The show must go on

After a brief discussion with the players, Matt and Tanya decided that the show should continue, at least until Principal Conner came up with some legal justification for shutting them down.

Tanya explained the situation to the girls, all seven of whom were in the studio before shooting... in solidarity, Matt thought, with their resistance to the school's attempted crackdown.

"First of all, none of you guys have to go through with it. If you back out now, we'll just cover it up and move on. Losing your cherry can be a big deal and some of you guys may want to hold out for something a lot more romantic than doing it in front of a million perverts."

"There's nothing perverted about watching a pretty girl cum," Pam pointed out.

"Yeah, sure. Anyway, if you want to back out, I'd like you to do it now, before we have a winner. Because if someone wins and then backs out, we are going to have a hard time explaining it to the donors. So, any takers?"

Matt looked from girl to girl. Would one of them crack? If one did, would they all bolt? He just wasn't sure.

The girls didn't look sure, either. They kept sneaking glances at each other wondering who would make the first move. Finally, though, Cindi broke the silence. "I don't know about you guys but Matt is my standup guy. I want him to take my cherry and I don't care where it happens... as long as it's soon. The only thing is, I made a deal with my sister. Matt takes me first. So, if she wins, I'm going to get Matt offline."

"That seems fair," Tanya said. "Any other conditions?"

Nobody said anything.

"Okay, Tanya said. Thanks to all of you. You're heroes in my book. We're all close so today is our last chance to persuade the fans that you're the one Matt should pop. We're doing two-girl shows but I'm not going to script it at all. If you want to ignore each other and do your own thing, that's fine. If you want to cooperate and play together, that's fine too. Please stick to the story line, though. You're trying to be the one Archie picks so give the audience a good line on why it should be you. Any questions?"

There weren't any.

"Fine. Remember, no winners until we've all been on and then we tally the ones who scored the most. We've only got a few minutes but here are the pairings. Cindi and Natasha go first. Then {if ****=false}Pam{else}Karen{endif} and April, followed by Amy and Wendy{if ****=false}.{else} and finally me and Pam.{endif} They're all new pairings and I know we could have done blonde-brunette instead but we didn't so we'll make the best of it, okay?"

Cindi and Natasha looked at each other. "We going to be friends?" Cindi asked.

"Sure. Why not?"

Cindi looked at Matt and smiled. She'd wanted the popular girls to notice her, include her, from the beginning and now she was getting it all... a boyfriend, popularity with the hot girls, and a better relationship with her mother and sister. Apparently having to share that boyfriend didn't bother her enough to make it a bad deal.

"Let's put on our masks and roll the cameras," Matt said although cameras hadn't actually 'rolled' for a generation.