The Dare

• Sai Nikhilesh Yadlapalli , Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2019

?????? ????????

That day started the same. Me, Will and Sonny, just being idiots, and fooling around at school like usual. We finished joshing around at recess when the bell rang. We strode around to next period together, perfectly synchronized. We went to Classroom 616 together, Mr.Dixon’s Algebra lesson. We dumped our bags next to our seats, like we always did. Will looked me in the eye with a exasperated look. “Time to die of boredom…” he mouthed.

About three minutes later, Mr.Dixon got a call from the principal. As soon as he heard the principal speaking, his wrinkled face paled. “ OK, yeah. I’ll get them home immediately.” As soon as he spoke that last sentence, the whole class buzzed with excitement. Would we finally get to miss Algebra? Will looked at me. “This is the perfect time to binge watch television!” he said. “Yeah,” I replied, thinking of all the movies we were about to watch.

Our parents let us stay at Sonny’s house while they went and sorted out the situation. We were staying at home alone, but we had two rules. “DO NOT LEAVE THE HOUSE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!” Sonny’s mum boomed at us. “And do not go into the attic. You know the rules, kids. Just follow them, and you can do whatever else you want.” She ended, promptly leaving the house, glowering.

Sonny looked at me and Will. “This is awesome! Let’s get on the television!” As it turned out, it was not awesome. We went to the news, to see if we could find out why we were all sent home out of the blue. The reason why we were sent home was because of some dumb political reason about new laws preventing blah blah blah. At that point, I got really bored and stopped listening.

“Whatever. I’m sure it’s not a big deal. Let’s play something. How about Truth or Dare?” He said, a mad glint in his eyes. “I’ll go first. John! Truth or Dare?” He asked. “Uhh…” I stuttered. “Truth!” I shouted. Will looked at me. “Okay, okay. Is it true you pooped your pants in Year One when you were playing Hide-And-Seek?” He asked. I felt my face flush. “Yes…” I muttered, so embarrassed I could’ve pooped my pants again.

Then it was Sonny’s turn. In revenge because he was laughing, I was going to ask him the most horrifying question, but then he said “Dare!” I decided to compromise and make it even worse. I said,”Go to the attic.” Silence. Then Will burst out laughing. We forced him to go. He walked up the stairs, and opened the door, and right in the doorway, there was a dead body!

We all screamed, and ran downstairs. And guess who was there? Our parents. “We give you one instruction, and you fail to follow it?” They said in a deadly whisper. Then they started rolling on the floor in laughter. “It’s a joke! You should have seen the looks on your faces!”