The next day, Cokie came up to me.
"I got another dare for you to do," said Cokie.
"What now?" I asked.
"I got a secret and you're not going to tell anyone," said Cokie. "I'm going to jump off the school roof."
"Are you nuts?" I asked. "You could kill yourself doing that."
"That's the idea of it," said Cokie. "You're doing it, too."
"No way. You're on your own," I said as I walked away pretending to promise not to say anything.
Secretly, I knew that secret is not a good one at all. What kind of a dare was that? Stupid, that's what. I told the girls.
"I think you should tell the principal before Cokie goes for it," said Kristy.
"Yeah," agreed the others.
"I think so, too," I said. "She wanted me to do it with her, but I said no way and walked away."
"Good move," said Stacey.
"I know," I agreed. "How should I tell him without Cokie knowing it?"
"Easy, tell him not to mention you told him," said Claudia.
"You know how she is," said Stacey.
I decided to head to the principal's office and told him that secret.
"Cokie dared me to keep it, but I knew I wasn't going to keep it at all to let her kill herself. She wanted me to do it with her, too, but I said no way," I said.
"You did the right to come to me in case Cokie does it," said the principal.
"I agree. I don't want her to know I told you in case she flips out on me," I said.
"I don't blame you," said the principal.
"Excuse me to interrupt, but Cokie just went to the school roof," said Marci. "I heard it from her sidekicks."
"Thank you for informing me," said the principal.
I went back to class, not wanting to see what would happen if Cokie finds out I told the principal. When Cokie was ordered to get down, the principal brought her to the office. And, I learned she had a detention for two days. She didn't know I told the principal. I'm glad I did the smart move, especially before she ended up killing herself.
When she did found out, she threatened to beat me up
"It was for your own good," I said.
"Yeah, it's called to keep you safe," added Claudia.
"Don't you dare beat me up otherwise I can go straight back to the principal's office to tell him," I warned her.
"That's right," said Kristy.
Later, I was at my locker when Cokie shows up and jumped on me to beat me up. Luckily, Maric, who protects me the most, saw that and got Cokie off me.
"Lay off Mary Anne," said Marci while she helped me up.
We went straight to the nurse's office when Marci noticed I had a big bruise on my stomach. Luckily for me, Cokie got into bigger trouble: the detention got expended to four days.