The Dare Game Read online

  'You're such a wimp, Alexander. Why can't you stick up for yourself? You daren't do anything.'

  Alexander drooped. 'I did do that dare,' he said. 'Even though it meant the whole school called me names.'

  'What dare?' said Football, still bouncing.

  'I'm Tracy Beaker, the Great Inventor of Extremely Outrageous Dares,' I said proudly.

  'Like?' said Football, catching the ball.

  'Like anything,' I said.

  'So dare me,' said Football, swaggering.

  I let half a dozen ideas flicker in my head.

  None of them seemed quite suitable for Football. I squeezed my brain hard. I needed something suitably scary, rude and revolting.

  Alexander seemed to think I needed help.

  'Tracy dared wave her knickers in the air!' he announced.

  'Shut up, Alexander!' I hissed.

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  Football grinned. 'OK, Tracy, I dare you wave your knickers. Go on!'

  'Get lost,' I said. 'And anyway, you can't copy my dare.'

  'All right. I'll think of a better one.' Football was grinning from ear to ear now. 'I dare you take your knickers off and hang them on the fir tree like a Christmas decoration!'

  I stared at him. It wasn't

  fair. It was a BRILLIANT dare.

  Definitely Tracy Beaker stan-

  dard. Oh how I wanted to zip

  his grin up!

  'You can't ask Tracy to do that!' said Alexander. 'It's far too dangerous.'

  'I climbed out into the tree,' said Football.

  'Yes, but you're bigger and stronger than Tracy,' said Alexander. 'And madder,' he added softly.

  'There isn't anyone madder than me,' I said.

  'OK, I'll do your stupid old dare, Football, easy-peasy.'

  'Tracy!' said Alexander. He looked at me, he looked at Football. 'Is this just a game?'

  'It's my game, my Dare Game,' I said. 'Only it's way too daring for you, Little Gherkin.'

  'Gherkin?' said Football. 'One of them 151

  little wizened pickled things?'

  'Alexander gets called Gherkin because everyone's seen what he looks like in the showers!'

  Football cracked up laughing. 'Gherkin!

  That's a good one! Gherkin!'

  Alexander looked at me, his eyes huge in his pinched face. 'Why are you being so mean to me today, Tracy?'

  'You're mean to me, trying to stop me living happily ever after with my mum, when it's what I've always wanted more than anything in the whole world,' I said, and I marched to the window, kicking the broken glass out the way, and hitched myself up onto the window ledge.

  'Tracy! Don't! What if you fall?' Alexander shrieked.

  I hooked one leg out.

  'Tracy! I wasn't serious. You're too little,' Football shouted.

  'I'm not little! I'm Tracy the

  Great and I always win every

  single dare,' I yelled, getting the other leg out and standing up

  straight. Straightish. My legs

  were a bit wobbly.

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  I looked down – and then wished I hadn't.

  'Come back, Tracy!' said Alexander.

  But I couldn't go back. I had to go forward.

  'This is the Dare Game, and I'm going to win it, just you wait and see.'

  I looked at the tree – and

  jumped. One second I was in

  the air and there were

  screams – some mine – and

  then I had twigs up my nose

  and scratching my face and I

  was clinging there, in the tree, hands hanging onto branches, feet curled against the trunk.

  I'd made it! I hadn't fallen! I had managed a thrilling death-defying l-e-a-p! Football gave his Tarzan cry behind me and I joined in too, long and loud.

  'Now come back in, Tracy,' Alexander pleaded.

  'I haven't started yet!' I said. 'Shut your eyes. And you, Football.'

  They both blinked at me like they'd forgotten the whole point of the dare.

  'I've got to take my knickers off now, so no peeping,' I commanded.

  They shut their eyes obediently. Well, one of them did.

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  'Football! Think I'm daft? Stop squinting at me!' I yelled.

  Football's eyes shut properly this time. I gingerly let go of the branch and started fidgeting under my skirt. It was a lot more scary only holding

  on with one hand. It would

  have been much more sensible

  to take my knickers off before I was in the tree, but it was too late now. I got them around my

  knees, and then reached down.

  The garden wavered way down

  below me and I felt sick.

  'Don't, Tracy! You'll fall!' Football shouted.

  'Shut your ******* eyes!' I was so peeved he was peering right up my short skirt I forgot to be frightened, eased my knickers over my foot and then straightened up in a flash.

  'They're off!' I yelled, waving them like a flag.

  Football cheered. 'Shove them on a branch for a second and then get back in,' he shouted.

  'You've won the bet, Trace. Good for you.'

  'Yes, come back now, Tracy,' said Alexander.

  I didn't want to come back right that instant.

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  I was starting to get used to it in the tree. I looked up instead of down. It was a great feeling to be up so high. I reached for the next branch and the next and the next.

  The boys yelled at me but I took no notice.

  I'd turned into Monkey Girl, leaping about the treetops without a worry in the world.

  The tree swayed a little more as I got nearer the top, but I didn't mind a bit. It felt soothing, not scary. If I was Monkey Girl I could swing in my tree all day long and at night I could fashion myself a leafy hammock and rock myself to sleep.

  I started to think seriously about a treehouse. I could get Alexander to design it – not one of his cardboard concoctions, a proper planks of wood job. Football and I could knock it together and somehow secure it to the tree. Yes, a treehouse would be absolutely amazing. I could furnish it with blankets and cushions and have heaps of provisions and I could live up there all the time and spy on all my enemies and everyone would talk in awed tones about Tracy of the Treetops.

  I decided to make a start on the treehouse idea for real, but then I remembered I was going to live with my mum any minute now so 155

  there wasn't any point and I got a bit distracted – and slipped. I scrab-bled and grabbed the

  next branch down, hanging on

  for dear life. Or lousy life. Any kind of life.

  'Watch out, Tracy!'

  'Tracy! Come back! You're the nutter now!'

  My heart was hammering

  and my hands were slippy with

  sweat but I thought I'd wind them up just a little bit more. I climbed higher, up and up, branch after branch, hand over hand, foot after foot, concentrating fiercely now.

  I climbed until I was fast running out of tree, the branches

  becoming so delicate and

  spindly that some broke

  right off when I took hold of

  them – but I dared go even

  higher so that I could just

  about reach up up up to

  the very top. I hooked my

  knickers round and

  attached them to the tip

  like a big white star.

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  I saw stars too, a whole galaxy of constel-lations shining and sparkling in celebration.

  I'd done it! The most Daring Dare ever and I'd done it.

  Then I climbed all the way down, feeling my way with my feet, down and down and down until at long last I came level with the window, and there were Football and Alexander gazing out at me open-mouthed as if I was an angel swooping straight down from heaven.

  'Out the way then, you gawpers,' I commanded, and they drew apart like curtains.

  I go