The Boyfriend Games (slowly editing; grammar issues)

Chapter 1 ✔

Dedicated to ThePatchworkTheory for being able to help me edit this whole piece of crap. 

Chapter 1

EDITED

We were in the music room: all of the girls from the sophomores to the seniors - the freshmen were too young. Our school had this annual event during the second semester. Whether it was an official school event or not, I didn't know. During this event, the boys were placed in the gym to watch a health video.

Mikaela, the school's golden girl and head cheerleader was standing in front of us on a small makeshift stage, a microphone in her hand. Her two loyal followers and fellow cheerleaders stood a few steps behind her. I scanned the room aimlessly, my eyes stopping on a few girls every now and then. The sophomores looked lost. Well, they had to - it was their first time. The juniors looked more at ease, although some of them were still a little jumpy and confused. However, the Seniors (like me), knew exactly why we were here. We'd gone through this for the past two years, and another year seemed like nothing.

"We will begin the draw. Three girls from each level will be chosen," Mikaela's voice sounded really loud in our small music room - too small for the large crowd of girls crammed in . Everyone started talking to their friends in harsh whispers as Mikaela dipped her hand into a box labelled 'sophomores’ that was on a portable table next to two other similar boxes. They were all labelled according to our grades: ‘sophomores’, ‘juniors’ and ‘seniors’ respectively.

"Alison Branch, Deanne Raymond, Reese Betties," she announced to the suddenly silent room. Everyone's eyes were on those three unlucky girls. They were looking at each other, confused. I always felt bad for the sophomores when they were called up.

 "Well, come on up!" Mikaela said, seeing that the three sophomores hadn’t budged at all, "I won't bite."  The three girls slowly stood up and made their way to the front. They stood beside Mikaela’s sidekicks on the stage. Their faces displayed the confusion and rising anxiety they felt. Everyone was silent. You could hear a pin drop. After a minute or so of silence and tension, Mikaela cleared her throat.

 "Let's move on, shall we?" She dipped her hand into another box, this time labelled  'juniors', and pulled out three small pieces of papers with those unlucky girls' names.  "Trisha Crenshaw, Lia Goldline and Massie Chris."

  This time, the girls didn't look that lost. They didn't freeze, or stare confusedly at each other. Instead, they walked down the aisle rather shakily and stopped next to the sophomores. Everyone but the sophomores pointed, laughing and whispering about them. Where was the silence that had been present during the selection of the sophomores?

 Finally, it was the most anticipated moment of the draw. Mikaela smirked at the seniors, and dramatically inserted her hand into the senior's box. Everyone waited with bated breath as she opened her mouth. "Willa Queens, Georgia Grey," she paused and looked over the crowd, her smirk growing.

 Please pick someone else, please don't pick me. Please. Anyone else other than me.

 "And last but not least, Emerald Maine." The girls seated near me all turned to stare at me. Their eyes were as big as saucers as they took in my every move. I stood up shakily, and stepped over the number of girls sitting on the ground - the seats in the music room were too few to accommodate all of us - and made my way as quickly as I could to the stage.

 "And girls, these are the chosen nine to participate in ‘The Boyfriend Games’!" Mikaela announced excitedly. She started going over the aim of the game and other rules. I tuned her out, I already knew all the rules. The only thought going through my mind as she talked was that I was definitely going to lose, and that there was no hope for me. I remained silent, my eyes fixed on the floor as she droned on.

 A boy from our school would be assigned to each chosen girl. The girl had to make the boy fall in love with her, there were restrictions, however. For example, the girl was not allowed to use weed or alcohol to get a boy to confess his love to her. The girl was also restricted from bribing or blackmailing the boy. The worst part of it was that the boys we were assigned to could be the complete opposite of us. Which meant we would have zero interests, and it would be hard to communicate.

 I scanned the other girls. Out of all of them, two of them were cheerleaders. The rest of us were just a mix of nerds, goths, and hipsters.

 "Okay, let's welcome the mentors!" Mikaela squealed and stepped aside as nine of the old winners walked onto the stage from the back of the room. Some were my age, while some were younger, and some were even our teachers, for example: Ms. Artie and Ms. Williams.

 Mikaela quickly assigned each mentor to the selected girls. I crossed my fingers, toes and eyes, hoping to get Sophia, last year's winner, but luck was against me, and I got Ms. Williams. Ms. Williams was twenty-two this year, and she had been the first freshman to win before they banned freshmen from this torture, according to rumours. The awkward part was that she was my history teacher. Oh, and she kind of hated me.

 "Oh, it's you." Ms. Williams rolled her eyes at me, and gestured for me to come nearer with her hand. "Okay, I'll try to help you win. But, there's not much I can do."

 I gasped. That was insulting. "That's so mean!" I whined. Still, I stepped nearer to her. She pulled me to the back of the crowd that had now formed on stage.

 Mikaela motioned for us to leave the room, interrupting our conversation.  We went to the library where there were small cubicles meant for peer tutoring sessions. Each pair moved chose a cubicle - there were twenty. Ms. Williams led me to the cubicle furthest away from everyone.

 "I'm not here to be your friend, so I don't care about whether or not your ego is bruised," Ms. Williams said, after we had sat down on the only two chairs in the cubicle, separated by a desk. "Just listen."  I kept quiet as she talked on in that annoyingly girly voice of hers. She told me that I wasn't going to win, most likely. For the past few years, it'd been the either the cheerleaders or the nerds. The cheerleaders, I understood because no one could resist the cheerleaders. But, the nerds? I didn't get it.

 Ms Williams was a nerd. I know, hard to believe, since most guys were completely infatuated with her long, brown hair, her long legs, and her perfect face. Not my words - they were from this guy that sits next to me in her class.

 Mikaela walked into the partition we were in, without knocking. How rude. She looked at her clipboard, "You got Blake Richards, good luck," She didn't bother looking at the both of us, and walked out immediately after announcing the news. I scowled in anger as I turned to face Ms. Williams again.

 I hated Blake Richards. He was one of the popular boys in our school. Why? I had no idea. I didn't know why the girls were smitten with him even though he went through them like they were food. At least twice a week, girls would leave school with mascara streaming down their faces because of him. I hated guys like that.

 "Ooh, I hate him," Ms Williams voiced out my thoughts, "I see him flirting with different girls every time he’s in my class."

 "Me too." At least there was one thing we agreed on. Ms. Williams quickly turned my attention back to our strategy. We had three days to prepare before the real games began, and Ms Williams had everything planned out properly to make the most out of the three days.

 On the first day, we were going to go to a salon to do our hair. On the second, we were going to go shopping for better clothes, and on the third, we were going to stalk him.

 Ladies and gentlemen, this is The Boyfriend Games.