Chapter 3
MISSY
· THREE WEEKS LATER ·
If someone told me I’d be entering the Denver Airport for an eighteen-day trip with nothing but a backpack that wasn’t even full, I’d say they were telling tall tales.
But with Marie Kondo as my guide, I managed the impossible, narrowing down all my belongings into what Sunsets and Sabotage deemed “the necessities.” And by necessities, they mean three preapproved personal items, any doctor-approved medications, glasses/contacts, and the clothes on our backs.
And no, I didn’t forget to mention hygiene products.
Besides basic bathroom toiletries, all other hygiene products “must be earned” on the show.
I rub my fingers against my palm. Ever since the black SUV dropped me and Colton off at the airport tonight, I feel like my hands have already acquired a layer of grime and sweat.
I can only imagine the hardcore cringe Colton is experiencing as we walk farther into the germ pit that is the airport.
I smile to myself. That is one aspect of this partnership that I am looking forward to watching.
High-quality entertainment, if you ask me.
I hoist my special edition Sunsets and Sabotage backpack farther up my back, my three personal items jostling around as I do.
When it came down to it, I’d chosen two four-by-six-inch photographs as my first two items: a picture of my friends all squished into one picture at Paige and Jordan’s wedding last year and a picture of The Red Curtain building standing tall behind a hundred community volunteers that gathered underneath its awning for a picture before adjourning inside to celebrate the participants of last year’s Pine Lakes Special Olympics.
There was no better community staple than that building, and I was going to keep it that way.
Both pictures are the perfect motivation to get me through these eighteen days as the victor of Sunsets and Sabotage Season Twenty-Three.
And the third item, well, that was easy—a razor. Sorry, Lucky Louis, but I wasn’t about to go all Chia Pet on national television. I’ll have to pick up a new lucky item when I get to the US Virgin Islands.
I look over at Colton, wondering what he’s chosen as his three items, and find his backpack looks as empty as mine. As teammates, we look nearly identical in our matching show-issued outfits that feature our team color: teal.
We both wear white tennis shoes with a fitted shirt, swim trunks (or, in my case, a one-piece swimsuit with swim shorts), and a windbreaker, all of which are black and lined with bands of teal, but only the windbreakers sport a large Sunsets and Sabotage logo on the back.
Looking at our outfits, I’m suddenly thankful that our team color is not yellow, or else we might be mistaken for two bumblebees.
We also have on teal bandanas that we must have somewhere on our person throughout the show.
Colton’s got his bandana wrapped around his arm like one would tie a tourniquet.
Mine is tied like an ascot around my neck, making me feel like Robert Irwin’s cute little sidekick.
It’s giving all the wilderness survivor vibes, and I’m here for it.
Colton and I finish checking into our flight at the airline’s kiosk well ahead of schedule.
We’re in the process of making a leisurely stroll to security when we hear a loud, and very echoey, cheer coming from a nearby lobby.
I swivel toward the noise, not believing my eyes when I do.
It’s nearly ten p.m., yet just outside of the security line stands a group of people I know all too well, holding a massive white banner that has “Good luck, Colton and Missy” painted across it in giant teal letters.
Colton chuckles beside me and instantly heads for the large group with a big ole smile on his face, but I can barely move.
I scan the cheerful crowd, finding so many familiar faces—Ji, Miles, Katie, Jordan, Paige, Jordan’s mom and stepdad, Colton’s parents, as well as some of his extended family, some neighbors, old high school teachers, and of course, Mrs. Delgado.
It feels like half of Pine Lakes is here.
The sight overwhelms me, bringing a sheen of tears to my eyes.
I watch Colton get absorbed into the mass of friends and family that drove forty-five minutes from our hometown just to see Colton and me off, and I finally step forward, slack-jawed, with nothing but shock running through my veins.
I only make it halfway to the group before Paige and Ji run to me.
“I can’t believe you guys came to see us off!” I squeak out in disbelief.
“Of course we’d come see you off.” Paige beams, but her smile quickly fades. “You okay, Missy?”
“I’m just … I can’t believe it!” I echo, wide-eyed.
Ji chuckles. “Why are you always so surprised when we come to support you?”
A lump of emotion rises in my throat. I wrap my arms around Ji and Paige, and subsequently Paige’s adorable little baby bump, and hug my friends tight, knowing that one day these wonderful people will go their separate ways, and it’ll just be Missy against the world once more.
But for now, I soak in this moment with all the gratitude I can muster.
By the time I’ve extracted every ounce of serotonin from my friends, I let them go.
Paige rubs her belly, every inch of her face glowing.
Pregnancy looks fantastic on her. “You better be taking a million mental pictures.” Paige’s features turn serious as she points a finger at me.
“I want every. Single. Detail. Every single one! I want to know what it smells like on Sabotage Island. I want to know the consistency of the sand. Powdered sugar or pebbly? I want to know all the behind-the-scenes hidden secrets that the show doesn’t tell.
And you better be bringing me Niall Bose’s autograph on a banana leaf. ”
Ji and I laugh.
“A banana leaf?” I ask.
“Yes. Is there anything more authentic than the host of Sunsets and Sabotage signing a banana leaf from Sabotage Island?” She sets both of her hands on my shoulder, her green eyes boring straight into mine. “Don’t let me down, Missy.”
I raise my fingers in a salute. “One Niall Bose banana leaf coming up,” I promise with a little laugh before embracing my two best friends in a triangle hug, heads huddled, like we’ve done since we were teenagers in high school.
Soon after, I make my rounds, smiling wide and letting each and every person know how wonderful it is to see them there, including Miles’s new girlfriend, Katie, whose larger-than-life personality is matched only by Miles himself.
Eventually, I step back from the group long enough to spot Colton embracing his uncle on the opposite side of the farewell party.
In a moment of weakness, I find myself scanning the crowd for my own blood relations and come up empty-handed.
But it doesn’t matter. What matters is the abundance of friendly faces around me.
But just as I’m looking at the sunny side of the situation, a subtle ache throbs in the center of my chest. The same ache I’ve tried dutifully to squelch for years.
Unlike this unexpected send-off at the airport, I’m not the least bit surprised to find that my aunt and uncle are not here.
Though they’d served as my guardians, and my pseudo parents, ever since they brought me to Pine Lakes, I knew that traveling forty-five minutes to the airport to support me was not on their to-do list, nor had it been for the better part of a decade.
When I first came to Pine Lakes, Aunt Candice and Uncle Ray were everything sweet.
They helped me transition into their home and to my new school with ease, even taking the time and means to integrate me into their children’s pageant-heavy lifestyle.
But the moment I started winning pageants over my cousins was the moment things went downhill.
Aunt Candice got progressively icier, deciding not to pay for pageant fees like she did for her daughters, talking negatively about me to her friends, and eventually excluding me from family dinners.
Needless to say, when Aunt Candice found out I was chosen to go on Sunsets and Sabotage, she was none too pleased.
Not when I was succeeding when she was so obviously hoping I would fail.
I push past the bitter pain and rechannel my energy toward the crowd of friends surrounding me. Dwelling on something beyond your control will never brighten your day, I tell myself.
A moment later, I am bulldozed by the sweetest little surprise.
“Izzy!’ I hug the bright-eyed girl who wraps her arms tight around my torso and rest my head atop her spirally black curls. Who knew someone so adorable could be related to Colton Downing?
I take a step back. “Izzy! It’s so late. I didn’t know y’all would be here,” I say to Colton’s little cousin and her mom standing behind her.
My insides light up like an afternoon sky seeing my favorite middle schooler’s confident smile beaming back at me.
It feels like just yesterday that she’d come into her pageant lesson with her eyes on the ground and a slump to her shoulders.
She was clearly uninterested in pageantry and hardly spoke five words to me the entire lesson.
The very next class, I set my pageant notes aside and spent time finding the real Izzy.
Come to find out, she was a wiz in the lighting booth at The Red Curtain, and that’s when things changed for her.
She became a lighting technician for her school play, found some true friends in the drama department, and started letting her beautiful light shine.
Seeing her confidence do a one-eighty in the time I was with her was one of the most rewarding life experiences.
“You’re going to be amazing!” Izzy declares. “I’m going to be watching all the time. Mom says I can have extra screen time this month just to watch you and Colton win.”