Ch.1 The Beginning

Carolyn McCoy was quite often labeled an overachiever, but by any definition, this word, "overachiever" was a drastic understatement, for Carolyn McCoy was an overachieving overachiever. She had three goals in life: be the best at everything she did, look perfect in every way, and when she was wrong, make sure everyone knew she was right. These goals were simple and achievable on both a daily or long term basis, or so Carolyn thought.

Every morning Carolyn woke up before her alarm and got ready, perfectly. She would start by putting on her favorite CD and singing along while she cleaned her face with an expensive clarifying lotion guaranteeing perfectly clear skin. She would then cover her blemishes with an even more expensive concealer, powder, blush combo. With that completed, and examined thoroughly in the mirror, she would change into her outfit, which she had picked out the night before, and again check herself in her full length mirror. Then she would change into the outfit she would wear for the day.

With that done she would have no choice but to move onto her hair. Carolyn was proud to say that she had been told several times that her hair was perfect. Carolyn hated her hair. It had to look perfect everyday and perfect often meant war. If she was going to wear her hair down she would have decided the night before and blow-dry it before straightening it for bed, but if it was going to be put up in a bun or ponytail she would simply towel dry it and secure it in a scrunchy. When fixing her hair in the morning Carolyn took the utmost care; no hair could be out of place. It was not a rare thing for Carolyn to spend an hour and a half on her hair putting it up and taking it down, and putting it up and taking it down until finally, her hair went up without a bump to be seen, or her hand became too cramped to move and she was forced to take a sick day. This obsession with perfection did not, however, end with her appearance. She had every detail of every day planned out, including the spontaneous moments.

Carolyn liked to plan. She would plan outfits, conversations, fights, lunch, and how to wrap a certain boy around her little finger. Carolyn was an expert at planning, and every plan she made was perfect, at least until the idiocy of fools ruined it; she would, of course, never admit that the idiocy of her plans sometimes ruined perfect fools. But despite these setbacks, Carolyn, always the overachieving overachiever, continued to plan everything. So it should come as no surprise that the day upon which our story starts was completely planned.

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Sixteen-year-old Carolyn McCoy emitted a perfect resonating belch before daintily wiping her mouth with her paper napkin. She cast a glance with her green eyes down at the substance in the half-empty bowl before her. It was her enemy's secret recipe: ketchup, lemonade, cereal, chocolate chips, hot sauce, cold refried beans, toilette water, and coconut milk; Truth or Dare stew. "Well girls," declared Carolyn setting the napkin down on the table, "I believe I win. I ate more of this," she wrinkled her nose, "stew than any of you." She gave a loud laugh before flipping her red hair. The other girls around the table grimaced. "So of course, I remain, as I knew I would, the undeniable Truth or Dare Champ." She sighed dramatically and crossed her arms slowly, one finger at a time folding to touch her red blazer. "So which one of you losers is going to give me a mint? This substance is absolutely foul."

One of the girls scowled, slid a hand into her purse, and pulled out a sea-foam colored mint. "It's spearmint, your favorite." She slid the mint across the table and Carolyn slammed her hand down on it just before it fell over the edge.

"Awe, that's so thoughtful Kate, you guys know me too well. Perhaps I should get some new opponents." She picked up the mint in her one hand and squeezed it out onto her tongue before closing her mouth and setting the wrapper on the table. She swished the object from side to side before standing up. "Well ladies, it's been real, but alas I have far more important things to do than beat you guys again. So I'm just going to leave you guys to determine a runner-up. Au revoir!" She smiled brightly and turned on her heel, her flaming locks bouncing rhythmically on her shoulders. Carolyn had made it halfway to the café door when the perfectly paced crack of her heels suddenly stopped. "Oh and by the way, yeah, Kate, this mint you gave me isn't spearmint it's wintergreen. I hate wintergreen." She pivoted on her heel a gleeful smirk on her face. "In fact," she started back towards the table the crack of her designer heels again mixing with the chatter of the café patrons, "Kate, darling," she reached the table and snatched Kate's hand slamming it down on the table so the palm was facing upward, "I think you should have it back." Kate's eyes grew huge as Carolyn shifted her other hand up towards her mouth.

"Ha! You're little Miss Perfect, you wouldn't dare," Kate accused trying to rip her hand away.

"Wanna bet?" Carolyn replied with a laugh. She swiftly removed the now white mint from her mouth and set it delicately on Kate's palm before closing the girl's fingers around the offending object. "Don't you dare try and pull a fast one on me ever again, Kate. I don't care how disgusting your Truth or Dare Stew is, I'm always going to be the girl who comes out on top. Know why?" She squeezed Kate's wrist as the girl shook her head angrily. "Well, then let me let you in on a little secret; I'm fabulous," she finished in a whisper. "Well girls," Carolyn said with a smile as she let go of Kate and stood up straight, "I really do have to go now. Have fun and try not to let Kate cry too much. It makes her eyes look puffy and considering how much they bulge now," she added distastefully, "it wouldn't be very becoming." She turned once again and walked to the door of the café with a smirk on her face and her hands in her pockets.

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Rat, tat, tat… Carolyn glared at the air before her as the rat, tat, tatting of her pointed heels echoed off the brick walls enclosing the side-street. A horn beeped annoyingly behind her on the main thoroughfare, but Carolyn pointedly ignored it as she hooked her thumbs through her belt loops and whistled lazily.

Rat, tat, tat… Carolyn's thoughts focused on the local used bookstore and the impending match with Jennifer's clique. They were an utterly stupid band of baboons, but their boss was such a complete ignoramus that she (and the baboons of course) often chose to flip Carolyn's dares back upon herself rather than waste their endangered brain cells on creating something original. As far as Carolyn was concerned this was a complete reversal of strategy from the cool and calculating Kate who often spent copious amounts of time concocting one dare, and as with any reversal in her enemy's strategy, Carolyn's was sure to be molded. Every opponent garnered their own plan. With Kate, Carolyn only needed to come up with a near impossible dare before Kate or her clique could devise one, but with Jennifer and the baboons she had to make her dares difficult, but not to the point where she couldn't complete them herself, for even if she took one baboon out, there was still another, just as brainless, to replace it.

Carolyn paused her whistling momentarily to smirk to herself, recalling the way her superior brilliance and planning had always brought her out on top. The tatting of her heels continued their incessant echo in the narrow side-street. Rat, tat, tat…

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle…

Carolyn stopped mid stride and glanced over her shoulder only to see two trashcans against the brick buildings, but nothing alive. Shrugging her shoulders Carolyn flipped her fiery hair before continuing down the street. Rat, tat, tat…

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle…

Carolyn again halted and glanced over her shoulder. No one. Shrugging she turned and continued forward. It was probably Kate come to exact her pathetic revenge, no sense in letting the girl get to her. That would only please her.

Rat, tat, tat…

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle…

Stop. Glance. No one. Turn. Rat, tat, tat…

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle…

Stop, glance, No one, turn, rat, tat, tat…

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle…

Stop glance no one turn rat tat tat…

Shuffle shuffle shuffle…

Stopglancenooneturnrattattat…

Shuffleshuffleshuffle

Stopglancenooneturn "Aarrrggg! You're not Kate!" Carolyn waved her hands furiously in front of her face as she let out an ear piercing scream. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my-"

"Shh, Shh, Shh!" hissed the girl before her. She had wavy green hair and mischievous violet eyes.

Carolyn shut her mouth quickly and sneered, her cool composer again taking over. "Who are you and why are you in my bubble? I have a strict no strangers within eight feet policy and your fifteen inches is a clear violation." Carolyn delicately placed her hand on her hip as the girl continued to stare. "Look, in case you didn't get it, my previous statement would imply that you," she pointed at the girl, "need to get out of my," she motioned towards herself, "way. So move."

"I heard what you said and I understood it perfectly, but you see, you said that strangers couldn't be within eight feet of you and I'm not a stranger so your policy doesn't apply." The girl smiled brightly as she looked up at Carolyn.

Carolyn shook her head in confusion as she looked the girl up and down her lip curling, "No, I think I would remember meeting a troll."

The girl frowned, "I am not a troll; I'm a pixie. I was under the impression you were an observant individual."

Carolyn took a hasty step back from the young girl. "Yeah, my no stranger policy also applies to fantasy geeks. So you should be at least eight feet away from me." She moved to step around the girl.

The girl; however, merely rolled her eyes as she again stepped in front of Carolyn. "Nonsense," she stated brightly, "I'm neither a fantasy geek nor stranger. I'm a friend of Kate's."

Carolyn stared at her for a moment before letting loose a wave of exaggerated chuckles. "A friend of Kate, you?"

"That's what I said."

Carolyn wiped a false tear from her eye, "Oh that explains everything. Look, I know why Kate sent you. She's always been slow on the comebacks so let me save you some time." Carolyn took a deep breath before waving her hand in a circle beside her, an imitation of Kate's exaggerated hand chat. "Blah, blah, blah, Carolyn is so mean. Blah, blah, blah, she cheated. Blah, blah, blah, boyfriend stealing wench. Blah, blah, blah, I'll get her next time." Carolyn wrinkled her nose distastefully and put a finger to her chin in thought. "Yep," she said tapping her finger, "that should be the gist of it." She refolded her arms. "So now, I've got something you can tell little Miss Kate. Ha. Ha. Ha." Carolyn smirked, "Got that?"

The girl's brow rose, "Uh yeah, but, umm… that isn't why I'm here."

Carolyn formed an o with her mouth. "Oh, so then what are you doing here?"

The girl's smile returned as she bounced in her sneakers. "Well, I just wanted to tell you that I thought your performance was amazing back there. You really let them have it. So I just wanted to-," she pulled a folded piece of paper from her jeans pocket and Carolyn threw up her arms.

"You wanted to get my autograph? Look, I know I'm fabulous, but I'm not a superstar, I don't do autographs. They're so, "I'm not quite sure I'm fabulous, remind me please." So you can just put that back and move out of my way so I can move away from you."

The girl rolled her eyes. "No, I don't need your autograph. I just wanted to give you this flyer for a Truth or Dare tournament this Saturday. I thought, since you're unbeatable, you'd like it."

Carolyn tried to quell a laugh, but still allowed a few haughty chuckles to escape her glossed lips. "A Truth or Dare Tournament? Look, I think you misunderstand me. I don't kick Truth or Dare butt for sport; I do it to show my enemies their place."

"But it has a 5,000 prize."

Carolyn's smile grew wide at this and she snatched the paper from the girl's hand. "But, hey, there's a first time for everything. If you've got the gift you might as well exploit it." She glanced down at the paper. "The Rocks Café; Hmm…how come I've never heard of them holding a tournament before?"

"Oh, it's really exclusive you have to be invited by someone who's competed before. You know, they only want the best and that's the only way to ensure that they only get the best," The girl answered with a lopsided grin.

"Oh, so you've competed before?"

The girl took a deep breath, "Yeah, but I was no match for the other participants. I-"

Carolyn brushed her off with a wave of her hand as she glanced at the flyer. "Yeah, thanks for the personal memory, lovely really, but I've got questions you need to answer. For instance, this partners thing it mentions; how does that work? I've never done partners."

"Oh that's easy once you get there they'll assign you a partner. There are three options you can pick in Partners Truth or Dare: Truth, Dare, and Double Dare. Truth and Dare are for one person, but a Double Dare is completed with a partner. When you can't complete a Dare or Double Dare or answer honestly to a Truth you and your partner are eliminated."

Carolyn nodded and opened her mouth to ask how they would know if she told the truth, but the girl continued talking, "But, because they want it to reflect that the competition only includes the best they've limited the number of Truth's to three per team. It's a whole three strikes policy, but you shouldn't have a problem with that, you always pick dare."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look I've really got to go so why don't I take this paper, you move, and umm… I'll be on my way." Carolyn shoved the paper in her gold sequined shoulder bag and moved to push past the girl who immediately thrust out her hand latching onto her purse.

Carolyn whirled and positively seething whipped her purse from the petite girl's grip. "Just what do you think your doing? I have a no touching policy and that," she spat, "applies to everyone!"

The girl merely blinked her eyes and smiled clasping her hands behind her back. "I just wanted to tell you that in order to get into the tournament you'll have to use the ally door. Just knock three times, wait ten seconds, then knock twice more and someone will open the door." With that said the girl gave one last toothy grin before twirling and skipping away towards the end of the side street.

Carolyn exhaled sharply through her nose and shook her head. "Freak." Rat, tat, tat.