Truth or Dare[WattyAwards2011--Slowly Editing]

Truth or Dare: Chapter 1

A/N: Yes, I know it is dramatic-- but push through this, trust me, you won't regret it.  

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Moving on, is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard.  ~Dave Mustain

I suppose it all started the moment my mom said three words.  “We are moving.”

“Okay,”  I murmured, not hearing what she had said.  I squinted down at my homework project that was due tomorrow, thinking wryly about my procrastination technique.  If the penguin went over there, and the glaciers over there…  

“So, you're fine with it?”  My mom said, almost in shock, with a small sign of relief in her voice.  

“Mhmm,”  I nodded, hoping for her to go away.  I needed all the concentration I could get to finish this project.  Carefully, I laid the picture on the paper, trying to make it centered so that the paper doesn’t look to blank on either side.  This was our last project before winter break.  We had to design a poster on ‘where we would like to go during the break’ for my geography class.  Naturally, I picked Antarctica.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to go to Antarctica; there are penguins and it‘s cold.  If there is one thing you should know about me, I love the cold.

I finished gluing on the last picture, a penguin smiling broadly back at the camera with his baby safe under his legs.  Slightly above it was a picture of glaciers tumbling into the freezing, cold water.  All around the pictures were facts that I had researched ‘oh-so-carefully’ using the tool we all know and love, Wikipedia.  Done.

Smiling, I got up and stretched out my legs, feeling my cramped up muscles finally relaxing.  Another typical day of an overdose of projects due to my never ending attempts to leave stuff up until the last minute.  The wonders I can pull off under stress. 

“So, you were saying, Mom?”  I turned back around, to find my mom still standing there, her head tilted slightly to the side in a questioning posture.  She sighed, finally realizing that I hadn’t heard a single word she said.  

She gave me a long look before letting out another sigh.  "I'll tell you later, okay?"  Before she could escape to the kitchen, I grabbed her arms hastily, feeling a bit worried on the inside.

“Just tell me.”  

She looked at me again, her deep brown eyes studying me for a long moment.  I could nearly hear the engines in her brain working out the pros and cons of telling me this mysterious thing, when I had obviously not been paying attention before. Feeling impatient, I tapped my foot against the floor.  Finally, she slumped a little, and I visibly saw her resolve break.  Grinning, I stood up straighter, waiting carefully for what she had to say.

“Kylie Verita.”  she finally said using my full name.  She motioned for me to sit down, and even when I had done so, she paused for so long, I wondered if she had forgotten what she had to say.  She opened her mouth as if to say something but nothing came out.  Worried, I held my breath out of pure anxiety.

“Come on, mother.  Spit it out,"  I demanded after a while.

“Kylie Verita.”  She started, using my full name again, giving me a long and somewhat nervous look.  "We're moving,"  she finally said in one breath, "to California."

“What?”  I sputtered, not sure I had heard correctly.  In a flash, my heart beat raced up, as I tried my best, and without success, to cushion the impact those three words had on me.  I blinked several times, unsure I heard her correctly.