Chapter 18: The Auction
***Scarlet's P.O.V.***
It was Friday, the day of the Auction. (At least that's what it said on all of the posters.) Girls were reapplying lip gloss, teachers were running from here to there to make sure everything was in order, and the boys couldn't be happier.
I, on the other hand, was miserable. Last night, Betsi talked to me until 12:30 on the phone, about how she would kill to have Devin bid on her. Then, right before she hung up she said, "Do you think Carson or Cole will bid on you?" which kept me up until 3:40, trying to come up with the worst and the best scenarios. Both were awful.
I was walking to Betsi's locker as the worst and the best scenarios flashed in my head then I abruptly stopped. I heard the laughter before I could see who it was coming from.
"So is that a yes?" says a very familiar voice.
Another voice laughed, "That is definitely a yes."
It took me a second to realize who they were, but I didn't need to because they bumped right into me.
"Watch wh- Oh, hey Scar." said Betsi.
"Hi." I said meekly.
Devin stood there uncomfortably, then decided to make a hasty exit. "Well, don't want to be late for French. Bye Betsi." Then he said quietly to me, "Thank you, Scarlet."
I gave Devin a quick nod, then dragged Betsi to her locker, "Tell me EVERYTHING." And Betsi did, turns out, Betsi caught Devin this morning, trying to put a love note in her locker. Then they talked and they found out how they share the same interests, and how they're going to a show next week.
When she was finished, she hugged me and said, "Thank you for being my wing-woman."
I blushed and hugged her back, "Hey, what are best friends for, right?"
Then, Bianca Bellson came up to us and said, "Hey Betsi! Hey Scarlet! You guys are in the auction, right?"
We nodded.
"That's great, I nee-" She suddenly turned slightly green and held her hand over her mouth. I rushed to her side.
"Bianca, are you okay?" I asked, while eyeing Betsi to go get the nurse.
"I'm fine." She said not so reassuringly, "It's nothin-," then puked all over the floor, and fainted in my hands.
Betsi and I looked at each other and nodded. She took the legs while I took her arms and we half-carried, half-dragged her to the nurse. Apparently Biance snuck out of her house when she was sick to participate in the auction, wow, I've never heard of someone trying to sneak into the school. Bianca was sent back to her house by the nurse and the janitor.
"So, the auction. Have you thought about what I said?" Betsi asked me when she and I were walking back to our class.
"Oh you mean what I'm going to do if Carson or Cole gets a date with me? No, not at all." I replied with full sarcasm.
She chuckled softly at my answer said brightly. "Well, at least then you'll know if Carson likes you or not."
"Yep, can't wait to find out." I muttered. I was terrified.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Students and faculty members, welcome to this year's fundraiser."
Ms. Mason's voice was heard loud and clear in the auditorium.
"I would first like to thank our lovely ladies who volunteered to participate in this auction." She gestured to the 19 of us standing on the stage. "Let's have a round of applause for them." And the whole auditorium erupted in applause. I saw Carson and my brother in the front of the room and gave them a little smile. Then I located Noah standing uncomfortably in the back of the room by the doors and gave him a little wave, to which he replied with a smile and wave. I then spotted Cole looking at me and turned away to avoid his eyes.
God, really?
"Remember, you can bid as many times as you desire, but you can only buy one date with one girl. When you buy a date with one of our beautiful ladies, they will come with two dinner reservations at the Sallone Restaurant. Keep in mind that this is a fundraiser." She reminded us sternly. "So try to be generous. Alright let's start with the first girl." She beckoned for Angela to step forward. "Angela Morris is a bubbly and lively person who enjoys dancing and music. She is in many dancing clubs like "Hip Hop 101" and "Ballet". She has a passion for seashell collecting and loves the sea. We'll start the bidding at $10."
A boy with a blue striped shirt raised his hand and shouted, "$20!"
Then another boy in the back yelled with his hand up, "$30!"
And the boy in the striped shirt countered with "$40!"
The boy in the black ended it with "$70!"
"$70 going once, going twice, sold to the gentleman in the back!" said Ms. Mason.
I looked at Angela, who looked happy that 2 guys had just fought for her. $70, not bad. A small part of me wished that someone would bid on me. Angela happily walked off the stage and Ms. Mason gestured for the next girl to step up. It was Diane.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***Carson's P.O.V.***
Scar looked so beautiful on the stage. She was wearing a white dress with a small black sweater over it with a bow and white lace shoes. Her hair was curled to perfection and her make up was light but beautiful. I've always thought that Scar was pretty, but she's becoming more and more beautiful everyday.
"Dude, stop drooling," said Nate beside me.
"I was not drooling." I exclaimed and wiped my mouth, just in case.
He chuckled and said, "You're gonna bid on Scar, right?"
"Yeah, of course!"
"Good, so then some grabby douche won't get her." he said in an overly protective brother way again.
"Don't worry, man, I got it. Plus, if someone out-bids me you'll back me up, right?"
"I don't think I want to spend my allowance on Scar."
"Come on, do you want some guy like Cole to screw her over again?" I said.
He reached for his wallet, "Fine, fine. Let's see what I have here. I have some 5's, some 10's, and 4 20's." He handed me the cash. "But you better win."
I saluted him, "Yes, sir." I turned my attention back to the stage and saw that the next girl was Diane.
"Next we have Diane Hansen. Diane is a caring girl who likes helping the needy and the homeless." I scoffed. Diane doesn't even hold doors for people. "She enjoys reading in her spare time, and working at orphanages. She is a cheerleader and contributes greatly to our school." I looked at Diane, who tried to look sincere, but I knew that she was lying. "Let's start the bidding at $10." finished Ms. Mason.
A moment of silence passed.
"Um, $20!" said a voice from behind me.
Then it was dead silent again. No one else wanted to bit on Diane. I looked up at the stage and Diane's face was red with either rage or humiliation, or both. Even though she was mean to Scar, I still felt bad for her.
"$20 going once, going twice, sold to the gentleman with the yellow shirt." and with that Diane stalked off the stage in anger.
The next 8 girls went by fast and then came the break. I watched Scar and the rest of the remaining 8 girls walk off the stage, then it hit me, there should be 9 girls remaining, where's she? I was slightly worried, but brushed it off and followed Nate out of the auditorium.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***Scarlet's P.O.V.***
Betsi and I were sitting on the chairs backstage when Mr. Whitmoore walked up to me and said, "Scarlet, may I speak with you?"
"Um, sure." I responded. I didn't know to be nervous or to be happy, because you never know with Mr. Whitmoore.
"Miss. Pierce, as you know, Bianca Bellson is sick today, and she was one of the ladies who volunteered to be in the auction." I tensed, understanding where he was going with this. "So would you please fill in for her?"
"And go twice?" I asked.
"Yes."
I wanted to argue with Mr. Whitmoore, but I knew that there would be no chance of me winning. Mr. Whitmoore is the coach of our school's debate team, plus, it would earn me some extra credit.
Reluctantly I said, "Fine."
Mr. Whitmoore smiled, "Thank you Miss. Pierce, I owe you one."
I walked over to Betsi, who was nervously twirling her fingers. "So? What happened?"
I sat down beside her, "I have to go twice."
"Twice?" She exclaimed. "That's.... that's... PERFECT! Now both Cole AND Carson can get a date with you!"
"You just love watching me suffer don't you?" I muttered.
"Hey, what are friends for, right?" She mimicked me.
"Shut up." I said with a contained laugh. But inside, I was incredibly nervous.
Ms. Mason came backstage and announced, "Okay, I need everyone out in 2 minutes!" As soon as she finished speaking, the rest of the girls started to furiously reapply their make up or touch up their hair. Betsi dragged me to the mirror and started to pull down my shirt.
I slapped her hand away, "What are you doing?!"
She pulled my shirt down again and said, "Good." Then she looked at my face and noticed that some of my mascara was smudged. She licked her thumb and was about to wipe it off when I protested.
"Oh god, no. " I pushed her away and she accidentally bumped into Diane.
"Ow! My shoes!" cried Diane.
Betsi turned around to face the voice, "Always a pleasure seeing you, Diane."
She smiled at me and Betsi but I understood the message behind it: bitch, cross me again, and I will cut you.
"Oh, Scarlet, I forgot to tell you. Carson told me he was going to bid on you earlier. Yeah he's gonna spend more than $20 on you." said Betsi in a very dramatically loud voice.
And it worked, Diane was PISSED. She looked like she wanted to staple something to my eyes, maybe the knife she was so obviously planning to cut me with.
"Look you little slu-" began Diane, but Ms. Mason stepped in the room at that moment, saving us from a bunch of profanities.
"Ladies, church words, okay?" She looked at Diane, then back to us. "It's time to continue, come on." And with that she shooed us out back on stage.
"Okay, let's continue, shall we? Next we have Betsi Davids." announced Ms. Mason
Before Betsi could step forward, she leaned close to me and whispered, "Prostitution." I was about to burst out laughing, mostly because she was right, also because of her comical timing, but one glare from Ms. Mason and I stopped myself.
"Betsi Davids is a girl of many talents, she is the lead actress in our school play, and the captain of the rugby team. She has been here since grade 5, loves Winnie the Pooh, and eating puddings without using utensils." Everyone laughed at that, so did Betsi, who was not embarrassed, but proud of her uniqueness. Even Ms. Mason laughed. "As I was saying, we shall start the bidding at $10."
I looked at Betsi from behind, her black hair was curled and she was wearing a white lace shirt with black jeans. She looked gorgeous. I smiled proudly at my best friend and made eye contact with Devin, signaling him to start bidding.
As expected, Devin understood my motives and eagerly started the bid with $20.
Then some guy in the corner of the room yelled, "$40 on the hot chick!"
Men.
The an unexpected voice said, "$60." Cole.
Betsi looked back at me to make sure that I was okay. Was I okay? Well I'm not crying, so, I'm good. Right? I gave her a reassuring look and a smile. She eyebrowed me, as if saying, are you sure? And I gave her a final nod. Even though Cole and I were over, some parts of me was still hurt when he bid on Betsi.
But Devin didn't give up and jumped ahead to make this faster (thank you Devin), "$100!"
Everyone went silent, especially Betsi. When no one spoke again Ms. Mason spoke into the microphone, "$100 going once, going twice, sold to Mr. Generous in the second row!"
Before Betsi walked off the stage she looked at me and smiled, like a success! smile. I gave her a big thumb up and smiled back.
"Next we have Scarlet Pierce." Oh joy. I calmly walked to the front of the stage and gave everyone a small smile, but they all looked like they wanted to devour me. I looked at Carson and Nate for reassurance, and they both gave me a huge smile.
"Scarlet Pierce is a mesmerizing lady who is caring and nice to everyone and has a hypnotizing personality and appearance." Then it dawned on me, that wasn't the speech I sent in. I started to panic, thinking that it had something to do with Diane and Ariana, I looked around, expecting them to be smiling evilly, but only to find Diane looking angry and Ariana looking bewildered. Then I spotted Betsi laughing her head off in the back of the auditorium with Devin looking just as confused as Ariana. Oh no, Betsi changed my speech. That's even worse than Diane and Ariana changing it. "She enjoys wet t-shirt contests, bikinis and cucumbers. Scarlet is extremely lonely and is looking for someone to help her rub sun screen on her back when she goes to the beach." I glared at Betsi, showing her how mad I was. She basically just made me sound like a slut. I was so going to murder her after this. I looked at Noah, who was unusually guffawing in the back with Betsi. "Well. That was rather peculiar. Anyways, shall we start the biddin-"
Even before she could finish her sentence, the bidding started.
"$20!"
"$30!"
"$50!"
"$70!"
"$120." said Cole.
"$140." countered Carson. Now I was surprised. I looked at Carson, who looked determined to make sure that he won.
Cole stood up to make more of an emphasis and said loudly, "$150." I winced. Carson can't beat that.
Carson stood up too, and yelled, "$170!" Oh thank god.
"$200." declared Cole, who looked almost victoriously.
"$250!" parried Carson with Nate at his side, looking just a determined as Carson.
Cole smiled menacingly, "$300."
Carson looked pained; he looked at me with apologetic eyes. I nodded at him, gesturing that it's okay that he didn't win. Sadly, he sat down.
Ms. Mason finally decided to talk. "$300 going one, going twice, sold to Mr. Martins!" I was about to walk off the stage when I remembered that I was Bianca's replacement, slowly I trudged back to my old spot on the stage. When I caught Carson's eye, he gave me a quizzical look, as if asking me why I was back on the stage. I gave him a wait and you'll see sign and he understood.
After the last girl in front of me, it was my turn again. Everyone looked at me, baffled, even Cole looked surprised. I turned to Ms. Mason for her to explain.
"Bianca Bell, who was one of our volunteers, was absent today, so we asked Ms. Pierce to fill in for her. So, let's start the bidding at $10."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Picture of Scarlet and Betsi's outfits for the auction. NOT THE DATES. ------->)
MWHAHAHAHA. Don't you just LOVE cliff-hangers? I've never done one. SO, this is my first.
(I love it. I see more cliff-hangers from me in the future!)
Anyways, for that INSANELY long chapter I think maybe some votes and comments are in order? PRETTY PLEASE?
A virtual banana for all who vote, and an electronic hug from all of us!
Please?
~ Jess