“All those push-ups wore my arms out,” Tanisha said, panting. “I’m having trouble holding on—”
Suddenly she lost her grip. Tanisha fell, waiting to hear the splash of the mud before her. Instead, she was hanging in midair.
Derek was clinging to the monkey bars with one hand. He’d used his other hand to save Tanisha from falling!
“You didn’t quit on me when I fell, and I’m not quitting on you!” Derek said.
One of the cameramen moved closer to Derek and Tanisha, capturing the moment. Derek rocked Tanisha back and forth until she could reach the monkey bars. Together, they finished making their way across.
On the sidelines, a judge said, “Teammates can prevent their partner from falling, so she’s clear!”
Derek and Tanisha smiled. Then Derek said, “Take a quick breather, T, and let’s keep going!”
CHAPTER 8
THE WALL
Derek and Tanisha ran up the trail to the next obstacle, the rock-with-you wall.
Tanisha was shocked to see a very short version of the wall she and Derek had climbed at EveryFit during their training sessions.
“That’s it?” she cried. “That’s the wall? That’s a breeze! We’ll be caught up to the third-place team in no time!”
Together, Derek and Tanisha quickly scaled the wall. They jumped off onto a massive, cushioned landing pad.
“I see the third-place team, they’re not too far ahead!” Derek yelled. “We can catch up to them on the trail!”
They took off running down the trail, and soon they were within reach of the third-place team. But then they went around the bend to the final obstacle. All the teams paused and stood in awe of the mother wall, a forty-foot-tall, forward-leaning wall.
Tanisha gulped. She stood there, frozen with fear, as the other teams grabbed ropes and started pulling themselves up the wall.
Derek grabbed a rope too and was about to climb when he realized that Tanisha hadn’t moved. “T, are you OK?” he called.
“I can’t do it, Derek!” Tanisha screamed to her partner. “I’m afraid of heights. That wall is just too tall!”
“I’m scared of this wall too!” Derek shouted back.
“What are you talking about? You had no problem climbing that big wall at the gym!” Tanisha said.
“Yeah, because I was trying to hurry up and get it over with,” Derek explained. “I’ve been intimidated this whole competition. But we’ve worked hard to get here, and we still have a chance to get third place. The other teams are struggling! Win or lose, we do it together.”
Tanisha shook her head and stared up at the wall. It loomed high above her. But then she remembered what Janet had taught her in the gym.
“You’re right,” Tanisha finally replied. “I might be scared, but let’s do this!”
Derek and Tanisha both grabbed a rope and began making their way up the wall. Tanisha’s nerves were getting the best of her, but she tried to focus on the wall, her hands, and her feet as she climbed upward. Derek cheered her on as they climbed.
“I’m right here with you!” he called.
Finally they both made it to the top of the wall and looked back down at the wall behind them. They’d come a long way. On the other side, the third-place team had just landed.
Tanisha and Derek nodded at each other, then held each other’s hand as they climbed over the top and jumped down. They landed, screaming, on the pad below.
“We did it!” Tanisha cheered. “I can’t believe it!”
“It’s not over yet! We’ve got a half-mile run to go,” Derek said. “Let’s catch up to the other teams and win this thing!”
CHAPTER 9
THE FINAL STRETCH
Tanisha and Derek continued down the trail, getting closer and closer to the third-place team. They were both still holding out hope that they would qualify for the finals on Rugged Reaper.
“This half-mile seems like forever!” said Tanisha.
The first- and second-place teams were so far ahead that Derek and Tanisha couldn’t see them. But as they approached the dip in the trail, the third-place team tripped!
“We can pass them!” said Derek.
The third-place team quickly got up off the ground. But Tanisha and Derek were right beside them!
There were cameras everywhere. Tanisha could see a ton of them at the finish line up ahead.
“Look! There’s the finish line!” Tanisha shouted as they ran side-by-side. “We can do this!”
