I then explained everything that had happened to catch her up.
“Is it okay if I get Lexi to help me?”
“She works for Frank at the management company. You’ll have to ask him, but I think it would be wise,” I said.
“No, Caryn is running the management company now. Brook’s grandmother did some restructuring, and Caryn wanted to move back to California to be closer to her family,” Scarlet said, giving me news I hadn’t yet heard.
I understood the logic in that. Frank would be able to focus on his PR side, and Caryn really didn’t have a spot within the organization once they bought me out. Moving her to head the personal management business made a great landing place for her.
“That’s great news. Caryn will do a good job.”
“Is there anything else you need to tell me?” Scarlet asked.
“Did you have a good time on your date with Paul?” I asked.
“None of your business.”
“If there were a problem, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?” I asked.
“Yes,” was her one-word answer.
“Then I don’t have anything else to mess up your day.”
I chuckled when she hung up on me. Scarlet was about to get a taste of what it really meant to be my PA. Up to this point, it had been pretty easy. I’d made sure that Lexi handled my Oscar nomination workload; that fit better with her expertise and made sense. Lexi had sent me messages that the studio and several reporters wanted me to make myself available. I’d held firm to this point, with the promise that when I took my trip to LA, I would do whatever they asked.
Scarlet would find out that football had its own set of issues. I suspected that the Michigan message boards were in meltdown mode, and that football fan sites across the country were probably speculating where the three of us would land. I could hardly wait until I announced my intentions to look into going pro in baseball. Yep, this would break in Scarlet.
◊◊◊
When I got to school, Gina was waiting for me.
“How’s pouty?” I asked.
Dare had skipped lunch yesterday because Gina and I had, in fact, gotten a higher score on our math test. He was a funny kid, sometimes. Dare was even more competitive than me when it came to academics. I remembered my nerd days in middle school. If it hadn’t been for my circle of friends, I might have been an outcast like Dare. Being the smart kid tended to piss people off.
For Dare, being the smartest kid in the room was something to cling to when he was being bullied. At the very least, he knew that his brains would pay off down the road.
So, when the inconceivable happened—not just me but also Gina getting a higher score—he hadn’t handled it very well. I wished Brook was still here to help him through this. It wasn’t like he could come to me and complain that I’d done better than him. Well, he could, but he would get the tough love my mom thought he needed.
“Still in meltdown mode. I talked to Chrissy, and she said to leave him alone until lunch. If he tries to skip out again, she’ll make him join us,” Gina shared.
That sounded like a plan.
◊◊◊
Joey went old-school on me today. She took me out to the football field, where an enormous tire sat on the goal line. Joey demonstrated how to flip it over safely. If a girl could do it, so could I. She stressed safety because the behemoth weighed close to 500 pounds. If I lifted it wrong, I might mess up my back.
Joey directed me to flip it end-to-end until I reached the far goal line. By the time I made it there, I’d decided I would rather be tortured on the rowing machine at level eleven.
“Good job. Take a quick break and rehydrate. When you’re ready, put the tire back where you found it,” she ordered.
She didn’t seem amused when I wanted to stand it up and roll it back. At least Cassidy thought it was funny. Because of my plan, Joey upped the ante and complained I wasn’t going fast enough.
I found that by mixing up my training, she prevented me from falling into complacency. Once you learned how to do an exercise, there are techniques you can use to make it a little easier. Joey kept introducing new ways to work me out that required me to go full out. While I hated her for it, I loved the challenge.
When she took my measurements on Friday, I discovered that I’d lost weight but had gotten stronger. I also knew my endurance had improved. Joey was turning me into a lean beast. I wished I’d met her sooner.
◊◊◊
“There he is. Everyone, welcome back Dare,” I announced when Chrissy all but dragged him to the table.
We ignored Dare for the first half of lunch. His body language radiated his desire for everyone to leave him alone. Finally, Cassidy had had enough.
“What’s your problem?” she asked Dare.
The whole lunch table got quiet as Dare mumbled something. My eyes got big in horror.
“Shit, is this it? Dare just declared there’s a zombie apocalypse coming,” I said.
Tim and Wolf helped sell it by looking scared. I would have to work with them on their acting skills. Dare couldn’t help himself.
“If zombies want brains, they won’t be coming after you,” he said, trying to cut me to the quick.
