Stay Courageous

Chapter 24

The Character is Madison

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Kat's POV

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Much later after we finished dinner, the six of us were back up in Madison's room. The conversation was quite interesting. I was fascinated by the things Tia, Yevonne, Rene and Pamela found funny. I've never been close to any of them, Madison is the one that I only kind of hang out with at school and basketball and stuff.

"...And then, he snapchatted me a picture of his butt!" Rene finished her story and the other girls cracked up. Madison was reclining on her canopy bed and the rest of us were sprawled out on the floor telling ex boyfriend stories. I didn't understand how they could all have multiple ex boyfriends already with us being only in ninth grade, but then again this was a different crowd than I normally hang out with. I was branching out. This was good! Or so I thought, at the time.

"Okay, talking about y'all's love life is getting boring. Let's move on to something more entertaining to talk about," Madison spoke up, setting her phone down on the bed for the first time that night. That obviously meant she means business. "Let's talk about basketball."

"Ooh, can we talk about how that girl from Rosebrook High kept giving me the elbow the other night?" Pamela was talking about the game we had Tuesday. The girls from Rosebrook were huge and they liked to foul.

"No Pam, I mean like, the girls from basketball. No one needs to hear you having a pity party about your bruises. That's what basketball is all about," Madison rolled her eyes and flipped her blonde locks. I sand Melanie Martinez's song "Pity Party" in my head. It couldn't be helped.

"Yeah, starting with Sam Donahue," Yevonne popped the gum she was chewing and I perked up at the mention of my friend's name. Why would they want to talk about her?

"We think she didn't want to come cause she's doing something with that Zoe chick. You hang out with both of them, Kat. Is that true?" I realized Madison was speaking directly to me. I didn't know if Sam and Zoe were together or not, but I'd guess the latter judging by the state of her at school.

"Uh, no. They're not doing anything together that I know of," I was looking down, tracing the pattern of Madison's light blue carpet.

"Oh, thank God," I noticed these girls really like to stress certain words when they talked as Rene reacted to my answer.

"Yeah, we thought she'd be corrupted by Queen of the Underworld," Tia referred to Zoe. I drooped my head even more so i was basically laying on the floor with my head propped up on the pillow that I brought.

"She probably wouldn't be able to handle the stuff we're gonna do anyway," Madison got up and turned off the light, and now there was just moonlight streaming in through the French doors that led out onto her balcony. When she pulled out a flashlight and didn't continue what she was saying, I prompted her.

"Which is?" I followed the other girls that were gathering in a circle on Madison's floor.

When we were all settled, Madison joined us sitting criss cross applesauce in the gap in our circle. She clicked the flashlight on so it shined on her face from below. "Truth or dare," she said.

I full out started laughing. "Truth or dare? You can't be serious," everyone was still giving me weird looks! "What? That's a kid's game!"

"Well, not the way I play it," Madison exchanged mischievous grins with the other girls. My stomach churned. I didn't exactly know what that meant, but I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.\