Ch 1Ch 2Riley initially followed the pack toward the cafeteria, but as the group passed the staircase to their rooms on the second floor, she felt her bed calling her as her fatigue outweighed her hunger. The short, fitful sleep she had gotten the previous night combined with the surge of emotions from the morning’s filming combined to pull her up the stairs as if by magnetism, and before she knew it she was closing the door to her room. About the size of a two-person college dorm, the violet paint felt somewhat constricting with a lack of artwork or decoration to break up the dark walls, but it had a bed where she wouldn’t be disturbed, and that was all Riley was interested in at the moment. Leaving both the overhead light and the bedside lamp off, she glanced at the digital clock and saw 10:37 right before her eyes drooped and sleep overtook her like a lioness on a gazelle.
When she finally woke, Riley blinked her eyes once… twice so slowly time seemed heavily decelerated… then snapped her eyes wide with the unwavering certainty of someone who knew she was very, very late for something. Moving in a panicked scramble, she untangled herself from the covers and found her digital clock reading… 2:16 in the afternoon. She still wasn’t convinced she didn’t sleep a whole day away, but a quick check of her phone confirmed she hadn’t missed the Elimination Challenge. Feeling rested, hungry, and tremendously relieved, she redressed and left for the cafeteria.
Descending the staircase and walking briskly toward the dining hall, she was unsurprised to see through the window of the distant door that the large room was empty, the other girls having finished and left by now. As she approached the high doors, a figure moved unexpectedly out from a hallway ahead and to the left of Riley. Moving around the corner furtively, the girl was clearly peeking into the window to the cafeteria when she heard Riley’s footsteps, jumping and facing her with a small squeal. Phoebe still wore the light blue green halter top from introductions, but she now had a dark brown hooded jacket pulled tight around her and a guilty expression on her face. She stared at Riley for a full second before her eyes darted back down the hall as if to run, then her shoulders sagged in a tired, defeated sort of way.
“Umm, hi?” Riley felt awkward just standing there, so she tried to make some sort of introduction. When Phoebe just nodded meekly, still frozen in place, Riley felt increasingly sympathetic toward this curious girl, emboldened to probe a bit. “Are you… are you hiding from someone?” The instant she spoke, Phoebe’s eyes blazed with indignation, and Riley was sure she was going to yell at her, but to her surprise when Phoebe spoke her deep browns had resumed their previous soft state. “I wanted to eat without talking to anyone. I thought the last girl left a few minutes ago.” Her voice was steady, but Riley could tell she was ashamed of the admission. Having so nearly lost the game herself, Riley knew she would have wanted to eat alone if Nora hadn’t saved her, so she felt bad for mistakenly taking Phoebe’s privacy away.
“I could..I could sit at the other end or something. I’ll leave you alone I promise.” Riley would have offered to come back later, but she was too hungry to wait anymore. Phoebe shook her head, her eyes again showing a brief flash of fire as she spoke. “Let’s not make it more awkward. Just… maybe don’t talk quite as much as your friend Nora, ok?” Riley smirked as they entered together, grabbing a large white porcelain plate and proceeding down the line. With no one around to hurry them, Riley took her time peering at the various offerings, finally making her selections excitedly to the expressionless line workers in black aprons. With her plate loaded, she followed the quicker Phoebe to the nearest table, sitting facing each other wordlessly.
Riley’s plate had yellow rice, steamed broccoli, a salmon filet, and a honey roll jockeying for room on her crowded dish. In contrast, Phoebe had only an orange and a small portion of mac and cheese. Riley had been reticent to mention the looming Elimination Challenge, but the silence was becoming uncomfortable, and she felt increasingly that Phoebe needed someone to reach out to her. “So… nervous?” Phoebe’s eyes flared yet again, and this time the venom reached her voice as she spoke. “I don’t want to… want to…” The defiance melted away as her composure crumbled, her neatly trimmed brown hair nearly falling her in food as she buried her hands in her face. “I can’t be the first one to go home, I
can’t.”
Phoebe’s chest heaved as she took long, panicked breaths, and Riley felt obliged to offer comfort, but everything she did seemed to upset this emotionally volatile girl. Changing her approach, Riley tried revealing her own insecurities to build up her lunchmate. “I understand, last game I almost”-
“NO. You DON’T understand.” Phoebe seemed embarrassed by her own whininess, and when she began again her voice was much more measured and even. “I’m sorry. You can’t understand.” Phoebe’s frequent pausing left Riley unsure when to respond, but eventually she resumed in her slow, heavy tones. “Everything…
everything growing up was about my sister. Her accomplishments, her fame, her legacy. I’m already a huge disappointment for not getting a Tittyball scholarship to Ohio State like she did. Never mind losing first, if I don’t win this whole thing my parents will probably make me change my last name.”
Riley was moved by the distress of her mercurial new friend, but she was still nervous about interrupting and retriggering Phoebe’s wrath, so she awkwardly rested a palm on Phoebe’s hand in what she hoped was a supportive gesture. In the whirlwind of emotions following the morning’s activities, she had completely forgotten her intentions to ask Nora for an explanation of Tittyball. She dearly wanted to ask now, but with Phoebe in such a state of self-pity she was careful to broach the subject carefully, not wanting to seem needy or dwell on Tessa’s triumphs in the sport. “So… I’ve never actually heard of Tittyball. Is it complicated?”
To Riley’s relief, Phoebe seemed to mellow at the question. “Tittyball is… you’ve really never heard of it? I’m surprised no one recruited you, where did you say you were from again?” Riley blushed a bit. “It’s usually simpler to just say Miami, but actually I’m from a small municip-” “South Florida, got it.” Phoebe was suddenly animated, almost rushing to describe the game to Riley. Despite her frustrations over her sister’s success, Riley could tell Phoebe was passionate about Tittyball in her own right. “Both Florida State and UF have teams, how did they miss you? Your high school must have been really small.” Riley’s heart skipped a beat at this news; on the one hand, it was beyond impossible that she could earn a scholarship based on a sport she’d never heard of till this morning. On the other, if University of Florida and Florida State both had teams…
“D..Does Miami U have one, by chance?” Phoebe smiled for the first time, a toothy, accusatory, yet warm grin as she saw through Riley’s question. “Thinking about trying to get in that way? I practiced for
years to earn my scholarship, who says you can just walk in and get one?” This was apparently playful banter for Phoebe; at least, that’s how Riley interpreted her expression, but Riley herself looked startled. “Scholarship? I thought…” “Oh my gohhhhddd, you thought I didn’t get one?! I would LITERALLY be abandoned if my parents had to pay for me to go somewhere. Nooo, I didn’t get the powerhouse my sister got, but Virginia Tech actually had an impressive season last year. Come to think of it, if it’s really Miami that you want, you’ve got an outside chance. They’ve struggled since their star bruisers both graduated two years ago. I could-”
Phoebe suddenly stopped short, her expression changing so rapidly Riley thought she’d been tasered. When she spoke again, her features were pointedly inexpressive, her words spoken with no mirth. “I could teach you the rules, if you want.” It was a pointless statement; she had been on the verge of doing so moments before. Riley was certain Phoebe had been close to offering to help her
learn the game, not as a spectator but as a player. She stifled the annoyance she was feeling over Phoebe’s constant emotional swings and tried to bring warmth back into the exchange. “Phoebe, you really seem like someone who needs a friend.” Riley held her breath as she waited for Phoebe’s response, uncertain how this unpredictable woman would respond.
“Mmmmm kay. Three problems,” This did not bode well, and Riley felt her muscles actually tense as she physically braced herself for the coming verbal thrashing. “One,
eeeeeeverybody knows that Tessa never got help at anything. Learned the rules herself, built her oooooown practice equipment, never trained with a team. I don’t have the option of friendship.” Riley was ready to cut her off and tell Phoebe how sick she was getting of hearing about her sister, but Phoebe’s unusually fast Chicago accent gave her no room as she build in speed, volume, and vowel butchery. “Two, YOOOOUUU are not my friend. Do you think friendships can SURVIIIIVE a place like this? If we had met in pottery class, we could be Instagram buddies or something, but I’m here to beat everybody, you included.” She moved a bit closer to Riley, but not enough to be seen as a serious challenge, more like obligatory posturing. “And three, YOU promised not to sound like Nora!” Turning to storm off, she froze as the door opened and three fellow competitors walked in.
Single file, Taylor led the group, followed by Sophie and, to Phoebe’s clear distress, Charlotte. In an otherwise empty dining hall, Riley and Phoebe were noticed instantly, and though Taylor continued toward the plates, Sophie and Charlotte veered in their direction, with Taylor rolling her eyes and following after a few steps. Sophie was first to bark, her thick British toned provocation filling the room. “Oy. Sneaking around, are we, nipping food when there’s no big scary busties about?” Riley was caught slack jawed; though she wasn’t guilty of this charge, Phoebe certainly was, and if she said she’d been napping Phoebe would be left without an excuse or a friend. “And you’re here for what, Bible Studies?” Phoebe snapped back. Riley tried not to show her amazement at Phoebe’s composure; this was the exact situation she had tried to avoid, and she got called on it to boot, yet she was aggressively postured and slinging comebacks, her arms folded under her breasts and her hips to one side.
“We’re here so Charlotte can get a pre-victory yogurt.” Sophie had stepped ahead at the start of the shouting match with Phoebe, but now Taylor and Charlotte moved shoulder to shoulder with her, presenting an uncomfortably wide, chesty line between them and the door. Charlotte’s gaze was fixed right on Phoebe as she spoke. “
A vrai dire, c’est ta soeur who should be here, not you!” Phoebe retained her combative expression, but there was a palpable silence as for once she seemed reticent to retort. Springing to her defense, Riley glared at the French beauty and adopted Phoebe’s pose as she railed at Charlotte.
“Wait, why are you competing with her again? Oh that’s right,
you lost. I don’t have a tenth of the training that you’re so proud of but I’m the one who won the blindfold game, so how about you keep your mouth shut until you earn something around here.” Her gaze was so focused on Charlotte, Riley didn’t see Phoebe twice dart her eyes over in Riley’s direction, her only outward expression of the immense gratitude she felt. Surprisingly, Sophie cackled acerbically and thrust her neck forward at Riley as she countered.
“Are you a complete plonker? Phoebe lost
because Charlotte beat her, that’s not a bit the same as losing to Nora. It also means she’s won once just like you. And if I recall,” Riley winced in anticipation of what she expected to hear. “You were deep in the mud last game. Saved by the bell, really. How can you talk down to anybody when you own a bra like that? And don’t give me rubbish about stealing it from your cousin or some such rot,” she added as Riley opened her mouth to interject.
“
Entends-toi? Charlotte beat you,” Charlotte said sneering at Phoebe, taking a bit of the heat off Riley who felt as petrified as she had when the spotlights hit her and she froze during introductions. “Nora is a fool, but she could snap even the bra you wear now. You cannot shame me this way.” Phoebe clearly didn’t have the nerve to point out that Mesha had officially eliminated her, though on reflection Riley realized there wasn’t much dignity to be salvaged in the details. Riley felt maybe she and Phoebe should switch rivals somehow, but a new, Valley Girl accented voice cut through as Taylor finally spoke up.
“Actually, we could totally test that. Nora is like, the only girl here even close to me tbh, I could stand in for her. Why don’t you give me the bra you have right now,” Looking as uninterested as ever even while issuing the challenge, Taylor also seemed oblivious to the annoyed expression of Sophie for being called out on the size difference, or from Charlotte who despite using her own language in public was frustrated that she didn’t know the acronym the overracked Cali girl had used.
Phoebe was struggling to find words to reply, and this time Riley had no protection to offer her, already weathering ominous looks from an uncomfortably close Sophie and unwilling to start a direct confrontation with this titty Napoleon. To everyone’s surprise, the next woman to speak was an employee, heads turning to the frail voice coming from behind the serving line. “You.. you can’t do that. That’s against the rules.” Her companion gave her a worried look, as if she herself would get in trouble for her coworker’s interruption, but no one said a word for a few moments until Taylor tossed her long blonde and blue hair and turned her attention back to Phoebe.
“I don’t really
do rules, yeah… your bra please?” As Taylor’s face grew serious for the first time and she extended an expectant left hand, the linewoman who spoke looked even more agitated, again raising her reedy voice. “You can’t, you’ll be-” She fell silent as the woman beside her grabbed her arm firmly, every employee on the line now staring at her with a mixture of concern and anger. Taylor continued to stare at Phoebe, but to Riley’s surprise Charlotte was next to speak. “This… this is strange.” Taylor only blinked in irritation but Sophie chimed in right away. “Yeah, I’m not so comfortable with this either all the sudden. Charlotte’s a cert to win anyway, let’s just go. D cup here’s only got a few hours left.”
Taylor’s stare somehow intensified, and she drew a slow, deep breath, her H’s rising like twin hot air balloons as she filled her lungs in apparent indecision. Pivoting her feet at last, she locked eyes with Riley before leaving with her two friends. “Pity. I was gonna do yours next.” Riley didn’t blink, but she also didn’t breathe, which was problematic as even as she walked away Taylor took her time breaking eye contact. Finally she turned just a few feet from the door, and though Riley’s chest ached she didn’t want to exhale and show she had been trying to mirror Taylor’s breath trick to make her G’s look too big for Taylor’s threat to have any bearing. When at last they were alone, she exhaled and gulped air like a marathoner after the finish line while Phoebe shuddered from head to toe like she had just come in from a blizzard.
“She..she could really do it, you know. She could snap our bras just like that.” Riley didn’t feel this was the time to debate whether Taylor could get through both their bras or just Phoebe’s. In truth, she herself didn’t know whether her bra would be able to survive such a challenge. If someone had asked if a pair just one cup bigger than hers could destroy a comfortable fitting top she owned, she’d have strongly disbelieved it, but the way Taylor’s breasts had swelled as her lungs expanded could give her nightmares for weeks. As she pondered the question, Phoebe stuttered on, apparently inferring unity from Riley’s shell-shocked expression.
“How are we ever gonna eliminate HER?! She’s soooo much bigger than us!” Riley was wondering whether she shouldn’t perhaps stick up for herself when Phoebe’s tone softened and her eyes dropped uneasily to the floor. “Thanks fo… thanks.” It was more than Riley expected, and she felt a sudden pressure not to overreact and trigger one of Phoebe’s many tripwires for rejection and isolation. She gave what she hoped was a gentle smile and tried to sound as practical and un-Noralike as possible, even deepening her voice just a bit as she sought eye contact.
“Hey, pick your head up. How can any of us win if they’re working together? We’ve got a shot if we watch each other’s backs.” She knew it still came off more Brady Bunch than she’d hoped, but Phoebe seemed to like that Riley had adopted the word ‘we’, and returned a grin of her own before disposing of her tray and heading for the door. “What are you doing until the Challenge?” Riley asked, hoping to steer the conversation back to Tittyball and finally get the rules explained to her.
“I don’t really have any time. I’ve gotta change and shower then meet my stylist for hair and makeup at 4:00,” Phoebe added seeing the confused look on Riley’s face, who had until 5:00 before she was needed. “Oh. Well, I can’t wait to see you perform, don’t let them make you doubt yourself!” Phoebe seemed to stand a bit taller as they walked through the doors and up the staircase to their rooms. “Promise me you’ll teach me Tittyball when you get back!” Riley had meant to say ‘teach me
about Tittyball, but Phoebe nodded anyway with another toothy grin, then turned to head to her room on the other end of the hall.
“Bye f-Phoebe!” Riley called, at the last minute deciding to revisit the ‘friend’ label later on and be happy with the progress she had made with this girl. Besides being a crucial asset to learning this new sport as fast as possible, Riley found herself strangely wanting Phoebe’s approval, sympathy for her situation making up for the occasional desire to slap her. She considered trying to find Nora, but the unmarked doors offered no indication of who roomed where. The risks of Taylor, Sophie, or Madison opening the door precluded Riley from trying randomly, so she went to her room to kill time, though the house rule banning internet use meant all she could do was lay in bed and daydream about what Tittyball could be like.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Riley didn’t remember falling asleep, but this time when she opened her eyes she really was in danger of being late. She had fully planned to wear something new to the Elimination Challenge between Charlotte and her new friend Phoebe, but the digital clock next to her bed told her she was expected out of her door in… four minutes ago. Her heart was beating fast enough to power a bus engine as she flung herself toward the doorknob, yanking it open as quickly as possible. It wasn’t easy to tell with the uniforms, but to her dismay Riley was pretty sure she faced the same black dress clad attendant who had sneered at her this morning.
“Ah, at last Miss Nelson makes an appearance.” Riley wanted to smooth her clothes and run a hand through her bed-molded clump of brown hair, but with the judgmental attendant once again staring at her pointedly, she decided not to give her a jumping off point. “Well… you’re not on camera for this part, at least.” Making a mental note to find out if attendant escort assignments could be changed, Riley gave the woman as empty a smile as she could manage and followed her down the stairs, noting as they went that two attendants still stood waiting for their charges to emerge from their doors. Noticing Riley’s surprise, her guide resumed her scarcely veiled condemnatory tone.
“There’s a ten minute grace period, then they get sent to- Well, it’s good that you didn’t miss the cutoff.” This was too similar to the lunchroom incident for Riley’s comfort, and she was increasingly troubled by the employees’ reticence to discuss house discipline. Still, the attendant who walked with her was one of her least favorite people in the house, so she asked no questions and resolved instead to try and get an explanation out of Sharona for the strange behavior she saw. Picking up her pace as she looked up from the bottom of the staircase and saw Taylor and Sophie emerge, she followed her attendant closely as they rounded a turn she hadn’t taken before and proceeded down a long, tall, thin hallway lit at regular intervals by soft, light purple bulbs on each side of the passageway. The hall seemed to take longer to walk than it should have; Riley could only imagine the psychological pressure Phoebe must have felt as she took these steps to the room that would decide her fate.
As they reached the end of the corridor, Riley’s eyes widened like expanding balloons at the sight of the vast chamber she stepped into. Stretching from floor to ceiling of the three story mansion, the domed roof of the immense room was painted white, but shaded imperceptibly to the lightest shades of purple a few feet down, continuing to descend through every hue of the color down to the midnight black at the ring around the baseboards giving the unpleasant impression of a very distant heaven as Riley felt the impatient attendant grip her wrist. Her guide was unwilling to wait for her awe to subside, but with her arm now pulled along Riley saw no reason to stop gawking, amazed by the scale of everything in sight.
The most prominent feature was the wrestling ring in the center of the room with velvet ropes and a large black
BB logo glaringly displayed over the peacock-purple mats. A few bright white spotlights were fixed on the logo from various angles, but when she followed their trail Riley saw dozens more currently off, presumably for effect later on. Behind each side of the square ring was an identical Jumbotron, stretching from just above the mats to only a few feet from the beginning of the dome. Then there were the cameras; once Riley noticed one, she suddenly couldn’t stop finding them. In addition to the fleet up by the lights and the low angle ones peeking from the ring apron, thin black wires all over the room carried sleek suspended devices ready to be deployed, and Riley could also make out a few black clothed photographers holding long zoom cameras laying low near the edges of the room. Most curiously, a small team of people were tinkering with four computers with oversized monitors off to one side of the ring away from the lights.
All in all, Riley was focused on everything
but the woman pulling her arm, so by the time she realized the pull had stopped she looked around and saw only the three girls already seated in the observer area. She blushed as she suspected she may have accidentally ignored the attendant’s goodbye, but she was gone and Mesha was snickering, so Riley sat as quickly as possible. To her dismay, Mesha, Nora, and Madison had taken seats down the aisle in that order and with no spaces, so Riley filed in next to Madison disappointed she wouldn’t be able to whisper to her new friend.
“Isn’t this great, Riley?!” Unperturbed, Nora tried to start a conversation over Madison, but as the black girl rolled her eyes and buried her face in her palms, Riley too felt some exasperation at Nora’s tone. “I wouldn’t call it- Phoebe could go home, Nora.” Footsteps to her right indicated new arrivals, and Riley desperately wished she could switch seats to avoid sitting next to one of the two latecomers. “Phoebe
is going home” Sophie sneered as she tried to speed ahead of Taylor to get in first and sit next to Riley, but surprisingly Taylor caught her wrist as she passed, Sophie freezing in place as Taylor repassed her calmly and sat beside Riley, Sophie taking the last seat quietly.
“We could
all go home, that’s why it’s fun! Look at this place!!” Riley could feel Madison’s annoyance too intensely to try and meet Nora’s eyes over the sandwiched girl, but she didn’t dare let her gaze wander to her right, so she pointedly and somewhat awkwardly kept her nose straight forward instead of risking a glance at Taylor’s cleavage. “
I think it’s great, Nora,” Taylor said unhelpfully, her bubbly tone clearly a mockery to Riley’s ear, but Nora beamed at the response and settled back into her seat contentedly, though they could all hear her bouncing in place in anticipation.
Riley felt a thousand times more stressed than she looked; at least, she prayed her expression was as neutral as she hoped it was. She was certain Taylor made an effort to sit next to her for a reason, and she was much happier not finding out what it was. Each second was torturous as she silently implored Lilith to start the event before Taylor could talk to her.
“Hey Riley,” Riley’s heart stopped as she turned her head an inch and a half toward Taylor, keeping her gaze straight ahead as she made the smallest reply sound she could. “Mmm?” Riley didn’t want to look at the west coast jugg monster and get caught staring at her mountains, which she knew was a possibility given how much uncertainty the bra-popping threat had caused her. “Riley? I’m over here.” Sophie’s snorting was enough to force Riley to turn fully and meet the sparkling emerald eyes of the California girl. She felt herself sweating lightly as she was sure she was making an awkward amount of eye contact, but no force in the world could compel her to look below Taylor’s chin.
“I know you’ve been thinking about my tits popping your bra.” Her directness hit Riley like a Thunderbolt, and if not for the chair she sat in she would have collapsed to the floor her body went so limp. She opened her mouth to deny the claim but Taylor raised a single finger, Riley’s voice dying down as the finger went up. “I know it’s tormenting you. And I also know how to make it stop. I think we both need to know the answer.” Riley’s brain was functioning at half speed, but Taylor seemed unsurprised by her unresponsiveness. “We all know Phoebe doesn’t wear anything that can handle me. But she’s only got a few minutes left around here anyway. Don’t argue, you know I’m right,” she said as Riley tried to defend her friend. “I know you think you might be different. I know you think you might be big enough for me. Here’s what you’re going to do. At midnight tonight, you’re going to leave your room and follow me into mine, and you’re going to bring the bra you have on right now with you. Can you do that?”
The silence was suddenly way too loud, and Riley knew all the other girls were listening. There was no worried employee to save her this time, no Phoebe to keep her from answering. All ears, even Nora’s, hung on her response. “If you don’t do this, you’ll just be afraid of me for the rest of your life. You’ll compete scared until someone sends you home crying,” Taylor added in a lower, slower voice that held Riley spellbound. “I…we’re n…” Excuses died in her throat as those piercing green eyes held her gaze like a medusa, forcing the word from her lips… “
Y..yes.”
“Whoo!” Nora clapped excitedly, and Riley felt like she should be tested for a stroke as she leaned back in exhaustion, her shattered mind desperately looking for a way out of this. At that moment, Lilith emerged from under the ring apron, a diagonally pattered tri-shade purple dress fit tightly to her body as she engaged in quick chatter with the computer team. Her mic cut on in mid-sentence, and Riley’s concern over her own safety suddenly shifted to her friend as she realized Phoebe’s survival challenge would begin any moment. “-on’t have the backups, so no mistakes. Sound? Cameras? Lights?” Riley’s pulse was racing, and she felt a sudden selfish thought overcome her as she realized she might be about to lose her best resource to learn Tittyball; Nora was well intentioned, but Riley was dubious of her ability to explain tactical nuance. Angry for thinking of herself, she wished she could give her new friend one more hug before the contest, knowing the pressure Phoebe must be putting on herself.
“Welcome back to Breast Battles!” Lilith stood with a microphone in hand as twin spotlights illuminated her, with eight others flashing rhythmically on the ring behind her. Despite herself, Riley felt swept up in the theatrics almost as much as Nora, suddenly eager to hear the rules of this game. The four Jumbotrons had come to life, each showing a live feed of the ring framed on each side by a box with a silhouetted ‘empty profile’ image and a long grey vertical bar below it. “We’re here in the Elimination Chamber for our very first Elimination Challenge!”
DUM de dum, DEE dum DAHHH For the first time, Riley noticed Lilith’s otherwise unflappable professionalism waver for perhaps a quarter of a second. Her lips registered just a hint of a snarl on the left side only, but it was the sudden firestorm of fury in her grey eyes that caused Riley to quiver in her seat. The instant it passed, Lilith’s facade was perfectly restored, but the image remained burned in Riley’s mind. “Let’s meet the two ladies who lost this week’s game of Bra Busters. Our first challenger today is Charlotte Laurent, who was defeated by Nora Haynes!” Riley looked around the room for other entrances, but to her surprise a trapdoor on the left side of the spacious ring parted and Charlotte rose on a platform, wearing a bright orange skin tight two piece with the
BB logo on each, the top engineered to maximize cleavage and minimize coverage and the bottoms cut cheek high. Her expression was almost aggressively disinterested; Charlotte looked unimpressed with things as a general rule in Riley’s experience, but to look this bored she had to either be compensating for nerves or genuinely the most overconfident person Riley had ever met.
“Aaaand our other challenger is Phoebe Reynolds, who was d-”
“Who was defeat by
Charlotte!” the French beauty interjected, her features still as calm and still as a porcelain doll but with a hint of venom in her voice that belied her feelings. Lilith remained silent, though of course strictly speaking it was Mesha who had beaten Phoebe first. Phoebe rose on a lift to occupy the opposite side of the ring, wearing a dark blue two piece otherwise identical to Charlotte’s. The intensity of her stoic, ferocious expression told Riley she too was trying responding to anxiety with aggression. As the cameras zoomed in on her and Lilith was out of frame, Riley noticed her switch her mic off and reach for the bluetooth in her ear. “Lift is a little slow, get it sped up for next time. And get the sound girl to Punishment.” Even murmured from a distance, Riley could hear the emphasis on the word, but seeing Phoebe terrified in front of her kept her from thinking on it too long.
“Only one of these ladies will leave the ring still chasing our fabulous prize! We’ll go over the rules, then the objectives. During the Challenge, the following actions are forbidden: punching, kicking, elbowing, kneeing, biting, headbutting, choking, joint locks, preventing your opponent from reentering the ring, hairpulling, scratching, clawing, and fingering.” For most of the list, Riley was trying to figure out the goal of the game based on the rules; clearly some sort of wrestling was involved. At this last item though, she blinked her eyes wide, wondering in what kind of game that would have to be explicitly specified.
“The Elimination Challenge is a race to fulfill two victory conditions before your opponent.” Riley was a bit disappointed that they weren’t being directly told what to do; rather, the list of “don’ts” implied that everything else was fair game. Phoebe brushed her hand over her long brown hair nervously, and for the first time Riley noticed an odd, discreet black headband around Phoebe’s head, arranged in such a way that her hair hid the bulk of it. Checking Charlotte, she saw she had one as well, and against her lighter brown hair Riley could even make out what looked like covered computer chips and wires in certain places on the band. At the same moment, with the cameras focused on the Jumbotron display as Phoebe and Charlotte’s faces filled the empty boxes, Lilith knelt and picked something off the ground.
“Each of our challengers is wearing a special headband today that will wirelessly transmit real-time data to our Science and Medical Team.” As she spoke, Lilith waved an arm to the small squad of techs manning the computers, who cheerfully waved back. “The data we get will be crucial for our challengers as they try to achieve step one; filling the Humiliation Bar.” Neither girl successfully kept the shock off her face at this news. “Using heartrate, brainwave, respiration, and perspiration readings, we can accurately quantify a person’s humiliation in real time.”
All six girls in the observer section visibly flinched at some point in this announcement, though none had the awareness to register anyone else doing it. For her part, Phoebe was trying to keep the same aggressive expression but failing miserably, while Charlotte was growing a smile either at the rules or Phoebe’s accelerating decomposition. If Lilith noticed any of this, she didn’t show it, her eyes never wavering and her voice steady and clear as ever. “Once either girl fills her bar, the following cue will play, requiring both challengers to release the position and go back to their start lines.” A deep base note played from all sides as each Jumbotron flashed stoplight red. “Any delay by the aggressor will be met with disqualification.”
“The live stream of vitals from each contestant will also play an important safety role for the second victory condition: a breast smother knockout.” Riley was nauseous. She was perhaps two seconds from standing right where Phoebe was, saved only by Nora’s timing. Could these really be the rules for
every elimination? “Once you’ve finished step one and secured a smother for step two, wait for the cue,” again the sound and red lights played, “and release immediately. Any delay will be met with disqualification.” So there were no refs. Riley felt like fainting.
“Ready to go?” The question clearly wasn’t directed at the contestants as Lilith didn’t look at either of them, instead beaming for the camera as it pulled up and away from her, centering on the ring. “3….2..” Lilith was the only one speaking, but her voice was played over itself multiple times from the surround sound, leaving the impression of a sea of Lilith’s eagerly counting down to what both challengers seemed to believe was Phoebe’s doom. Riley saw pure uncertainty on Phoebe’s face and realized she had no idea what she herself would try if she were in this challenge. Thinking tactically was difficult; in some way she felt relieved for Phoebe, who would have a chance despite her smaller cup size, but on the other hand she felt her friend couldn’t have gotten a worse break. Her insecurities would be as monumental a challenge as the G’s Charlotte planned to park on her lightly freckled face. “…1….. GO!!!”
