That’s when I finally got it.

Chef JJ didn’t let me on the show as some kind of favor to Mom. She’d let me on the show so she could torture me as payback for what Mom had done.

She was never going to let me win. I was going to lose, and she was going to make sure I suffered.

I’d never had a chance.

Chapter 21

The Petersville Gazette

Vol. 1, Issue 22

SPECIAL EDITION: Reporting from the Petersmobile in NYC

Town Happenings

Lost Chicken: Winnie Hammond’s prize-laying Rhode Island Red, Queen Elizabeth, last seen headed west at the intersection of Main Street and County Road 7.

If found, approach with caution. Reward: two dozen eggs.

Featured Series

Things Most People Get Wrong and How YOU Can Get Them Right

By Jeanine Levin

You know how people are always saying it takes seven years to digest chewing gum? Wrong! Most gum isn’t even digestible and it moves through your digestive tract at the same speed as anything else you eat. I’m not saying you should eat chewing gum. I’m just giving you the facts. Facts are freedom!

You’re welcome!

Two more challenges. I just had to hold it together for two more challenges.

Why did I care anymore? Why did I even bother trying when I knew there was no way I could win? Because even if there was no chance we were getting a Donut Robot out of this, I could still reach millions of television viewers planning road trips. So until I got kicked off, I’d take whatever Chef JJ dished out and talk up Petersville every chance I got.

I’m not going to lie, I was mad—mad that I’d never stood a chance at winning, mad at all the hours of training that were for nothing, and mad at Chef JJ for holding on to some stupid grudge. I was even mad at Mom for being completely clueless.

But I also felt like this part of me that had been twisted up so tight it was hard to breathe had finally come loose. And it wasn’t just because the pressure to win was gone. It was because the cheating was finally over. Nothing could erase the cheating. But the cheating would never end if I won. I’d see it every time I looked at the Donut Robot. It would go on forever. Now, at least it was over, because I was over. And that seemed fair.

Luckily, Josh and Jeanine were so worked up that they didn’t even notice that I really wasn’t, but even Jeanine knew there wasn’t anything we could do about it. Nobody expected Can You Cut It? to be fair. It was like its own planet, and Chef JJ wasn’t just the boss. She was the supreme ruler. It might not have been written in the contract we signed, but we all knew it.

Josh was already brainstorming our next move. How else could we get the money for the Donut Robot? How could we increase doughnut production without it? “Remember the Tea King,” he told me. “There’s always a way to make it work.”