The Bracket

On Monday morning Drew woke up and went through her morning routine. Or at least what she considered her special occasion routine. She had showered the night before so this morning she did her hair, and put on a polite amount of makeup. She had laid out the outfit the night before. A light blue sundress that was appropriately flowy for the final few days of summer that were ahead. Normally she wasn’t much of a dress girl, but she figured showing up to class in leggings and a sweatshirt on the first day wasn’t the best first impression. Plus with only having morning classes to allow for practice in the afternoon she’d be changing soon.

No sooner had she finished working on her hair (she had just set down the iron she was using to give it the wave she wanted), than she noticed that her phone had been vibrating constantly with notifications.

“Oh shit…” Drew said as she looked at the mountain of texts that had come pouring in. The majority of the messages were in the Softball team group chat, and they were all about the same thing. Seeing what they were saying she quickly opened social media and saw what everyone was talking about.

The Campus Clash developers had leaned hard into influencer marketing. She couldn’t scroll 3 post without seeing an ad for the Campus Clash app, or someone posting about the competition that was about to happen. It was surreal for the blonde to see all of the posts knowing that at some point she was going to be receiving a bracket with her name on it telling her who her first opponent would be. She almost couldn’t help but smile as she leaned against the counter in her bathroom thinking about how much traction the Clash was getting and knowing she got to be an inaugural competitor.

She was snapped from her scrolling daze by the sharp wrapping on her door. Her roommate/teammate Diana true to her personality hadn’t said anything, but it was enough to jog Drew back into gear. She looked down at the white bra and mismatched nude thong she was currently wearing and immediately rushed back into her room to get dressed.

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Drew was sitting in the large lecture hall while the professor droned on about the syllabus. She wanted to be back outside enjoying the buzz of campus that was once again crowded with students. As the professor read the attendance police out loud for the class Drew got the notification she’d been waiting for. The Bracket Drop.

“Contestants! Congratulations on being chosen for the inaugural Campus Clash Battle. Good luck to the 16 of you. By the end of next week that number will be cut in half to 8. By the time the semester ends that number will be just 1. And that one will be significantly richer!

On all of your apps we have just unlocked the ‘Bracket’ Tab. There you will be able to see the first names of the other contestants and who you are facing in the first round. On Wednesday you will have the tasks tab unlocked for you. At midnight aka the start of Thursday that tab will be unlocked for the rest of the user of the app, which is also when you will be able to start submitting the video proof of your completion of task 1.

Sunday at noon uploads will lock and the voting begins. Campus will have a full week to vote, and if you chose to reveal your identity to campus you will have a week to campaign for yourself. At noon the Sunday following the voting opening it will close and the winners from round 1 will be announced.

We wish everyone the best of luck!”

Quickly Drew opened the bracket tab. There she saw her name right at the top. The matchups were numbered and the bracket looked like this:

Matchup 1: Drew vs. Nancy

Matchup 2: Michael vs. James

Matchup 3: Kat vs. Lowell

Matchup 4: Julia vs. Marlin

Matchup 5: Aly vs. Corina

Matchup 6: Erika vs. Tameka

Matchup 7: Corey vs. Mara

Matchup 8: Stacy vs. Ava

Drew tried to think if she knew anyone named Nancy. She couldn’t remember meeting anyone with that name. She looked at the rest of the list. A few of the names jumped out at her, especially Matchup 5. Everyone knew who Corina Sullivan was. Her family were big donors to the school. Drew was pretty sure Sullivan Hall, one of the engineering buildings, was named after her grandfather. And then Aly… That couldn’t be the same Aly from the soccer team could it? She doubted it. There was no way the school's prize athlete would compete in such a silly competition.

None of the other names rang any bells. She thought she may have met a Kat at a party once or twice, but couldn’t be sure. Everyone else she was fairly sure was someone she’d never met. Until she had last names, or a picture to go with the face she had no way of knowing any of the opponents.

The room around her suddenly filled with noise as the class rose up to leave. Drew had been so engrossed in the bracket that she had totally zoned out of class. Assuming everyone was getting up to leave because class had just ended Drew did the same.

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And the bracket is set! Be sure to comment here if you have early favorites or like the description chapters of your favorite characters. I will try and use those like as we go along to help break ties in any of the comment votes we have/also in bringing back eliminated characters into the story as it progresses.