Chapter 222 - How It Went

"Ready to go?" Jared asked, grinning widely. He seemed so happy, the light catching in his eyes, glittering. They definitely talked it out. Jared smacked Cage on the arm in a show of camaraderie, which surprised everyone. Katherine ended up hugging Jared and whispering how happy she was for him in his ear. 

Lily was equally cheerful. 

"Your manager's an idiot," Angelina commented from the side. 

"Welcome to the club," Cage snickered, picking up a few bags. 

"Angel, you're in love with me. It doesn't bode well for you." Stephen looked smug.

"Never said I was the sharpest tool in the box," she said in a sing song voice. Which was true. She wasn't. 

"The only tool you need..." he trailed off, waggling his eyebrows at her. She rolled her eyes and picked up the small bag of leftover booze. Even after drinking until they dropped, they hadn't been able to finish the contents of the bag. 

"Do you want me to smack your ass?" she bit back at him. Stephen rubbed his ass with a pout on his face, revealing to everyone just what had happened. 

"Please... I don't want to know," Cage groaned. The others didn't blame him, they thought the same. Everyone was in the car and the drive started. At first, it was Stephen, but then Angelina coaxed him into letting her drive. 

Mind you, she was a good driver (most of the time), but Lily and Katherine knew for a fact that she was doing it to appear s.e.xy in front of her new boyfriend. 

"Why do you care who drives?" Lily asked, feeling irritated. The discussion had been going on for fifteen minutes with no end at sight. 

"He thinks he is better than me," Angelina replied gingerly. 

"He is better than you," Lily pointted out with a snort. Angelina gave her a glare. Well, if she wanted, she could do it. She had never driven for so long, so she would get bored easily. 

"We're in no hurry to get back," Cage chimed in, giving Katherine a sweet smile.

"Okay, you guys suck," Angelina retorted as she slid into the driver's seat. The drive was mostly uneventful with Lily and Kathrine chatting about their time in school and how much fun they had. Even Angelina joined in and reiterated the multitudes of embarrassing stories from college. The boys were laughing most of the time. The vacation had come to an end, but none of them wanted to let it go. 

After dropping them off, the guys scattered and went their own way. Lily was overly dramatic when she entered their apartment, calling out to no one as she declared that they were home. 

If they weren't happy about it, they could pretend. No use lingering and sulking. Just move on. 

- - - - -

Katherine called the CoG marketing team. She asked them the same questions Stephen had, evaluated her goals and realized one thing. Maybe, if she was better known to people, when the public found out about her, she wouldn't be crucified. Furthermore, she would get her hands on the game earlier than others. How could anything beat that. 

Cage would leave for shooting the Kevin Heart movie in a couple of days and he barely had time to get on call with her after working out and practicing every day. He was so tired that he could barely keep his eyes open. She often spoke about her day, the new projects and how she was practicing playing until she could hear his breathing level out. 

Post that, she would watch him sleep for a couple of minute before hanging up. It happened every night.

Yes, she had signed the contract. Yes, she was given a script that she needed to film and send to them so that they could make a trailer and everything. They also wanted her to post videos of herself on social media and gain a fan following before the competition began. Apparently, popularity would be a factor in deciding who gets to win. 

Typical reality TV show style. She was not thrilled about it, but seeing that she would just be putting her gameplays on the internet and add in her face, she didn't bother much. She had not been shy about her identity before and was definitely not going to start now. 

Meanwhile, Stephen had been on call with her throughout the process. He was teaching her about branding and how to go about it so that she could maximise exposure. Stephen was on a mission: get Katherine as famous as possible before revealing the relationship. Katherine was beyond happy about this.

Lily had been great about the whole thing. Her magnificent camera had been used to capture the video. It was an introduction video with who she was, why she gamed and tidbits about her. Lily even edited the videos to make them look like they had been professionally done. 

While Katherine was beyond thankful, she knew that she couldn't ask Lily to do the videos for her for a long period of time. So, she learned. She knew the basics of video editing and cinematography but with practice, she needed to get as good as Lily. That was part of the mission. 

As discussed with the marketting team, she sent them the introductory video and then made an account on a video and content sharing platform. She didn't really share it with anyone. 

Until... Children of God's official channel posted the videos. It was even up on their official website. Ads were run. Esports players and amateurs joined hands to make this experience better. They even had high ranking gamers on the platform promote for them. All in all, it must have cost a lot of money. 

Here is how it went. 

The first shot was of a girl in a pikachu onesy, sitting in front of multiple screens. She was furiously typing on the laptop, her mouse going wild. Her brows twitched and in the video, you could see that she was mumbling under her breath.