Ready, Set, and Cheer!

Chapter 26 (:

Once she was discharged,Julie started full on preparations for her essay competition. Julie tried to improve her vocab and used the big words on her brothers. She expected them to blink. And Jake did, but Bryan was too smart for her! He would give a comeback with a more complicated word, making Julie wince!

“Oh I give up,” she said to Bryan, one day.

“ No, don't! You are good! I'm trying to help you here!”

Julie just rolled her eyes, but said thanks anyways.

On the morning of the day before her trip, Mr. Lee came to her house. Diara was there too, practicing a few questions with Julie.

“Hey Mr. Lee! What brings you here?” Julie asked.

“I came to talk to you. I heard you guys are going to DC for the essay competition. I'm going there as well, so I thought I might as well you guys a ride there and some place to stay. Ever heard of Stallion's?”

Diara gasped, “ Oh no, Mr. Lee, you wouldn't,” Diara said, her eyes shining bright.

Mr.Lee had eyes only for Julie. He said, “For this young lady who has helped my daughter and me so much, you better believe it.”

Julie hugged Mr. Lee. “Thank you so much! Really you shouldn't have, but we would love to go with you.”

“Oh yes, and one more thing. Get ready to tour the place. I'm taking you on a personal tour myself.”

After so much of thanking and no worries, Julie and Diara high fived and screamed.

Julie was really excited about tomorrow. But the events that unfolded next minute, turned everything completely upside down.

Julie was really startled to hear someone sobbing. She turned around and to her dismay, she realized Diara was crying. Julie tried to hug her to console her, but that just caused Diara to cry even more. 

"Oh Julie! We have both been victims! Oh this is terrible," Diara managed to splutter out, in between her sobs.

............................

Six days Earlier.

Laurent had been visiting Julie when she was unconcious. Only when she was unconcious though. He was worried sick about her the whole time, and if he saw her conciously then he was so worried he would kiss her, or even worse, tell her the three words! 

Now, that wouldn't be so bad, he thought, but it came with a complication. He pursued her through a bet. It wasn't fair to Julie at all. He had never been more ashamed of himself. Even though he truly loved her now, if Julie ever, EVER came to know that he did it through a bet, she would be so hurt, and would hate him to the core. 

No, he thought. He shouldn't let this happen. He decided to go talk to Ryan about it, calling it a truce. 

At school, the next day, Laurent approached Ryan.

"Hey Ryan, I would like to call off the bet. I will leave this school, on one condition. Julie NEVER gets to know about this. Ever." Laurent said.

"Ooooh, someone has a soft corner for the barbie doll, eh?" Ryan said, smugly.

"If you tell her, you'll be famous world wide, and it wouldn't be coz of a good thing, Ryan," Laurent said, his eyes flashing.

"Sounds tempting," Ryan said, laughing evily.

What had he done, Laurent thought. He was willing to forgo his image though. But he desperately didn't want Julie hurt. Yes, he would stop talking to her, and maybe she might feel bad, or hell, she would have even guessed that that would happen. But I don't want to let her know about the bet. Ever. 

A few minutes later, Diara came to Laurent.

"Ryan is not the only one you have to take care of, to keep the bet quiet." Diara said, smiling lightly.

Laurent cringed. What was this witch up to?

"Alright, what should I do now?" he said, bracing himself for the worst.

"If you agree to this, I'll make sure Julie will not hear a word of this bet, especially from Ryan," she said, slowly.

Laurent hesitated but said, " Okay, I agree. What is it?"

"You have to date me."