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“Let’s play truth or dare!” Says my friend Kim enthusiastically.
I was currently sitting next to Felix, and we were sitting in front of Alyse Cartapillar and Kim Gillet. Sara wasn’t at school today because she had to go to Melbournia for one of her parent’s business trips, but she said she would be at school tomorrow.
At the moment we were on one of the school buses that was heading to Meldrina Park, where our school sports day will take place. I sluggishly got out of bed this morning, knowing that I will absolutely be destroyed this year in sports day.
Just like every other year, I think weakly.
I’ve always been terrible at sports. I tried basketball when I was younger, but I quit when I realised I was actually quite hopeless. Even though everyone around me said I was “good”, I knew they were just trying to be nice and in their minds they were actually thinking, “YES! QUIT BASKETBALL! YOU SUCK! WOOO.”
Ahh… such a happy childhood.
“I’ll play if Rhana plays.” I hear Felix say, looking at me expectantly.
I sigh. I don’t feel like playing truth or dare, but it seems Felix does.
“Yeah OK, why not?” I say in reply to Kim’s question.
“Awesome! OK Alyse, you can go first.” Kim says excitedly.
Alyse looks around at the three of us, seeming as though she was thinking about who to pick.
“Truth or dare… Rhana!” She says, looking at me eagerly.
“Dare…” I say worriedly, you never know what someone like Alyse will make you do for a dare.
“I dare you to yell over to Mike Watson, and say that you love his hair today.” Alyse replies cheerfully.
Too cheerfully.
“Are you serious?” I ask her baffled.
Mike Watson is like our schools version of Brad Pitt, he has it all; the brains, the brawns, the looks. Basically every girl is after him, although they all know not to touch him or they’ll regret it…
“Yep.” Alyse replies innocently, and Felix and Kim put their hands over their mouths, trying to hold in their laughter.
“Screw you all…” I say under my breath.
I stand up slowly and search the bus.
I eventually spot Mike Watson sitting with his friend Owen Cartwright. They seemed to be in the midst of a very intense arm-wrestle.
I take in a deep breath. I’ve never liked speaking in public. Although I might be loud sometimes with my friends, I tend to become extremely shy when I have to do something in front of a crowd. And that crowd today is in front of the entire bus. Oh, and I have to say the most embarrassing thing to a guy who doesn’t even know I exist.
I tend to stick to a small group of people. We are mostly all invisible to all the other groups of students, especially people like Mike and his friends.
Yay me.
“Hey Mike!” I call out.
That seemed to grab the attention of the whole bus, not just Mike. I suddenly became extremely uncomfortable and fidgety.
“Yeah what?!” He answers distractedly, still concentrated on his arm wrestle.
“I, uhm, really like your hair today…” I say awkwardly, trying to avoid all the stares I was getting from the rest of bus.
“Wait what?” Mike calls out, breaking eye contact from the arm wrestle and staring at me with an intense and shocked look.
During this stare, it appeared that in the midst of Mike’s shock, Owen was able to use that to his advantage and beat Mike in the arm wrestle. Mikes arm thudded against the chair with a loud THUD.
“Aw dam…” I hear Mike say annoyed.
“WOOO YUS!” I look over to Owen who seemed to be having a mini celebration in his seat.
I look over to the rest of the bus, and saw that almost all pairs of eyes were on me, and people were whispering quietly among themselves. Then suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw her.
Brooke Taylor.
The school’s meanest and cruellest person. It also doesn’t help that she seems to be absolutely brilliant at everything. From sports to maths to poetry to science. Brooke was good at almost everything. She had perfectly straight blonde hair, and pale smooth skin. Oh, and another thing, she was really good at scowling. Like what she’s doing now.
To me.
Oh shoot.
I hope these people don’t think I like Mike now.
Especially Brooke.
She would kill me.
Everyone in our grade knows that Brooke likes Mike. Mike, being absolutely oblivious to all her flirtatious comments and habits when she is around him, only sees Brooke as a friend.
Which annoys the hell out of her.
Brooke and I have never really had any encounters, except for one time. Once in grade 3, Brooke and I were trying very hard to get this very hard award to obtain. When they said that I had managed to obtain it, I was ecstatic, and walked to the front of assembly to collect my award.
On the way back however, Brooke was mad that she was unable to get the award, and so she stuck her leg out as I was walking past her. I tripped and fell on the ground, and the whole assembly erupted in roars of laughter. I still remembered trying very hard not to let the tears that gathered in my eyes spill. I didn’t want to give Brooke the satisfaction of seeing me trip then cry like a baby. At least Brooke had to do a whole week of picking up rubbish as a punishment.
I snap out of my moment of bitter remembrance and I quickly sit down, and the bus began to regain its normal state of chatter. My face was flushed scarlet, and my cheeks seemed to be burning hot.
I’ve never been more embarrassed in my whole life.
I look over to Kim, Alyse and Felix, and I see them all trying to suppress their laughter by covering their mouths with their hands.
I give my best “I’m so gonna kill you” face to Alyse.
“Ok fine, let’s get on with this game.” I say, trying to get everyone off the awkward incident I just experienced.
“Truth or dare, Kim?.” I say.
“Dare!” She replies.
“I dare you to… Uhm…”
Okay. I need to think of something embarrassing… What about… Oh, I know…
“I dare you to stand up in your seat and pound your chest while doing your best Tarzan yell!” I say evilly.
“OMG! No way! That’s too embarrassing!” Kim exclaims.
“Can’t turn back now.” I remind her, giving her my best “now look whose turn it is” wink.
“Awe… No fair. I will get you back for this.” Kim says.
I smile innocently at her.
She glares at me and then stands up.
I start to giggle just thinking about how funny this will be, and the same look that is shown on my face is displayed on Felix’s and Alyse’s too.
Kim looks around, her cheeks going red as heads turn to look at her. She quickly pounds her chest and does a weak impression of a Tarzan yell, way too embarrassed to do it any better. She plops down onto her seat again, and hurriedly gets on with her turn, a look of embarrassment still on her face.
“Okey my turn. Truth or dare Felix?” Kim says to Felix.
“Truth.” Felix says.
“Lame…” I say under my breath, getting a death glare from Felix.
“Who do you like?” Kim asks suddenly.
Oh, good question Kim.
Even I don’t know this.
We all stare expectantly at Felix.
He looks around at us, then sighs.
“Ok… no one knows this, but I think I’ve liked this person for quite a while now…” he starts.
“What?! And you’ve never told me?!” I say putting my hand over my heart and feigning hurt.
Felix looks at me amused, with a smirk on his face then continues.
“The person I like is-“
“Alright class we’re here. Make sure you all have applied sunscreen, and ready for a great day of sports!” Mr Kermit, our homeroom teacher, interrupts.
Aww… just when we were going to find out who Felix likes, Mr Kermit had to interrupt.
Oh well, I’ll just ask him later.
~~~*~~~
“Race ya to the toilets!” I hear Felix call out to me.
We had just gotten off the bus and put our bags in our house tents. I’m in the blue house, which is Dalelons, and Felix is in the yellow house, which is Chellmitch. Now everyone has 15 minutes to get ready for the events that will take place soon. This includes applying sunscreen and getting warmed up.
“Aw, you know I suck at running.” I complain.
“Well, its compulsory today, so I suggest you should get warmed up.” He says lightly.
“Ok fine. Ready?” I say, giving in.
“Set.” We say in unison.
“Go!”
We speed off in the direction of the toilets. I have no idea how fast I’m going, because I keep my eyes down and stare at my feet. I will them to go faster. I feel the wind whip in my face and then suddenly, I’m there.
I look back behind me and see that Felix is a good 20m behind me.
Wait a second… that means I won.
“I WON!” I exclaim to Felix as he manages to catch up.
“Aww, this is embarrassing. I lost to Rhana!” Felix exclaims sadly, face palming himself.
“But in my defence, you were way faster than usual.” Says Felix suspiciously.
“How did you do that anyway?” He asks.
“I actually have no idea… But who cares! I bet you!” I say doing my mini happy dance.
~~~*~~~
Mike’s P.O.V
“Whoa she is fast.” I whistle as I watch a girl race a boy to the toilet block.
“I could beat her.” Says Brooke annoyed.
“I don’t know about that… I reckon she might be a bit faster than you.” I frown, trying to ignore the death stare she was sending me.
“Wait… is that the girl who said I had nice hair?” I say amazed.
On the bus there was this girl who I had never seen before, who said I had nice hair. And damn, she can run.
I subconsciously run a hand through my hair.
“Yeah, but she’s just some lame freak who just happens to be okay at running“ Brooke says annoyed.
“Besides, I bet I could beat her in a race any day.” Brooke says smugly, with an evil smirk on her face. Why people think she’s attractive is beyond me.
“Hey, what are you doing?” I call out to her as she advances towards the girl.
“Making a bet.” Brooke says arrogantly.
~~~*~~~
Rhana’s P.O.V
I stare as I see Brooke advance towards me, Mike trailing behind her.
“Uh oh…” I hear Felix say.
“Oi you!” Brooke snarls as she stops a few metres away from me.
“What’s your name? Riley or something?” She snaps.
“N-no. My n-name is-is Rhana.” I stammer, taken aback by her tone.
Pull yourself together, I order myself.
I stand up straighter. “Rhana Killard.” I say more firmly.
“Whatever. You know the A-grade 600m sprint? Well, I’m putting your name down for it. You and me, we’re gonna race.”
I gulp.
“And if you don’t show up, well, I’m guessing we don’t want another repeat of that incident in grade 3, do we?” She smirks.
Shoot. Why does she want me to race? Me out of everybody else??
I slowly shake my head.
“Good, well if I wi-“ I cut her off.
“If I win, I get that new MacBook Pro of yours. But if I lose, you get my laptop.” I demand.
I can’t believe I just said that. It was like someone else just took over me.
Her family doesn’t even know she has one anyway, another part of my mind reassures me, reminding me of the conversation I overheard where Brooke was telling some of her possie about how she bought a MacBook Pro with some money she stole from her little brother’s bank account.
I see Felix’s eyes go wide in the corner of my eye.
Brooke looks a bit taken aback by my demand, but she quickly recovers herself with a snarl.
“Why would I want your old brick? Here’s a better offer. If I win, you leave this school. I lose, and as if that will ever happen, you get my MacBook. Deal?”
“Deal.” I say firmly.
Shoot. I didn’t say that! Why would I agree to that? I have no chance of winning!
Brooke smirks and spins on her heal, strutting off.
Mike hovers for a second, staring at me, before following Brooke.
Oh gawd. I’m gonna die. I’m never going to see Felix or Sara or Kim or Aly— shut up! You’re such a wimp.
What the heck.
“Rhana, what the hell have you done!?” Felix screeches at me.
“I-I don’t know.” I stammer, clearly confused myself.
“Well, at least now you have some chance. Unless that was just some kind of fluke…” He says.
I’m not entirely sure if he was trying to convince me that I could win, or himself.
I sigh.
Now I’ve done it.