Truth or Dare?

Chapter Seven - Aspen

I woke up to a knock on my door.

"Miss Wardal, class starts in one hour." A butler said.

I shivered and told him it was okay to go, since I was still pretty disturbed from the butler incident last night.

I got dressed into an old pullover sweater and denim shorts and sneakers and tied my hair up in a high ponytail. I threw a pair of sandals on my feet and started applying makeup to my face. I had half an hour left so I decided to play around with my phone. I noticed everyone's names in my phone and wondered whether to send a text message to Kieran or Penn, or none at all. I decided to just put my phone away in my pocket and just sat there for a while, thinking about nothing really. The whole project was a lot to take in.

Time passed and I decided to get a head start to try finding the schooling part of the castle. I denied the butler's assistance and decided to just follow a boy with blondish brown hair who also seemed to not want the help of a butler.

I walked a little faster in attempt to get him to notice me. Eventually as I finally reached his side, he looked over at me. "Oh, hi." I made a mental note of his slight British accent.

"Hi," I forced a smile. "Heading to school?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "I didn't think this would be part of the whole 'project' thing."

"Me either," I said. "I'm Aspen, by the way."

"Ben," he said, smiling.

"Well, Ben," I said, "I don't know about you but I have no idea where I'm going."

He laughed. "Me either. Perhaps a little help from one of the bultle--"

"NO." I interrupted him.

He looked at me oddly. "Are you alright? You seem a bit… tense."

I wasn't sure if I should've told him about the butler incident so I just decided to keep it to myself. "Sorry… it's just, this whole project is a lot to take in, you know?" I lied.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I've got to admit I was pretty shaken up when I found out I was in this."

"Me too," I said. "To just take us away from our homes and our families like that is just crazy."

We found a girl who must've been either Isabel or Maxine, since it definitely wasn't Penn, and I made a mental note to let Penn know who she was. She seemed to know where she was going, so Ben and I walked up to her. "Hey, you have any idea where you're going?" Ben asked her.

"Uh, yeah." She said. "Our phones have maps on them, actually."

"Oh yeah," I whispered to myself. "I forgot about that." I could tell she was about to walk away when I forced an introduction out of myself. "I'm Aspen and this is Ben, by the way."

"Isabel," she smiled. "Well I'll see you guys around, I need to catch up with the other girl, Max, before class starts…" she said suspiciously.

"Alright, cool." Ben said.

"See you at class then." She smiled and walked off.

"Well she seemed nice enough," Ben said. "Yeah," I agreed, opening a text to Penn.

I just found Isabel, she's blonde and has bluish green eyes. That help with your dare? 

She responded rather quickly. A bunch, thanks. See you at class.

I opened the map on my phone and Ben and I found our way to the classroom. I saw Kieran and Penn wasn't there yet so I just sat next to him. He didn't notice at first, so I poked him and said "Hey, stranger."

He looked over at me and smiled a huge smile which made me smile as well. “Hey,” he said.

I laughed and the teacher walked in. Well, this should be interesting.