The Dare

Hello friends! This is just a short story I wrote a few months back for a contest. Hope you enjoy!

(All characters and places are made up by me; any similarities to real-life places/people are coincidental.)

~RobynAster

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This was stupid.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Why did she ever agree to this?

Cori Anderson took a deep breath, fixing her blonde ponytail. Her hands shook as they came back down, tapping against her cargo pants like a frenzied heartbeat. She sweated through her dark shirt.

Why am I so stupid?

The window suddenly rattled, and Cori jumped, almost screaming in surprise. The girl clenched her fists and looked through, to the front of her house. There they were: Artemis Henry and Al Walker. Her two best friends in the world. The two most idiotic people in the world.

Artemis waved impatiently. Cori chewed her lip, softly groaning under breath. Pushing down her misgivings, though, the girl unlatched her window, pushed it up, and carefully planted a foot on the sill. Then she clambered through, dropping down on the green lawn. The summer heat was barely recognizable anymore; almost as if autumn was reaching up and strangling it with cool breezes. Cori couldn't believe the break was over. Just one more night, and she would be stuck in a classroom listening to teachers lecture and drone. One more night free of stress. Then she'd be trapped in her mind again, wishing for school to be over.

"Ready for this, Anderson?" Al asked with a crooked grin over his features.

Cori would rather run back and hide under her covers. Artemis seemed to sense this, though, and the Japanese-American grabbed Cori's upper arm with an iron grip.

"Time for adventure," she said, using her trademark phrase. Then she dragged Cori away, face lit up with a smile.

The three piled into a rusty pickup, which had previously been owned by Al's older brother. Of course, before him, the truck belonged to their dad, and before him, it belonged to their dad's dad. It was ancient and falling apart, red paint chipping, seat stuffing dipping. Cori had no idea how it still functioned. It gave no boost to her confidence when the engine stalled for the first two minutes.

"Maybe we should just go back..."

"No!" Artemis snapped. She punched Cori's shoulder.

"Ow." Cori complained quietly, rubbing the sore spot.

"Have you already forgotten why you're doing this?"

The truck suddenly gave a deep rumble. Al put it into drive and began ambling down the quiet road.

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea, though," Cori murmured.

"Stop it!" Artemis barked. "Al, help me out here."

He shrugged. "I'm pretty sure she always takes the word 'wimp' as a compliment."

"I do not!" Cori argued indignantly. "I just... would rather not get arrested or seriously injured or anything remotely resembling something bad the night before school starts again. Or anything bad period!"

"Geez, Cori, you're a piece of work," Artemis grumbled, crashing back against her seat. "We're going to Novadream whether you agree or not."

Cori clasped her hands, pushing them in between her thighs to keep them from shaking. This sounded like such a better idea the day before than it did on the way. Cori kept thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong. Arrested for trespassing was just one option (a very bad one, considering that would notify her parents, as well as go on her record and bye-bye, Harvard). Novadream was also full to the brim with broken pieces of glass, open wiring, and probably mangled rollercoaster railings. What if someone was to get cut? And that cut got infected? What if someone got electrocuted?