It was pitch black. My flashlight beam bounced all around thanks to my shaky hand. I swallowed hard. There was no turning back. I had already accepted those fateful words:

“I dare you.”

I set out to accomplish my dare: cross a deserted country highway, in the dark, at 3am on a Sunday morning. It seemed simple enough, but to a group (gaggle? posse? flock?) of 7^th grade girls, this was the dare of all dares. As I neared the middle of the road, I grew confident. “Pshaw. This is easy,” I thought to myself.

Suddenly, my friends start squawking and squealing. Headlights were coming. Sure, they were a good half-mile away, but WHO was driving on the road at 3am in the country? My heart raced. I turned and ran faster than I ever had in my life.  A jumble of screaming girls piled into the tent. We peeked out the zipper flap to make sure the car passed by.

But the car turned into the driveway.

We tried to stifle our screams of terror as waited to meet the unknown stranger that would surely be our demise… [Read more…]