Flavor of the Week

Rory had never been good at scavenger hunts. Even in simple high school scavenger hunts, she had failed miserably, so she knew her team was probably going to do the same.

Twenty minutes into the scavenger hunt, the five other teams had found all five items, and Rory’s had only found one. One of them was going home, but luckily for her, she thought she had Niall wrapped tightly enough around her finger that it wouldn’t be her. Georgia and Juliette could have their own fight to the death to see who stayed.

Niall’s head was hung low, as he led the three girls out of the room to deliberate together. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he knew he hated having their futures in the palm of his hand. He wanted the three of them to at least have some say in the decision.

Rubbing his hand against the back of his head, Niall sat on the small armchair, with the three girls sitting across from him. Rory didn’t like how it suddenly felt like an interrogation. She could feel how uncomfortable the other girls were, and the air was thick with their tension.

“I don’t know what to do,” Niall said, as he shook his head. “I don’t think any of you deserve to go home.”

“We could pull straws for it,” Rory joked, batting her eyelashes at the blonde boy in front of her. He gave her a small smile that was hardly comforting, before looking back to the ground. He was lost in his thoughts, and Rory was just dying for him to get it over with. She wanted to get away from the elimination and get back to her obnoxious flirting. She needed to increase her chances of winning.

“Why do you think you should stay?” Niall asked, looking up at each of the girls. That wasn’t what Rory had expected. She was certain he’d just pluck one of the girls and move on, but he was going to make it difficult.

“What?” Juliette asked.

Before Niall could answer, Rory was ready to plead for her life. The answer she was going to give him wouldn’t be true, of course, but she couldn’t tell him she was in it for the money and a prize of her own.

“I’m looking for love,” Rory said quickly, meeting eyes with the blonde boy. “I just want to find someone that gets me. I want someone that knows who I am, inside and out, and loves me anyway. I think I can find that here.”

Niall gave her a soft smile, and Rory thought she had that one in the bag. She might have gone out of her obnoxious character a little bit, but she needed to in order to stay. Better to go a little off script than to be cut from the production completely.

Taking Rory’s cue, the other two girls began speaking, with Juliette completely spilling her guts to Niall. Everything she said seemed so genuine – far more genuine than what Rory had said – and Rory wondered if it was true or if she was just a really good actress. It fit her character well, though, so that had to count for something.

Georgia went next, nibbling at her bottom lip and tugging furiously at her cardigan. She looked as innocent as could be, and there was no doubt she was good at playing her part.

When each of the girls finished, Niall sighed. Rory knew he hadn’t gotten the result he was hoping for. He probably wanted one of the girls to completely botch the speech, so he would know which one to send home. Unfortunately for him, they were all far too experienced to fall into that trap.

Niall ran his hands through his hair, over and over, before looking up at the girls. His eyes looked soft and apologetic, as if this was the last thing in the world he wanted to do.

“This is a really tough decision,” Niall sighed, before taking a deep breath. “I hate to do this, but Rory, I have to send you home.”

The moment her name fell from his lips, Rory’s jaw dropped in shock. That was the last thing she expected. She’d spent practically all her time in the house flirting with Niall. How could she be the one that was going home? It didn’t make any sense, and Rory had no idea what to do next.

She wanted to scream and lash out, and tell Niall all about how he was ruining her dreams of becoming a famous actress. He was crushing her with a few simple words, and he didn’t have a clue how much the whole experience meant to her. It didn’t seem fair.

Rory knew that she had to stay in character, or the producers would kill her, so she simply glared at the other girls before running upstairs as quickly as she could. She could hear Niall calling behind her – probably to apologize – but she didn’t care. She was too hurt to care about anything at that moment.

She slammed the door behind her, before allowing her tears to spill down her cheeks. She didn’t want to say any goodbyes because she knew they would be too hard. The other girls would get to continue on with following their dreams, while she was left in the dust.

All Rory could do was sob, as she packed up her bags. She thought she’d played the game well, but clearly she hadn’t, because her time in the house was over.