So this was how it would all go down. We each had one final test.
I searched for Adam’s steady gaze to anchor me. He was offto the side, whispering to someone else, but then he looked up. Adam gave me a slowly spreading smile. His dimple was on display. He’d make sure we would be all right.
We each drew one card to our chest.
I snuck a peek at mine and fear filled my stomach. Three. I glanced up and around the circle. Quentin looked calm. Henry, too. Nikki brought her hand to her mouth and started to bite her nails. Shaila’s face went white.
“Reveal ’em!” Jake shouted.
We turned our cards toward Rachel and she shouted out our numbers.
“Eight, Quentin; seven, Henry; six, Robert; five, Graham; four, Marla; three, Jill; two, Nikki; ace, Shaila!”
The Players around us erupted into shrieks and whoops, clapping each other on their backs. I’d only find out later that somehow the girls always drew the low numbers. Absolute crap.
“Freshmen,” Adam yelled. “You have one hour to prepare yourselves for whatever comes next. We’ll be back then with your assignments.” But before disappearing, he yelled over his shoulder. “You might need this, too. Courage.” He winked wickedly and tossed a handle of vodka onto the lawn. The whole group disappeared and we were left alone on the grass. The sun beat down on us and that stupid Billy Joel song blasted over the speakers.
“What the hell,” Nikki mumbled. “What are they going to do to us?”
“Did Rachel tell you anything?” Shaila took the first sip from the bottle and turned to Graham, her eyes like saucers. It was the first time I had seen her scared like this, terrified of the unknown.
Graham shook his head, but he looked a little shaken. I remember his number. Five. He took a swig. “She only gave me one clue,” he said. “She just said, ‘We know your fears.’”
My stomach sank and I remembered the night I sat with Jake and Adam on Adam’s porch. What I had told them about me... about Shaila. How I couldn’t sleep without a night-light, how Shaila could never ride the Ferris wheel because it was so high off the ground.
Had we all betrayed each other at some point that year? We must have. There’s no way I was the only one. Not if they knew everyone here had something that terrified them. But no one said anything as we stewed in our own shame, slowly passing around the bottle. I turned away from the group and spotted Ocean Cliff off in the distance. Shaila saw it, too.
We stayed quiet, mulling over our fates, until the rest of the Players returned to read out what we had to do.
It was clear then that Adam, Jake, and the rest of the boys were running the show. The girls hung in the back, taking selfies and hyping up the whole event. They were never in charge. We never are. I know that now.
“You’ll each be given a personalized task,” Jake said. “Lower numbers, watch the fuck out. You’ll also be paired with a senior who will oversee your challenge, to make sure you complete it correctly.” The crowd behind him hollered their support. “Ready?”
Quentin’s was first: He had to watch two horror movies back to back since he was terrified of zombies. Tina would hang out with him while that all happened.
“Lame!” someone called out.
“Eat a turd, dipshit!” Jake countered. “Next up, Jill.”
I took a step forward from our lineup and held my head high.
“Afraid of the dark, are we?” Jake said.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“There’s a crawlspace in the basement,” he said, motioning to the main house behind me. “You’ll stay in there for four hours. Alone.” I sighed deeply. I could do that. I would pass. “I’ll be the one to come check on you periodically.”
My brain rattled as he read off the rest of the assignments, but it was only when he announced Shaila’s name that I snapped back to attention. “Ocean Cliff,” Jake said.
The group behind him gasped. Even Adam looked a little surprised.
“What about it?” Shaila asked, trying to keep her cool. She shifted her weight back and forth from one foot to the other.
“Jump,” Jake said. He smiled sweetly. “And swim back to shore.”
Rachel shook her head and Tina covered her mouth.
“That’s like a million feet above sea level,” Shaila said. Her voice trembled.
