Just then, I remembered that my parents were in the room, Keya’s too, probably. The finalists’ families were invited onto the set for the last challenge.

I squinted into the lights but couldn’t make out anything past the Transformer cameras.

“So.” Marco knocked his fist into my shoulder. “You ready?”

“I’m ready,” I said louder than I’d meant to in a voice that didn’t even sound like mine. Maybe it was the shark’s.

“I got to say I never thought you’d make it this far. I mean, remember Knife Skills Showdown? Yowza. That was not pretty.”

“Thanks,” I said as if Marco hadn’t just told me he’d been betting against me from day one.

Marco was never going to see me as a shark. Just like Harper had said, we’d all been chosen to play a role, and that’s not the one I’d been chosen for. Harper was the shark. I was the choker, and Marco wanted to make sure I didn’t forget it. Maybe it was just trash talk, but it didn’t matter. It had worked.

I felt that burning at the back of my throat.

Randy clapped her clipboard over her head. “Okay, everybody! This is it.”

Snap!

The cameras began to roll. The sound guys dangled their mics over our heads.

Chef JJ was talking but I could barely hear her. My heart was beating too fast and too loud. I could feel it all over my body, in my ears and in my hands.

I love competing. I am a shark. I am a shark…

Who was I kidding? I could say that stuff a million times. It wouldn’t make it true.

And then from far away, I heard something that changed everything: “…Killer Cupcake Competition!”

The burning in my throat disappeared.

My heartbeat jumped back into my heart where it belonged.

Whatever I’d been feeling, just the word cupcake had cured it.

I didn’t need to compete to make cupcakes. I didn’t need to hate anybody to make cupcakes. I didn’t need to be a shark to make cupcakes. I’d been making cupcakes before I could spell “cupcakes.” I had cupcakes running in my veins.

There was no question. I’d make the peekaboo cupcakes I’d invented for Henry’s birthday. Zoe had begged me to make an FYO cupcake like the FYO doughnuts, so I’d created a cake with buttermilk that had enough “give” you could fill it with cream without the whole thing falling apart. I knew the recipe by heart because I’d spent days perfecting it.

One problem: Chef JJ wouldn’t get the same kick Zoe did from filling the cupcakes. She’d probably even accuse me of leaving them unfinished. Easy fix: I’d just fill them myself, use a special tip, and swirl cream like soft serve ice cream around the top to hide the hole. That would even look good. Plus, you wouldn’t know about the cream on the inside so there’d be extra wow when you bit into it.

But which flavor cream? Butterscotch was too risky. Even though Chef JJ didn’t taste the butterscotch cream at the callback, I was pretty sure she’d remember it, and I didn’t want her to think I was a one-trick pony.