Blended Ch 28

“Is it cool that they’re pressuring me into this? Is it cool to even do something like this? Can I do something like this?” Bella gushes.

Piper takes a deep breath and leaves the diner. She climbs into her car and starts the engine, punching the AC. “That’s three different questions, Bella. Slow down. Where is this contest?”

“At the bar out on 69.”

“Not the biker bar?”

“No, not the biker bar. Leni doesn’t like them. It’s the sports bar. The Nascar one.”

“Good for her.”

“It’s a fundraiser for the domestic **** shelter.”

“Seems like a decent cause,” Piper says.

“This isn’t about the cause. It’s about… they know that I don’t do this stuff.”

One day, when Piper is finished with school and has her license, she will be able to charge people for this. “And why don’t you do this stuff, Bella?”

There’s a long pause. “I don’t know. I don’t really want to, mainly. It’s not dignified. It’s not classy. It’s not fun. And I think it’s probably also feeding into some harmful objectification stuff.”

“OK.” Piper needs an even deeper breath. “Does dignity go on a resume, Bella?”

“Uh, I guess not.”

“But knowing people, networking, and having connections does. It’s actually more important than the resume itself. And what about class? Is class relevant in any sense to life in this country in 2026?”

“I guess not.”

“Are all of your classes fun?”

“No.”

“You still do them in the service of graduating. As for harmful objectification stuff, that’s probably valid, but you have to pick a lane. You can accept that it’s more complicated than binary good and bad labels; you can accept that the particular problem is so huge and far beyond your control that nothing you do or think about it will ever matter, or you can selectively choose to be mad about it and use it as an excuse to wimp out of stuff. But you should pick one instead of mixing and matching.”

Bella snorts. “Are you yelling at me? Did I piss you off?”

“No, Bella. I still owe you for our magical night together.”

“Oh my god,” Bella mutters, and Piper can picture her blushing face. “You’re saying I should do it.”

“You know that you should do it. You called me, hoping I’d give you some kind of out. You don’t need that from anyone else. If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. But you said you wanted to get closer to CCL, so now you weigh how much you want it. Do you want it enough to have a little fun and get some positive attention, even if it means going outside your comfort zone? Or do you not want it that much?”

“Well, now that you put it like that, if I don’t do it, I’m a wimp,” she says, irked.

“You are a wimp. But you’re a wimp in an e cup, so if you play your cards right, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

There’s a noise of disgust. “God. You’re like the patron saint of cynicism.”