Sophomore Diaries: Diary of an Ugly Girl, Diary of a Once Popular Boy

12

The next day, when we got to Helping Hands to receive our task for the day, Ms.Grumpy was looking...sad.
“What's up?” I asked her. “Is it your boyfriend? Did he break your heart?”
I received a very frosty glare for my attempt at humour. Even Virtue and Solar joined in on the glare.
“It's actually that we want to host a little fundraising party but we don't have sufficient funds.” Ms.Grumpy said.
“Then don't throw it.” I advised. How could she be fretting when the solution was right in front of her?
She shot me a dirty glare, “Eighty-five percent of our funds come from the fundraising party.”
Oh! Why hadn't she said so? Now, I looked like an idiot.
“Well, I can talk to my father and see if he'll donate.” I said.
That brightened Ms.Grumpy up considerably. The things money could do.
“So what's our task for today?” Solar asked.
“There's a dog shelter not far from here. They rescue dogs off the streets and put them up for adoption. I need you to go there.”
“Seriously, I'm more of a cat guy.” I protested. “Be on your best behavior, there's going to be a news crew there.” Ms. Grumpy informed.
“Yay! I love dogs.” I said.
“You'll deliver some bags of dog food and also help them run the place for a few hours.” Ms. Grumpy said.
We left happily. A TV crew. This was beyond my widest dreams. Many people would see my dashing good looks on the TV and like me. I'd get a spike in followers. This was too good to be true.
*  *  *
When we got to the dog shelter, we were welcomed by the Vet who ran the place and his son.
He then showed us how to bathe the dogs and assigned us to various dogs to bathe.
“Virtue, you'll bathe Sunny. Solar, you'll bathe Lily. Beau, you'll handle Cannibal.” The vet said, smiling.
Wait! Hold up! Cannibal? No way. I love my life.
“Sir, cannibal?” I asked.
“Don't worry.” His son laughed. Easy for him to say, he wasn't the one was going to die. I disliked him on the spot.
“Here you go.” The vet said, handing me a chihuahua. I laughed. This was Cannibal? Phew! I had been worried over nothing.
I was going to put Cannibal in his tub when the little mutt jumped out of my hands and ran away.
“Don't just stand there, get him!” The vet's son said. I disliked the dude more.
I set out to look for Cannibal. “Here, Cannibal! Come here Cannibal!” I shouted. What if a real cannibal heard me and thought I was offering myself up as bait?
I stopped shouting and began to look around. Then, I found the dog digging something up and in the process, getting dirt on himself.
I stalked to where he was and grabbed him from behind. (Oooh! That sounded dirty.)
He tried to wriggle out of my grasp but I held on strongly (again, dirty!).
I put him in the tub and began to wash him. He tried to get out but I held him and scrubbed his fur. He barked, a barely audible sound and I laughed. The devious dog chose that moment to splash around and some of the water entered my mouth. I sputtered and continued my job. When I was through, I brought the little tyke out and toweled him dry.
“Here you go.” I handed him to the vet. He jumped out of hands again and ran off. Probably to continue his digging.
I didn't even look at the vet. I wasn't going after that dog again.
I walked away and ran into Virtue and Solar.
“Hey, you guys, what's up?” I asked when I saw that they were looking at my forehead.
“You've got a pimple.” Solar said.
“Come on! Don't joke.” I said.
“Check it out yourself.” Virtue said.
I brought out my phone and tapped on the camera app. My front camera showed a huge pimple on my forehead.
On a normal day, I wouldn't be so worried. You know, no matter how good your facials are, there'll always be that errant pimple but not today, because of the TV crew! Imagine the whole world tuning in to see my pimple. The Internet would be awash with memes.
I was probably exaggerating but it was all I could I think about.
I excused myself and hurried into the bathroom. There, I combed my hair forward and it covered the pimple.
When I went out, I discovered that crew was there. It consisted of a reporter who looked uninterested and a cameraman who looked even more uninterested.
They were interviewing the vet and his son. After that, the cameraman got a video of us playing and feeding the dogs. I made sure that they got my good side.
Then, it was time for our interviews.
Virtue went first. She talked about how she loved helping, be it people or dogs and passionately implored people to donate to Helping Hands and the dog shelter.
Next was my turn.
“So, why are you here?”
“Well, I've always loved dogs. I got my first dog when I was 2. When I was little, I always said I wanted to be a dog when I grew up.”
“You haven't answered my question.” The reporter scowled at me.
“Oh, okay, I came here to help these dogs because even they deserve human kindness. If you want to see more pictures and videos of me doing good, you can follow me on instagram, like my page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter.” I smiled.
Yes, I'd done some advertisement for myself.
Then it was Solar's turn.
Without even waiting for the question, he started speaking, “First of all, I'd like to shout out to my parents who made it possible for me to be here, then my friends, who also believed in me and also James, who said I'd never be on TV. Look at me! I've made it!”
The cameraman stopped recording and the reporter went to talk to the vet.
“Miss, when will it air?” Solar and I asked the vet.
“This night, at eight.” She replied.
“Will it be the first report?” Solar asked.
“God no! Now leave me alone and stop asking me stupid questions.” She said and stomped off with her cameraman in tow.
When it was time to leave, I noticed that Virtue was talking to the vet's son.
“Virtue, let's leave!” I said.
She shook his hand and he smiled at her.
What? “Why is he smiling like an idiot?”
I asked Virtue.
She shrugged.
“What were you two talking about?” I queried.
“Nothing that concerns you.” She said.
I let the subject drop since she was being too evasive but something about that exchanged bugged me.
*  *  *
Later that night, I watched the news (probably for the first time in my life) and footage was shown. The vet, his son and Virtue got a lot of face time but the only part of my interview that was shown was the "I've always loved dogs" part. But apparently that was enough, because my phone started blowing up with calls and texts.
No part of Solar's interview was shown.
I called my father and told him about our dire need for funds, and he promised to donate some money.
Believe it or not, Helping Hands wasn't going down on my watch.