Please note that this is chapter 2 of Running Down the Rabbit Hole. I recommend you start at the beginning with Three Girls Screwing Around.
I wanted to lie in bed and think through the events of last night, but I must have fallen asleep straight away. I awoke the next morning to the sound of the bathroom door closing, but I didn't immediately open my eyes. I think I was proud of myself for being braver than Melanie and Amy, and for not having acted all shy by trying to cover up, but I was a bit concerned about any lingering consequences. Was last night's performance going to be forgotten about, or would I be the butt of endless jokes? I wasn't ashamed, but I didn't necessarily want all my friends to hear about it either.
Last night, I'd more or less decided that, having once bared all, there was no point backtracking, so I might as well be casual around Amy and Melanie from now on, but I wasn't feeling so confident this morning. I decided to play it cool and pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I pulled down my nightie to make sure I was decent, before carefully getting out of bed.
Melanie came out of the bathroom moments later, her hair wet, but still dressed in her pyjamas. Amy was already fully dressed in a tracksuit and was sat looking at her phone. She glanced up and smiled knowingly at Melanie, pointedly looking her up and down. I dug out a pair of undies -- this time including a sports bra so I'd be all set for running later on, and headed into the bathroom, firmly closing and locking the door behind me. As I stood under the warm torrent of water, I reflected on how easy it is go back to an old habit.
Well, it wasn't long before the three of us were heading down to breakfast. Melanie was perhaps more out of place owing to her bare feet than anything else. Before we'd left the room, she'd pulled down the side of her bottoms and lifted up her top at the back, proving she was wearing 'nothing but her pyjamas,' just like we'd agreed.
We found the breakfast room on the ground floor. It was still early and there was no one about -- just packets of cereal, bread, a toaster and kettle and other bits and pieces. I guess the breakfast service matched the standard of the rest of the hotel.
We sat down at a table and began to eat.
'Guys, I've got a bit of an idea that might help us win today,' Melanie began. 'Do you two want to hear it?'
We said we did.
'Well, last night got me thinking -- maybe it didn't work for Hannah, but not wanting to strip seemed to spur you and me to win, Amy. Maybe we could do something based on how we do today.'
'You mean, like if you lose, you're going to do a lap naked?' Amy asked. 'Sounds alright, but I don't see how it would help Hannah -- she's already put it all on show.'
Somehow, I didn't think a lap of a crowded athletics ground was exactly comparable to two friends in a hotel room, but I didn't bother objecting. I was sure she was just making a joke at my expense.
'Well, now we've seen Hannah in all her glory, I don't think there's any need for us two to try and steal her thunder,' Melanie replied, 'but why don't we look at where the three of us rank in our events. If one of us ranks higher than Hannah, we'll stop off at the practice ground on our way home and she can do a lap in just her knickers. If we both rank higher than her, she does two laps starkers.'
'And what's in it for me?' I asked. Not that I was thinking of agreeing to any of this, of course, but if they wanted to tease me, I might as well play along.
'You get a big incentive to help you give it your all,' Amy replied. 'When you're on that start line, won't picturing yourself stark bollock naked out on the field make you fly out like a rocket?'
'Just a minute, Amy,' I objected. 'Just a second ago you said facing doing a lap naked wouldn't give me any incentive -- you can't have it both ways.'
'Hannah's right, Amy,' Melanie interjected. 'There's no point in her doing it tonight when it'll just be us there -- we owe it to her to let it be at our next practice session.'
I smiled at that, and even laughed quietly. 'Yes, that sounds just perfect. Baring it all and making a fool of myself in front of the whole girls' team, and who knows what boys and random strangers who are lurking around.'
'I didn't think she'd be persuaded so easily,' Melanie said to Amy. 'Last night seems to have revealed a side to Hannah I'd never suspected.'
'I'm just worried she's so eager, she's actually going to try and lose instead of win,' Amy replied, pointedly leaving me out of the conversation, 'but I guess that's a risk worth taking -- it'll certainly make me run like the clappers.'
'There's just one little problem with this whole thing,' I said smiling. 'I haven't agreed to any of it. And there's no chance I ever will.'
'Don't you want us all to win?' Melanie asked.
'You'll be letting the whole team down, not just yourself,' Amy added. But the looks on their faces gave away that they both thought it was all a big joke.
We'd finished eating by then, so we tidied away our dishes and went up to our room to get our stuff. Melanie, of course, had to get changed, but she waited until the bathroom was free so she could do so discreetly. It occurred to me that we'd not seen anyone else the whole time, so it might as well have been me wearing my nightie as her in her PJs.
Melanie was driving, and I let Amy ride shotgun, not out of kindness but just because I wanted some time to think. It was still raining and miserable -- not exactly cold but not the kind of weather you really want for a track and field meet. Melanie and Amy did make some attempts to include me in their conversation, but I think they soon got the message that I was happy to just gaze out the window.
The thing was, mad as it might seem, the thought of streaking round our athletics track in broad daylight was exciting me like nothing I could remember. If I could have done it without everyone thinking I was mad and with no fear of any comeback, I wouldn't have been able to resist.
I got on quite well with most of the girls at the club -- I won't say there weren't any rivalries or the odd bit of friction, but basically I had my friends and got on fine with everyone else. Mind you, I'd only been in the club for a matter of weeks -- I think most of the real tensions were with girls in the years above us who'd had more time to fall out.
I tried to work out what would actually happen if did take on Amy and Melanie's challenge and lose. Could I pass it off as just paying up on a bet, or would I be regarded as some sort of weirdo. I couldn't help picturing everyone with their phone in hand filming me, and everyone from teenage boys to my mum watching the footage on the Internet. That, if nothing else, convinced me it was a no no, but what was I thinking to even consider that it could have been anything else?
