Dare Night

Chapter 15: The Winners.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Santino?" Lane asked.

Mr. Santino motioned for all of us to take a seat, which we did, "I started Dare Night," He smiled. 

"You did?"

"Yes," He started, "One night during my senior year, my friends and I were really bored, and as you know, when you are 17 and 18, there's not much to do for that age range here. We were hanging out at the diner, when this other group of kids came in. They went to our school, but we never hung around them, because they thought they were the cool kids. They actually came up to us and started daring us to do stuff, saying we could never do it. Then eventually it turned into a game, us against them."

"Did you win?" I asked.

"My team did, yes," He said, "But after the night went on we realized that we were doing things we never thought we could do. Like asking a pretty girl for her number, or climbing to rooftops, you know, stepping out of our comfort zones. And after that night, we had never felt so alive."

 I knew what Mr. Santino was talking about. This whole night we did things we were scared of doing. Things we never thought we would ever do. And in doing that and facing fears, not only were we overcoming those fears, we were growing stronger as a person. Not letting fear stop us. Just feeling free.

He continued, "And that's why I continued Dare Night, all these years later. I wanted people to feel that free feeling I felt. Every year, I would set this up just like it is now. The kids from the year before are the ones who decide and write the dares. Which means, I'll be asking you guys to write one dare each for next years groups. But Dare Night isn't all about the money. It was about pushing yourself to limits you didn't think you could reach.To face fears you didn't think you could overcome. If your head is full of fears, it will have no room to dream."

"If last years team wrote the dares," Kya started, "How did they know to write the dare about telling the truth to Reese?"

"Actually, I wrote that one," Mr. Santino said.

"But how did you know about it?"

"Because I told him everything," Alex admitted, "I need to talk to someone about it. I couldn't keep it in any longer. 

Kya scoffed, "So who won? I mean that's all we really care about right?"

"Yes, of course," Mr. Santino said, "Let me gather all of your belongings, the photos and anything else you had to collect."

 We handed over our backpack, and my stomach instantly dropped. It just now got real on whose going to win. After hearing the truth about everything, I almost forgot we were in a game.

 We watched as Mr. Santino looked over everything. He spread out all pictures and items collected on a table set up behind the couch, I only now realized was there. He pulled out a notepad and began jotting things down. I looked at everyone around me. They all had anxious looks on their faces. 

I'm sure my face had an anxious look on it as well. 

 We waited for about 10 more minutes until Mr. Santino lifted up his head. He looked us all in the eyes, "I've got the winners," He smiled.

We all stood up and gathered round each other.

"Now, before I read the winners, I just want to say that I'm proud of all of you for completing what you did. Stepping out of your comfort zone is hard, but that what the point of this night, and all of you seemed to have down really well. With that being said," He took a deep breath in, "The winners are..."

 To be honest, in this moment right now, I didn't care of we won or not. I just had the best night of my life with my now 4 best friends. Yes, this may all sound cheesy, but I wouldn't have wanted to do this with anyone else. I learned about a new friend, made amends with an old one, grew closer to a friend I already had, and fell for another.