Chapter 13

DAISY

It was a relief to not have been knocked out the first round I came back into the competition, but that didn't make it any easier to come back into the studio now. If anything, it made me more nervous because I knew that I could go home at any moment.

And it didn't help that I was running late and wouldn't have time for a coffee before filming started. It was all Danny's fault, if he hadn't been hogging the bathroom this morning, then I'd have been on time.

I hurried over to my station and stowed my bag away, finally feeling like I could breathe.

"There's a coffee on your table."

"Argh." I jumped, knocking my head against the pole next to me.

Concern filled Thor's eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine." I rubbed my temple. "If that bruises, I'm going to blame you."

He chuckled. "Fair enough."

"Thanks for the coffee though." I grabbed it and took a sip. "Ah, so much better."

"I thought you'd want one. I was getting worried that you weren't here yet and thought they'd disqualified you."

"Oh, no. It was all Danny's fault."

He chuckled. "Why do I get the impression it's often Danny's fault?"

"Because you've met him," I responded. "Though no, it isn't always Danny's fault. But this morning he had to have a long shower just as I needed to brush my teeth, so here I am."

"You live together?"

"Oh, right. Yes. We share a flat above our workshop. The front half is where I do my thing, and the back half is where Danny's forge is. You'd like it." I realised as I said it that I actually had no idea if that was true or not.

"That does sound good. My forge and workshop are in the same room."

"I imagine you're only using one of them at once, though," I pointed out.

"True. That does make it easier," he agreed.

The bell rang, signalling that it was time to start filming.

"I'm going to be glad when I don't have to hear that bell again," I murmured.

"Same. The competition is fun, but it does get kind of exhausting to always be at its beck-and-call."

"Exactly." I smiled at him. He wasn't wrong there, and it was even worse because I was having to work on Violet Shaw's commission in the days between the competition too. "So, what do you think it's going to be this week?"

"I'm not sure," he responded. "I was looking around before you got here to try and work it out, but I didn't get very far. They're good at keeping the themes under wraps."

"You mean you didn't just ask your friend to tell you what's going on?"

"Mel? I doubt she knows to be honest. She's technically the head producer of the reality TV shows, but I don't think she knows what the exact plan for any of them beyond the highlights."

We came to a stop when we were in the normal position and fell silent while we waited for the presenters to appear.

It only took a moment for Rosie and Duncan to appear, both dressed far too nicely for the workshop. If I didn't have to go to work straight away, I'd have felt underdressed.

"Welcome to the semi-finals of The Great Sculpting Challenge! " After several weeks, I was actually starting to find Rosie's enthusiasm kind of catching. "This is a very exciting round because it's the team challenge! You'll each be paired off with another contestant. So the good news is that two of you will be named Judge's Choice this week, but the bad news is that two of you are going home. And the remaining four competitors will head on to the finals next week!"

My stomach twisted into knots. Whether this was a success or not was going to depend on who I was paired with. I looked around the other contestants. Kenji wouldn't be too bad, though he had an arrogant streak that made me doubt he'd be happy working with me. Carlos was talented, but he didn't strike me as a team player either.

"For this challenge, you're going to have two days," Duncan said. "The studio is going to be open to you until ten o'clock tonight, and will be open at six am tomorrow morning, you can use as much or as little time in here as you want, but once the time runs out, you'll have to stop."

That was a decent amount of time compared to our other challenges, which made me wonder exactly what they were going to have us do. I had to assume that it was going to be a big challenge, and not just from the part of working together.

"This week, we'll be asking you to make a tree," Duncan said.

I almost laughed. Now that was something I was good at.

"It must be at least seven feet tall and have at least one animal interacting with it. You're to use at least three different sculpting techniques throughout your piece, and it has to stand on its own."

My eyes widened. That was a lot of work, and while I was confident in creating a tree, I'd normally take two weeks over something as large as that.

"As for the teams, that's for you to decide," Rosie said.

Hope welled up within me. If I could choose who I was paired with, that would make a big difference.

"Each of you will put your hand in this bag and pull out a ball." She lifted a velvet bag so we could see. "The person with the matching number will be your partner for this challenge."

And all the hope died.

She went around the circle, letting each of the six of us put our hand in the bag and pull out the balls. My heart pounded as I turned it over to find the number two printed on the bottom of it. Which meant nothing until I knew who had the matching one. Whether I succeeded at this challenge or not was going to be down to who I was working with.

"All right, competitors, please hold up your balls," Duncan said, somehow managing to keep a straight face while saying it. "And it looks like we have our teams. Brandon and Kenji, Carlos and Ralph, and Daisy and Thor."

I let out a sigh of relief. That could have been a lot worse.

"You have half an hour to talk about your sculptures and what you're planning on doing, and then the scrap heap will open and you can start creating," Rosie said. "Your time starts now!"

The timer blinked into being above our heads just as one of the studio staff collected the balls.

"So, we need a plan," I said to Thor.

"I'm guessing you've got some thoughts already, I've seen some of your tree sculptures."

"Should I be worried that you seem to know my work?"

He shrugged. "Do you know the work of sculptors you admire?"

My heart skipped a beat and I pushed a strand of hair out of my face. "I suppose."

"Well, there you go."

"I think we should do an apple tree," I said. "The technique you used to make your clouds would look great on apples."

"I see that," he agreed. "But that doesn't let you show off your skills with the flowers."

"No, but they're easily transferred to birds. We could do a nest, or go a little more out there with something like a woodpecker. That would be bigger so it would stand out more."

"What about both? Woodpecker nest?"

"You mean inside the tree? That would look great if we could finish it in time, but it will look messy if we don't," I responded. It was a risk, but I reckoned we could pull it off.

"Worth a try. Brandon and Kenji are going to make something really intricate."

"Hmm, true. All right, let's do it. But we're probably going to need all of the hours we can get to make it."

"I'm free if you are," he joked.

I nodded, knowing that there was nowhere I'd rather be than in the workshop creating, and this time, it also came with good company. It couldn't get much better than that.