Flavor of the Week

Hannah got a date. She had to keep convincing herself that it had happened, since she couldn’t really believe her luck. She’d totally fucked things up with Harry, and she figured she’d been totally screwed in the competition. Then, during the challenge, when Zayn held up the biggest pair of granny panties Hannah had ever seen, she blushed like crazy, knowing that the producers had planted that underwear on her. But to her utter shock, Zayn had laughed out loud, the kind of laugh that made his eyes squint and conveyed nothing but total joy, and he’d chosen her.

Hopefully, he was smart enough to know that she did not actually wear granny panties.

What made things so much better was that Ava had won a date, too, with Louis. Hannah had missed being on Ava’s team, since the two got along so well, and she hoped that the two would be able to reconnect with whatever the date was.

She and Zayn were silent in the backseat of the car that was bringing them toward their destination. Her phone was going off like crazy, probably the producers telling her that a funny, outgoing girl would not sit in a car and stare out the window in silence. And although she knew it was the truth, she had trouble figuring what, exactly, she wanted to say.

So maybe it was lame, but the best thing she could come up with was, “So, you liked my granny panties, huh?”

Zayn chuckled and shook his head. “No, actually. I’m not that strange. I picked them because I figured they were yours.”

Hannah’s eyebrows pulled together as she thought of the fancy underwear she usually wore, which always stayed very much inside her jeans and resembled granny panties in no way. “And why is that?”

“Because they were funny,” Zayn rushed. “I didn’t mean to offend you by it. I figured they were just a joke pair.”

She opened her mouth to ask why he’d chosen her, since he said that he figured the pair of underwear belonged to her, but before she could, the car pulled to a stop in front of a building proudly advertising their specialty in paintballing.

“Oh, shit,” Hannah mumbled, her face reddening. The one time she’d tried paintballing back home, all her old friends from before she became an actress had gotten amused by her severe reactions to the feeling of the shots hitting her body, and they'd ganged up on her. She had welts all over her body for a week.

“It’s okay,” Zayn chuckled. “We’ll be a team, and we’ll beat everyone else’s asses. Ready?”

Hannah bit her lip as she nodded. She wished she had brought a hair elastic to put up her long, straight hair, since she knew she would probably sweat during the game. Maybe Ava had an extra.

Zayn and Hannah were the last to arrive, as everyone else was already lined up in the lobby when they walked in. Ava gave Hannah a smile, which Hannah readily returned. She was going to walk over and ask if she had an elastic Hannah could borrow until they got back to the house, but they were quickly interrupted by a woman who worked there. It was obvious she was hooked up to a microphone, and when she started her spiel, it became more obvious that the producers had prepped her on what to say.

“Hey, guys!” she exclaimed with a bit too much enthusiasm. “Welcome to FunZone. We’ll get you guys all set up for the paintball game, and then you’ll be taken to the course out back. Just remember, this is a date, not one of the challenges.”

A couple members of the group gave her a little pity laugh, so she looked pretty pleased with herself as she nodded toward a back room. “Follow me, guys!”

About ten minutes later, everyone had all of their equipment, and Hannah could feel the competitive side of her nature starting to flow through her veins. Even if it wasn’t a challenge and wouldn’t affect whether she won the show or not, Hannah still wanted to dominate. And, to her delight, she could see a similar twinkle in Zayn’s amber eyes.

Before the game started, each of the teams gathered to different parts of the course to discuss their plans. “I have no idea how to do this,” Zayn admitted, “but I have to beat Louis. He’s all smug that he won against me ten straight times when we played a football videogame last week, and I think we should teach him a lesson.”

“Deal,” Hannah agreed. “So you can lead and find Louis, and I’ll watch your back and take out anyone who comes after us. Agreed?”

Zayn nodded and readied his gun as the buzzer up ahead sounded, signaling the beginning of the game.

Immediately, Hannah’s eyes scanned everywhere, making sure no one was planning to sneak up behind them. But the coast was clear, not a single band member or actress to be found.

“Kim,” he snapped, using her last name, probably because it was shorter than her first name. When she looked over at him, he nodded forward to articulate that he wanted to move forward, which Hannah agreed to.

Soon, the sound of popping could be heard, the firing of a paintball gun, and Zayn and Hannah both tensed for a second, waiting for the person to approach them. But they had been too quiet, and no one knew they were around.

“Keep me covered,” Zayn whispered in her ear, his warm breath stirring the stray hairs around her face and making her want to shiver.

She nodded wordlessly and did as she was told, watching carefully for any signs of movement. Before she could see anything, she could hear the sounds of two sets of pounding footsteps, drawing ever nearer.

Without saying a word, she grabbed the collar of Zayn’s shirt and yanked him down behind a wall-like decoration to hide them from whoever was approaching. Zayn was quiet and watched them carefully. “Harry and Diana,” he mouthed, a smirk playing at the corner of his lips. As far as he was concerned, Hannah knew, they had a huge advantage over Diana. She was "blind", after all. Harry would have to watch out for everything himself.

Soon, they left, but Zayn insisted that the two stay behind the battlement. “So I have to ask,” Hannah whispered so quietly that it was almost as if she hadn’t said anything, “why did you pick my underwear just because you knew they were mine?”

The subtlest of pink blushes appeared on Zayn’s cheeks as he shrugged. “I’ve kind of wanted to spend time with you since the first challenge. I think you’re really beautiful and very funny. And now that I know a bit about you beyond that, I know that I just want to learn more.”

Hannah was about to make a quirky, funny remark, remembering her character when it mattered, when Zayn sprang to his feet and started firing.

Adrenaline coursed through Hannah’s feet as she mocked the action, firing paintball after paintball at Louis and Ava. Hannah got hit a few times herself, but the pain didn’t even faze her. She felt very cool and very connected, something that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Even thought she was an actress, and she was playing the part of a funny, friendly girl, she still felt like she had actual, true friends. The smile that was plastered on her face as Louis and Ava laughed at their defeat, as well as the glee she felt when she turned and high-fived Zayn on a job well-done, was completely and genuinely real.

But she couldn’t let the emotion last long. She was there to win for her family, not make friends and a boyfriend. So she’d lead Zayn on and make him think that they were made for each other if it meant that she’d end up victorious.

She had to remain impartial and focused, and the butterflies in her stomach when she and Zayn talked on the way back to the house were just from the excitement of the day, not because she felt something toward him. But even so, every time the welts around her body throbbed with pain from the game, she could feel a smile tug at her lips. She loved that near-constant reminder of the date, as much as she hated to admit it.