Brooke's POV
Daniel pulls out an A4 sheet of paper, at the top, hastily scribbled are the words, contract and list of dares. I roll my eyes at his seriousness about this whole dare thing. He hands me the paper and I begin reading
I, Brooke Wilson swear to complete this challenge no matter what
Dare-challenge: Dress, act and live the life of a boy for a whole month.
_______________ (signature)
List
1. Cut hair
2. Join a boys sport team
3. Dress like a boy
4. Act like a boy
5. Not shower for 2 days
I stop at number five and glare at Dan, "What the heck, so do all of you not shower, ever!. I say, scrunching you face up. "No-you just have to do this list ok-I'll do yours and you do my list, we had an agreement" Daniel retorts. I sigh and rake a hand through my hair "Fine, even if your list is pretty pathetic". Dan rolls his eyes and gets back to reading his list, there is a slight expression of sadness in his face but it vanishes in seconds.
6. Wear men's deodorant
The rest of the list is a bunch of random dares. "Seriously Dan!" I say pointing to number 20 (sneak into the neighbour's house and spray paint the cat). "What!, you know Brooke, if you're gonna be so picky how about we do the same list, except I have to act like a girl" he sighs. "Tell me why we are doing this again!" I groan. "Oh well, I just thought you weren't such a chicken!" He says, making clucking noises. I sigh and question him again "And can I do the dares while being a boy?". "Yes, and you have to get all the dares on camera" Dan replies as he heads back home.
****
"Brooke, are you sure about this", my best friend Ava says, fingering the sharp scissors that lay on my dresser. "Yeah-look, get this on camera, ok?" I say, picking up the scissors. Ok here goes, I squeeze my eyes shut and grab a lock of my honey coloured hair 'snip'. I open my eyes, I've cut one section of my hair that used to go down to my waist, now brushing my shoulder. Ava lets out a small gasp, "Brooke, you don't have to do this". "Yeah-I do, my reputation depends on this, besides I've gone too far now" I says, grabbing another handful of my hair. By the end of my haircut, I'm left with shorn looking hair, only just brushing the tops of my shoulders. .
"Now I just have to buy some boy clothes" I say, brushing a few stray locks of cut hair off my shirt. "No-you won't, we can steal some of my brother's clothes" Ava grins. "Won't he realise that his stuff is gone" I ask. "No-sometimes he wears the same thing all week!" She says, scrunching up her nose "But don't worry, we will get clean stuff" she adds, judging me by my repulsed facial expression.
*****
"alright-" Ava begins "We've got to sneak through his window, he's upstairs, near his room playing video games in front of the TV". I nod and glance at Mike (Ava's brother) s window, it's on the second floor and seems very out of reach. A loud cluttering noise jerks me out of my thinking, Ava is walking towards me, in her hands is a large metal ladder. "Alright you know what to do" Ava says, propping the ladder against the wall "Make sure you hold tight". I get a firm grip on the ladder, which wobbles slightly as Ava reaches the last couple of steps. "NOW WHAT!" I yell up at her. Her face contorts into a thinking expression. "You're gonna have to climb up!" She yells back. It's now or never, do it for the dare. I place my foot on the first step, I have to do this. I slowly make my way up constantly chanting don't look down don't look down. I'm not afraid of many things, except heights, which are basically my Achilles heel. I grab Ava's outstretched arm and pull my self in through the window, landing face first with a thump, onto the carpet floor.
Looking around, you can clearly tell that this is a boy's room. There are clothes scattered everywhere, muddy soccer boots leaning against a wall, and the forever lingering scent of sweat. I slowly tiptoe over to Ava, who is rummaging through her brother's wardrobe, stuffing clean clothes into a carrier bag. My silent ness last for a couple of seconds, until I step on a packet of chips, with half its contents spilled out onto the floor. "Shhhhhh!" Ava hisses as he shoves a brand new deodorant spray into the bag. "C'mon" she says, throwing the bag out of the window and placing her feet on the ladder. After she reaches the bottom, I follow. Instead of climbing down smoothly like Ava, halfway down i loose my balance. To steady myself I grab onto a branch of a tree, near the ladder. "HOLD ON BROOKE!" Ava yells jumping up and down madly. The branch begins to break. Crunch crunch crunch CRACK "AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The next thing I know, I'm lying on the ground, my fall broken by the carrier bag, the branch lying about a metre away from me. "Are you ok?" Ava asks helping me up, I take a look at my reflection on the glass door. There are several twigs in my hair, and mud on my face and shirt. I look so comical that I can't help bust out helping.
*****
"Go on, try them on, we'll see what you look like" Ava says, handing me the Nike shirt and a pair of black jeans. "I'll wear my own jeans" I say, pulling my jeans out of my wardrobe. I walk into the bathroom and pull of my yellow top and black shorts, replacing them with the Nike shirt and black jeans. Glancing ant the mirror, I realise that I don't look much like myself, instead I look like a more tomboyish version of me. I grab a tube of hair gel from the carrier bag hair gel and slick my hair to the side, attempting to create that typical boy hair flick.
I walk out and Ava stands there, her mouth gaping open "Wow you look so different!" she squeals, snapping a picture of me with her camera. "Let's finish reading the list" Ava says, picking the slightly crinkled paper, up off my desk.
7. Eat mouldy cheese, and keep it down (Ava gags)
8. Start a food fight
9. Eat 21 bars of chocolate
10. Wear a bikini to school (I groan and Ava gasps)
11. Walk around town with a pair of undies of your head
12. Go to the pool and scream that you peed
13. Eat 5 cans of whipped cream, non stop
14. Get detention and throw a party in the detention room
15. Sneak out of your house at 12:am, through the window to buy McDonald's
16. Do the bean boozled challenge
17. Go skydiving and film it with a go pro
18. Eat sunscreen
19. Smack cam 23 people with cream pies
20. Spray paint the neighbour's cat
21. Steal candy from a baby
22. Eat out of a trash can
23. Spend $100 at a lolly store
24. Smash a window
25. Reveal you most secretive secret
26. Create a time capsule for yourself in the future
The list finishes there, leaving me wondering about Daniel's interesting choice of dares, seems more like a bucket list to me. I glance into the mirror once more, I guess this is gonna be me for the next month.
