Falling For The Playboy

EVA

I smiled, pulling the heavy textbooks tighter against my side as I turned to the boy. I nodded. I didn’t hear what he said, and he probably might not have even uttered a word, but that didn’t matter. His lips were moving, I was wearing a smile, the sun was up and shining, it was a beautiful day, we both looked spectacular in our uniforms, our hairs were at their best and everyone was doing their thing.

What could possibly go wrong?© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“Jesus. This is not a movie. Say something. Why are you mouthing words? Speak!” the photographer yelled at us and once again, my smile collapsed.

My cheeks hurt like hell from all the smiling I’d been doing. The boy -who was in the same class as me- and I shared exasperated looks before turning to the photographer who looked just as tired as we were. He was tired? What reason did he have to be? We were the ones doing the actual work and not to mention, being yelled at under the scorching sun.

We drew closer to the photographer so we could hear whatever words of encouragement he had to throw at us now. This would be the fourth. Every single time we had failed to portray the right looks or emotions, he’d wave us over and diss out not-so-helpful words to gear us up. Newsflash, they did not.

Who knew making an advertisement for a school could be this stressful? When Mrs Oguemuno set the date for today, I’d envisioned the whole process happening in less than an hour. This was our second hour of standing in the huge school field and to be honest, it was shameful to admit we had made zero progress.

He had his hands on his waist, standing akimbo, with a sour lour when we got to him.

“What’s your name? ” he snapped his fingers at the boy.

“Uh… ” the boy’s eyes darted to mine in confusion, “Damilare. ”

The photographer leveled a stern look on him. “Okay, Damilare. I know there’s not going to be sound in this video -from you guys anyway, but you still have to talk to give it that ‘real’ impression. ” he gestured,  “Don’t just mouth the words okay? It’s really obvious that you aren’t saying anything. ”

I didn’t see the point in uttering words when the video sound was obviously going to be killed in the end, but I didn’t point that out.

He turned to me, “And Miss, please make some effort to look interested. You looked too stiff. ”

Stiff?

He flung his hands in exasperation, “Why do you guys make it look like we’re forcing you? ” Damilare and I shared a look, then he let out a snort. “Okay, yes. You probably don’t want to be doing this, but it’s a privilege and you’ll get to see that with time. ”

A privilege should never be this stressful.

“Now, both of you, go back there and make things easier for all of us. ”

Left with no other option than to obey, we went back. I breathed out, loosened myself, smiled, then turned to the boy, nodding and talking to him and this time, with actual words.

That earned us two thumbs up from the photographer. Finally.

Mr and Mrs Lawson had been pretty excited when I told them about the school board picking me to be the ad girl. Abi had offered me genuine congratulations and Zoe had been nonchalant about the whole thing. To be honest, it was my foster parents’ excitement that fed my efforts.

And I had done a great job.

We hung back as they packed their instruments. The Vice Principal had joined us after a while to go over the video and he, too, had been impressed. I felt good but above that, I felt relieved. Being on the other side of a camera was an entirely different level of uncomfortable.

“I’m Dare.”  Damilare said conversationally.

Dare was short for Damilare, I figured.

“I already got that. ” I tilted my head towards the photographer, “I’m Eva. ”

He smiled. “Yeah, I know. You’re probably the most famous girl in Ivacy High at the moment. ”

I cringed, “Transferring in SS3? ”

“That and your eyes. They’re a sight to behold. ”

My first thought was to say thank you and look away. I couldn’t help but feel self conscious whenever anyone brought them up.

“I’m pretty surprised everyone’s being low-key about it actually. With the way they’re talking about it, I thought they’d be all over you. ”

“Wow. ” I breathed.

“Maybe it’s your privacy they care about. ”

“Okay… ”

God, I was so awkward at conversations.

We were still standing in the field, a few feet apart from each other. We were almost the same height and now that I could see past the fog of worrying over the advert, I realized that he was not that hard on the eyes. He wasn’t as handsome as most Ivacy High boys, but he was in his own way.

I looked away when he saw that I was staring. Out in the field were several students running. They weren’t wearing the school uniform, no. They had on tracksuits. They ran back and forth and sometimes, going completely round the circular path.

“So, Eva. ” Dare drew my attention back to him, “I’m throwing this party on Saturday and it would be really nice if you could come. ”

“A party? ” I shook my head, taking a step back physically as I did mentally, “I’m sorry I can’t come. Parties aren’t really my thing. ”

“Oh. ” he mumbled.

He was hurt by my rejection, I could tell, but there was nothing I could do. Really. I’d done a lot of things that I wouldn’t even think of doing, a lot recently and I didn’t know how much farther I could push myself before I had a complete mental breakdown.

“Okay, then. See you around, Eva. ” he waved once before turning around and walking down the path leading to the building for sciences.