are
It was the mother of all dares. Trixie just had to pick dare at the sleepover. She should have known she couldn't trust her best friends. After all, how many cars had she mooned in the name of the game? Oh well, it wasn't as if she had a boyfriend. As much as she liked Jim, he'd never even kissed her. All she had to do was take a deep breath, calm down, and stick to the story.
She stiffened her back and opened Honey's door. With one last nervous glance at Honey and Diana, she was out of the room. She walked down the hall and stopped in front of a closed door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked.
"Come in."
Trixie slowly opened the door. "Ben? Are you decent?"
She heard the covers rustle and then came the answer. "As decent as you're likely to find me at this time of night."
Trixie peeked around the door, and seeing that he was covered, walked in and sat on the floor by the bed. "How are you?"
Ben looked at her, thinking she had lost her way. "Trixie, are you aware of the time?"
Trixie nodded. "I wanted to ask you something."
Ben arched an eyebrow. "And that would be...?"
"I want to get to know you better," she said in a rush. "Why don't we go out for lunch tomorrow?"
Ben laughed. "Good joke, goon. Now get out of here. Lack of sleep has definitely made you crazy."
"I'm serious," Trixie said.
"Oh, and I guess you want me to pay, too, huh?"
"No, I asked, so I'm paying."
Ben sighed. "All right. Lunch tomorrow. I'll drive."
It was Trixie's turn to laugh. "I was hoping you'd say that. See you in the morning."
Five minutes later, Trixie was back in Honey's room telling Honey and Diana what had happened. "I'm still not sure he believed me."
"He'll be ready," Honey said confidently, "if only to see what joke you're playing."
Right before lunchtime, Ben started looking around for Trixie, hoping he wasn't obvious. He decided to wait in his car with the radio on. As he was about to give up, she came running.
"Sorry, I'm late. I got stuck cleaning Bobby up for lunch. Ready?"
Ben put the car in gear and they were soon on the road. "Where did you want to go?" he asked.
"How about Wimpy's? Their burgers are good."
They were sitting at a booth in the diner before they spoke again.
"What is all this about, Trixie? You don't even like me. Why would you ask me to have lunch?"
She looked down, hoping he'd take the gesture as shyness. "I told you. I want to get to know you better. Honey's my best friend, so whenever you visit, we'll be seeing each other. We may as well learn to get along."
Ben nodded. Apparently, it made sense to him.
They spent the rest of their time pleasantly. Trixie was surprised that Ben wasn't as bad as she had thought. That was why, when Ben asked her out to a movie and dinner after they returned to the Manor House, she happily accepted.
At the same moment, Jim and Honey were talking in the stables.
"Why did she go out with him?" Jim asked in confused irritation.
Honey was getting annoyed. She hated being interrogated. "I told you. She was dared to ask him for lunch. That's it. Now go away."
Jim recognized the tone of Honey's voice. The one that said she was losing patience.
Ben remembered something he needed to tell Trixie. He looked out the window and saw that she hadn't left yet and hurried out to talk to her.
Jim saw Trixie heading towards her home. "Trixie," he called.
Trixie turned. "What is it?"
Jim walked closer to her. "I know why you asked Ben to lunch. Honey told me that she and Diana dared you to. I'm sorry that the dare was so hard." He sounded as if he was forgiving her for something.
Trixie could have sworn that she heard something in the underbrush. She looked into the woods. She shook her head after not seeing anything. She looked back at Jim, her eyes gleaming dangerously. She didn't understand how he could use that patronizing tone when nothing she had done was any of his business.
"Listen here, Jim. I may have been dared to ask him out to lunch, but I was not dared to accept his date invitation." She was so mad that she stomped home, leaving a speechless Jim behind.
Ben was sitting at the lake when Honey spotted him. He had made the noise that Trixie had heard.
"Ben?" she called.
He didn't look up from staring at the middle of the lake. He didn't appear to have heard her.
Honey walked up behind him and gently put her hand on his shoulder. He jumped, startled. "Don't you know better than to sneak up on people?" he growled at her.
"I didn't sneak up on you. I called you," she answered.
Ben shrugged and went back to looking for life's secrets in the lake.
"What's wrong?" Honey asked.
"I heard Jim say that Trixie only asked me to lunch as a dare. I feel so stupid. I believed her when she said she only wanted to get to know me better. I even asked her out for dinner and a movie."
"What did she say?" Honey asked carefully.
"She said yes." Ben informed her.
Honey sighed. "Ben, it's true she asked you for lunch on a dare. But, no one dared her to say yes when you asked her out."
Ben stared at her. All of a sudden, a knowing expression crossed his face, followed by a huge satisfied grin. "You're right. There was no one around to dare her. She said yes on her own. Thanks, Honey!" He jumped up and ran towards the house, leaving Honey staring after him with an amused smile.
Later, Trixie was waiting on Ben to pick her up. She was having second thoughts about accepting this date. She was wondering if he had asked her out as a prank. Before she got into that thought, she saw him pull into the driveway.
Trixie grabbed her jacket and was out the door before anyone realized she left.
They had a pleasant conversation on the drive to the Cameo, where Ben bought tickets for them to see The Ring 2. Trixie wasn't scared at all, much to Ben's disappointment. He had been looking forward to having a frightened Trixie cuddled up to him. He decided to take care of matters himself.
Trixie looked at Ben with a questioning expression when he had all of a sudden hid his eyes in her shoulder. He glanced up at her and whispered in her ear, "Someone has to burrow into their date's shoulder during scary parts. If it won't be you, it might as well be me."
Trixie couldn't hold back her laughter. By the time Ben noticed she was trying, she was almost purple from not breathing. That cracked Ben up, and they left the theater amid pointed glares in their direction.
Once in Ben's car, they managed to calm down.
"Shall we go to dinner now?"
At that moment, Trixie's stomach growled loudly. After more giggles and all-out guffaws, Ben said, "I'll take that as a yes."
After hooting and chuckling through their dinner at the Glen Road Inn, Ben took Trixie home.
They pulled into the Belden driveway, and Ben got out to open Trixie's door. She beat him to it, and she chuckled quietly. She grabbed his hand as they walked to the porch.
"I had a really nice time. I'm glad you went with me," Ben whispered.
"I did, too. We'll have to do it again."
To his surprise, Ben leaned forward and kissed Trixie. To her greater surprise, she found herself deepening the kiss. They pulled back simultaneously, breathing hard. "Well," they said in one voice.
Trixie laughed shakily. Ben leaned forward and kissed her quickly on the cheek. "See ya later," he said, backing away.
Trixie leaned against the front door, listening to his happy, satisfied whistle. She waved when he waved to her from the car. With a sigh, she fell backwards into Mart as he opened the door.
Author's Notes: Thanks to Random House for not suing me for borrowing their characters. Obviously, I'm making no money for this story. Thanks to Andrea and El for editing. Chelsea, I miss you! Hurry up so you can edit again! Thanks to Lindsay and Teresa for their encouragement for this story. Thanks to Lindsay, Teresa, and Heather for going through it after uploading for any boo-boos I may have made.
