Sarah stood, and I motioned her to go ahead of me, partly out of manners and partly because I still half-expected her to bolt. Thankfully, she didn’t as I followed her up the steps onto the stage. Ms. Karon and Principal Berger said a few words, and the school newspaper took a couple of photos, then they brought out the rest of the guys who had been auctioned off earlier in the evening for more ohhh-ing and ahhh-ing and even more photos.
Finally it was over.
Sarah turned to walk down the stairs from the stage.
“Wait!” I reached out to stop her.
“What?” She looked down at my hand on her arm. “Going to throw me over your shoulder if I try to go home?”
“What?” I looked down and removed my hand. “Sorry. No, of course not.” I shook my head. “I just meant, we should figure out the whole schedule thing for the dates. Like, are there nights that work better for you, or ones that don’t work for you…whatever?”
She shrugged. “It’s simple. None of them work.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look, Chance. You dragged me up on the stage when I didn’t want to go. I never bid on this auction. Or the raffle or the dates or whatever. I have no desire to go out with you.” She shoved her hair out of her face and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I’m trying not to take this out on you, because it’s obviously not your fault. But the bottom line is, I wasn’t the girl who really bid on you. I’m sorry.” She dropped her eyes from mine, then turned and walked away.
Even though I had no time for a relationship, somehow learning that Sarah had no interest at all in dating me stung more than I cared to admit.
Chapter Eleven
Sarah
I’m just the same as I was, now don’t you understand
I’m never changing who I am ~ Imagine Dragons
I crawled into bed, exhausted. Megan and Emma had dropped me off about an hour ago. They’d tried to explain why they did what they’d done, but I couldn’t fathom a reason in the world good enough to explain away pretending to be me in order to bid on Chance in secret.
Apparently, when they’d come over before the auction, they’d nabbed my student ID off my dresser. They could add theft to their friend-crimes, right up there with coercion and breach of trust. I punched my pillow a few times and rolled over. From there, at the auction, when I’d thought Megan was getting her own number, she’d actually been picking up my bidder’s card. The one Emma had already signed me up for.
I’d thought the number had sounded familiar. She’d told me that first day in the hallway that twenty-one was my lucky number. Yeah, really lucky. Megan had told the guy behind the auction registration table that she was just picking the auction card up for her friend who wasn’t feeling so great and had pointed me out at our table. He’d given it to her, since she had my ID.
So the whole time Megan had been bidding, it wasn’t for a date for her, like I’d thought, it was for a date for me. And now, they’d managed to win me not just one date, but six weeks’ worth of dates. With Chance, of all people. Chance—who my friends apparently thought might be some great match for me.
I wanted to scream.
It’s not that I was still that mad at Emma and Megan. I mean, I was, sort of. But I knew that as screwed-up as it sounded, in their own messed-up way, they were honestly trying to help.
And even though I wasn’t sure I was ready to date anyone yet, that wasn’t what was most upsetting to me right now, either. It was who they bid on for me. I couldn’t believe they didn’t realize that there was no way I wanted to date a soccer player, one of Doug’s teammates at that. I mean, I got it, Eli was Doug’s teammate, too, and he really was a great guy. And Em told me she’d even asked Eli about Chance before they did it, and Eli confirmed Chance was apparently one of the good ones. But even that knowledge didn’t completely assuage my misgivings about the idea.
They’d apologized when they saw how annoyed I was, both telling me they didn’t realize how strongly I really felt about not wanting to date him. They’d thought it might be good for me to just spend some casual, fun time with a nice guy.
I missed having someone in my life in that way, sure. But my fears still kept a wall up around me. I just didn’t want to be hurt again. Even by a paid-for relationship.
I’d actually gone so far as to approach Ms. Karon after the event to explain the mistake, thinking maybe they could draw another name. But she’d been so excited, immediately grabbing me in a giant hug and thanking me over and over for my generosity and telling me about all the sick kids who would be helped with all of the money that was raised. And I just couldn’t do it. I felt awful that I hadn’t really bid to help all those sick kids. So I decided that the only way I could do my part was to at least go through with the whole thing.
I reminded myself that I’d hated calculus and had to put up with that when I was a Junior, and that was for an entire year. This was only six weeks. And it wasn’t like I hated Chance. I could do it.
But I couldn’t help punching my pillow one final time before falling asleep and imagining it was Chance’s smug face.
“So how did the auction go last night? Did you girls have fun?”
I grimaced and took a sip of coffee.
“That face doesn’t look good. What happened?”
“Well, somehow, without ever placing a bid, I ended up with not one date, but six weeks’ worth of dates.”
Mom raised an eyebrow. “How did that happen?”
“Through a very long story filled with theft, betrayal, and dozens of shattered dreams.”
The eyebrow raised even more.
“Not my dreams, the other bidders’. It sounds juicier than it really is.”
She laughed.
A horn sounded outside. I grabbed my backpack and steadied my nerves for the day ahead. “I’m outta here. Love you.” I swiped an apple from the bowl on the counter.
“Love you, too. Have a good day, sweetie,” she called as I ran out the front door.
Megan’s car idled next to the curb in front of my house. I hopped in the back, since Emma was already in the front seat. “Hey.”
“Hey, girl. Love the shirt,” said Megan. “Might I ask what look we’re going for today?”
My older brother’s college roommate sometimes came home to our place for the holidays. I’d decided to throw on one of his old track jerseys to wear with my faded jeans to school. It hung loose and long and looked very much like I was wearing a boyfriend’s shirt.
I glanced down. “It’s nothing, why?” I went with playing stupid. Really I was hoping Chance would think I was already seeing someone and take it as a hint that I had no real interest in dating him.
“Um, aren’t you getting more photos taken with Chance for the school paper this morning?” Emma asked.
“Yep.”
“And you decided to wear that,” Megan said.
“Why not?”
She shook her head.
“They’re lucky I’m not wearing sweatpants.” I looked at Emma. She was trying not to laugh. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I guess I just find it a little strange that you seem to be going out of your way to prove something to this guy. Like, maybe how unavailable you are for some reason?”
“I’m not going out of my way to prove anything to anyone.”
“Okay then, I was completely off base. My bad,” Emma said.
“Anyway, did either of you watch our show last night? It was awesome.”
Thankfully they were willing to change the subject with some old-fashioned redirection techniques, television-drama style.
We got to school, said our goodbyes, and I rushed off to the newspaper office, where we’d been asked to meet at 7:30 for some final photos. I flew into the room, and the door banged into the wall behind it, loud.
“I’m so sorry.” I looked up to see five pairs of eyes staring at me. Not only were Ms. Karon and Chance here waiting, but so were what appeared to be
several early-bird members of the newspaper staff.
Ms. Karon motioned me into the room. “Good morning, Sarah. I’m so happy you could join us. Don’t worry about the door. It happens all the time.”
The looks on the other faces told me another story.
“So.” Ms. Karon turned to include Chance in the conversation. “Since your story is so unique and completely different from anything we’ve ever had before with any of our auctions, I wanted to stop by at this meeting for a few minutes.”
Chance and I both nodded.
“Erica is the editor of the school newspaper. She’ll be conducting the interview for the article we talked about last night.”
A tall girl with brown hair and glasses waved at me from the far side of the table. I recognized her from a couple of English classes I’d had with her Freshman and Sophomore year.
“I’ll let you all get to it, but I just wanted to thank you again personally for helping to support such a worthwhile cause.” Ms. Karon beamed.
“Um, thank you, you’re welcome,” I said. I smiled awkwardly and took a seat after Ms. Karon left the room.
“Hey,” Erica said. “Nice to see you again, Sarah. Talk about a wild story, right?”
“Wild is definitely one word for it.”
“I actually also wanted to talk to you both about another idea I had in mind,” Erica said. She leaned forward. “Now, I know you weren’t expecting this, but of course I heard about the record-breaking auction bid.” She grinned at Chance.
He cleared his throat in return.
“I just think there could be an amazing opportunity to raise even more awareness for St. Jude.” She eyeballed us. “What do you think?”
“How?” I asked.
“I run a blog called Full Hearts. I like to focus on human interest–type stories, and this definitely meets that criteria. I’m doing it as part of my college application,” she explained.
“Okay.” I drew out the word, still not sure where Erica was going with the whole thing.
“What I’d really love is to do a running blog series on the two of you.”
My eyes widened. “What exactly do you mean by ‘a running series’?” I glanced over at Chance. He was busy staring at the table.
“Well, Full Hearts focuses on feel-good stories. Most of my readership is Gen Xers, though it does extend beyond that, of course. I was thinking what we could do is focus just a little bit on each of you within the first story. Who you are. Let the readers really get to know you.”
She tilted her head toward the blond girl seated next to her. “This is the part where Hannah comes in. She’s one of the staff photographers, but she also helps me out with the blog.”
I recognized Hannah as the girl taking a ton of photos after the auction the night before.
“But what exactly do you need from us?” Chance asked.
“Showcasing the auction and showing how students are taking real action to support a cause… I really believe we can bring some attention to the whole thing. Maybe motivate other people to do the same.” She paused and smiled. “What do you think?”
I couldn’t argue with wanting to raise awareness, but I just wasn’t sure how Chance and I going on a few weeks’ worth of dates was going to be some big inspiration for anyone.
“Look,” Erica went on. “I won’t take up any extra time from you to do it. I promise. I’ll just be covering what you’re already going to be doing. If people see it and like it, great! If not, no harm no foul.”
I glanced over at Chance. He shrugged.
“So how would you do this?” I asked.
Hannah spoke up. “First, I’ll take some pictures of you together in a few settings that show your personality. Where do you feel most comfortable? What do you consider your space?”
“The soccer field, I guess,” Chance replied.
I didn’t know if the question was rhetorical, so I said nothing. Besides, I felt a bit dizzy. This was feeling less and less like a high school charity auction and more and more like some kind of reality dating fiasco.
Erica was on a roll now. “We won’t be the ones to ask the questions, though.”
Chance looked as confused as I felt. “So we have to, what? Write up the information and give it to you to use?”
Erica laughed, light and airy. “No, nothing like that. We aren’t giving you homework, don’t worry.”
Of course, why would we worry? I smiled weakly.
“No, the way we’ve decided would be the best to do it is, you two will ask each other questions. Fun, right?” When she spoke the last word, it went up like an excited flourish at the end of the sentence.
“I…I’m not sure I understand,” I said.
“Me, either,” said Chance.
We finally agreed on something.
“One of the first blog posts in the series will be based on your first date from the auction. You’ll just talk, learn about each other, ask each other questions, anything that you think might be helpful for the readers to know in order for them to also get to know each of you better. They’ll be sharing the journey with you.” She smiled again. “And while you’re doing that, Hannah will also be taking some pictures.”
Chance blinked and shifted in his seat to face Hannah. “You’ll be on the dates with us?”
“Well, yeah.”
“I need her there to take photos, then I’ll use it to write up the pieces later,” Erica said. “So you won’t have both of us tagging along.”
“But don’t worry, I won’t get in your way. It’ll be like I’m not even there,” Hannah promised.
I bit my lip. Not that I wanted to be alone with Chance, but…seriously? I reminded myself of calculus. I could get through this. “Okay, so after the date, then we write up something to give to you based on what we learned?”
Erica shook her head, her short bob waving around her chin. “Oh no. You won’t have to be doing anything like that through the process.”
My dating life had become a process.
“Then how are you going to get the information to use?” Chance asked.
“We’ll also be recording the date,” Hannah said.
“What?” Chance and I spoke in unison.
Erica rushed in to explain. “It just seems like that would be the simplest way to capture all the little details. It’s the spontaneous ones that we might forget later that the readers will appreciate the most.”
When neither Chance nor I said anything right away, Erica seemed crestfallen. She looked each of us directly in the eyes for a few seconds, then said quietly, “You both would be doing me a huge favor. I could really use something like this to make my site stand out for my applications.”
Her desire to do anything to achieve a college dream… I could get it. But even so, this just sounded like too much.
Erica went on. “And don’t forget, we really can use this to help motivate other people to donate, too. That’s the real priority here.”
She went there. And now I’d feel like a schmuck if I didn’t do it.
I thought about it. If there was even one sick kid we could help somehow by raising awareness, it was worth any awkwardness I might feel having someone follow us around on our dates. And I’d be dating Chance. It wasn’t as though I had to worry about Erica or Hannah or whoever hearing anything hot and heavy or lovey-dovey between us. I shrugged. “Okay. It’s fine with me. I’ll do it.” I looked at Chance and raised an eyebrow.
He nodded. “I’m in, too.”
Erica clapped her hands and jumped up from the table. “Great! Then it’s settled.” She turned to face me. “Sarah, since you won the auction, how about I’ll email you the specifics before the first post goes live and we’ll stay in contact each week as we move forward.”
“That works.” I scribbled my email address down on the piece of paper she shoved my way.
“Don’t forget to both write down your phone numbers, too, just in case I need to get in touch with either of you,” she d
irected.
I added my number and pushed the paper in Chance’s direction for him to do the same.
“How about you guys head to the soccer field and get a few shots now before classes?” Erica suggested.
Chance and Hannah nodded.
“Okay, I’ll see ya’ll later.” I turned to leave.
“Wait, Sarah, where are you going?” Hannah asked.
I turned back. “To my locker. I thought you were done with me, since you were headed to the soccer field. I don’t play soccer.”
“Oh, no. I know that. But from now on, be ready to be doing this stuff together.” She smiled as she waved a large camera in the air. “We’ll figure out some fun poses on the field that include both of you. And then we’ll get some at your special place.”
Chance caught my eye. He mouthed your special place and tried to cover his laughter.
I choked down a snort and followed them out the door. What had I just gotten myself into?
Chapter Twelve
Chance
So caught up in you, little girl
That I never want to get myself free ~ 38 Special
It was going to be a long six weeks.
Although I could tell she was trying to be a good sport about the whole thing, Sarah’s tight expression made it clear she felt just as weird about our big, fat, fake romance as I did. I sighed. I couldn’t figure out if Hannah was honestly completely oblivious or just stellar at hiding the fact that she knew the whole thing was a farce. She bubbled on, spouting directions.
“Okay, now, Chance, how about you stand right here.” She motioned a little to my left. I moved according to her direction. “Perfect!” Hannah praised me.
Sarah rolled her eyes. I guess my ability to step three inches didn’t impress her quite as much as it did Hannah.
“Now, Sarah, how about you stand in front of Chance.”
Sarah moved over in front of me and stepped on my foot. “Oh, sorry about that, it was an accident.” She batted her lashes my way.
I smiled. “I’m sure it was.”
“You two look way too stiff,” Hannah complained. “Chance, how about if you wrap your arms around her waist?”
The Boyfriend Bid (The Girlfriend Request) Page 6