Disclaimer: BHH does not belong to me. Wish it did, coz then I could have my wicked way with a certain Professor, but it doesn't, so there you go. Licking Poles In Winter belongs to Hailstorm.

Spoilers: None. Except for maybe a fic that someone else wrote, link at the end of the fic.

A/N: Just a random little ficlet that I thought up after reading Licking Poles In Winter. If you want the link, please review and let me know, and I'll reply with it.

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"It seemed like a good idea at the time," is probably one of the most commonly used cries heard after someone's does something stupid. This time was no exception. It really did seem like a good idea at the time.

How she got herself into her current situation, she was never quite sure of, and probably never would be. But she knew that as soon as she got out of it, there were going to be some very scared boys running in the opposite direction.

Of course it didn't help that Corrine had been all for it… Or that Josie could never pass up a dare, like, ever. And weird stuff always happening at the school was her excuse for a while. Problem was, everyone involved knew that it had nothing to do with the Black Hole, and more to do with her own stupidity.

If only she'd just said no, turned them down, acted against her instincts for once. But nooo… Gotta follow those instincts and make a complete fool of herself… And a fool she did look like, when she wasn't trying to make it look like she was supposed to be there in the first place.

Josie was just extremely glad that there weren't very many people around to witness this spectacular event. Although she would quite happily kick Lucas and Marshall's butts as soon as she was free to, even so.

But maybe we should start at the beginning, because it's a very good place to start.

It started out like any normal Saturday, well, as normal as normal could be anyways. They gathered in the science room, out of absolute boredom, because it was Christmas, and most of the students had gone home for the holidays.

And that's when it started. Their little game of truth or dare. It was innocent enough to begin with, a few minor truths, a couple of little dares. But with boredom comes imagination… And with imagination, comes bigger dares. And with bigger dares, comes bigger trouble.

Like the kind that Josie found herself in later on that day.

But I'm getting ahead of myself again.

Who suggested the game no one's quite sure. It was just one of those innocent suggestions thrown out into the universe in pure boredom. With nothing else better being suggested, everyone sorta shrugged and found themselves in a circle, awaiting instructions. Of course after it was all over, they tried to blame the whole thing on Josie, but she wasn't having a bar of that!

Like I said, it all started out innocently. Marshall had to reconfigure Durst's cell phone so that everything was written in Turkish; Lucas had to put saran wrap on the boy's toilet seats. Corrine chose truth and got asked, by Josie, if she'd ever kissed anyone. Of course she blushed and basically refused to answer, which in itself was answer enough. Vaughn had to kiss Josie, which, although she threatened to punch Marshall for that one, she was actually secretly pleased about. And Josie had to 'accidentally' spill her drink on Madison.

And in this way the game went on for an hour or so, before finally everyone fell into silence, exhausting their expansive repertoire of truth questions and dares. They sat around the room, each one lost in thought, still thinking of things they could do.

Corrine was chewing on the ends of her hair, a bad habit she'd never quite been able to stop, even though she knew how disgusting it was and how disgusting it looked. Vaughn was chucking a football between his hands, throwing it up in the air and catching it as it fell back to earth. Josie was picking little bits of dirt out from underneath her fingernails, rolling it in to little balls and then flicking them towards Lucas.

Lucas was busy trying to brush himself free of all the little dirtballs Josie was sending his way. And Marshall was taping out a staccato beat on the table with a pair of pencils. All in all they were pretty bored.

A few minutes later however, they began to perk up. Marshall had leaned in to Lucas and whispered a brilliant plan in his ear… Just something to make the day a little more exciting, at least that was their excuse after it was all over. His eye's lighting up, Lucas leaned back nonchalantly, trying to act as if everything was normal.

"I bet," he said in a low voice, looking at Josie who was preparing another little dirt ball for him. "That you couldn't climb to the top of the football goal post." He smirked a little.

"I bet you I could," she replied evenly, still rolling her little dirtball between her thumb and forefinger. She flicked it at him, and he tried to bat it away, but missed and it hit him squarely between the eyes.

"Yea right," he scoffed, trying to goad her in to taking the dare.

Now, we all know Josie is up for anything, but for once she actually had her doubts about this dare. After all, a football goal post is pretty high. So she resisted taking it… At least for 5 seconds anyway, which is how long it took her to think about how much she didn't stand to lose if she refused this dare.

"How much do you want to bet?" she asked, forgetting all about the little dirtballs now. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, leaned back and stared at Lucas, the dirtball falling from her fingers to the floor.

From there, one thing lead to another and the next thing she knew, Josie was at the top of a snow covered goal post. "See, I told you I could do it," she cried out triumphantly, looking down at the group below her.

Which is when she discovered several important things. A) There was no easy way to climb back down a snow covered goal post, B) it was really really high up, C) that she wasn't exactly thrilled about heights, and finally, D) that she was indeed stuck, since the top of her jeans had somehow frozen to the side of the icy, sticky goal post.

"Um… guys? I'd like to get down now," she called down to them. "But I think I'm gonna need a bit of help!" She wasn't happy about having to ask for help, but being at the top of a goal post isn't exactly the best place to be, she reasoned to herself.

Snickering, Lucas stared up at her. "Come on Josie, quit fooling around, you can come down now," he shouted up to her, thinking she was just being silly. Which, in a way she was… But on this occasion she also needed their help.

"No, seriously guys, I'm stuck!"

Looking up at her, they all exchanged amused glances, before they turned around and trooped off the snow covered football field. She watched as they made their way up to the school, but it wasn't until an hour had passed that she finally realized that they weren't getting help for her.

Fuming, she sat up the top of the goal, her jeans soaking wet from the snow, her hair covered in flakes. Crossing one arm around her body, she held on to the post with the other.

And soon some students walked past, and then a couple more, and soon small groups were gathering around to see her sitting alone at the top of the football goal post. Acting as nonchalantly as possible, she tried to make it look as though she'd gone up there for a purpose, casually sweeping the snow off the top of the post with her free hand.

I don't really think any of the students were fooled by this little act of Josie's though. Over the next hour or two, various small groups of students, the few who were still at the school anyway, continued to drop by, just to see how she was doing. That was their excuse anyways; it was really just so they could have a good gawk at her.

Various fingers were pointed at her, at many points there was a snide laugh or two. If she wasn't trying to be dignified about the whole affair, Josie would have had a few choice words to say to them all… More than a few choice words actually, more like a thousand or two. Instead she just settled for looking as dignified about her position as possible, and aside from throwing out a sarcastic barb at them every now and again, she kept her mouth shut.

Finally, just as it was beginning to get really cold, she was rescued. By Z and the janitor with a big huge ladder. Z had seen the large… well, large considering the number of students who were still at the school… gathered on the football field and had gone down to investigate. Seeing the forlorn figure atop the goal post, he'd gone back inside to find the janitor and a ladder.

As she was climbing down, a little stiff and shivering, she saw Lucas and Marshall standing by with Corrine and Vaughn, huge grins on their faces. Her eyes narrowed at them as she gave them both an icy glare, extending the glare to include Corrine and Vaughn after she realized that neither of them had bothered to help her out.

As she hit the ground, she saw Lucas and Marshall slowly back away from her. Turning she pointed one finger at them menacingly. "I'm going to get you two!" she cried out, before she ran after them. They turned and raced away from her, looking back over their shoulders every now and again to see how close she was to them.

Vaughn and Corrine exchanged knowing grins with Z, before following after them.

After Josie had walloped both Lucas and Marshall over the head with a book she'd picked up as she'd chased them through the school, she remembered that at least it wasn't as bad as the time Lucas dared Vaughn to lick the goal post in the middle of winter the year before.

Now did anyone learn anything from Josie's little mishap? No? I didn't think so.

The end.

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