The Dog Days Challenge

“It was the hottest day of the year, and I crushed the Dog Days challenge,” Owen Valencia said as he staggered out of the car and stared into the camera. Even on Grayson’s phone, Henry could see the sweat clinging to Owen’s forehead and pooling above his lips. The occasional bead of sweat dripped from his hair as if he had just gone swimming.

Grayson was holding his phone for Henry to watch the new TruReels video posted by Owen. TruReels was Truth Social’s replacement for TikTok when it was banned.

“So—”

“Cool!” Grayson said simultaneously with Henry’s, “Stupid.”

“If I had a car, I would totally do it. I heard Ava started talking to Donald Hosier after he did the challenge.”

I’m glad you don’t have a car, I’d be a real loner then, Henry thought.

The initial after school rush had dissipated. Ava was one of a few kids that waited around for their ride home. Normally, far away from them, but not out of sight.

“Oh look dude! Ava just commented on Owen’s vid,” Grayson said. His head whipped back to the phone and his eyes instantly connected with the fire emojis. Apparently, she went by the handle, flAva.

Looking out at the parking lot, he thought, maybe her ride was early. But he didn’t see her there. Then he checked the entrance to the Gymnasium again, her normal hangout. But only a couple of older boys sat on the brick wall, the shaggy haired one with a basketball under his arm.

“Henry,” someone shouted from the parking lot.

He knew a girl like Ava would never associate with him, yet somewhere deep down he hoped Ava was the one calling.

“Oh…my mom’s here,” Henry said as he trotted off. “Later.”

“Later, dude!” Grayson shouted back.

Casey watched Henry open the rear door of the Outback and toss his backpack onto the middle seat. The front seat was empty, but the back provided her son a few more feet of separation from her, making it difficult for mom to snoop.

She heard the click of his seat belt and started heading back home—slowly, she was in no rush after working from home all day.

She glanced into the rear-view mirror. Seeing the phone in his hand, she decided to ask anyway, “How was your day, hun?”

“Fine,” he replied, too focused on his phone.

My little teenager, Casey chuckled to herself. “How was Grayson?”

“He’s good,” he responded, still lost in his phone.

Two words this time, that’s progress, she thought and focused back on the road ahead.

On the drive home Henry downloaded the TruReels app. He settled on King Henry for his handle. Saving his profile for later, he started scrolling through videos of classmates doing the Dog Days challenge. Mostly to scan the comments from flAva.

Before he realized it, they were home.

Henry stepped out of the car and heard, “What’s up, bud?” come from the garage door, just as he spotted a post from flAva.

“Hello, Henry, what’s up, bud?” he said again.

“What? Oh, hey Dad,” he pretended as if he didn’t hear him the first time, peeking up at Clark and back to his phone.

They walked out of the garage with Henry trailing them. He watched his dad droop an arm around his mom’s shoulders. She said something to Clark, but Henry didn’t catch it. Just saw them look at the old car in the driveway as they walked by. He partially caught something his dad said back, shouldn’t worry, maybe.

Didn’t matter, flAva’s profile was more important.

Nighttime came quickly after homework and dinner. It had been a few hours since Henry checked his phone.

He swiped away the new follower alert from TruReels. It was Grayson (goes by Gr8son).

Then swiped away a text message, also Grayson, that said, “dude follow me u,” followed by an eggplant emoji.

Wait!

What?!

A new TruReels post by flAva! She did the Dog Days challenge! That’s why she wasn’t at school!

He tried to open the notification but his finger missed. Just then his mom knocked on the door and opened it saying, “Hey hun.”

Henry slapped his phone face down on his desk, turned to the science book he had open, and said, “Oh…uhh…hey mom.”

“Oh…umm…didn’t mean to—I just wanted to say goodnight hun.”

“OK, goodnight.”

He watched her start to close the door behind her, then she turned and opened it slightly. It looked like she was about to turn to close it again but stopped to blow him a kiss. “Goodnight,” she said one last time and closed the door.

Once he was sure that she had walked away, he grabbed his earbuds, then his phone, and opened the TruReels app.

Her face was the first thing he saw. It was just a quick shot of her video on repeat. But he watched it over and over.

Finally, he tapped the video. It was similar to Owen’s. It started with her opening the car door—part of the challenge was leaving the phone to record outside of the car. She bent over, placing her hands on her knees. He noticed her brown hair looked black and was clumped together in small strands as if her hair had been braided. She lifted her head back up and said, “That was so hot.” She stopped to take a deep breath and continued, “I just did the Dog Days challenge.” Then she went on about how she felt and how she thought she was about to die.

He watched the video a few times and eventually found his way to his bed.

But Henry couldn’t sleep. He replayed the video in his mind and over analyzed comments he could leave. He dreamed of Ava’s blue eyes staring back at him.

On the car ride to school the next day, Henry mostly thought about flAva and her Dog Days challenge and about the old car in the driveway. His dad was too busy taking a call about quarterly financial reports and debt schedules.

They pulled up to school. Normally, Grayson was there waiting for him. He checked his phone again. Seeing nothing he texted, “Where u at dawg?”

His Dad, still on the phone, shouted, “see ya bud,” as he stepped out of the car.

Kids shuffled by Henry as he stood searching the courtyard for Grayson. A shoulder knocked him stumbling forward.

“Move it Henrietta,” came a familiar voice, Donald.

He brushed it off and head for the entry doors. He turned around thinking maybe he’s in the drop-off line.

Henry checked his phone one last time before entering the school. Nothing from Grayson.

He waded through the roaring river of high school students. Fearing one slip would be his doom. A doom worse than death.

Up ahead someone waved. It was Ava. She stood smiling…at him? He looked right, looked left, and started to raise his hand at her. Another shoulder brushed him. Christa and Zara—Ava’s friends—rushed by him.

He overheard Zara say, “Girly I loved your reel!” as she ran by.

Then someone whispered in his ear, “Keep on moving Henrietta.” Donald again. He skipped backwards as gracefully as a baby walking for the first time while laughing at Henry.

Henry swung around the growing log jam of high schoolers around Ava as he headed to class catching the occasional, “fire” or “bruh,” in his ear.

From class he could still hear the whirlpool in the hallway that was Ava. Somehow, he thought he would finally see Grayson, sitting in his desk in US history class. But it was empty.

The rest of the day dragged on. Walking from class to class there always seemed to be a hoard moving through the halls with Ava at its center. Henry sat alone waiting for his ride after school. The ride home was mostly silent aside from the usual “how was your day hun” or “it’s a hot one today.”

They beat Dad home, again. Pulling into the drive, Henry couldn’t take his eyes off the old car. She caught him staring at it and said, “I heard kids these days are filming themselves in hot cars. Posting videos of it. Anything like that going on at your school?”

“I don’t know,” he responded and picked up his phone.

“You know that’s very dangerous, right?” she said as they came to a stop in the garage.

“Duh,” he said rushing out of the car and headed for the front door.

The front windshield of the old car sparkled in the afternoon sun making him avert his eyes from the blinding light.

“Ugh, it’s too hot,” cried Casey as she stepped into the sunlight, following Henry to the front door.

Just as Henry stepped inside the house, his phone vibrated. A TruReels notification…a post by Gr8son! Then another vibration. A text message from Gr8son that said, “phew that was,” followed by fire emojis.

He texted back, “u did DD?”

Grayson texted back a GIF of a fireball exploding behind someone dropping a microphone.

He ran off to his room saying, “got some homework to do, Mom” as he went. In a way, he did.

In his room, he watched Grayson’s reel but got distracted when he saw a comment from flAva that said “Grayson! Love it!” followed by heart emojis.

Then he got to work on his homework.

Henry gave a performance good enough for a premier role in his school’s play during dinner last night. Before dinner, he worked up a sweat doing push-ups and practiced coughing. It only took the third cough for his mom to start worrying.

A little more acting the next morning, and she was calling school to let them know Henry would be out sick.

He just had to get his hands on the car keys. But that was the easy part. He waited for his mom to take a phone call.

Back in his room, he grabbed a duffle bag he packed with a towel and water the night before—he wasn’t completely stupid. Then he exited through his room’s window.

He jogged down the side of the house, being as quiet as possible, and ducked below the windows.

His mom could see the old car from her window, but she wouldn’t be able to see him if he entered from the side facing the fence. There was just a short stretch of driveway from the house to the car that he had to scurry by.

The car shined as if it had just been washed and waxed. Like it was a trophy. But he wanted something more. He wanted flAva.

He bolted for the other side of the old car.

Upon reaching it, he concealed himself behind the front fender and sat on the ground heaving as if he had just run laps in gym class.

He peeked over the hood of the old car even though he couldn’t see through the front window where his mom was working. When he realized that, he slipped down under the fender again.

His breathing settled. He took the key fob out of his front pocket. He pressed the unlock button, but nothing happened. He thought, just my luck, no key to open the door and the fob doesn’t work.

The back seat would provide the most obstruction from being seen. That’s when he noticed the back door was slightly open. He tried the back door’s handle and…it opened! Not so unlucky after all.

Now the phone. He thought about this beforehand. The fence line is only a few feet away and the middle two by four provided the perfect angle for the shot.

He set up the phone, being careful to capture him the middle of the frame. It took a few tries, but he finally got it right.

It was time. He walked to the car and back a few times, wondering if he should. For some reason it wasn’t Ava that flashed into his mind but Donald calling him Henrietta. It was time to ditch that name.

He climbed into the back seat and shut the door. Then he pulled something out of his pocket to time himself. No phone in the car but they didn’t say anything about a stopwatch.

He was immediately sweating, unsure if he was already sweating from before or if it was being in the car.

He glanced down to check the time, two minutes and forty-six seconds…Forty-seven…Forty-eight. Now he wished he brought something to read.

After a few more minutes, beads of sweat started to drip from his head. That’s when he noticed his shirt was soaked around the neck. Now he wished he had a fan.

Glancing at the stopwatch again, it read just over fifteen minutes. He was a quarter of the way done.

He noticed his hands had started to turn red. Then he found himself in the rearview mirror. His light grey shirt was now dark. His normally fluffy hair laid flat, clinging to the curve of his skull.

The timer hit thirty minutes as he slipped up and down on leather seat. Up and down. A constant struggle with gravity.

He thought about laying down but didn’t want to fall asleep. Plus, he didn’t want someone thinking he cheated.

Forty minutes is when their neighbor decided to walk their dog. It started to sniff and bark when it crossed behind the car. He ducked down to avoid being seen.

The dog finally did its business, and they continued down the sidewalk.

A light ache at his forehead started at the forty-five-minute mark. Almost over he thought. Tough it out.

He started thinking about that water bottle just outside. How he would go straight for it. He could edit the ending to exclude that part.

Looking at the home’s front window, he knew his mom was there, working away. Then he wondered why she hadn’t noticed him missing. He figured she was probably too busy to check.

The stopwatch crossed fifty-five minutes. If he didn’t feel so tired, he would have been excited.

That’s when he noticed he was no longer fighting the leather seats. He wasn’t slipping anymore. Instead, his skin stuck to the leather like Velcro.

The stopwatch started beeping. He had made the hour, but it took a minute for him to realize it.

His vision had started to blur. He couldn’t see the door handle and started to panic. He patted the side of the door until he found it and breathed a sigh of relief.

He tugged on the handle and pushed. Nothing happened.

He tugged harder and pushed harder. Nothing happened.

He shuffled across the seat to the other door. Patted it, found the handle, and tried to open the door…NOTHING…HAPPENED.

Suddenly he remembered what his dad said to his mom that day. It wasn’t shouldn’t worry. It was shoddy wiring!

He shook the door handle and threw his shoulder into the door’s upholstery.

Again he felt like he had just run laps at school.

He scooted across the seat and rattled the other door’s handle. Nudging the weight of his body against the door.

His eyes could hardly stay open. He wanted so badly to lie down on the back seat.

He leaned between the front seats and tried the front doors. They didn’t open. He thought maybe he didn’t try hard enough and tried again. They didn’t budge.

Outside of the car, the air appeared to waver like a mirage.

Putting his hand up to his neck, he checked his pulse. It was beating too fast. He lost count somewhere after ten seconds each time he tried counting.

He laid down on the back seat, thinking, I’m just going to shut my eyes a moment and think. He opened his eyes a few times, but the darkness eventually overtook him.

Casey shot up from her office chair when she heard a scream.

Then she heard it again, “CASEY!” It sounded like Clark.

She spotted him at the old car in the driveway, ripping at back door.

“No…no…no…noooooooo!”

She started shaking but didn’t understand why.

“HENRY!!” she heard him scream.

She covered her mouth and felt her heart drop. Then she ran to his room.

How had she not heard him leave? Where was he?

She ran to the front door, stopping when she noticed a pair of keys missing from the hooks. The old car’s keys.

Again she wondered, how she didn’t hear him leave.

She flung the door open. It crashed into the wall and shimmied back a few feet.

“CASEY!! OUR BOY!!” Clark cried out as he ran into the garage.

Casey pressed her face up against the glass and saw her boy lying in the back seat as if he were sleeping.

“CASEY CALL 911!!” Clark shouted from the garage. “I’M GOING TO BREAK THE WINDOW!”

Her phone. She left her phone inside.

Clark was back with a hammer and started smashing the window. He mumbled something about the middle seat.

He said it again, “Why didn’t Henry use the fold down seat.”

Then she remembered that the seat folds down to access the trunk.

Casey ran back to the house to get her boy help.