Truth or Dare? (Private)

The young girl sighed, her arms crossed and her face thoughtful as she stared at the climbing wall. How many times had she climbed this thing over the past four years? To many to count, really. But today, she needed to clear her head, and what better way to not focus on other things than to focus on not dying? Haley couldn't think of any, so she stood there in silence, watching a few others climb up and down, noticing their weaknesses. The blonde paused for to long between her movements. The brown haired boy was decent, but he needed to stop climbing before he passed out from exhaustion, as his arms were already shaking. The red head was an obvious klutz, bless her heart.

She personally had already been up the wall twice this afternoon, but each time had to go down as a fail. The first time she was distracted, and when the wall started to shake, she went down in a tumble. Luckily, her injuries weren't hardly serious at all, having not been that far up. The second go around wasn't really any injury to her, so much as her shirt, and the climbing wall was going to pay for burning holes in her Nirvana shirt. That was just down right disrespectful. So what was the reason for her standing still exactly? Mapping the best route.

She mumbled here and there to herself, not bothering if she looked crazy to the others, as she did most of the time. "Up, right.... left, left again.... steady for the shaking. Up to the left, left again.... avoid the lava..."

After quite some time at Camp Half-Blood, George's routine got boring, so he re-arranged it a bit. Actually, just simplified it. Whenever he hadn't been to somewhere in a while, he'd go there. That's a simple way to say, he hadn't been in the climbing wall for a while because it didn't thrill him enough. Like, why exactly would he NOT want to die after reading Camus for the past few months? Alas, he still was strict with himself, so climbing wall it was. Physical excursion seemed to be all he did at Camp, and he was feeling it less and less. Combat skills and killing monsters seem pointless when life also is.

So, as the teen was about to start climbing the thing, he also had to remind himself to stop with the Nihilism 101 and leave that for his free time (or maybe when he attended college at New Rome, that sounded great). There were some familiar faces today. He noticed that as time went by very few places in Camp were not-crowded. Maybe next time Chiron started shouting at him for killing most monsters in the forest he should bring up the idea of an expansion.

Of course, as every time an rp happens his train of thought got interrupted by some random mumbling near him, and saw #ThatGirlHeSawAtTheLibraryALongTimeAgo. OK, he remembered her name, it was Haley. He just didn't really get why he did, cause he usually was forgetful of what he deemed as insignificant details. But whatever, let's not bother with that. Instead, let's spend the next few eternities wondering whether to greet her or not.

Haley continued to mumble, mapping out her strategy for climbing the wall. The more she thought about it, the sillier that it seemed. They were trained to go off of there instincts. So... why was she doing this again?

While finishing her mumbling however, she seen yet another figure approach the wall. Somehow, this one seemed familiar...ish. she stood there, standing at the wall. At least until she noticed him -it was definitely a dude- glance at her, and in return, she caught a glimpse of his face. Was that Library Boy? She mentally scolded herself. His name wasn't Library Boy. What was it then? Greg? No... George. That was it. It took her up until this point to realize that she was STILL mumbling like a dork, and she felt her face get got.

But oh well. After not seeing the guy in forever, maybe she should strike up a conversation. "George? What are you doing here? She regreted the question as soon as it was out of her mouth. He was obviously here to climb the wall. Idiot.

OK, so, George knew his social skills were still a work in progress. He had accepted that about himself and while sometimes his actions contradicted it he really tried hard to improve. So, staring right at someone in silence till they were uncomfortable? That was at least a minor setback. Great job, George.

See? She even asked a stupid question out of awkwardness (something that he probably should have trademarked long ago). As far as George knew, the only thing you could do in the camp's Climbing Wall was... do I really have to say it? It's self-explanatory. That was one thing to note, second was that she seemed to remember him, which was... a thing that happened, he guessed. Now, to try and give her not-well-thought question a witty answer? That's probably too much to ask.

"Um, if I had to guess, same as you." Yeah, that's the best he could come up with. He could keep on to thank her for the book advice, but it was so long ago that it seemed pointless. It was almost like meeting her again for the first time, except now he felt a stronger urge to punch himself in the face and he didn't stutter anymore.

Why ask a question that everyone knew the extremely obvious question to? Because it was me me on of her talent, apparently. Trying to keep herself from doing something just as stupid the next ten she opened her mouth, Haley began playing with the key charm on her necklace. A nervous habit of course, but in a way, it helped calm her down.

Aaannndd he responded the only way a normal person could have to such a dumb question. You really couldn't expect anything else. She just nodded her head and laughed quietly once to herself, looking at her feet. "Yeah, dumb question. Sorry about that." She looked back up at him.

What to say next... She decided this is a momentary pause, saying the first thing that came to mind. Maybe it wouldn't make her look like more of an idiot, but with her luck, it probably would. "Since your like... the only person that I would probably bother talking to that's here at the moment, maybe you'd be up for a little challenge?"

Woah, woah there. So, bothering to talk to him (which was actually extremely well put in George's opinion) equals 'Are you up for a little challenge?'. Like, he didn't really want to embarass himself and/or die. But then again, if he didn't want to be here in the first place, maybe the extra motivation would help and also he could keep talking to her which was not a con for reasons he didn't quite understand yet.

"Um, s-sure. What do you have in mind?" Probably something like who will climb faster or who will not die. The possibilities weren't exactly endless.

Well, at least he didn't seem to find this question stupid. Haley took that as a plus. Hearing his response, she would find herself in familiar territory now. Challenges and dares always been her thing. Though he had went along with her suggestion, she had the suspension that he was simply being nice. Then again, that was probably just her self doubt again.

The girl shrugged her shoulders.. "Oh you know, just generic climbing wall things. See who can beat who to the top. But if you want we could like... wager something? Kinda like a bet... but not really. If that makes any sense." Her voice trailed off on the last sentence.

Generic climbing wall things. George would laugh if it wasn't rude. Though he didn't want to say no, cause that would literally make the last few minutes of awkwardness completely pointless and unnecessary. Besides, the wager part, although probably silly, intrigued him. Mostly because the last time he placed a bet he lost 50$ and got humiliated by a daughter of Ares. But he digressed.

"Um, like what kind of wager? Got something specific in mind?"

She thought for a moment, twisting the thought over in her head. What could she wager...

"We'll, I'm flat broke... So..."

"So, you were thinking of something else?" She couldn't be wasting both their times, could she? Well, she could just try to cope with the awkwardness that is interacting with him but hopefully not. Didn't she start talking to him anyway?

"I heard that you like the Sex Pistols. If I win, you have burn that shirt. If I win...well, name tour price." She crossed her arms, silently regretting opening her mouth to talk to him in the first place. Part of her, however, hoped this wouldn't turn into a train wreck.

George's first thought was "Wait, is this stranger stalking me?". His second thought was "You're wearing the shirt, idiot." and his third "Why in Hades would she want me to burn the shirt?". Did she just randomly despise Punk? Did she want to make him cry over losing one of his favorite belongings? She didn't make any sense. That or he really was afraid of losing.

Anyhow, he actually needed to name a wager of his own. "Um, I really don't get why you'd want me to do that but, uh... I don't know. Be my sparring partner for a week? I don't have much else. If it's too much and you wouldn't tolerate me for so long, feel free to shorten to make the wagers fair."

She could see the confusion in his face. Did she just make herself sound like a stalking psycho? Probably. Actually, wait, no. She definitely just did. It was times like this when she almost wished that she could read people's minds. Almost.

"Because the Sex Pistols are Nazis, more or less. They wore Neo Nazis symbols during their US tour once. Wearing the shirt is kinda like indirectly supporting it. It's complicated. Just... If I win, I'll be doing you a favor of sorts." Then she thought about his wager. Sparring partners did seem fair...

Why would he say that about her not being able to stand him? She opened her mouth as to say something about his last comment, but shut it back just as quick., Fighting the urge to do so. For some reason that wasn't really all that apparent to her, she actually found herself liking his company. It was the jocks and preps that she couldn't stand. Not someone like George. They had similar interests, which was way more than she could give most people at this place.

"No. A week's fine. I am about to make you burn a piece of your clothing, after all."

Ah, mortal politics. The one thing that George never cared about. Although, he understood what the problem was with this one. Would it change his opinion on the band? Probably not. Would it make him cringe in the infinite times he'd recall this conversation in the future to see what he could have said better? Of course. He couldn't help but smile at how certain she was about beating him. How could she be so accurate without having seen him in any form of physical excursion before? No one knows.

"Alright. We start on your signal or whatever. Try not to die."

She took a few steps closer to the climbing wall, reaching her right hand up to grab on to the nearest secured hand hold; Giving him enough time to do the same, if he chose.

Her signal? She was surprised that he didn't get someone else to count down for them. After all, it seemed not fair that way. But never mind the thought.

She smiled slightly at his remark. Trying not to die seemed like the main objective here at camp. "Alrighty then. Three, two, one and half... one... go." As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, she found a foothold with her left foot and pushed herself up, falling into a familiar rythm.

To be fair, George should have cared more about the stakes, but it was just bizzare to him. There was no point in not "trusting" her to call the whole thing, it was her idea, casual and kind of pointless. He just started climbing right after her. He wasn't that good at it, but good enough to keep up with Haley and be slightly behind her. Which was decent. He was more worried about not falling to his death, or trying to catch her if she feel rather than winning. Even though he was pretty sure "trying harder" wouldn't really be enough to beat her.

She silently prayed to the gods that she didn't fall. That would be bad in multiple ways. Bady embarassing, bad for her exceptionally small ego... Bad bad for a lot of things, really. While focusing more on trying not to fall, the wall started to shake, sending a few stray rocks their way. Thankfully it wasn't boulders this time.

Though she wasn't scared of heights, Haley looked down for curiosities sake. And that's when she noticed that George was right behind her. Now she was more concerned about not looking her foot hold only to replace it by using his face. That would have been even worse than just falling like most normal people. Focus, she mentally chided herself. She returned her attention back to the climb.

OOC: Sorry the reply is so late >.<