Chapter One

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October 18th, 2023

I'm so scared. I've been sitting in my car for the past 10 minutes trying to think of more ways to procrastinate going inside the studio but now I'm about to be late and people have definitely seen me out here. I just need to rip off the bandaid.

Since this episode comes out on Halloween we decided to dress for the occasion. I came as Barbie in Swan Lake when she has the short ballet dress on. Now it feels a little too on the nose to meet Ted like this. That's fine though just don't mention watching his videos and he won't question it.

 That's fine though just don't mention watching his videos and he won't question it

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I walk into the studio and say small hellos to everyone as I walk by until I make it to the room I was told to meet Zach in

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I walk into the studio and say small hellos to everyone as I walk by until I make it to the room I was told to meet Zach in. Just go in. Go. Go!

I open the door and I'm immediately met with tons of filming equipment and people rushing around to finish setting everything up. Past everything I can already see Ted standing on stage chatting with Zach. He's so tall, even with my heels I know he'll tower above me.

I make my way over to them saying hello to the crew as I walk past them and hugging a few of the people I  know from being mutuals on Instagram. Both Zach and Ted turn to me to welcome me into their conversation. I already feel hot.

"Hey Nadia! It's so nice to have to hear, this is Ted Nivison your opponent for today." I shake Zach's hand and then Ted's. His hand feels huge grabbing mine. "Yeah I know, I watched your Barbie video." Ok well... fuck me I guess. He just chuckles in his low voice throwing his head back.

He's dressed like Milo from the Lost City of Atlantis. Hot.

"Ok well now that you're both here I guess we can start!" I nod and take my place behind my pedestal. This is going to be a long day.

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(A/n: if you have never seen an episode of trolley problems it is basically would you rather questions and whoever chooses the most popular answer gets a point. With some questions you are challenged to do them. An example of this comes later)

We're only three problems in and tied 2-2 when Zach says, "Uh oh! There's a train headed straight for your phone and it's gonna read your google history out loud OR you can pull the lever and instead let me tweet something from your account."

Immediately I know the answer I'm choosing. I don't google anything except useless information and the casts of movies and tv shows. I go into my phone but once I glance at my history I immediately slam my phone down and my face starts to heat up again.

I googled Ted. When I was told who I would be shooting this episode with I googled "Ted Nivison age" and a few above that is "Ted Nivison girlfriend" Literally shoot me in the head.

"Ok fuck it just tweet something whatever." I say while trying to keep my composure but failing badly. Zach asks, "Oh my god what did you google?" I laugh while walking over to him and secretly showing him my screen with the google history. His eyes widen and we just stare at each other for a few seconds.

"Can I see?" Ted asks from across the stage but Zach and I just shake our heads while dying of laughter. This was quite literally the worst possible scenario for me.

Ted reads out his google history that is full of dumb questions I assume he needed for videos. Then Zach takes my phone and starts typing.

"I love..." I hold my breath, "Ted Nivison." My heart drops. My eyes go wide and all I can do is stare at Zach shocked. He giggles evilly and continues, "please god," my jaw drops. "More!? You're adding more!?" Everyone in the room is laughing now including Ted.

Zach ends it with, "why can't he be mine? I need him badly." I can't even laugh I'm so shocked and trying to hard to act like it was unprompted and not totally done to humiliate me. "Zach! I have red carpet events and interviews after this! They're gonna ask me about that!"

This only makes people laugh even harder and I drop my head in defeat. "No Yknow what?" I start, "the worst thing is that I would totally tweet that."

I try to seem as normal as I can online so I've been very open about celebrity crushes in the past. But always about men I never thought I would meet like Dylan O'Brien or Mathew Grey Gubler.  All older white men... I guess I have a type.

Ted asks, "about me?" I try not to let his expression get to me and say "about any basic ass white man." Everyone laughs even harder and we manage to move on. Thank god.

********

We're almost at the end of the game now and I'm winning 6-5. That means I have to get this next point or else we might tie.

"Uh oh! There's a trolley headed straight towards you! And it's going to make you watch three tik toks with no reaction or drink a mystery smoothie" No way I'm drinking a mystery smoothie in this game.

"Give me the tik toks I know I can hold in a laugh." Ted agrees but Zach says "How do you know they're funny tik toks?" Oh god... what is he about to have me watch?

But I know this is the most popular choice so I have to go through with it. Zach hands me a phone and I click play on the first tik tok. It's an edit of Ted. I clench my jaw to hold back any reaction. It ends and I look around the room confused.

"...Ok?" From the corner of my eye I can see Ted smiling hard. God I love his smile. I scroll and immediately see Ted again. It's another edit.

I think I'm doing ok making sure to clamp my jaw down and not react but then a specific clip flashes by of him smiling. There's that goddamn smile. I can feel my cheeks twitching but I don't think anyone can see it because no one calls me out.

It ends and now Ted is burying his head in his hands laughing hard. Zach especially is laughing hard. I think I may kill him when this is all over.

The next edit is one of his sumo wrestling video. I know he even said he was in pain but he looks too good to care about that. Thankfully I manage to keep my face solid and the pain is over. That's until I look over at Ted and he can't stop smiling and blushing.

That's when I crack.

But Zach grabs me and brings me to the front to award me for winning. It's all good now and I never have to worry about embarrassing myself in front of Ted again.

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A/n: thanks for reading! This took me way too long to finish but the next chapter won't take as long.

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