[sarahsarah]

Chapter 2

Liv continued to stare at her camera in total disbelief at what had just happened. She ran over to Chevon to look at the Swipe to see what had just happened. “What the hell Chevon, why did she just do that?” Liv questioned.
“Chill your bill Liv. It’s all cool, look at these hearts flying in and that viewer count is shooting through the roof.” Liv stared at the swipe which had a stream of hearts flying through the right column. In the bottom left showed the handle she was going by @Sonyaknowit. In the bottom right was a hieroglyphic eye and next to it read the number 1136.
“You mean over a thousand people are currently watching Sonya?” Liv asked.
“Hell yeah. Well they’re probably watching the dare complete highlight but you get the point. She’s into the top 10 on the leaderboard already with over 4000 viewers in total. It’s awesome.” Chevon continued.

At that point the screen flashed off and was replaced by a message, ‘Congratulations, $200 has been credited to your account.’ The screen flashed a few times before it went blank. “So, she just gets payed to do these tasks? How are they decided?”
“Well, that’s done by the viewers, hang on I’ll show you how it works.” Chevon put Sonya’s slide down and pulled out her own, quickly logging into dare being greeted by the message ‘Welcome back viewer.’ “Basically you click on the person you want and anyone is able to suggest a task. Other viewers can then approve or deny it. If a task gets enough approvals then a moderator will initiate it. Nobody is sure who the mods are but they seem very active. You can also donate towards prize pools in the hope that moderators may push it further.”

Liv stared madly at the screen as it flashed onto a user @RodIsGod. “Hey viewers, you asked for it, you got it.” He winked at the screen, seemed to pass the swipe to someone and ran backwards. Suddenly he disappeared over the edge of a cliff. Whoever was holding the swipe followed him forward and caught the image of him plummeting head first into the sea. A mass of hearts suddenly flooded the side of the screen. Comments railed off down the left. ‘Wow man, balls of steels’, ‘Holy shit, thought he’d die’, ‘Woo Woo Woo’, ‘Rod really is God’, ‘For the win man’.

“This is absolutely insane,” Liv shouted at the swipe.
Chevon smiled. “Yeah it is. Rod is currently topping the leaderboard, and you may say it’s insane but that task just made him $700.” Liv just laughed and walked off, looking back down at her camera. It was still displaying the picture of Sonya, her pussy completely on display. Liv shook her head in disbelief. Not only did she have this picture, but up to 4000 people had just seen the same image and potentially saved it, saved this shaven slit of her best friend into their own folders. Sonya may have wanted to become famous, but Liv couldn’t believe this was the way she wanted to go about it.

An hour later and Liv was sat in the local cafe opposite Sonya. Chevon was peering over her shoulder at the swipe in her hands. Ryan was sat next to her watching intently. Sam finally came back to the table. He handed Liv a milkshake and took his own as he sat in the seat behind her.
“How the hell did @JackIt become so high on the list, he’s up to third and above me now. He was nowhere a few hours ago?” Sonya blurted out annoyed.
“Apparently...” Ryan stated, “He spread peanut butter out on his junk and got his dog to lick it off.”
“I could’ve done that...” Sonya stated nonchalantly, “... I just don’t have a dog.”
“... Or a dick” Liv added causing Sam to laugh.
“Small details,” Sonya said. “The point is, I’m ready, willing, and game to win.”

Chevon stared at her swipe a bit and looked over Sonya’s profile. “How the hell do they know that you’re afraid of heights and being tied up?”
Sonya’s face suddenly went slightly shocked. Ryan cut in “Oh that’s easy. All they do is take all the information off your other online profiles and install it into your ‘Dare’ profile.”
“That is mega creepy like,” Sonya replied before taking a large slurp of her own drink.
“You do realise that you just got suspended,” Liv commented, “How the hell are you still even talking about this game? If you keep going you’ll probably get expelled, you should be done with this stuff.”

“Hell no Liv, a similar game went around in the UK at one point. The girl who won that got insta famous,” Sonya answered.
“Who the hell cares?” Liv asked.
“I obviously care Liv. It’s not like I’d expect you to understand though. I’m an adrenaline junkie. You just prefer to stay in your comfort zone and that’s fine.”
Liv gently hit the table annoyed, “That is not true Sonya, what about the pole dancing class that we took together?”
“Liv, really? I dragged you to the class and you watched on from the corner,” Sony taunted.
“Well yeah, I’m more of a visual than active learner.”

“Why the hell are you attacking her?” Sam interjected.
“I’m not attacking her Sam,” Sonya replied, “Life is just passing her by. Maybe you just need to take a few risks once in a while. Take a chance for once.”
“I do take chances Sonya,” Liv stated.
Sonya smirked. “OK... OK... Let’s say that you were one of the people playing Dare! What would make a good dare for you?” Sonya asked the group openly.
“Make out with JD” Chevon whispered lightly.
“Woah,” Ryan interjected, “Lets start easy. Just talk to JD for once.” Liv tried to stammer out a reply but couldn’t form a meaningful sentence.
“Come on Liv,” Sonya added, “He probably likes you to, but you’re never going to know if you never talk to the guy.”

Ryan started to sway and laugh, “Who wouldn’t want to see Livvy... necking it on with JD?”
“Oh my gawd, yes,” Chevon answered. “Everybody who’d in the yes say yes.” A harmonious yesss echoed from Sonya Chevon and Ryan. Only Sam didn’t egg it on. Liv turned to look at the table where the team was sat. JD was laughing away to Gaz, the captain.
“So yes, yes, yes” Sonya pointed at each of the them in turn, “And I assume no,” she pointed towards Sam.
“I abstain,” Sam commented getting a thanking nod from Liv.

“Either way Liv, it looks like the majority have it. You’ve just been dared. Do you choose to accept your dare Liv?” Sonya asked.
“Say yes, go on,” Chevon added, trying to egg the girl on.
“What’s the actual point though, we’re about to graduate anyway?” Liv asked.
“All you have to do is start a conversation, go say hi,” Sonya stated.
Liv sighed, “But I don’t want to say hi and have a conversation.”
Sonya nodded. “That’s fine. I love you Liv, but at the end of the day it just shows, your a viewer and not a contender.” Liv shot Sonya an annoyed look. “So since that’s the case, watch me do it for you.”
“No, no, no, no, no,” Liv blurted out trying to stop Sonya from standing up. “Sit, sit, sit, sit,” she added but it was too late. Sonya had already gone and was heading towards the four players.

Sonya got a mild applause as the lads spotted her approaching. “Hey Sonya, great show, maybe show us the tits next time as well though,” Kev joked.
“Only if you show us yours first Kev, I hear it’s really big,” Sonya goaded him sarcastically, pulling her hands close together for effect. The other players burst out laughing.
“I mean, it’s average,” Kev tried to defend to no avail.
Sonya punched JD lightly in the shoulder, “So JD, I was wondering... Do you have a girlfriend right now?” Liv gasped and tried to hide her face in the arm of her hoody. JD started to stammer before Sonya cut him off. “It’s not for me, it’s for a friend.”
“Well... which friend?” JD asked causing Sonya to point dramatically towards Liv. JD turned his head towards her direction and Liv tried to put on her best smile and hesitantly waved towards him.

What followed was a long pause which felt an eternity to Liv. The room seemed to have just dropped by 5 degrees in an endless silence of purgatory. JD turned back to Sonya, “No, no, I’m sorry... she’s not really my type.” Liv couldn’t help but shake her head, her world seeming to tumble around her.
“You’re not nearly as hot as you think you are JD, you’re just a douchebag,” Sonya stated, patting him hard on the shoulder before heading back towards where Liv was sat, frozen in place.

Liv couldn’t face it. She stood up, grabbed her rucksack with her camera and stuff in it and stormed towards the exit. “Come on, Liv... Don’t go,” Chevon and Ryan called after her.
Sonya saw her leaving and tried to chase after her. “Liv, please Liv, Liv,” She called out but the girl just kept going.
“Just let her go,” Sam stated at Sonya. He sighed and shook his head, “You know, that wasn’t cool.”
“I’m just trying to help her,” Sonya defended herself.
“Well... that wasn’t helpful.”

Liv stormed straight from the cafe onto her bag and plugged in her headphones. She got on her bike and peddled hard. The second she was out of earshot from anyone she screamed and screamed hard. Messages popped up on her handlebar display, synced in with her Swipe. The first was from Sonya, ‘I’m Sorry Liv. You’re too smart an hot for him anyways’ followed by 3 hearts. The second was from Sam, ‘Screw Sonya, not everyone needs to be a contender.’

Liv shook her head, discarded the messages from her mind and continued to pedal quickly until she got home. She ignored her mothers comments downstairs and made straight for her bedroom, slamming the door closed behind her and throwing her bag onto the bed. She flung herself forward after it and slammed her face into the pillow crying out in frustration.

How could her friend do that to her, betray her in such a horrendous manner. She stared back at her swipe and the messages she received. Sonya just seemed to live in her own bubble, she didn’t care about who else it effected. All she wanted was her own life to be glorious, and it didn’t matter who suffered in her wake. She stared at Sam’s message. He was no better. She knew he at least cared for her but he didn’t have any faith in her, seeing her as his helpless friend he had a crush on and could protect from harm.

She threw the swipe down and groaned loudly. Why did she always feel like she had to tackle life on her own? Her mother just saw her as a little girl, her friends had no idea, her dad wasn’t even around. It was her versus the wall.

That’s when she saw it.

It was still loaded on her screen from earlier. Dare!. Clearly the two boxes still shone brightly: In the left in big green writing was the word ‘Viewer’, and on the right in Bold red the word ‘Contender’. Liv was fed up of living her life in the shadows, fed up of being a fly on the wall of her own life. Her eyes zoomed in on the screen, focused purely on those two words. She sat at the desk and looked over the display, her FlowShine still showing JD’s face in the background. The news article about a random teen getting hit by a train that she pulled up in a hurry sat in front of it. The email with her arts application sat beside it, but her eyes only cared for one thing.

She thought back over the experience at the cafe, focusing on those two words. She clenched her fists, reached forward and touched the word ‘Contender.’

A green loading symbol replaced the two words and suddenly the booming voice kicked back in with related images filling the screen at each point. ‘Hello, welcome to Dare!. You have chosen Contender. Dare is a direct democracy. Viewers will decide your dares. The two contenders with the most viewers by the end of regulation will advance to the final round where the winner takes all. Viewers can watch from anywhere, but we encourage them to film live so don’t be alarmed by any cameras. There are three important rules to follow. One, all dares must be filmed on the active contender’s phone. Two, there are two ways to get eliminated, fail to complete a task, or bail from doing a task in the first place. Three, All snitches... End up with stitches,” An image of a child shushing appeared on the screen, “Thank you for keeping Dare a secret, Good Luck Contender.”

Her Swipe came to life beside her. A yellow box appeared at the top ‘Please Enter ID’. Liv reached forward and placed her forefinger on the swipe, allowing it to read her fingerprint. The second it had scanned a new yellow box appeared. ‘Are you ready for your first dare?’ with a green accept box next to it.

Liv reached forward and tapped the accept button.

Unknown to Liv, as soon as she touched that accept button the computer went into hyperdrive as the player profile matches up with her handle @AllLivsMatter. It took the data from her search history, her social media accounts, her photographs, her bank account details, her past purchases, her favourite books, movies, streaming services, and even dark web history. The profile of '@AllLivsMatter – Contender' was born.