“Class, when you have your ideas, please just write them down on a slip of paper, along with the names of the students who are in your group, and turn it in to me before class is over today.”
“Uh, Mrs. Portney?” Sam hesitantly raised her hand.
“Yes, what is it, Samantha?” Mrs. Portney asked. She was the only teacher who didn’t annoy Sam when she called her by her full name.
“Well, we were just wondering.…” Sam spoke for the group. “Can we keep our pillow idea a secret until we’re done? It’s kind of a surprise.”
“Oh?” Mrs. Portney grinned at the possibilities and shifted her glasses down to peer at the four girls over the top of them. “I suppose that would be all right, even though it’s highly unusual. But then again, what else should I expect from you four? As long as you understand that if you don’t tell me what you’re doing, I can’t help guide you in the process. But even without my help, you’re still responsible for every part of the project in order to get a full grade.”
“No problem, Mrs. Portney. Thanks!”
The bell rang, and it was time to head off to their separate classes. Kelly had English, Macy had math, Lindsay went to social studies, and Sam headed off to PE.
“Ugh! What happened to summer?” Kelly lamented to her friends as they slumped toward the cafeteria for lunch on Wednesday during the second week of school.
“I know exactly what you mean,” Lindsay replied. “I thought they had to give you a few weeks before they started piling on the homework, but I think I already have two hours of homework for tonight, and the day is only half over.”
“So much for eighth grade being so great,” Sam laughingly agreed as she collapsed in her seat with her lunch tray.
“What’s with you?” Lindsay asked Macy when she noticed that Macy had hardly said a word since they met up by their lockers a few minutes before.
“Oh, nothing really,” Macy moped. Her friends just looked at her, waiting, not about to let her off the hook that easily. “Well, it’s just that my math class is much harder this year, and I barely made it through last year’s class. My mom has been talking about a tutor, and I don’t want to have to do that.” She slumped her shoulders and dropped her head onto her arms after pushing away her lunch tray.
“Can we help?” Lindsay offered. “We could help you study. I have the same class as you, and Kelly is ahead of both of us.”
“Yeah,” Kelly jumped in. “If all of us help, you should be able to pull out of this, no problem.”
“I don’t know.” Macy wasn’t convinced. “I already failed my first quiz. I just don’t have a math brain, I guess. I think I’m prepared, but then the test starts, and I can’t remember anything about the formulas and the order of the steps. You can help me study, but I think my memory is the problem … or something like that.” Macy looked defeated.
Sam jumped up with an idea. “I know!” she shouted.
Lindsay and Kelly were startled by her outburst and almost knocked over their drinks.
“What’s gotten into you, silly?” Kelly asked, laughing.
“Well,” Sam continued, “Saturday is only three days away. Let’s have a sleepover at my house. We’ll celebrate making it through the second week of school by eating some junk food, watching some movies, and staying up late. What do you say?”
“Oh, count me in!” Kelly jumped at the chance.
“Me, too!” Macy quickly added.
“Well, you guys know my mom won’t let me stay out on a Saturday because of church on Sunday, so you’ll have to count me out,” Lindsay replied.
“Oh no!” Sam shook her head. She held up a finger so she could finish chewing her bite of food, swallowed, grabbed a quick drink of milk to wash it down, and said, “No way are we leaving you out. We’ll do it Friday.” To a chorus of agreement from the other girls, Lindsay agreed to the plans, and the girls were relieved to have something fun to look forward to.
“Now let’s make a list,” Macy, ever the planner, suggested, excited to be able to move on from the depressing talk of her math class. “What should we do, and what should we bring?”
“Definitely a movie,” Kelly suggested.
“Okay. And we can’t do a movie without a pizza.” Macy wrote Movie and Pizza on the list.
“What about a game?” Lindsay asked.
“Oh, girls, I have a game for us, but it’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait until Friday night to find out what it is,” Sam teased.
“Sounds mysterious.” Macy wrote down: Sam’s Secret Game. And all of the girls giggled. They made their plans for Friday night and agreed that it would be a nice diversion to what was shaping up to be a tough year.
Macy, who was watching her weight as usual, picked the sausage and pepperoni off her pizza. Kelly, who never worried about her weight, silently reached over to grab Macy’s pepperoni.
“Hey!” Macy smacked her hand away. “What are you doing?”
“Well, you’re not going to eat them.”
“No, but I’d rather not have it shoved in my face that you can eat anything you want and never gain weight!” Macy whined.
“My mom gets so mad when I talk about dieting or watching what I’m eating,” Lindsay said. “She thinks we’re too young to worry about it and that we should just enjoy being kids.”
“No one wants to get fat,” Kelly snorted. “And we aren’t kids, but we aren’t grown-ups yet either, so I’m not going to worry about it just yet.”
“I agree that no one wants to be fat,” Lindsay countered, “but we should be careful and think about what we eat because it’s healthier, not so we can be skinny.”
“Easy for you to say,” Macy grumbled.
“I’m not skinny at all,” Lindsay said defensively.
“No, not skinny, but you’re not fat either. You’re perfect.”
“Oh, I don’t feel perfect. I don’t think anyone does,” Lindsay explained. “I just think we should be able to relax about things a little more. There’s too much pressure to be what other people want us to be. As long as we’re happy about who we are inside, that should be enough for people to be friends with us, right?”
“It’s not like it’s something you have to choose between, Linds. I mean, we can be nice and skinny at the same time, right?” Sam was confused.
“Of course you can. I’m just talking about priorities. I don’t want to be the kind of person who looks at someone’s outside appearance and judges them on whether they’re skinny enough or not.”
“True,” Sam agreed. “But unfortunately, not everyone feels that way. And for that reason, I’ll stick to my salad and skip the french fries when we go out to eat.”
“Yeah, and if you don’t mind,” Macy replied, still irritated, “I’ll pick off my pepperoni if I want to.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Lindsay gave in, laughing. “I was just trying to give us a new outlook. You guys are perfect in my book, no matter how you look.”
Chapter 3
SLEEPOVER PARTY
“Mom, did you hear the doorbell ring?” Sam shouted excitedly, forgetting that her mom wasn’t even home. She’d been waiting for her friends for what seemed like hours. Running to the front door, Sam swung it wide open to find Kelly and Macy. The three girls squealed in excitement, and Kelly turned to wave at her mom as she backed out of the driveway with a little honk. They all turned to look down the street, anxious because they couldn’t get started without Lindsay. With Lindsay nowhere in sight, they dropped to the porch step to wait until she arrived.
“She’s here! She’s here!” the girls yelled when Lindsay’s mom pulled into the driveway to drop her off for the night.
“Hi, Mrs. Martin.” Sam waved a greeting.
Mrs. Martin chuckled at the girls’ excitement. “You girls see each other almost every single day. How can you get so excited over just one more day?”
“Oh, Mrs. Martin, this is different,” Sam assured her. “This is a special night. It’s our first sleepo
ver as eighth graders.”
“Well, all right.” Mrs. Martin laughed and rolled her eyes. “Just be sure that you eighth graders stay out of trouble.”
“We will,” the girls promised.
“Now come on!” Sam linked arms with Kelly, Kelly grabbed Lindsay’s arm, Lindsay grabbed Macy, and they all started to walk in together.
Mrs. Martin honked and waved. Through her open window, she reminded Lindsay, “You remember what I said—be good.”
The girls walked together into the house, squealing and giggling all the way.
“What should we do first?” Kelly asked.
“My mom bought all the stuff for us to make pizza, and she left instructions for us. She and Dad went to a friend’s house for dinner and won’t be home until later, so she thought that would be fun for us,” Sam explained.
“Cool!” The girls agreed it would be fun to make their own pizza, and knowing how long things could take when they started messing around, they got started right away.
Looking at the list, Sam got out the ingredients. There was dough to unroll, sauce to spread, cheese to sprinkle, and, of course, pepperoni to put on top.
“Oops … we almost forgot. It says to preheat the oven to four hundred degrees,” Sam told the girls.
“I’ll get that,” Lindsay said, since she was standing right in front of the oven. Sam dug out pizza pans, and the other girls washed their hands and rolled up their sleeves.
Pizza Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray the pizza pan with nonstick spray, and sprinkle with flour.
3. Spread the dough onto the pizza pan evenly.
4. Evenly apply the pizza sauce to cover the dough.
5. Sprinkle the cheese all over the pizza.
6. Spread the pepperoni on the top of the pizza.
7. Bake for approximately 15–18 minutes, checking it regularly.
8. Be careful when you take it out. It’s going to be HOT!
Lindsay said, “I’ll do the spray.”
“I’ll sprinkle the flour,” said Kelly. When it came time for that, she got a mischievous look on her face and flicked her fingers at Lindsay and Sam, who were standing nearby.
“Hey!” The girls giggled as they shook their long hair over the sink to get the flour out.
Sam spread the sauce, and they all took turns sprinkling the cheese. They worked on spreading the pepperoni until the pizza was completely covered and then added a few more just to make sure. Into the oven it went.
Sam set the timer, and the girls turned to take a look at the kitchen that they needed to clean while the pizza cooked. What a disaster! With a chorus of four loud groans, they started cleaning up their mess, wishing they hadn’t been so sloppy while they prepared the pizza. They had to put all the ingredients away, clean up the dishes, wipe off the countertops, and clean the floor. Eventually, though, they had the kitchen restored to what they thought was its original condition. Sam’s mom might disagree, but hopefully it would be good enough.
Sam’s mom had picked up some movies for them from the rental store, they chose one to watch on Sam’s huge plasma television screen while they ate their pizza, which had finished baking at almost the exact time that they finished their cleaning. Armed with plates piled high with pizza and cans of soda, they settled in on the big leather sofa in the basement to watch their movie.
After a little while, Sam nudged Lindsay. “Hey, look over there.” Sam pointed to Kelly, who was sound asleep on the sofa. The girls giggled quietly.
“Hmm … what should we do to her?” Lindsay asked the girls—because, as everyone knew, the first person to fall asleep at a sleepover got pranked. It was usually Macy who fell asleep first, but now it was Kelly’s turn.
“We could fill her shoes with shaving cream,” Sam suggested. The girls laughed but dismissed the idea because Kelly wouldn’t discover it until the next morning, which would be no fun—plus they could get in trouble if her shoes got ruined. So, after conspiring together for a few minutes, they concocted a pretty devious plan that they were quite proud of.
Sam went to the kitchen to fill a glass with very cold water and even added a few ice cubes to it to make sure it was cold enough. They balanced the glass very carefully on the back frame of the couch, which was leaning against the wall, and then propped it there with the little decorative pillows that Sam’s mom had sitting around on the sofa. They made sure that the only direction the glass could fall was forward. The three girls tiptoed to the door and quietly left the room. When they made it out the door, Sam reached back, took the doorknob, and pulled really hard.
Bam! The door slammed shut. The girls quickly opened the door just a crack so they could see the scene they had created.
With the slamming of the door, Kelly immediately woke up and looked around the room, half asleep and confused. Startled and seeing that she was alone, she sat up abruptly. The pillows supporting the water glass were disturbed, and the glass tumbled forward, drenching Kelly from her neck all the way down the front of her shirt with ice-cold water.
She squealed as the water touched her skin and her body shivered. Her eyes flashed in anger as she searched for someone … anyone. Then she heard the girls trying really hard not to giggle, and even though she tried not to laugh, she couldn’t help herself. When the other three saw that she was being a good sport, they tumbled through the door, laughing so hard they could barely stand up straight. Sam fell to the tiled basement floor in fits of laughter as Kelly grabbed a towel from the laundry pile to dry herself.
“It serves … you right … for falling asleep … so early!” Lindsay tried to talk in between gales of laughter.
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Kelly gave in, shaking her head. “But you had all better be careful, because I am well rested now, and I’ll be up long after all of you fall asleep.” The girls laughed good-naturedly.
They carried their dishes and garbage upstairs to the kitchen so they could make sure everything was cleaned up before Sam’s mom and dad got home.
“So, Macy …,” Kelly hesitantly began while they were straightening the kitchen.
“Yeah?” Macy raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“What’s the deal with you and Tyler Turner this year?”
Lindsay and Sam stopped what they were doing. Sam turned off the water in the sink so she could hear Macy’s reply.
“What are you talking about?” Macy asked innocently but smiled as she looked away.
“Oh no! Don’t even think about pretending that you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Kelly wagged her finger.
“She’s blushing!” Lindsay shouted when Macy’s cheeks turned bright red.
“No, I’m not blushing,” Macy insisted. “I’m just hot.”
“Right! Sure!” The girls didn’t believe her and continued demanding answers. “It’s time to fess up,” Lindsay insisted.
“All right, all right,” Macy relented. “The thing is, I don’t know what is going on with Tyler. I mean, you guys know that I’ve liked him forever—like, for two whole years. But I don’t think he knows that I exist. But then sometimes it feels like he likes me, too.”
“Right—I mean, how do you explain the fact that every time I leave my science class, he’s there by your locker, waiting for you to come out of math? Hmm?” Kelly pried.
“He’s just being nice,” Macy insisted. She continued. “What do you think I should do? I mean, my parents probably wouldn’t let me date anyway, so I guess it’s all for the best.”
“Here’s what we’ll do.” Sam jumped in with an idea. “I’ll ask his cousin Stephanie, whose brother, Kenny, is Tyler’s best friend, if he likes you. But I won’t tell her who wants to know.”
Kelly and Lindsay loved the idea, but Macy was hesitant. “Oh, I don’t know.…”
“Oh, you should totally do that. It’s perfect,” Kelly insisted.
“Okay,” Macy agreed. “As long as he doesn’t find out that you asked fo
r me.”
“Deal!” Sam assured her, and the girls high-fived each other.
They heard the garage door start to open. With a little squeal, they hurriedly put away the last item and rushed out of the kitchen, turning off the lights on their way out. Trying to avoid the parents, the girls rushed downstairs to the basement, where they planned to sleep all night. Sam’s mom popped her head downstairs for a quick second just to let the girls know they were home and then headed upstairs to bed.
As soon as they heard the bedroom door close upstairs, Sam got a glimmer in her eye and began to look at the girls, one at a time, teasing them until they remembered.
“Oh!” Macy exclaimed, catching on. “Let’s play Sam’s secret game.”
“We can do that. But only if you’re sure you’re ready …,” Sam teased mysteriously. “There are some rules.”
“We’re ready,” everyone agreed a bit hesitantly, wondering what Sam had cooked up for them this time.
Chapter 4
TRUTH OR DARE
“So?” Lindsay started. “Let’s have it, Sam. What is this game you’ve kept such a secret all week?”
“Yeah, let’s play,” the other two girls chimed in.
“Well, if you’re sure you want to play,” Sam explained, “you have to really agree to play for real, no matter what. It’s a matter of honor.”
“How can we agree if we don’t know what the game is?” Lindsay asked nervously.
“Well, all I can tell you until you agree is that the game is called Truth or Dare, and the key to it is that there are no limits. And you can’t bail out.”
“How do you play?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah,” Macy prodded. “You have to tell us the rules before we can agree to it.”
“Me, too. No way am I agreeing without knowing what I’m agreeing to.” Lindsay folded her arms.
“Well, basically it’s like this: When it’s your turn, you choose whether you want a truth or a dare,” Sam explained. “If you choose Truth, you will be asked a question that you have to answer truthfully. You cannot back out if you don’t like the question. If you choose Dare, then you will be given a task—or a dare—that you must complete. You can’t just decide that it’s too hard or too risky. You have to do it. If you’re scared that you won’t be able to follow through, then you shouldn’t agree to play at all.”
Dare to Be Different Page 2
