The Fastest Finish by Catherine Hapka

Author:Catherine Hapka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Seventeen

Noah couldn’t believe he had to follow Chen the Mighty Mini. The whole place had erupted in wild shouts and applause halfway through her course, and it hadn’t quieted down much by the time his own package started to play.

He glanced up at the screen. He’d managed to convince his dad not to tell his mother about the filming of his package. They’d arranged for it to happen while she was out of town for the day. Would she be mad when she found out? And what about when she found out about today’s taping? Would she be upset that he hadn’t told her about that, either? Or would she accept that he’d wanted it to be a surprise.

“Ready?” Tara asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Noah nodded, then jumped up and down a few times, shaking out his arms and legs. “Begin whenever you’re ready, ninja,” said the woman standing by the start.

Noah took a step forward, eyeing the first obstacle, known as the Leaning Poles of Pizza. It consisted of six wooden poles of varying heights, most of the them slanted to some degree. They stuck up from a large, colorful pizza painted on the floor, as if the poles were warped stacks of pepperoni.

The cheers and whistles from the crowd hadn’t died down, but Noah knew they weren’t for him—​they were for Chen, who was standing with her coach near the base of the Crazy Cliff. He couldn’t help feeling a little rattled by all the commotion, but he did his best to ignore it as he took a deep breath and jumped up onto the first pole, which was only slightly slanted.

Tara had advised him to try to get through as quickly as possible, so Noah pushed off the first pole immediately, aiming for the second, taller pole. The tops were small, no larger than the top of an average fencepost, and his foot hit it slightly askew. Noah wobbled, swinging his arms to keep his balance, and shoved himself forward toward the third pole, which was shorter and very slanted.

The rest of the poles went okay, though Noah felt a little unbalanced the whole way through. When he finally landed safely on the mat at the end, he stood there for a second, trying to regain his composure. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Chen walking past him toward the locker rooms, waving to cheering fans.

Focus, Noah told himself. Get your head back in the game or this was all for nothing.

The second obstacle was called Hanging Out. It was a large, squared-off log, its edges set on a pair of sloped metal tracks. Ninjas were supposed to hang on to it upside down as it slid down the tracks. Several competitors had lost their grip halfway down, and others had been shaken loose when it hit the end of the tracks, falling into the safety net instead of throwing themselves forward onto the landing mat.

Noah wrapped his arms and legs around the obstacle and pushed off.

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