4

"What?!" I thundered, which caused everyone to stare at me. "WHAT?!"

Murmuring spread throughout the crowd, stuff like, "that's Alison Juarez?" And "who is she?" Or "is she new here?" Like I said, hardly anyone knew me, and less than hardly knew my name. So how did I wind up in that godforsaken bowl?

"Jenna, is there something you need to tell me?" I asked, my suspicion made absolutely crystal clear in my voice.

"Ali! How could you think for a minute that I put your name in there?" She gasped, "I know how much you dislike this thing, I wouldn't make you participate in it."

She seemed to be telling the truth, and I immediately regretted suspecting her. "I'm sorry," I said, "I just don't know what to think!"

"I understand," she replied graciously. I didn't deserve her.

"Come on, Alison, get up here," Mr. Hot Stuff, or shall I say, Flynn, called from the stairs. There was something in his voice, like he was taunting me.

I marched up to him and, fuming, I verbally slapped him across the face. "YOU!!" I wanted so badly to physically slap him across the face, but tried to control myself.

He laughed heartily. So he was enjoying this, huh? "FLYNN DID YOU PUT MY NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!!" I asked (calmly). "You put my name in the Goblet of Fire, didn't you?!" People started laughing.

He nodded while still laughing, his shoulders shaking. This was so not right. He was going to pay for this. I didn't know how at the time, but I was determined to figure it out.

Emerson was standing there, looking pissed that she hadn't been picked. Well, at least I got one good thing out of the whole ordeal - the opportunity to piss off a cheerleader who had spent her days making snide comments about my height. And I wasn't even that uncommonly tall for a girl.

Jason cleared his throat, signaling for us to be quiet. It took a minute, but once everyone was settled down, he held up a box that said "Tasks".

"The votes are in, and the first task is...." He pulled a paper out of the box, glanced at it, then, "for our two participants to make out at the selection party!"

I felt nauseous as everyone whooped and hollered like a pack of wild dogs. I caught sight of Jenna standing in the crowd, her eyes angry. Apparently she didn't like this anymore than I did.

I turned to Flynn to protest, and he looked a bit distressed. Good. "There's no way in hell I'm making out with you!" I screamed at him. Yuck.

I heard Emerson gasp, "then perhaps we should draw another name, since she's unwilling to complete the first task." Several girls screamed that they volunteered, one added "as tribute".

"Yes, please do," I said, glaring past Flynn to Jason, who shrugged.

"Sorry, rules are rules. Whoever gets picked has to participate."

I can really relate to poor Harry when some jerk put his name in the Goblet, now that I've had some jerk put my name in a stinking bowl. The bowl could've at least been on fire!

"Then just draw a new task!" I ordered, my brown eyes flashing.

Jason shrugged again. "Sorry."

"This is ludicrous, I'm not doing it!" I roared. They couldn't make me. I decided to leave. And I tried to. But Flynn caught my arm.

He wasn't looking at me, he was looking at Jason. "Fine, we'll do it, but not in front of everybody." With these words, he started pulling me up the stairs.

"Hey! Just what do you think you're doing!" I demanded as we were followed by a group of teenagers who were calling out very rude suggestions.

"The first task," Flynn replied as we entered the upstairs hallway. He took me into the first bedroom on the left, and closed the door, locking it behind us.

I'll admit, I was terrified. He was going to try to kiss me, among other things, and I was trapped in this room with him. The lights were off, but I could tell where the window was. I knew already, however, that escaping through the window was not an option, since we were on the second floor and all.

I decided to stall by confronting him. Jenna would find some way to save me, I was sure. All she needed was more time, which I'd give her.

"Is that the only reason you asked me to come with you?" I accused him, "not as your bodyguard, but so you could get me alone and-"

"No!" He interrupted, and even in the low light I could see the anger on his face. "I wouldn't do that, ever! I didn't know the first task would be something like this!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I didn't believe him, "why did you pick me, huh? Because I was the one girl you couldn't get easily?"

He sighed, running a hand through his dark locks. "I picked you because I knew the thing was rigged, that I'd get picked, and I thought, if I had to do it, it'd be fun to do it with you."

"Well, I'm not doing anything with you!" I spat. "And anyway, you don't even know me!"

"That was the whole point, to meet somebody new!" He yelled back at me.

"Oh, go to hell, Flynn Tyler!" I bellowed, and started toward the door.

"Alison, wait!"

I whipped around to face him. "Will you stop saying that?!"

"You can't go out there," he said, his voice quieter than before.

"Why not?" I demanded. I had no reason to stay. I was going home, dammit!

He stepped toward me. "We can fool them. Fool them into thinking we did the task so they'll leave us alone."

I scoffed. "Ha! So you really think that they'll leave us alone if we 'do it'?"

"Maybe," he persisted. He was inching toward me, and I had retreated all the way to the door, my back pressed against it.

"Let's just say, theoretically, I agree to help you fool them? How exactly would we go about doing such a thing?" I asked, still stalling.

He stopped, rubbing the back of his head. "Have you ever seen that movie with Emma Stone in it...uh, what's it called?.....Easy A."

"Yeah, I've seen it," I replied, suddenly curious. What was a guy like him doing watching a romantic comedy like that?

"Well, you know the part where she and the gay guy fake having sex at the party?"

"Yeah?" Where was this going?

"We could do that," he said, "you know, fake it."

I stared at him, and a slow smirk spread across my face as an awesome comeback entered my thought process. "I'm sure that anybody who's done it with you would have to fake it."

"Wha-? Ouch."

Prideful satisfaction welled up inside of me, and I was very glad that I'd given him a blow to his ego. But down to business. Maybe if I played along with his faking game, Jenna would be there soon. "So, how are we going to make them think we're making out?"

He opened his mouth to say something, then clamped it closed. I heard the music come back on downstairs, but there were still people outside the door whispering and laughing.

"You haven't a clue, do you?" I said in a condescending tone, placing my hands on my hips.

"Well," he stammered, "I, I thought maybe...."

I sighed. "I suppose we could make a bunch of racket, like in the movie, to humor them."

"I guess," he mumbled, stepping away from me and the door and slumping onto the bed, staring at his feet. He suddenly seemed very tired.

"Or we could be very quiet," I pondered aloud, going toward the bed, "and then they'd think we were too busy kissing and what-not to make any noise."

"That's a better idea," he said, looking up at me. "For how long?"

"Oh, I don't know," I sighed, sinking onto the bed beside him, "ten minutes?"

"Okay," he said, and with that, he laid back on the bed and closed his eyes. "Wake me up when the ten minutes are up, okay?"

"Sure," I replied glumly.

And there we sat in the darkness and silence for the next ten minutes. What fun(please note the sarcasm).

~

After those ten minutes, Jenna and I went home. Wes wanted to stay at the party longer, and said he'd get a ride with somebody. He had no clue what had happened, and I decided to let him have fun.

Poor Jenna was so worried, she thought something had actually happened. But on the way home, I told her everything.

"Oh god, Ali," she breathed, looking very relieved, "I'm so glad he didn't...force himself on you."

I shook my head. "Don't worry, if he had, he'd be in the hospital right now, I would've shoved him out the window or something."

She laughed. "I was trying to figure out how to save you but nobody would let me up to the door."

"I knew you were. But fortunately, he seemed as repulsed with the idea of making out with me as I was with him," I told her.

"Thank god."