The Worst Dare Ever
CHAPTER ONE
“Absolutely not.”
Ashley sat down across from Emilia and took a french fry off her tray like it belonged to her.
“You haven’t even heard it yet.”
“I heard enough.”
“You heard three words.”
“Three terrible words.”
The cafeteria at noon always turned into the same kind of noise. Trays hit tables, chairs scraped, conversations piled on top of each other, and the music from the speakers never really stood a chance. Outside the windows, leaves were falling and sliding across the quad. Emilia usually liked this time of year. Right now she mostly wanted to leave.
Peggy leaned forward. “Just hear us out.”
That sentence alone made Emilia’s shoulders tighten. Nothing good had ever followed those four words. Emma was already losing the fight not to smile. Elsa just sat there looking like she wished she’d picked different friends years ago.
“What happened this time?” Emilia asked.
Ashley put a hand over her heart. “The disrespect.”
“Answer the question.”
Peggy grinned. “We’re celebrating.”
“Celebrating what?”
“You got the highest score on Turner’s exam.”
Emilia narrowed her eyes. That actually sounded reasonable, which immediately made her suspicious. Ashley never started with reasonable.
“And that concerns me listening to you… how?”
The four of them looked at each other. It was the look. The one that meant someone’s day was about to get significantly worse. Emilia started collecting her things before anyone could speak.
“No.”
“You haven’t heard the idea.”
“Still no.” She’d learned the hard way that when her friends got this worked up, she was usually the one who paid for it.
Ashley caught her by the wrist before she could stand all the way up. “Sit down.”
“No.”
“Sit.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Emilia.”
“Ashley.”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“I’m protecting myself.”
Emma laughed into her drink. “She’s got a point.”
Peggy finally dropped the act. “A dare.”
Emilia exhaled through her nose. “There it is.”
“I knew you’d overreact.”
“I haven’t reacted yet.”
“You’re kind of reacting.”
“I’m leaving.” She stood.
Ashley stood with her. “Final answer?”
Emilia reached for her backpack. “Yes.”
Ashley smiled the slow way that always meant trouble. “Then I guess we’ll have to show everyone the video from first year.”
Emilia stopped moving.
The table started laughing. The color went out of her face so fast she felt slightly dizzy.
“No.”
Ashley’s smile only got wider. “Oh yes.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“I’m really not.”
“You deleted it.”
Ashley pulled out her phone, tapped the screen once, and there it was—the thumbnail Emilia still recognized on sight. Orientation week. Karaoke. One decision that should have stayed buried forever.
“Cloud storage,” Ashley said.
“You’re evil.”
“Thank you.”
Emma nearly fell sideways laughing. Elsa covered her face with both hands. Even Peggy looked impressed.
“This is blackmail.”
“Correct.”
“That’s illegal.”
“Probably.”
Emilia looked at the phone a second longer, then sat back down. The girls cheered. Traitors. All of them.
Ashley clapped her hands once. “Wonderful.”
“I dislike all of you.”
“We know.”
“So what’s the dare?”
Something in Ashley’s face shifted, and Emilia felt the first real drop of dread before Ashley even spoke. She already knew. Somehow knowing made it worse.
Ashley pointed across the room at the hockey table. Specifically at the one person Emilia had spent five years carefully not running into.
Nate Walker.
Right then he turned and laughed at whatever one of his teammates had just said. The sound carried. Emilia felt the old, automatic irritation settle in. Good. At least that part was consistent.
Ashley followed her line of sight and smiled. “You have until Winter Ball.”
“No.”
“To get Nate Walker to ask you out.”
For a second the noise of the cafeteria seemed to pull back. Emilia stared, then laughed once—short and disbelieving.
They couldn’t be serious.
No one else was laughing.
That was when she understood they meant it.
