Luke Cross, playing Prince Charming to Penelope Carpenter. Ladies, isn’t he a dream?”
Wiping globs of green shit from my eyes, I grab the balloon solidly in my hands. By now, Penny is in front of me. “Are you going to pop it on me?” she asks, worried.
“Nah.” I hand it to her. “Who do you think I am?”
“I guess I don’t know,” she murmurs, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “Thank you.”
She starts to climb out of the pool as Will Wang announces, “Our next contestant through to round two—Penelope Carpenter!”
She looks back at me and smiles broadly.
Well, well, well. So she can smile. Maybe she’s not so uptight as I thought.
“Hey. Pussy boy,” a voice calls behind me.
I turn.
Ace is holding a yellow balloon. I can see “LUKE” written on it.
Shit.
Before I can think to do anything else, he squeezes it between his palms, and it bursts, leaving me looking at nothing but his ugly-ass satisfied smile.
SURVIVING ROUND ONE
Nell
What is my strategy? I don’t know. I suppose I’ll use my brain, since I’m not very athletic. I once nearly drowned in two feet of water.
—Nell’s Confessional, Day 1
Even though my entire lower half is covered in lime jelly, I stride to the winners’ risers, feeling like I could float on air.
I can’t believe it. I survived round one.
Thanks to him. My dirty boy who can’t stop looking at me.
Courtney and I joked that I’d probably be the first one eliminated. We’d bet that I’d probably be home snug in my bed by the end of day one of filming.
But not only am I not eliminated . . . I’m not one of fifty anymore.
I’m one of eighteen.
I have the prize schedule from the black folder tattooed on my brain, so I know what each of the eighteen will get. Fifty thousand dollars.
Fifty thousand dollars!
And I barely had to lift a finger. I just got the right balloon, and . . .
“Our next elimination—and ladies, I’m sorry about this one, I know it’s gotta hurt—Luke Cross. I’m sure our entire female audience is crying out right now. The knight in shining armor is no more. I really thought he’d get a lot farther in this competition,” Will Wang says, a note of sympathy in his voice.
I look up in horror in time to see Luke, covered in a head-to-toe glaze of gelatin, heading to the other wall. The losers’ wall.
No. No.
Did I do that? Is it my fault?
I hold the balloon in my hands, the one with my name on it that Luke rescued for me. And I can’t help feeling that it should be his. That he should be here instead of me.
Shveta comes over and hugs me. “I can’t believe this! We’re going to the next round!”
My heartbeat is thudding in my ears as I watch Luke standing there, against the wall, a mildly pissed-off expression on his face. He’s probably ruing the day he ever helped an incompetent like me. He crosses his arms, and his eyes stay trained on the ground.
And I. Feel. Like. Crap.
Another ten minutes go by, and that’s all it takes for the rest of the balloons to be either popped or found. When everyone has exited the pool and is standing on either the winners’ or losers’ side, Will Wang says, “Well, here we are. We have seventeen people who have found their balloons. Thirty-three who have had their dreams crushed in the first moments of Million Dollar Marriage. But as I mentioned before, there is still a chance for those who don’t have a balloon to be put back in the game.”
He comes down from the podium and walks to Shveta. He smiles at her. “Our first winner. And now we get to what Million Dollar Marriage is all about. You’re going to be divided into teams now. On the count of three, I’d like you to pop your balloon and find the sheet of paper inside.”
He counts, and the second he reaches three, Shveta squeezes and pops the balloon. A piece of paper falls to her feet. She reaches down and opens it.
“Please read the name for the audience,” Will Wang says.
She wrinkles her nose. “Ace Moulder.”
The crowd cheers. “Come on over here, Ace!” the announcer says. Ace struts from farther down the winners’ side over to them, looking warily at Shveta. Will Wang takes his balloon, pops it, and pulls out the name Shveta Patel. “You two are partners and must work together!”
Ace lets out an audible “Fuck,”