Dare to Be Different (4 page)

“Yeah, let’s play,” the other two girls chimed in.

“Well, if you’re sure you want to play,” Sam explained, “you have to really agree to play for real, no matter what. It’s a matter of honor.”

“How can we agree if we don’t know what the game is?” Lindsay asked nervously.

“Well, all I can tell you until you agree is that the game is called Truth or Dare, and the key to it is that there are no limits. And you can’t bail out.”

“How do you play?” Kelly asked.

“Yeah,” Macy prodded. “You have to tell us the rules before we can agree to it.”

“Me, too. No way am I agreeing without knowing what I’m agreeing to.” Lindsay folded her arms.

“Well, basically it’s like this: When it’s your turn, you choose whether you want a truth or a dare,” Sam explained. “If you choose Truth, you will be asked a question that you have to answer truthfully. You cannot back out if you don’t like the question. If you choose Dare, then you will be given a task—or a dare—that you must complete. You can’t just decide that it’s too hard or too risky. You
have
to do it. If you’re scared that you won’t be able to follow through, then you shouldn’t agree to play at all.”

“You mean we can’t set any limits ahead of time, like about things we aren’t allowed to do?” Lindsay was pretty nervous about the rules of the game.

“Nope. If you’re too scared about what your dare might be, then just choose Truth. What have you got to hide, anyway?” Sam laughed as she sat down on the carpet. She knew that Lindsay had no deep, dark secrets.

“I’m in!” Kelly shouted, joining Sam on the floor.

“Count me in,” Macy added, joining them to make a half circle, leaving room for Lindsay.

“Well, I guess I’ll play.” Lindsay shrugged. Couldn’t hurt.

“Great! Then I’ll go first. I’ll choose Truth to get us started,” Sam said.

The other three girls went into the corner to whisper for a few minutes about what to ask Sam, who was waiting on the floor. Giggling, they returned to the circle and took their places. Since Lindsay was seated right next to Sam and it would be her turn next, she asked the question: “Sam, have you ever taken something that didn’t belong to you? And we mean, since you’ve been older than, say, fifth grade,” Lindsay clarified.

“Ooh, good question.” Sam was impressed that the game had gotten off to a great start. After contemplating her answer, she replied, “Yeah, this one time in sixth grade, I really, really wanted this pack of stickers from the card store, and I decided to take them when my mom wasn’t looking. When we got back into the car, she noticed them and made me return them. I got into a
lot
of trouble for that.”

Laughing at Sam’s story, the girls turned their
attention to Lindsay who had to select a truth or a dare for her turn. Lindsay, becoming slightly more confident in the game, selected Truth, too. The three girls left Lindsay sitting on the floor while they discussed what they should ask her as her Truth question. It seemed to take a long time, and Lindsay began to impatiently pick at her nails while she waited for them. Finally they scurried back to the floor and resumed their spots in the circle.

Kelly, who was sitting next to Lindsay, got to ask the next Truth question. “Lindsay, your Truth question is: Do you ever hate going to church or resent that your parents make you go all the time?”

Lindsay hesitated over that one. She knew she had to tell the truth, but she also wanted to protect her witness and make sure she wasn’t misrepresenting her feelings about God, her church, and her parents … but she had to tell the truth. “Well, it’s not that I ever ‘hate’ going to church; I love my church. And I don’t ‘resent’ my parents for making me go all the time. I know they just want what’s best for me. But sometimes it’s a drag to have to miss out on fun things and
not be able to make plans several times a week because of church activities. Overall, though, I don’t think I would trade it.” Satisfied with her answer, she breathed a deep sigh of relief and felt that her honesty probably did more good for her cause than hurt it.

Kelly’s turn. “I pick Dare!”

“How did I guess?” Macy laughed. The girls eagerly got up from the floor, letting Kelly wait there patiently while they decided what she was to do for her dare. There were lots of whispers and giggles coming from the other side of the room, which made Kelly squirm nervously, a bit afraid of what she’d gotten herself into. After waiting for about five minutes, she called over to the girls, “Come on now, this is the first dare. Go easy.”

After a few more minutes, the girls came rushing back to the floor and resumed a lopsided, halfhearted circle. Macy couldn’t wait to tell Kelly what her dare was. She informed Kelly that she had to sneak upstairs into Sam’s brother’s room and take his baseball cleats while he was sleeping in the room and then soak them in water and put them in the freezer!

“Oh man! You girls are rotten.” Kelly laughed but immediately rose to begin her dare.

She crept up the stairs with the other girls following her and paused in front of the closed bedroom door. Kelly took a deep breath and then slowly pushed it open. They could see the rise and fall of the covers on the bed as Sam’s brother breathed deeply in his sleep. Kelly carefully opened the door a little more so she could get into the room without making a noise. It squeaked a little bit when she pushed on it, but Sam’s brother didn’t wake up or even stir.

Kelly made her way across the room, stepping over a soccer ball, two pair of shoes, a couple of piles of clothes, and some magazines. When she got near the bed, she looked around the room and finally spotted the baseball cleats. They were hanging on a peg right above the headboard of the bed on the opposite side.

She looked back at the girls in the doorway, who were trying really hard not to laugh out loud. Nearing the bed, she tried to hold her breath so she would make less noise. Slowly she leaned across the bed, being very careful not to touch it or slip and fall onto it. The thought of that paralyzed her for a moment as she imagined
falling on top of Sam’s brother and him waking up. Shaking her head to clear the thought, she knew that no matter what she couldn’t let that happen. So she firmly planted her feet and reached across the bed toward the cleats hanging on the wall across from her.

She couldn’t reach them!

Hearing muffled giggles from the hallway, she shot an angry look at the girls, telling them to be quiet. Kelly backed up a little bit and looked for something she could use to unhook the shoes from their peg.

Aha! She spotted a pair of crutches that Sam’s brother had to use when he hurt his ankle a few months ago. She silently lifted one of the crutches and pointed it toward the baseball cleats. She leaned carefully until the bottom of the crutch was hooked into the tied-together laces of the cleats. She slowly lifted the crutch and freed the cleats from their perch on the peg, turning carefully so that the cleats were no longer hanging over the bed. Bending slowly to the floor, Kelly laid everything down onto the floor and then stepped over to grab the cleats and put the crutch back where she found it.

After creeping out of the room and closing the door behind her, the girls all ran to the kitchen and collapsed into fits of laughter. Kelly was out of breath, and her hands were shaking.

But her dare wasn’t quite over, the other girls reminded her.

Looking in the kitchen cabinets, Kelly found an old pot that she filled with water. After hesitating for just a moment, she dropped the shoes into the water. Sam cleared a place in the freezer, and Kelly put in the pot. Then they scurried back down to the basement where they laughed so hard they had to wipe tears from their eyes. “Boy, I sure hope he doesn’t have a baseball game tomorrow,” Kelly said.

“It’s not baseball season, anyway,” Macy reminded them. “I just hope he finds them before Sam’s mom does.”

The thought of Sam’s mom opening the freezer in the morning to find a pot of shoes inside started the giggles all over again.

Macy’s turn.

“Oh man, I’m scared to pick Dare,” Macy admitted.

“Go for it. We’ve had two Truths already,” the
other girls encouraged her.

“Okay, let’s get it over with,” Macy giggled. “I pick Dare.”

The three girls rushed over to the corner to discuss what the dare should be. Almost immediately, Sam rushed over to the desk in the corner and grabbed the phone book. They tore through it until they found what they’re looking for. Scribbling furiously on a piece of paper, they start to giggle.

Macy’s face looked stricken with dread.

When they got back to the circle, Kelly thrust a scrap of paper at Macy. Macy was confused when she saw that a phone number had been hastily scribbled on the paper. “Whose number is this, and what am I supposed to do with it?”

Kelly explained, “You need to call that number, and when the machine picks up, say, ‘This is Macy Monroe. Can you come out to play?’ And then hang up.”

“That sounds simple enough, but whose number is it, and what if they answer?”

“Mace, we’re not going to tell you whose number it is—that’s part of the dare. And if they answer, you still have to say it. But they probably
won’t answer. It’s almost two in the morning.”

“Okay, let’s just do this.” Macy couldn’t wait to get it over with, so she immediately began to dial the phone. Sam reached over to put the phone on speaker so they all could hear. It rang three times and then a fourth time, when the answering machine finally picked up.

“Hello, you’ve reached the Turner residence.” Macy’s eyes got really wide; she gasped and started to panic. “… No one is available to answer your call right now … please leave a message after the beep.”

“Um … hello … this is Macy.… Um … can you … um … come out to play?” And then she hung up, embarrassed and red faced. The other three girls were laughing uncontrollably and rolling on the floor.

Macy, trying to be a good sport by pretending it was no big deal, shrugged and said, “Okay, now what?” The other three knew she was bluffing, and that made them laugh even harder.

“What? It’s no big deal. I don’t care.”

“Riiiight, like it doesn’t bother you at all. You got sick to your stomach, and we all know it,” Kelly teased.

“Well, how would you like to embarrass yourself like that? It wasn’t fun, that’s for sure.”

“It was kind of fun for us.” Sam laughed, and the others agreed.

“So, judging by the yawns that have been going around the circle, I’d say it’s time to get some sleep. What do you think?” Sam asked the group.

They’d had way more than enough fun for one night but agreed they would definitely play Truth or Dare again. They got out their toothbrushes and blankets and got ready for bed. Once settled, it still took them over an hour to actually stop chatting and fall asleep, but eventually they all dozed off with smiles on their faces.

Chapter 5

“Rise and shine!” Lindsay’s mom called from the doorway, letting her know it was time to get up and get ready for church.

“Ugh. Mom, can I just sleep in this one time? Please?” Lindsay groaned. “I promise I’ll go next week.”

“Oh no. You know better than that, young lady. We always go to church as a family, and this week will be no different.”

Lindsay pulled the covers over her head and stopped short of saying something to her mom that she might live to regret.

“Breakfast is in fifteen minutes,” Lindsay’s mom said as she left the room.

She knew that there was no way out of it. She
also knew that if she let her mom know just how tired she was, Lindsay wouldn’t be allowed to do sleepovers with the girls anymore, especially if it interfered with church. She slowly sat up and let her eyes grow accustomed to the bright sunshine that filled her room. Sleepily she made her way to the bathroom in the hallway, where she brushed her teeth and her hair—grateful that she had taken a shower the night before—and splashed water on her face. Lindsay applied just the barest hint of makeup, hoping it would help liven her face and keep her from looking so tired.

Shuffling back to her bedroom, she pulled open her closet door and began to sort through her dresses and skirts, looking for an outfit that would perk her up. Finding just the perfect thing, Lindsay slipped into a light brown skirt cut just above the knee—almost too short for her mom’s taste—and a cute denim top. On her way out of the room, she stopped in front of the mirror and clipped her hair back on one side with a silver butterfly clip, sprayed on a squirt of perfume, and, satisfied with the finished product, headed downstairs with two minutes to spare.

“Well, there she is,” Mom said in her usually cheery voice.

“I was thinking we’d have to send in the troops to drag her out,” Lindsay’s dad added.

Rolling her eyes and laughing, Lindsay reached for her plate and took a spoonful of scrambled eggs and two pieces of bacon.

“Father,” her dad began to pray, “please bless this food and nourish our bodies and our souls today. We give this day to You to use for Your glory. Amen.” Lindsay and her mom added their amens and began to eat.

On the way to church, Lindsay’s mom turned in her seat so that she could see Lindsay. “So, how was Friday night over at Sam’s? What did you girls do all night?”