Chapter Text
The morning light shone through the bedroom windows, and Robin squinted her eyes. Groaning as she pulled herself out of bed. She figured that she had about two hours to get ready, which in reality would be maybe forty minutes, once she had procrastinated. Then again, the makeup and clothing crew would arrive in around an hour with another horrible dress for her to wear, so she thought she should probably get a move on.
As anticipated, she managed to be just about ready by the time the crew showed up, with petite blond women forcing her down onto one of the chairs in her mum's kitchen. That was one of the good things about this show, the money would finally allow her to leave the nest, and her mum would be out of her hair, finally.
But as the women handed her a bright lavender dress she grimaced and wondered if it was worth it.
It had been three days since the introductory night, and she still grimaced when she remembered that stupid interview, and the look on Nancy’s face when she had stormed out. Maybe she had behaved rashly, but the look Nancy had given her had made her blood run cold, what was she even thinking? Had she worked something out? No, she would have to keep that girl at arms length, before she figured something… unsavoury out about her.
After all, the interview hadn’t been… that bad. She had just been nervous, and who could choose just one out of the… many, very attractive features of mankind. The over hairiness, the misogynistic attitude many of them possessed, the annoying stiffness of their whole body…
‘Is everything alright dear?’ Asked one of the makeup artists, and Robin noticed the sour expression on her face. She assured them that all was well and once again got into one of the black cars.
They pulled up outside the studio, later on in the show they would all be living in some kind of large all-inclusive resort, but that would be after they had been partnered up, for now they were filming on a sound stage owned by the network.
She walked inside, where there was yet another crew ready to dust her face with powder before sending her through.
Around half the other girls were already seated inside. She waved to them, still feeling slightly out of place, and more than a little underdressed, even though they had most likely been dressed by the same people. She went over and sat next to Vickie, who smiled at her, complimenting Robin on her cream puff of a dress.
Vickie herself was certainly pretty. Her teased red hair shone under the light, making it look golden, and her skin glowed. Robin felt her heart rate rise as she looked into her warm brown eyes. She looked away, there was such a thing as too pretty, and that was Vickie. Not that the other girls weren’t pretty, honestly, Robin thought that all girls there were just about the prettiest people she’d ever seen.
It was a flaw of her own nature that she hadn’t been born a boy, not that she wanted to be a boy, but she thought that she would’ve made a good boyfriend. An excellent one.
But alas, she was instead to find a nice boy and settle down with him. She would be okay with that, as long as she tried hard enough.
The other women were also arriving, and she saw Nancy walk through the door, avoiding eye contact with her.
Once everybody was sitting down, out came Maxwell Everheart™.
‘Good day ladies, welcome back to Love and War, today’s the day! It’s time to meet your matches!’ He grinned, fox-like and bright. He was really quite annoying, with the kind of voice, personality and general attitude that gave you the overwhelming urge to slap him across the face. But she was trying to remain positive.
‘You will be given a piece of paper containing your partners name, and your counterpart will also have a piece of paper containing your name, in just a minute you will all be let into one room, where you will find each other, becoming a couple.’ Robin wiped her palms on the chair, taking a deep breath. This was it.
Vickie grinned at her. ‘Aren’t you excited?’ She giggled, grabbing Robin’s arm, causing an electric shock to travel up her arm. She smiled back, looking around the room at people who seemed similarly excited. It would be interesting to find out who they paired her up with. Would they try to find a guy similar to her, or go more opposites attract? Or maybe something completely different.
They were handed their slips of paper, and Vickie leaned over to her, ‘His name is Dan! Such a nice name! What about yours?’ Robin folded her slip of paper open. ‘Eddie, his name is Eddie.’ She said. Eddie was a good name, a fairly normal name. Hopefully the man himself would be alright.
The women lined up, and were led through to outside another door, where they waited outside while some of the girls were interviewed. She heard Joyce talking about how she was nervous but also hopeful and tried to feel the same way.
Finally, the doors swung open, and the group walked in. The doors opposite them swung open at the same time, and a group of eight guys walked in at the same time as the women.
Most of them were pretty tall, though Robin herself was tall, so they were around her own height. Some of them had short hair, combed back neatly, others had longer hair tied back in buns, one guy had the most ridiculous, almost perm like hair she had seen, and she watched a lot of stuff from the eighties. This other guy, with big brown eyes, had his hair so long it reached just above his waist.
They were dressed in various suits, some brown, some black, some in brighter colours. A camera man hustled them through.
‘Now that we have both our gals and guys together, feel free to begin your search for The One.’ Announced Maxwell as both sets of people began to mingle, looking each other up and down with something like hunger. People started seeming to pair up, and she saw Vickie chatting animatedly to a boy who Robin assumed was Dan and felt flat. She saw some of the others chatting to and fro and noticed that she herself had to find her partner…Eddie.
She pushed through the people, looking around for somebody she thought the experts would pair her with. She saw Nancy also looking around, seemingly alone. They seemed to end up closer together as everybody moved around them. Before long they were standing next to each other, and a man in a black suit with three shirt buttons undone came up to them.
‘Hey there, either of you girls named Brittany?’ He said, tracing his eyes up Nancy’s body in a way that made Robin feel itchy. ‘No sorry, that’s her over there.’ Robin said, pointing towards her. He smiled.
‘Shame, if either of you ladies need some company, you give Jesse here a call, alright?’ He winked, walking across the room to Brittany. Nancy and Robin shared a collective grimace.
Robin walked up to the guy with the perm. Perm Boy, she wondered if that had been his choice, or if the hair and makeup team had gotten to him too.
‘Hey er, are you Eddie?’ She asked him. ‘No, that’s him over there.’ He pointed at the guy with the long hair. ‘So clearly you’re not Nancy then.’ He laughed. So, this was the guy Nancy had matched with, Perm Boy. The pair almost had hair that matched. Robin smiled, ‘no, that’s her over there though.’ She said, gesturing to Nancy. ‘Okay, well thanks anyway…’ ‘Robin’ She interjected. ‘Yeah, thanks Robin.’ He smiled at her, walking off to meet Nancy.
Robin moved over to meet Eddie, who looked up and grinned at her. Her face felt warm, that had to be a good sign, right? A sign of at least some sort of feeling, attraction. She smiled back.
‘Hi, I’m Robin.’ She said. ‘It’s good to finally meet ya, I’m Eddie.’
They talked for a while, just taking the time to get to know each other, she learnt more about Eddie, discovering he was actually a pretty cool guy. He was in a band, and trying to make it big, though that wasn’t going well. His family wasn’t great, and he had been living with his uncle for most of his adolescence. He made a few jokes, and Robin found herself laughing, enjoying herself even.
He listened when she talked about herself, about her college course, about her family back home, about her goal to one day be a music or languages teacher. He wasn’t just nodding along, zoning out, or trying to make the conversation about him, but actually, properly listening.
They talked about music, and decided that maybe that was the reason they had been paired together.
All the couples were together now, and they seemed to be getting on better than others. With a few people seeming more hesitant than others.
Robin was surprised to see the usually chatty Vickie listening demurely while Dan spoke to her loudly, saying something about pickup trucks.
She looked over to see Nancy and Perm Boy engaging in polite conversation.
-
Later in the day, after everybody was slightly more tired, acquainted, and tipsy (there was always a large amount of alcohol provided, the studio had a sponsorship with a winery.) The experts came out to give them their house keys. There were three experts, including Maxwell Everheart™, then a woman, Cynthia, and a strange bearded man named Murray.
The couples were then put into cars with their luggage, eight weeks worth of clothes, and driven to the townhouses where they would be living together with one other couple throughout the course of filming.
Robin sat in the car with Eddie, feeling too tired to initiate more conversation.
‘Who do you think we’ll be Sharing with?’ He asked, running his fingers through his hair. ‘I’m not sure, they probably want to start drama though, so they’ll either put us with someone we don’t like, or someone they think we’ll find hot.’
Robin thought about Vickie, it would be nice to share with her.
‘Yeah, that’s true. Anyone you particularly don’t like so far?’ He asked. Robin thought about Nancy, she was the only person she had really had any problems with so far, though she seemed like an alright person. ‘Yeah, I dunno, I guess the only person I really got off on the wrong foot with was Nancy. The chick partnered up with that guy with the hair.’
Eddie nodded. ‘Yeah, that’s Steve, he seems alright, little clueless though. I just don’t want to end up rooming with Jesse.’ Robin thought back to Jesses earlier comments at the introductions, the way he has looked at Nancy.
‘Oh damn, yeah that guy seems weird, kinda oily, y’know?’ She said. ‘Yeah we er… let’s just say we talked, at the pre-show thing, bit of an asshole.’ Robin laughed, at least they were on the same page.
The car pulled up outside the little townhouse. It was quaint, but quite pretty, double story with big windows. They got out of the car, and walked up to the door, pulling out the key to unlock it. Just as Robin was turning the key another car pulled up.
‘Oh shit, look who it is.’ Murmured Eddie, as Nancy’s car door was opened by Steve, who took her arm leading her up the path.
‘M’ lady.’ He smiled cheekily at Nancy, and Robin felt a pang of anxiousness, Eddie hadn’t done that with her. She hadn’t particularly wanted him too, but the fact he hadn’t felt wrong now.
Steve waved at them, ‘Hey guys, guess we’re roommates now, huh?’ Robins eyes met Nancy’s, and it was as if a silent agreement passed between them, too stay out of each other’s way, for as long as possible at least.
‘Yeah man, guess so.’ Said Eddie. Robin turned the key, opening the door.