Sawdust and Schemes

Oh, how I wished that I could be comfortably curled up in bed with a cup of hot-chocolate in one hand, and a book in other…. But no, that won't happen. Where I was right now was a TOTALLY different place… What a way to waste a rainy day.

"Listen up now, class," said my English Teacher, Samantha Gann, "Take out your sand-paper and start scrubbing the desks!" There were various mumbled protestations from the class, but we eventually set to work. Over the continuous noise of the scratch scratch from the sandpaper, our table was having quite an interesting conversation:

"So…." said my best friend, Eva, "How are the practice sessions for the dance thingy going?"

"Not well," I replied, "If you haven't noticed, the lady who was supposed to be here today got conveniently sick, so we couldn't practice. We could've been doing THAT instead of getting our throats coated with sawdust, you know."

As if to prove my point, Eva's boyfriend Tim, who sits next to her, let out a huge cough, then zipped open his rain jacket to breathe some unpolluted air.

I thought this was pretty darn funny, so I started cracking up.

They all looked at me like I was insane. I suppose I am.

"You know Kate; I really doubt your sanity sometimes." I suppose she's right. Idiotic mindreader.

"Uh huh. Whatever."

At that moment I had an idea. I could practically feel that little lightbulb burning inside my head.

"We should try to escape!" I said gleefully, but then softened my voice to a whisper after some people started staring at us. Not the teacher, though. Thank goodness for that. "Here's the plan: I say I need to go to the bathroom; I go. Then Eva goes to T.S (*which we call Teacher Sam*), says that she has got a female crisis. Not even T.S can argue with that!" At this Eva glared at me. I shrugged. "After about 5 minutes, Tim and David say that they both forgot their lunches outside at the field. Then they join us. It's brilliant!"

They look as if they're seriously considering it. If there was still any doubt in their minds, it was instantly erased by the sudden coughing fit that Tim was having. We all felt sympathy for him and…

"So it's settled then!"

"Fine." They all chorused. Well, except Tim, who was still, uh, otherwise occupied.

So we set our plan into action. She immediately said yes to me, grimaced in sympathy at Eva, then waved her away, and laughed knowingly when David and Tim said their bit, but let them go.

Laughing, we all met outside and started walking towards our favorite spot, an old pine tree which shelters us from the sun and the rain. When we arrived there, the bell rang signaling start of sport period.

"Well, isn't this better than that polluted classroom?" I asked, smug.

"Okay okay, you're a genius!" My dear friends said with huge smiles on their faces. Tim wasn't coughing anymore.

Little did they know that said genius' plan was going to seriously backfire.

Eventually we all got slightly bored, and what do you do when you get bored?

You play Truth or Dare.

"Tim; Truth or Dare?" Eva said.

"Truth."

"Have you ever considered dating our teacher?"

"Definatly. She's hot!" Tim said, smirking.

"You IDIOT!" Eva said, smacking him on the arm, "She's triple your age!"

"Don't worry darling; you'll always be the one for me!" At this Tim leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek. Both of them blushed.

There were giggles from all around our little circle under the palm tree.

"My turn! I choose Dare!" I said.

As soon as I said this David waggled his eyebrows mischievously, Eva whispered something to Tim that he obviously didn't like for he started shaking his head so hard I feared it would fall off, but Eva waved him off and said:

"Okayyy. Come troops, let's confer!" They all got up and walked toward Eva, chatted for a while, laughed loudly, Tim said "Oh Yeah!", then they all giggled and returned. I was starting to get a bit worried.

"So," I said, trying to keep the worry out of my voice, "What'll it be?"

"I dare you too…." said Eva, "You see that old, rusted, moldy building out there?" She gestured to the old hut thingy in the middle of a field of long grass, "Go in there and stay there for 5 minutes. We'll be waiting for you."

Damn. She was sending me to 'the hut of DOOOM', which this creepy little place was known as. There is a weird urban legend going around, that 5 years ago, a little boy of around 11 years old, went into this hut (in a dare, funnily enough!) and never came out. We all thought that it was just a stupid made-up story to keep kids away from the place, as it was outside the school's boundaries. But I was not so sure….

"Fine. I'll do it!" I grunted unwillingly.

"Yay!" They all clapped and waved me along.

So I walked. And walked. Gosh, the place didn't look so far from where I was standing! Eventually I got to the place where I wanted (well, not really) to be. It was actually not so scary. Sure, the paint on the walls were peeling, and it was so small I felt claustrophobic, but whatever. No biggie.

So I turned around and waved to where my friends were. Huh, they weren't there.

"Betraying two-faced scum. Probably ran off to report me to a teacher." I mumbled to myself. But then again, they could always be hiding behind something (yeah right). But I had to do it. I had to complete the dare. So I took a deep breath and walked in.

Big mistake.