Chapter 3 (part 1): Cooper

There was no way that the “challenges” we were going to do were going to be shown at our school. That is pure insanity. I was not about to put on some show for the kids back at school so they could see me make a fool of myself, and the rest of us for that matter. This Kelly chick is seriously crazy and I was not about to go down without a fight. I thrust my hand in the air with speed that clearly caught the smiley Kelly off guard.
“Yes,” Kelly said, “ do you have a question?” Her smiled wavered, but only for a second.
“Uh, yeah I do. Several actually. But let me start with this, what if we don’t feel comfortable with our little ‘adventure’ here being filmed and made into the next big reality TV show?”
“Well, we actually already got the ok from all of your parents or guardians that allow us to film you while participating in the activities in the next five months. I’m sorry to say that the deal has already been done. But I promise, it may sound scary at first, but you will have a good time and learn things about yourself and the others here that you never would have dreamed of. That is, after all, what this show was designed to do.”
“Fine.” I started with an icy edge to my voice that surprised even me, “But why don’t you explain what the people back home will see, what types of things will we be doing. To be honest it seems like everyone is being really vague with us, isn’t it time that people begin to give us all the information so that we can make this little show a good one for you iWon people. I mean really, what the hell are we even doing here, I don’t know about the rest of you but I am sick of not knowing what is going on!”
I finished my little rant and looked around the room, I noticed that everyone was looking at me and they seemed to kind of shocked and underneath that I think they also had some understanding for what I was saying, which helped me prove my point. I hope the Kelly Smiley Jameston say it in their faces too.  Kelly flashed another ever so charming smile at me and looked as if she had planned for exactly what I had just said.
“Well, I can’t tell you what the challenges are because it is a key part of the game that it is purely spontaneous. I’m sorry that you feel that we have been vague with you, that really hasn’t been anyone one of the people involved intentions. We want you to be happy to be a part of this, but we did expect that some would feel differently at the start, hopefully you will warm up to the idea.” She looked at me ready for any question I could throw at her. So to keep her on her toes I just kept my mouth shut and looked her right in her light green eyes.
She continued, “Does anyone else have any more questions for me?”
I looked around the room, hopeful that someone else would ask something or at least speak so I felt less silly for ranting. Slowly Kendall put his had the air. He raised his arm only slightly in a way that if you weren’t already looking at him you might not be able to tell that he was raising his hand. Lucky Kelly noticed and nodded at him, giving him the ok to speak.
“Uh, I was just wondering when the fist challenge would be?”
“Well, Kendall, Right?” He nodded, “We are planning on beginning once we get to out first destination which will be in one week. Unfortunately I can not disclose the location just yet, we would like that to be a surprise until later. By the way we are leaving from here tomorrow at noon. Everyone is expected to be up and back in this room at ten for another group meeting and then we will head out. If there aren’t any more questions you are free to return to your rooms.”
No one said anything. Everyone was just looking around the room and sleepiness was clearly starting to set in. I was the first to stand up and exit the room. Kelly said goodnight as I left, but I kept walking, ignoring her comment. I heard footsteps behind me so I assumed the rest had followed my lead. Sure enough I saw the other girls trailing behind me. We all got ready for bed quickly despite it only being nine o’clock. I crawled into bed and was asleep quickly. As I started to dose off I held on to the hope that this would turn around and Kelly would be right, but doubt had already settled in.

Chapter 2 (part 2): Adam

Once we arrived at the hotel, I was surprised by the quality of the building. It was one of this hotels that have valet parking and bell boys in dumb uniforms. We all were told that the girls were sharing one room and the boys another, the two rooms would be connected with another room, which they called the “common room”. We were all to meet in the common room once we had put our things in our rooms. I walked into the boys room and saw that it was two adjoined bedrooms, that were both really nice looking and bigger than my bedroom at home. One had one bed, the other two, however the one with two was larger and connected right with the bathroom. After a small bit of light bickering we agreed that Paul would get the single room and me and Kendall and I would share the double room. We put our stuff down and headed to the common room. The common room was very large and I think the best word I know how to describe it is lavish. It was just so expensive looking, or maybe this was normal for hotels. I Haven’t stayed in many and the ones I had were cheap motels where the front desk manager smelled like cigarettes and peppermint gum. We were finally supposed to find out just what was going to be happening in these next five months, we were only told some of what was to be expected and it seemed to me like there was some crucial details that they were leaving out, and that was a bit unnerving. We really don’t know a lot about what is going to happen and how it will even work, how are we supposed to have school while we are traveling across the country on a bus anyway? Well I guess I’ll find out soon anyway, but from what I gathered it was a lot like school on wheels with less people, no parties, no way to drink, and no available chicks. Which sucked. I took a seat in the common room on a really plush chair that was almost too comfortable. Only the guys were in the room and I figured it would be a while before the girls came in. They were probably all caught up in the fanciness of the hotel and oohing and awing at every little thing. Right while I was lost in the comfortableness of the super plush chair I was sitting on, the girls walked in, which was really surprising. It only took them like two minutes longer than us to get here, I guess they were more concerned about getting some answers too.  They all sat down together quietly, and they all looked really tired too. Then, a tall dark-haired women walked in. she was probably in here late twenties; she had a small but pointy nose and glasses that were clearly only there to make her look smarter. She wore a skirt and suit jacket and was incredibly thin and tan. She took the open seat nearest the door and just sat there, smiling and staring at all us, like we were her ticket to stardom. I was starting to worry that we were when she finally spoke.
“Well, I hope you all enjoyed your ride here, we have many things to talk about but first let me introduce myself. I am Kelly Jameston. I am also the co-producer/creator of iWon.” She paused and looked at each of us trying to find someone to hold eye contact with.
Unsuccessful, she continued, “ School, first of all, will continue. However, incase you haven’t guessed it will be conducted rather differently than you are probably used to. You will all be provided a lap top and you have assigned classes that you will participate in online. There will be time set aside each day for everyone to do their class work. The schedules of the classes you will take and your lap tops will be given to you tomorrow and ‘school’ will begin the following day.
“Another very important piece of information are that the activities that you will be involved in along the way. We are not just traveling around the country to just sight see. We are going to attempt to better understand social structure and help you to better understand each other, this will happen through various tasks that you will do. These tasks will push you outside your comfort zone and force you to work together and use each others strengths and figure out each others weaknesses. Oh, and all of these tasks are going to be filmed and made into a TV series that will premiere at your school and will be shown once a week in homeroom. If we get a good response the series will go online and be shown on ChannelOne.
“ I hope you have a fun time, and I’m sure it will be an experience you will remember forever, I am so excited to be a part of this with you. Anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them now.”
I barely was able to absorb everything that was just thrown at me, when Cooper already had her hand in the air and a million questions spilled out of her mouth like word vomit. Yeah, that’s my partner.

Chapter Two (Part one): Adam

Just three weeks ago I was told that I had been selected to go on the iWon trip. Not only that, but be paired up with Cooper. Cooper and I had were friends, but now… we just don’t talk, it’s gonna be a whole lot of awkward being her partner that’s for sure.
I did not want to get on that bus this morning. I knew if I didn’t they would just come in and get me, so I made myself get out of my bed and threw some clean clothes on. I grabbed that bag that I had packed last night and got in my-piece-of-junk car. No point in saying good bye to anyone, my dad was asleep and probably hung over, and who knew where my sister was. So I figured I would just head to the high school where I would get on that bus and not be able to piss away my senior year, like I had planned. Just one big party was how I saw high school, only way to get through it and make it fun, or at least interesting. I climbed the stairs to the bus where everyone was pretty much silent, besides a little talk between Cooper and Kendall. Besides the whole claim that we were all from “different worlds” we all had pasts that our principle couldn’t find out about by interviewing out principle. For instance, Kendall and Cooper were somewhat friends, they talked and seemed to like each other okay. After all, everyone liked Cooper. Maybe that’s why I didn’t want to like her.
I grabbed a seat as far back from Cooper as possible, without looking like I was doing it on purpose. She already thinks I’m a big enough ass, why give her another reason. I fell asleep pretty quick on the bus ride, there wasn’t much to do and these people weren’t any where near my friends, I knew what they all thought of me. They all saw me as some non stop partier who was already as into beer and alcohol as any other red neck. Maybe they were right. By the time I woke up we were in Madison, Wisconsin, which was about four hours away from our town of Blair. Everyone was asleep, except for Paul, who was gazing sleepily out the window as if he had just woke up himself. Kendall and Cooper had moved to sit by each other and fell asleep like that. That didn’t take long, Kendall always gets a girl, but he won’t get any from Cooper.
God, Cooper. What was going through my mind to actually like her, to care about her. That could have never turned out good, I don’t know why I ever thought it would. It was just so different with her, I felt like I could trust her and that was something that really was different for me. And I wasn’t about to take that on.
Around three p.m. a voice boomed over the speaker. “Good afternoon students,” said the loud, clearly female voice. “We are going to make our first stop on our trip tonight at around seven, where we will stay at a hotel for the night. Before everyone gets comfy and heads to bed there are some matters we need to go over, involving how school is going to work, along with the challenges you will be doing. So relax and there will be time to answer any questions later, thank you.”
I could feel the mixture of feelings on the bus, some groaned and others seemed to be excited. I’m already ready to be done with these next five months and but all of this far behind me. I put my headphones in and listened to music for a while and talked to Paul some. Cooper, who seemed to be getting along well with everyone, kept switching seats. It was pretty annoying. My eye lids were starting to get heavy again, and I drifted off to sleep again.
I was in the back of my friend, Andrew’s car. Cooper was sitting next to me… her brown hair pulled up out of her perfectly round face. Her hand was laced with mine and I put my other hand around her neck, pulled her in, and kissed her. The kiss was short but it just felt like it should be.
My eyes shot open and Paul seemed to notice my jolt and asked if something was wrong, I mumbled back some excuse. What I had just been dreaming about reentered my mind, and as badly as I just wanted to shake the memory from my head, I still was left thinking what the hell was I dreaming about?! I looked out my window and managed to push the dream out of my head. I noticed that the sun was drifting a bit down the horizon, we must be close to stopping. I checked my phone and saw it was quarter to seven. I also had a text from this girl, Courtney, that I used to have a thing with. I responded something short and put my phone away.

Chapter One (Part Two): Cooper

Adam was a tall boy, but not incredibly so. He had dark brown hair and eyes that matched. However, by far his most prominent feature was his nose, which was large and it was instantly the first thing you noticed about him, although for some reason it actually kind of worked on him. Adam and I had been friends last year, good friends. I had started to have really like him and develop more-than-friends feelings for him. But, we came from two different worlds and it just wasn’t meant to be, which really should have been completely obvious. He is a partier and I am the well known good girl. There was just no way that I could spend five minutes paired with Adam, much less five months.
Mr. Reese dismissed everyone from the gym except us “winners”. He had us follow him to a small conference room connected to the front office. We all took our seats and he began to go over all of the details of the iWon trip.
“First of all,” he began, “now that you students have been selected to partake in the trip there are certain guide lines that must be followed.”
He went on to explain how there will be no partying, no drinking, no smoking and all of that kind of stuff. But then he answered a question in had asked myself: why us?
“You’re probably wondering why the six of you have been selected. Well, you also may have noticed that the six of you aren’t what would be considered good friends, even as we sit here now, you aren’t talking to each other or sharing how you feel about being selected to partake in something like this. You could say that all of you come from different worlds, different ends of the social latter. That is the reason why you were chosen. Myself and the producers of iWon picked all of you because we felt that you all represented a different part of the social aspect of this school and the purpose of this trip is to see how you can get along with people who you assume are so different from you.”
“And we have to do this?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, see we have already worked everything out. Your parents know what’s going on and they have already given their approval.” Mr. Reese answered.
“How Did you decide that we were the people from different worlds or whatever to do this?” Kendall questioned.”
“We did a little digging, kind of like a mini background check and decided who would be the best from there.”
I stayed silent as Mr. Reese continued to answer my class mates questions. I was still numb from shock and although I had some many questions I wasn’t able to say anything. I did try to take in all the information I could from the questions the others asked. I gathered that we would still be doing our classes while on the trip and have individual courses. A laptop would also be supplied for each of us because the classes would be taken online. And the challenges we would be doing would push us out of our comfort zone and have to do with us really getting to know the others students participating. After the day was over I was ready to go home and reflect on everything that had happened. Once I was home my mom looked at me expectantly because of course she already knew the “good news”.
“It’ll be a good experience for you and look really good on college applications.” My mother told me.
My mom is short, like me, but very slender and pretty. She also had a great personality, she is very funny and witty and wonderful to talk to. Right now I did not feel like talking, I just stayed in my bed and reflected on the days events. While laying in my bed I realized that who had been chosen in fact had made perfect sense. Chloe is very popular. She is skinny, pretty, and blond. A deadly combination in girl world. She was the type of person who lots of girls said they hated but really they were just sort of jealous of her. Ashlee is a farm girl and definitely the opposite of Chloe. Ashlee wasn’t popular and honestly she just kept to herself a lot so she didn’t have many friends at all. She is short and skinny, she also had shoulder length brownish, mousey hair, that tended to look greasy. And I, as I mentioned, am a non-partier, good girl, but I was still pretty involved in the school. I was part of drama club and football cheerleading captain, I also was in track and field. They guys were even more extreme when it came to their differences. Paul is really quiet and to be honest I really don’t know that much about him. He is really into cars and it was rumored that he was really smart. The way he looked hadn’t changed at all sense elementary school. He still had the tall almost awkward frame. He had dark, near black, hair and dark brown eyes. Kendall is all sports all the time he was a star football player and also a key member of the basketball team. All the makings of the perfect Blair-Taylor guy. He was also a well known player, he had a rumored new women weekly meaning that he had pretty much breezed his way through the willing girls at our school so he typically stuck with girls from other schools. And then, of course, there was Adam. Adam, the redneck partier who had a way to make people feel really special when he talked to you or like a complete moron, depending on his mood. With this group of teens together for five months, who knows what would happen. It was going to be interesting that’s for sure.

Chapter One (Part One): Cooper

My name is Cooper. Natalie Cooper actually, but most call me Cooper, and I like it that way. My senior year has just begun and I have a feeling that this will be the year that makes high school for me. I’m ready to get back into the good ol’ swing of things, here in my tiny small town high school. My school, home of the overly loved Blair-Taylor Wildcats, we have the rednecks that live, eat, and breath (and unfortunately smell of) the farm. We have the jocks that have sports so crowded into their excuses of brains that there is no room for anything else. Let’s not forget the partiers, which pretty much includes everyone, minus a small group of nonparties, that small group happens to include myself. I opened the doors that lead into the main area of the school, with the lunch room (known as the commons) to the right and the doors leading to the gym on the left. I walked the hallway to unload my bag and then headed back for the gym for the beginning of the year assembly. The gym was newly floored so it still smelled new, but the stench of sweat and new school equipment was already beginning to overpower the new smell. I took my seat next to my best friend, Abby. Abby is a mega basketball star and fellow non partier. She is a very pretty girl with long light brown/blond hair, crystal-like blue eyes, and the perfect sports figure body. While I, on the other hand, was short (peaking at about five foot), with the weird in between length dark brown hair, and a bit fuller filled figure. Basically, I no where near compared to the lovely thing that was Abby sitting next to me. Our principle, the short, stocky, and prematurely balding, Mr. Reese took the floor and gave us the same speech he does every year. This time I could of delivered the same speech in my sleep. I took the opportunity to look around and see who had gotten more attractive over the summer. Rather suddenly, however, something that Mr. Reese said jolted my attention: the iWon trip. I had heard rumors of course, but I never thought they were real. When you live in a small town like I do, for as long as I have it obvious to see that rumors are everywhere and you learn to just ignore them. Mr. Reese spoke to us as though he thought we were kindergarteners, dazed and confused in a building, in his I have the ultimate authority, husky voice.
“As many of you may have heard”, Mr. Reese began, “the iWon trip has come to Blair-Taylor. Siz students have been selected from the senior class to participate. The details have been worked out so that six selected students will be participating. If I call your name please join me down on the floor. Paul Johnson, Ashlee Lewis, Kendall Peterson, Chloe Rick, Adam Callaway, and Natalie Cooper.”
Shock was the only emotion I could register as I could feel my face glowing red from embarrassment. All I could think was “No, no, no!! He did not just call my name. This is my senior year. My year.”
I got up off my seat slowly, still wanting Mr. Reese to say that he had been kidding and to take my seat. Eventually the six of us, all with mixed looks of shock, excitement, and maybe even fear on our smooth teenage faces, came to stand next to Mr. Reese as he continued.
“Congratulations! You are the lucky winners of the iWon trip. After homecoming you all will leave on a five month adventure around the US. You’ve been split into pairs of two, and these will be the teams that you will be in for the tasks and challenges that will occur along the way. Chloe you are with Paul, Ashlee you’re paired with Kendall, and Natalie you’re with Adam.
My heart dropped. Of all the other people in the world, why Adam Callaway. I was sadly mistaken, this was not my year.