Treehouse Society (A Waterparks Fanfiction)

2: Truth or Dare

"Have you guys ever played truth or dare?" I scanned the group of kids. They were looking at me like I was dumb. Some of them nodded slowly, Davey face palmed. "We should play! It's the perfect campfire game, don't you think?" The kids shouted out their agreements and I turned to Beatrice. She smiled and shrugged.

"I'm game."

"Great! I'm first. Adalaide, truth or dare?"

"Dare." Adalaide returned with a confident grin.

"I dare you to do the chicken dance, with a straight face, for thirty seconds." I grinned back. Adalaide stood up and planted her fists on her hips. She got through about fifteen seconds of the chicken dance before she broke down giggling with the other kids. "Aw, you were halfway there!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Forrest, truth or dare?"

Forrest answered immediately, "Truth."

"You're no fun," Adalaide huffed. "Uhm.. who's your favorite member here?" Forrest looked like a deer in headlights. He looked around at the expectant faces. Adalaide looked triumphant.

"Well, Beatrice. She takes care of us. She's like my mommy." Forrest looked over at Beatrice, who was smiling warmly at him.

"Thanks, bud, I try."

"Okay, um, Willow, truth or dare?"

**

"There, everyone's in bed." Beatrice sat down next to me, a tired smile on her face. The fire was still roaring, though it had died down significantly since we'd started playing truth or dare. Beatrice yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Just us now."

"Maybe you should go to bed, you look and sound pretty tired." I frowned.

"I'm fine, Awsten. Besides, you're still here and the fire's still going." Beatrice shrugged and smiled at me. I frowned in return.

"Can't lack of sleep make you sick or something? I can leave, and fires can be put out. Take care of yourself." I lied a hand on her shoulder.

"Really, I'm fine. I can't get sick. It's uh, it's the reason people can't know about us." I cocked my head at Beatrice and motioned for her to go on. "I was experimented on in a lab, given powers. We all were. Then we escaped, and now the lab and the government are after us. I'm mortal, but I can't get sick. No matter what." I stared at her for a moment, then pulled her into a tight hug.

"Holy fuck, I'm so sorry."

"For what? I can't get sick, Awsten, isn't that great?" Beatrice laughed dryly. I squeezed her tighter as her laughing turned to crying. "How could they do this to us, Awsten? I was just a kid. They're still kids." She gripped the back of my shirt tightly and sobbed into my shoulder.

"I don't know, Beatrice. I'm so sorry you all had to run into such monsters." I wasn't really sure what else to say. How do you respond to finding out something like this? Especially when they're upset like Beatrice was.

After a few minutes, Beatrice pulled away and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry, Awsten." She kept her gaze on the slowly dying fire. I reached out, brushing some hair out of her face.

"Don't be apologize, Bea." I was determined to get her into bed now. She had to be exhausted. "The dock, can it be used by the person on it?" Beatrice didn't seem to react to the nickname, but she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" She wiped away some more tears and folded her arms. Even with tear tracks running down her face, disheveled hair, and tired eyes, she was still gorgeous. Not that I would tell her that; I'd probably fuck it up.

"Because I'm going to put out the fire, then put you to bed, and then go home."

"Aws, it's okay, you don't need to-"

"I insist, Bea." Well, I guess we had nicknames for each other now. Before Beatrice could protest further, I stood up and tossed the bucket of water next to the fire pit onto the fire. Beatrice shook her head at me, but stood up and let me lead her to her room. "Here we are." I pushe the door open and pulled back the blankets on Beatrice's bed. She slipped off her shoes and lied down and I pulled the blankets over her. "Goodnight, Bea."

"Night, Aws."

I mulled over the visit on my way back through the woods. I'd given her a nickname. She'd given me a nickname. I mean, plenty of people called me Aws but I hadn't thought we'd get to nickname status so quickly!

Nickname status? Pull yourself together, Knight. I slapped myself and shook my head. That sounded like such a romantic thing to say, nickname status. If we were at any status, it was the beginning of the friendship status, and I couldn't ruin what I was building with her by putting in too much, too quickly. I didn't want to ruin things with the kids either.

And anyway, I knew where that lead. I shook my head. I wasn't going to think about her, not now of all times.

But Beatrice couldn't be like her, could she? Well, how would I know? I'd know her for all of two days. She- and the kids for all I know- could be planning to murder me. Oh, great, now I was paranoid. I shook my head again.

I finally got back to my house and was excited to go to bed. When I got inside, however, I was greeted by a light flicking on and Otto and Geoff on my couch. "Holy shit. What're you guys doin' here?" Part of me prayed they couldn't hear the sleepiness in my voice.

"We told you we were coming over, where were you?" Geoff's eyebrows knitted together. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and, sure enough, found several texts from Geoff and Otto telling me they were coming over, then asking where I was.

"Sorry, no service." I grumbled.

"It's alright man. Just.. tell us next time, before you disappear into the woods?" Otto offered with a smile. I tensed. They didn't know, did they? They couldn't. Beatrice would never speak to me again.

"I'm really tired guys, I'm going to go to bed." I stepped towards my stairs. Otto and Geoff gave me hugs, and after goodbyes that felt far too long, I was alone; thank god. I stretched my arms a bit, then headed upstairs. 

Bed time.