Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – A very lucrative bet

Leyre Roldan fit perfectly into the popular bad girl stereotype.

Or, at least, that's what everyone who knew her said. After all, she was a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl, well liked by both teachers and schoolmates, who got good grades and, in addition, had a small group of close friends with whom to carry out criminal activities that many dared to think but almost none to do.

Of course, whatever amorality these people engaged in, it was not something they could be accused of before adults. It couldn´t, not because the small VIP group to which Leyre belonged was very careful not to let themselves be discovered, but because everyone in high school respected them enough not to dare to give them away, whatever their crimes were.

But, anyway, those murkiness used to be left for long after the bell rang, when classes for the day were over. Within the institute, and except for some other behavior that could give away her true personality, Leyre was just another model student, admired by some and feared by many others.

Knowing all this, it was not surprising that now, on a routine Monday morning, Leyre found herself talking quietly with her friends, in the middle of the yard, as on so many other occasions throughout the year.

"They all got together for a college party, in a big mansion with a pool and unlimited supply of alcohol," Sara was saying, referring to the plot of a movie she had seen that same weekend. “And when the atmosphere favored it, the protagonist's friends challenged him to make the most innocent girl in the class fall in love. That girl, by the way, had already had a couple of fights with the main character before and obviously they got along like cat and dog.”

“But why?” Leyre asked suddenly, perhaps thinking she had heard this plot before somewhere else.

"Oh, I think it was because he'd gone against her in an impromptu debate on a classic romance novel or something, and she didn't like it."

“I don't mean that, why choose that particular girl for the challenge? It's not like there aren't others to date, right? Plus, having already gotten off to a bad start, it sounds like a losing bet from the start.”

“Not in this kind of clichés…” Helena muttered, who, with a young adult novel every three months, was the one who most read of all of them and therefore could congratulate herself on having advanced knowledge in the matter of popular plots for teenagers.

"It's obvious, because if it were any other, it wouldn't have any merit!" Sara exclaimed, implying that this was obvious. “Imagine daring someone to go after their crush from elementary school and even though the two of them secretly like each other, everyone knows this except them. It would be the ruin for those who bet that they cannot get together!”

“Not so much ruin, how much do they usually bet on those movies?” Noemi laughed, she used to take almost all kinds of conversations as a joke. “Twenty dollars?”

"Okay, people might be a bit stingy to loosen up the prize money... But it's supposed to pay off anyway. Because in the end the important thing is not the money, nor the admiration of the whole institute: What counts is that love triumphs.”

"Heterosexual love triumphs," Leyre concluded solemnly, earning a laugh from Noemi as well as a reproachful look from Sara.

It was more than clear, in this group, who was the most romantic.

"Perhaps it would also work between two people of the same sex," she admitted, not wanting to give in. “You never know, love knows no differences.”

“Well, a gay relationship is in the order of the day,” Helena commented. “In how many current movies and novels have they not tried to be more inclusive and add someone from the LGBT community?”

"Then you also think that a bet between two boys, or two girls, could work."

"I didn't say that, such a thing only works well in works of fiction! I´m just pointing out that, strange as it may seem to us, it is very rare that everyone is heterosexual.”

"That's quite true," Noemi confirmed, "perhaps and this is just an example, the stupid girl who sits behind you and is prodding at you all the time with a pencil in technical drawing class is actually in love with you and you didn't know it."

“What does it have to do with…?”

Leyre tried to inquire, but was interrupted by a Sara who had not for a moment lost her illusion:

“We agree, apparently, that we should organize a bet too! Perhaps an experiment to find out if it would be possible to coax another girl into a homo relationship.”

The remaining girls looked at each other doubtfully. They may have been rethinking their existence, or at least wondering why their friend would have been allowed to go to the movies alone, to have strange ideas that probably wouldn't go away with bleach.

"I already have a boyfriend," sentenced Helena, putting an end to her participation in all that with that simple phrase.

"Don't look at me, girls don't attract me, sexually speaking," Noemi continued, nervous perhaps for not having tied herself to a person yet and therefore not having an excuse as powerful as Helena's to get rid of such a bother. “I'm totally and completely straight!”

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“It doesn't matter if you're straight or not, it's just an experiment to see what the preferences of the people are. You don't have to like the person! All you have to do is pretend for a little while and, if it works out, you could earn some extra money to buy a few beers on Saturday night.”

"How nice does she make prostitution sound," Noemi whispered, leaning momentarily towards Leyre so that only she would hear. “Anyway, I'm not interested! My parents have grounded me from going out for a month, so I don't see what use I could make of that money, even if I won.”

The lie was obvious, considering how addicted Noemi was to certain video games and how much having an extra ten or fifteen euros in her wallet could be useful to help her buy a new controller for her console.

But Sara must not have felt like arguing and, before deciding to press further, she preferred to address the last person left standing:

"Leyre, you who are so nice and have so many admirers, wouldn't it be great to add one more to your collection?"

“I don´t know, it depends. How much do you want to pay me?”

“Why do you always have to be so materialistic? Isn't the affection professed by the person who will fall in love with you enough?”

“That doesn't even give me enough to buy bread, so no.”

"Twenty euros if you get it within two weeks?" Sara relented tentatively; she probably had figured out by now that Leyre wouldn't agree without payment.

“Eh… Truth to be told, and considering that surely you´re going to be the one who gives me a goal that´s difficult to achieve, I think it´s not worth accepting for less than a hundred euros and a whole month's term.”

“One hundred?! Who do you think I am, the founder of Inditex?”

“Come on, a hundred euros isn't that much if you're going to split the pay between the three of you. Or is it that you have already assumed that I´m going to win, despite the unfavorable conditions you put on me? Look, if I lose I'm going to be the one who has to put all that money out of my pocket...”

There were a few moments of fruitless debate until the others agreed. For one thing, Helena and Noemi didn't seem very happy about being dragged into a bet where they agreed to pay a certain amount of money if Sara lost. But on the other hand, they were glad that Leyre had offered herself as a tribute and thereby freed them from having to play the role of seducing another girl.

So, in the end, they had to agree to what Leyre was proposing.

"But we choose who you have to seduce, right?" Noemi asked, more to get confirmation than anything else.

"It is your decision," Leyre said. “Please don't be too stingy with the choice. I can be very nice and everything you want, but I don't do miracles either.”

"Not doing them is good for us," Helena said, then pointed. “How about that one over there?”

Helena had pointed in the direction of a girl who was sitting on one of the many steps of the school's fire escape, alone and reading a book, completely oblivious to the plot that was about to descend upon her.

Leyre knew her. If she was the perfect stereotype of a bad girl in the eyes of the universe, this was the perfect stereotype of what could be called a nerd: Such an introverted person, always alone and immersed in her studies.

The aforementioned was in the same grade as Leyre and her friends, but in a different class. She was quiet and never messed with anyone. In fact, she was hardly known to have the slightest human interaction, if not for the times she had to speak in class. Leyre knew her because a couple of years ago they had shared a classroom, but she couldn't say that they got along or anything like that.

That is, it's not like she disliked her or anything. But Leyre had her own group of friends and this girl didn't even seem interested in forming her own circle. So the few interactions they had had at that time were reduced to the typical courtesy phrases, if they crossed paths in a corridor or had to work together for some subject.

"It's not impossible," Leyre had murmured, considering his possibilities.

It was hard to tell what her target thought of her, given how discreet she was about her personal affairs. But Leyre was sure she didn't hate her, for the simple reason that you couldn't hate someone with whom you had barely spoken a word in three years.

Or, at least, that was the hope she clung to when she agreed to let the bet begin right now.

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