Finding Pride - story from The Dumping Ground

Chapter Nine

chapter nine

'Tyler... truth or dare?' Jodie chirped, a micheavious grin already forming on her face. It was a rather mundane day at Elmtree House, despite the mild weather, and everyone was desperately trying to alleviate their bordem.

Luckily for her fellow residents, Jodie always had a trick up her sleeve.

The surrounding group of young people, which comprised of Lily, Tee and Carmen, leaned in eagerly at the sound of the exciting question.

'Dare of course.' Tyler smirked.
'Tyler you ALWAYS pick dare!' Carmen groaned,
'Yeah, we want some juicy gossip.' Lily giggled, nudging Carmen and Tee playfully.
'Be quiet you lot,' Jodie demanded, causing Carmen to roll her eyes. 'Okay Tyler, I dare you to put loads of salt in Mike's tea.'

A large smile spread over his face at the thought of such a magnificent prank.

'Couldn't that like, poison him?' Tee asked, looking concerned,
'Nah, but it'll make his tea taste proper gross!' Jodie laughed, looking at Tyler, 'So, will you do it?'
'Duh, of course I will! Just you watch.' He stood up with an air of confidence and proceeded to creep out the living room, ushering the others to follow him.

What followed next could only be described as chaos, and left the care worker pulling faces that the group were unaware were humanly possible. They collapsed back into the cushioning seats of the living room in fits of giggles and tried to regain their breath.

'Carmen, truth or dare?' Tyler asked, still beaming from the prior event.

Carmen thought hard for a second or two, placing her hand upon her chin. 'Urrr... truth, no dare! Actually... yeah truth.'

'Is that your final answer?' Tyler asked, a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice.

'Yep!'

'Okay then. I want you to tell me... the BIGGEST secret you know.'

Carmen opened her mouth and chuckled in exasperation.

'The BIGGEST secret?!'

She thought hard for a moment about what would meet that criteria. There were many secrets that belonged to others in the house, however most of those secrets were already well-known by the group, or just were rather boring. She found her thoughts drifting back to last evening-

'Okay...okay I think I have one.' She finally announced, smiling uncontrollably. This is definately the juiciest secret she knew.

'Don't just sit there, tell us!' Demanded Tyler. He wasn't usually one for gossip, and often found the 'truth' side to 'truth or dare' quite dull, however all this anticipation was making him impatient.

Carmen went to open her mouth to spill the highly interesting piece of information, but stopped in her tracks.

She promised Faith that she wouldn't tell anyone.

Surely Faith would only say that if it was important? In addition, the thought of angering Elektra wasn't the most pleasant. Not pleasant at all.

'I.... I can't, I promised not to tell anyone!'

The others gave eachother disappointed looks, but then quickly diverted their gaze back to their friend. This was Carmen they were talking to, they knew they could get this secret out of her somehow.

Lily leaned forward.

'Is it about someone in here?' She probed, eyes wide with excitement.

'Maybeeee...'