Free Truth or Dare by Barbara Dee Page A

Sunday I squirmed and blushed when I thought about the lie I’d told my friends. But here’s the truth—by the next morning I felt proud of myself. The tiny green bud of the lie— I kissed Tanner —had bloomed into a gorgeous pink flower overnight, a great big peony I could keep in a vase in front of me and take whiffs of whenever I felt left out of the conversation. I kissed Tanner wasn’t the truth as a statement of What Actually Happened to Me That Summer, but it was a different kind of truth—astatement of What Was Going on Inside My Brain, how all of a sudden I could come up with details (the walk on the beach, the fifteen-second kiss, the closed eyes). I mean, I’d never even thought of stuff like that before, ever. Not about myself, anyway. So I felt excited, and maybe a little bit scared, about my new power.
    Seventh grade started the following Tuesday. After the unfun summer I’d had, I wasn’t even dreading school all that much. And the first day wasn’t even that terrible—all of my friends except Marley were in my PE class, and Marley and Mak were both in my homeroom. And my teachers seemed decent, with the exception of Mrs. Crawley for math, whose nose job was totally distracting, and Mr. Halloran for homeroom and English, whose breath stank like onions and tuna fish.
    I also secretly celebrated that my crush, Graydon, was in all my classes. After seeing Tanner up close this summer, I had to admit that Graydon wasn’t what you’d call “typical” cute. He was short, for one thing. Also, his wrists were bony and his glasses were always smudged. But he was incredibly smart and funny, and I liked the way his hair curled around his ears. A few times last year he let me borrow his homework. Once he asked me to dance at a boy-girl party Abi had in her basement; I stepped on his toes a couple of times and he didn’t even tease me about it.
    Anyway, on our first day back, my friends and I played Truth or Dare again in the lunchroom. I had watered the Tanner Flower so much over the weekend that by lunch period it was almost a bouquet: I’d decided what his cheek felt like and how his hair smelled, what we talked about before kissing, how we strolled on the sand afterward. ( I’d taken off my sandals; the damp sand cooled my toes, and the cold tide nipped at my ankles. Oh, right—and I even found some sea glass.)
    In fact, I was so prepared for follow-up kiss questions that I barely paid attention to the game. Makayla asked Jules the grossest thing she ever ate (answer: snot, which her little brother sneaked into the peanut butter); Abi asked Makayla if she’d ever peed in the pool (answer: yes, twice); Jules asked Abi if she’d ever cheated on a test (answer: yes, once on a math test, when she’d copied two of Graydon’s answers).
    And then Abi turned to me. “Truth or dare?”
    â€œTruth,” I said right away. My heart was pounding. This time I was ready.
    â€œOkay. So here’s your question, Lia: Did you get your period yet?”
    â€œWhat?” I stared.
    â€œYou know. Did you start ?”
    â€œMen-stru-a-ting,” Makayla enunciated, as if she were the voice-over in one of those health class videos.
    â€œAre you really asking her that?” Marley demanded. “Isn’t that personal?”
    â€œWe told you the rules,” Abi replied, not even looking at Marley. “Nothing’s off-limits.”
    â€œYeah, I know, but—”
    â€œActually, I did,” I blurted. “Over the summer.”
    Jules squealed. “Really, Lia? Why didn’t you tell us?”
    â€œIt’s kind of a painful topic.”
    â€œOh, I knowww,” Jules said, making sympathetic eyes. “You had killer cramps?”
    â€œNo, I mean painful embarrassing.” I started twirling the corners of my napkin. “Because it happened with Tanner. On the beach. We were walking, and all