Cooking the Books [Scoring]

Ruby

Ruby practically skipped to the stage after that conclusion. I won! I won! The only thing that stopped her from a completely unladylike gloat session was Al’s face. Rather than the dejected snarl she’d been hoping for, he seemed - pleased? Happy Al meant unhappy Ruby, so her own mood was almost instantly ruined.

Great, I can’t even get a chance to celebrate my win.

She and Al took their places on the stage, and a projector screen slowly dropped from the ceiling. The hotel guests parted to form small lanes, as the contestants slowly made their way through the crowd to return to the stage. The guests clapped and cheered for the still sopping-wet Janet, who clearly did not want the attention or the accolades. Janet kept trying to tap Vivian on the shoulder and talk quietly, but the latter had resumed her icy demeanor and shrugged Janet off each time.

Luciana walked up looking pleased with herself despite the loss. The aftereffects of her orgasm appeared to still be carrying her. Vivian was right about her, that might have been her best in a long time. But does she still not know where she is? The others ranged from annoyed to furious, with Sarah rounding the corner to despondent. Ronnie and Danica were unable to even look in each other’s direction.

With all seven women in their places, Ruby stepped forward to open the scoring round. But this time Al cut across her and began his own introduction.

Oh now he wants to do his job. He doesn’t want me to get in any jabs at his expense, I’ll bet.

“What! A! Finish! Janet, Vivian, you really had us on the edge of our seats, baby!” The projector lit up and began to show a replay of the two splashing in the fountain. The editors made certain that every angle of wet clothes tightly clinging to the two women’s bodies was included in the clip. And of course they made sure to conclude with a close-up of the ecstasy on Vivian’s face when she jabbed herself with Janet’s wand.

“Vivian, sweetheart, you wanna explain to all of us what happened there at the end?” Al was still sporting a huge grin, but his tone was accusatory. To her credit, she did not back down from the implication.

“It’s all there on the tape, Al. I used Janet’s wand to eliminate me, making her the winner.”

“Are you that hard up for some action? We have better ways.” Al joked, but his pretense was nearly gone now.

“But why? Why me?” Janet pleaded. She’s somehow more upset than the losers.

“That’s a damn good question.” Al said.

Vivian leaned over to see around Ruby, as if she was waiting for something. “Ah, there’s your answer right now.” Celene, apparently having been sobered up and given a replacement uniform, moved through the crowd carrying a large briefcase.

“What is she doing here?” Mallory demanded.

“She works here, remember? She was the one drinking, you can’t be the one forgetting.” Al said, but he was as surprised to see her as anyone.

What is Vivian playing at?

Celene set the briefcase on the table where the wands had lain, then popped it open to reveal-

“Is that $25 large?!” Al was incredulous.

“Yes it is, sir.” Celene said with full charm on display. “Ms. Knight here placed a $1000 wager on Janet to win the challenge, which paid out at 24 to 1. With the return of her stakes, that does indeed leave her with $25,000 in Chips.” Al started to reach for the case, but Celene snapped it shut with his fingers an inch shy of the chips. “Here you are, Ms. Knight.” She handed the briefcase to Vivian, gave a delicate curtsy as she left the stage. Ruby watched Celene go, practically bouncing as she walked. She has clearly been waiting a long time to embarrass Al like that. Ruby appreciated the spunk, but mentally marked Celene as one to watch out for.

“That’s a daring strategy, Vivian.” Ruby clapped, “This show has always been good for those who take risks.”

“Daring is not the word I’d use, Ruby. But since you mentioned strategy, Vivian, how did you pull that off?”

“I watched their faces when the wands were handed out. Mallory looked right at Janet after checking her wand, so it was clearly her target. I made my bet right as the round started, then after eliminating Sarah, I hid where I could watch Mallory. Luciana eliminated Mallory, so I followed her right to Janet.”

That is one cunning bitch. Ruby thought with admiration.

Quite a power move! Well, let’s get to the scoring and see how well it paid off for you.” Now Al’s happy face was back. “In dead last, we have Sarah!”

Sarah didn’t react, whatever she was agonizing about was clearly big enough to keep her from caring about the proceedings.

“Sarah loses 5 points for viciously attacking a host - Me.”

“The viewers didn’t see that as a failing, Al.” Ruby laughed. “I’m joking of course.” Next time she can borrow some brass knuckles.

“No, the joke was her performance in the Assassins challenge, where she didn’t even show up to collect her wand and got eliminated before she knew the game was on. That gives her a big fat zero from the challenge, and a total of -5 points.”

Sarah still wasn’t listening to any of it. Danica gently pulled her into a hug, but Sarah was so shell-shocked that she barely noticed.

“Moving on to sixth place, we have Danica!” Al vamped it up even harder. “She lost 5 points for attacking another contestant and another 3 points for insulting the Master right to his face!”

“She earned 5 back for delivering the spanking that her daughter clearly needed.” Ruby quickly added.

“Whatever you say, Ruby, but that still leaves her sitting at -3. Physician, heal thyself!”

Not a great start for my team.

“Moving on to those who actually bothered to play, tied for 4th place we have Luciana and Vivian! While neither of them has shown the Master how thankful they are to be here … yet, both of them eliminated two players each in the Assassins challenge. That leaves each of them with 10 points.”

“Is that good?” Luciana asked.

“Well, it leaves you in the middle of a Danica - Vivian sandwich. I’m sure the Master wouldn’t mind that, but you’ll have to decide for yourself.” Al laughed at his own innuendo, but no one joined him. He continued.

“In third place, we have Mallory!” Al patted her on the shoulder and she swatted his hand away. “On the very first night, she appeared nude before the Master.”

“That was not my choice!” Mallory shouted.

“That don’t matter, baby. Master sees the goods, you get the points. 5 of them, in fact. You also got another 5 points for taking five across the backside from dear old Mom.”

“Again, not my choice!”

This time Al ignored her. “Add the 5 for eliminating Ronnie in the game-”

“Minus 2 for insulting the Master behind his back.” Ruby interjected.

“-sure whatever, that leaves Mallory with unlucky 13. I think she’s got a lot of points in her future though, right folks? Look at those tits, those are a point-making bonanza!” Mallory spat on the floor at his feet. “Eh, she usually swallows.”

Al reached maximum volume and swagger. “Tied for 1st place are Janet and Rhonda!” He paused to allow the crowd to cheer and wolf-whistle. Janet pulled her feet up on her chair and wrapped her arms around her legs, trying to find a hole to crawl in. “Janet, despite a rough start with a 5 point penalty, rebounded quickly to win the Assassin challenge and earn 25 back! Quite a quick turn from popping Vivian in the stomach to popping her cherry on TV!”

And here it is, his big moment.

“Aaaaaand last but not least, Harem Hotel’s very own Rhonda! Here is a woman who knows how to play the game! I’m sure many of you at home were worried when she didn’t arrive for the challenge, but I wasn’t. I said to myself ‘Al, Rhonda’s a real smart cookie. If she ain’t here, it’s because she’s doing something important.’ Or someone important! Congrats Rhonda for being the first one to sleep with Master Michael!” Ronnie didn’t flinch.

“WHAT?!” Danica exploded. “That’s my husband, goddamn it!”

Luciana wrapped her arm around Danica. “Easy… You’re already in the red, girl.”

“Technically, he’s her husband too.” Al said, quite unhelpfully.

“Because you kidnapped her.” Janet said softly, still not fully out from behind her legs.

“Eh. Water under the bridge.” Al shrugged sarcastically. “The important part is that she’s here now, and she’s here to win. She doesn’t get the full complement of points because she’s the Master’s wife. But she receives 20 for being the first to sleep with Master, leaving her tied with Janet at 20!”

Al waited for the applause to die down before continuing. “But now we have some more somber news. As Sarah and Danica are both in the negative at the end of the round-”

Ruby popped in, her voice taking on an even more saccharine quality. “Oh Al, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“I doubt it, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

“Oh, you’re so silly. Since the transformation round on opening night was -disrupted-, we’ll be holding the vote right now. Round 1 isn’t set to end for 24 hours. Isn’t that right, Al?” You know it’s right, dickhead. I could have told you this twenty minutes ago, off the air, but this is much more fun.

Al’s grin disappeared, again. “You know what, Rubes, you’re exactly right. I am being silly. Let’s remind everyone of the current leaderboard!”

With that, the projector flipped to a shot of the board on display in the casino sportsbook. Hotel guests were frantically rushing the counters to place their wagers.

“This is all so fucked.” Mallory mumbled.

“Trust me, it gets much, much worse.” Ronnie whispered back.

The women watched as the screen changed again to reveal their names, along with spaces where their possible transformations would appear to be voted on by the audience. The stress of the challenge and Sarah and Danica’s near-miss elimination had them all, including Luciana finally, fully aware and on edge about what would happen next.