Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2016 13:44:18 GMT
OFF-CAMERA
‘Are you NUTS?!’
Walt is a great guy, he really is; but sometimes, I don’t get him. Now is one of those times.
‘No, Jay, listen…we have to do it! There’s no other way!’
‘But it’s not gonna work! People are gonna know!’
‘Nobody’s gonna know’, Walt insists, with maddening persistence. ‘People don’t pay attention to that sort of thing.’
‘They’d have to be blind not to notice, Walt’, I point out. ‘Hello?!? Same size, same body, same EVERYTHING!? C’mon! Pollomania fans aren’t five! And neither are Tiger and his crew! They’re gonna know, and we’re gonna get ejected from the tournament anyway, AND we’re gonna lose our credibility!’
‘How are we gonna lose our credibility?’ Walt sounds genuinely confused. ‘They’re the ones trying to get rid of their main competitors so they can coast through the tournament. Not us. We’re just doing something about it.’
‘Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we have to stoop to their level’, I grumble. I can see where Walt’s coming from, but I can’t bring myself to agree with him. There’s just too much at stake. Heck, if we’re not careful it could bust the whole El Vainillo thing wide open!
‘So? We’ll just have to be careful.’ Guess I said that last part out loud…
I shake my head. ‘I dunno, Walt. I still think it’s too risky.’
Walt’s expression suddenly becomes serious. ‘Look…do you want to be Pollomania Twin Egg Champions, or don’t you?’
‘Of course I do! For your sake as much as mine! But…’
He cuts right across me. ‘…and do you have a better idea for how we can stay in the tournament?’
I rack my brain, sure there must be something, anything…but I come up short. My other tag partner is off doing his own thing; the girls are untrained, and I wouldn’t expose Jenny like that anyway; unless…
‘Didn’t you use to have a tag team partner?’
‘…who I haven’t seen in two years? Yeah, sure, Jay. He’s the solution.’
‘…dang.’ I shake my head. ‘You’re right. I’ve got nothing.’
‘Of course you don’t. Because there’s nothing else. I told you, it’s the only way!’ He gives me a serious look. ‘Look…I know how you feel. But the way to defeat a bad guy isn’t always to outmuscle them. Sometimes, you gotta outsmart them. Use your brain, y’know? Besides, all we’re doing is out-cheating cheaters. That doesn’t make us bad guys. We’re just trying to stay in the game. And trust me, Jay…that’s something people get behind.’
I think on this for a moment. He does have a point about out-cheating cheaters, and there really is no other way we can hope to stay in the Pollomania Tag Grand Prix. It still makes me sort of uneasy to bend my principles like this, but I guess desperate times require desperate measures.
I turn to Walt again, look him in the eye.
‘Okay’, I say.
And deep down, I pray Nana will forgive me.
Final Word Count: 497