferably Owen, the quietest of his three friends. He would even get a small dorm room to himself in three years, where nobody would interrupt him.

"Hey, you've got a call," Tiger held out his phone with one hand. "It's Vanessa. She wants to talk to you," he added when Elijah's puzzlement crossed his face.

Elijah hesitated. He'd had only a few interactions with Vanessa from the girls' campus and enjoyed none of them. She'd been even worse since the Weakest Link special aired, telling everyone who would listen that it was rigged in Tyson's favour because of who his father was - even though Tyson wasn't the winner. When Tiger's expression told him that he wasn't allowed to refuse, he reluctantly took the phone from his friend.

"Hi, Ness," Elijah spoke quietly.

"Hey, what's this about you not coming to Treacherous Teens?" Vanessa didn't skip any beats. "You're not serious, right?"

"I-- yeah, kinda?" Elijah stammered.

"No, you're coming," she decided for him. "I need you, Eli. Come on! This is our chance to get revenge on Tyson.”

“For what?” Elijah asked her. “I beat him. I don’t have anything to prove.”

“Did you forget that he voted me out in the tiebreaker because I banked money? How about when he made that stupid no banking rule and you lost all that money? Yeah you won, but that cricket question is what everyone remembers, Eli. That was his fault. He ruined the game for all of us - even you! Don't you want to make him squirm?"

Elijah paused. He wasn't ashamed to admit that losing nearly half of the eventual prize money bothered him. He did win, but as Vanessa said, it wasn’t what everyone seemed to care about. The headline for the critically acclaimed Teens special was that the geek who didn’t play sports lost fifty thousand dollars with a single, easy mistake. It was embarrassing. Not only that, he hadn't forgotten that Tyson tried to vote him off in the penultimate round - and had only changed his mind because Sona had gotten under his skin with her betrayal.

"Hello?" Vanessa asked impatiently.

"I'm here. And I guess I'll do it. Maybe it’ll be fun again," Elijah looked up to Tiger, who had been doing his best to eavesdrop. "Also, I’m bringing a secret weapon with me.”

Tiger pointed at himself, and when Elijah nodded in confirmation, he beamed with excitement.

Sixteen contestants return...?

Thank you for reading! Talented Teens is done  
Buut... who knows?