American Hero - George R. R. Martin Page 0,33
a scene where there are explosions and things are flying around and there are flames and everything.
We are all of us on the Spades trying to protect her, even if it costs us one of the challenges. And that isn’t fair, is it?
We had to step up today. It was lucky that the robots couldn’t get through John’s—the Candle’s—wall of fire. That allowed us to work on our offense.
You know, I wish we could use real explosives. I wouldn’t have even needed Rosa if I could have just popped grenades into those robots. Bang!—and it’s over. But I’m not allowed to have explosives. That isn’t fair, is it? I can’t use my ace like I should.
But Rose got lucky with her cards, and got El Diablo or whatever he’s called, so that was almost as good. So I was able to pop us around the battlefield, and she zapped the robots, and then I popped us back behind John’s shield before the robots could react to us. So the two of us won the challenge, basically, all by ourselves.
If we hadn’t had to protect Rachel, we could have done it all faster and we would have won the challenge instead of the Hearts.
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Can I just say something about Rosa? She dresses and talks all ghetto, or whatever ghettos are called in East LA, but she’s really not as stupid as she pretends to be. Even though she’s been unkind to me, I like her a lot. But her powers are so variable—it’s all in what cards she draws, isn’t it? Today she was El Diablo, but tomorrow she could be Mister Taco or something, and all she’d have would be lettuce-shredding powers, and she’d be useless. You can’t have an American Hero who’s useless half the time.
What’s that? The Candle? Oh, John . . . he’s a complete sweetheart. I think he could be my best friend ever. No, John and I have never been involved. Because I am always very careful and I don’t think that John has always been careful. I do not want to be around HIV . . .
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No, I’m not prejudiced. Some of my best friends are gay. But I have to wonder if America is ready for a hero who’s a switch-hitter. I don’t want to be tacky but you have to acknowledge that some people are completely prejudiced . . .
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Oh, the vote? In my opinion we shouldn’t have had to vote one of the team off at all, because we should have won and we only lost on account of having to protect Rachel from the robots . . .
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I voted against Rusty, like almost everybody else.
No, it’s not because I think Rusty said that hateful thing. I think that Stuntman just said that to be evil. I’m from Alabama, which has a lot of black people, and I have many friends who are black. I’m not a prejudiced person at all. But I know racists, and let me tell you that not all racists are white. I don’t think Rusty is a racist, I voted against him because he isn’t lucky. We need lucky people on our team . . .
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. . . I know that one person voted to remove me from the team. I have my suspicions about who that person is. But I want her to know that I forgive her. Rachel is just too tender-hearted to vote Rusty off, and she had to put somebody’s name down.
It’s just so unfair that they make a child decide these things. It’s unfair to everybody that Rachel is here at all . . .
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I am not a bad person. I am a person that people say bad things about.
I am a lady. In the South, you learn how to be a lady. So I am going to ignore all the bad names they call me and get on with the job. Although if I hear that “P” name I may not be responsible for my actions . . .
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Week 6: How the Cards Fall
Week Six Recap: The Rogue Aces
At the start of this round, the judges announced a move to put the four teams back on equal footing. Team Diamonds had lost every challenge so far and had only three aces left, while Team Hearts still had five players. The solution? Team Diamonds was allowed to draw one ace from the Hearts.
After a long day’s deliberation, the Diamonds chose Drummer Boy. How will the Hearts do without their rock star?