The Game of Hearts

Chapter Three: The Rules and Regulation

Wednesday went by fast. I only had three periods and then the power went out. Thank God that our school relies on electronic technology because otherwise, I would’ve had to stay for an English test that I was not prepared for. Instead, we were advised to leave the campus and attend school tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take the car this morning and so I didn’t have a ride home. My friends all are in sports so I didn’t have anyone to walk with me. I had to walk all by myself six blocks to get home. It was a steaming hot day reaching about ninety eight degrees which, yes, is unusual in February, but I lived in California. I wish I was prepared to walk for the next thirty to forty-five minutes but I was dressed in black skinny jeans and long sleeve blouse. I was sweating by the time I got off campus and when I was half way there my mouth was dry and my eyes were falling heavy. When I finally got home, I knew that I had to start working out again. It had been an hour and fifteen minutes and my legs were ready to knuckle under my weight. I had to practically force myself to crawl up the stairs and onto my bed and when my head hit the pillow, my eyes droops causing me to fall asleep.

I woke up in the desert with white chalk circled around me. Confused I decided to crawl out of it because my limbs were still weak. Sweat was tricking down my face because of the force I was putting into crawling and because of the heat. As I tried to pull my arms across the circle’s line, I punched an invisible solid wall. I heard a crack but I didn’t feel it; yet I knew that my hand was broken.

“Penny, Penny, Penny,” A boy walked up towards the circle shaking his head ever so slightly. “Naïve, dimwitted, and foolish Penny…” The man trailed over shaking his head ever so slightly.

“Who are you,” My voice came out a whisper.

“I’m a representative of a group your familiar with,” He smirked and it didn’t take me long to realize what he was talking about. It was obvious that he was from the committee. “I have a message for you given by them. They said that you should’ve known better,” The unfamiliar man shook his head again, “Indeed, you should have known better.”

Out of nowhere he pulled a red gallon jug of gasoline and poured it on me. I reeked of putrid odor but this stench wasn’t bothering me because of the knowledge that I was about to be blown up occupied my fears. He bent down to whisper, “Good luck now.”His hand reached down close to me and he dropped a lit match right next to me.

In seconds, I was encompassed in flames but still feeling no pain.

Gasping for air, I shook myself awake only to find myself safely in my bed and easily refreshed. It was a quarter ‘til three now and the parentals should be on their way home soon. I easily got up and fled to the computer finding myself logging onto tumblr. They said they’d have instructions for me by tomorrow but I just wanted to see if they had posted anything. Instead of receiving a message, my dashboard had one new blog post on it from the committee.

Dear Love Challengers

We did not expect you guys to reply so quickly, but we are pleased to get this show on the road in time for Valentine’s Day tomorrow. In order to do this challenge you must pay attention and be alert at all times. From here on out you both will be addresses as Mr. and Mrs. Love.

Mrs. Love does not get to find out who Mr. Love is until tomorrow. Mr. Love will receive an inboxed message soon.

Now own to the good stuff!

OBJECT OF THE GAME: Get the other person to fall in love with you before you fall in love with them. Pure evil? Indeed. Punishment will be deemed necessary at grad night.

Rules:

1.      Keep it a secret as much as possible. Mr. and Mrs. Love can tell one other High School student each but if the person says one thing to someone else they are disqualified. You can also tell one family member. [[Your relationship is not a secret. The Challenge is]]

2.      You must listen to what the committee says. We have friends in high places so don’t think that we’re not watching.

3.      The committee has any and all right to add, subtract, or make up any rules whenever they think is fit for the challenge. If the game gets boring we can turn up the heat so try not to let it get too boring.

4.      Each date must last one and half hours. Mr. Love must drive her home and walk her to her door. It’s polite.

5.      One person must lose. If one person falls in love then they get the punishment. If both people fall in love they both get the punishment. If neither person falls in love then they both get the punishment. Catching on yet?

6.      We reserve the right to text you in any moment of time to switch things up. Inbox your numbers now or we’ll hunt it down.

7.      Do not argue with us.

We’ll add more later,

The point is don’t try to escape this challenge. We’ll be in touch

Xoxo.

This was becoming too much of a shock. I feel like the rest of my high school career would consist of me being controlled by a set of strings trying to turn me into a puppet. On the bright side, I realize that no one could be so foolish as to fall in love with someone that is being controlled to do the stuff that they do. Because you already know that it isn’t real. They aren’t in love with you – it’s an act.

So I went to my messages and composed a new letter. I sent my number in and decided to occupy my mind with something easier to handle without any stress. For the rest of the night, I wrote. I don’t really care to tell you what I wrote about yet but someday soon I will…maybe.

I went to school the next day on an empty stomach and nervous – well, nervous everything! Why did I go through with it? I’ll never know. At this point in time, I was so nervous because I didn’t know who this guy was going to be. Sure, I imagined a few scenarios. Was he going to be an idiot or a nerd? Was he going to be respectful or a jerk? Was he cute or – well the other thing? I spent most of the day in suspense until I got to sixth period English.

Ms. Leffel really knew how to frighten the class out of thinking about anything else other than English. I, personally, love English but I also personally hate Ms. Leffel. She reminds me of a horse, to be honest. Her mouth is as wide as a horse and the gums overlap her teeth. Those big blue eyes usually would win my heart but her torn out hair made her look homeless. I don’t appreciate learning from the grammar nazi either.

“What is the grammatical function of this particular clause?”

We sat there in silence not knowing the answer and she started at us for the longest time waiting for a reply. Thankfully, moments passed and the bell rang. I packed up as quickly as possible while the others were already packed and half way out the door before the bell even rang. People spilled out of the room one by one leaving me and a few other kids to slowly trail but I was stopped before I could reach the door.

“Penny, right,” The baseball jock from a couple days ago said.

“Yes,” I pulled one eyebrow up in the middle of my forehead confused, “Can I do anything for you?” I gave him the courtesy he didn’t deserve from me ever since he basically insulted me.

“Yeah,” He paused rubbing the back of his head. “Uhh I was wondering if you’d like to go to the movies with me tonight.” My eyes grew wide at the realization of what this was and my heart stopped. I couldn’t believe it! Him? Out of the entire senior class at West Side High, they pick him to be my fake boyfriend! He didn’t even ask me on the date he simply stated the question as a fact and making it all about him. Why would he accept this challenge? He’s not the type of guy to accept these kind of challenges.

I didn’t mean to open my mouth and talk to him. I should have just bolted my way out of there and forgotten this had happened. But now, my awkward wit decided to respond by saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”