Morning Of

Trevor woke up before Chloe, which he found surprising since he'd been up so late. Morning light spilled across the bed, illuminating her sleeping form. She had her knees pulled up most of the way to her chest and her elbows tucked in, making her look even smaller than she even was.

Careful not to disturb her, Trevor got out of bed. He shut the bedroom door behind him on his way to the coffee machine so that Chloe could hopefully sleep in. She had a long day ahead of her.

The coffee machine finished it's burbling and Trevor poured himself a cup. Armed with caffeine he made his way out onto the balcony to enjoy the morning before things started to pick up.

As he leaned against the railing his thoughts returned to the night before. With the sun up it was hard to be as melodramatic as he had been, but a knot of anxiety still worked its way through his gut.

He'd accepted that he wanted at least some of what the show had to offer, but that answered far fewer questions than it might have at first seemed. He could live with what he'd done with Kaya and Audrey. They were all adults and nobody had been hurt. It wasn't _right _per se, but he was coming to terms with the fact that he wasn't as pure as he had thought he was.

Not all of his prospects were that simple however. Chloe was warming up to him, but only because he'd literally **** her to. How far would he be comfortable going? He honestly wasn't sure.

Some things were easier to be certain about though. Paige and Laura were off limits. No doubt Violet had intentions for them, but he had no intentions of helping her out with that.

Trevor heard the patio door slide open and a moment later Chloe joined him at the railing. She'd changed into a simple blue blouse and khaki pants, though her hair was still messy from sleep.

"Morning," he said. "Did I wake you?"

"I get up about this time anyways," she replied.

She cradled a cup of coffee between her hands and took a tentative sip.

"Sleep well?" he asked her.

"Yeah actually," she told him, stretching an arm over her head. "Sorry I fell asleep so early."

"You seemed tired, it's fine. Besides, you have a big day today."

"Yeah."

"Are you nervous?" he asked.

Chloe nodded. "A little, yeah. I'm at zero points. If I lose any in the contest or the vote then I'll be at risk of elimination again."

"You'll do fine," he told her, setting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "This game plays to your strengths a lot more than the last one did."

"That's true," she muttered. Then he felt her tense up. "Even if I do well though, there's still the transformation."

Trevor took his hand back. "The audience likes you," he told her. "They won't do anything too bad." It was a weak comfort, he knew.

"I came in fifth in the last popularity vote. They aren't exactly over the moon with me."

"You still did pretty well. By the numbers."

"Maybe, but last round they voted in the most **** option anyways."

"You'll be fine," he told her, not knowing what else to say.

The two stood there drinking their coffee in silence. Trevor worked on the point math. Natalie had enough points to be safe from even a last place finish in the contest, which was a huge relief. Audrey and Paige were in the same boat. Only Riley was really at risk. With only four points, an eighth or ninth place finish would put him negative. Riley had always been good at games though. Trevor hoped his friend could pull off a strong enough performance to avoid the bottom of the rankings.

Some of the other girls weren't much better off, now that he thought about it. Hanna and her mom were sitting at zero points, just like Chloe. They'd have no margin for error.

Anna had only one point and would be in basically the same situation. Their night together had been rough, but Trevor didn't want her eliminated. She didn't deserve that.

He'd finished up his coffee by the time Violet came knocking at his door. Chloe's hands wrapped around her cup tightly.

"I've got to get changed," Trevor said. "Tell her I'll be right there."

Chloe nodded and went to the front door while Trevor went into his bedroom to throw on a t-shirt and some jeans. When he finally joined the other two outside his front door Violet had a disapproving look on her face.

"Could you not have gotten dressed before it was time to go?" Violet asked in a long-suffering tone.

Trevor shrugged. "I was enjoying my morning."

Violet shook her head and began walking down the steps that led up to his suite. "Well let's go then. We've kept the others waiting long enough."

Trevor and Chloe followed her lead, the younger girl having to hurry to keep up with Trevor and Violet's longer strides. The three emerged from the palace's gargantuan main doors to find that they were indeed the last to arrive. Chloe took her place with the other girls, who were standing in a line halfway between Trevor's throne and their podiums. Violet went to her customary spot at Trevor's right hand while he seated himself.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Violet announced. "I'm glad to be able to usher in our second round for you all. The first round had it's ups and it's downs, and I look forward to seeing what you all have in store for us this time around.

"I'm also happy to be able to say that we have no eliminations. All three of our contestants, four I suppose counting the Jalal team, who had negative points have successfully pulled themselves back up to at least a zero. Losing any of you would be a tragedy, and I wish you all luck with your continuing participation. I'll be detailing how you all managed to pull it off, along with the rest of the point adjustments, after the contest. For now though let's focus on the task at hand.

"As I'm sure you're all aware, our second contest will be a modified game of White Elephant. The objective is to acquire as many points from chips as possible, and the game will end when the last box has been opened. Each turn you'll be able to make one of three choices.

"First, you can choose to open a new box. If you do so you'll keep whichever chip was inside. Most chips will be worth between one and ten points, but some will instead have out-of-game effects. These can be either negative or positive.

"Second, you can choose to initiate a trade. To do so, you may give any one of your chips to another contestant. If you do, they will choose one of their chips to give back to you. Alternatively, you can choose to _take _a specific chip from another contestant. In that case, they can choose one of your chips to take for themselves. The only caveat is that a chip cannot change hands more than once per round.

"Third, you can choose to bank your chips. If you do, then all of the chips you hold become locked. They may not be taken from you in a trade, and you may not give them away in a trade. They're yours forever.

"The order we'll be playing in has been randomized. As I call out your names, please take your place on a dais starting with the furthest one on Trevor's left. Without further ado, the order we'll be playing in is: Riley, Anna, Paige, Kaya, Natalie, Laura, Aaliyah and Hanna, Chloe, Audrey."

Trevor watched as they all took their places. Once they were situated Violet clapped her hands and a stream of servants emerged from the palace each holding what looked to be a small Christmas present. They were cubes, about six inches in each dimension, and were wrapped in a wide variety of wrapping papers. He saw green and white stripes, blue with snow flakes, shiny red with candy canes, and more. Each had it's own style and each featured a large bow on top. The servants set their presents down in the middle of the plaza then turned around and walked back into the palace. All except one, who held his present before Riley.

"Two of you," Violet told them, "have opted to spend your Bonus Points on contest-specific boons. Riley has spent 500 Bonus Points to start the game with an additional one-point chip."

The servant handed over the present to Riley, who accepted the proffered packaged. Violet waited for him to pull at the bow and unwrap it. He reached into the box and pulled out an oversized poker chip about the size of his hand. A large '1' was emblazoned on both sides. The servant turned to join his compatriots back in the palace.

"Additionally, Audrey has spent 1500 Bonus Points for the right to re-roll one of her openings. Once this game, after opening a new box, she can choose to open a second box and keep whichever of the two chips she would like. The other will be returned to the center."

A large hologram appeared in the air above the plaza. A scoreboard, Trevor realized. Each of the contestants names were listed alongside a '0', except for Riley who was shown as having one point. In addition to the total points, it enumerated the chips that each player held and had banked; for the moment that was only Riley with his one-point chip.

"There's nothing more to it," Violet concluded. "It's time to begin our second contest. Riley, if you would do the honors of leading us off?"