A press release has been sent to the newspaper -

Press release? So, if the girls’ team did badly, she’d not only look like a doofus, she’d make her company look bad to the entire community.

Lovely. No pressure.

Now Lex really needed Grandma’s money for playoffs. SPZ funding didn’t start until September. Mariko’s wedding was in May.

She needed a chump – er, boyfriend, until September. They also needed to actually look like a couple at the wedding.

Lex chewed on her lip. A niggling burrowed around in her gut.

She needed to find someone she wouldn’t mind looking lovey-dovey with. Well, that’s what she had the Ephesians List for, right?

She wouldn’t look like an idiot at the wedding, would she? A picture of Mariko and her posse of Asian Barbie dolls flashed in front of her. So glamorous, so with-it, so charming. Lex wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t glamorous, she was never with-it, and she’d really rather not be charming to anyone.

No, there was nothing wrong with her. She’d show those girls, her aunties, Grandma. She had appeal. She wouldn’t be pitied, and certainly not by them. She could top those ninnies and their ninny boyfriends -

Ding! The lightbulb went off.

She’d wow them with a superstar date. A boyfriend so dazzling they’d bow to her superior man-appeal.

She had called the A’s new pitcher just yesterday about an event with his old alma mater. They’d hit it off. She wondered if he’d agree to be a date for a wedding with guaranteed good Chinese food?

Or the new Giants’ shortstop. His best friend, UCLA’s alumni association’s representative, adored Lex for all the scouts she’d sent to the ball game last weekend.

Lex leaned back in her chair and beamed at the ceiling. This was going to be great.

They were after her.

Lex didn’t know how Grandma had found out about the free college game tickets. Maybe she’d bugged Lex’s phone. She wouldn’t put it past her.

But it didn’t matter how, anymore. The news was out. All of Grandma’s friends’ sons knew about it.

And they were all after Lex.

Her cell phone started ringing as she shut off her computer for the night. “Hello?” Oops, she only had fifteen minutes to get to Nikkei.

“Rreksoo Sakai?” The male voice speaking with a heavy Japanese accent made her pause as she grabbed her purse from her desk drawer.

“Speaking.”

“Hajimemashte. Boku wa Akaoki Toya. Anata no obaasan – ”

“I don’t speak Japanese.” But she knew a few words, and Toya had definitely mentioned Lex’s grandmother. A dark suspicion made her grit her teeth as she made her way outside.

“Oh… you no speak?”

“Fourth generation, bud.”

“Ah, no. No ‘Bud.’ Toya – ”

“Toya, what did you need?”

“Ah. You grandmother, she friends with my mother.”

“Oh, no.”

“She say you pretty girl. You like sports. You get tickets for college games, yes?”

“What?” Lex dropped her car keys. “Where did you hear that?”

“Okaasan – ”

His mother. “No, not interested. Good-bye.”

“But – ”

She closed her phone and slid into her car. The phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Rrek Sakkai?”

Chinese accent this time. Oh, no. Maybe she could throw him a curveball. “Moshi-moshiiii! Otearai e itte mo iidesuka? ”

“Uh…”

“Ichi, ni, san, shi, go! Hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yotsu! ”

“Er… Ni hao ma? ”

Come on, hang up. Lex didn’t know many more Japanese phrases. She supposed she could repeat the “going to the bathroom” phrase.

“Otearai – ”

Click.

Lex stared at the offending phone in her palm. She could turn it off. But what if Wassamattayu called?

It rang. Nononononono. She let it ring again. Unknown San Jose number. With a painful grimace, she flipped it open. “H-hello?”

“Lex Sakai?” American accent.

“Yes?”

“Hi, my aunt is friends with your grandmother…”

Lex fielded two more calls on her way to volleyball. She skidded into the parking lot and rammed into a stall. Collecting her gear, she hustled toward the high school gym doors.

“Lex Sakai?” One of three Asian guys stood near the open doorway.

She stiffened, then peered through the door at the volleyball players just inside. What was she thinking – that some strangers would attack her five feet away from her friends?

She turned to the one who had spoken, a tall, thin boy who looked like he had just graduated college. “Listen, guys, I’m late for volleyball. I’ll talk to you all later.” If they stayed around until later. She rather hoped they didn’t.

A second boy moved forward to block her way with his broad chest. “Okay, so you know your grandmother told our moms about the tickets.” He grinned and spread his hands wide. “We’ve all been nagged. We understand. We’re easy.”

The first guy moved closer. “We don’t have to go out on a date. If you have tickets to the Cal game this weekend, and you’re not going, just give them to one of us. We’ll tell our mothers we had a terrific dinner and a movie.”

Lex’s jaw ached from dropping it so far down. How was this better than being actually courted for those tickets? “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What – you’re going to the game?”

With a growl of frustration, she pushed through. Dummies! Idiots! They had put her in the perfect mood to slam some balls -“Lex Sakai?”

“What? ” She twisted around, following her bark with a feral glare.

Right at the two Caucasian guys who had been watching her for the past week. The ones who might be Wassamattayu scouts. Just shoot me now. “Ah… Sorry, guys. I thought you were someone else.”

She simpered.

Their expressionless faces reminded her of FBI agents on TV. Or Aiden when he got frustrated on the court. The shorter one handed her an envelope.

Her gym bag plopped to the ground. She ripped it open.

You are cordially invited to participate in tryouts for Wassamattayu…

“Oh my gosh! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Grim-faced, the taller one nodded.

“We were very impressed. You play with power and precision.”

The shorter man’s tone reminded Lex of a business report.

Lex beamed. “I could almost kiss you!”

He cleared his throat. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

Lex needed money.

How ironic that something so important to her might be over before it began.

She knew Wassamattayu charged several thousand dollars per year for membership – but that hadn’t worried her when she worked for Pear Technologies. She would have been fine taking the money out of her savings and then living cheaply at home until she made the money back at her higher-paying engineering job.

Now she had to cough up five thousand dollars as a deposit before tryouts. It would be refunded if she didn’t get chosen.

She re-read that line. She would be chosen. She’d train extra hard.

But the money worried her. Now she had to rent an apartment instead of living free with Dad, and her SPZ job didn’t pay as much as Pear. And she had thought she’d use her savings as a backup plan -even though it wasn’t enough – for the girls’ playoffs expenses.

Aiden dropped down next to her to take off his shoes. Both their cell phones rang at the same time.

Lex barely glanced at the number before ending the call and tossing it down on the floor. She’d missed six calls during the night. How many friends with eligible sons did Grandma have? She sighed and glanced up.

Oh, no. Talk about persistent.

The tall, thin guy had stayed. The other two had left. Lex groaned and dropped her head. A pulsing headache started right behind her eyeballs.

“So, Lex.” Mr. Persistent bent at the waist, hovering over her. “Let’s talk tickets.”