Truth or Dare?

Chapter Six - Penn

“So, why were you out so late?” Aspen asked me after we explained our dares to each other.

“I have insomnia,” I explained. “I can’t really sleep unless I’m totally exhausted, and even then it takes a while for me to fall asleep. I figured I could try to get some progress on what my dare was, and who you were and such. I just didn’t expect to bump into you.”

“Oh,” Aspen said. I nodded, and said, “But I function better at night, too, so it’s really okay.”

There was a brief silence and I asked, “And why were you out so late?”

“Wardal,” she replied.

“Oh, so you’re pretty far down on the list. I got it.”

She nodded. We were quiet for a minute.

“Well, you’re from Four, right?” Aspen asked.

I nodded.

“Who’s the bright haired boy?”

“Well, Ben is blond, and Jack is a ginger, so I’m going to guess they mean Jack. I don’t know. But the dares are pretty lame.”

“Yeah, I know. I have to hide his shampoo.”

“I have to put the chick from Two’s hair brush in the chick from One’s bag.”

I thought of something. “Maybe it says where everyone is on the phone things we’ve got.”

Aspen looked at me skeptically.

“Like, it says what wing or where they are on it. Or you could navigate and ask.”

She pulled out her phone thing (which I will call a phone because it is easier)( and went into her contacts. I pulled out mine to do the same, and I found out that it was listed in Quarter order. The girl from One was named Isabel Greggor, and the one from Two was Maxine Azura.

As I guessed would happen, their locations showed up below their names. “WEST WING, MAXINE AZURA’S QUARTERS” was below each.

I suppose if one of them were to look, Aspen and I would be “EAST TOWER, ASPEN WARDAL’S QUARTERS.”

“This doesn’t really help us find their rooms,” Aspen mumbled.

“Agreed,” I said. “Wish we had the Marauder’s Map.”

She looked at me oddly, which she seemed to be doing a lot.

“Never mind.” Not a fan of older literature, I suppose.

“Okay,” Aspen sighed.

“So how do you suppose you’re going to pull off your dare?” I asked her.

“I was thinking of finding out who the guy was, then going to his room and taking his stuff out of his bathroom, then hiding it in the garden because what am I going to do with men’s shampoo?”

I laughed a little and said, “I’d pretend I actually had a boyfriend.”

She smiled. “What are you going to do?”

“Well, while both are out of their rooms, I’ll grab Isabel’s brush and put it in Max’s bag. Easy as cake.”

“What if at no point they’re both out of their rooms?”

I smiled slightly evilly. “I’ll create a diversion.”

She looked at me like she knew what I was gonna say, and at the same time, we said, “Fire alarms.”

We laughed. Mentally, I evaluated Aspen. Probably about five foot eight, very pretty with light brown hair and cool eyes that faded out to brown, kind of, and she looked like the kind of girl who came from Three, a nice sweater and jeans, a reading tablet on her bedside table.

I didn’t know how well we’d get on, but she seemed nice enough, and you have to give people the benefit of the doubt.

“So, what do you like to do?” I asked Aspen.

“Read, and sometimes I like to write,” she replied.

“Oh, cool. I really like to read, too, and I write and play music. Music is all I need. Although I will admit, I think oxygen is pretty essential when it comes to functioning, as a human you know?”

Aspen looked at me and didn’t laugh.

After a moment of silence, both of our phones made an alert noise.  A bar at the top of the screen said:

“Light’s out. School begins tomorrow at eight PM sharp. You have ten minutes to be in your room. Otherwise, one of the butlers will be there to fetch you. We always know where you’re lurking. Stay safe, -Chair Board.”

“Whoa,” I sighed. “They end with some creepy stuff.”

“You said it,” Aspen agreed, looking really freaked out by the alert.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. She looked petrified.

“Nothing,” she shrugged. “Just creepy.”

I nodded.

“Well, I’d best get going,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“Bye,” I said as I left. I heard her say it back as I closed the door, and I found my way back to my room in the dimly lit hallways.

Day one of the project, complete.