The next morning, Mason and Caleb were back in the main interrogation room that they were getting to know so well. One of the fluorescent lights above them seemed to have gone out since they were last there, and was flickering rapidly. Caleb could already feel the headache it was causing, an unpleasant pressure on the back of his left eye.

Tiffany sat across from them, her pantsuit today was a sickly pale pink color and probably cost more than everything in Mason’s little apartment combined. She had a manila folder again, but this time she held it in her arms instead of placing it on the table. She looked strangely nervous.

“Good morning, boys!” She greeted them. “Have you both made a decision?”

Mason looked at Caleb questioningly, giving him one last chance to back out of this madness. But Caleb didn’t waver and instead just gave him a slight encouraging nod.

“We’ve both decided to take your offer,” Mason said, quietly.

Tiffany clapped her hands, and the sudden loud sound echoed in the room. She looked genuinely excited. “Excellent! You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that. I’ll let the officers know and we’ll have you released into my custody.”

She stood up, tucked the manila folder under her arm, and left the room. A few minutes later, the door creaked open again and the officer that Caleb knew entered. Instead of looking smug as usual, he looked alarmed, his eyes wide and his hair disheveled. He approached Caleb cautiously and paused in front of him. His hands kept twitching, like he didn’t know what to do with them.

“Suwanrat, you’re not actually joining the Tournament, right?” He asked him, his voice shaking slightly.

“And why do you care?” Caleb cocked his head and fixed his gaze on the man.

The officer swallowed nervously and shook his head. “I knew you were throwing your life away, but I never thought you were this stupid.”

“Hey! Leave him alone, pig!” Mason stood, wanting to come to Caleb’s defense, but his hands were still cuffed to the table.

Caleb wanted to laugh at the almost beat for beat reenactment of the pair’s interaction yesterday, but he held it in and instead focused on the officer’s reaction. He still wasn’t sure what he was playing at.

The officer barely spared Mason a glance, seemingly slipping back into his professional mannerisms. He went to each of them and unlocked their handcuffs, finally freeing their wrists. He paused next to Caleb again when he was done, avoiding eye contact by busying himself with putting the now discarded handcuffs away. 

“Just… be careful.”

The officer seemed to want to say more, opening his mouth before closing it, shaking his head almost imperceptibly. Instead, he just motioned for the two to follow him as he made his way over to the door. He led them through the circuitous police station hallways and through a small unmarked side door that opened out to a private parking garage. There was an unnecessarily large van idling just outside, black with tinted windows, and so painfully nondescript that it circled back around to highly suspicious. 

The passenger side window rolled down and Tiffany stuck her head out, awkwardly waving at them. “Over here, boys! We have quite the car ride, I’m afraid.”

The back door slid open, an obvious indication for them to get inside. Mason didn’t hesitate and immediately went over to climb in and get comfortable. Caleb began to follow him, but paused as if he was forgetting something and turned to look back the way they came. The officer was still there, watching them with a furrowed brow.

“Timothy, why are you here playing at being a cop?” Caleb asked him.

The officer startled, obviously surprised that he was being spoken to. His eyes had gone wide, and the expression made him look so young. The expression was the same one he had worn after Caleb had knocked his tooth out all those years ago. He looked too stunned to form a reply, so Caleb didn’t let him.

“Go home to your parents. You’re better than this,” he said. His voice was gentle.

He didn’t bother to wait for a reaction and climbed into the van, pulling the door closed behind him. The van left not a second later, leaving Timothy standing there. He looked so small in the big empty parking lot.

-

Center Entertainment’s headquarters were located upstate, at least a five-hour drive from Caleb and Mason’s hometown. The facilities were on their own isolated campus, a sprawling array of buildings fanning out from the central hub of the sleek, modern main building and the real crown jewel of the company, the massive and world-famous Tournament Arena. Adjoining the Arena was the contestant living area, the famous mini-city known as the In-Between. 

The entire campus was a marvel of modern architecture and technology, but neither Mason nor Caleb were awake to see it. The boys had long since fallen asleep in the backseat, leaning against each other with Mason’s head on Caleb’s shoulder.

When the van finally stopped and Tiffany opened the door to fetch them, her loud cooing woke them up. Mason jolted, and the sudden movement caused them to almost bang their heads together.

“Oh, you two are adorable! You’re going to be a hit,” she squealed.

Caleb was a light sleeper and always regained his normal functions faster than Mason. He had unbuckled them both and was pulling him out of the van before Mason had even fully woken up. However, his grogginess quickly dissipated when he laid eyes on the building in front of him.

Mason had grown up in a big city, and was used to skyscrapers, but anyone would be awed by what he was seeing now. It was insanely tall, reaching so far into the sky that when Mason craned his neck to try and find the top, it actually hurt. 

“Welcome to production headquarters!” Tiffany said happily. “Hopefully we’ll only be here briefly, we just need to do some preliminary work.”

Tiffany led them into the building’s lobby, a large and minimalistic room decorated with white leather couches that Mason could not imagine having to keep clean. Directly across from the doors was a long, sleek reception desk, and next to that was a big glass elevator. Tiffany ushered them into the elevator and hit the 12th floor button. Mason craned his neck, looking at the opulence around him. He was unused to such clean, high-tech surroundings.

Next to him, Caleb was unconcerned with the interior design. Instead, he was thinking, his brows furrowed as he mulled over Tiffany’s earlier words.

“What kind of preliminary work?” He asked.

“Just some paperwork, image creation, that sort of thing. You’ll also meet your stylists and you may even get a mini makeover!” Tiffany clapped her hands, looking excited.

That caught Mason’s attention. Looking alarmed, he protectively grabbed and held the low ponytail he wore his hair in. “Makeover? What sort of makeover?”

“Don’t worry dear, I’m sure they won’t cut your hair. It’s one of your most charming features. They’ll want to incorporate it into your image.” Tiffany laughed.

To their right, Caleb continued to frown at her words.

The elevator made a pleasant chiming noise, indicating they’d arrived at their floor. Tiffany got out and led them into a long, plain white hallway dotted with class doors. Mason peeked into them as they passed, but they all seemed to lead to identical conference rooms. The room Tiffany brings them into is no different, with enormous windows taking up the far wall that gave them a view of the entire Center Entertainment campus. There was a big glass table in the center of the room that Tiffany urged them to sit at. Once they were settled, she sat directly across from them.

They sat awkwardly for a few moments, and Tiffany was obviously waiting for something. Finally, the door opened and a sweaty and stressed-looking middle-aged man carrying a large stack of folders entered. He made his way over to the table and took the seat to Tiffany’s left, dropping the folders onto the table in front of them with a thud that threatened to break the thin glass. He removed the top folder from the pile, opened it, and scanned the page while muttering under his breath. Finally, he lifted his head and squinted at the two men sitting across from him.

“Okay… Mason Blair and Caleb Suwanrat, right?”

Before they can confirm or deny, the man made a little surprised noise and looked at the paper again, apparently unbelieving of what he just read.

“Suwanrat… The Suwanrats?”

He lifted his head again, the movement jerky and frantic in a way that was reminiscent of a bird. He really looked at them this time, and seemed to recognize Caleb, his mouth falling open.

“Wow, you really are a Suwanrat. The second son, right? I remember seeing you in the tabloids when you were young!”

Caleb’s jaw clenched, but he nodded.

The man’s look of surprise morphed into a slimy, unnerving smile. “Wow! What a get, Tiffany!”

Tiffany gave one of her little giggles and nodded.

“Oh, I know. He’s going to be such a ratings booster.”

Across from them, Caleb was trying his best to keep his cool, but Mason could see his eyebrows twitching. Under the table, he took his friend’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

The man flipped through the papers in his folder, stopping when he found what he was looking for. He removed two stapled leaflets of paper, each several pages long, and slid them across the table to Mason and Caleb. Mason examined his, suspicious. Tiffany seemed to notice his hesitation and scoffed.

“They’re just your contracts, dear. Standard for the Tournament,” she said dismissively, making a little flippant waving motion with her hand.

Mason continued to scowl at the papers. Beside him, Caleb was calmly flipping through the packet, scanning each page.

“Jeez, do you want to call your lawyer to look it over with you?” The man quipped.

He started laughing, but soon noticed no one had joined him and stopped awkwardly. He cleared his throat and pulled two pens from his shirt pocket, passing them to Caleb and Mason.

“Sign on the solid lines, initial on the dotted one,” the man said meekly.

Caleb and Mason got to work doing so, and it was quiet for a few minutes, save for the sounds of pens scratching and papers being turned. Mason finished first, and when Caleb was done, he collected both of their contracts into a neat pile that he passed back across the table to the strange little man.

He put the contracts away, slipping them back into what was apparently Caleb and Mason’s designated file. He began flipping through the folder again and pulled out some new papers that he promptly handed over.

“On these, we need you to list all your social media accounts and their passwords.”

“Um, why do you need to know that?” Mason asked, raising an eyebrow at the man.

Tiffany tsked, slipping back into the insultingly patronizing tone of voice she used when she scolded them. 

“We need to delete them, of course. We don’t want anything interfering with your image on the show, especially not any potential scandals that may come from old social media.”

Mason looked at Caleb, and Caleb shrugged. Neither of them had much in the way of social media, so they filled the papers out and passed them back in relatively quickly.

“Wonderful!” Tiffany said. “Now that the boring part’s out of the way, we get to do something fun! Names!”

Mason and Caleb exchanged looks. It was no secret that every competitor in the tournament used stage names. It was part of the ‘second chances’ theme they tried to push. The competitors would give up their old names and take new ones to represent their desire to start a new life.

“So, do we get to pick them, or…” Mason trailed off, frowning. He was pretty sure he already knew the answer to that.

Sure enough, Tiffany laughed. 

“Oh, of course not, dear! This is part of the image creation process. The names will have to fit the brand your team has decided for you. I’ve been brainstorming all day during our car ride, trying to come up with the perfect new names for you two. I hope you like them!”

Tiffany gestured to the man, and he scrambled with the folder, having zoned out during the brief conversation. He removed two more new pages and slid them over. Each was labeled as a name change form in big, black lettering at the top. It all looked so very official.

“Mason, you’re going to be Ember,” Tiffany said brightly.

“What, why? Isn’t that a girl’s name?” Mason made a face.

Tiffany rolled her eyes at this. 

“Who cares, dear, boys with feminine names are very in right now. Your image is going to be a tough, fiery one. Ember fits the fire theme and sounds cute. What more could you want?”

Mason frowned, obviously not a fan. But he had no choice, so he just sighed and started to sign the paper.

Tiffany turned to Caleb. “Your name was much easier. You’re going to be Prince. You’re the elegant, noble prince charming from a high society family.”

Caleb’s eyes went wide, and his hand clenched into a fist where it rested on his lap. But after a tense moment, he gave in, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm himself. When he was composed, he opened his eyes and picked up the pen in front of him.

“Prince it is,” he muttered and signed the documents as well.

When they were finished, they both tried to hand the papers back to the man. However, Tiffany snatched them from their hands before he had a chance to take them. She scanned the papers, and a big toothy grin spread across her face. She clapped her hands, looking ecstatic.

“Wonderful! You two are no longer Mason Blair and Caleb Suwanrat, criminals. You’ve been granted a second chance at life! You are now legally and contractually Ember and Prince, and you’re glamorous and mysterious competitors on the upcoming sixtieth season of the Tournament.”

Across the table, Ember gave his friend a nervous look. Prince smiled back reassuringly.