Paul didn't wish to explain his stand for Cathy's sake so he kept the explanation later among the judges. He knew Cathy and Renee understood what he meant more than anyone else.

For thirty minutes, the judges were debating somewhere unknown to the people.

Then they came into the hall one by one. The last to enter was Paul.

John started,"Now, I will announce the two finalists for this year's Regional Open Culinary Compet.i.tion. The three of us gave a score for each team and tallied. I will call the finalists disregarding who got the highest score between the two."

"So for the finalists, not in particular order, please come up front…" He paused for a while which heightened the excitement of the people.

"Okay, serious this time. The first finalist is… Luisa, come on down. Applause everyone."

Luisa and Nota were hugging and jumping together with huge smiles on their faces.

"Girls, girls, please come here now. Continue that later."

The two got embarra.s.sed with John's statement as they went to the front.

"Who might be the second finalist? Who do you think?" He asked the audience.

Most shouted, "Beauty, Beauty, Beauty"

A few shouted, "Ernie, Ernie."

But none mentioned Cathy.

"The second finalist is… Beauty." The name was mentioned echoing in the whole huge hall.

Beauty and Rene simultaneously shouted, "YES!"

Both ran together to the front and shook hands with the other two who were there first. Beauty embraced the two girls as they laughed together. Their waves of laughter were so loud in the hall that encouraged everyone to continue to clap.

While the other four partic.i.p.ants remained where they were, observing the jovial atmosphere and watching the br.i.m.m.i.n.g smiles of the of the called finalists.

In the middle of the celebration, Renee started to cry. Her weak sobs were heard even in the middle of the claps and laughter. She gave her all and did most of the work for the dish, but Cathy wasn't in focus on what they were doing. In fact, the latter became the a.s.sistant and Renee was the one directing instead. Paul saw this happened.

Ernie's eyes started to get red and moist hearing the sobs. Somehow, a tear escaped of which he hurriedly wiped away. Elaine also started to tear up while hearing Renee's cries. She sighed and wiped the tears in silence. The two of them stood there not knowing what to do.

Cathy was silent and rooted where she stood. She wanted to run out but felt no energy to lift her feet off the ground. She wished to cry like Renee but she couldn't. Her body numbed senselessly, slowly her ears couldn't hear anything and her sight dimmed. She fainted.

Ernie who was standing beside her felt her body swayed and about to fall, he speedily grabbed her hand and held her body steady. Elaine grabbed a chair and helped Cathy on it.

Simultaneously, Paul stood up and ran toward Cathy when he saw her fainting. He was actually watching her the whole time. His face was full of concern.

The laughter and applause stopped.

Renee instantly halted her crying with a gasp as she saw her partner sitting with eyes closed.

The whole place became silent after everyone saw Cathy fainted.

The whole affair paused for a while. Paul carried Cathy to her room and a doctor checked her condition.

"Okay, everyone let's calm down. The doctor is now with her. I do believe it was not serious at all. Maybe just due to exhaustion. Let's continue."

"Former partic.i.p.ants of this year's Regional Culinary Compet.i.tion will be voting for the third finalist. Consider it well on who you're going to choose. This is not all about friends.h.i.+p but on what you see in that person as a chef. Is he or she worthy to be a finalist?"

Upon hearing this, each one started to talk and discuss their choices with their seatmates.

"Everyone listen up. As of the moment, we will keep the result of your votes as a secret. We will announce it tomorrow before the finals start. You may all leave the hall after voting."

The hall was full of different kinds of reactions from the partic.i.p.ants.

"Please, people. This is for the contestants own good. Without delay, let the voting begins."

Everyone received a pen and paper. Each one left the place after their writing their candidate's name. The staff tallied the votes and gave the judges the result.

. . . . .

"Who do you think will be the black horse?"

"I hope it's Rene. He deserves it. If not for that accident with Cathy, he might have won."

"I voted for Nota. She was neck and neck with Beauty, if not for that one mistake she could have won."

The comparison and chats continued.

Rene and Nota didn't spend time longer than needed with the rest. The votes had been cast. They went to their personal rooms in silence and hoped as the third finalist.

. . . . .

"Congrats." Clarence hand her a bottle of cold water as they sat on the gra.s.s somewhere far from people.

"Thanks." She drank a bit and looked at him. "Have you heard about Cathy?"

"Yup. What of it?" He laid on the gra.s.s watching clouds pa.s.sing by.

"Are you not concerned?" She felt bad with his nonchalant att.i.tude. She held the water bottle up in the air and wished to pour water on him.

"Why should I? I heard the judge said that she didn't give her best."

"Yeah, but she fainted." The water spilled a little on his shoulder when she reacted and raised the hand that held the bottle.

He sat and wiped the water. "Watch out!... so what? She only needs rest. Then let her rest."

"Ugh, can't you be normal for a while?" She raised her again and spilled all the water on the pink flower which was near Beauty.

"Am I abnormal?" He looked at the wet flower and thankful the water missed him.

"Oh my, I mean… why can't I talk to you normally? Yes, that's what I mean." She continued to wave her hands in frustration.

"Aren't we talking normally? I'm really puzzled with your choices of words." He laid back again.

"Let me rephrase it... she's one of your org's members, yet you're acting as if you don't care what happened to her." She pointed her finger at him.

"Whether she's a member or not, this is a compet.i.tion. One mistake is still a mistake. Your 99 wins won't matter if you make a mistake on your 100th game and cause your downfall. If you lose, lose honorably. Simple as that. Also, you have a bet with her. I want you to win." His face remained unperturbed.

"You sound like your high and mighty. Didn't you lose even once?" Her voice told him that she was getting agitated.

"In the cooking compet.i.tion, not yet." He was about to say that in other matters like love but didn't voice it out.

"Then I'll try my best that I'll be the champion and challenge you in the nationals." Beauty, tired of arguing with him, sighed and looked up at the sky thinking about what it would be like to win over Clarence.

Somehow, Clarence was recalling her fat self. Without thinking he said, "You lose weight only in months then you can do that, too."

"What did you say? You knew I was fat before?" She was really shocked to hear he knew about her past.

"No, ah I mean, I saw some of your pictures in an alb.u.m back in your home."

'Whew! Almost,' he sighed.

"Was I ugly in those pictures?" She prepared herself to hear him say yes.

"Well, let's say, you're not ugly, just a little chubby." He pinched her cheeks and said, "like a cute little chubby baby."

"Hahaha, what kind of description is that?" She laughed as she pulled his hand down.

"See, I made you laugh. You look so beautiful when you smile." Clarence was looking at her with lovesome eyes of which partly alarmed her.

Indeed, Clarence moved to hug her but she pushed him away.

"Knock it off. You still won't get a kiss. Stealer... stop it." She moved a little away from him as he tried to enclose her in his arms. "Let's change the topic. I've wanted to ask you about somebody for quite some time now. Actually, I really didn't meet him personally. We communicated through emails and I just thought you might know him." Beauty stared at him, waiting for any sign of reaction but he was calm and silent the whole time. This disturbed her. "Don't take this seriously. We're simply friends. There's nothing between us."

Clarence was troubled. He couldn't believe this. Was Your Romeo going to resurface? She still didn't let it go? He was silent but was now formulating an answer if she did ask.

When she was about to say something, all of a sudden, "Beauty, you're here. I've been looking for you."

Dr. John Rivera was walking straight toward them, followed by Sheila, and the three judges.