“I’ve literally never heard a guy say that to another guy.”
“Well it’s not my fault that you only hang out with emotionally repressed homophobes. By the way, your prank was a total failure. I knew the whole time that you were messing with me.”
Tanner laughed in my face. “Oh really?”
“Yeah. How gullible do you think I am?”
“Very.”
Damn it!He was totally not buying my lie.
Ocelot poked his head through the curtain. “Ready, Princess?”
“For what?” I asked.
“To get spit roasted,” replied Tanner.
“What?!” A split second after I said it I realized that he was just messing with me. Again. But the damage had already been done.
“Yup…not gullible at all,” he said.
“I hate you.”
He nodded. “We already established that.”
Ocelot smiled at us. “I really hate to break this up, because you two are being absolutely adorable right now, but the victoryceremony can’t start without you. And if we don’t cut into this pig soon, we might have a revolt on our hands.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me through the curtain.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” boomed a voice through the speakers on stage. It was so loud that it almost knocked me over. “Put your hands together for today’s victor…Princess Raven!”
All the campers cheered for me. I knew that there were a lot of people at the camp, but it seemed like so many more now that they were all crowded into one spot.
Thank God I’m not about to get banged in front of all of them.But then something even worse happened: Ocelot handed me a microphone.
What the hell am I supposed to do with this?I shoved it back into his hand. “I don’t want that.”
“Why not?”
“Because. I can’t speak.”
“You’re speaking right now.”
“I meantpublicspeaking.”
“It’s not a big deal. Just announce your team’s reward and then the DJ will take it from there.” He shoved the mic back into my hand and escaped off stage before I could give it back to him.
I was going to chase him, but everyone was just staring at me.
Shhhhhhhhit.
I stood there frozen for what felt like an eternity. It was like I was a deer and the crowd was an 18-wheeler barreling towards me. Only this situation was worse, because at least the 18-wheeler would hit me and put me out of my misery. The crowd, on the other hand, seemed fully content to just torture me with their eyes.
Why couldn’t I have gotten the public speaking gene like Rosalie had? She was so good in front of people. Talking to a crowd was like second nature to her. To me, it was pure torture. I was seriously considering dropping the mic and pretending it was a boss move and not a pansy move. But then the crowd started cheering.
“Wooo! Princess Raven!” yelled someone.
“Princess Raven!” yelled another. Soon everyone had taken up the chant.
At that point, I was pretty sure I blacked out.
