Hello, everybody, and welcome (or welcome back) to What Happens at a Fangirl Sleepover! I first started writing this story about 4 years ago. This was my very first fanfiction. I didn't really know where I wanted it to go, I just kind of let my fountain of inspiration flow and let whatever plot went through my mind course through my writing. Now, however, I do have a specific plot for this story in mind. I can't guarantee that there will be frequent updates, but you can expect an update anywhere from once a month to once every three months. I'm very busy with school, work, and planning (guess who's going on a trip to Europe next year? ME!), but I think I'm finally motivated to get back up on my feet with this story. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me this long. To readers old and new, happy reading! I hope you enjoy WH FS!
Oh, yeah, and I don't own Hetalia, unfortunately. If I did, I would have enough money to have that Europe trip paid off already :')
A white convertible beetle shuttled down the narrow forest road. The headlights cut through the heavy darkness, casting eerie, jumping shadows on the trees that silently watched, unnoticed by the driver. A focused and quiet character, she seemed to be impatient to arrive at her destination. Little did she know of the horrors that awaited her in tonight's game of life... or death.
I shook my head and refocused on reality. For some reason, I was really on a mystery/horror spree. As a writer, I valued every inspired thought like currency, but when I was driving on a one-lane back road in the rain, it was better to keep my eyes and thoughts on the road. I loved and hated my best friend Carolyn's forrest home. It was nice and secluded while still close to town, but on nights like these it was hard to get to. Also, she could be murdered by a psycho and no one would know.
Then again, she could probably out-psycho any killer headed her way.
Today was my twenty-first birthday, and, of course, I wanted to celebrate with all of my friends. It was decided that we would have a week long sleepover. Carolyn was hosting said week long sleepover at her house, since it was the center point between all of our homes. Now, driving there, I couldn't help but be excited! This was the first sleepover we'd had in forever, and my heart was about to explode from all the pent up happiness. I had been living off of cup ramen and motivating myself to write only through the realization that my life would go down the drain if I didn't manage to publish something soon. I was usually too busy trying to write or working to spend time with my friends, and I missed having the free time (and the gas money) to do sleepovers like this on the fly.
I pulled into Carolyn's driveway. Unable to contain my crazy grin, I squealed as I turned off the car and got out. I fumbled around to grab my backpack and rush in. I didn't even have to ring the doorbell; the door swung open before I touched the doorknob.
"Carolyn!" I cheered, throwing myself into my best friend's arms.
"Hello, friend." Carolyn said happily. She flinched a bit from the sudden hug, but I knew she was happy to see me too. Carolyn was tall, about 5'8, with short, boyish, dark green hair and black glasses. Living away from all the commotion of the city had been good for her, I could tell - her lopsided, slightly evil grin that she took so much pride in gleamed, and she looked like so much stress had been lifted off of her shoulders. Her caramel skin was a few shades darker, too, as if she'd actually been spending time outside.
Nah, it was probably just the light. Carolyn? Outdoors? While I believed in matches made in heaven, those two were a match made in hell.
We parted and did our handshake: clasping hands, pulling back, then rebounding and bumping hips.
"Are the others here yet?" I asked as she led me down the slightly cluttered hallway to the kitchen.
"Chugoku and Em are already downstairs," Carolyn said, referring to two other girls in our quintet. We called Adrianna 'Chugoku', the Japanese word for China, because of her China-like obsession with Hello Kitty and pandas. We called Emmabelle 'Em', because, well, take a wild guess. Also, for whatever reason, she hated being called by her full name and would not hesitate to smack anyone down should they use it.
"Where's Dakota? Is she here?" I wondered, looking around to make sure the most hyper one in our group wasn't about to jump out of nowhere and glomp me. She was probably devouring Carolyn's stash of gummy bears - they were her favorite, so each of us had a special jar at our houses just for her.
Dakota was the only friend that lived close to me. While I had chosen our town for its college, Dakota had chosen it because it still had a city feel without being completely crowded like NYC. She wanted a nice, calm city for her and her great-aunt Rosie to live in.
"Ah, yeah... She got here a few minutes ago." Carolyn said, pushing up her glasses and nodding towards the kitchen. "I'm pretty sure she's raiding the snacks."
I looked, only to get shoved to the ground from behind by a whirl of blonde, blue, and yellow. "Nora!" I heard the all-too-familiar giggle from on top of me, along with a crinkle of what was probably a bag of nacho cheese Doritos, her second favorite snack.
Carolyn called it.
"Can't… breathe…" whispered Carolyn, who had somehow managed to land underneath us. Poor Carolyn.
Seriously. Sugar plus Dakota equals no bueno. Well, muy bueno for her. No bueno for us.
"Coda!" I groaned. "I love you too, dearest, but get off!"
"Aw, you're supposed to glomp me back!" She complained.
"I can't exactly do that when you're on top of me?"
Carolyn wheezed.
"Mrrhh." Dakota let out a noise of discontent, and the weight was lifted off my back. Carolyn and I stood up, Carolyn catching her breath and stepping away a few feet, and I glomped Dakota back.
"I missed youuuuu!" Dakota fake-sobbed into my shoulder.
"I just saw you yesterday!" I laughed, reaching up and patting her head.
This was a somewhat normal occurrence at our sleepovers - so many tackle hugs, in fact, that over the years our bodies had pretty much become resistant to being slammed into hard surfaces... an adaptation that could come in handy later in life.
After Dakota and I stood up, I grabbed my bags and Carolyn resumed leading us to the kitchen.
"So, how's our favorite celery stalk?" I asked, referencing one of Carolyn's nicknames.
"Oh, the usual. Just polishing up my master plan for taking over the universe. It's not easy being an evil genius, you know."
"I didn't know celery stalks could have such big dreams," I joked, then noticed her clothes and grinned. "You're even wearing green."
Carolyn glanced down at her neon green hoodie and gave an amused half-smile. "I'm cosplaying my vegetable-sona."
"The only thing Carolyn will ever cosplay." I said, and Carolyn nodded in agreement.
"It's such a detailed costume, it must have taken you hours of hard work to put it together!" Dakota giggled.
"Ah, you know me, the most hard-working person in the world, right?" Came Carolyn's light-hearted sarcasm.
"Or so you say," I said as we reached the kitchen's basement door, "but I noticed the smell of furniture polish and pine-sol. Did you clean up for the birthday girl?"
"Of course not. Evil masterminds like me prefer to destroy things, not clean them."
Carolyn opened the basement door and flicked on the lights.
As if on cue, the most horrible sound of pre-pubescence and regret blasted from the basement.
"BABY, BABY, BABY, OHH~! BABY, BABY, BABY, OHH~!"
"Why is it that the people we love hurt us the most?" I cried, throwing my hands up above my head. I got my phone ready and charged forwards towards the beast with a battle cry. As quickly as I could manage, I plugged my phone into the stereo in place of Chugoku's.
A fall out boy song boomed from the speakers in place of the wailing twelve year old, and my ears wept with relief.
"One hell of an entrance," Em shouted, but she was grinning, and I saw the evil glint in her eyes. She was fully aware of the sin she had committed.
"You're killing me, Ems!" I yelled as I ran over and jumped on her, wrapping my arms around her.
Em snuggled her face into my shoulder for protection as the force of my leap rolled us off of the couch. Luckily for us, Carolyn had refurbished the basement floor with carpet instead of concrete the week she moved in.
"You know I do whatever I - SH-T!" She cried as Dakota followed in my footsteps and jumped on us, but with a hundred times the force.
I'm all for impromptu cuddle puddles... unless I get stuck under the taller people. I'm doing my best at 5'3, okay?
"Guys, please consider your small friend!" I tried yelling over the chaos.
"What?" Dakota shouted.
"Get off of me!"
"Whaaaat?"
"Dudes, get your FAT -SSES off my F-CKING FACE, NOW!" Em yelled over the music, and as soon as Dakota got up, I untangled myself from Em and hightailed it out of there. Em straightened up, flattened down her short mop of red hair, and turned to us with her serious face. And when you have crazy purple eyes like Em does, it's pretty freakin' scary.
Then the serious look dropped, and her usual grin appeared. "Got 'em! Man, you guys shoulda seen your faces!" She snickered, and gathered us all up in a real hug. "How've my hoes been?" she asked.
"Oh, ya know, surrounded by money and hot guys." I said sarcastically.
"D-mn, b-tch, me too!" Em smirked, then turned to Dakota. "What about you?"
Coda smiled and bobbed up and down. "Well I've been really busy with Auntie being in the hospital and she's really complaining about being stuck there for so long and OH! She said to tell you guys hi!"
When she's all hyped up as she is now, her natural talking speed is about a mile per minute, but don't worry. She can speak like a normal human being if she tries.
Em let out a sigh of relief, and I smiled at the good news. Dakota had been living with her great aunt Rosie, her only living relative after her adoptive parents died in 9/11. Auntie, as we all called her, had fallen and shattered her hip bone about a week ago. We were all glad to hear that she was back to her usual self (complaining about hospitals).
"That's wonderful. When does she get out?" I asked her, turning down the music to a pleasant background music level.
"Three days, I gotta leave before four to go get her."
There was a collective groan from the group.
"But, she invited us all out to dinner! Anyone down for a roadtrip?"
There was a collective cheer from the group.
Well, I was cheering on the outside, but not the inside. I would love to go out with Auntie. But money was a big issue. When I was 18, I had wanted to get myself and my younger brother, Jason, as far away from my abusive, alcoholic parents as possible. So I went to court to emancipate him from our parents (he was only 13 at the time) and become his legal guardian. After a long, grueling trial, we won the case, and our parents had to send us money occasionally to cover living expenses, kind of like advanced child support.
However, I'd been naive and thought that my career as a writer wouldn't have much of a problem taking off. I decided I could afford to go to a college in a town that was almost two hours away, and we used most of the money from our parents to move into a house that was within walking distance of said college. Jason was enrolled in a new middle school, I started at my college, and I was really motivated to write from all the good things that had happened. Things were going well until I tried to publish my book. No one wanted to publish it, and searching farther away for a publisher that wanted my book would take time I didn't have. I had already struggled to find a new job that would work with my class schedule. Money wise, we had just as much as two people living in a small house needed.
Some weeks, we had a little extra money for fun stuff. Most weeks, we did not. I had one hundred and ten dollars exact with me right now - one hundred to pay Jason's friend, Chris's, parents for letting him stay with them for the week, and ten in case of emergency on the drive back home.
Dakota pulled me out of my thoughts by yanking the four of us onto the couch.
"Don't worry, Nora, Auntie's paying. Birthday treat." Dakota whispered in my ear in a rare moment of seriousness and squeezed my hand.
"Hey, secrets don't make friends!" Em called. Dakota giggled and inflated back into her usual bubbly demeanor.
"I was just asking Nora about Chris!" Dakota chirped. I pretended to vomit.
I knew what Dakota was hinting at. Chris was caring, supportive, and two years younger than me, but mature in every aspect. He was hardworking and handsome, but I would only ever be able to see him as a younger sibling. I didn't even know if he had feelings for me or not. Dakota, however, insisted that we were made for each other. I didn't think so.
"Sorry, Coda, it's just not gonna happen. I can't see him in a romantic way, and if I tried to date him, it would mess up the relationship we have right now." I shrugged, then I laughed. "Jason's more likely to date him than I am."
"Don't give her any ideas, Nora." Em warned, grinning.
We were interrupted by my phone ringing. I was expecting a call from Jason, so I had left my ringer on. I answered and put it on speaker.
"Hey, kiddo. What's up?" I greeted.
"Hiiiii, Jason!" the girls said.
"Oh, uh, it's not Jason. It's Chris."
"Hiiiii, Chris!" the girls corrected themselves.
"Speak of the devil, Chris, we were just chatting about you."
"Really?" He asked. "What were you - actually, I probably don't want to know."
"Yeah, you probably don't." I agreed. "What's up? Why are you calling with Jason's phone?"
"I just wanted to let you know that Jason... um, well, it's a Wednesday night, and sometimes my parents like to have a couple beers. But, I mean, they rarely do, and I didn't think they would tonight, so I didn't mention it... but, uh, he, um... he kinda freaked out when he saw the six pack on the table and he said he was hitting the hay early."
I felt my stomach twist. I knew what that meant. I was alright, but Jason sometimes got upset when he saw beer, especially the kind our parents drank.
"He's asleep now," Chris continued, "but I knew he meant to call you at some point, so I just went ahead and called to let you know."
"Thanks for checking in, Chris. And don't worry, alright? He just needs to sleep it off." I said.
"Yeah, I know. Happy birthday, by the way. You ladies don't have too much fun!"
"We won't! And thank you. Night!"
"Night, Chris!" the girls echoed.
"Goodnight, guys." He said, and I heard the shuffle of him ending the call.
I was anxious to change the subject away from anything remotely involving my parents, and luckily for me, Chugoku finally spoke up from her spot on the couch. "So what all are we going to do?" she asked, her quiet voice just above a whisper. I plopped down on the couch-back behind her and played with her soft, chestnut hair, twisting it into a braid. It then occurred to me that I was probably the only one that heard her.
"So, what're we gonna do?" I repeated to Carolyn, and she pulled a folded piece of paper out of her hoodie pocket.
"I attempted to make a list... Okay, first, we get set up down here, get the snacks, which I think Dakota has already taken care of..." we looked over at Dakota, who was surrounded by a pile of glorious junk food. Dakota grinned sheepishly with her mouth full of chips and put a hand on the back of her neck. "Eehee."
"Then," Carolyn continued, "I thought we'd take some time to just talk, catch up, order pizza, whatever, maybe have a movie marathon... I couldn't think of much. Forgive my total failure. It's hard making nice things when you're a supervillain."
"Aw, don't worry about it, 'Lyn! I was gonna call bullsh-t if we didn't have pizza and a movie marathon." Em grinned, the reached behind her to dig around in her bag. "I even brought this f-cking fossil. Check it out."
Em pulled a DVD case out of her bag and lightly tossed it into the center of our circle.
"Oh, my gosh." I picked it up and was hit with a tidal wave of nostalgia of middle school and high school. The DVD I held in my hands was Hetalia: Paint it White.
"This is a most cherished treasure. I vote we save it for last." I said, setting it on the coffee table in front of the couch.
"What the birthday girl says goes." Carolyn shrugged. "I've got some movies, as well. They're around here somewhere. Of course, I don't want to get up and look for them, but," she said, standing up, "I suppose I can make an effort just this once."
"Aww, I'm so touched." I placed a hand over my heart in a sincere gesture of mock appreciation. "I'll help." I stood and joined Carolyn in looking at the cabinet behind us that was full of movies.
We called out movie titles for Em, Chugoku, and Dakota to vote on. In the end, we had a small pile of everything from Disney to Action to Horror to Romance. And, of course, the Hetalia movie, which really was a genre of its own. Then, after a brief discussion of what kinds of pizza to get, we called the local pizza place and ordered 5 pies of cheesy, pepperoni-y, and vegetable-y goodness (we were adults, so we had to do adult things like eating our veggies). At some point in this process, we moved from the couch to the floor so that we could actually face one another while we talked instead of sitting in a row.
The good news was that the pizza place almost had the pizza we wanted cooked up. The bad news was that it would take them about forty-five minutes to get here, maybe even an hour, since Carolyn's house was so secluded and since the rain was really starting to pour.
"Ah, they remind me of myself." Carolyn sighed as she hung up the phone.
"And what's that?" Chugoku asked gently.
"A disappointment. A bitter, bitter disappointment."
"Pfft," I said, correcting her, "You are not a disappointment."
"I don't know... already 21, and I haven't even taken over the United States? That sounds like a disappointment to me."
"Well, you sure as hell can't take over the world with that f-ck-ss attitude." Em sang, playfully nudging Carolyn with her elbow.
"I agree. It's bad for your self confidence." I stated, popping a hair tie in Em's now braided locks. After finishing Chugoku's braid, I had made it my goal to braid everyone's hair.
"What self confidence?" Carolyn mused as she went back upstairs, presumably to grab her sleeping bag and change into her pajamas.
I stuck my tongue out at her retreating figure and blew a raspberry. I'm an adult, I promise.
I took a break in the hair braiding so that we could set up our own sleeping bags, then headed into the basement's teeny, tiny bathroom to change. I put on my standard shorts and loose crop top, then ran my brush through my long hair, which I had to do about every. Five. Minutes. If I didn't, it would become as tangled as headphones after you leave them in your pocket all day.
I'm just gonna go with the excuse that my hair is too fabulous to handle itself.
Well, or so I say, but my hair just does not want to be interesting in any way, shape, or form. I tried getting a perm, but that just made my hair sort of wavy. Now, it couldn't make up its mind on whether it wanted to be straight again or not. Even the rainbow gradient I had kool-aid dyed it (with much difficulty, dedication, and 28 packs of kool-aid) about a month ago was starting to fade out. At least the fiery colors at the top of my head kind of brought out my sky-blue eyes.
When I returned, I saw that everyone was changed and set up with their sleeping bags, except for Chugoku, who zoomed into the bathroom once I was out. Em was wearing a PINK (brand, not color, Em hates the color pink) sports bra, a zip-up hoodie, and capri leggings, Dakota was enveloped by her three-sizes-too-big, blue, sunflower jammies, and Carolyn was chilling in her navy e=mc2 shirt with black and grey cotton pajama bottoms. When Chugoku emerged from the bathroom, she was wearing an oversized, pastel blue sweater and simple black leggings.
"What now?" Chugoku asked.
I was about to say "movie marathon" when the doorbell rang, almost as if responding to Chugoku's question.
"Pizza?" Dakota asked, puzzled.
"Bruh, it's only been, like, ten minutes." Em pointed out.
"Yeah, something's fishy." I agreed, pulling my knife out of my bag and concealing it under my shirt. "I'll go check it out."
"I'll go too, fam," Em said. "Ride or die, motherf-cker!"
I laughed, and the nervous butterflies in my stomach eased up a bit. Em always knew how to make bad situations feel better.
Upon reaching the front door, I looked through the peephole. Standing outside was a fairly not-serial-killer looking girl. She had the darkest hair I'd even seen with bangs in the front, toffee colored skin, and dark brown eyes. She was also soaking wet, as if she had been sloshing through the rain for a hot minute.
She looked innocent enough, but looks could be deceiving. I opened the door cautiously.
A look of relief swept over the girl's face. "Oh, thank goodness! I'm Tabitha. I'm really sorry to intrude, but I think I took a wrong turn and my car broke down. For some reason, I don't have service out here, but I could have sworn I did a minute ago. Do you mind if I borrow a phone? My friend lives a little ways down the next turn and I'm hoping she could pick me up from here."
"Don't worry homegirl, we got you." Em said. Em was an excellent judge of character, so if she ruled that this Tabitha girl had no serial killer vibes, everything was good.
"Yeah, and between the five of us, I think we can come up with some dry clothing."
"Five of you?" Tabitha looked confused for a second, and then her eyes widened slightly. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Am I interrupting a party?"
"No, no, it's okay. The more the merrier!" I reassured her. "You can hang out with us and dry off until your friend gets here."
I handed her my phone after pulling up the dial screen. "Here you go. We'll go and find you some clothes."
"You really don't have to!" Tabitha protested.
"Don't worry, girlfriend." Em said.
"Really, it's nothing." I insisted, and Em and I rushed down the stairs before she could say anything else. We briefly explained what had happened to the rest of the squad, and in no time, the five of us had pooled together a tank top, an oversized purple sweater (I swear, Chugoku has a never ending supply of them), some gray leggings, and a pair of plastic flip flops. I went back upstairs to give the clothes to Tabitha and show her to the restroom so she could change and dry off.
"My friend says she can get here in about thirty minutes or so," Tabitha said, coming out of the bathroom in her new clothes. She toweled off her hair and hung it on the hook just inside the bathroom. "Do you want me to just hang out up here? I really don't want to intrude."
"Don't worry about it, Tabitha. Like I said, the more the merrier! Besides, I think my friends were setting up a game of Monopoly when I came up, and that's always better with more people."
"Are you sure?" she inquired.
"I'm positive." I smiled, and I showed her to the basement.
The game was set up on the coffee table in front of the couch, and the girls were gathered on the floor around it. There was a spot for me and Tabitha between Em and Dakota. I sat by Dakota, just because I didn't want to expose Tabitha to that level of craziness right off the bat. Dakota never held back when it came to Monopoly.
"Guys, this is Tabitha. Her friend will be here to pick her up in about thirty minutes, so let's get this show on the road. Tabitha, this is Dakota, Carolyn, Chugoku, and you've already met Em." I said, gesturing to each girl in turn.
Tabitha's eyes scanned over each person. "Nice to meet you." she said, smiling nervously at our circle of friends. Then her eyes landed next to me, on our stack of movies.
"Is that Hetalia?" she suddenly asked, reaching over to grab it. Despite the low lighting, the light glinted off the case as she picked it up.
She beamed as she looked at the front and back of the case, her eyes gleaming with nostalgia. "Oh my gosh, I used to be such a huge fan."
"Us too." I said, and she set the movie back down.
"Ah, those were the days." Carolyn sighed, half-smiling.
"Okay, I have something I need to confess..." Tabitha said sheepishly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I've never actually played Monopoly before. But I'm a quick learner!"
"WHAT?!" Dakota shrieked. "This is against the laws of the universe!"
"Ehe... sorry." Tabitha smiled nervously.
Dakota launched into her own personal explanation of the game at five words per second, and somehow, Tabitha seemed to be hanging on to each word. Once Dakota was through, Tabitha nodded.
"I think I get it. Let's start!"
"Dibs on the dog!" Em called while we scrambled to grab our pieces.
About twenty minutes later, Tabitha owned half the board. Em kept muttering something about BS under her breath, Carolyn's brows were furrowed in silent concentration, Dakota was devastated that none of her plans had worked, and Chugoku looked just as dumbfounded as I felt.
"How?" Dakota wailed. "I've never lost a game of Monopoly ever in my ENTIRE life!"
"Well, my house is basically like my own personal library. It's filled with books." Tabitha said. "I've read about a bunch of different logic and strategies, which can be applied to things like board games."
Dakota's despair was interrupted by the doorbell ringing.
"That's probably my friend." Tabitha stood up, and the five of us stood up with her to walk her out.
Tabitha's friend was waiting outside along with a very frazzled pizza delivery man.
"Guys, this is Parker." Tabitha introduced us to her friend. "Parker, this is Nora, Em, Dakota, Carolyn, and Chugoku. They let me crash their party for a little bit."
"Nice to meet you! Thanks for taking care of Tabby for me!" Parker said enthusiastically. If there were any walls, she would be bouncing off of them. She had poofy orange hair that was barely restrained by a white headband, shocking green eyes, and appeared to be on the same energy level as Dakota. No wonder Tabitha hadn't batted an eyelash at Dakota's wild behavior.
"No problem." I grinned. "Drive safe on your way home!"
After Tabitha and Parker left, we paid the pizza guy, tipped him generously, and returned to the basement to tear into the pizza like the animals we were. There was a solid five or ten minutes where the only sound was the sound of us shoving pizza down our throats.
"Did someone pop popcorn?" Dakota suddenly asked, searching for the buttery food of the heavens.
"No, I don't think so..." Chugoku said.
"Get off your lazy -ss and go pop some yourself." Em retorted, pushing Dakota slightly.
"But I don't want toooooo..." Dakota whined. "Ohh~! I know! Let's play truth or dare!"
Whichever way the wind blows, I guess. Besides, who's had a sleepover where truth or dare wasn't played?
"Alright, fine. I dare you to go get some popcorn." Em pointed to the stairs.
Dakota stuck out her tongue. "That's not how the game works!"
Em raised an eyebrow. Dakota raised hers in turn.
Em raised hers higher. As did Dakota.
And higher, and higher, and higher, until -
"How the hell do you do that?" Em demanded, falling back onto a mound of pillows.
Dakota simply giggled before standing to get the popcorn.
A few seconds later, a flat, brown, plastic-wrapped rectangle was tossed through the open door and down the stairs. It hit Em in the face.
"Oi, what the-!?"
"I got the popcorn~!" Dakota sang, poking her head in. "You did dare me to just get it, right?"
I looked up at Dakota with pride. I'd trained her well.
"Jesus Christ..." Em muttered as she untangled herself from all of the pillows and climbed up the stars.
"Is the truth, the light, and the way!" I yelled after her.
"Don't be a smart-ss!"
I childishly stuck out my tongue, then turned to face the remaining two of our quintet. "Alright, if we're playing truth or dare, I guess I'll go next. Hm, Carolyn, truth or dare?" I asked.
"Hm, truth. Why not?"
"Okay! What's the biggest amount of food you've eaten in one sitting?"
"Ah... I honestly have no idea. I can hardly even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. Truth or dare?"
"Truth!"
"Okay... um... I'm bad at these. What about... your favorite language? And why? I expect a four page essay. Not really."
"Hmm. Well, since Japan's the first country I'll be visiting, and since I'm currently trying to learn the language, I guess I'll go with Japanese. It's pretty confusing, but I like the way it sounds. And how sometimes they'll cut off the vowel sound. Like desu is often pronounced des. I dunno. We don't do that in the English language."
"WEEABOO!" Em shouted from the kitchen.
"Um, excuse you? That's Queen Weeaboo, of Trashland?" I declared in a mildly offended tone, extravagantly placing my hand over my heart with one hand and tossing up a peace sign with my other. "At least I'm actually honest-to-goodness interested in the culture and language, and I'm not living in the lie that half of the world's fangirls believe - that Japan is a manga and anime haven."
"It's not?" Dakota asked, coming down the stairs with a mouthful of popcorn.
"It isn't, really," Carolyn confirmed. "Actually, it's generally frowned upon if you're an adult. The employees at a manga store will even ask you if you want a book cover when you buy manga."
Dakota plopped down with a look of bewilderment, spilling some of the popcorn. I reached over and grabbed a handful. "Sorry if we just ruined your life."
"No problem..." she managed weakly.
"It'll be okay." Chugoku said softly, patting her on the back.
"D-mn, you guys suck at playing truth or dare." Em grinned, sitting back down in her pillow mound throne. "It's supposed to make you squirm! Make you embarrassed! Uncover secrets! Push you outta your comfort zone! Let the master take over."
Em was taking over? The other four of us shared a glance; we were all thinking the same thing: Bad. We instinctively shrunk back a little.
Em's sharp purple gaze pierced through us as she looked at each one of us in turn.
We held our breath.
And the unlucky victim was...
"Chugoku! Truth or dare?"
Chugoku, caught up in the heat of the moment, said the first thing that came to mind... the one word you should never say when playing truth or dare with Em.
"Um... dare?"
I could feel her regret immediately after she said it, but the deed was already done. Em leaned forward with an evil smirk on her face.
Em leaned back, crossed her arms, and smirked. "I dare you to show us ALL of your tattoos."
Chugoku's face turned a new shade of red not yet seen by mankind. "W-what?!"
"You heard me."
Chugoku was covered in tattoos, but she hated them, so none of us had seen any except for the ones she couldn't cover completely with clothing. The story behind them was, to my knowledge, that one night, on Em's eighteenth birthday, Chugoku had told her that they could go wherever and she would pay. Em somehow managed to convince her to sneak into a club - they both looked adult enough (other than the fact that Chugoku is shorter than me; a real feat), and after putting on some heels and a lot of make up, they were in. The club, evidently, wasn't very strict on IDs. After a bit they were drunk out of their minds. As a result, Em lost her virginity to a stranger, and Chugoku wound up with a dump-ton of tattoos because she had somehow wandered into the tattoo parlor next door, which was offering free tats to anyone willing to be a test dummy, and told the lady there, "make me a into a work of art." Needless to say, it was a night both of them deeply regretted. Now, Em never had more that one beer at a time, and Chugoku wouldn't even look at alcohol.
I'd only seen three of Chugoku's tats - a blue and purple butterfly on her right shoulder in watercolor style, a flowery, intricate design in several colors that started at her ankle and probably wound its way up her entire leg, and a sky-blue infinity loop with rainbow colored flowers blossoming out of it on her left wrist. According to Em, that was only the tip of the iceberg. And even she hadn't seen all of them.
"N-no." Chugoku hugged herself. "I'll keep my clothes on, thank you very m-much..."
"Sorry, Chugoku, but in truth or dare, you don't get a choice!" With one swift movement, Em had reached over, grabbed the collar of Chugoku's oversized sweater, and pulled it over her head.
Chugoku squeaked and tried to cover herself with her hands. "E-Em!"
"I know that there are tats on your legs, too. And I'm guessing you don't want me to take your pants off... there's a chance I might catch your underwear."
And here, ladies and gents, we see an example of the "S" type.
Am I glad that Em hadn't chosen me. Of course, I have no tattoos, so I probably wouldn't have had to strip, but it would definitely be something equally embarrassing.
Chugoku said nothing, just glared (it was more like a kitten trying to stare down a lion) at Em while she took off her pants.
Em let out a low whistle. "Dayum. That's an -ss load of tattoos."
It really was. On her back was a trellis that was covered in colorful flowers. It was in a watercolor style similar to the butterfly on her shoulder, and I saw several other butterflies like it fluttering around the trellis. In the very center of her chest was a single butterfly that was slightly bigger than the rest, with a bunch of swirly designs flowing out of its wings. An indigo rose bloomed from her belly button. As I thought, the multi-colored intricate design did wind its way up her entire leg.
I didn't have time to pick out and look at all of them, just the ones that stood out, because Chugoku did a quick twirl before hurriedly putting her clothes back on and sitting down. The only thing I could tell for sure was that the tattoos went from her chest to her mid-thighs, they were for the most part symmetrical, and they were mostly in shades of blue, but some of them were pretty colorful.
"There. Now you've technically seen all of my tattoos." Chugoku mumbled, still redder than a tomato. "Em, truth or dare?"
Em grinned, and without hesitation, said, "Dare!"
"Alright." Chugoku said, and thought for a minute. A lightbulb seemed to go off over her head. Smiling sweetly, she turned and grabbed her ancient backpack, which was sitting directly behind her, and opened up the small side pocket.
Em's eyes widened as she realized what Chugoku was doing, and struggled to keep a poker face.
Chugoku unzipped the pocket dauntingly slowly...
...And brought out The Sock.
'The Sock?' Some of you may be wondering. 'Why is this sock so special?'
Well, The Legend Of The Sock started one day at a summer camp years ago. It was the last day of camping, we would go home the next morning.
On that fateful day, a tiny thing began a slow cycle towards pure evil.
A young girl dug through her suitcase, a frown perched atop her delicate brow. She sat back and bit her lip. She was sure she'd packed enough!
Sighing, she leaned forward and started digging again.
After a few more minutes with no success, the girl stood and turned to the rest of her cabin. She hated having to ask for things, but she had to in this situation.
She twisted the end of a portion of her hair and looked at the floor nervously. "U-um... do any of you... have..." the end of her sentence was too quiet to hear.
A still half-asleep girl lifted her head, sat up on her top bunk, and rubbed her eye. "What...? Speak up, Adri... Can't hear..."
Adri took one of the hair ties off of her wrist and twisted and pulled it, a nervous habit. "I-I said... do any of you have... some... socksthatIcanuse."
"What?"
"Do-any-of-you-have-some-socks-that-I-can-borrow!" Adri yelled, then realized how loud she had been and shrunk back a little.
"Mm... these're my last pair."
The other girls shook their heads, giving her some variation of "No" or "Sorry".
Adri sighed.
The counselor smiled kindly. "My laundry should be done later if you'd like to borrow some of my socks, but until then I think it'll be fine if you re-wear some."
"Alright..." Adri turned dejectedly, reached into her dirty clothes bag, and pulled out out a pair of dirty socks.
Unfortunately, they were already on a hike before she got the chance to change.
It was a very long trail that was uneven and especially difficult. Everyone was sweating. This of course, included their feet, but thankfully no one had to deal with the smell of bad feet as it was contained by their shoes.
Eventually they came to a stream they had to cross over. There were a couple of stepping stones, so it wasn't really a problem.
Except for Adri, who accidently stepped on a slippery spot. Her right foot slipped into the water and hit the muddy bottom.
Her counselor helped her up. "You alright?"
"Y-yeah." Adri said, hating having drawn attention to herself. "It's just a little water..."
"Okay." The counselor smiled.
And so they continued.
They were about to pass the ruins of an old house that all of the high school aged kids liked to make up ghost stories about to scare the younger ones.
"Okay, everyone, watch your step!" The group leader called out. " We don't know what kind of debris is hidden under all of these leaves, so be careful. Just don't wander off of the path and you'll be fine."
Of course, it was just Adri's luck to step on a nail.
She froze, gasping as it dug right into the arch of her foot. Her eyes watered.
Her counselor, noticing her pause, quickly backtracked over to her. "Adri? What's wrong?"
"I... I stepped on a nail..." Adri said, her eyes starting to water.
"Oh, sweetheart!" The counselor's brows creased with worry, and she swiftly picked up the tiny girl; She carried her over to the group leader, then briefly explained what happened.
The group leader nodded to the counselor, and the counselor shifted Adri to her back before taking off ahead of the group. The group leader flashed her a sympathetic smile as the duo headed forward towards camp and to the nurse.
Later, in the mess hall, Adri sat on a table while the nurse got her things ready. Adri braced herself, counted to three, and then pulled the nail out of her foot. She set the nail down beside her and took off her shoe. She peeled off the (by this point, disgusting) sock and shoved it into the side pocket of her bag.
And that's where the sock stayed to ferment and mold, for nine years.
Em gulped. "What are you gonna do with that, Chugoku?" she said nervously.
We tried to avoid making eye contact with The Sock. It radiated evil.
"Em." Chugoku smiled, dangling The Sock in front of Em's nose. "I dare you to let this soak in a glass of water for ten minutes and then drink it."
"Hell no!" Em said, holding up a pillow as if it were a shield that could save her from the terror she'd have to experience in roughly ten minutes.
And truly, it was terror. The Sock was double the dirty, muddy and unsanitary, sweaty, covered in foot blood, and had been left to fester in a tiny pocket for twelve entire years.
"I'll even put it in the water for you." Chugoku offered kindly, although we all heard the malice behind that sweet voice.
Chugoku got up and went up the stairs. We heard the cupboard open and shut and the sound of running water, and then she was back with the glass of water in hand. Slowly, she lowered The Sock into the water. The sock was so filthy, that the instant it was submerged in the water the water turned a color that reminded me of the feeling of regret.
Dakota, who seemed to be enjoying this way too much, set the timer on her phone for ten minutes. "I got chu."
Chugoku raised the glass in a toast, then set it on the coffee table nearby.
I tried my best not to look at The Sock directly. "W-well, we've got ten minutes to kill. Ten minutes is two Hetalia episodes or one Adventure Time episode."
"Adventure Time." Em said.
It was Em's death bed, so Carolyn pulled up Netflix on the TV and played an episode of Adventure Time without resistance.
The timer went off a little before the episode was over, but Em shot Chugoku the puppy face. Of course, it wasn't as good as mine, but it was still pretty nice. Chugoku gave in and signaled to Dakota to turn the timer off, and we watched for about three more minutes.
The credits rolled. It was time.
Em put her hands on my shoulders. "Nora, when I die, I want you to make sure that my gravestone says, "Died the realest b-tch." Okay?"
I gave her a thumbs up. "Sure thing."
Em swallowed and took the glass. She pulled out The Sock and tossed it in the wastebasket that was a few feet away. "RIP in pieces, motherf-cker." She flipped off the wastebasket.
Chugoku, perhaps realizing the true evil of what she'd ordered, gave Em a compassionate look. "You only have to drink one sip. It has to be a full sip, though."
There were actual tears in Em's eyes. She blinked them back, took a deep breath, and swallowed one sip as quickly as if she was taking a pill.
Em fell over backwards. Dakota was at the ready, catching her on a pillow. Carolyn fanned Em's face. I ran over to my snack bag to get the Coke. Chugoku went upstairs, presumably to toss the rest of the Sock Water out the window.
We lifted Em's face up. I poured a little bit of Coke in her mouth. "Drink this, Em, it'll be okay..."
Em shot up and grabbed the entire two liter from me, gulping it down like she was in the final round of a speed-drinking contest and the prize was two million dollars.
She chugged the entire thing in one go, gasping for air when she was done and tossing the bottle aside. It hit Chugoku in the foot as she came back down the stairs.
"Normally, I would say I'm sorry, but after that, I am absof-ckinglutely not sorry."
Chugoku smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. But you deserved it after making me show all my tattoos."
I held up a sheet of paper with "Game Over" hurriedly scribbled on it with red marker. "And with that, this game of truth or dare has ended. Have we all learned something?"
The group of friends nodded, except for Carolyn, who just shrugged, half-smiling. "Nothing I didn't already know."
I crumpled up the sheet of paper and tossed it into the trash can. "Good. Now then, it's currently 7:28. We have a big bowl of popcorn, various other snacks, and five movies to watch, so I say we start our marathon."
Whew! The edited version of chapter 1, without the ANs, is 7,835 words long, which is the longest chapter I think I've ever written in my life. Hopefully I can keep up with myself ^ ^