Truth or Dare . . (3 page)

“Oh, man,” groaned Nora. “Abby! I didn't know your house had, like, floodlights!”

“That's not all!” Chloe announced as she whipped out her cell phone. “Smile for the camera, Nora!”

“What!” Nora cried. “You're going to
film
me?”

“Absolutely,” Chloe said wickedly, holding the cell phone up so the camera would catch all of Nora's chicken impression. “Don't worry, you look fabulous!”

Nora frowned. “No fair!”

“I never said that I
wasn't
going to film you,” Chloe protested. “But I guess I can skip it, Nora. If you're feeling
chicken
, I mean.”

Nora gave her friend a look. “Ha, ha. Very funny, Chloe. Let me just start so I can get this over with.” She walked onto the grass and began to strut around like a chicken, flapping her arms like wings and clucking, “Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk!”

Abby and the rest of the girls didn't stop laughing until Chloe stopped filming and said, “Okay, that's one minute. Way to go, Nora. You do an awesome chicken impression.”

Even Nora started to laugh as she took a bow. “That was seriously the longest minute of my life!” she complained as the girls traipsed back through the kitchen.

“Here you go, Nora,” Abby said as she handed her friend a brownie. “You earned it!”

“Thanks,” Nora said with a grin. “Better bring the whole tray downstairs. Truth or Dare isn't over yet!”

As soon as the girls were settled back in the basement, Leah announced, “Okay, since Nora was so brave to make a total fool out of herself—”

“
Bawk, bawk!”
clucked Chloe.

“It's her turn to ask someone,” Leah finished. “Go on, Nora.”

“All right, I choose our hostess. Truth or dare, Ab?”

Uh-oh,
Abby thought as everyone turned to her.
I am definitely not in the mood to act like a chicken!
“Truth,” she said firmly.

After all, Abby figured, Truth could never be nearly as embarrassing as the dares her friends could dream up.

Or so she thought.

“All right, Abby,” Nora began. “Who do you like?”

Abby's face fell. She noticed Leah sitting across from her, beginning to smile and clearly looking forward to the answer.

“Do I
have
to answer that?” Abby pleaded, already knowing what Nora would say.

“Yes,” Nora said matter-of-factly. “You picked Truth, and now you have to answer any question I ask. Those are the rules.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Abby knew that Nora was right. “If I tell you . . .,” she said slowly. “If I tell you who I like, you have to
promise
not to tell anyone.
Ever
.”

“Oh, we promise,” Nora said as she made an X over her heart. “Cross my heart and everything!”

Leah nodded, and Chloe added, “Of
course
we won't tell anybody, Abby. You can trust us!”

“Okay.” Abby sighed as her face turned redder. “I . . . like . . .”

No one made a sound as they waited for Abby to confess her crush.

“Jake!” she said at last, covering her face with a pillow.

“I
knew
it!” Leah crowed. “I
knew
you were acting weird in the supermarket earlier!”

“Jake Chilson?” asked Chloe. “Oh, he's supercute!”

“Please don't tell anybody, you guys,” Abby begged. “I would die if he found out. Seriously.”

“We won't say a word,” promised Nora.

“Definitely not,” Leah agreed.

There was an awkward pause, and Abby wondered if everyone else was thinking about what had happened last year too.

Suddenly Leah pulled her cell phone out of her pocket.

“What are you doing?” Abby asked suspiciously.

Leah looked up innocently. “I thought I could text Jake and say hi,” she said, her eyes wide.

“No!” cried Abby. She lunged for Leah's phone, but Leah was too quick; she jumped out of the way and ran to the other side of the room.

“Please don't text him, Leah,” Abby begged.

“Why not?” asked Leah. “I only want to help you like you helped me at the market. Like you said, how will you ever have the chance to go out with Jake if you don't talk to him? I can get the conversation started.”

“No!” Abby pleaded. “I
really
don't want you to text Jake!”

“Well,
you
could always text him instead,” Nora suggested.

“Oh, no. Absolutely not,” replied Abby immediately. “What would I say?”

“Well, you'll never know if you don't try,” said Chloe. “Maybe Jake would love it if you texted him.”

Abby sighed. She knew her friends were right in a way. It would be great to text Jake if he wanted to text her, too. But what if he didn't want to? Abby decided it was a risk she was willing to take. “Fine! Fine, I'll do it!” she said as she pulled her own phone out of her back pocket.
Jake and I are friends
, Abby thought.
We've known each other forever. It won't be totally weird for me to text him. Probably.

Abby plunked down on the couch as her friends crowded around her.

“What are you going to write?” Chloe asked excitedly.

Abby shrugged. “I'm not sure,” she admitted. “What do you guys think?”

“How about this?” suggested Nora. “Dear Jake, I
l-o-o-o-o-ove
you. . . .”

Abby frowned playfully and grabbed a pillow and tossed it at Nora.

“Just write, ‘Hey,'” Chloe suggested. “Maybe he won't even get the text right now. Maybe his phone will be off.”

“Maybe,” Abby said. But she didn't sound very hopeful. She sighed again as she typed
HEY
into her phone. Then she took a deep breath and hit send.

For a few moments, everyone was quiet with anticipation. Then, suddenly, Abby's phone pinged. All the girls shrieked.

“He wrote back! He wrote back!” Abby cried, forgetting her embarrassment as she read Jake's message aloud. “‘Hey, Abby! What's up?' Aaaah! What should I write back?” she asked her friends.

“Just say, ‘Nothing. What's up with you?'” Chloe advised her.

“That works,” Abby replied as she started typing.

Everyone waited anxiously for Jake to reply.

Ping!

When Abby's phone beeped, all the girls screamed in excitement again. This time the cat dashed up the stairs, frightened by the commotion. “Sorry, Eddie,” Abby apologized to the cat.

Suddenly the door at the top of the stairs creaked open—and everyone screamed for a third time!

“Girls?” Abby's mother asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, Mom,” Abby said quickly as her friends dissolved into giggles. “Sorry if we're being too loud.”

“It's okay, honey,” Mrs. Miller replied. “Just try to keep it down after eleven o'clock, okay?”

“Sure,” Abby said. “Good night, Mom.”

As soon as Mrs. Miller closed the door, Leah reached for Abby's cell. “What did he say?” she asked excitedly.

“Hang on,” Abby said, holding the phone away from Leah. She peered at the screen. “He's hanging out with Max and Toby at his house!”

“
What?”
squealed Nora. “Leah said they were all at the movies!”

“I guess they—”

Ping!

Abby read the text to herself, then started laughing so hard she couldn't speak.

“What did he say?” Leah asked, bouncing up and down a little.

Abby glanced up from her phone. “He says they were wondering if Nora is feeling okay!” she cried. “I guess they saw your little chicken dance.”

“
Nooooooo!”
groaned Nora. “Chloe, you are so dead! I can't believe you made me do that stupid dare where everybody could see it. And with all those lights on!”

“Sorry,” Chloe said with a shrug, but she had such a big smile on her face that the other girls knew she didn't mean it.

Abby didn't say anything as her fingers flew over the keypad.

“What did you write back?” asked Nora.

“I just told him that you felt like dancing.” Abby giggled. “You know you've got all the coolest moves!”

“You guys, this is so awful!” Nora moaned. “If they tell everybody at school on Monday, I will die.”

Ping!

This time, Abby started laughing before she even finished reading the text. “Jake says they thought Nora
was trying to defeat the evil Octopus Girl!” she shrieked. “I think he means you, Leah!”

Leah's hands flew up to her crazy hairdo as everyone turned to look at her. “Eight pigtails!” she groaned. “Oh man, they really
do
look like octopus tentacles!”

Ping!

Ping!

Ping!

Ping!

“What did he say?” Leah asked. “Anything more about any of us?”

Abby held out her phone so everyone could see Jake's latest texts for themselves.

BATTLE OF THE CENTURY

SUPER CHICKEN VS OCTO-GIRL

FOWL MEETS FISH

WHO WILL WIN?

Abby was howling with laughter along with the other girls when a terrible thought struck her. Had Jake and his pals noticed her own wild hairstyle? The double French braids Nora had attempted to give her were so lumpy that they practically looked like stegosaurus spines.

Abby didn't want to know whatever awful nickname
the boys had dreamed up for her. She turned back to her cell phone and sent one more quick text to Jake.

G2G, C U MONDAY! B4N!

Then Abby turned off her phone.

“Abby!” cried Leah. “Why'd you do that? Things were just getting interesting.”

“I figured we should quit while we were ahead. You know, before the guys had a chance to nickname the rest of us. Let's watch a movie now,” Abby said, trying to change the subject. “
Attack of the Bee People
, anyone?”

“Awesome,” Nora said. “I promise you won't be disappointed!”

While Leah set up the DVD, Abby turned off the lights. Then she joined the rest of the girls on the couch. As the movie started, she checked her cell phone to make sure she had turned it off.

Several hours later the basement was dark and quiet. There wasn't a single sound except for the deep, calm breathing of the sleeping girls.

Suddenly the basement was filled with an eerie green glow.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Abby rubbed her eyes as she started to wake up. What
was
that noise? It sounded familiar.

“What's that?” mumbled Leah.

“The bee people!” Chloe gasped, sitting straight up in her sleeping bag.

“No, no, that was just a movie,” Abby said sleepily. “I think it's my phone.”

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Abby fumbled around on the floor near her sleeping bag, but she couldn't find her phone anywhere. “Guys, where is my phone?” she asked. “I left it right here when we went to bed.”

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

“Abby, is that it?” Nora asked, pointing across the room. Sure enough, Abby's phone was sitting on the table by the stairs, glowing in the darkness. It rattled across the table every time it vibrated.

“Sorry, everybody,” Abby apologized as she crawled
out of her sleeping bag. “I swear, I thought I turned it off.”

“Who would text you in the middle of the night?” Chloe asked.

“I don't know,” Abby said as she picked up her phone. She squinted her eyes as she peered at the message, trying to read what it said.

Her eyes swept across the screen, and before she could stop herself, she gasped in horror.

“Abby! What's wrong?” Leah asked as she stood up. “What does it say?” She grabbed the phone out of Abby's hand as the other girls gathered around, and held it up so that everyone could read the mysterious text message that Abby had received. It said:

LEAVE HIM ALONE. HE'S MINE!!! DON'T MAKE ME TELL YOU TWICE!