Free Boy Swap by Kristina Springer

away from me.
    “Um…dare,” I say.
    “Oh come on! Tell us already,” Natalie, a xylophone player, says.
    “Nope,” Lizzie interrupts, “Brooke chose dare. Give her a dare.”
    I send a silent thank you to her for the save.
    “Fine, fine. I’ll give her a dare,” Melanie says. She thinks for a moment and then shoots me an arched eyebrow stare. “Katie, can Brooke borrow your flute for a few minutes?”
    “Sure,” Katie says, leaving the room. A moment later she returns with it in hand, already assembled.
    “Okay, Brooke,” Melanie says, already giggling. “You have to go out on the front lawn and play the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’.”
    “No prob,” I say, standing up. We’ve all had that song memorized FOR-EVER.
    “Wait,” she says. “I didn’t finish. You have to play it in your bra.”
    Eh, still easy. I’m still in the black sports bra I was wearing under my band uniform. “Okay,” I say.
    Everyone scrambles to get up and watch me from the door and front windows. I whip off my sweater, take the flute from Katie, and step outside. Ohmigod it’s freaking cold out here! I begin to play the song and decide to march around the front lawn as well, both for everyone’s entertainment and to warm up a little. My performance is seemingly a hit from the sound of the cheers. Just as I’m about to do an improv one-woman kickline, a police cruiser slows down in front of the house and flashes his lights at us and bleeps. I run into the house and someone shuts the door behind me. And we wait. But nothing happens. The cruiser keeps going and we all crack up at the close call. I’m starting to have some fun.
    “Okay, okay, now I get to choose,” I say, slipping my sweater back over my head. “Um…Lizzie’s turn. Truth or Dare, Liz?”
    “I’ll go straight to the dare,” she replies, all innocent.
    “I dare you to give a really rockin’, awesomely long kiss to…” I pause and look around the room like I’m really trying to decide on someone, “Jacob.”
    Jacob blushes. And Lizzie does too, even though she developed this whole plan.
    “Um…sure.” She stands up, crosses the room to where Jacob is sitting and squats down in front of him. His nose twitches and his fingers fidget. With a determined look, Lizzie leans in and plants a nice long kiss on his puckered lips. Long enough that everyone hoots and hollers. When Lizzie and Jacob finally pull apart, they both look a little breathless.
    Happy with the completion of phase one of Lizzie’s plan, I head for the kitchen in search of a bottle of water. I hear someone follow me in and turn around. It’s Rayne.
    “Hey, Brooke,” she says, reaching past me to grab her own drink from the cooler on the floor.
    I grunt hello.
    “I’ll never be able to play the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ again without thinking of you,” she says.
    “Rayne,” I say slowly, putting my thoughts together. “Don’t you have a brother who is a senior? On the wrestling team?”
    “Yeah. Dirk.”
    “Oh. Huh.”
    “Why?”
    “Oh nothing. Just…is he friends with Carter Jones?” I finally ask.
    Rayne widens her eyes.
    Why is she looking at me like that?
    “Yeah,” she says, “Dirk and Carter are good friends. Carter comes over to the house a lot and they hang out sometimes on the weekends.”
    I nod. I’m trying to think of what other information I can get from Rayne without being too obvious. “Carter seems nice, huh?” I say.
    “Very nice,” she agrees, as the corner of her lips start to turn up.
    “What? What’s so funny?”
    “Nothing,” she says with a shrug. “You rock. I hope you get him.”
    “You hope I get who? Carter?” How does she know what I’m up to?
    “Listen,” she says in a lower voice, looking around to see if anyone can hear us. “I know all about the BSC and Cassie dating everyone’s boyfriends. Believe me. I know.” She rolls her eyes toward the ceiling.
    “Are you…?” I scan her outfit for any sign of a pink