Our Last Summer

The Love Dare

Skyler liked going outside. It was peaceful, and she got to get away from her parents talking to their friends about their software company all day. Lea liked to go with her. She liked it because she had to stay in the yard all day. Lea was a good dog, she listened to commands and only barked when a stranger came around. "Mom! I'm going for a walk in the woods again! And I'm taking Lea!" she shouted across the house. "Okay!" said her mom. "Can I come?" asked her little sister. "Nope" said Skylar. " Why not?" said Mia rolling her eyes. " I don't want you to," said Skylar. Picking up her bag she went out the back doors to Mia's clubhouse. Her old one.She flipped on the lights and laid down her bag on the table beside the door. She opened the windows to let a breeze in, sense it was around 95 degrees out. She climbed the ladder to the attic and opened the window up there and there was a note on the outside of it on the roof. The note was held down by a large rock that looked like it was from the front of their house. She opened the window and removed the screen that kept the bugs out. She grabbed the note and opened it, it read, " I have something i think you lost. Meet me at the third pine tree in the pine forest at 4:00." She put the note down and started to think. "That's weird I haven't lost anything in years."  She was a pretty responsible person and never lost anything that was worth more than $15. She put the screen back on and closed the window, headed back down the ladder and made sure she had everything in her bag. Pencil, check. Pen, check. Notebook,check. Binoculars, check. Flashlight,check. Water, no water. She walked over to her mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. She went to her handmade cabinet and she got some protein bars and batteries because she thought her flashlight was about to run out of battery. She looked at her clock, "3:45." It took about 11 minutes to get to the pine forest. She put on her backpack and closed all the windows. She turned off the lights and locked the door. Obviously she wasn't about to go alone so she went back to the house and got their dog. The dog was a german shepherd that they had sent to a police academy for dogs to be professionally trained. She grabbed her leash and opened up the kennel. "Chill Lea," said Skylar. Lea sat down and waited for Skylar to put on the leash. Skylar went over to the garage to grab some treats for Lea.  she put them in her backpack and off they went. They made it to the gate of the pine forest in 10 minutes. Now they had to get over the gate. The gate was 8 feet tall and bars that were vertical. The fence was electric so they couldn't climb over it. You could only get in the gate if you had a club membership to the "Wilson Club" that is what everyone called it because it was run by the Wilson's and there were only 10 other families besides there that had a membership. Skylars' family was one of them. She pulled out her membership card and swiped it on the lock. She knew that, that should have been the first thing she tried but she didn't like doing things the easy way. She opened the gate and walked in with Lea. She went to the front of the club and made sure everything was in order. Then she and Lea went to the back of the third Pine tree. Skylar then realized why the mystery person had picked the third tree, because it had a tree house right beside it. She saw a piece of paper falling from the window. She went over and picked it up off the ground. It said, "Can your dog climb ladders?" she giggled a little bit and pulled the pencil out of her bag and wrought back, "Obviously." and drew a crying laughing emoji. She didn't know how to get it back up to the person so she just climbed the ladder and left it on the floor of the balcony.  She got back down and tied Lea to one of the support polls. She heard a faint laugh from above and a couple seconds later the paper came back down. She picked it up and it said, "Get up here already!" The handwriting was kind of sloppy and it didn't have any grammar mistakes so she figured it was a boy around the age of 17 or 18. She climbed up the ladder and opened the door. "Howdy" said a deeper voice then she expected. "Hi," she said "Who are you?" she asked. "My name is William," he said. "Hi William." She said, pulling her hand out of her pocket to shake his hand. He took her hand but he didn't let go after the normal amount of time. "Um, what's up?" said Skylar, forcing her hand out of his grip. "Listen, I need your help." he said. "Why? We don't even know each other." said Skylar. "Okay but you know my family" he said looking at her with a sad look. "William Wilson?" asked Skylar. "Yup" he said. "What could you possibly need? You could littery get anything just by asking your parents." She was now really confused and not really wanting to help. "I know but, I don't need what they have. " Skylar interrupted him, "Well they have everything so I don't know what you want me to do." He looked astonished because no one ever interrupted him. "Well if you would let me finish. I need you to pretend to be my friend." he said. "Your friend or girlfriend?" She asked "Well, um, both?" he said regretting it. "Why?" she said. "Because my friends bet me that you wouldn't go out with me by the end of the summer." he said. His face was getting red but she honestly thought it was cute. "Okay, but why me? Why not Addison? You know the prettiest girl in this neighborhood, the prettiest girl on the planet!" she sat down on the floor and he sat across from her. " They said you because we have all had a crush on you since freshman year." She rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Okay whatever. Like the rich kids would ever like me.' she said. "First off  you are a rich kid. Second, you are the only one who we actually like." They made eye contact for about 5 seconds. "Okay, I'll do it. On one condition though." She said sternly. "And what would that be?" he asked. "I get paid $20 a week." she said not thinking he would agree. "Um okay, but why?" he said, confused. "Because my parents make me earn money and I don't get to spend it unless they give me permission." she said. "Oh, well i mean it keeps you from being a brat I guess." The silence was awkward so she asked him, "So we are dating now?" He shrugged. "I mean we both agreed so, yeah." It was awkward again so she said, " How did you know i'd come?" "Well, you like adventures, so It was pretty easy to guess that you would." he said. She nodded her head. "How did you get the note on the roof?" He looked like he was embarrassed to say it. "It wasn't  that hard to find the spare," he said. "Oh, well guess i need to get a better hiding spot." "Guess so," he said. She stood up, "Hey, I put my number on the rock that held the note. Text me and we will get all the details sorted out." "Okay" she said. She walked out of the door and climbed back down the ladder. "Hey! What am I supposed to tell my parents?" she asked from the ground. "I don't know, but the big party is tonight so we can do something then." he said. "Okay" she said hesitantly. She untied Lea and she walked home. She put Lea away and went into her clubhouse. She went to the loft and got the rock off of the roof. There was a message, "Thanks for coming"
And then his phone number. "No problem" she said smiling to herself. Mia was standing outside of the window. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Nothing, I was just coming down." said Skylar. "Okay whatever." said Mia. "Looks like I have a boyfriend for the summer."