The Dare Club

by Vince Ford

  ‘Die you scumbags!’ Adam cried, immediately swinging into action with the double-barrelled, pump action water cannon…

  Finn heard the throaty growl of the V8 before Adam saw the car approaching…

  ‘Ad!’ he called urgently. ‘Don’t do it.’

  But Adam does do it – and that’s the start of real trouble. Not only has Adam fired on the town’s toughest gang but one of them is the older brother of lvan Spittle, wedgy king and leading contender for the school’s ‘bully of the year’ award.

  Adam and Finn lie low, but their hideout is discovered by Kim, Tara and Robbie. Together they form the Dare Club – taking outrageous risks and stirring up lvan and his motley crew.

  As disaster looms the unlikely gang uncover secrets about one another – secrets that will either split them up or give them strength for their final test, a confrontation with Ivan’s gang.

  Look out!

  With a cast of zany kids The Dare Club is a bubbly, boisterous story that’ll rock the socks of those who dare!

  To our extended family at Karapiro.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Finn McEwan and Adam Spencer were the first out of the changing sheds after swimming club. Finn had been given a two litre, double-barrelled, pump action water cannon for his birthday and he’d only just got it back after Mrs McCulloch, their class teacher, had confiscated it. He’d filled it in the changing sheds but had hidden it again till he was away from the pools. He stopped and pulled the gleaming plastic weapon from his bag.

  Adam ran a hand through his thick brown hair, still damp after a quick rub with the towel. He was thin and bony, his joints seemed too big for his body and his movements were quick and jerky. He spotted a can sitting on a concrete wall about five metres ahead of them. “Bet you can’t knock that off.”

  Finn just scowled, like Adam was some kind of amateur then spun around and gave it both barrels. “Doosh!” and the can was driven back into the house section.

  “Whooooaaa!” Adam cried, jumping in the air.

  Finn pointed at a tree. “Check out that rotten grapefruit.” He took aim and fired a high powered stream at the bloated fruit. Pulp spurted everywhere as the grapefruit disintegrated.

  “Too much,” Adam cried leaping around Finn. “Can I have a go, can I have a go, can I have a go?”

  Finn glanced back as Kim Evans, Tara Ropati and Robbie Beetson walked out of the pool gates. He had shoulder length, straw coloured hair, light eyes and tanned skin. He looked as though he belonged to summer, body surfing in the ocean and throwing a rugby ball on the beach. The others were a long way behind but Finn gave Adam a hard look, a look that said ‘be careful’ before he handed the weapon over.

  “Die you scumbags!” Adam cried, immediately swinging into action. He fired across the grapefruit tree, swung around to take out an enemy letterbox then scored a direct hit on a power pole.

  Finn grinned and shook his head. “Easy – you’ll run out of water.”

  “Cover me,” Adam yelled, letting off a round at a passing cat then racing ahead to take cover behind a van, outside the gates to the park. A car cruised past and Adams stared wildly at it. “That’s not fair, they’ve got tanks!”

  “Dare you to get the next one that goes past,” laughed Finn.

  “Yes sir!” Adam yelled, pumping the cannon and listening for an engine.

  Finn heard the throaty growl of the V8 before Adam did and saw the car approaching them. “Ad!” he called urgently. “Don’t do it.”

  Adam ignored him: he was listening to the low rumble of the engine. He saw himself in uniform. The situation was desperate, only he could save hundreds of innocent lives. This shot had to count.

  “No!” yelled Finn, racing towards Adam but knowing it was already too late. In that instant Adam spun from the phone booth. Water hissed from both barrels, slapped across the windscreen of the dark blue car then slammed into the open car window. Adam caught a glimpse of a shaven head before Finn hauled the back of his T-shirt and dragged him onto the footpath.

  “Run!” he yelled.

  Adam heard the squeal of rubber and saw brake lights flash. Finn was already racing through the gates into the park. Adam charged after him, the cannon held in both hands. Doors slammed and shouts rang out behind them.

  Finn sprinted into the gardens, took a sharp left onto a path then turned immediately onto another path. Adam chased him, his heart pounding. Finn swerved through a small garden and ducked into an alley between two garden sheds, Adam immediately behind him. A high tin fence blocked the end; Adam turned and pointed the cannon into the alley behind them.

  “You idiot,” hissed Finn grabbing the cannon off him. He was flushed, half excited, half angry. “Do you know who that was?”

  Adam shrugged.

  “It was Unit 47!”

  Adam’s eyes grew wide. Unit 47 were the meanest gang in the area. They wore leathers and steel capped boots, shaved their heads and tattooed their scalps. The building for their headquarters was a fortress on the edge of the industrial area, complete with guard dogs and barbed wire.

  Chapter 2

  Both boys froze as the sound of heavy boots clattered on the gravel. The boots scraped to a halt and the sound of another pair thumped behind. Finn quietly slid the water cannon behind a bush; Adam eyed a brick from a pile beside him. They barely breathed.

  As the second pair of boots ground to a stop the swearing started. Words that could strip paint, curdle milk or send dogs yelping back to their kennels, crashed into the shrubbery at the end of the alley. Adam and Finn both took a step back, Adam bumped a brick from the pile and it clunked loudly onto the ground.

  “Shaddup!” a hoarse voice roared over the swearing, cutting it off instantly. “I heard sumfing.”

  “Where?”

  “By that shed there.” Leather creaked and footsteps crunched towards them.

  Finn and Adam both ducked behind the brick pile. Within seconds there was the sound of heavy breathing at the end of the alley.

  “You reckon they’re down there?”

  “Could be hiding.”

  “I’ll give ’em a hiding all right.”

  An air horn blasted in the distance.

  One of the men cursed. “Shottie wants us back.”

  “Stuff him, he can wait.”

  “Wanna tell that to his face?”

  There was a sound of tearing earth and a rock thumped into the ground beside Adam’s foot. Adam and Finn huddled closer to the bricks. More rocks sailed over them and buried themselves in the earth.

  “That’ll do, come on.”

  “Yep,” came a grunt as one last rock was thrown. It sailed over the bricks then punched down into Adam’s thigh. Adam grabbed the spot with both hands and screamed silently, his mouth wide open and eyes screwed shut. He rolled back onto the ground, grinding his teeth and hugging his leg into his body.

  “Quiet,” hissed Finn.

  Adam writhed in the dirt, holding his breath and thumping his head into the soft ground. The footsteps gradually faded away.

  Finn breathed out, “It’s okay, they’re gone.”

  �
�Aaaaaaaaaarrghhhh,” groaned Adam.

  “It’s broken, I can’t use it.”

  “You haven’t tried,” said Finn, “might be just a dead leg.”

  “Nah, it’s broken.”

  “I’m not carrying you out.” Finn scrambled behind the bush to get his water cannon.

  “You’ve got to, I can’t walk.”

  “Well whose fault is that? I didn’t ask you to take on Unit 47 by yourself.”

  “You dared me!” cried Adam.

  “If I dared you to jump off a cliff would you do that?” Adam frowned as he thought about it. Finn shook his head. “Don’t answer that yah nutcase. You probably would.”

  Eventually Finn convinced Adam to try his leg. He could put weight on it, but it took them a long time to hobble back to the park gates. Kim Evans and Tara Ropati were waiting at the bus stop when they got there and Robbie Beetson was sitting on a wall with a pad and paper.

  “Did they catch you?” asked Kim, her eyes wide.

  Finn shook his head, “Nah, Adam just got hit with a rock.”

  “Serve him right if it had landed on his head,” said Tara. She was tall with black hair and white teeth that flashed when she smiled. She also had the meanest glare at school and she was using it on Adam. Adam glared back at her.

  “I know those guys were from Unit 47 but did you see who they were?” asked Finn.

  “One of them was huge,” said Kim, fiddling with her ginger pony tail, which was so long that she sometimes sat on it accidentally. “He had a leather jacket on.”

  “They all had leathers on,” said Tara impatiently. “The big guy looked kind of cross-eyed.”

  Finn groaned. “That sounds like Ivan Spittle’s brother.” Ivan Spittle and his mates were the school bullies. Their last prank was to make the boys pay to use the boys’ toilets. The gang only got caught when the principal found some of the other boys peeing on the lemon tree behind the staff room. Ivan and his crew got suspended for a week but the staff had the best crop of lemons that they’d had for years.

  “I think the other one had tattoos all over his head,” said Tara.

  “Only on his forehead,” called Robbie from the wall.

  “I thought they were down his cheeks too,” said Tara, turning towards him.

  Robbie shook his head again, “Nah.”

  “Who cares,” groaned Adam limping in a circle.

  Tara ignored him and stared, at Robbie. “What makes you such an expert?”

  Robbie shrugged and jumped off the wall. He had super short hair and a tanned face that hardly ever lost its watchful expression. He was new at school that year and a loner, always on the edge of a group, never in the middle. He turned his back on the others, strolled down the street, and as he passed a bin, he crumpled the top page off his pad and flicked it inside.

  “Weird,” muttered Tara. Kim and Finn just watched him go.

  The girls’ bus came into view and they grabbed their bags.

  “See ya,” said Finn.

  “Yeah see ya,” called Kim. She glanced at Adam’s leg then looked up at him. Her eyes were piercing blue and her freckled nose scrunched a little. “You should put some ice or something on that.”

  “Should cut it off,” muttered Tara as she climbed onto the bus.

  “Cut yours off at the neck,” yelled Adam after her. They could just see her making a face as the bus pulled away.

  Adam glanced around nervously. “What if Unit 47 comes back?”

  “I don’t think they got a good look at us,” said Finn, frowning. “If I carry all our books in my bag and you put the cannon in yours they won’t see that. Anyway we can hide if we see their car.”

  Adam was still nervous as they headed slowly towards their homes, just across the street from each other. Adam was limping painfully, but as he passed the rubbish bin he leant against it and peered inside.

  “What are you doing?” asked Finn.

  Adam fished past the flap with one hand. “Looking for that bit of paper Robbie chucked in there.”

  “What for?”

  Adam shrugged as he hauled the paper out, dusted it off and flattened it on top of the bin. Finn came to look at it too. He whistled and glanced towards the corner where Robbie had disappeared.

  On the paper was a neat pencil sketch of two men running towards the park gate as a boy raced through it holding a water cannon. One of the men was huge while the other had tattoos on his scalp and forehead. The sketch caught them perfectly, the smaller man about to yell something and the bigger man glaring after the boy.

  There were names written beneath each of the men. The larger one was Truck Spittle, the smaller one, Willy the Rat.

  “How does he know their names?” asked Adam.

  Finn shrugged and stared at the corner where Robbie had disappeared.

  Chapter 3

  Ivan Spittle was hunting for the kid that had sprayed his brother. He marched around the halls in his camouflage combat pants and black jacket. “Someone from this school did it an’ my bruvver told me to deal to ’em. When I find them they’re gonna be history!” He belted a locker and glared at a group of younger kids till they scattered. He was short but solid, he didn’t have a neck and he always wore a black beanie with the word “SUCK” in big letters across the front.

  Adam and Finn arrived just before school. A beautiful purple/blue bruise was flowering on Adam’s leg and it had taken twice as long as usual to manage the walk. As they entered the hall Ivan spotted Tara and Kim beside their lockers.

  “Oi, you catch the bus at the park, did you see anything?” he gave them an ugly stare.

  “Wouldn’t tell you if I had,” muttered Tara, elbowing past him.

  Ivan waved at his gang and they blocked Tara’s way.

  “You saw something didn’t ya?” growled Ivan.

  Tara spotted Finn and Adam. “Yeah I did,” she said slowly.

  “That little cow,” growled Adam.

  Finn grabbed his arm, “Just wait.” He hissed.

  “You saw who it was didn’t ya?” asked Ivan, his eyes lighting up dangerously.

  “When I was at the park waiting for the bus,” said Tara slowly, “I thought I saw…” She hesitated, leaning towards Ivan. He leant closer. “I thought I saw…” she lowered her voice. “…a putty tat.”

  Tara turned away, grabbed Kim’s arm and walked straight into the doorway of the girls’ toilets.

  “You lying little cow,” yelled Ivan after her. “You know who it was don’t ya? I’ll find out, you know I will.”

  “In your dreams,” called Tara.

  Ivan turned, red in the face, and saw Adam grinning. “What are you laughing at ya spaz?”

  “You’re the spaz,” called Adam, his mouth running before his brain caught up. Finn slapped a hand to his forehead.

  Ivan’s eyes just about popped out of their sockets. “You’re dead!” he cried. “Grab him Muzz!” Muzz was taller than Ivan, with short dreadlocks and huge hands. His eyebrows joined to make one solid line across his head. He grabbed Adam by his arms and hauled him straight into the boys’ toilets. The boys at the urinal scattered, still doing up their flies as they burst out the door.

  “Wedgy,” growled Ivan, reaching down the front of Adam’s trousers and gripping the elastic of his underpants. Adam squirmed but Muzz had his arms. Another one of Ivan’s gang went behind Adam, snorted and grasped the elastic at the back of his undies.

  Ivan hauled up on the undies at the same time as his mate. Muzz let go of Adam’s arms and only his undies held him up. Adam squirmed, trying to hold his legs together.

  “Who’s the spaz now?” growled Ivan. He grunted to the guy at the back and they lifted Adam higher then dropped him hard, catching him in his undies before lifting him again. Adam groaned as his undies stretched then flung him back. The third time they gave way completely and he plunged to the floor, leaving the torn undies in the hands of his attackers.

  “Don’t you ever call me a spaz,” panted Ivan,
throwing the remains of the undies at Adam and storming out the door.

  Finn came in as soon as they had left. “Owww,” he groaned in sympathy, shaking his head and helping his friend up.

  By swimming club the following Tuesday Adam was able to walk normally. His mother was suspicious but he told her he’d bruised his leg when he ran into a post and that he’d left his undies at the school pool. For most mums this would have been an unlikely story but that sort of thing happened to Adam so often that she just shook her head and picked up some more undies at the supermarket.

  Finn and Adam hadn’t seen Robbie all week but they caught up to him as he left swimming club.

  “Robbie, hang on a minute,” called Finn.

  Robbie turned suspiciously and waited for them to catch up.

  “We found your picture last week,” Adam fished the paper out of his bag.

  Robbie took the paper and looked at it. Nothing showed on his face but he carefully folded the paper and put it back in his own pocket. “I threw that away,” he said, not looking at either of them.

  “How did you know their names?” asked Finn.

  Robbie started walking. “Doesn’t matter.”

  “But you must know them somehow.”

  “Just leave it, all right?” There was a hard edge to Robbie’s voice.

  “Who were they?” asked Adam. Finn scowled. Adam never knew when to shut up. Robbie just kept walking as though he hadn’t heard him. Adam looked like he was going to ask again but Finn thumped him in the arm and shook his head.

  “We’ll see you at swimming club next week then?” asked Finn, slowing down.

  Robbie grunted and kept walking.

  Adam couldn’t just walk home like a normal human being. If he saw a dog he’d start talking to it, or he’d walk the entire way home without touching the footpath. Sometimes he’d drive Finn nuts, but other times he’d find ripe grapes on a fence or run in tight circles across the park till Finn was rolling on the ground laughing. He was a loose unit.