Hello all. The tasks of the competition will be explained here later. I tried to stick to the original tasks as much as possible, but I still changed a few little things (coupling of the nozzle and abseiling). I hope I've described it well for readers 😥, especially since I only know it from videos on the internet 😅🙈 Have fun reading.

When Sam woke up, it took him a moment to get his bearings. His dreams had made the night pleasant for him, but his awakening left him dissatisfied. He turned on his side and found that Penny was no longer in her bed. He looked at the clock and decided it was definitely too early, before sinking back into the pillow and closing his eyes.

It didn't take long before a noise made him open his eyes again and his breath caught in his throat as Penny crept to the closet covered only in a long towel. Her hair lay loose on her shoulders - bare shoulders, just as exposed as her legs below the knees. He could no longer speak, no longer breathe, no longer even blink. He just hoped she didn't catch him blatantly staring at her. She would definitely be embarrassed and he would even understand. What he was doing here was anything but decent, he was aware of that. But he couldn't do anything about it. She was just so beautiful that he couldn't take his eyes off her.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she said as she grabbed clothes from her closet without looking at him.

"Good morning," he replied shocked and had to clear his throat because his voice was threatening to fail. "How do you know I'm awake?"

"I had a feeling like that," she replied with a smile as she turned to him with clothes on her arm and he forced himself to look at her eyes, but they were also so beautiful and he liked looking at them too.

"Have you been awake long?" He decided that changing the subject was probably a better choice before things got awkward for him. Maybe he was lucky and she hadn't noticed his staring.

"I've been jogging, Sam."

"Can't you sleep longer even on a Sunday?"

"Why? I don't have a good reason keeping me in bed and we're here to win a competition, not to sleep."

"To take part in the competition. If we win is not solely in our hands," he corrected her critically.

"Whatever. Do you want to come down for breakfast or should I bring you something?"

"No, I'm coming with you." He certainly wouldn't pass up the chance to have breakfast with Penny.

"I'll be ready soon, then you can go to the bathroom," she replied and disappeared back into the bathroom while he got up. He used the time to change quickly and turned away from the closet, buttoning his pants, when he saw Penny standing calmly in the bathroom door with her arms crossed over her chest, but she was smiling."Woah, Pen!" he shouted in annoyance and quickly pulled a shirt out of the pile in the closet and threw it over himself.

"What?! You're allowed to look, but I'm not?" she replied calmly and that made him falter a little. But she took it calmly, he thought for a moment, confused as to if he should jump on it? It was probably worth a try...

"But I showed you more than you showed me," he replied, smiling mischievously.

"I have more to hide too," she replied with a smile and pushed away from the door to let him into the bathroom. "But the view was more than pleasant," she replied with a grin and knew that Sam had heard her when a short "Ditto!" came out of the bathroom. Still, she couldn't help it as her cheeks turned a light shade of red, just like Sam's.

Was it just because of the room they shared or because of the distance from home and their friends, who always watched them both critically, that they became a little more relaxed with each other and their teasing reached a new level, drifting even more into flirting? Why not? They were friends and knew each other meant no harm. But neither of them could or wanted to really believe that the other liked them. Could one person alone be so lucky?

Half an hour later they entered the breakfast room and were momentarily amazed at the number of people who had gathered there.

"If they all take part, it's no wonder that it takes them three days to compete," Penny objected as they each walked along the self-service counter with a tray and grabbed what they liked here and there.

"I don't have a chance," Sam muttered doggedly and Penny looked up at him questioningly as they turned to look for a table. "Look at all of them. They're still so green behind the ears that you can tell it seems like I'm really the oldest horse in the stable."

"It's not the age that decides who wins, it's the technique, Sam," Alex now drew their attention to himself, who was sitting at a table they were just about to pass. "Sit down, old man, and of course you too, Penny," He then added with a grin and took a bite of his bun. While Penny also grinned in amusement, Sam rolled his eyes in annoyance. He had already realized yesterday that Alex reminded him a little of two of his colleagues - a little cheeky like Ellie and clumsy like Elvis.

"Good morning, Alex. Aren't you having dinner with your brother?" Penny asked him after Sam had also greeted him.

"Not really. I'm not in the mood for his loud-mouthed boasts in the morning." He pointed in a direction and they saw Pedro sitting there with the two ladies from yesterday, around them a few young men who seemed to want to get all the tips from him. "I hit the jackpot with the two girls, I tell you ."

"Why you? Your brother has one of these in each arm," Sam said with a smile.

"Exactly. I had our room to ourselves tonight and with a bit of luck, it will stay that way for the rest of the week. The peace and quiet is wonderful," he said, exaggeratedly happily, before enthusiastically waving someone over.

"Good morning, you three. Everyone slept well?" Franziska greeted them and sat down next to them, closely followed by Tom, who had his tray so full that he had to walk slowly so as not to lose anything.

"Get used to it. Having breakfast with Tom means getting full while watching," Alex objected calmly when everyone had greeted each other and he saw Penny's and Sam's astonished looks.

"One could easily think that you are training for a competition in eating fast and eating a lot and not taking part in a firefighting competition," Penny objected with a smile.

"He has a healthy metabolism," groaned Franziska, playfully annoyed.

"Exactly, and if you want to achieve a lot, you have to have a lot of energy!" Tom defended himself. "Besides, we have to hurry. In half an hour they'll be posting the lists of participants, who's turn will be at what time during the week."

"It's your own fault if you can't get out of bed in the morning. Last year he was first thing in the morning and was almost late for his own start."

Penny and Sam listened to the three of them's banter and smiled. They reminded the two of their friends at home and made it easy for them to fit in and even feel comfortable in a foreign country.

When Tom was finally finished, despite a second helping, they went to the stands where the judges would sit and where the awards ceremony would later take place. Just as they approached, they saw two folders hanging the lists on a clipboard at the foot of the stand and there was a commotion among the many surrounding participants, who now all pushed forward to get a look at the lists.

Only when the crowd had thinned out a little did they manage to take a look at it too.

"Well, that's working. Penny, you're the first one of us tomorrow. 11 o'clock," Tom called enthusiastically back to her, who, along with Sam, held back a little because they didn't necessarily share the others' impatience and euphoria.

"Yeah!" Penny cheered sarcastically, before she felt Sam's hand on her shoulder and saw a comforting smile on his lips.

"Oh, oh." But Alex's skeptical tone drew her attention back to him. "Sam, it's your turn on Tuesday. With my brother. Be careful, he doesn't always play fair if he's afraid of losing."

"He's already a two-time world champion. I hardly think I'm a threat to him."

"Who knows?!" Franziska now objected. "If you hear Penny say that, you're simply the best."

Sam looked at Penny in surprise, who blushed slightly but avoided his gaze in embarrassment while she jabbed the grinning Franziska in the ribs with her elbow.

"When are you starting?" Penny changed the subject and turned to Tom and Alex.

"We start together on Monday afternoon at 3 p.m.," Tom objected and he and Alex high-fived them.

"So I'm the last one to enjoy it?!"

"Obviously, Sam. Don't take it too seriously. The old ones always finish last!" Alex teased him, dodging Sam's fist that he wanted to punch him in the shoulder.

"Then show us what's coming, you old hands," Penny objected and pulled Sam with her to calm his mind a little.

"Well then come with me," Alex called out excitedly and they followed him to a barrier inside which people were already busy setting up. "Here you can see two B-hoses laid out in bays on each fire engine. Each one is 80 meters long. When the start signal sounds, you have to connect the couplings to the fire engine behind it, grab the nozzles and pull as much as you can until you reach the marking in front. Put one over each shoulder, then you can work with your whole body and bring it over. You can't get the strength from your arms alone." They followed him to the marker as Tom did the talking.

"Here you have to roll up two B-tubes one after the other. The technique is up to you, but they have to be rolled up perfectly and then be neatly inserted into the boxes back there." They followed Tom to the next station, where they found two running boards with a large black weight in the middle at the top. "This is where pure muscle power is required. Stand on it, grab a hammer and hit the weight until it reaches the other end and you hear the bell ringing."

"A bell? So it's something like hitting Lukas on the ground?!" Sam now objected, not quite understanding the meaning of this competition.

"You could say that, yes," replied Franziska indifferently. "Don't ask what it's for. In all my years in the fire department, I haven't carried out an activity that was similar to the movement sequences of this task."

"That's just a man's thing, Franzis," objected Tom, who pronounced her nickname more in English.

"It's just stupid that women have to do that too," she replied and the two stuck out their tongues at each other while everyone else watched them grinning.

"Anyway, let's move on to the next task," Alex guided her.

"Next we go through the tunnel there armed with a 20kg canister."

"Not very back-friendly," Sam objected as they walked past the wooden, angular tunnel through which one could only walk while bending over.

"As if it were always like that in action, right Sam?! But it gets even better. Here you take the dummy down from the table and pull it with the rescue handle to the finish. The first line is for the women, the second for the men ."

"Why is this task made easier for women?" Penny objected.

"The dummy weighs 80 kg. Be happy that you have to carry it 20 meters less than the men," Franziska answered with a grin and Penny agreed with her, nodding and understanding. Dolly weighed next to nothing. They should have trained with one of their colleagues instead of her.

"Then you continue here by working your way up the 3 meter high wall on the rope and jumping back down at the back. But don't worry, there are mats there, you'll fall softly. This is also the only station where you don't actually make any mistakes and you can do something that costs you time points. You just have to make sure that you get over there quickly," Tom spoke up again and motioned for them to follow him further."Here each participant places two ladders on the wall and leaves then with two 15 kilo canisters next to it up the stairs to the 2nd floor..."

"Why do you put ladders on if you don't use them?" Sam interrupted him, now perplexed.

"Wow, is he always so rational?" Tom now turned to Penny, who had to fight against laughter and just nodded with a shrug. "It's just a matter of if you set up the ladders correctly. So let's move on with the help of that pull up the rolled-up B-hose using the rope attached at the top, then run back down with the canisters and place them where you picked them up, in order to then screw a mouthpiece onto a nozzle over there. Make sure it's really fixed, otherwise it will cost you points again."

"And now comes hell on earth, the final, nerve-racking and exhausting task that will drive you to the point of ultimate exhaustion," Alex began theatrically and Sam and Penny looked at each other skeptically when Tom also started a drum roll on his thighs to clap."The floor run," Alex finished, pointing to two metal fire stairs that wound up the outside of a building.

"You have to run up 15 floors, always with time on your mind, always focused. By the halfway point at the latest, your legs will be as heavy as lead, you'll think your heart will explode from the effort and your lungs and muscles will sting so badly that you'll wish you were dead," Tom picked up the game ball and told them as if it were a good horror story around the campfire.

"Unfortunately, you're right. You hear the sentence 'I want to die!' very often here. Especially from the men's world," Franziska now interjected, bored.

"What do you need that for?" Sam couldn't stop himself from saying again and was immediately rewarded by Alex and Tom, who put their fists on their hips and looked at him in shock.

"How else are you going to reach the injured people who have taken refuge on the roof or the source of the fire if it's up there?!" Tom replied skeptically.

"I'd be stupid to climb 15 floors to get someone off the roof when we have a helicopter!"

"You have a helicopter?" Alex asked enthusiastically.

"And if the helicopter breaks down?" Tom interjected, annoyed.

"Then fortunately there isn't a single building in all of Pontypandy that is more than three stories high - including the roof structure," replied Sam with a grin and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Wow, can you still use people with you?” Alex interjected and stepped between Sam and Penny to put his arms around their shoulders. “And you really have a helicopter?”

"Alex, stick to the point! We can talk about that later. We're not done here yet," Tom admonished his friend and he rolled his eyes in annoyance and stuck his tongue out at Tom.

"The last hurdle is to rappel down to the other side of the building and your time will be stopped when you have uncoupled a nozzle from a distributor."

"Now it has to be said that the two of them forgot something important in their explanations," Franziska intervened and Tom and Alex looked at each other perplexed before shrugging their shoulders. "You have to take your breathing bottle with you when you start up to the climbing wall. We also wear a mask when doing the floor run. You are only allowed to take off your equipment after you have rappelled down."

"That really doesn't make it any easier!" sighed Penny, resigned at the prospect.

"You can do it. Nobody is as well trained as you and cats are said to be light on their feet and always land on their feet," Sam tried to encourage her and he actually managed to put a smile on her face.

What he didn't notice was one of Pedro's new friends walking past them, who wasn't at all happy with his encouraging words to Penny.

"I would say we freshen up a bit and then meet for lunch in half an hour, what do you think?" Tom interjected.

"Is he really thinking about food again now?" Penny turned to Franziska, confused, who just shrugged her shoulders with a grin.

"Good metabolism, Penny! Don't forget that," Tom replied blankly, but then grinned and they followed him back to the hotel, smiling.

To be continued...