Chapter 1

-Eve-

The last year has been surreal. Of course, when you start your 16th year off by offering oral sex to a boy you've been crushing on (and he refuses), watching helplessly as your best friend dives off a bridge into a rushing river and lives and then getting your head shaved for losing a game, things have a tendency to be a bit bizarre.

My mom was totes wigged over my hair. She grounded me and took away my phone and my laptop for 3 months, and she refused to let me get my driver's license until my hair was long enough to style. I refused to tell her why my head was shaved or who did it. If I had, Chapin would have been persona non grata in my life for sure. I'm sure my dad flipped too, but I refused to speak to him after he didn't call me on my birthday and then got mad at me for calling him, so I could give a damn what he thought.

Anyway, it took me about 6 months before things returned to any semblance of normal for me. Thanks to my 90 days under house arrest and my hair making me look like I was on chemo, I still haven't dated anybody. Whisper truly isn't into me, and I just haven't tried all that hard to get with anybody else.

Things have been OK at home for the last few months. Todd still acts like a douche most of the time, but that's understandable. After all, he is a douche. Mom and I have gotten along about as well as can be expected. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have been chilly; once she realized it was almost my birthday again, she started spazzing out all over again.

"You are not going to have another sleepover. If you want a couple of your friends to come over in the early evening, that will be fine, but everyone's going home before 9PM. I'd rather just take you and your brother out to dinner and call it a night."

"Mom! You can't keep punishing me for last year. Look, my hair's grown out… it's even cute! I want to spend my 17th birthday with all of my friends. I don't want to pick and choose."

"Well, unfortunately, this birthday cannot be about what you want. Some strange things happened last year on that night, and I can't prove you and your friends were involved, but I can say that you won't be involved in anything this year."

"Mom, that's so unfair. Now you're punishing me for things you heard about that you can't even say I was involved in!"

"I'm not here to be fair, Genevieve Marie Spalding, I'm here to be your mother. That's all I'm going to say on the subject."

Once she played the full-name card, I knew I was done. I stormed out and went upstairs to my room to call Chapin.

"You have got to be kidding me! What does she want, to take you to Chuckie Cheese's and let you play in the ball pit?" Chapin yelled.

"I know, right? I'm not even wanting to do anything crazy, but she's locking me up and ruining my whole birthday."

"Maybe not," Chapin replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it. I've got an idea. You just make sure that I'm invited to your little tea party and I'll handle the rest," she said. "I gotta go."

What is she thinking?

-Chapin—

Wow, this is really lame! It's not Chuckie Cheese, but beyond that, this party is so sad.

Mrs. Spalding had taken Eve, Todd, and me to Olive Garden for Eve's birthday dinner. Todd ate everything on his plate, a dozen breadsticks, and half of the food that Eve and I left on our plates. Eve didn't say much of anything, and Mrs. Spalding doesn't trust me so she just spent the meal watching me to see if I was up to anything. I gave her my sweetest smile and waited patiently for the torture to end.

Finally, Todd was full and we rode back to their house. Mrs. Spalding gave Eve her gifts: a leather coat and a pair of silver earrings. Then Todd disappeared to his room and we went into the den to watch a movie on Netflix while Mrs. Spalding went into the living room to read. Once the movie got started, I grabbed the remote and turned it up really loud until Mrs. Spalding yelled from the other room.

"Girls, please turn that down. It's making my head hurt!"

I grinned at Eve and turned the volume back down until we could barely hear it. She started to ask me a question, but I put my finger to her lips and told her to wait. In just a few minutes, I heard a noise and I looked into the hallway just in time to see Mrs. Spalding walk back to the kitchen. I heard the sound of a cabinet opening followed by the refrigerator. I smiled again.

In just a moment, I saw Mrs. Spalding walk back into the living room carrying a wine glass. She set the glass on the end table and then I heard her walk into the hall bathroom. As soon as the door latched, I jumped up and ran in my sock feet into the living room. Eve started to get up to follow me, but by the time she got into the hall, I was coming back to the den.

"What did you do?"

"I just gave her a little something to help her relax."

"What?" she screamed in a whisper.

"Don't worry; she'll just want to take a little nap."

"Don't you think she'll figure it out?"

"No, she'll wake up on the sofa tomorrow morning and she'll think she just fell asleep reading. You told me she does that a lot."

We heard the toilet flush and I walked back to get my shoes. When she came back into the hall, I looked at her.

"My mom called and she wants me to come home. She's got a thing she wants me to do tomorrow and she doesn't want me out late."

"Alright, Chapin, you be careful on that skateboard."

"OK. 'Night Eve, and happy birthday."

"I'll walk you out."

We went out the front door and Eve grabbed my arm.

"What did you give her?"

"Chillax. It was just a Ruphie. She'll sleep like a baby. Give me a call when she starts snoring!"

I jumped on my board and raced off toward home.

45 minutes later, my cell phone rang.

"Hey, she out?"

"Yes, now I'm worried about her."

"Don't be. Go to your room, turn on the stereo, turn off the lights, lock the door and meet us out front in 15 minutes."

"Us?"

"Yeah, you don't want to be late for your party, do you?"

At 9:30 PM, I was waiting at the curb in my mom's Santa Fe when she came out the front door. I had swung by and picked up Nina so Eve jumped into the back seat.

"What are you planning?"

"You'll see."

I drove us out to the main highway and then we turned down an old road. About a mile out, there's a hunting lodge that can't be used for hunting anymore because the city limits expanded to overtake the land. The building belongs to Whisper's uncle who lives 200 miles away, so Whisper has the keys. When we got there, Liza, Cecily and Sarah were already sitting on the steps waiting for us.

"Hey bitches," I called out as we got out of the car. I went to the door and unlocked it. I had already been out there earlier and dropped off some supplies for our party. We had a fifth of rum, 2 six-packs of beer, a bottle of Jägermeister, a 4 pack of Red Bull, and a pint of peach schnapps. I had also scored a bag of Purple Urple and it was stashed with a bong for later.

I started mixing up some Jäger bombs and passing them out. Sarah wouldn't take one, so I handed her the bottle of schnapps and told her to knock herself out. The rest of us did a couple of shots each and then I turned on the TV and pressed play on the Blu-Ray player. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory started playing and I reached under the coffee table and pulled out the bong.

"What is that?" Sarah asked.

"O, hell no," Cecily yelled.

Liza and Eve just screamed and laughed as I held it high above my hands and presented it like a great artifact.

"This is how we get ready for Eve's party," I said.

"I am not smoking pot!" Cecily protested.

"Don't be such a pussy," Liza countered. "It might do you some good to relax."

"Besides, now that Sarah has downed half a bottle of schnapps, she'll probably have no objection to taking a few hits either," I said.

Sarah looked at me in shock, and then she stared down at the bottle to find that I was telling the truth.

"I've never done it," Nina said.

"Look, I'll show you how to do it. You put your mouth right here, then your thumb over this hole. Hold the lighter over this little bowl and suck, then release your thumb," I demonstrated.

"Then you hold the smoke as long as you can before you exhale," Liza finished for me.

I passed it to Liza and she took a turn before handing it off to Eve. Eve's never done it before either, as far as I know, but she's not one to argue with me over stuff, so she took it without question. I reloaded the bowl and then handed it to Nina. She needed a little assistance, but she got it done and then she looked back and forth from Sarah to Cecily trying to figure out where to hand it off.

"Fine," Cecily exclaimed. "Hand it here!"

Cecily took a hit and then she passed it to Sarah who had been staring wide eyed at the entire scene.

"Umm, guys, I can't do that," she said.

"Sarah, you've been drinking. You ran naked down the street last year and half the school saw the video. A little pot's not going to change anything," Liza said.

"Besides, if you don't, we're going to hold you down and give it to you," I concluded.

"But guys…" Sarah protested.

"Grab her arms and legs," I told them.

"No!" Sarah yelled. "I'll do it once."

"OK, but you've got to hold it for 15 seconds or I'm feeding it to you!" I threatened.

She took the bong and did what she had seen. She fought the coughs for about 10 seconds before she had to release the smoke.

"That wasn't 15," I said.

"Chapin," Eve said, "No one held it for 15, and she's about to be really wasted as it is."

"Alright, but if I let her off this time, she's got to do it again later with no argument."

We laid back on the sofas and watched the movie, giggling our asses off at the silliness. After about 30 minutes, I went over and mixed up another batch of Jäger bombs. This time, Sarah drank hers without any protest. I had mixed it a bit heavier on the Red Bull because I didn't want anybody going to sleep yet. After everybody did two more shots, I stopped the movie.

"So, who's up for a rousing game of Triple Dog?"

"No"

"Uh-uh"

"No way"

"Chapin, no!" That was Eve.

"What the hell!"

We all turned and stared at Sarah.

"WHAT?" we all shouted.

"What the hell. I'm drunk, stoned and everybody has seen my body. What have I got left to hide?"

"Umm, have you forgotten about Chapin jumping?" Eve asked.

"Or about me peeing?" Cecily added.

"Oh boo, hoo. So Principal Scalco saw your hoo hah when you sprinted off his porch," Sarah said. "As long as Chapin agrees to some ground rules, I'm willing to play."

I was joking around. I knew they wouldn't want to play.

"There aren't any ground rules." I said.

"Screw that. If we all agree to them, then there can be."

"But if there's no risk…" Eve said.

"There can be risk, just no danger," Sarah said. "No jumping off of high places, no drunk driving, no violence."

"No cameras," Cecily added.

"No shaving," Eve put in.

"Uh, uh guys. I'll agree to the violence and danger stuff, but cameras have to stay in and the shaving is the only way to keep people honest." I insisted.

"I'm not shaving again," Eve said.

"Then finish your dare," Sarah said.

"So are we doing this?" I asked.

"Show of hands," Sarah said.

One by one, each of us raised our hand. Funny thing is that mine was one of the last ones to go up. I'm still a hellraiser, but I know there are boundaries that I don't need to cross.

"OK, so this is it then," I said. "Birthday girl decides the order."

"OK, then, Nina."

"Why me?" Nina asked.

"You had the easiest dare last year."

"OK," I said. "Nina, who is going to dare you?"

Nina looked around the room nervously.

"Cecily"

Cecily thought for just a minute and then she smiled.

"Nina, I Triple Dog dare you to…"