I don’t even know what to say to that. I back out of our messages and check my inbox. I have several new replies, and everyone besides Jameela has taken me up on my offer. Looks like Maria was right—high schoolers hate babysitting their younger siblings. I send a reply to everyone telling them I’m happy to help out and thanking them for the kudos. Earlier in the month, I tried doing nice things without making it obvious that I was fishing for kudos, but this late in the game, everyone knows the drill. And they’re happy to play along.
When I check the Un-bully app again, I’m a thousand points higher than Mark. A few minutes pass, and now I’m thirteen hundred points higher. With eleven hours left, there’s no way he’s going to win this.
That red Jeep will be mine. All mine!
I take a deep breath to calm my excitement. Nothing is over until it’s over, but I’m so ecstatic I can barely contain myself. And you know what?
Maybe I do like Mark. Maybe he likes me.
Maybe it’s time to take a chance on something good.
Me:Okay
Mark:Okay… as in you you’ll go out with me?
Me:Yep, but one condition.
Mark:And that is..?
Me:I’m driving.
Mark:You’ll look great in your new Jeep.
Luckily my bedroom door is closed because I’m grinning like a fool. I’m about to win a brand new car, and I have a date for next weekend with the guy I’ve been crushing on for weeks. Even with my parents gone and my sisters annoying me constantly, things are looking up.
I spend the next several hours replying to people on Instagram. I wish I hadn’t sent so many offers to babysit because now I’m juggling dozens of replies, and marking my calendar for free babysitting jobs. I’m three thousand points ahead of Mark now, so there’s really no point in continuing to accept all these appointments. But I don’t want to anger anyone and give them a reason to give me a demerit, so I suck it up and pencil everyone onto my calendar. At least I’ll have a pretty new car to drive to my babysitting gigs.
Abuela makes tamales for dinner and because of all the excitement, she agrees to let us eat in the living room while watching TV. We sit around enjoying the food, talking and laughing like one big family. I wish my parents were here to celebrate with us. After we eat way too many tamales and then have some tres leches for dessert, we watch movies until we pass out. Abuela heads to her room around eleven. Maria carries Pippa to bed and then she comes back and snuggles up with me on the couch.
“I’m really excited for you,” she says, resting her head on my shoulder. The girl can be so sweet when she’s not being a brat.
“Me too,” I say. I haven’t told anyone about my date with Mark, not even Jules. I guess I just want to hold this information to myself for now.
Maria checks her phone. “In fifteen minutes it’ll be midnight and the car will be yours.”
“I don’t think I’m gonna sleep tonight,” I say, reaching for the remote and starting a new movie. “I am way too excited to sleep.”
I bet the app will give me some kind of fancy notification when it’s midnight. And then my phone will blow up with all the texts and messages from my friends. I’ll probably be more popular than Jules’ boyfriend, if only for a little while. I already have a ton of notifications from Snapchat, but I don’t feel like reading them all. It’s probably just a ton of people telling me that I’m about to win, or asking for some favor in exchange for kudos.
With ten minutes left to go, I lean forward and take my phone from the coffee table, then open the app. I want to be ready when it congratulates me for winning. I blink when I see the dashboard. This can’t be right. The gold medal is gone, replaced with a smaller silver one under my name.
No.
No, no, no.
One hour ago, Mark Caputo moved into first place, with just over fifty thousand points, nearly ten thousand more than I have. My heart might actually stop this time. My breathing certainly does.
“What’s wrong?” Maria asks, but her voice sounds far away even though she’s sitting right next to me on the couch.
My vision blurs.
As I stare at my name in second place on the scoreboard, the clock showing just four minutes until midnight, I realize that my biggest fear has come true.
Mark Caputo tricked me.
And now he’s going to win.
Fourteen
