Page 4 of Competing Against Thor

"Yes."

"As in, the god of thunder?"

"Storms in general, fertility, the protection of mankind, and another one that I'm forgetting," I mused. "It's a lot of work."

"You're really going to pretend that you're Thor?" She pulled her hand back, and I immediately regretted the loss of contact.

"Well, I am Thor. So yes?"

"Good to meet you,Thor." The way she said my name made it clear that she didn't believe I was who I said I was. Which was probably fair. I wouldn't believe me either if the circumstances were reversed.

"Good to meet you too," I said. "I saw one of your sculptures at the Studio Furious show."

Surprise flitted over her face and she reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "Oh."

"It was beautiful. It really looked as if the grass was swaying in the breeze."

"Erm, thanks, I guess. I'm sorry I don't know any of your work. Unless you count thunderstorms."

I chuckled. "I don't really have much to do with those." It had mostly been my ability to conjure lightning-like sparks that had meant I'd gained the association with storms. Which wasn't something many people knew. Other than the rest of the gods who also weren't able to do some of the great feats associated with them.

"Well, then I look forward to seeing what you create. I have to set up now." She waved over to her station and went back to set up. Though not without looking over her shoulder to see if I was still watching.

Which I realised I shouldn't be, even if I did find her captivating.

Chapter 3

DAISY

My nerves were off the charts, even if I wasn't doing anything I didn't do every other day. All I had to do was work on the brief that the presenters of the show gave me, and then they'd judge it. I only had to be better thanoneother person here to avoid being eliminated.

But that wasn't good enough for me. I needed to be the best all the time, even if that wasn't actually going to be possible. This was a competition, and presumably, everyone was going to bring everything they had with the intention of winning. I was going to have my work cut out for me.

My gaze slipped over to the competitor at the next station. He stretched, the muscles of his back stretching against his shirt and making my mouth go a little dry even if I wished that wasn't true. The last thing I needed was being attracted to one of my competitors. Luckily there wasn't anything in the contract about that.

He ran a hand through the thick dark red hair on his head. It suited him, especially when paired with the short beard he sported. It made him look like a Viking blacksmith, which Iguessed did fit with the name. Though I could hardly believe he was using a god's name as his own. I supposed that wasn't entirely unreasonable, I'd heard the nameThorwas popular in Scandinavian countries, so maybe it really was his name. Even so, I'd probably have picked something different if I were him. The judges on the show were gods themselves, and we were competing for a spot in the Jinx headquarters. It was weird for him to try and put them off so early.

But I shouldn't be thinking about this. It didn't matter to me what he called himself, and if anything, it was good for me if he annoyed the gods. That was one less person for me to annoy.

A gong sounded through the workshop, and I stopped what I was doing in time to see a woman with a bun on the top of her head and headphones around her neck.

"Hello, everyone," she said. "I'm Denise, the assistant producer, you'll either be dealing with me or the producer, Mel while here. Welcome toThe Great Sculpting Challenge. We're going to start the cameras rolling in a moment, and you'll be given your brief by our hosts. Today is about getting footage of you working, so don't worry too much about talking to the cameras, just answer the questions the hosts ask you and focus on your work. We'll be filming interviews about how it all went tomorrow, which is how we're always going to film. So with that, let's get started." She clapped her hands together and gestured to several of the cameramen around the room.

A new set of nerves jumped to life inside me. I'd never been on TV before, and I'd certainly never thought about a reality show and how it might work. But it was too late to back out now. I just had to get on with it. Hopefully, it was going to be worth it.

Upbeat music filled the room and some curtains pulled back as a pair of presenters stepped into the room. Neither of them was dressed for a workshop like this.

The woman flicked her hair over her shoulder and smiled a little too brightly. "Hello, hello, and welcome! Would all of the competitors gather at the front here?" She gestured to a spot in front of their little platform.

I took a deep breath and stepped out of my station, almost bumping into Thor as I did.

"Sorry," he said.

"No problem," I murmured in response, ignoring him so that I could focus on whatever task was to come. Others from around the room came to join us, each of them looking either as nervous as I was, or like they'd thought they were convinced they'd won already.

I tried to pay attention to them all so that I could file away information for the future, but it was hard to know much about them just from a first glance.

"All right, thank you all for joining us today," the male host said. "I'm Duncan, and this is Rosie, we're your hosts for the competition. For the first challenge, you're going to have four hours to make yourself a new plaque.Butyou can't use your name. This is a blind judging and you won't even see the judges doing it, they'll give their feedback to us and we'll tell you. But because this is blind, your sculpture has to represent you while not including your name. You can use whatever techniques and material you want, but keep in mind that this is going to be the last challenge you'll be able to do that for."