Every promise don't work out that way

Nick was put in a bit of a bind here. He had to be the judge for this sandcastle competition, which had started out casual, but had clearly turned into something else entirely.

I really should have seen this coming. Dakota doesn’t do casual contests or friendly games. She has to win. And if she doesn’t win, then it’s rigged, and everybody else cheated. Even if she was cheating herself.

It was tiring, dealing with somebody who couldn’t accept a loss.

At the same time, though, he understood why she was like this. Better than ever before. Considering how miserable Dakota’s life had always been, those small victories were all she’d had. They were practically the only things she could feel proud of, winning at a game or coming in first in some sort of contest.

As a kid, he’d indulged her because of it. He’d been fine with letting her get her way. And now, years later, he was dealing with the consequences of that permissiveness.

Consequences he never could have foreseen in a million years.

“So what do you think, Nick?” Mary asked. “I really liked most of the designs. Gina and Ella was a little weird, but the other three… I’m not sure. I liked the detail Kim and Vivian put into theirs, but Dakota and Sylvia’s had a lot of heart, too…”

“Don’t forget the one Amelia and Morgana made,” Rose pointed out. “That one was really cool! Amelia sure knows her stuff!”

Because it was Rose, she could just be brown-nosing Amelia. But Nick had to agree, Amelia’s castle really was impressive.

All of the castles were. Even Gina’s, which was half-collapsed. How was he ever supposed to come up with a winner, and justify that?

Well… he’d find a way.

This is something I have to do, as the “master” of this harem, Nick resolved himself. Part of the responsibility of being the master means being honest and deciding winners and losers. It’s not enough for everyone to get a participation trophy, after all. Some people did better, and that should be rewarded.

Just telling everybody they did a good job wouldn’t cut it. It would just be running away from making an actual decision. No one would buy it for a second.

Nick had done enough of that already. He had to make a decision.

With that in mind… what criteria should he be grading on?

Vivian and Kim had worked really hard on a very simple design, and focused a lot on their attention to detail. It was pretty generic, but very meticulous.

Gina’s design had the most individuality. It got massive points for creativity and uniqueness, and even, to an extent, aesthetics, even if those aesthetics were a bit of a mess.

Then there was Amelia. His stepmother had created something so impressive it looked like something from a historical record in terms of authenticity.

But Dakota and Sylvia had tried hard, too! They had a unique design with a lot of heart, decent attention to detail, and had clearly put in a lot of effort into their work.

Who deserved to win?

“It’s pretty hard, huh?” Mary asked quietly. She didn’t envy the position Nick found himself in. The three of them had a lot of thinking to do on the matter.

Rose looked over her shoulder, and saw the other girls were all checking out the sandcastles and paying their builders compliments. Even for someone as competitive as her, she could see the merit in declaring the whole thing a four-way tie.

But… she also knew there was no way Nick would go along with that. And the girls probably wouldn’t accept it, either.

She knew that if she were one of the contestants, she never would have settled for a tie.

“We have to come up with a winner,” she said firmly. “It can be as simple as what you liked most, Nick! Did you like one more than the others? You don’t even need to justify it!”

“He should at least try and justify it a little, though,” Mary pointed out, though she understood where Rose was coming from.

Nick understood too. He nodded thoughtfully as he considered what Rose was saying. Which one did he like the most? Forget reasoning and logic, which castle just stood out to him the strongest as something cool he’d like to reward?

In theory, this shouldn’t be difficult.

But in practice, Nick wasn’t so sure.

“I… I honestly don’t know,” he admitted.

They’d have to think through it.

“If I compare them all in terms of designs, then Amelia’s comes out on top for sure,” he said. “Hers looks very well-built. It’s not that detailed, but it’s definitely a good foundation and a good design.”

“But Vivian and Kim worked hard on their design, too, and they did add a lot of detail,” Mary pointed out.

“And I think Dakota and Sylvia also had a pretty strong foundation,” Rose added. “And while Amelia based hers on historical castles, theirs had a pretty unique and creative design with that circular wall and rounded tower.”

Nick nodded. He noticed that neither girl was defending Gina’s design, and he wasn’t really doing that, either. Did that mean hers was the worst one? Or…

Then he gasped.

Wait… I’ve been thinking about things all wrong! It had taken Rose and Mary saying it out loud to finally make him realize something he should have been considering from the start.

“What’s up?” Mary asked, seeing in her husband’s eyes that he’d come to a conclusion.

“I think he’s made a decision,” Rose noted.

Nick definitely had. “Two of the castles are out,” he said. “It’s just down to the last two…”

And now that he was comparing them side by side, there was one he had to admit was better than the other. That was just how it was.

Having reached his decision, Nick returned to where the girls had assembled, and they all looked expectantly at him.

“So what’s the verdict, chief?” Gina called out. “You decided who won and who lost already? Didn’t even take twenty minutes!”

“Why would it, when ours was clearly the best?” Dakota sniffed. Her smug attitude almost made Nick want to put her in last out of spite. But he knew that was just how Dakota is.

“Actually, there’s a two-way tie for last place,” he said. “Sorry. I tried to think about which one I liked better, but I couldn’t help it. And… it’s those two. Group 2’s sandcastle, and group 3’s.”

That… certainly was a decision.

A few of the girls gasped.

“Wait, you put Amelia’s sandcastle on the same level as Gina’s?” Dawn adjusted her glasses and stared at Nick in disbelief.

“That’s a little… yeah.” Dani shook her head, surprised. Even though she’d been complimenting Gina’s aesthetic choices earlier and respected her as a fellow artist, she could still acknowledge that Amelia’s design was structurally superior.

“If I was grading on just the design, then yeah, Amelia would probably win,” Nick admitted, glancing at the large castle. It truly was a great feat of architecture, even if it lacked the attention to detail of the other castles. “But that’s just it. It’s Amelia’s design.”

It took a moment for everyone to figure out what that meant, but when Nick turned and looked at Morgana, it started to sink in.

“Morgana, you helped out on the castle a lot, right?” Nick asked.

The goth nodded rapidly. “I did, absolutely! I made the inner wall, and the moat, and some of the towers, and-”

“Okay, but what did you contribute creatively?”

Her voice died off and she gave him a blank stare of confusion. “…Creatively?”

Nick nodded. “When I was thinking about the castles in my head, I was always saying things like ‘Vivian and Kim’s’ or ‘Dakota and Sylvia’s’ but whenever I thought about your castle, I always just defaulted to Amelia,” he explained. “Because, well… I don’t really feel anything from you on this, Morgana. It’s all Amelia’s design, and you were just an extra set of hands.”

“W-well… my ideas weren’t very good,” Morgana mumbled sheepishly, fidgeting with her fingers. “Amelia’s is so much cooler, right?”

“I can’t disagree there,” Nick admitted. “And if you guys had finished it, with all the details, then I think you probably would have won. But it feels like you were just enacting her vision, and that there wasn’t any collaboration going on here.”

“Well… yeah…” Morgana admitted, slumping her shoulders.

“I suppose that’s a fair estimation,” Mary admitted. “It is a team competition, after all. It should be won as a team.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t even thinking that way,” Rose groaned, rubbing her head sheepishly. “Good thinking there, Nick.”

But Nick wasn’t done. He glanced at Amelia to see what she thought about his decision, but her face was an ambivalent mask.

Then she nodded.

“…That is a fair assessment,” she admitted. “In my desire to make the best sandcastle possible, I will admit that I dismissed several suggestions from Morgana. And while those suggestions may have decreased the overall structural integrity and authentic aesthetic of our sandcastle, it would have engaged her, at least. It was an unfair oversight on my part.”

“N-no, no, it’s fine!” Morgana shook her head frantically. “I-I’m okay with that!”

Secretly though, she was happy that Nick had such strong consideration for her feelings.

“It’s a good sandcastle, Amelia, really, it is, but there were other groups who worked collaboratively a lot better,” Nick said, feeling apologetic, but at the same time standing by his assessment.

He turned to the other group he’d called out, and Gina had a resigned half-smile on her face.

“I guess that’s the same for us, then, huh?” She sighed, shrugging her shoulders. “This design, it’s badass, but it’s like all me. Ella didn’t really contribute much, either.”

“B-but, I didn’t even know what I should contribute!” Ella wailed. “I’ve never done this before!”

“That’s part of it, yeah,” Nick admitted. It felt a little skeevy to ding them on something Ella didn’t even feel comfortable doing. “I really like your castle, Gina, but it’s YOUR castle. It’s a great creative reflection of YOU, but this isn’t just about you, right?”

Gina smiled sheepishly and shook her head. “Nah. Next time, maybe we put a princess spire in there or something, Ella? What do you think?”

Ella just shook her head, her mouth dropped open. She didn’t ever want to do something like this again, even if playing in the sand HAD been fun.

“So that leaves just us, and them, then,” Vivian said, tipping up the brim of her hat and leaning forward, clearly excited about the outcome. “Well? What do you think, Nick? Because in my book, Kim and I made a pretty damn impressive sandcastle!”

No denying that. Both girls had put a lot of work into creating something they could be proud of. A simple design that stood out strong with all their detail work, making for a strong first impression that Nick had been subconsciously grading the other castles against for the entire contest.

But then there was the castle Dakota and Sylvia had made. In spite of their personality conflict, the two women had been on the same page creatively, and built a castle that had a lot of heart in it. If group 1’s castle reflected their personalities with the attention to detail, this one certainly did the same.

“It can’t compare to the one we made!” Dakota fiercely declared. “The faerie palace is a perfect reflection of the ideal home for fae kind!”

“Whoa, no one’s saying it’s not!” Vivian took a step back and held up her hands. “All I’m saying is that I think ours is pretty darn good, too!”

For Dakota, this victory, meaningless as it was, meant everything. Just like every victory ever.

Vivian clearly couldn’t care less. If she lost, it didn’t matter in the slightest to her.

The old Nick probably would have chosen group 4’s sandcastle just to placate Dakota and keep the peace. It was obvious that Vivian didn’t care, after all, so everyone would be happy with that outcome, regardless of how he felt about the individual sandcastles.

But that was the old Nick.

He wasn’t like that anymore. He wasn’t going to just placate Dakota because he was afraid she’d fly off the handle if he did something she didn’t like. He wasn’t going to say her sandcastle was the best if he didn’t think so.

Which was why he was glad that he didn’t have to.

“Vivian and Kim, you guys really did well focusing so much on the detail of your design,” Nick said. “It may look simplistic, but the details are what really stand out. The small stuff. That’s the place where you both shine, and how you showed your individuality through it. But… I think that group 4’s castle did that just a little bit better than you, sorry.”

“Eh?!” Sylvia’s eyes widened in surprise. Had she heard wrong?! Daddy… Daddy said that our castle was better, so… didn’t that mean…?

“It was really close, but I think Dakota and Sylvia won the sandcastle contest,” he finished, looking over at them. “Their sandcastle has a really good design, the aesthetics and details are nice, and most of all, it’s really creative and individualistic. I can feel the effort from both of them in it, and it’s obvious that they put a lot of themselves into making it.”

He cleared his throat. “So that’s why, in my opinion, I can’t stress that enough, in my opinion, I think they win the contest. Again. In my opinion. I seriously can’t stress that hard enough, okay?”

“Yeah! Wahoo! Way to go, Sylvia!” Nola cheered, applauding her friend.

“You did it! You won!” Marley was overjoyed at Sylvia’s victory as well, and quick to lavish praise on her.

Sylvia herself was still blown away by the outcome, and she had a big dumb smile on her face as her brain struggled to process everything.

But Sylvia’s dumbfounded expression couldn’t compare to the shock on Dakota’s face.

She looked completely numb. For all the confident words and proclamations she’d made, on some level she still expected to lose. So when Nick had praised her designs and her efforts and gave her the win, and obviously not because he was trying to placate her but because he genuinely believed their castle was the best…

It was something she was having trouble processing.

Nick looked a little exhausted, too. He was worried that people might suspect that he’d made his choice simply to avoid a meltdown from Dakota, but he really hadn’t. And fortunately, it seemed like he wasn’t the only one who agreed that the girls had made a nice sandcastle, which helped.

Kim looked a little glum. She’d really done her best, but it couldn’t be helped if the other teams had done a better job.

“Hey, why the long face?” Vivian popped up in front of her, brown eyes sparkling, and nearly caused Kim to fall over in surprise.

“Wh-whoa, hey, back off!” Kim snapped, struggling to regain her balance. “We lost, I can be a little bummed out, even if it’s just for fun!”

“Fair enough,” Vivian admitted, shrugging. “But we still got second! And that’s nothing to sneeze at, don’t you think?”

“W-well…” Kim could see where she was coming from, but…

“It was fun working with you, and we did great! Come on, high-five!” Vivian held up her hand, and without even thinking Kim mimicked the gesture.

SMACK!

Before she even realized, Vivian’s hand had already slapped against hers, and the heiress was off to go show off their sandcastle to the other girls.

Kim looked down at her tingling hand, and felt a little strange.

She wasn’t the only one feeling strange about this outcome. Once Dakota had finished processing that she actually won, she took a step back to feel proud of herself.

And when she looked around, she saw Sylvia receiving a lot of attention, particularly from Marley and Nola. People were congratulating her for winning, a lot of people.

But… Dakota had won too. The design had been mostly hers, and she’d done most of the work. Sylvia hadn’t even known how to add water properly before Dakota showed her how!

So… why was she getting all the attention, and nobody was even looking Dakota’s way?

Fury and envy burned in her chest as she fought back the wicked glare trying to creep into her eyes. Her worst impulses were taking over again, and she felt compelled to spite her teammate. Tearing Sylvia down and pointing out how she never could have gotten this far without Dakota’s help would feel so good.

And it wouldn’t even be a lie!

“You won.”

Dakota flinched. She turned to see that Amelia was standing beside her, staring at her with those cold, empty green eyes of hers.

How many times had Dakota seen those eyes? She had always felt their piercing gaze staring down at her, making her feel weak and shamed.

But now she was older. They were practically the same height. She wasn’t meeting Amelia’s gaze as a sniveling, powerless child, but as an equal!

No… as a superior.

“I know I won,” she snapped. “Didn’t you hear him? Our- My castle was the best.”

“No, you were correct the first time,” Amelia calmly replied. “It was not just your castle.”

Dakota flinched again.

“So… so what?” She spat. “It might as well have been! And yet, she keeps getting praised, for what? Adding a little flag? If they knew half of-!”

“You are the one at fault,” Amelia bluntly replied. “You won. But it wasn’t enough to win, was it?”

Dakota ground her teeth together and balled up her hands into fists.

No. It wasn’t enough to win.

Why weren’t they praising her?! They had no problem praising that stupid little-!

“If you wish to receive adulation from others, you can’t **** that,” Amelia said. “You may have won. But your attitude and your behavior were repugnant. So even in victory, no one feels like praising your efforts.”

And not just for her actions today, either, but for the ongoing pattern of her selfish, spiteful, self-aggrandizing behavior.

Amelia had no idea if Dakota would learn a lesson from this, or lash out from spite.

“…It’s not fair…” Dakota’s whispered voice was so soft it was nearly a whimper. “I tried hard too.”

If it was simply about fairness, then maybe Dakota would have a point. In her simple view, her hard work and success should be rewarded with praise and respect, independent of the actions and behavior that had led to that outcome.

The fact that the women in Nick’s harem were giving her a wide berth was an entirely emotional response, for an entirely emotional issue.

But Amelia wasn’t like the other women in her stepson’s harem. She could separate her feelings about Dakota’s behavior from her feelings for the girl’s efforts themselves.

“For what little it may be worth, I believe you did an excellent job. In terms of your effort, if not your behavior. Well done.”

Dakota’s eyes widened with joyful tears and she looked at Amelia in awe.

It wasn’t worth so little at all.