That evening we all sat down outside again for dinner.
The cameras are on as we sit at a table long enough for all of us. As we sit and the others talk, I notice the cameras focusing on certain conversations. Like when any of the males and females interact, for example.
Chase is talking to Emily right now, making her smile and laugh. They’re at the other end of the table so I can’t hear them. I find myself wondering how they have such a seemingly normal conversation knowing they were being recorded the entire time.
I tear my eyes away from them as I feel a nudge on my elbow. I looked over to see Victor had pulled his chair around so he could sit next to me. “You see we’re neighbors?” He asks, giving me that half grin again as his gaze fixed on me.
I nod a little, clenching my hands in my lap. “I hope you’re not noisy.” I attempt a joke. I can’t be uptight and shy the entire time. I was here to win this thing, so I was going to have to get more comfortable with talking to these guys and being watched the entire time. Besides, Victor didn’t seem so bad. He had been the only one to even look at me so far, so there was no harm in returning his kindness at the very least.
He chuckles, a low sound that makes my stomach do a flip flop. “Nah, I’m pretty quiet.” He says. I do my best to ignore the camera now behind us and the microphone hanging over our heads, capturing every moment of our conversation. I found myself subconsciously sitting up a little straighter and fixing my hair over my shoulders. I hope I don’t have a double chin.
“What uhm… What did you say during your introduction video?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Normal stuff. Which pack I’m from, which bloodline I hail from.” I tilt my head a little, contemplating his words. I hadn’t been asked anything like that. It had to be because I wasn’t from any important family, so why would they waste time by having me talk about my nobody bloodline?
I nod a little, looking away when I feel a pair of eyes on me. No one is looking at me though, and it makes me feel a little crazy. Maybe it was the cameras pointed at me, maybe that’s what was making me feel like I was being watched. But ever since I’d gotten here, I swear, someone was watching me.
“Hey guys.” We stop talking and look up as Laura comes outside, grinning and stopping at the head of our table. “I wanted to go over the plans for tomorrow.” We all nod, giving her our attention. “Tomorrow will be a sort of… ice breaker. We’ve set up a small exercise everyone will be participating in, so make sure you get your beauty sleep! It will involve running and teamwork, be warned!” She laughs, a loud, scripted sounding thing. “Now, if you can’t remember your room assignment, come and see me after dinner and we’ll get it sorted. Hope everyone has a great night!”
“Wonder what kind of exercise it is. Last year they made everyone take turns trying to get a flag down from a giant pole.” I furrow my brow at Victor’s words. He’s talking to Chase, who’s across from us chowing down on the provided food.
Chase glances up, and shrugs. “The first day is always some dumb relay.” He says like it was obvious. Hm. Maybe I should have taken the time to watch some of the previous seasons, because it was looking like they followed a certain pattern for what we’d be doing, and I was the only one who had no idea what that pattern was.
I find myself drumming my fingers nervously on the table as they continue to talk. I wasn’t a weakling, per say, but looking around at these other people… I wasn’t sure I could compete with them. They were all from Alpha bloodlines, and had plenty of free time and resources growing up to help improve their bodies and minds.
I clench my fork in my hand, acceptance flowing through me.
At the very least, I had to try.
The next day, I’m the first person awake.
Or rather I’d never even gone to sleep so I was the first one out of my room.
I’d tossed and turned all night, only managing to grab a few hours here and there. But then I’d hear a bump or someone flushing a toilet somewhere and I’d be awake again, my mind filled with thoughts of the impending day. More than anything, I just didn’t want to be the first one voted out. How humiliating would that be?
I sat in the kitchen, on the counter with my legs folded criss cross as I ate a container of yogurt. The fridge had been fully stocked, and we were told we could get whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. I still kind of felt like I was stealing this, not going to lie.
“Mooorning!” I jump, dropping my spoon in the process at the sudden entrance of Laura. She stops once she’s in the kitchen and looks around a little. “Where is everyone? Are you the only one awake?!” I shrug a little, hoping down from the counter to pick up the spoon I’d dropped. “Lazy! Let’s go wake them up!” She proclaims and turns and struts off into the house. I can hear her heels clicking the whole time, and the cameras follow after her.
“I can get that.” I glance up as someone slightly familiar squats down in front of me. It was the overly gorgeous microphone guy from yesterday.
“Oh, it’s okay.” I say, shaking my head as I stand up with the spoon in my hand. “I’m the one who dropped it.” It’s a bit odd how he watched me like he’s witnessing something great as I wiped the yogurt off the floor with a paper towel.
I give him a funny look, and he shakes his head. “Sorry. You’re just… different from the other cast members.” He says, looking me up and down.
I shake my head a little. “I don’t know what you mean.” He gives me a knowing smile, and leaves without another word.
Weird.
“You’re really bad at this.” “I know, I know. You don’t have to rub it in.” I laughed, and threw another ball up the ramp to the holes on the ski-ball machine. I made another shot in the fifty point hole, earning a disappointed groan from Chase. “You have to be cheating. I don’t know how, but you have to be.” He says as he tries, and fails, to make another throw into any of the holes. “Damn.” He tsks, shaking his head as the game declares me the winner. He looks over to me, and gives me a grin. “I’m being put to shame right now. Aren’t you supposed to let me win on the first date?” I smile, look up at him and little, and shrug. “I like winning too.” He laughs. “Of course you do. Who doesn’t? Come on, let’s play something I have a hope of winning at.” He turns, his eyes moving over the games. “How about… oh! Basketball.” He grins, pointing to the tall machine across the room. “That is not fair.” I grumble as I trail after him. He turns and walks backwards, his eyes on me. “Fair?
Today it was time for my date with Chase. It was probably an understatement to say I was nervous about this. I’d never said even a word to Chase, I don’t think he’d even glanced at me yet. He clearly had a thing for Emily, and she obviously had a thing for him back. They had been attached at the hip ever since they’d gone on a date. She’d even given me a dirty look as I’d been on my way out of the house this morning. I’d halfway been expecting her to pin me against the wall and warn me to stay away from her man. Currently, we were in the backseat of the car, this time heading into the city it looked like. I was in the very back with one worker, and Chase and Laura were in the middle row. August was driving the car and there was another worker next to him in the passenger seat. Chase and Laura were talking about some country club they were both a part of, and I was sitting there quietly, trying to make myself invisible. Honestly, it kind of seemed more like Chase and Laura were the o
That was torture. Pure and utter torture. Having to watch Angel flirt and blink those big pretty eyes up at another man made me want to rage out and tear that asshole's throat out. Every laugh he got out of her because of another dumbass joke made me tremble with anger. Every charming smile, every flirty comment he made at her made me hate him more and more. Couldn’t he see she didn’t really like him? Her smile was fake, forced for the cameras probably. When he’d scoot his hand that was resting on the picnic blanket closer to hers, she would move away. The way she was acting, the way she was smiling, it was nothing like she’d been doing when she was with me.That thought was basically the only thing keeping me from totally crashing out at this point. Still. I wanted to be the one taking her on a picnic, making her laugh and sitting leg to leg with her. I know I just met the girl, but something about her was making me very protective of her, and I was having a hard time fighting it
“So, what did you think of Quinton? We all know you two have already gotten to know each other a little, but come on, spill! How was your date?” I smile tightly at the camera aimed right at me, doing my best not to fidget with my hands in my lap. The lights shining on me were bright and actually kind of hot. They were making the back of my neck bead with sweat the longer I had to sit under them.“Well I like Quinton just fine. He’s very nice.” “Could you see yourself falling in love with him?” I blink a little at the question Laura hurled at me next. Who thought about that kind of thing after one date? Definitely not me. I wanted to wrinkle my nose and ask her if she was insane, but I reminded myself of where I was and what I was doing. I am on a dating show, I’m supposed to be enjoying these dates, I’m supposed to be excited about the chance to fall in love. Or at least, I’m supposed to pretend that way, for the sake of the show.“Well, I think it’s still a little too soon to start
“Okay, so you guys are going to sit down there, have your date. I want lots of smiles, lots of laughs, yeah?” Quinton and I both nod along with Laura as she instructs us on what to do for our date. We’d driven about an hour out to go to a different forest, one with “better” looking trees, Laura had informed us. The entire drive over Laura was telling us what kinds of things we should talk about if things got quiet, how we shouldn’t kiss on this date in front of the cameras even if we really, really, wanted to. I wonder if that has been a problem so far, because she mentioned it like five times.We’d walked through said trees and to a cliffside. The crew hovering around had gotten to work right away on laying out a blanket and a picnic on it. It looked very nice, very romantic. There was a wooden board with cheese and sliced meats on it, crackers and fruits. There were smaller plates with small sandwiches on them, and thing glasses with bubbling liquid in them. If someone was going to
The next couple of days trickle by without incident. Emily gets through her dates, and now we’ve moved onto Violet. The others hung out quite a bit, went on some hikes, cooked out, sat around the lake, things like that. At first I tried to join in with them, but I always found myself feeling a bit left out. I’d gone with them the day after we’d played games outside. We’d all gone on a hike once we were all awake. But as we started making our way up the trail that winds through the trees, I found myself hanging back behind everyone as they all paired off.Victor seemed to be ignoring me, he hadn't looked at me once since August had walked in on us. I don’t know why exactly he was angry, but figured he’d tell me about it at some point. He paired off with Violet, and they walked side by side almost the whole time. They seemed to get along quite well. They were all smiles as they talked, and he didn’t look at me once.Quinton and Jason had gotten wrapped up in talking about all the dif