"Truth or dare?" Cody asks.
"Are you serious?" Squib half-laughs, back stiff from lying in the Doc's little fishing boat all night.
"Yeah, why not?"
He sighs, shifting slightly under her weight, "It's not going to be any fun; it's still dark out and any dares will involve getting wet."
"Then pick truth."
"……Okay, truth."
"Did you mean what you said?"
He can tell from her tone that she'd planned this all along, so he decides to play dumb, "About what?"
"…About me."
"…Technically, I never said anything-,"
"Squib! Fine then, did you mean to kiss me?"
"Well, it wasn't an accident."
She sighs, growing flustered, just how he likes, "Do you regret it?"
"If I regretted it, why would I do it again?"
"You haven't done it ag-,"
That shuts her up.
Tanis McTaggart is bored. Tanis McTaggart is bored and inexplicably angry and that is never a good combination.
And it is inexplicable. It's not because she's found out that Adena and Cameron are meeting in secret to do…something. Nope.
She's gathering her things to practice with Cody (proving Squib wrong is always so much fun), when the roommate she is not angry with rushes into the room, tying her hair up as she scurries around, presumably looking for shoes.
"Adena, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just late…" She's not really paying attention as she dives under her bed to grab at her strappy sandals.
"Late for what?"
"Late for a meeting with C…oach."
"…The coach?"
"Yeah, the coach," she says, not looking up.
Tanis McTaggart is inexplicably angry and that is never a good sign.
When she returns from a day of coaching (Cody's…improving. Kind of.), Adena is already flopped on her bed, flipping through a magazine.
"Long day?" Tanis, who is still mad, asks.
"Kinda," Adena shrugs.
"What are you reading?"
"A friendship quiz," Adena doesn't look up.
"You're not serious, are you? Those things are garbage!"
"C'mon, Tanis! It's to see how well we know each other!"
"We?"
"Yeah, we're doing it," Adena explains, sitting up so Tanis can join her on the bed. "It's basically 'Truth or Dare'-,"
"Oh, goody," Tanis rolls her eyes.
"If you pick truth, I ask you a question to see how well I know you; if you pick dare, I ask you one of the dares to see how far you'll go," Adena says, reading the explanation right off the page.
Tanis doesn't really feel like going very far, so she figures truth is her best option.
"Okay," Adena chirps once Tanis has chosen, "first question: if you could have any career in the world, what would it be?" She pauses, "…That's kind of pointless."
"Tennis player," Tanis smirks, grabbing the magazine from Adena and already becoming a little less angry. "Your turn." And Adena picks truth, so Tanis is supposed to ask her if she's ever double booked a date (which she has, but just once).
The game seems to be winding down with only a few questions left after Adena has asked Tanis endless questions about high school trivialities and been forced to play 'Nicky, Nicky, Nine Doors' through the dorm in her underwear.
"Okay, question twenty-one," Adena reads, "who is your current crush?" She squeals afterwards, as if it's something scandalous and not something she kind of already knows.
Tanis looks down quickly, "No one."
"Oh, come on, Tanis! There must be someone!"
"Not really…"
"Taaaanis…"
She shrugs, trying to appear as if the notion has only just now occurred to her, "Cameron's okay, I guess…"
Adena falters, but only a little, because she's not really that surprised, "Cam?"
"Just a little!" Tanis quickly defends. "I mean, he's cute…" she shrugs again.
But Tanis still won't look up and is starting to blush, so Adena thrusts the magazine into her hands and orders her to pick a dare.
A few days later, Tanis goes to one of the indoor courts for a little extra practice. She finds Adena and Cam there, but she looks a little bored and they're packing up to leave, so she smiles at them on their way out.
If anyone had seen Sunny Capaduca and Rick Geddes playing 'Truth or Dare' together, they would've been…well, seeing things.
Because it's not really a game when only one party is interested.
"I dare you to go away, you little dweeb," Sunny snarls, practicing her backhand on the old, rundown court.
"That's…not how it's played, Sunny," Rick tells her, genuinely confused, because the concept is pretty simple.
"I don't care! Go away!"
Normally he'd just go find Cody and try to be her rebound (news of her breakup is the best thing he's heard since he found out the lunch lady needed help in the kitchen), but she's been really hard to find lately, and none of her friends will willingly hang out with him very often. So when he saw Sunny practicing all alone, he figured it was the perfect time to forge a new friendship. And what better way to get to know one another than 'Truth or Dare'?
If there's anything that his years of rejection have taught him, it's to never give up (even though that hasn't really worked yet, because Cody still won't date him and no one remotely cool will acknowledge his existence), so he tries a different angle.
"Where's your new friend?"
"Violet?"
"Yeah."
"I sent her to yell at that idiot who restrung my racket," Sunny explains, scowling.
"You know, he has a nam-,"
"I don't care. Go away."
"Come on, truth or dare?"
"If I answer, will you leave and pretend we don't know each other?"
"Sure," Rick agrees, because he's used to it.
Sunny considers for a moment. "Truth."
"What are you hiding?"
"Excuse me?"
"You and Violet are being all sneaky; you're obviously hiding something," Rick tells her.
"That's what you wanted to know?" Sunny finally stops swinging to stare at him. "Why didn't you just ask me?"
"Would you have told me?"
"No, but I'm not going to tell you now, either," she explains.
"Sunny! Those are the rules of truth or dare! You picked truth; you have to tell the truth!"
"I don't feel like telling you."
"You can't disregard hundred-year old protocol because you feel like it!" Rick looks positively scandalized, and figures maybe he doesn't want to be friends with someone who has such a blatant lack of respect for centuries old traditions.
Sunny sighs, "I have dirt on Squib, okay? But if you think I'm telling you what it is, you're even more delusional than I thought."
"I am not delusional!"
"Oh yeah? Ask Cody."
"…What do you know about Squib?"
"Just something, okay?"
"Something bad?"
"Well, duh. I'm going to make sure he's not allowed back in Cascadia," she smirks.
"You can't do that!" Rick gasps, because as much as it would make things easier with Cody, he can't imagine life without Squib.
"Sure I can; just watch!"
"Oh, I get it," Rick says, feeling as though he's finally clued in, "this is payback, right? For that time when Squib published those photos of you?"
"What photos?" She looks confused.
"The ones of you drinking not Storm Burst," Rick explains. "And there was that whole contractual fraud deal?"
"Oh, right," Sunny says, recognition spreading across her face.
"What ever happened to those?"
She pauses, "I don't know."
He's about to say something else, when he glances at his watch and sees that he's almost late for lunch duty, "Well, I'd love to continue this, but I'm needed in the cafeteria," he smiles, turning away fro Sunny, "Nice chatting with you!"
"Hey, Rick," Sunny calls, not looking away from the wall where she's once again begun practicing her swing, "don't bother trying with Cody; she and Squib faked the breakup."
Rick spends three days sulking and hoping that Sunny had the wrong story, but a week later Squib's still in school and Rick catches the two making out behind that old bus, so he resigns himself to a life of unrequited love.
Nate knows who's coming up the stairs before they even open his door. It's a skill he picked up back at home, before his parents got divorced when he spent most of his time in his room wishing that they'd disappear. All he has to do is sit in his room quietly and listen to the footsteps and he knows who will be knocking on or bursting through his door.
Cody's steps are quick, more like running, while Adena's have a distinct 'hell, toe, heel, toe' rhythm, even when she's in flats; they burst. Cameron's walk sounds kind of heavy, like he's carrying something on his shoulders, and he knocks. Nate didn't think it was possible for a walk to sound arrogant until he met Squib, who could go either way depending on his mood.
So when he hears Tanis stomp up the stairs (even the girl's walk is angry), he knows she'll burst through the door any minute, probably rather obnoxiously.
"Hey, Nate, truth or dare?" She all but yells, flinging the door open and sitting herself on his bed, glaring at him.
"Uh…truth?" He's learned that it's best not to question these kids and just let them get whatever it is out of their systems.
"What the heck did you do to piss off Cody so badly?"
He sighs, "She told you?"
"No, that's why I'm here. I just saw her putting away all her tools and saying she was done with the car. And I'm assuming you had something to do with it."
"Now, what makes you say that?"
"She was excited, you helped her fix her car, now she's sad," she states dryly.
Nate sighs again, "She got discouraged when we forgot to put new sparkplugs in and wanted to quit, so I…made a comment about Squib."
"What'd you say?"
"It's not important; it was insensitive." He can see Tanis is ready to lecture him, so he continues, "But I'm going to fix it! I bought some sparkplugs, and I'm going to gi-,"
"No, no, no," Tanis says firmly.
"…No?"
"Look, maybe you should just give her some space, okay?" She softens, "She just broke up with Squib, and I don't think she needs more boy drama. Just…give it a few days? Maybe try again later?"
"Okay…" Nate shrugs.
"I gotta go practice," Tanis gets up. "Trust me, just give her a little space and you guys will be fine."
He's disappointed, because he was really excited about the sparkplug idea, but knows he should probably listen to Tanis on this one, seeing as she's a girl and all. He apologizes three days later and Cody readily forgives him, but they never take the car out.
Which is a shame, because he saw a commercial for a corn palace that just looked too hilarious not to visit.
The little voice inside Megan O'Connor's head that tells her not to have too much pasta at lunch and not to stop running until she's so out of breath she's about to faint is telling her that she shouldn't be playing 'Truth or Dare' over a bottle of absinthe the night before they play for the chance to represent Cascadia at the Hampstead tournament, but she's been so stressed lately that she just can't help it.
When Adena first suggested the idea, she'd wanted nothing to do with it. But as the day wore on, she'd just found herself getting more and more nervous and caring less and…well, in her defense, she was only going to have one drink.
Of course, now she's on her…well, she can't remember what glass it is. And she's not really sure why she's laughing, but Sebastien's laughing so she figures she will, too. He's really…pretty when he laughs. And who cares if she's got a big match tomorrow? She'll be fine; she trains hard, she eats right, and she's worried enough. She's allowed one night of fun.
As the evening wears on, she becomes less aware of what questions are being asked and the voice in her head gets really quiet. Almost nonexistent.
Which is a far cry from what she hears the next morning, when the blaring of her alarm clock makes her want to crawl into a hole and die. And the minute she tries to sit up, she knows she's made a horrible, horrible mistake.
After she drags herself to the court, she plays the worst game of her life and promptly drags herself back off. She wants to cry. She wants to disappear. She feels sick, and she's pretty sure it's not just the absinthe.
After Bates blows up at the A Group for such abysmal performances, Adena tries to apologize, but Megan won't listen. Even though she knows Adena shouldn't really be apologizing at all because it was her choice to drink, she still has to be mad at somebody. And she's sick of being mad at herself.
The day the chosen players leave, Megan stays in her room instead of wishing them luck with everyone else. She hates them. They stole her chance and it's all Adena's fault and she hates them.
She almost wishes that the plane would crash, but that's a horrible thought so she takes it right back.
Okay, so maybe a few things are a tad out of character, like Megan's drinking. But remember, these never happened.
I reeeeeeally wanted to include Jesse and Cassidy, but just…couldn't.
Oh, and incase anyone doesn't know, 'Nicky, Nick, Nine Doors' is when you knock on a door and then run for nine doors in a row. I dunno how well it would work in a dorm with no place to hide…