I gave her an eye roll and crammed what was left into my mouth, but when her eyes grew big and she let out a massive bellow, I started to laugh too and had to cover my mouth before I spat everything all over the table. I turned away from her, chewed, and finally swallowed. When I turned back, she started a slow clap.

“Unreal, dude. You win the prize.” She picked up a button that had a vicious-looking bee in roller skates on it and held it out to me.

“For me? I couldn’t,” I said as I swiped it out of her hand, which made her laugh again, which, for some reason, I liked. I didn’t generally inspire laughter in people. I didn’t usually inspire much of anything in people except frustration. I dug in my pocket for a couple of bucks and handed them to her anyway, though. “Here. I probably would have shoved the whole thing in my mouth even without the challenge.”

She accepted the money and replied, “Yeah, I could tell you’d done it before, so I’ll take your cash.”

I looked at the button. “This is cool, thanks.”

“No problem.”

“ ’Kay, well—thanks,” I said again, like a dumbass. I started to go before I said anything else pathetic.

“Enjoy the bout!” she called after me.

I looked behind me to give her a nod or something equally unnecessary, but she’d already turned her attention to a new customer.

Whatever.

I attached the pin to my jacket. Over the loudspeakers, I heard the announcement for the start of the bout and made my way back to meet Fee. Music blared and the announcer called out amazing-sounding names like Jiggy Bounce and Wanda Betta-Booty.

Fee came out of the bathroom practically skipping at being poop-free, and I had to laugh. Admittedly, I felt a little lighter now too. Noticing my pin, they asked, “Where’d you get that? I wanna get one for Cai!”

Something in my chest jumped at the chance to bring Fee back to the Killa Honeys table—I told myself it was just because Fee’s enthusiasm was contagious, but I also found myself wondering what that girl’s name was.

I led Fee against the crowd, which was mostly moving into the arena. We’d miss the start of the bout, but I was okay with that at the moment. There’d be plenty of time to see just how brutal this sport could be.

The girl at the Killa Honeys table was just pulling off the lid of a big rubber container to start packing up her merchandise. As we approached her table, she looked up and did a double take.

“Hey, Hot Dog Champ! Back so soon? The bout’s just starting.”

Fee looked at the girl and then back at me. “Hot Dog Champ, huh?” they said, their eyes gleaming.