“Dare” Jen squeaked, more nervously than she’d intended. She cursed under her breath for acting so panicky, ‘the curse isn’t real’ she kept thinking, repeating it in her mind over and over, trying to convince her racing pulse that this was true.
On the other end of the line Kyle was looking at three pieces of paper, on each one he had carefully prepared a different curse for every eventuality. Kyle had had the power of the curse for a while; he’d been smart with it, never wasting it trivially. He’d decided when he’d received it, to use it to educate someone, make them a better person. He knew if he ever used it, it would have to be on someone that deserved it, someone he could teach a lesson, someone that would learn from the experience, someone he could make more humble.
Until last week his sights had moved from person to person, whoever had grieved him last usually fell into the category of “I could use it on them”. But Jennifer Smith was different, she was arrogant, she was ignorant, she’d tormented and bullied him more times than he could count. Ultimately, she was a massive bitch.
He smiled and looked over the ‘dare’ he had prepared, Kyle knew that if anything would educate Jen, teach her to respect people and rehabilitate her into a better person, then this was it. He coughed twice and started to read the dare he had laid out before him.
“Ok Jen, you will lose the ability to dress yourself, you will lose the ability to feed yourself, you will lose the ability to wash yourself, you will lose all memories of how to use furniture and you won’t be able to retain new memories of how to use it either, you will no longer be able to read or write, or drive your car. Basically all you can do for yourself will be use the toilet and drink. And you will get horny whenever something confuses or embarrasses you. You will still go to school; in fact I dare you to never skip school again.
The only way you will be able to do any of these things; will be to beg members of the cheerleading squad for them. They will be the only ones capable of doing any of these things for you; No one else will help you. In fact, excluding you, me and the rest of the cheerleading squad at Easthampton, no one will notice that anything is wrong; they won’t care if you turn up at school naked, they won’t care if you get 0% in every assignment, they won’t care if you straddle your chair weirdly in class, and they won’t even care if you masturbate during math.
Only you, the cheerleaders and I will remember how things were before this change.”
Kyle stopped reading from the paper and looked up at a spot on his wall. Jen was silent, her heart beating, why was she so nervous?! It's NOT REAL!
Kyle continued,
“This is to teach you how to respect people Jen, let’s see how well your so-called 'friends' treat you when they realise the power they have over you. Remember, they can dress you how they like, treat you how they like, make you do what they like and all because no one else will care. I hope for your sake that you learn from this Jen. Oh! One more thing before I go, you will use the curse on me and me only, regardless of what you try to say though you will always use the curse to make me clap my hands once. Good luck Jen!”
Kyle put the phone down, screwed up the three pieces of paper, grabbed his bag and headed out the door to school.
Meanwhile Jen stood in silence, the phone still to her ear, mouth agape.