Truth or Dare by Peg Cochran Page A

air was heavy and sticky with humidity. 
         Every night this week, when she told her parents she was at the library studying, she’d actually been out with Lance.  And that meant she’d had to stay up well past midnight poring over her books to make up for the lost time.  If her grades slipped, her parents would know something was up.  Besides, she couldn’t settle for less than A’s, she couldn’t.  She’d always been on the honor roll and had always made her parents proud.
         A flare of heat suddenly made her face burn.  Her parents wouldn’t be very proud of her if they knew she was lying to them and going behind their back.  She could see her mother with her face going all long and sad.  And her father taking off his glasses and polishing them the way he did when he didn’t want you to know how he felt.  But it wasn’t her fault.  If they weren’t so stupidly old-fashioned, they’d be happy for her—snaring a guy like Lance.  All the girls would be jealous if they knew.  Plus he was a Miller and came from an important family and lived in a huge, gorgeous house.  Surely that ought to make them happy.
         Rivka smiled to herself.  She’d been so lucky on Saturday night, she could hardly believe it.  Her parents had had a flat tire on the way home from the movies and even though a policeman had stopped and called for a tow truck right away, it had been after midnight before Rivka heard their car pull into the driveway.  She’d only been home a few minutes herself but had run to the garage acting all worried and upset.  That made her mother feel guilty, which made Rivka felt a little guilty too, but it wasn’t her fault that her parents were the only two people on the face of the earth without a cell phone.
         The bell rang, and Rivka jumped up, banging her leg against her desk.  She rubbed her knee and then stretched her arms over her head.  One more class to go.  Her whole body felt achy and tired.  Thank goodness it wasn't much longer until the end of the school year.  
         She was starting down the hall when someone grabbed her arm.  Rivka whirled around.
         “Pamela!”
         Pamela tucked her arm through Rivka’s—tightly, so she couldn’t escape.  Rivka could feel the tips of Pamela’s fingers digging into the soft flesh of her upper arm.   She squirmed and smiled nervously.   
         “Where have you been?  If I didn’t know better, I would think you’d been avoiding me.”  Pamela squeezed her arm a little harder and turned her lips up at the corners, but her eyes were cold, hard, ice blue.
         “I…I’ve been busy studying,” Rivka stammered, trying again to free her arm.  Pamela just gripped tighter.
         “We’ve missed you.  It’s time you joined us again.” 
         “I’ve still got an awful lot of studying to do with final exams—“
         “Truth or dare.”  Pamela cut her off with a snap of her fingers.
    Rivka hesitated.  Her first instinct was to choose truth, but what if Pamela asked her something about Lance?  What would she say?  She thought again about what Lance had told her about Pamela.  It should have given her courage, or at least a feeling of superiority, but it didn't.  Pamela was still Pamela no matter what.
     “Well?”
     “Dare.”
         “I know your parents probably don’t want you hanging out with me, and that’s the real reason you’ve been avoiding me—“
         “No—“ Rivka began, but Pamela didn’t let her finish.
         “And that’s why I dare you to come to the beach house with us next weekend.  No one else will be there.  It’ll be you, me, Deirdre and Mary.  It will be a wild time.”  She gave a grin that made Rivka’s stomach do nervous flip flops.
         Pamela let go of Rivka's arm and disappeared into the  crowd of students rushing toward their next class.  Rivka could see the bright orange