“Oh no. The plan’s all changed this year.” I felt weirdly calm. “Didn’t I tell you?” I smiled. “I’m spending Christmas in America.”

Chapter Six

Elle

Thirty-Six Days till Christmas

I’d had tons of replies. Some funny, some creepy, but only a handful had been actual leads. Still, in better news, it had only been a week since Dove announced the challenge and I’d already picked up almost a hundred new followers. Shame one of them only had this to say:

@tooblessed2bstressedxx: I heard you can get a great deal on one-way flights xoxo

Why was it that all the good comments disappeared as soon as a troll showed their face? Did they seriously have nothing better to do? I hadn’t blocked. Yet. Because as annoying as it was, right now I was enjoying how people were jumping in to have my back. Even Dove. Especially Dove.

She had no idea how much I was going to go all out to win. I HAD to.

I knew it with every bone in my body as soon as I saw who I was up against—it was me, three randoms, and Clara.

My ex–best friend Clara. @CallMeClaraT.

It didn’t surprise me she was on Dove’s radar—she’d been creeping on her for years. But as soon as I saw her name, I knew this wasn’t a challenge—it was war. She would stop at nothing to beat me, so I was just going to have to do the same.

We’d both followed each other. The standoff was on. I curled up on my bedroom chair and hugged my knees. This had all gotten so big, so quickly. If I stopped to think about it, the flying on my own, being miles away from home, getting all those followers, it was kind of…terrifying. Which is exactly why I couldn’t think about it.

At least @realdeallogan was impressed. He’d commented with:

Flying high as usual

What it meant, I had zero idea, but I’d replied with some random globes and Christmas emojis, and he’d given it a like. Logan’s comments were getting regular—and I wasn’t the only one to notice. Dove had started to send screenshots of them along with . She’d also been tagging me in her videos from her London trip with Morgan—I got it. The bar was high. Every single thing they’d posted was like a Vogue video. But I had Christmas on my side, and who didn’t like Christmas? Well, apart from me and my family, but no one needed to know that.

I’d had to go full charm offensive to win Mom and Dad around, but they were getting there. I’d only dropped Dove’s name a hundred times. Only trouble was finding someone they were happy for me to swap with.