“Alissa, wake-up.” Gregory lightly shakes Alissa’s shoulder.

Alissa wakes-up and looks up at Gregory. She was still a little out of it. “Did I fall asleep?”

A smile appears on Gregory’s face “I wouldn’t be wakening you if you hadn’t.”

“How’s the meat?” Alissa stands up out of her lawn chair as she walks over towards the smoker to check on everything.

“Everything is fine. You need to get the brisket ready to turn in first.” Bobby walks over with a cup of coffee she made for everyone. She hands the cup of coffee to Alissa.

“Thanks, Bobby.” She takes a sip of it and moans as it slides down her throat. It tasted and felt so nice.

Alissa pulls the brisket out and starts cutting it up. She slices them thin and cut the brunt ends into nicely shaped cubes. She puts exactly eight slices in the box and arranges it, so it looks pretty.

“Okay, these are ready to go Bobby.” Alissa closes the box and hands it off to Bobby.

Bobby picks it up and carries it to the judges to turn in. Bobby carefully carries the box to the turn in table. She was behind several other people that had been rushing to finish and get in line.

Alissa turns to Alexander “what is next?”

“Pull pork and finally, the chicken.” Alexander comes over towards Alissa and put a set of gloves on. He shows her how to pull it apart and show her what needs to be turned in.

She adds the sauce she made for it and mix it in with the meat.

“Alexander, try a piece and tell me what you think?” Alissa hands him a small plate of barbecue.

Alexander tries it and loved what he was tasting. The meat was properly cooked, and you could taste what type of wood they used. You could taste the spices Alissa used to cook the meat and the sauce balanced everything out.

“If you don’t win first place with this, then the judges taste buds are dead. This is better than your uncles and my barbecue.” He had to admit, the girl had some cooking skills.

“Here you go, Bobby.” Alissa hands her the BBQ box.

“Boy, you get a workout delivering food to the judges.” Bobby accepts the box and heads back to the Judges.

“Now, time to cook the chicken.” Alissa already had the chicken prepared to go into the smoker. She prepped it last night while she was waiting
on brisket and pulled pork. She checks the ribs and they were almost ready. She lays down more sauce on them to keep them juicy and moist.

“Don’t forget about your sides.” Alexander almost forgot about that one.

“Thanks, Alexander.” Alissa looks over towards Gregory.

“I’m on it.” Gregory and Jessie head over and start on the sides. They were making coleslaw and potato salad.

It doesn’t take them long to get the sides ready. Gregory follows Alissa’s recipe for coleslaw and her famous sweet potato salad. Once the sides are done “Bobby, was ready.”

Bobby puts her soda down and runs over to carry the sides to the judges. She walks off with the sides. When she comes back, she notices that Alissa was watching the chicken.

“How much longer?” Bobby walks over and stands next to Alissa.

“Not much longer.” She offers Bobby some bacon she cooked.

“Thanks.” Bobby takes a few slices and munches on them.

A while later Bobby and Jessie are running towards the turn in the table with the ribs and chicken. Alissa watches as they dodge other contestants heading that way. She looks at the food she has left over. “Well, we have lunch and dinner here.”

Everyone fixes themselves a plate of leftover meat and chicken. They also try the sides Gregory and Jessie made. Everyone enjoys their lunch.

“You should think about selling your barbecue other than on your burgers, Alissa.” Alexander loved everything she cooked. He loved the homemade sauce she came up with and put on the ribs. It infused with the meat nicely.

“Will all contestants please report to the stage area?”

Alissa was feeling nervous. This will tell her and everyone in her group how well they did. She really wanted to make her uncle and his partner proud of her.

Alexander could see how nervous Alissa was “you did good Alissa. I know your uncle would be proud of you.”

“I hope so Alexander.” She follows behind Gregory towards the stage.

Chuck Steward looks out at all the contestants as they gathered before the stage. He couldn’t believe how many entries’s they had to try. It was a hard choice, but they had whittled down several entries. They had a tie for 4th and 3rd place in ribs and briskets.

Alissa watches the middle age man as he stood in front of all of them. She hopes she ranks, even if it very low. She takes a deep breath and holds it.

“It was a difficult choice from so many entries, but we selected the best brisket. First place goes to Skyvue catering service.”

Alissa looks up when she hears her teams name. She let the breath she has been holding out and a big smile appears on her face.

“Go on up and get your reward money.” Alexander nudges Alissa to go up and get her check and award.

Chuck hands the check and award to the young looking teenage girl. She holds it up for Gregory to snap a picture of her and the speaker.
Once he had the picture, she heads back to her friends.

“Sixth place for barbecue chicken, goes to Skyvue catering.” Alissa couldn’t believe they came in sixth place for barbecue chicken. She gets a
check for $100.00 dollars, where she got a check for $500.00 for first place.

First place for the best barbecue chicken went to the Chicken Shack. Second place for the brisket went to Oinkers Barbecue. Fifth place for barbecue chicken went to The Roaster King.

“Third place for Ribs is a tie. Skyvue Catering and the Flaming Pig.” Alissa couldn’t believe they tied with another team. She gets a check for $200.00 hundred dollars. She had to split the award money with Flaming Pig. She would have gotten $400.00, but she tied and ended up with $200.00.

“First place for pork butt/ pulled pork goes to Skyvue Catering.” Chuck looks over towards the young girl as she comes up to claim her check.

Alissa couldn’t believe she won first place. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She hopes her uncle was watching her. She receives
another $500.00-dollar check. Her sides come in second place and her sauce, comes in first place for the best exotic sauce.

Alexander looks down at Alissa and could tell she had been crying “you have done your uncle and me proud today.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Alexander.” She gives him a hug.

Alexander just holds her and was glad to help his best friend niece. She had his spirit and adventurous nature. After a while, he lets go of her.
It only takes them a half an hour to clean their cooking site and making sure all the coals were out of the smoker/cooker. All their trash and used coals are taken care of. They had some wood left that was going with them along with the food they had left over, which was put properly away.

In the overall championship, she came in second place. The team who took first place was Southern Hog Barbecue. If she was going to stay and compete, she would do good at it. The money she won, paid for the cuts of meat she bought and gave her a nice little profit, which she split with her friends and Alexander.

They head home after they were satisfied that their spot was completely clean. Alexander gets dropped off first with a huge box of everything they cooked.

“I won’t have to cook dinner for the next few days.” A smile appears on his face.

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Alexander.” Alissa was very happy he had agreed to help and teach her.

“Maybe, we can do another one?”

“Maybe, it depends on how busy I get.” Alissa wouldn’t mind doing another competition.

“You never know.” Alexander walks into his house with his treasures.

Alissa seats back and closes her eyes. She couldn’t believe she won first place three times. Her sauce was inspired and some of the others pitmasters there. They gave her a bottle or two of theirs. She was going to try them out and see which ones she was going to use on her truck.
Gregory could tell Alissa was tired. He backs the company van into the driveway and parks.

Alissa opens her eyes when she feels the van stop.

“Go inside and rest Alissa. I’ll unload everything.”

“Are you sure?” She covers up a yawn.

“Yes, I got some sleep last night. You go in and get ready for bed. I’ll handle everything.”

Alissa leans over and gives him a kiss as she heads inside the house. She starts stripping out of her clothes and takes a quick shower.

Gregory puts away everything they took with them and unloaded the smoker/cooker. He takes the leftovers into the house with him and put them away.

Alissa comes out of the shower and dries her hair, before laying down. Once her head hit the pillow, she was gone.

Gregory comes upstairs and head into Alissa’s bedroom and find out her out for the count. A smile appears on, his face, as he undresses and climbs in next to her.

“Sweet dreams.” He places a kiss on her cheek. He lays down and falls asleep himself.