And it starts up north from Hollywood, water on the driving side

“Alright…” Dakota narrowed her eyes into slits and her lips turned into a wicked smile. “I think that’s long enough, don’t you ladies? We’ve had more than enough polls with the audience for one round. Let’s find out what our watchers have to say!” She raised her cane and spun it over her head. The screen flashed, and the names shifted, along with the numbers etched onto it.

1st: Amelia

2nd: Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin

3rd: Vivian

4th: Cinder/Ella

Nick let out the breath he was holding, surprised by the results, but at the same time, not surprised. The girls who were being ranked were also rather stunned by the rankings, but Amelia was the one to recover first, and commented on the placing she’d received from the audience.

“I got first place? That’s remarkably surprising,” Amelia said, pushing her glasses up her nose and raising a curious eyebrow.

“I have to say I agree,” Dakota nodded with an amused smile. “You may have been a great stepmother, Amelia, but I didn’t expect the audience to look too favorably on that… unless they’re a fan of ****, perhaps?”

Amelia didn’t dignify that hypothetical with a response. She simply looked coldly at the woman in front of her.

“I got last…” Ella looked down and bit her lip. Her hand drifted to her wrist, but she didn’t snap her rubber band this time. She took a few deep breaths to calm down her nerves, and then her gaze slid over to Nick. “I-I expected it, but…”

She looked down again.

“Ah, well, that’s rough,” Vivian sighed, shrugging her shoulders. “I didn’t get first, but hey, I didn’t get last, at least. That’s something!”

Nick was starting to appreciate the fact that she had such a positive outlook about stuff like this. He nodded in support and she flashed him a smile in return.

But the person smiling the most was Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. She stared at the screen in confusion for quite some time, and at first, people thought that the wide-eyed shock on her face was out of disbelief at her ranking in the popularity poll, perhaps because she’d never expected that she’d get second place.

Only Nick remembered otherwise.

“That’s right!” He said, smacking his forehead. “She doesn’t know how to read! So she doesn’t even know what score she got!”

“…Oh, is that right?” Dakota noted with a tone of amusement in her voice. “Whoops. What a problem.”

Nick walked over to the assassin, and her face lit up the second she laid eyes on him. He just waved awkwardly at her.

“Hey, um… so you got second place,” he informed the silent woman.

She blinked. Then she tilted her head to the side, and pointed at her face.

He nodded. “Yeah. That’s right, you. You got second place. You scored higher than Vivian and Ella, I guess people really like you.”

The Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s eyes widened in disbelief and she grabbed Nick’s hands tightly. She was practically jumping for joy!

Perhaps those people who thought she was just shocked at her placement weren’t completely wrong after all…

“Well… that is heartwarming, at least,” Amelia noted with a faint hint of a smile.

“Look at how happy she is!” Holly gushed. “That’s so sweet!”

“That’s one way to look at it,” Kim said, frowning. “At the same time, though, her position… well, how much can she even process?”

Kim knew a thing or two about what it was like to work a horrible job for a boss who didn’t care about you in the slightest. Her heart went out to the poor Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin and her hard work.

“Yes, it is very touching isn’t it? I’d like to say that this was a close poll, but it really wasn’t,” Dakota said, shaking her head. “While no one was completely shut out- and believe me, all you girls got a decent amount of votes- you each got a comfortable number of votes higher than the person below you. I think this poll was the perfect representation of how popular you ladies are- the only question is…”

She glanced over at Mary with a smirk. The redhead flinched and scowled at Dakota, who shook her head and giggled before turning back to the other women on the stand right now.

“…Are any of you more popular than the woman you replaced?” Dakota stroked her chin thoughtfully. “I look forward to seeing how the numbers bear out in that regard.”

She clapped her hands together. “Now then! Since we’ve determined the rankings, shall we take a look and see how the VP and BP shake up? Let’s run a list of the current positions, and how much they all earn- and lose.

Amelia: 73 VP – 0 VP = 73 VP

Amelia: 2100 BP + 3000 BP = 5100 BP

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin: 73 VP – 10 VP = 63 VP

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin: 2100 BP + 2000 BP = 4100 BP

Vivian: 73 VP – 20 VP = 53 VP

Vivian: 2100 BP + 1000 BP = 3100 BP

Cinder/Ella: 73 VP – 30 VP = 43 VP

Cinder/Ella: 2100 BP + 0 BP = 2100 BP

Everyone had done the math in that regard, particularly Dawn. But it was something to see the numbers written out on the screen.

“That’s a lot of BP for someone just starting out,” Rose commented, taking note of how much Amelia had inherited from the vote. And because the blonde was Nick’s stepmother, she was trying very hard not to let her resentment at her own circumstances of getting screwed out of VP and BP back when she was the Auditionee.

“Ah, phoo,” Vivian sighed, shrugging her shoulders and slumping down. “Teach is probably going to spend all her BP on boring stuff, like textbooks.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Dakota assured the delinquent student. “There aren’t any textbooks for sale. …Well, ones on human anatomy, perhaps…”

Amelia just maintained her icy stare. She crossed her arms over her chest.

Ella just sighed in disappointment. She had expected this; she’d been prepared for exactly this outcome, in fact. Not only had she lost most of the VP she’d been given at the start, plunging her down into last place, but she hadn’t gotten a single BP from the vote. Was it any shock that she was disappointed about having such a small amount of money?

…Well, it was sadly something that she was used to.

“I guess 3100 BP is fine? Maybe?” Vivian scratched her chin thoughtfully. She turned to Dakota. “Is that a lot? You haven’t really explained the going rate for stuff like this. You guys were talking about how 73 VP puts Teach up into first place in the rankings, but what does the BP standard look like? That’s what I wanna know.”

“Always the entrepreneur, are you?” Dakota cracked a lazy grin. “That’s what I like to hear. Conspiring to get more BP is always the kind of game I like to see folks play at. Well, fortunately we’ve got those numbers as well! Shall we see what the new rankings look like now?”

With a flourish she flicked her cane, and the screen shifted again. Now, the other girls’ names were added to the screen, showing just how much VP everybody had in conjunction with one another. “This si something else!” Dakota declared. “Look who’s sitting nice and fine right up top! We’ve traded one mother for another!”

1st: Amelia – 73 VP

2nd: Morgana – 68 VP

3rd: Rose – 67 VP

4th: Carly – 65 VP

5th: Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 63 VP

6th: Kim – 62 VP

7th: Gina – 59 VP

8th: Dawn – 55 VP

9th: Vivian – 53 VP

10th: Dani – 46 VP

11th: Sylvia – 44 VP

12th: Cinder/Ella – 43 VP

Kim bit her lip. She wasn’t thrilled that she’d slipped a spot thanks to the Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin getting just above her, but at the same time, it was better than slipping down in the rankings even more places if all four of the new girls had gotten Mary’s 73 VP.

“So those numbers aren’t so bad… right?” Mary asked hopefully. She could feel the tension burgeoning across the beach, and she wasn’t exactly a fan of it. Swallowing, she turned to Sylvia, and wondered if the other girl would have a comment to make.

Sylvia wasn’t exactly smiling either.

“This is a difficult position to be in,” she said honestly. “At this point, the totals… well, they’re not the worst. But it’s gonna be hard for those of us on the bottom to dig our way out.”

It wasn’t something she was happy about, that was for sure.

Mary frowned. She would have to get used to not having to worry about VP; but it was clear that the other girls, they were just getting started.

“Well, the important thing is that I’m still in third place!” Rose said, and she definitely wasn’t frustrated or bitter or anything like that. “And I’m coming for first, just you watch!”

Amelia glanced at her and raised her eyebrow. She pushed her glasses up her nose. “Really? Is that so?”

Rose blanched. “Err, I mean… n-no offense or anything like that!” She said sweetly, remembering just who she would have to beat in order to get ahead. She quickly reached up to brush her hair behind her ear, only to remember that most of it was gone. “I actually, um, I’m really glad to get to know you, Mrs, err, is it Ms., maybe?”

She didn’t know how to address Nick’s stepmother and was quickly floundering, trying to not make the absolute worst first impression possible. Although, Amelia already had a first impression of her thanks to the wedding.

The teacher sighed and turned to Dakota. “I assume we’re quite done with this?” She inquired.

Dakota made a sulking face. She took a deep breath and exhaled.

“I understand that you’re not the best at expressing yourself, Amelia, but I think we both know you have a lot to be content with,” she said, her smile returning to her face. “After all! You’re currently the highest-ranking woman in your stepson’s harem! Surely that has to count for something!”

Vivian doubled over laughing while Morgana turned red. Dani winced. That did sound pretty twisted, no doubt about that.

“I just hope that this gets settled soon,” Marley whispered to her sister. She was shifting anxiously from foot to foot, and Carly wasn’t sure why at first.

Then she remembered what was happening.

“Oh, that’s right!” She gasped, turning to Marley. “You… you’re supposed to have time with Nick after this, right?”

Marley shrugged. “I-I think so… the other girls, their boons have all worn off, but mine…” She didn’t finish. She just shrugged again.

“Let’s wait for a second,” Sylvia said, overhearing the worry in Marley’s voice. She placed her hand on the other woman’s wrist to comfort her. “We can bring it up after we deal with this mess we’ve wound up in, alright?”

Sylvia wasn’t sure if she was fully onboard with Dakota’s little game of bringing in four Auditionees all at once, and abandoning the Auditionee system altogether.

Actually, that might be understating it.

The truth was, Sylvia REALLY wasn’t happy with that turn of events. It felt like a slap in the face to her; as if Dakota was pointing and laughing at her and telling her that all her hard work arranging this season dumb and pointless.

That really stung. But she **** herself not to feel disheartened. Instead, she turned and looked at the redheaded farmgirl she’d delighted in tormenting once upon a time. Their eyes met, and Mary gave her an encouraging, if wary, nod.

Mary had sacrificed herself to give Sylvia the chance to stay in the game. Sylvia wouldn’t let that sacrifice go to waste.

“So what now?” Gina groaned, approaching Dakota. “This has been a really long day. Aren’t we done with this yet? I just want to crash for, like, ever.”

She’d been pretty quiet throughout most of this. Not only had she barely said anything when Mary had nominated Sylvia as her new buddy, she hadn’t had much of a reaction to Amelia appearing either, even if the blonde was just as beautiful and stern as Gina remembered.

Gina had a lot of other things on her mind; Nick fucking his stepmother wasn’t even in her top 5 of biggest concerns at the moment.

Dakota’s expression softened as she heard Gina. She nodded thoughtfully. “Well… alright then,” she agreed. “I suppose we can move on, and take a look at everyone’s BP scores.”

Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes. “Seriously?” She groaned. “It’s pretty basic. Just like calculating them. Do we really have to waste time going over the numbers again?”

Dakota glared at her. “That’s not the kind of thing you should be saying,” she chastised the other girl. “Are you even aware of the situation at hand? Think about some of the other members of Nick’s harem for once!”

“H-huh?” Dawn was taken aback by that. “What?”

Dakota gestured her cane over to the dark-haired girl dressed in deadly leather, who was squinting in confusion at the screen.

“Just think about our poor little Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin!” Dakota crooned. “You think she knows how to do complex mathematics like you? That’s rather presumptuous given the fact that her creators never even taught her how to read!”

“I-I…” Dawn flushed red with shame and her ears flicked down. She gazed at the sandy beach and was about to apologize, before gasping.

“…Hey! Wait a second! If she can’t read, the she won’t even know which score is hers to begin with! That’s not my fault!” She stormed over to the assassin girl, who turned to look at her. She immediately took up a defensive posture, not sure if the short cat girl was going to attack.

“You have 63 Victory Points,” Dawn informed the assassin. “That means you’re in fifth place in the rankings.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin shrugged and shook her head. She had no idea what Dawn was talking about.

Dawn sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. This was going to be a massive pain in the ass, wasn’t it?

“…I’m not a good teacher,” Dawn said, glancing at Amelia, who was watching the two of them intently. “But if you need any help, I could maybe try teaching you how to read?”

The assassin’s icy stare chilled the beach. She wasn’t angry… at least, Dawn didn’t think she was. She just seemed… ambivalent.

“Or, uh, not,” Dawn stammered, taking a few steps back. “You know, if you don’t want to. Whatever makes you happy.”

She held up her hands in surrender and took another couple of steps back. That was the point that the Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s face softened into a cheerful smile, now that her space wasn’t been encroached on.

Ella winced. This was only getting more and more stressful. She really wished there was something she could do to make things better for herself, but the people around her were all triggering her issues in the worst ways.

“I’m glad to see you girls are getting along so positively!” Dakota laughed, seeing plainly how that was absolutely not the case. “Now, as for BP…” She flicked her cane, and a new set of numbers appeared on the screen, right beside the new VP rankings.

1. Rose – 8200 BP

2. Gina – 7900 BP

3. Carly – 7600 BP

4. Kim – 6200 BP

5. Dani – 5100 BP

6. Amelia – 5100 BP

7. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 4100 BP

8. Morgana – 3300 BP

9. Vivian – 3100 BP

10. Dawn – 2400 BP

11. Cinder/Ella – 2100 BP

12. Sylvia – 2000 BP

“Now, as we can see here, the numbers look a little different,” Dakota said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “You girls have stored up a lot more BP! I wonder, what will you planning to be purchasing with all this BP?” She mused, turning to them. “It’s quite a conundrum. But Amelia’s mountain of BP she inherited from Mary, well, that’s not nearly as dominating of a lead as her VP, isn’t that right?”

That was definitely true.

“Come on, seriously?” Vivian groaned as her question was answered. “So that’s how the numbers scale, huh?” She quickly moved past her initial disappointment at just how little 3100 BP actually was, and studied the situation.

“Hah!” Kim laughed, holding her stomach. “That goes to show you! So even the spoiled little rich girl is a pauper on a show like this! Sorry, but there aren’t any workers for you to exploit for profit, Carrington!” She crowed.

“Hey!” Vivian scowled. “That’s not true!”

She jammed her thumb at her butler.

“Octavia is right here!”

The silver-haired woman cleared her throat.

“Miss Carrington…”

Vivian blinked behind her sunglasses, and then she gasped. “Oh, right,” she said, her smile quickly returning. “I mean, I don’t exploit my workers for profit.”

“No, you just outsource to companies who do,” Kim fired back.

“That’s what you have to do to succeed in this cutthroat system!” Vivian replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not gonna apologize for not having fixed the world’s problems! At least I’m trying to create something for people to enjoy!”

“Create-!?” Kim was incensed. She couldn’t believe the bullshit she was hearing. “You have no idea what it’s like to be a worker in this screwed up system!”

She stormed over to Vivian, and for a moment Nick feared she was going to punch the brit’s lights out!

But Dani grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back.

“Kim, it’s just not worth it,” she said, shaking her head. “This whole thing is way too complicated.”

Nick frowned, and lowered his hand. He’d been about to do the same thing, but Dani beat him to the punch. When it came to saying the right thing, and doing the right thing… in a situation like this… he just couldn’t seem to manage it.

That tore his heart up inside. He glanced over at Amelia, who was looking at him with concern in her eyes. That was enough of a signal to him that he wasn’t overthinking things; she’d seen the same problem, and had tried to tell him as much during their time in Dream Alley together.

Dakota smiled in amusement. Oh, yes, this was definitely where she was hoping things would go. “It seems that sparks are already flying between you girls,” she mused, stroking her chin. “I’m sure the audience can’t wait to see you all get to know each other a little better. But first, we’re forgetting about dear Ella here… so close to the bottom, the poor thing. And yet she’s still trying her best!”

Ella looked down, her tan cheeks flushing. She hated when people brought attention to her like this. It put a massive burden of expectation on her shoulders, and those expectations…

They were like a lure for a certain someone to take over if she felt Ella was being threatened, and that was the LAST thing Ella wanted to happen.

“I’m glad you’ve all gotten a nice look at your BP totals, for a refresher,” Dakota said, turning and looking out at the crowd of women in Nick’s harem. “But as for what you’ll be using that on, well… once we get back to the hotel, our old cast members can help their new friends figure everything out, and check out their sheets. Before we get to that, though…”

A shadow crossed her face and a wicked smile touched her lips.

“…We have some other business to conduct. The season is definitely changing, after all… let’s see if it’s a positive change, or a negative one.”

Nick felt a shiver run down his spine.

As usual, Dakota’s words carried an ominous note to them that made him dread whatever she had planned.