Double Dare

Double Dare

“You guys are not gonna go through with this”, laughed Baxter.

“Oh yes we are”, said Lee. “Right Ash?” she turned to me.

I nodded, “Of course, we always do.” Lee smiled smugly as she twirled a blonde strand around her index finger. Of course we would go through with it, we always did. It was our favorite game, Double Dare. Lee, Baxter, and I thought it up when we were in third grade and turned it into a show. But then the dares were just silly kid stuff, like putting gum in other kids’ hair, or running around the playground in your underwear. Now it was stealing your mom’s car or skate boarding off a ramp on the school’s roof. At least one of those things was normal for a high schooler. But this was by far the dumbest and craziest thing we’ve done yet.

“Got your camera Baxter”, asked Lee.

Baxter nodded he was always our camera guy, unless he was doing the dare.

He held it up and said action.

“Hey there everyone, as you know I’m Lee and this is my best friend Ashley, and boy do we have a show for you.”

It sounded like an episode of iCarly but we’ve always started the show in different ways. Lee was Sam, and sadly, I was Carly. On cue I introduced today’s dare. “Okay folks”, I started. “Today’s dare is titled Marry Poppins as requested from Sean the Conquer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Thanks for your wacky ideas Sean.” The dare was for me to drive a beaten up old pick-up truck really fast, belonging to Baxter’s cousin, while Lee tried flying with a black umbrella. I had no idea how to pull it off, but she wouldn’t let me talk her out of it.

So I buckled up with Bax in the back seat and the camera rolling. Outside the car Lee had on her roller blades but no helmets. In her left hand was the umbrella and in her right, a thick rope. I would start the car and hold on to the other end while we picked up speed. I hoped the dusty old girl could pick up speed, I hoped we wouldn’t crash, and I really hoped that if we did and survived we would end this stupid game forever. Starting the engine I hung my head out the window and called back to Lee. “Ready?” She gave me a thumbs up. I drove, slowly at first, than faster, I still wanted to be careful of the speed limit.

Fifteen minutes passed where Bax kept edging me to go faster, so I did. I’m sure he was zooming in on Lee’s feet to see if she was air borne. “Just a little more”, he edged; I floored it, thinking it would be like SpongeBob on his driving test. For a moment I thought I was right and glanced out the window. “You okay”, I called back, my only reply was Baxter laughing.

“Ash you gotta see this”, he sputtered.

I turned to see Lee looking scared out of her mind. I couldn’t help it, I laughed too. Like always my glasses sort of slid off my nose, quickly I shoved them back up with my left hand, the one holding the rope. I could hear the yelp Lee made. “You should see your face right now”, I screamed not caring if anything got in my mouth. “Shut up”, she yelled back but I could hear the laughter in her voice. It didn’t take long before all three of us were laughing. We kept rolling for a little longer and then Lee complained that she was feeling nauseous, so I slowed down until Bax said she was back on the ground.

Like always we watched the video before we uploaded it. Sitting in the back our legs dangling off the floor we sat on either side of Baxter as he replayed it for us. Lee was shaking and Bax was laughing like a maniac, she punched him, hard and told him to stop move the camera. We watched in silence as a terrified Lee managed to make it off the ground and almost lose her umbrella to the California wind. She took one look at her face and burst into laughter, I could tell her eyes were tearing.

Lee’s laughter was contagious; Baxter and I fell back laughing with her. “That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done”, she screamed throwing her arms up. “Yes it was”, I agreed. Baxter sat up, “And I got it all on video.” He began bragging about how great a camera man he was, I rolled my eyes and Lee stifled the last of her laughter. We shared a knowing look.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” she said and I nodded.

“Baxter we’ve got one more shot to shoot”, I said, shutting him up.

“What”, he asked getting up.

We answered together, “Our close off.”

“It’ll be our last”, said Lee, always getting the last word.

Baxter pouted but held the camera up anyways. “You’re the bosses”, he mumbled. We smiled and waved at the camera. “Hey viewers”, I started. “The last eight years were fun and all, but we’ve decided that this will be our final episode.” Beside me Lee nodded. “We hope this last video wowed you. And who knows, maybe we’ll see you again on the big screen”, she said. “But until then, we’re out”, I said.

“And cut”, ended Baxter with a grin. “That was great. But do you really think we could make a movie?”

“Lee was just exaggerating.”

“No I wasn’t. We’ll make great actresses, and Baxter will make a great director.”

I could see his eyes light up as the word Director hit him; he already carried his camera everywhere. “Maybe”, I said. “Hollywood’s not that far away, we do live in Cali. But no more stupid action movies.” Lee smiled, “Definitely not. We’ll do the ones like Fast Five and G. I. Joe or something”, she said as we got back in the car.

“I was thinking horror”, piped in Bax. “Lee might be able to pull off the dumb blonde cheerleader.”

She kicked him, he’d been pulling that blonde crap since seventh grade when she failed a test.

“I don’t do horror”, she said. But that wouldn’t stop her.