Free Body Games (A Games Novel) by Jill Myles, Jessica Clare

jury of your peers to persuade them to vote to keep you?”
    Alys and Chris exchanged a glance. Chris cleared his throat. “Just that we’re hoping to have a second chance on Endurance Island , and neither of us is ready to go yet.”
    “What about you, Sunnie and Jendan?”
    Jendan looked over at me and I felt my face flush with heat.
    “We’ve never played Endurance Island before,” Sunnie said tearfully, wiping at her eyes in a pitiful fashion. “If we’re not as good at living on the beach and making fires as everyone else, it’s because we haven’t had chance to practice yet. I just think we deserve that chance.”
    Jendan squeezed her knee, a move that seemed oddly intimate given that they were both naked. Hell, we were all naked, but I hated seeing that affectionate gesture. “No one wants to leave,” Jendan said. “I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re all here to play.”
    “Fair enough,” Chip said. He turned to us, seated on our benches across from them. “For the vote, each team will go to the voting booth. You will write on the slate which team you are choosing to save. The team with the least amount of votes will then go to the challenge round. We’ll go straight down the line. Team number three, you’re up.”
    I studied the faces of both Sunnie and Jendan, then looked over at Alys and Chris. If I wanted to be a strong, take-no-prisoners bitch on wheels this game, I needed to vote to keep Alys and Chris. They were both returning players from an earlier season of Endurance Island , and if they didn’t have fire, they clearly weren’t paying much attention the first time around. Without fire, they’d be easier to beat, so it was smarter to keep them.
    Still…Jendan had put his neck out for me. He’d rubbed the awful message off my back when everyone else had just laughed at me. And it had cost him. I wasn’t sure that I could vote him off, knowing that he had my back.
    But how would it look that Annabelle the Slut was going to vote to save the hot guy on the island? I didn’t trust the cameras.
    I didn’t know what to do.
    When it came our time to vote, I walked to the booth with Kip. The ‘booth’ was actually just a curtained off area, the curtain a waterfall of beads and cowrie shells. On the table in front of us sat a basket of slates, and nearby, pieces of chalk were left in a coconut bowl.
    Now we needed to make a team decision. I looked over at Kip, whispering. “Do you know who you want to save?”
    “Do you?”
    I bit my lip. Strategy or kindness? In the end, I couldn’t hang Jendan out to dry. Not when he was the only one to help me. “I think I want to keep Jendan and Sunnie.”
    “Okay.”
    I frowned at Kip. “Okay? You don’t want to discuss strategy or anything?”
    “Nah. Sunnie’s hot. I don’t mind keeping her around. Plus, they sucked at the challenge.”
    I must have been blinded by Kip’s flowing black curls the last time we were here. How had I fallen for this man? Or was I seeing the real side of Kip now that I refused to be impressed by him? Either way, at least we weren’t going to argue. I shrugged and gestured for him to take the chalk. He did so gleefully, writing down our vote, and then chucked the slate into the voting basket.
    When the votes were tallied and read, I bit my lip the entire time, anxious. Team six — Alys and Chris. Team two — Sunnie and Jendan. Team six. Team two. The vote seesawed back and forth, and still our vote wasn’t read.
    Jendan shifted on the bench, tense, and his gaze flicked to me.
    I gave him a quick, almost imperceptible nod as Chip lifted the final slate. “The team that will be staying is…” He turned the slate, revealing Kip’s handwriting. “Sunnie and Jendan.”
    Sunnie squealed and threw her arms around a relieved Jendan’s neck. Alys and Chris looked crushed.
    Jendan’s mouth pulled up in an almost imperceptible smile as he looked over at me.
    “Now,” Chip said, turning to the losing