Elly’s eyes glowed brightly in the dim light. “The first game is drink. Then hide. And seek.”All the girls had to drink directly from their bottles.At first, Sarah tried to discreetly pour her bottle out. But Layla saw her. “Sarah’s cheating!” the small girl cried. OMG what a little tattletale sh*thead. Elly frowned in disapproval. “Come here, Sarah.” She beckoned with her hand.Sarah tried as hard as possible to not ‘pretend’ to kick Layla. She was so angry. She tried to act confident as she stood in front of Elly on the lawn. “Girls, has Sarah been a good girl?” Elly asked the group.A chorus of no’s followed. “What should we do to punish her?” Elly asked. Sarah started to shiver. Punish? What kind of punishment could they do? The girls were silent. Clearly, the trio of gossipy followers couldn’t come up with anything on their own. They waited patiently for their two faithful leaders to give the word.Trish walked over to Elly and whispered something to her. Elly started to crack up. Sarah held her breath, waiting. “First,” Elly said. “You must drink HALF of your bottle. Right now.” Sarah paled. “Look, um, I don’t drink that much. If I drink too much, I might get sick and–“”YOU CHEATED. PAY THE PRICE!” Elly screamed. Sarah immediately went silent. Elly sighed dramatically. Like the scream had tired her out. “Start drinking, Gorgeous. We haven’t got all night.” She and Trish exchanged those evil looks again. Sarah had a terrible feeling in her stomach. But she didn’t see how she could get out of this one. Okay, relax. You got this. Just drink until you puke. Or pass out. Then you can’t play any more games, right?With all the girls watching, Sarah slowly put the mystery bottle to her lips and began to drink. When she tasted what was in the bottle, she stopped and looked questioningly at Elly and Trish. “This is just Sprite,” she said. She LOVED Sprite. She knew the taste like the back of her hand. It was her favorite soft drink to order. Relieved, she downed half the drink as instructed. She felt fine.Elly sashayed over to Sarah and took the bottle. She flung her arms around her neck. “See, Sarah. We’re your friends. We wouldn’t purposely try to do anything to hurt you.” She gave Sarah an air kiss before walking back up to the front of the group. She clapped her hands. “Everyone else, please drink from your bottle now. And remember, small sips.”The group of girls did as they were told. Elly and Trish walked around to inspect each bottle to ensure the girls were drinking. Sarah wondered what kinds of beverages were in the other girls’ bottles. She squinted her eyes to look at one bottle. It looked like Pepsi or maybe Coca Cola. Another bottle definitely now looked like it contained Gatorade, or maybe it was Powerade. Then something unusual happened. Elly walked over to all of the girls, except for her, and made them each drink a few shots of vodka. The girls around Sarah now started to wobble unsteadily. “Okay! Now it’s time to play the game!” Elly called. She quickly downed a few shots, herself. Elly stuck her hands out in front of her and shoved Kimber, who happened to be closest.Kimber, now very tipsy, fell over onto the ground, laughing. “TAG! You’re IT!” Elly said to her. The group of girls immediately ran in different directions around the massive yard to hide. Sarah could hear Kimber slowly counting down from one-hundred to give them time. But poor Kimber kept losing count, now that she was tipsy. Sarah heard her say eighty, then sixty, she was back at seventy. As Sarah searched for a hiding place behind one of the tall trees, she realized she was starting to feel funny. “If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.”