This was Maryon's first meeting with him and was, indeed, only the third time she'd been invited to Sylvia's to play, the invitation being extended through Karen who, though she usually kept herself aloof from the others at school, was mysteriously strong enough in her personality to go where she wanted, and had taken a sort of liking for Maryon's company, even though she was a year and a class ahead of her at St. Joan's. In Glenville it was a mark of snobbish distinction to be accepted as a 'Jonah', and Burt and Louis had groveled to get their daughter into the school.
For some reason Karen had laid it importantly upon her that this day she should wear her full school uniform for the visit to the Matherlys, and dutifully Maryon had obeyed, wearing her soft white ruffle-fronted blouse with the blue-and-brown school tie neatly in place, the knee-length brown skirt with blue hatchlines, blue jacket with brown piping, white long socks that nearly met her skirt's hem, tidy black button shoes and, on her long blonde hair, braided into two plaits, her school hat, of pale yellow straw with a blue-and-brown banded ribbon. She was a bit put out to find that the other two girls were very casually dressed, in contrast, Karen in tight hip-hugging Levi's of faded blue that looked as if they'd been painted on her and, above a navel-bare midriff, a short, loose, sleeveless top, its once-bright lines of color now washed out. Sylvia, barefoot, was tanned darkly the length of her legs, which only at their very tops vanished beneath a pair of white shorts, which matched the brief halter beneath which her burgeoning breasts strained the thin cotton cloth. Again in contrast to Maryon's neatness, while Sylvia's short brown hair hung in a froth about her head, Karen's jet black uncut tresses were caught into a ponytail secured by a rubber band, leaving her oval, white face a clear setting for her greeny-blue eyes.
Maryon really felt out of place, the more so as the three boys were even more informal in attire… Johnny in jeans and a flapping, unbuttoned shirt, Derek in tight red-and-white checked Bermudas, and Colin wearing a pair of faded light-tan shorts loose about his thighs. The excuse Karen'd made was to show Colin that some schools in America wore clothes like they did in England! – though why Sylvia, in the same house with him, couldn't have worn her uniform, Maryon didn't think to ask.
Now the five settled themselves down to listen as Colin explained the game. Earlier they'd played hide-and-go-seek, but Maryon didn't much care for that, not since Derek had tried to kiss her. He was Karen's guy, and ought not to fool around with another girl, surely? She hoped this one would turn out better, though, since Sylvia and Karen were paired off with Johnny and Derek, it didn't look like Colin was going to pay her much attention… he was three years older! She returned her attention to the English boy.
"Now, this is the way it goes," he said. "One of us… doesn't matter who goes first… gets to ask each of the others whether they choose a Truth, a Dare, or a Promise. Then, whatever they choose, he asks them something… whether it's true that something is so-and-so-like, 'is it true that you like, well, someone?' Whoever the Inquisitor says, see? And if it's a dare, then, the Inquisitor can dare him or her to do anything he likes. Or if it's a promise, then they have to promise to do… well, whatever the Inquisitor tells 'em."
"Sounds okay," said Derek, and Sylvia thought it was a groovy idea.
"But what happens if whoever you ask doesn't want to answer, or do whatever it is you dare 'em to do?" asked Johnny.
"Then the Inquisitor can order 'em to pay a forfeit, do or say something else. And they have to pay the forfeit, that's very important and we've all got to agree before we start on that, else it's no good playing the game. Okay? Do you all agree? Then we can start now. Who wants to be Inquisitor the first time around?"
They looked at each other. Colin alone stood before them, careless and looking almost naked to Maryon's eyes with his golden hair, bronzed skin, and pale tan pants. She sat on a bale of hay while the other four lounged on the soft strawed floor each side of her, Sylvia and Johnny on her right, Karen and Derek at her left. Colin looked at her. "How about you, Maryon Alysun – that's a pretty name, kid!-do you want to go first? You're the youngest."
Confused, she shook her head. "Nah, you go first, Colin," said Johnny. "You know how to play it best. Then we can learn from you."
"All right," he said. "We'll do it in order, then. I'll ask first. Okay? Right, then. Ah, Sylvia, do you want a Truth, a Dare, or a Promise?"
"Oh, I'll take a Truth, Colin," said his cousin, shrugging her frail freckled shoulders.
"Um… is it true you like Johnny a lot?"
"Oh yes," said Sylvia, taking her boyfriend's hand and squeezing it till he flushed and moved uncomfortably.
"Very good," said Colin. "Now, Johnny, how about you, what will you take?"
"Oh, the same as Sylvia."
"A Truth? Well, then… is it true you like her as much as she likes you?"
"Oh, I suppose so!"
"You only suppose so? Won't you give us a Yes or a No, Johnny? Otherwise you haven't answered properly and you'll have to pay us a forfeit."
"Oh… yes I like her as much as she likes me," he got out, not looking at Sylvia. But she wasn't about to let him get off easily, and, throwing an arm about his neck, kissed him on the lips. "You'd better," she warned, darkly.
Colin looked at Maryon. "Now, then, what about you?"
She thought she caught the suspicion of a wink from him to Sylvia, but paid no attention to it. "I think," she said, "that I'll take a Dare."
"Hah, good kid… braver than these two, at any rate. Let's see, now… I dare you to… go climb up the ladder there and come down again before I count twenty. One, two, three… Go!"
Before she was quite sure of what she was doing, Maryon found herself clambering up the tall, straight-set ladder that led to the loft, frantically trying to beat the count of Colin's voice below her. Halfway up, while he was still at four, she saw that he was standing directly beneath her, as though to make sure she went all the way up, and was blushingly aware that he could see all the way up between her legs to where her dark blue elastic-topped and legged underpants would cut off the view. But she scurried on up, stood swaying on the top-but-two-rung then climbed down again taking the steps two at a time, her light skirt billowing up slightly and once getting caught so that she lost a beat in getting it dislodged from the splinter, noticing Derek also, flat on his back, nearly underneath her. However, her face red from the exertion, she managed to get her feet on the ground again just as Colin counted 'twenty'… though he whispered in her ear as he went back to the center of the semi-circle: "You cheated, you know. I slowed the count for you. Remember that. But I don't think the others noticed."
Out of breath, she sat down on the bale of hay again and tried not to look at anyone as he next asked Karen what she would choose.
"I'll take a Dare too," said the black-haired girl, boldly, looking at the ladder. But her challenge was to be different.
"Right. I dare you… to come over here and do a handstand. I'll hold your ankles so you don't fall," said Colin.
Karen pouted but, without argument, placed her hands on the floor and swung her lithe white body up until she was upside down against his restraining hands. As she remained there, breathing strongly in and out, her loose top slowly edged down her upper body so that, since she was facing the others, the hard black nubs of her nipples were just revealed, set in her pair of flat, oval breasts, their darkness startling against her pale white flesh. Karen didn't tan. Maryon, moving only her eyes, saw that the grinning Derek was intent on the view afforded him, and that Colin had leaned his head over slightly so as to see down his victim's body. In a moment he let his hands drop to her hips and expertly swung her back onto her feet. As she walked back to drop to the floor, Maryon observed that her friend seemed to swing her hips just a little more lithely under the tight Levi's, and her hands were slow to pull down her disarrayed top.