After breakfast the following morning, Marcus ushered us girls into a conference room near the cafeteria. There were a few crew members lingering around but there were no cameras rolling.
"Hey girls, hope you are all having a good time. I just wanted to give you all a heads up that the first challenge will be held this Wednesday. I would advise everyone to wear clothes that they wouldn't mind getting wet."
Some of the girls looked nervous but only one had the courage to ask what the challenge was.
"It's an academic sort of challenge but we'll be doing it outside. It's going to be a bit different to last season's challenge though with no mud involved". You could hear the collective sigh echo through the room.
Marcus dismissed us which left us to entertain ourselves till Wednesday. I don't think anyone would be bothered to actually try and study for a little challenge. Anyways, from what I remember from last seasons challenge, all the questions were either general knowledge or common sense.
Jordan wanted to go into town for food and I wanted to take some cool photos in town for my blog. Instead of annoying Andre or one of the other drivers, Jordan just ordered another Uber and we headed in.
We stopped by a sunny little café for brunch, I mean what teenager could pass up the opportunity to spend money on smash avocado instead of saving for a home loan.
"How are you finding it here?" Jordan suddenly asked after she had recovered from a mini laughing fit from seeing a little Pomeranian in a woman's Gucci bag jump out and run away.
I smiled at her concern, "I love it here like I don't think I could ever go back home, I feel so free."
Jordan knew everything about my messy past and messed up family and how it affected me, she was there for me through it all, even when I had tried to push her away.
'I'm hoping you can stay here till the very end, if not school is out for the summer break in two weeks, so you should just stay with me and float behind the scenes in case anything happens".
I laughed, "Anything to stay out of Alicia's hair I will do."
Jordan rolled her eyes at the mention of her name. The number of times I had to stop Jordan from confronting Alicia, much more Stacey and Bianca was insane. Jordan moved the conversation along knowing how much I did not want to even think about the toxic trio. After eating, we explored the town and I got some pretty cool shots for the blog. One cool thing though was when a girl who looked to be about 13 years old walked up to me with a big smile on her face.
"Is your name Taylor?" She asked shyly and I nodded.
"Oh my gosh, I watch you on the Search for Cinderella, would I be able to take a photo with you?!" She asked excitedly and all I could do was laugh and nod. Jordan took the girl's phone and took a few photos while shouting out, "Pose and pose and got to get all angles hold up... Now be candid!"
Jordan was making the girl, Ana, giggle uncontrollably. Once she was happy with all the photos she looked up and said thank you. I gave her another hug and she whispered, "I hope you win the date with Noah". I just smiled at her and said thank you.
Once she was whisked away by her mother, Jordan elbowed me in the ribs and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Look at you Miss Hollywood." I rolled my eyes at her and shoved her back playfully. We ended up walking back to the hotel seeing as though it wasn't actually that far. Jordan disappeared to find Charlie once we got back leaving me behind. I saw a few girls that were sunbathing near the pool and others I assumed had gone down to the beach. I had slept in this morning and didn't end up going for a run so I changed into some gym clothes and headed to the gym. I did a quick booty workout which resulted in me limping to the boxing bag.
Once I warmed up properly, I could barely feel the pain in my legs anymore as it was now all in my arms. I was in the zone, oblivious to the rest of the world as Kendrick Lamar was blasting in my headphones blocking out any sound, keeping me focused on the bag in front of me.
Left jab, right jab... Left uppercut, right uppercut... Repeat.
When I literally could not go any longer after changing up the routine a few times, I collapsed on the ground trying to catch my breath. A big figure appeared above my head scaring me until I realised they were handing me a bottle of water. I propped myself up and took my headphones before realising that it was Noah handing me the water. He always seems to see me at my worst; make up free, sweaty and just plain gross.
I smiled instead of saying thanks as I was still unable to breathe properly. After sculling down half the bottle I muttered a thank you to him.
He looked amused as he saw me lying dead on the ground, "Not to sound creepy or anything, but I've been watching you for the past 15 minutes and you had no idea I was in here".
If my face wasn't already red, it would definitely be now, "Don't you have something more interesting to do?" I asked. He just shrugged and said, "Maybe, but this was pretty interesting enough".
My heart couldn't take it, he wasn't even flirting (or was he I don't know) and it was ready to burst.
"You're good, you know," He then says seriously, "Where did you learn to box like that?"
I smiled looking down at the ground as memories from when I was little flickered through my head, "My dad taught me when I was younger, and I guess it just became my thing."
I remembered back to when I was 10 years old and I had come home crying. My memories hazy but I'm pretty sure I had been crying over a boy who had pushed me off the monkey bars. After my dad put a Band-Aid on my grazed knee and kissing it better, he took me to the garage where on one side was his car and workshop and on the other was a mini home gym. He took out a small set of pink gloves and pads and gave the gloves to me. That afternoon we spent five hours in the garage as he taught me every move I know. He told me that day that he never wants to see me cry over a boy again.
"He sounds like a pretty cool dad if he taught you to box," Noah said.
I nodded, "Yeah, he was the best."
Noah frowned looking confused and slightly concerned, "Was?"
Oh whoops.
"Oh no, he's not dead or anything," I laughed nervously, "He's actually been deployed with the US Army and I haven't seen him for the past year."
Noah looked impressed, "Wow, that's crazy. I would be honoured to meet him one day".
I didn't know how to respond and just smiled, hopefully not creepily, at him. "You must miss him though?" he asked.
I nodded and sighed, "Home isn't home without him, I've always been a daddy's girl." That and I never knew my mother. After I was born she didn't make it. But Noah didn't have to know that.
"I know what you mean, like how home can be lonely sometimes even when there are other people there". He looked deep in thought and I didn't really want to intrude but I still said, "Exactly, it's hard." He nodded before he seemed to snap himself out of whatever he was thinking and looked at me again. His face changed from thoughtful to blank then back to his usual smirk, "Do you need a hand up?"
I rolled my eyes and took the hand he offered out to me and let him haul my ass off the ground.
"So, we've got a runner and a boxer, what else can you do Taylor Grace?"
I shook my head and smiled a little bit, "I think that's enough secrets for one day, keep me around long enough and maybe you'll find out" I joked.
He looked at me for a second, his eyes thoughtfully scanning over my face, "Don't worry, I plan on it".
Before I could even respond, a tattooed, shirtless man slammed the door open to the boxing room and yelled, "Hurry up James, start warming up now."
Assuming that was my queue to leave I smiled briefly at Noah before grabbing my bag and running out of the gym. My heart had now burst.
AN: How was your Christmas? Xx
Next update 30 December 11:59pm AEST XX