The Dare

Chpt. 1

**Notes at bottom**

      High school drama is as cliche as it is in the rom-coms on Netflix. Except in real life, it adds a punch of harshness to the situation. Even though everyone dreams of their life being a real-life version of The Kissing Booth and of receiving a happily ever after. But in reality, people don't get happily ever afters, or do they? Samatha Patterson and Sam were among those people who dreamed of happily ever afters at a young age, but reality came to visit her earlier on in life. When Sammie was 10 years old, her father left taking almost everything except the bills and debts. Making her mother lose everything; her job, most of her money, her pride, and her happiness. This made Sam realize that happily ever after isn't a given after all. Though she was given one aspect of a fairytale; the horrible step-sister. Or in her case, the regular snobby bully of an older sister, Jennifer Patterson, or the devil's incarnate as Olivia likes to call her. Olivia Wolfe was Sam's best and only friend. She was there for Sam through it all. They were two sides of the same coin. One side being introverted, kind, quirky, and has trust issues and anxiety. While the other side is fun, extroverted, pretty, confident, loud and everything Sam inspired to be but wasn't. 

    Sam's high school; Golden Gate High, was your average, drama-filled high school in a small part of the beautiful, expensive L.A. Money has been rough for many people, including the Patterson family since their father left them with nothing and their mother lost her job two years later, money has not been kind, but Sam has. Meanwhile, her sister Jennifer parties and drinks the nights away with the only car they own. Sam does what any kind, logical, overworking intellect would do, working double-time on two jobs. One of her jobs is as a waitress at her favorite cafe; The Busy-Bean Cafe, where she works morning shifts before school with Olivia. As for nights, she works at the Harborview Library as the librarian's assistant. 

         It is halfway through October on a Friday morning, meaning Sam is rushing out of the house while Jen takes her sweet menacing time on looking like the she-devil she is. Sam looks around her room to find anything to wear as her eye catches some ripped jeans. She rushes over to them, sniffs them to make sure they're clean, and puts them on with a jump trying to get the jeans on as quick as she can without tripping over her own two legs, which she does anyway. Sam jumps back up with jeans on as she looks for a top. Her eyes scan the room as she thinks frantically about how late she is going to be. Her eyes found a white cami in her mirror and dresser. She rushes over and shoves the cami on while putting on deodorant all while looking for something to put on top. Her eyes once again look around the small, purple-walled, messy yet clean room.

     She thinks frantically, "I'm going to be late, I'm going to mess this up." She shakes her hand trying to get rid of the bubbling anxieties inside her. Her eyes find the perfect thing as if her frantic thinking helped. Her old lavender tinted wool, off-the-shoulder sweater, lays on top of her chair. She grabs while grabbing her bookbag and runs. While running almost into the wall she turns to quickly kiss her mother, who is getting sleep for the first time in weeks.

      She quietly walks up to her mother, kisses her on the forehead while whispering, "I love you, mom." And rushes out the door without even saying goodbye to Jen which has become normal. She grabs her skateboard and puts headphones in hoping she gets there in time and thinks it's going to be as normal as it always is.

       Listening to her music while skating down to the cafe was one of her favorite and least favorite parts of the day. The breeze in her hair while looking around her town was the part she liked, while the anxieties ate at a tiny part of her head in the back thinking she was going to be late and lose her job was not. But even though every day she fears she is going to be late, she never is. Stepping off her skateboard as she walks into Busy-Bean Cafe, her mind says she is late when she is exactly the opposite. Olivia was standing there on the other side of the counter shaking her head knowing what the girl was thinking. As Sam puts on her apron and starts her shift with Olivia. ¨You know you're not late right?¨ Olivia asks Sammie while wiping down a table. ¨ I know this now.¨ Sam says chuckling while wiping down the counter.

    Three hours later and their shifts at the cafe are done and their daily episode of Golden High drama begins. As they walk through the school, they see the usual stereotypical, popular playboy aka my sister's ex; Tristan Bayard. He and his gang always try to find a new girl to get with and dump or a new freshman to shove into a locker. Like, poor Lucas is getting the worst of it today, probably because it's Friday. She sighs and walks wishing she could help but she has her own dragons to slay, and the biggest one is the She-devil herself. She is a real-life Regina George. Except Regina George can't destroy your life. She twists and turns to try to get to her class without the troubles of Jennie and her gang, which she thankfully did. Her day went, as usual, her being with Olivia, Jen, and her gang bullying her here and there and finally able to go to her shifts at the library. As she says goodbye to Olivia, she skateboards to the library for her shifts at her escape home, as she likes to call it.

*This is the first page I will try to put the next one in a couple of minutes or hours it depends. Like I said this was a short narrative I had to do for Writer's Workshop. Hope you like it. * <3 -MG