“I’m seven, too.”

“You don’t look seven,” she said, not bothering to look up from her stick.

“I know, but I am.”

Pursing her lips up in thought, she looked up at him, trying to decide if he was lying or not. He said that he was seven, but he looked more like he was ten. He was too big to be seven, she decided as she considered him. She really liked his short black hair and the way that his green eyes twinkled when he smiled. He was also handsome, she decided, not really knowing why that mattered, but it did.

“Are you sure?” she asked, returning her attention back to her stick.

“That I’m seven?”

“Yes,” she said, stripping a piece of bark off her stick and flicking it away.

“Yeah, do you want to play tag?”

“I can’t. Besides, I’m going to get in trouble if she catches me talking to you,” she explained, risking another glance to the right to see what her brother was doing. He was done with his ice cream and was now playing with his army soldiers on the front lawn.

“Do you want to come over to my house and play?” he asked, drawing her attention back to the tree just as he started to climb down.

“I can’t,” she said, sighing miserably.

“Why not?”

“Because I’ll get in trouble.”

“You’re already in trouble,” he pointed out.

He did have a point, but…

“I just can’t.”

He was quiet for a minute before he asked, “What if I dared you?”

“Still can’t.”

“Fine,” he said, smiling hugely. “What if I double dared you?”

Glaring, she slowly got to her feet with a nod and accepted his hand when he held it out to her, because she didn’t have a choice.

He’d double dared her after all.

1996

Age 10

“There’s no way that I’m doing that,” Darrin said, shaking his head as he passed the baseball back to his twin brother Reese, who stood there, shooting nervous glances between the two of them.

“You wouldn’t have a choice if I double dared you,” she pointed out, crossing her small arms over her chest as she glared up at her best friend, who was already bigger than all the boys at their school and most of the high school boys.

“You could,” Darrin murmured thoughtfully as he held up his gloved hand to catch the ball when Reese tossed it back to him, “but I would make sure that you regretted it.”

“It would be worth it,” she bit out, knowing that there was absolutely nothing that he could do to her that would make her regret this.

Nothing.

“Your mother would kill us,” Darrin pointed out, tossing the ball back to Reese so that he could swipe his soda off the hot, black pavement and finish it off before chucking the empty bottle into the trashcan marking their property line.

“Mom and Dad probably wouldn’t be happy either,” Reese added, shooting her another nervous glance, taking in the frilly pink tutu and pink tights that her mother had wrestled her into before he shifted his gaze to the open back doors of their family’s van where a dozen bags were threatening to fall out.

“Are you going to hide me?” she demanded, glaring up at her best friend and giving him the only chance that he was going to get before she was forced to do the unthinkable.

Darrin’s smile was smug as he shook his head. “No.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, deciding to give him one more chance only because he was her best friend after all.

“I’m not hiding you so that you can get out of going to your recital, not after your mom promised to videotape it so that I wouldn’t miss your sad attempts at dancing,” he said, taking way too much pleasure in her impending public humiliation. “If you double dare me to hide you, I’ll make sure that you still make it on time to your recital.”

Eyes narrowing to a dangerous degree, she decided that a change in plans was necessary. “Then it’s probably a good thing that I’m not going to double dare you into hiding me, now isn’t it?” she asked in a mocking tone, loving the way that his smug expression suddenly turned wary.

“W-what do you mean?” he asked, swallowing nervously as he took a hasty step back, but it wouldn’t be enough to save him.

Nothing would.

He had this coming, she reminded herself, even though she had absolutely no problem with what she was about to do.

“It means that I’ve changed my mind about daring you to hide me,” she said, mimicking that smug tone that she’d heard the rest of the men in his family use.

“Don’t do anything that you’ll regret,” he warned, matching her glare as he tried to intimidate her.

Clearly he’d forgotten who he was dealing with, because she never backed down from a challenge.

Never.

“I dare you to wear my recital costume for the next two weeks, starting now,” she said with satisfaction when she saw the look of horror on Darrin’s face as her words sank in.

“You wouldn’t!” he snapped even as he broke out into a run, desperate to get away from her and the dare that would make him the target of all of his cousins and uncles for the next two weeks during their annual family reunion.

If only he’d agreed to hide her, she thought with a sigh and a shake of her head as she opened her mouth and said the four words that would bring her such joy.