Chapter One
I lost the bet. Becca was right. Again. But how was I supposed to know that butterflies have 12,000 eyes? I mean, seriously?
Who else would know that except the biggest animal lover in the state of Pennsylvania?
Honestly, I thought she was kidding. Until she looked it up and showed me all the articles. It was true, and there was no denying it. That’s how many they have.
Now I had to pay up. But not with money this time. I had to do a challenge.
“Are you ready, Tanner?” Becca asked. She was standing in front of me with a paper in her hand.
“I guess,” I replied, but I wasn’t really. I knew I was about to be owned.
Becca read from the paper.
“For the next two weeks you must complete The Compliment Challenge. You will say something nice to someone different every day. There must be someone new that gets a compliment each of the fourteen days. No skipping!”
I gulped. My mouth dropped so wide open a tiny gnat flew inside. It didn’t taste good.
“I have to do what?” I cried.
“You heard me,” said Becca as she tucked a strand of her blond hair behind one ear. She was standing as straight and as tall as she could.
“But for two whole weeks!” I argued. “Isn’t that a bit much?”
“I won the bet, fair and square,” said Becca. “You said you would do anything I said.”
“But why do I have to compliment people?” I asked.
“Because lately you’ve been such a Negative Nelly, always complaining about everything and everyone,” said Becca. “You’re starting to get a reputation, you know.”
Inside, I was fuming. I didn’t know what she was talking about. So I tried to plea my case down.
“How about one week?”
“No, two. It says it right here on the paper.”
“One and a half?”
“Two. Now sign it, or you’ll have to do a dare from the Box of Doom.”
I gulped again, only harder. The Box of Doom had gross challenges we’d come up with one day when we were in a diabolical mood. I didn’t want to eat any worms, kiss any frogs, stand in someone’s toilet, or put a wolf spider on my face. So I gave in.
“Okay,” I said as I grabbed the hand-written paper and signed away. We always do that to show we will try our best to keep a promise, finish a dare, or pay off a bet.
“And I want the names of every person you compliment and what you said to them,” Becca announced. “You can start tomorrow, since it’s the first of the month.”
I handed the paper back to Becca. It was now official. I was about to begin the hardest part of my entire summer.
And summer hadn’t even begun yet.
C. 2015 Dave Webb. All rights reserved.