Of course, when Roddy calls out, “One, two, three, toss!” I panic and fumble for a moment, before I realize that I can, in fact, throw an egg three feet. No big deal.

Travis opens his hand and catches it like he didn’t even have to think about it. I give him a cheesy thumbs up, ignoring the way he rolls his eyes at me.

“This is kind of fun,” Elise says, when it’s their line’s turn to toss the eggs back. I shift my gaze to her briefly, but only after I’ve safely caught my egg. I won’t let her distract me into messing up. She and May could have planned to sabotage us. But she does look genuinely pleased to be standing in the grass in a T-shirt and jeans, in a line of excited townspeople and tourists.

I bet the novelty will wear off by the time she’s covered in egg yolk or grass stains though.

“Brenden!” Travis calls my name impatiently, clueing me in to the fact that everyone but me has taken a step backward at Roddy’s instruction. Whoops.

See? Sabotage.

The next toss is also easy enough and so is catching Travis’s. But it only takes a couple more rounds before things start to get dicey. There’s a delicate balance you need to hit in tossing your egg hard enough that it will make it all the way to your partner, while not tossing it so hard that it will break when they catch it.

We began with sixteen teams competing, and out of the corners of my eyes I notice a few teams already messing up and stepping out of the lines. I can hear the sounds of eggs cracking, but I keep my focus where it needs to be. Right on Travis.

He still doesn’t look like this is taking him any effort. Until my next toss is probably a little too rough and doesn’t go directly to his hand, so he has to reach out for it with panicked eyes. The look of relief that crosses his face when he catches the egg without it breaking does a funny thing to my insides.

It was like a chink in his armor, showing that he actually cares about the competition. And I know for a fact that winning the May Games has never even come close to being one of his ambitions, which means he cares about this for me. He cares about it because I do.

Shit. Focus.

I barely manage to catch his next toss. Taking a quick look around after I do, I see there’s only five teams left. Us, May and Elise, and three others. Excellent.