Talented Teens - 5. Round Five

Following Topher's departure and the drama that had ensued throughout the round, the mood was heavy despite the contestants hitting the top prize twice in a row. Tyson and Veikko did little but stare each other down, and Sona and Elijah both seemed content to simply make it to the end by riding out the storm.

"You made it halfway," Sona broke the silence by reminding Elijah that he'd succeeded in his mission.

He beamed excitedly at her. "I did! And so did you. How far did you expect to get?"

"I didn't know when I got here. I thought maybe you might all get rid of me because I'm the youngest," Sona smiled modestly. "But I think we have a good team here."

"I think we do. We've got the top prize two rounds in a row, which is huge! I don't remember the last time anyone did that," Elijah remarked. "What about you, Tyson? How far did you think you'd get?"

"All the way," Tyson answered quickly and confidently. "I put a hundred and ten percent into everything I do, so I expected I'd win. I still do."

"Wow, okay," Elijah leaned on his podium, hair messily falling around his face. "What would winning mean to you?"

The younger teenager froze, and stalled before answering the question. "That should be obvious. Winning is everything."

After a pause, Sona spoke. "I didn't come here to lose."

"I guess I want to win, too," Elijah shyly brushed his hair back. "Now that it's looking more and more like it can happen, I don't want to come up short!"

"But only one of you can win," Veikko's voice shattered the bonding between the trio standing together, and three pairs of eyes found him one at a time. "So I have a question, and I'm being real, no shade. You vote me off this round, and then what happens?" The three of them looked guiltily at each other, and the loner spoke again. "So which one of you gets the knife in the back?"

"Whoever makes the mistake," Tyson repeated his words from a previous round.

"UGH," Veikko made a show of distaste, waving his hands around as if trying to push away an unpleasant smell. "I didn't expect anything but a copout from daddy's little policitian," he ignored Tyson rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "What do the two of you think?"

"What do you care?" Sona asked him.

"Whatevs, I'm just going to remind you that three of us - myself, you," he pointed to Sona, "and you," he finished with Elijah, "have been the strongest players in different rounds. Can't say the same for Tyson. So what are you going to do?"

"Nothing you say matters, ladyboy. Your game's over," Tyson threatened him, and Veikko wiggled his eyebrow slyly.

"Alright teens, let's shake off the nerves and get ready to go," the Hostess brought them back to reality.

"Everybody holds. Nobody runs," Tyson repeated the strategy.

"Sounds good," agreed Sona.

Elijah nodded in solidarity, and Veikko refused to give an inch in the cold war with his newfound archrival, completely ghosting him as the Hostess began the next round.

"Welcome back to the Weakest Link! This is round five, and we have four contestants left. Tyson, our future Prime Minister; Sona, our prospective doctor; Elijah, our detective; and Veikko, our influencer - whatever that is. I'm taking ten more seconds off the clock, and because I like you, I'm increasing your top prize to seventy-five thousand dollars. That's double and a half of the last round's winnings. We'll start with the strongest link from the last round, Veikko. Let's play the Weakest Link! Start the clock."

Veikko made a show of looking completely unfazed and stood nonchalantly with his left side to the Hostess.

"Veikko, in maths, what is the value of pi to two decimal places?"

"Three point one four," Veikko replied, rubbing one of his eyes with the back of his lightly freckled hand.

"Correct. Tyson, in which Oscar Wild play does the character Lady Bracknell appear?"

"No idea. Pass," Tyson very quickly offered his rejection of the question. Elijah's eyes bulged, and he frowned.

"The Importance Of Being Ernest," the Hostess informed him. "Sona, in biology, what name is given to the process by which plants convert sunlight into chemical energy?"

"Photosynthesis."

"Correct. Elijah, how many items make up a baker's dozen?"

"Eleven," Elijah responded confidently.

"No, thirteen," the Hostess corrected him, causing him to reel back. "Veikko, 'Hola' means 'hello' in what language?"

Veikko's nose twitched, and he rubbed his upper arm with his left hand. "Italian."

Sona inhaled and exhaled audibly, unable to mask her frustration.

"No, Spanish. Tyson, in Australian slang, a 'saltie' is a common nickname for what deadly reptile?"

"Crocodile."

"Be more specific," the Hostess asked of him.

"Saltwater crocodile," Tyson tapped his hands on the sides of his podium, irritated he wasted time with a bad answer.

"Correct. Sona, how many tiles does each player start with in a game of Scrabble?"

Sona took a moment to think. "Seven."

"Correct. Elijah, what social network was the first to hit one billion registered accounts worldwide in 2012?"

"Twitter?" Elijah grimaced, already apparently aware he was wrong. Veikko screwed up his face when hearing his rival's answer.

"Facebook. Veikko, what breed of cat shares its name with the former name of Iran?"

Veikko shrugged. "Persian?"

"Correct!" The Hostess moved back to Tyson as Veikko smiled with relief. "Tyson, in history, which country was ruled by Catherine the Great following a coup?"

"Russia."

"Correct. Sona, in nature, which river is the longest in the world?"

"The Nile."

"Correct. Elijah--"

"Bank!" Elijah hit his button, and Tyson and Sona looked to their left in shock.

"In geography, Istanbul is the capital city of which West Asian country?"

"Turkey!"

"Correct. Veikko, if you withdrew one hundred dollars in the bank in five dollar notes, how many notes would you expect to receive?"

Veikko sniffed. "Twenty."

"Correct. Tyson, what name is given to a young seal?"

"Pup?"

"Correct. Sona--"

"Bank!" Sona hit her button, painfully aware that time was running out.

"In the Australian television show Kath 'n' Kim, what--" The tones hit the studio, and the Hostess stood back. "Time is up, and I can't complete that question." She looked at the four sheepish students in front of her. "How the mighty have fallen! Out of a possible seventy-five thousand dollars, a mere ten thousand dollars pales in comparison. Who will you send to detention? Is Tyson's campaign a bust? Is Sona's diagnosis 'braindead?' Is Elijah revealed to be the villain? Is Veikko a useless person after all? It's time for you to vote off the weakest link."

Veikko pressed his button very quickly, eyeing off Tyson opposite him. Tyson returned the favour. Sona looked at her screen for a long time, calculating the best choice. Elijah took a long time, but he studied the other three contestants.

"Okay, voting is over!" The Hostess turned to Elijah, who turned bright red. "Elijah, what happened to you?"

"I missed talking to you, and I knew you'd come right over to me if I had a bad round," Elijah deflected, straightening his spectacles.

"And you were right! Was it worth breaking the chain?" The Hostess shared a grin with him.

"I'd like to say so."

"Well, if I had it my way Elijah, you and I would be here together to the end, but I wonder if your team will agree you had the best game plan. You know, I thought all the teenagers did the social media thing. Clearly not you!"

"Actually, I don't," the curly-haired teenager admitted. "I have a Twitter, but I don't post anything. I just follow a few people - friends, cousins, authors."

"Do any of them know what a baker's dozen is?"

"I thought it was eleven!" Elijah hugged himself. "Because the baker eats one? I don't know. I don't know why it's thirteen. So they can eat one?"

"Bread loaves were measured by weight in medieval times, so bakers often made an extra one to avoid getting in trouble with the law," the Hostess explained. "But if I'm being honest, I like your explanation better. It's a shame I couldn't accept it. So, what will you be studying if you win the prize tonight?"

"I want to get a double degree in Criminology and Forensic Science," Elijah smiled. "If I ace my exams this year, I'll be able to accelerate my VCE and graduate early, and then I'll go straight into university."

"I certainly hope you do better in your exams than you did in that round! So, who did you vote for?"

"I voted for Veikko again," Elijah admitted, and Veikko rolled his eyes. "I don't think he's having a good time over there, so I thought I'd do him a favour and send him home early."

Elijah's attempt to make a joke did not go over well with the prickly loner.

"I don't need you to worry about me, K thanks," Veikko gestured as though he were brushing Elijah's fake concern off him. "Shame you didn't have the courage to vote for someone else."

Elijah's regret for voting for Veikko not-so-surreptitiously vanished.

"Sona," the Hostess moved to the sole survivor of the female participants. "You've been flying under the radar. What will you be studying at university if you win tonight?"

"I have not decided which bachelor just yet," Sona explained, brushing some of her dark hair behind a petite, pierced ear. "Biomedicine, or perhaps science. I still have many years of school to go yet."

It was easy to forget Sona, like Tyson, was only thirteen. She answered questions confidently and competently, an exceptionally clever girl and someone politically savvy enough to make it so far through the game. She already knew the right things to say, the right time to smile, and the right person to ally herself with. Similar to Tyson, it appeared as though she'd been guided and groomed into a career choice already by her parents.

"You know what? That's fair," the Hostess agreed. "Do you have any ideas about what area of medicine you'd like to specialise in when you finish your residency another thirteen years from now?"

"Yes, actually, I would like to be a paediatrician."

"Good for you, Sona. Which of these disappointing boys did you vote for in this round?"

"Veikko," Sona looked over pitilessly to the boy who had been a thorn in her side for many rounds. "I don't think he wants to play as a team."

"That's rich, isn't it?" Veikko snapped back at her. "You're all so smart except when you're not. None of you know how to play the game. It's hilarious."

"I know I'm going to beat you," Sona shut him down bluntly, getting a wide-mouthed scoff from the freckled brunette.

"You mouth off all game and act surprised that we voted for you?" Tyson added, rancour evident in his body language.

"UHH, you have no lines in this play, kid," Veikko waved his hand to the left, as though pushing Tyson out of his sight, then pointed at him. "This guy has completely wrapped the two of you around his finger, and I don't know if you're too blind to notice or too gutless to do something about it. He's playing you, but you're safe while he needs you, so you're doing his dirty work for him by voting me off. It's actually hilarious."

Elijah looked guiltily at Tyson, to his credit, but Sona had nerves of steel and refused to back down from the staring exchange.

"Veikko," the Hostess moved to the boy on the far end. "You never took Spanish?"

"Never needed it."

"Do you think answering that question correctly would have made the difference in Sona and Elijah's votes?"

"Ugh, no. Neither of them thinks for themselves, so real talk, I was playing a rigged game from the start," Veikko grumbled.

The Hostess didn't bother to follow that up with any remarks, moving over to Tyson instead. "Tyson, you answered incorrectly in that round."

"Theatre is a huge blind spot for me," Tyson admitted. He seemed to be in a much better mood suddenly.

"Is your vote business or personal?"

Tyson looked at his nemesis. "Both."

"Alright, let's see who the team has decided is the weakest link," the Hostess moved on.

"Big surprise," Veikko sulked in the corner.

Tyson triumphantly pushed his button. "Veikko."

Sona followed up. "Veikko."

Elijah didn't seem to second-guess himself. "Veikko."

Veikko snorted. "Tyson."

The Hostess turned to the drama magnet, and it seemed the whole studio sighed in relief.

"Veikko, you've had a lot to say - in English, not in Spanish - but the team is ready for some peace and quiet. With three votes, you are the weakest link. Adios!"

Veikko smirked defiantly and stepped down from his podium, peacocking his way down the studio with a feminine sway in his hips, his palm raised in the other contestants' directions in his signature gesture. Once he passed by the Hostess, nobody paid much attention to him. Tyson grinned triumphantly as the flamboyant teen left the set, but when he turned and saw both Sona and Elijah looking directly as him, the confidence visibly fell from his face.

"They didn't vote me off because I was weak or because I was a threat - they voted me off because it was easy. Hashtag real talk, Tyson is so lucky that the lambs are content to follow the wolf in sheep's clothing because if the others ever had half a brain, they'd have voted for him by now. Even though I'm out of the game, I'm the one everyone will talk about, LOL. I think the others totes underestimated me - they thought I was some bimbo because of what I do, so I'm glad I played well. Not gonna lie, I really did want to win but unfortunately it's a popularity contest, so Tyson is still there, and I'm not. Still, if I did my job, the lambs will turn on the wolf and eat him alive before the final round. If I can’t win, neither can he. Adios, Tyson. Mwah."

Three contestants remain.