Zoe S.

John’s Dare

Zoe Standen

The classroom was silent while the whole class was reading, except for John. He was tapping on the boy in front of him. There was only ten more minutes until school was over, until the weekend, but John knew that the weekend wasn’t going to be pleasant.  He knew after class ended he was going to get a dare a very, very unpleasant dare. Suddenly, he stopped tapping on the boy and started thinking more about the dare. Would it be he had to scream in the classroom for no reason or wear the ugliest shoes to school for a week?

Then it hit him, it was going to be………. the school bell rang and John trudged toward the door. The teacher stopped him right there and excitedly said, “Have a nice weekend!” Then John walked out the door to locker 168.  

...

Once John got to his locker across the school he saw Billy and Josh waiting for him.  So John thought that this must be a really important dare to them, so he promised himself that he was going to do this dare no matter what. As he walked up to Josh and Billy, he asked, “What's my dare this week?” Josh and Billy answered, “You have to hang out with Britney, the dork, for an hour.”  

John was silent as he opened his locker and looked at the picture of Britney that he scribbled on because he didn’t like Britney that much and put it in his backpack. Actually, he HATED Britney.To John, she was a dork. He didn’t want to do the dare, but if he didn’t his friends would do something bad to him as a punishment and he didn’t want to get punished.So he walked over to Britney and asked her if she could give him her phone number and she screamed “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” After he got her phone number, he walked back to his locker with his head drooping and he grabbed his backpack to go home.

...

There was a herd of children ready to burst open the front door to the school to get home and do homework, then watch tv.  But, John didn’t want to go home to watch tv because he had to call Britney. John couldn’t even say Britney’s name. How will he ever be able to hang out with her for an hour? Finally, the bell rang to leave school and everyone was so, so, so, excited for the weekend that they raced out the door and went home on their bikes. But, John waits until all of the kids are gone and out the door so that he wouldn’t get trampled by the herd of children. After everyone was gone John came out and went home on his bike and the whole way home he thought about Britney and how he had to hang out with her for an hour.

...

When John got home he parked his bike in the garage and went inside. He took a sticky note and wrote CALL BRITNEY on it and pinned it to his bulletin board. After he did that he pulled his homework out of his backpack and saw the picture of Britney and pinned it next to the note. He grabbed his homework quickly and put it on his desk. John couldn’t focus on his homework because he kept thinking about Britney. What will he talk about? Will it be awkward? John was thinking about Britney. It was bad because he wasn’t focusing on his homework and before he knew it, it was 5:00 p.m. So he tried to forget about Britney and he did and he finally finished his homework.

...

After his homework was done he was going to call Britney, but he wasn’t sure if he should.  He thought that she was a geek. John didn’t want to hang out with her for an hour and do the dare, but he thought that if he didn’t do it he would get a bad punishment and he doesn’t want a bad punishment. He had to do it, so he picked up the phone and dialed 203-561-7492.  The phone rang and someone started talking, “Who is it?” It was Britney. John stuttered, it felt like he stuttered for 5 years, but it was just for 5 seconds, then he asked, “Do you want to come over now?” Then she screamed a bunch of stuff John didn’t get, but there was one thing he got and it was the word yes.  His mouth dropped and he didn’t know what to do. He decided to do the dare, but it took her forever to get there.

...

“Where is she?!” John screamed loudly. Then, he heard the doorbell ring and as slow as he could he went to the door. It took him five minutes to get to the door and by the time he got to the door Britney was about to leave. So John called her name and she looked back and saw him.  She sprinted to the door, ran inside, and said, “Hi,” with a hug.  

John kind of liked it, so he took her into his living room. So she followed him on the couch and started watching whatever was on Nickelodeon.  They didn’t talk to each other that much.  When she started to talk about how her family was always gone and she had no friends John started to feel bad for her and they started to actually have a conversation.  John thought, well maybe she is not that bad.  Maybe he should give her a chance.

At school the next day, they hung out. His ‘friends’ thought that he was crazy. So when he went to the bathroom his friends came to him and said, “You can stop hanging out with her.” Suddenly, John said, “But I want to hang out with her,”  As John walked back to the classroom, he thought maybe I should start thinking about who my friends are.  The right thing to do is to go hang out with Britney, but I have to make my ‘friends’ understand that.