Page 14 of Barefoot Chaos
"Oh hell, no." Bailey pushed her way in front of me, dragging me back up to standing. "Not one of us has a fat ass around here, and even if we did, we'd celebrate that thing. Bad asses come in all shapes and sizes, my dear. And speaking of asses. If you continue to throw shade at yours, I will kick your ass. You got me?"
"Um..."
"Leave the girl alone, B. You're scaring her." Esa wedged in and drew my attention away from Bailey. "What she's trying to say is that we're all about loving our bodies around here. We love their shapes, sizes, and quirks. We still work to be as healthy as we can, but we let go of any shame about our physical selves. Life's too short for that shit, you know?"
Shasta interjected. "You're Beach Squad now. We're a group of women who truly believe in ourselves as human beings, not just as women. We don't impose society's beauty rules on ourselves. We recognize and create our own beauty, no matter what form it comes in. We don't care to shrink down smaller. We strive to live big. We have more to offer than six-pack abs or a booty that don't stop. And I bet you do too."
I blinked. A wave crashed onto the sand, spraying mist up into the air. A seagull swooped low over our heads and skimmed the water. A child ran screaming from the water into her parent’s arms. I took it all in and let it swirl through my brain. These women, those words.
It was like a calming wave of empowerment filled up my chest cavity, leaving my heart on fire and my brain at rest. The bitch voice in my head was silent for the first time since puberty. I didn't know exercise endorphins were this intense, but maybe I'd be doing more jogging if I could feel like this again.
I began softly, my voice gaining confidence as I laid it all out there. "I felt like a fish out of water when we first started our jog. Now I know for sure I've found my tribe. You ladies are a gift and I'm blessed to be part of your group." I gave a big smile to each of them. "Thanks for pulling my head out of my fabulous ass."
"Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" Bailey pulled me into a hug, then sent me down the line to hug everyone else.
I woke bright and early Monday morning, getting ready for another day teaching the bright minds of our youth. I took extra time to wear one of my new outfits picked out by Bailey, enjoying the way the tailored skirt and shirt fit my body, confident in all my curves.
When I bustled onto campus, I went straight to my classroom to make a list of which students still needed to turn in their dare approval sheets. Ten minutes before the first bell rang, my door swung open and a group of students rushed in all talking at once.
"Slow down, guys. One at a time, tell me what's going on." I held my hands up, trying to bring the excitement level down a few notches.
"Ms. Woodland. Is it true? Are you going to do the dare too?" This question came from Alessa, a bright girl in my third period English class.
"Me? Do a dare? No. That's definitely not on the table." I chuckled, wondering what she was thinking.
"But you've been dared already! Are you saying you won't do it?" Josh piped in, looking confused.
I furrowed my brow, trying to piece together what he as talking about. "I don't know what you mean, Josh. I haven't been dared."
"Yes, you have. See?" Alessa held up her iPhone, showing my own Instabook page.
The top cover photo was gone. In its place was one sentence:I DARE you, Hessa Woodland: sing one of your songs publicly. #CAREDARE
6
The blood drained from my face and my vision narrowed till all I saw was that dare staring at me, mocking me from behind a glass screen. My mind went blank and I didn't even hear the bell ring nor see the kids that rushed to take their seats. I had that horrible buzz filling my head, that feeling when you know something is horribly off and absolutely nothing good could come of this thing.
The only reason I had an Instabook account was so I could monitor the Care Dares the kids were posting about each year. They were allowed to post about it as long as they used the appropriate hashtags so school administrators and parents could follow along.
Who could have done this? Why did someone do this? Who the hell even knew I wrote songs?
"Ms. Woodland? You want us to start reading the next chapter?" The voice of my student from the first row broke into my thoughts and reminded me I had a class to teach. Get through the next four classes, then I could take my lunch break and take the first steps to figuring out what was going on.
When I sat down in the teacher's lounge, I grabbed my phone and logged into my Instabook account.
Login Failed. Please try again.
I tried three more times before I realized I wasn't going to get in. My account had been hacked, that's for sure. I created a new user account and went to my old account, reviewing the dare again. Nothing further was posted on my account, but I took a screenshot of what was there.
Then I went to the Care Dare hashtags and reviewed what the kids were posting. Since their own dares hadn't even started yet, they were mostly talking about me. Lots of speculation on who dared me and what the song thing was all about. One post even went so far as to say I was a famous singer, teaching incognito for kicks. Ha! Like a millionaire singer would teach high school English in their spare time just for fun. Perhaps my kids had a different idea of 'fun'.
I sobered quickly when I remembered the issues Kai was having. Two of his saves had mentioned being dared. It didn't have to do with my program, but I was starting to wonder what was going on since something, or someone, outside of my program had now daredme.
I thought of at least ten reasons why I shouldn't contact Kai, but in the end, my practicality won out. If my dare had anything to do with what he thought might be going on, it would be a smart move to at least let him know. And I wanted to know if he'd found out anything further. I could survive a conversation, I was sure of it.
I had my phone in hand, ready to dial the lifeguard headquarters, when I got a text from my sister.
Rainna:Had a nice time chatting the other day. You should come see my shop soon. Xoxo
