Chapter 7

"Alina, can I ask you something?"

The 15-year-old girl was sitting at a lunch table with her best friend, Karen Matthews. It was Wednesday of the last week of the game and for once no one had grabbed her for a fuck during lunch period. Alina had considered skipping it anyway but had decided she missed seeing her friends. She'd been avoiding most of them since the Game had started: seeing them reminded her of her real life, the one she would be returning to soon, and that made her feel guilty and ashamed about what she had been doing. Still, she knew it was time to start figuring out if she'd burned any bridges over the last few weeks, and Karen was the best person to "feel out" since they always ate lunch alone together.

"Ask me what?" Alina said with a smile. She'd been nervous at the start of lunch but after only a few minutes she discovered that nothing had changed between her and her friend. I bet it'll be this way with everybody! she'd thought to herself.

"Is it true that you're ... that you got tagged?"

Alina's jaw dropped. Out of all her friends she couldn't believe Karen would know anything about the Game, let alone suspect that she might be playing in it! If Karen knew then that meant her fears that everyone knew, all her closest friends, were justified after all.

Looking around nervously she decided to just play dumb. Maybe Karen didn't really know. Maybe she'd just heard rumors, rumors that Alina could shrug off. She said, "Uhm, tagged? What's that? You're not talking about that stupid urban legend thing, are you?"

"Come on, Alina, it's me," Karen said. "Don't act like you don't know what the Game is! Last year we gossiped about it all the time, remember?"

Darn it, Alina thought. She'd forgotten about that. She said, "Yeah, sure, but ... it's not like we ever believed it was real."

"I didn't, you're right, I didn't," Karen said. "Until I overheard my brother last year talking about how for $50 he got to have sex with Holly Ringstone whenever he wanted because she was tagged. Remember Holly? She ended up pregnant and left school? Anyway, I know for a fact the Game is real. For all I know my brother fathered Holly's baby."

"What? Why didn't you ever tell me about this?" Alina said in a hushed, shocked voice.

"I didn't want you to think less of my brother," Karen said, her eyes downcast. "But you didn't answer my question. Is it true that you're tagged?"

"Why would you think that?" Alina said. Her palms were getting sweaty and she was trembling.

"Yesterday that jerk, Martin Utter, he told me that he had sex with you on Monday. I called him a liar and told him there was no way you'd do that, but he said you had no choice because you got tagged and he plays the Game. I still didn't believe him, but then he described that birthmark you have under your left nipple? That cute little cluster of three, tannish colored ones you have to really look for to see?"

Alina felt the color drain out of her face.

"Alina, you showed me that exact birthmark that day last year when I got really upset about how I look naked. Remember? I said you were beautiful and perfect and I was just plain and lop-sided and ugly and everything and you showed me that exact birth mark to prove you weren't perfect. Remember?"

Alina groaned inwardly. She opened her mouth then closed it, opened her mouth again and still no words came out. She stared at her friend, frantically trying to think of an excuse for how Martin Utter, the fat jerk who had tormented them through elementary school and middle school, could possibly know about that slight imperfection on her left breast. She could think of none.

"Look, please, Alina!" Karen said, reaching across the table and putting her hand on hers. "It's okay if you're in the Game. I'm not going to tell anyone, not Rache or Abby or any of the others. I won't go to Pastor Jacob or your mom or anything. Because the truth is, I don't think any less of you.

"The truth is, I'm sort of jealous."

"Jealous?" Alina whispered in shock. Karen was the most straight-laced, dedicated-to-the-Church, afraid-of-her-own-shadow type of girl Alina had ever known. How could she be jealous about not being in the Game?

"It's true," Karen said with a sigh. "I know I signed the Purity Pledge last year and everything, and my first love in life really is Jesus. But I know that He'd forgive me for having a little fun, you know? And the idea of all that sex ... to have guys seeking me out all the time for just that one thing ... I mean..."

Alina suddenly laughed in surprise. "Karen! What do you even know about sex? You've never even been kissed!"

"More than you might think!" Karen said, a little defensive. "Over the summer, for instance? I met this guy at the hotel we were staying at when we visited my grandparents in Phoenix. We didn't have sex but I wish we had, now. I mean, really, what's the big deal? Can't you have sex and still love Jesus? That's what the guy tried to explain to me but I didn't listen. I almost did, I got so so close, and we did do some ... things. Not actual sex, but still ... it was amazing!"

"Oh my God, it's like I'm talking to a total stranger!" Alina said, not in a mean way. "Karen, sex outside of marriage is a sin!"

"Yeah, I know! But what makes Jesus so awesome is that he forgives us for our sins! He died for that very reason!" Karen argued. "If I was in the Game I would play to win, I swear it. And every night before bed I'd pray for His forgiveness and you know what? I would be forgiven."

Alina nodded. This was a side of her friend, her best friend since the third grade, that she'd never seen before. Without thinking she said, "Yeah, that's what I do."

"So it's true!" Karen exclaimed.

"Shh!" Alina hissed. She looked around the crowded cafeteria, positive she'd find everyone listening in on their conversation. When she saw that nobody was she continued, "Okay, fine, but if I tell you this you really do have to swear on a pile of Bibles taller than the Sears Tower that you'll never tell anyone else. That means no one, not a single soul. Okay?"

"I swear, I totally swear!" Karen said eagerly as she made the sign of the cross over her chest.

"I mean it, Karen. If anyone found out I'd be ruined, my mom's political career would be ruined, because I would lose the Game," Alina said. "One of the rules is that contestants are not allowed to talk about the Game. If Heather found out I told you anything I could get disqualified."

"I promise, I swear by Mary and Joseph and Jesus Himself, I swear!" Karen said, her eyes wide with wonder.

Alina sighed. She decided to lie to her friend a little more before launching into the truth. She couldn't reveal the real reason she'd been sucked into the Game because that would reveal that she was a lesbian. But like Karen had just said, Jesus would forgive her for lying.

"A week before school started I had a moment of weakness," she said. "I ended up ... I ended up giving oral sex to a boy I don't want to name. It's not important and I just don't want to say. But anyway, it turns out he had a hidden camera in his bedroom and somehow Heather got the pictures of me doing that. So I was told I could either play the Game or the pictures would be sent to my mom, the media, everyone. I had no choice."

"Wow," Karen breathed. She was hanging on Alina's every word. "So that's how they get girls to play! I always wondered ... I mean, at first I thought the girls must apply but I couldn't believe there'd be many like me who would want to. That's why I tried friending Heather on Facebook over the summer. I thought I could easily get in, I figured they had a hard time finding contestants. But she never friended me back ... I guess I'm too plain and ordinary for the Game if they'd rather blackmail girls than accept volunteers..."

Alina cringed. The truth was that Karen was plain and ordinary: on the tall side but with a nose that didn't quite fit her face, straight brown hair, large but uneven breasts. She was also fifteen and had only just started to wear braces so that didn't help her looks much, either. Not wanting to hurt her friend's already fragile self-confidence, though, Alina said, "I don't think they blackmail everybody. I think, like, a lot of girls apply. But sometimes they single someone out the way Heather did with me."

"Oh," Karen said. "Well, anyway, tell me how it works! Is it true you get a point for every guy you do it with?"

Alina nodded. "One point for every student from our school you have sex with. But Karen? The thing is that if someone is playing the Game, I mean if they've paid to play, you have to have sex or whatever with them no matter what. Even if they don't count for points. Plus, you have to let them cum inside you or they don't count even if they are a student. You're not allowed to use condoms, either, and you have to have either a picture or video of you doing it with them or they don't count. There are a ton of rules like that. It's like you basically lose your freedom..."

Karen's eyes widened. "So wait ... if like, the janitor walked up to you right now and asked for like, oral sex, you'd have to do it to him even though he wouldn't count?"

The current points-leader of the current Game nodded. "Yes. Even if he asked for sex I'd have to do it. If I say no to anyone playing, even an asshole like Martin, I would be disqualified."

"Wow," Karen said in a hushed voice.

"I know," Alina said. All of her embarrassment was gone, now. It felt extremely good to be able to open up about the Game with someone who didn't play it, especially a close and trusted friend who didn't seem to be judging her. She said, "I've had sex with so many guys who ended up not counting, you have no idea. It sucks. Like guys who pull out just before cumming. Or guys who refuse to have real sex and just want blowjobs, or guys who do all the right things but mess up with the camera. My face has to be in the shot or it doesn't count, you know?"

"That's crazy!" Karen said breathlessly. She giggled like this was the most scandalous thing she'd ever heard but she clearly enjoyed the blunt language. She said, "What happens if you win? If you, you know ... fuck the most guys? Get the most points, I mean."

Alina took a sip from her can of Sprite and said, "If you win, no one knows you ever played. Well, people might know but they'll never be able to prove it. Also, I guess you get the right to help run future games, too, I think. I don't know much about that part and I don't care. Once I win I'm done with the Game for all time, I swear. All I know is that if you lose then all those pictures and videos you made during the Game? They get sent out to your family and friends."

Karen gasped. "Really? Is that why ... what was her name? Terri something ... is that why all those awful pictures of her ended up going around school last year?"

"Yes," Alina nodded. "That's why I have to win. That's why I'm like, 30 points ahead of the only contestant left right now."

"Thirty points!" Karen squeaked. "You mean you've had sex with over thirty guys?"

Alina nodded. "Please, Karen, you have to understand ... this is just a challenge. A mission. I mean, I should be close to ninety points right now but I'm only at, I think, 79. Some of them haven't counted, you know? I've been ... I've been spending a lot of time recently just having sex. I'm sore all the time. And you should see my butt! I got spanked the other day by ... well, a guy. Anyway it's still all bruised up. Trust me, the Game is not glamorous or fun, it's a chore you just have to work through, you know?"