Spy School: Zoe or Erica?

Truth or Dare

"What!?" Mike exclaimed. "Tru-truth or dare?"

Seeing that he was glancing uneasily around the room, I deduced he probably had bad memories of this event. Especially considering the fact that he'd been at other parties- and those were middle school ones with no supervision.

Chip, on the other and, was excited as heck.

"Truth or dare?" he said, taking a quick look at Erica. "Bet!"

Zoe smiled. "I think we're going to have to go somewhere more private for this."

"And why is that?" Erica asked, raising an eyebrow.

Zoe didn't answer, but the answer was pretty obvious. 

After identifying a private room, we settled in with a few stray beanbags that Mike had hunted the Hall for. It was an interesting fact that all formal parties had bean bags. They're just a deformed version of a sofa. Change my mind.

I settled in, letting go of Erica's hand to sit down on the rightmost bean bag. Zoe took the seat directly to my right, while Erica decided to stand. 

"Before we start," I said. "I'd like to make this clear: this is going to be PG-13, all the way."

Everyone nodded, but I swore I saw a hint of disappointment in Chip and Mike's faces. Holding in my laugh, I motioned to Zoe to spin the bottle that we'd found on a snack table.

"Rules are simple," she said. "Whoever's turn it spins the bottle, and whoever they land has to decide whether they want a truth or a dare. After the truth/dare is complete and everyone is satisfied, then the person who the bottle landed on spins it next."

"Gotcha," Jawa said. "Let's just get on with this! I can't wait!"

Zoe took the empty bottle and threw it towards the center of the room with a flick of her wrist, and it bounced around, spinning wildly until it slowed down and eventually pointing to.... me.

"Dare," I immediately. said. "I'm not a wimp, unlike certain people in this room."

Zoe smiled deviously and took a second to think. After a few seconds, she pursed her lips and came to a silent agreement with herself.

"Ben, I dare you to hug every single person in the room for at least five seconds. There is a twist, though. You have to spin a bottle. And whoever it lands on, you have to let them kiss you on the cheek instead of a hug."

I shrugged. With my luck, I'd have Chip kissing me on the cheek.

I grabbed the tip of the bottle, throwing it onto the ground and watching it bounce around. For a split second, I thought it would land on Erica, but it eventually slowed down and pointed to Zoe herself.

"She rigged the bottle," Mike said, picking it up. 

"I did not!" Zoe said, turning away to hide her blushing face. She didn't look anyway particularly excited that she got to kiss me on the cheek, but her look said otherwise. It was a mix of joy and an adventurous edge, and when I leaned in for her to do her thing, she retracted.

"C'mon!" I said, leaning in even more. "We don't have all da-"

She suddenly pulled me in, softly pushing her lips against mine. 

Her hands were in my hair, and I was paralyzed for the first few seconds. Then my wits came back to my head, and I quickly pulled away.

"Wha-" I stuttered. "You said on the cheek, not on the lips!" I whined, walking back to my spot in the circle. Zoe just blushed and giggled, looking away from me and avoiding Erica's glare.

Mike tapped my shoulder. "Erica's giving the back off look," he whispered. "And I can detect a hint of jealousy in that glare, so I'd say she likes you."

"You've told me this already," I said, touching my lips and staring off into space. The fact that I'd just mouth-to-mouthed with Zoe was still on my head, but nobody seemed to mind that she'd broken the rules. Nobody but Erica.

Mike was right. Maybe she did like me.

"Just hug everyone and get it over with," Jawa said after a moment. "I'll bet you five bucks that's not going to be the last interaction here today."

I shook my head, reconsidering my life choices. Why did I even agree with doing this?

Mike gave me a brotherly hug, patting my back and giving me a brief handshake when we retracted. Jawa was pretty much the same thing, except his body grip was especially firmer than Mike's. If it weren't for my training, then I probably would've never gotten out.

Chip, however, was different. When I spread out my arms to hug him, he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

"I am gay for the next five seconds," he remarked, pulling me into his grip. I tried really hard not to roll my eyes when he finally released me.

The next hugs were about the same, though the highlight was when Erica spread her arms for me to hug her. The sparkle in her eyes and her perfect look was just too much, so I tried to make the body-to-body contact as brief as possible.

Erica seemed pleased with the hug. Wow- today was full of surprises, wasn't it?

"So... it's your turn now, I guess?" Zoe said, finally turning around and casting a whimsical look in my direction. I returned it with a death glare, snatching the bottle from her grip. 

"Yes, it is," I said, spinning the bottle with the same flick of the wrist that Zoe did. It cascaded off a wall, wedging itself under a beanbag and quickly pointing its cap at Mike.

"Dare," he said. 

"I dare you, Mike, to dare Zoe to give me unlimited truth or dare turns," I said proudly, looking at Mike.

A second passed. Mike looked at me and tapped my brain, nodding in approval. "Well played," he said.

Zoe shook her head. "I'm not allowing that," she said. "It's breaking the rules."

"What do you know about the rules?" I said. "You just broke one earlier by kissing me."

Zoe shrank back into her corner. "But this one... you guys have to admit, it's abusing the daring power."

Everyone nodded, and I groaned. Zoe breaks the rules, gets away with it, and I can't even do this tiny thing? What was this fairness?

"Then I'll redo my dare," I said to Mike. "I dare you to burst out of this room into the banquet and run around the whole hall without a shirt."

"What!?" Mike said in complaint.

"I know, I know, taking off your tuxedo is hard- but still, a dare's a dare," I said. Mike shook his head.

"It's not that," he said. "I just don't want to cause a mass fainting of the girls out there."

I rolled my eyes for the billionth time.

Hey guys, I got a few things to say. One: I'll update tomorrow with more of this. Two: For all of you shippers, go head over to the 'Prologue' of this story and read the fine print at the bottom. Three: We achieved a new record of 80 comments in 10 minutes. Good job, y'all.

Also: Here's an awesome remake of the 'Spy School' book series as a movie that I found on youtube! If you have time, go ahead and watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0&ab_channel=cotter548