Just a Dare

Chapter Four

"So."

"So...?"

"So, what's the plan?" Scribner questioned bluntly, finished with the game.

Wow, there was no beating around the bush with that girl, was there?

"What do you mean? You're the one who organized this in the first place!" I replied, pointing an accusatory finger at her.

We were sitting across from each other at one of the tables in the school library, and in the less than five minutes since we arrived we had already started arguing. If that wasn't a flashing sign complete with blinking neon lights that said, Bad Idea, I didn't know what was.

She crossed her arms and gave me a defiant look. "What does that have to do with anything? That doesn't automatically mean that I know what we're doing! I thought you'd have come up with something by now. Come on, Trey, you've had almost a full twenty-four hours."

I snorted. "Ri-ight. Let's just push aside the fact that I spent about nine hours out of that sleeping and another eight in school. What about you? You're supposed to be the one who knows everything."

She rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger, exhaling a long, drawn-out breath. "Look, there's no way we'll be able to get anything done on this project unless we work together. Squabbling over every little thing is only going to slow us down."

She had a point, there. "Alright, alright. I get it."

"Plus, we've already called a truce, so that means no more arguing."

"Right." We stared at each other, both of us waiting for the other to say something first.

She inevitably was the one to break the ice. "Well, I think we should get started now."

"Here? Now?"

"Yes." She reached down and unzipped her brown satchel bag, pulling out a few research books of varying sizes and thicknesses and placing them in a neat stack on the polished circular tabletop. She took one from the top and opened it, her eyes immediately drinking in the contents of the first page.

Only after watching her get through a few pages did I follow suit, placing one in front of myself. For the longest time-it could've been minutes, it could've been hours; to me, it seemed an eternity-the only sounds I heard were the occasional soft fluttering of turning pages.

I got quite a ways into it before I looked up to see how Scribner was doing. She had a notebook set out to one side and a book to the other, her eyes flicking from one to the other as she took notes on her reading with her black ballpoint pen. Eventually, her green eyes cautiously looked up at me, meeting mine.

"How's it going?" I asked her.

She rolled her eyes at me, but I could see the smile tugging at her lips. "Good, I guess. Kind of boring, though."

I raised a joking eyebrow. "You? Bored of learning? What has the world come to?" I exclaimed dramatically, pushing back from the table, placing a hand over my heart.

She giggled quietly, placing a hand over her mouth in an attempt to smother them. "You're going to get us in trouble!"

I stroked my chin mock-thoughtfully. "The prospects of that suddenly became very appealing..."

She stopped laughing, but the amused grin lingered. "Don't you dare."

"Oh, trust me, I dare."

There were a lot of things I dared to do, I added internally.