Page 27 of Competing Against Thor

"Welcome to the semi-finals ofThe Great Sculpting Challenge!" After several weeks, I was actually starting to find Rosie's enthusiasm kind of catching. "This is a very exciting round because it's the team challenge! You'll each be paired off with another contestant. So the good news is that two of you will be namedJudge's Choicethis week, but the bad news is that two of you are going home. And the remaining four competitors will head on to the finals next week!"

My stomach twisted into knots. Whether this was a success or not was going to depend on who I was paired with. I looked around the other contestants. Kenji wouldn't be too bad, though he had an arrogant streak that made me doubt he'd be happy working with me. Carlos was talented, but he didn't strike me as a team player either.

"For this challenge, you're going to have two days," Duncan said. "The studio is going to be open to you until ten o'clock tonight, and will be open at six am tomorrow morning, you can use as much or as little time in here as you want, but once the time runs out, you'll have to stop."

That was a decent amount of time compared to our other challenges, which made me wonder exactly what they were goingto have us do. I had to assume that it was going to be a big challenge, and not just from the part of working together.

"This week, we'll be asking you to make a tree," Duncan said.

I almost laughed. Nowthatwas something I was good at.

"It must be at least seven feet tall and have at least one animal interacting with it. You're to use at least three different sculpting techniques throughout your piece, and it has to stand on its own."

My eyes widened. That was a lot of work, and while I was confident in creating a tree, I'd normally take two weeks over something as large as that.

"As for the teams, that's for you to decide," Rosie said.

Hope welled up within me. If I couldchoosewho I was paired with, that would make a big difference.

"Each of you will put your hand in this bag and pull out a ball." She lifted a velvet bag so we could see. "The person with the matching number will be your partner for this challenge."

And all the hope died.

She went around the circle, letting each of the six of us put our hand in the bag and pull out the balls. My heart pounded as I turned it over to find the numbertwoprinted on the bottom of it. Which meant nothing until I knew who had the matching one. Whether I succeeded at this challenge or not was going to be down to who I was working with.

"All right, competitors, please hold up your balls," Duncan said, somehow managing to keep a straight face while saying it. "And it looks like we have our teams. Brandon and Kenji, Carlos and Ralph, and Daisy and Thor."

I let out a sigh of relief. That could have been a lot worse.

"You have half an hour to talk about your sculptures and what you're planning on doing, and then the scrap heap will open and you can start creating," Rosie said. "Your time starts now!"

The timer blinked into being above our heads just as one of the studio staff collected the balls.

"So, we need a plan," I said to Thor.

"I'm guessing you've got some thoughts already, I've seen some of your tree sculptures."

"Should I be worried that you seem to know my work?"

He shrugged. "Do you know the work of sculptors you admire?"

My heart skipped a beat and I pushed a strand of hair out of my face. "I suppose."

"Well, there you go."

"I think we should do an apple tree," I said. "The technique you used to make your clouds would look great on apples."

"I see that," he agreed. "But that doesn't let you show off your skills with the flowers."

"No, but they're easily transferred to birds. We could do a nest, or go a little more out there with something like a woodpecker. That would be bigger so it would stand out more."

"What about both? Woodpecker nest?"

"You mean inside the tree? That would look great if we could finish it in time, but it will look messy if we don't," I responded. It was a risk, but I reckoned we could pull it off.

"Worth a try. Brandon and Kenji are going to make something really intricate."

"Hmm, true. All right, let's do it. But we're probably going to need all of the hours we can get to make it."