All Started With A Dare

Chapter Five

five

"You know, maybe this isn't such a good idea."

After the week had finally dragged on, here I am sitting in my room with Keeley putting her plan into action. Trystan had stopped trying to talk to me - thank god - although sometimes he does give me unnerving looks like he's holding my biggest secret.

Oh wait, he is.

The rest of my classes pass uneventfully, and Finn has dropped the idea that he knows me from somewhere. He's actually pretty funny, and I would class us as sort of friends. We usually end up doing the work as Cameron ends up chatting to Charity, but its slightly more interesting when he starts chucking frog guts at the group in front of us.

I'm scared that now that my life has settled back into it's normal routine, this party will reveal it all.

Keeley doesn't even look up from rifling through my selection of dresses, frowning and tutting in disapproval at my lack of dresses. "Jade, when have any of my ideas ever been good?" She asks skeptically, holding up a bright yellow dress.

I cringe at the hideous dress, remembering when my mum had skipped into my room two years ago and announced she had bought the most amazing dress for me. I wasn't exactly enthusiastic at the thought, and even less so when she pulled the shin length yellow dress, complete with puffy sleeves.

One thing you should know: I love every single colour in this world, except yellow. So I had to force a smile and pretend I loved the dress, when in reality I chucked it to the back of my cupboard and haven't looked at it since.

"Wow, this is very yellow," she comments, smirking at the look on my face. "Why don't you wear this?"

"No thank you." I throw my pillow at the dress, but miss and hit Keeley in the face instead. I burst out laughing, as she throws the dress to the growing 'reject' pile and glares at me.

"God do you have anything that's shorter then your knees?" Keeley huffs after another ten minutes of looking, staring at all my dresses on the floor in dismay. I had kicked the yellow dress under the bed, in case my mother walked in and decided I should wear that.

"It's not like I knew you would come up with this ridiculous plan to dress us up like sluts so we can get into the party," I defend myself, glancing at the clock. "Make your mind up; we only have an hour left till the guys get here."

She purses her lips, and then suddenly a grin falls onto her lips and she pokes her head back into the cupboard. "Remember Christmas last year?" She shouts at me from the recess of my cupboard.

"Yes...?" I answer hesitantly, wary of the giddy excitement in her voice that usually leads into some kind of trouble.

"I brought over two dresses for both of us, for the Christmas party," she explains, facing me again with dresses in her hand. "I left them here after and never remembered; until now."

My eyes widen, as I look at the black and red dresses Keeley is clutching tightly in her hands. "Your brother called me a prostitute wearing that dress Keels," I groan, eyeing the sparkly red material Keeley had convinced me to wear.

Keeley's twin brother Nathan constantly teased Keeley and I, so I wasn't very pleased when he told me to go wait on the street corner instead of an innocent Christmas party. I simply replied, "Go to hell."

"That's the point my dear friend," Keeley winks, and chucks the black dress at me. "Your turn to wear black; I'm going to go red."

As I pull my off my ratty pyjamas, I can tell Keeley is thrilled at the thought of breaking the rules. It's not like we usually have a reason to crash a popular party; so this is a great opportunity for her.

Me on the hand? I can already see how this is going to end bad, and part of me just wants to forget it all and crawl back into bed. But then the bigger part of me reminds me that my phone is in there; waiting for me to rescue it.

"This does not cover enough skin," I protest, once I've pulled on the dress. It's tight down to the waist, were it flares out to mid thigh. Thin straps hold it up, and my mind conjure up a horrible image of those straps breaking.

And they say having a vivid imagination is a good thing.

"Don't worry, once I'm done with you no one will recognise you anyway," Keeley assures me, adjusting her own dress which she manages to pull off and look amazing. "Plus, you look hot!"

"I always look hot," I joke, letting Keeley lead me into the chair in front of my dresser. She had set out all her make up and hair supplies across it, covering the mirror so, "You'll be blown away by the miracles I can perform."

She begins on my face, patting god knows what all over my face. I trust her expertise, as she always insists on doing my make up and hair as well as her own. I swear, I'm like her little doll who she plays around with.

"Don't look," she warns me when she finishes poking and preening my face, nearly taking my eye out with her eyeliner at one point. She plugs in her straighteners, and I remind her that I don't care what I look like.

The quicker I get into that stupid party and out with my phone the better.

"Of course you care what you look like," she says, bringing the sizzling hot straighteners towards my hair. I watch her carefully, not willing to forget the time she squealed at how 'amazing my hair looks' and burnt my shoulder by accident.

"Why don't you just leave my hair curly?" I sigh, watching as she straightens my hair precisely.

"We're doing total make overs, so no one can recognise us," Keeley reminds me, then grins at me. "Plus it's fun!"

After straightening every inch of my hair and very nearly burning my face, she allows me to look in the mirror. For her sake I give her a wide smile and tell her it looks great, which it does but I don't really care.

"Of course you do, I did it," Keeley says smugly.

I guess what she was going for works though; I don't usually wear make up and when I do I look very different. I watch as Keeley does her own make up perfectly, then turns her usually straight hair into ringlets.

"Done," she announces, pulling out her curlers and turning to me. "Don't we look truly slutty, I'm so proud!"

I look in the mirror, and nod in agreement. The dresses are short enough to pass as some hormonal slutty girl, and we both have way more make up on then usual; mascara, foundation, eye liner, lipstick, eye shadow, concealer and blush.

"Keels just stick to the plan," I tell her, knowing how she could get lost in the moment sometimes. "Once I find my phone I don't want to have to drag a drunken you out of the party."

"Have some more faith in me," she rolls her eyes, slipping on some black heels. "I came up with this plan; I will stick with it. I think Cameron's the one we should worry about."

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Right on cue the doorbell goes off, presumably Cameron and Jordan. I pull on some simple black flats - I don't think my mental health can deal with high heels right now, and follow Keeley downstairs.

My mothers answers the door, smiling warmly and greeting Cameron and Jordan. "Oh I don't see you children enough!" She gushes, pulling them into a hug separately.

I can't help but roll my eyes. She had seen them less then a week ago, but then again my mother can be quite the drama queen when she wants to. "It's nice to see you too Mrs Brooke," Jordan says politely, both of them used to my mums openness.

They are both dressed as usual, as guys can't exactly dress 'slutty' as Keeley put it. Unless they planned on going naked, which isn't recommended. Hopefully no one would question them, and if so... Well, I guess we never thought that far.

In fact, the amount of flaws in this plan never came up when we discussed it over the past few lunches. My negative train of thought is broken when my mother talks to us. "You two are looking very dressed up for work on a project," she says suspiciously, looking over our short dresses and made up hair.

Cameron gives me a look of disbelief behind my mothers back, which says: Why would you make up such a stupid lie?

I discreetly stick my tongue out at him, and look desperately at Keeley. The problem is when my mother asked me where I was going on Friday, I panicked and said we were working on a project.

Lying never came easily to me, so I'm relying on Keeley to save me here. "Oh yes Mrs Brooke, we are going to work on a project," Keeley nods, smiling sweetly at my mother. "We're all entering a photography contest and the theme is Glitz and Glamour. So Cameron and Jordan are taking the camera, whereas Jade and I will actually be in the photos and had to dress up."

"I didn't know you liked photography," my mum says, but I can hear her suspicion in her voice fading away with the fake sincerity plastered on Keeley's face. I try to replicate her expression, hoping I don't look like someone just hit me in the face with a hammer.

"I think it's time we all started getting more involved in extra curricular activities," Keeley says solemnly, and Cameron, Jordan and I nod in agreement.

"That's brilliant!" My mother exclaims, and I internally breath a sigh of relief. I send Keeley a grin, which she returns with her own. "Jade why don't you wear that dress I bought for you? It seems like I got it for you ages ago, and you still haven't worn it."

"Oh um," I say uncertainly, thinking about the yellow custard coloured dress lying in a wrinkled up bundle under my bed. "I don't think I have

time to go upstairs and look for it."

"What a shame," my mother sighs, and I slowly make my way downstairs to join Cameron and Jordan, Keeley behind me.

"So we better get started on this project; it'll last for a while," I say, ready to leave this house and my mothers questioning. Any more of it and I'll manage to slip up somehow.

"Have fun dears!" She smiles, and finally we get out into the cool night air. I breathe out a sigh, and Cameron hits me in the arm.

"Doing a project? Really?" He scoffs.

"Yeah well, it turned out fine in the end didn't it?" I say, pulling a face at Cameron who just laughs.

"Ok guys, let's just go over what's going to go on inside," Keeley says in a business like tone, striding along surprisingly fast in heels. I walk alongside them, feeling small. Usually Keeley is only slightly taller then me, but with heels on they all tower over me.

"We'll wait for someone to enter the house, and sneak in after them. Hopefully we'll fit in, and anyway it'll be busy so no one will stop to bother us. Two of us go up to Trystan's room and search for the phone, and the other two find the kitchen and wait there. Once the two have found the phone, they get to the kitchen and then we all leave. Got it?"

"I'm not going up to sneak around a guys room," Cameron says immediately, holding his hands up. "So I'll wait in the kitchen."

"I'm hungry so looks like I'm going to the kitchen," Jordan shrugs. "Anyway, it's not like either of us want to be poking around men's clothing."

As if drawn by an invisible force, Cameron, Jordan and I all snap our heads towards Keeley expectantly. Even in the darkness, I can make out the blush painted across her cheeks. "What?" She snaps, crossing her arms across her chest. "Why do you guys always assume I want to look at Trystan's underwear?"

"Jordan said nothing about underwear," I point out smugly, causing the three of us to laugh at Keeley's sheepish expression. "Ok, so you're coming with me then."

"Fine," she agrees, then hastily adds, "But only to find your phone."

We continue to tease her, until we reach Trystan's house. All along his street cars are parked, and loud music blasts from his house. I feel sorry for his neighbours who must be used to the noise and have to put up with it.

As we stand their and just stare at the house, a teenage boy stumbles past us on his way out of the garden. "Hey girl," he slurs, placing a hand on Cameron's arm and grinning up at him. "You looking hot tonight."

I burst into laughter while Cameron throws the guys hand off of him, disgust clear on his face. "I am not a girl," he says angrily, pushing the clearly drunk guy away.

"Your loss babe," he winks at Cameron, and continues to wander down the street humming to himself.

"Oh you are one sexy girl," I tease him, and he glowers at me.

"Are we doing this or what?"

Cameron marches up to the front door, so the three of us follow, still snickering at Cameron being mistaken for a female. Just as he places his hand on the door knob, Keeley grabs his arm and yanks him aside.

"What are you doing? That's not part of the plan!"

"Screw the plan," he rolls his eyes, his eyes wandering around the front garden littered with rubbish and a sleeping girl. "Do you think anyone's going to ask who we are? No. They'll all be hammered by now anyway."

"Cameron Fletcher West, I did not go through the trouble of forming a carefully calculated plan for you to just throw it out of the window," Keeley says stiffly, determination lighting up her eyes.

Cameron and Keeley break out into a argument, and Jordan and I exchange a look. "Let's just end this," I suggest, indicating towards the door. The other two don't notice, too busy getting all up in each other's faces.

"Why not?" Jordan easily pushes open the door, and steps inside. I follow him and I raise an eyebrow at the other two, who stare at us.

"You coming or not?" I ask, fighting a smile.

"Fine then," Keeley huffs, storming inside. "When we all get kicked out, don't blame me! Come on Jade."

Keeley grabs my wrist and drags me upstairs, through crowds of people pressing against us. Cameron and Jordan get lost in the masses of sweaty people, and I have a bad feeling they'll be making quite a few detours before ending up in the kitchen.

No one even gives us a second glance, too busy dancing and chatting up the opposite s*x. One girl even comes up and greets us as if we are old friends, then walks off to make out with a guy watching her a few metres away.

Getting onto the first floor is a struggle, as the sweaty alcoholic atmosphere doesn't help clear my senses. "I can't believe we're in a popular party," Keeley giggles, her irritation at Cameron long forgotten as she stands at the top of the stairs and looks down at everyone.

"It's basically drunk people grinding and mingling their sweaty lips together." I cringe at the mental image, and self consciously tug on the hem of my dress. "Right, let's just find my phone."

"Hey Jade!" I freeze when I hear my voice behind me, and next to me Keeley glances back with wide eyes. She bites her lip, looking unsure.

I turn around and I have to clamp my mouth shut to stop the string of curses pouring out of my mouth at the sight of Finn. Of course he'd be here; Trystan's his best friend and he posted the status about the party.

Time to put my pathetic acting skills to some use. I know Keeley won't be much use, and one glance at her panicky expression confirms what I think. "Hi Finn," I say brightly, noticing for the first time the girl hanging off his arm.

It's not like he has much time to talk to me anyway, I think gratefully. The blonde squints at us, as if trying to recognise us from somewhere. "Finny, who are these girls?" She asks curiously, looking adoringly at Finn.

"Just some friends," he smiles, then looks over at Keeley who looks like she's planning her funeral. "Who's this?"

"Keeley," she says shyly, turning into a person I don't recognise. Keeley is a shy character when you first meet her, but once she feels comfortable around you she'll become her usual bubbly self.

"Nice to meet you Keeley," he salutes her, and I can tell his friend is getting impatient. "So, how did you get into this party?"

We're screwed. "The door," I blurt out, and out of the corner of my eye I notice the flat look Keeley gives me. "Just joking," I laugh nervously, glancing around to avoid Finn's curious Hazel eyes. "Charity invited Cameron who invited us."

For a moment I think he's not going to believe me, but then he laughs and I relax. "Of course, she's been playing your friend for a while now," he shrugs.

"Come on Finny," the girl by his side whines, and I couldn't be more relieved when she pulls him downstairs to join her fellow peers.

"Ok see you on Monday Finn," I wave, then grab Keeley's hand and pull her away. "We need to find my phone, and quick."

Keeley nods, giving me an expectant look. "Well you're the Trystan Woods expert. Lead the way to his room!"