The first to be pulled from the group is Emily. She goes with Laura and a group of cameras outside where they’ll be filming the introductions.
A guy named Thomas tells us he’s the second in command on set, and he takes the rest of us around the house. He seems a little more… uptight than Laura. He doesn’t smile and speaks in a clipped tone.
There’s a fully equipped gym, a library, a very modern kitchen, two game rooms, and upstairs there’s ten bedrooms and five bathrooms. Everyone has their own room that is connected to a bathroom that leads into another room. I’d never been in a house this big before and all I could think about as we walked around it was how long it would take to clean the entire thing.
As we walk around and Thomas goes on about how to turn this on and what to do if this happens, we’re all pulled one by one. I’m pulled third, after Violet and Emily. I guess they were doing the girls first.
I walk behind Laura as she leads me back through the house and outside.
“Can we have makeup touch her up a bit?” Laura says to a couple of women as we walk out the sliding door. They nod, and usher me over to a seat. The two women start fussing and preening over me, brushing my hair and powdering the shine off my face. I do my best to sit still but they’re being a bit aggressive since they’re rushing.
Once they’re done I’m led in front of the cameras and sat on one of the couches outside. I straighten my back, and tuck my hair behind my ear a little. I felt like I was posing for a school picture, but a thousand times worse.
“Alright Angel. Make sure you sit up straight and try not to stare too much into the camera, okay? You are talking to the audience, but it’s weird to never break eye contact, you know?” Laura says to me as she stands to the side, typing away on her phone. “Let’s do this.” She waves to the camera guy who nods and positions himself behind his camera.
She tucks her phone away, fluffs her hair, and puts on that big grin of hers as the camera turns to her. I guess it was a fake smile for the cameras.
“Alright guys, next up for introductions, we have Angel Hawthorne, a sweet girl next door from a small pack in the south.” She does a little wave with her hand, and the camera pans to me.
My heart races so hard in my chest I’m shocked the others can't hear it. I put on the best smile I can and wave to the camera a little, feeling completely ridiculous.
“Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself, Angel? What do you like to do in your free time? How old are you? What’s your type when it comes to men?” Laura prompts from the side.
I nod, smoothing out the fabric of my dress a little as I prepare. “Well. I love reading and writing, it’s my dream to be an author, actually.” I say, smiling a bit as I thought of the days I spent back at home writing. “Uhm… I’m nineteen, I’ll be twenty in December… and my type?” I chew on my lip a little. “I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess someone sweet. Someone who loves me for me.” I nod a little, glancing at the camera for a moment before looking away. I was having a hard time picking somewhere to look, and I hoped I didn’t look like a nervous wreck with my eyes darting around.
“What would you do if you won the prize money?” Laura asks.
Without hesitation, I say, “Save my mom.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
I swallow thickly, pushing the tears that were welling up down. How embarrassing would that be, cry on camera on the first day? “She’s uhm… sick. She has moon sickness, and there might be a way to cure it, but it costs a lot of money. Me and my family don’t make a lot so there’s no way we could ever afford to help her without a miracle.”
“We’re sorry to hear that, Angel. Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans before we finish up?” Laura asks in a voice I suspect is fake sympathetic.
I shrug a little, glancing at the camera. “Just… I hope I can find someone here who is real, and genuine, and I hope everyone watching can help me by sending me good thoughts.” I say, smiling at the camera.
“Cut.” Laura says. “That was great, I love the good girl thing. People are going to eat it up. You can head back to the group, we’re done for now.” Laura says, spinning and strutting off without looking at me again, already pulling her phone out again to keep typing on it.
I blink a little at her sudden departure, and slowly stand up. That woman was going to give me whiplash. I start to make my way inside when one of the guys holding a microphone suddenly turns around, and I bump right into him, making him drop his microphone on the ground with a metallic clank.
“Oh my god, I am so sorry.” I say, dropping down quickly to grab the metal pole the microphone was attached to. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“No, I whipped around on, that’s my bad.” I glance up at the sound of a deep voice speaking, and freeze when I meet the dark gray eyes of a man. He had squatted down with me, his hand also reaching to pick up the dropped microphone.
Jesus, even the crew members here were gorgeous.
His lashes were so long and were slightly curled, making his eyes look even more drool worthy. His skin was tan, and he had a little bit of scruff on his sharp jawline.
“Uh… sorry.” I stammer, standing up and handing him the microphone. I brush past him, shaking my head a little at what a dumbass I’d just acted like. I felt like I looked like a freak after rushing off like that.
If I was that much of a mess with a crew member, what was going to happen when I had one on one time with one of the guys?
“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