I wake up the next morning, pull out my phone and go straight to our campaign page. So far, no donations.

The video has been viewed only fifteen times. I’m pretty sure about half of those are me.

I keep reminding myself that this could take time, and that even then there weren’t any guarantees. I’m still disappointed our campaign didn’t go viral overnight.

At least it looks like everyone involved is starting to share it within their own circles. It’s not a game changer yet, but at least we’ve gotten started.

Also, since I’m not a millionaire yet, I have no choice but to go to school.

I find John almost as soon as I separate from my sisters. Even though things have been awkward between us for weeks now, I’m still happy to see him.

“Hey.” I say, coming up behind him. “How’s it going?”

When John turns to look at me, he smiles right away, but the look doesn’t quite reach his eyes anymore.

If only I could tell him that when I said no to going out with him, I was in no way saying no to him. It wasn’t a rejection.

“I’m good. How about you?”

“I did something kind of cool last night.” I said. When I made everyone else swear to keep our secret, I held myself to that same standard. But, John has been the person I have most wanted to talk to this whole time. Now it’s all out in the open.

I tell him everything about the video and what I’m hoping to do. When I finish, John’s expression hasn’t changed. I’m not sure what I expected, but it was more than what he’s giving me. He doesn’t seem excited or surprised. He doesn’t seem to care at all.

“I’ve actually been dying to tell you about it since that night I had dinner with you and your mom. She kind of inspired this whole thing.” I continue, hoping to draw him into a conversation. “I had to finish it first though.”

“That’s great, Reece. Really.” John’s words may be what I was hoping to hear, but there’s no real feeling in his voice.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. Immediately, my imagination jumps to something having happened to Poncho, or maybe to his mom. He would have told me if that were the case, right?

“I don’t think I can do this. You’re awesome. You know I think you’re awesome. That night at my house… that was the first time I’d ever asked anyone out. Now anytime I see you. It just sucks.” When I frown, surprised and sad, I see the first real hint of emotion in John’s expression. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” he tries to reassure me. “I just need some more time.”

I almost let John walk away knowing that if I do, whatever we had will disappear with him. I get the strangest feeling in my stomach. Standing in the hallway of my school, surrounded by people who have no idea how much I’m going through right now, the feeling isn’t completely unlike the one that made me double check that Riley was okay, not all that long ago.

“Wait!” I say, before John is too far gone he can’t hear me.

I’ve realized I’m being an idiot. There was absolutely no part of my deal with my parents that said I couldn’t tell people what I’d agreed to. That was just something I told myself to save me a little embarrassment with my friends. Friends who probably wouldn’t have cared at all. Yeah, they know I am a pretty enthusiastic lover of guys, but they also know how much I wanted Molly. They probably wouldn’t have judged me.

If there’s one person I absolutely know will understand the decision I made, it’s John.

“That might at your house...” I start, wincing a little at the pained expression that comes across John’s face, “I meant what I said. My answer wasn’t about you. I wanted to say yes! So much.”

“Then why didn’t you?” John asks, still not looking like he trusts what I’m saying.

“At the end of the summer, I made a deal with my parents. They thought I was taking on too much stuff. The only way they’d let me get Molly as if I agreed to give up guys for the semester. No dating. I took the deal in a heartbeat, which meant I couldn’t say yes to you. Or to anyone else.”

“You should have told me that. I’ve spent a month…”

“I know, I know. I’m really sorry about that. I was kind of being an idiot. It was just embarrassing.”

John tilts his head a little, looking at me like I’ve said something kind of crazy. “You would have said yes?”

“Yes. I still wish I could say yes… I still can’t.”

John grins, and my heart flutters a little. “Well, that’s still the best news I’ve heard all year.”

The warning bell rings, and the people around us start to scatter.

“I should go.” I say, wishing there was some way I could take this conversation farther. Nothing has changed, not really.

“Me too.” John’s still smiling. In no way does he look like someone who just got bad news.

I wave goodbye and head for class, but before I turn down into the next hallway, I look back over my shoulder. John is walking in the other direction, but he’s looking at me too.

He narrowly misses bumping into someone going the other way, I practically dissolve into a fit of giggles as a well of emotion bubbles up inside me.

Okay, who am I kidding? Everything has changed.

For the rest of the day, every time I see someone from the team, they ask me or an update. I don’t know anything more than they do, which is that we really are going to have to wait and see.

If that’s the case, even with our unofficial team practices now plus trying to put in a little more effort in school, I could really use something else to keep me busy.

By the end of the day, even though I haven’t had a chance to see John again, I’m still feeling a little bit like can take on the whole world and win.

So I take a chance.

Reece: Hey Kendra. I hope you’ve been well. I was just wondering if maybe it would be okay if some mornings I came by to walk some of the dogs? I don’t need any volunteer hours or anything. I just want to help out, if I can. If you’re okay with it. I miss all those tiny faces, even BLANK.

For once, an answer comes almost immediately.

Kendra: Reece, I’m so glad you reached out. Maybe you can come in sometime this week and we can talk about it? Besides, we have someone interested in Bingo and I think it’s going to be a good fit. I’m sure he’d love it if you came by to say goodbye.

So far, our campaign has raised a whopping thirty-eight-dollars, and as far as I can tell, most people at school haven’t even heard about it yet. Despite that, today still manages to feel like the best day ever.

I’m walking rescue dogs in the morning again by the next day. This is the first time in a while that I’m walking back in the building, I’m almost in tears. I’m just so glad to be back, also I'm glad that I didn’t do permanent damage to my relationship with Kendra. Our schedules still don’t intersect much, but she never even brings up the shift I missed again. She’s as focused as ever on helping those animals, I’m determined to do the same.

For the rest of the week, every time John and I run into each other in the hallway, his face lights up. I’m pretty sure mine does the same.

It’s the only thing that keeps me optimistic as more days pass without much changing. Our video still have less than six-hundred views, and we’ve only raised about three hundred dollars.

I even tried emailing the video to a multiples fan forum moderator, even though I’ve never really understood what those communities are really about. No one ever responds.

Maybe I was just too late. Or too early. It hasn’t really been that long since the last time we tried to do something like this, so maybe people are just too burned out on the idea.

Or maybe they only ever cared about that last campaign because of how it affected the guy’s teams.

I say all this to my family and more, at dinner on the first night of November.

“You’ve still raised a few hundred.” Reagan points out. “ That's not nothing.”

“Sometimes these thing just take a while to pick up steam.” Rhiannon adds. Both Reilly and Dad nod in agreement.

I want to point out that no one at this table is any kind of expert on these things, so they probably don’t have any more idea about how this is going than I do, and maybe if I were more angry than disappoint, I would.

In most of the stories I’ve read about campaigns going viral, it has happened within the first few days because the story is one that people really can’t resist.

Clearly, our story doesn’t qualify.

“You don’t look convinced.” Reilly points out.

“I dunno, John’s been saying the same thing. That I need to be patient. I wish I could do something more to nudge it along.”

“John?” Mom says with interest. “Who is that?”

“Kendra’s nephew.”

Mom doesn’t get a chance to answer any more questions, because just then her phone rings from its place beside her on the table. She gets up from the table and steps into the next room before she answers. It’s probably one of her patients, and not the kind of call she should be taking in front of her family.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Reilly asks again, never one to just give the bare minimum of effort when someone she loves is in need.

“Nope. You’ve done more than enough already. Just help keep me sane, then let me cry on your shoulder when I’m the laughing stock of the school.”

“Don’t say that.” Reilly says, but before she can add anything else, Mom’s back.

“That was Mindy.” she says, sounding a little bewildered.

“Kent’s mom?” Reagan asks, perking up in her seat.

“The very same. The paper was contacted a couple of hours ago by Wake Up, Good Morning—that morning show everyone around here watches. They saw your video, Reece.”

My heart stops beating right then and there.

“They want to interview you on their program.”

“Wait. Can you repeat that?” There’s no way I heard her right.

“Next week, they want to do a segment on what you’re trying to do with your campaign, drawing attention to sexism in high school sports.”

“Is this good?” I ask, looking at each of my family in turn. I can’t tell what I’m supposed to be feeling right now.

“This is very good!” Rhiannon says. “This will get you in front of a lot more people and if even some of those people donate… this could be huge! Assuming you’re allowed to go?”

I whip my head back around to look at my Mom, but she’s already moved to talk to Dad, crouching down beside him so their heads are close together. Neither me or my sister says a word as we try to figure out what they’re saying.

It’s only a few moments before she’s standing again. “This is a great opportunity, Reece. Of course you can do it. You’ll have to miss a day of school because they film in Richmond, but you’ve made some real improvements in your school work. You can handle this.”

“I’m going?” I ask, double-checking.

She nods. “You’re going.”