JENN McKINLAY: All right, I’ve been a Red for a little over two years now, and while I know quite a bit about my fellow Reds there are some holes in my information, so let’s lean in and do a deep dive. Yes? It won’t hurt. I promise. Take a look at the list and tell us which “Never Have I Evers” you haven’t done. I’ll go first.
The List: 1 Point for Each (lowest score wins)
I am lucky number seven! No to helicopters (maybe someday if the opportunity arises), being arrested (shocker, I know), bungee jumping (no thank you), falling asleep in the movies (not with how much they cost these days!), Disneyland (yes, I know, it's an oversight), skydiving (only if the plane decides to fall from the sky), and no tattoos. Most people are surprised that I don’t have a tattoo (I guess I’m the type?), but the truth is I have commitment issues. I could barely commit to the Hub never mind permanent ink! Plus, I have a friend who got a rose tattoo when she was young and as the years have rolled along and gravity has kicked in, it’s become a long stemmed rose. Placement is everything!
All right, Reds, you’re up!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oooh. No missed a flight (I HATE saying that out loud), no arrests or piercings or tattoos, no births or handcuffs, no peeing (what does "in public" mean? Like, at a baseball game in a portapotty?), red light or bungee jumping. Well, maybe the red light, but not on purpose. It was yellow, it truly was. NO skydiving, forget about it.. Does that make me a 10?
HALLIE EPHRON: I’m an eleven… guessing that’s not a winner. I have never been pierced (not even my ears) or (surprise surprise) been bungee jumping or skydiving. Tattoos: I inadvertently gave myself one pricking my arm with the nib of a pen that had been dipped in India ink. I'm not counting it. I've missed connecting flights. Never arrested or rode in an ambulance. Peed in public? Does on the side of a hiking trail count?
And weird coincidence: right now I'm reading Joshilyn Jackson's NEVER HAVE I EVER. It's riveting.
LUCY BURDETTE: See that's what really holds me back on tattoos...the drooping and the mind-changing. That puts me at six, including the dreaded peeing in public. You don't need to know all of the details, but it involved a terrible traffic jam on a bridge, too much coffee, and a coffee cup. Looking back, it was kind of amazing that I pulled it off. (TMI? Jenn did ask...)
I think I've told you I ran a red light on my bike, and that's been worked into the opening scene of the next book, THE KEY LIME CRIME. There was another before that (or was it a stop sign?) that resulted in the accident. Very scary--hope never to repeat that!
RHYS BOWEN: It's nine for me. I can see that mostly I've been a good child: no tattoo, no red light, no handcuffs, no arrests and never skipped school. I did go riding instead of studying for my big religious studies final (and managed to pass by one point). But I have narrowly escaped death, been in an accident and broken bones, and certainly peed it public if being halfway up a mountain with no cover of any sort counts (especially when I was squatting when the mountain train came by and forty pairs of eyes looked down at me!)
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Body piercing - does that include ears? I got mine double pierced back in the eighties, though I've let the second set of piercings grow in. I've never sky dived - as the daughter and wife of Air Force vets, I know the smart move is to stay on the inside of the plane. Never bungee jumped, either, as I'm pretty sure my stomach wouldn't stand for it. I've never fallen asleep in the cinema - that was Ross's thing. He loved his $11 naps. And I've never been in handcuffs. So I'm five? Four, if ears = body piercing.
I have been arrested, I have a tattoo, I've peed in public and I've ran quite a few red lights in my day. I also missed TWO flights from London to the States AT Christmastime ON two consecutive days. Ladies, I think I may be the bad girl of the Jungle Reds.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm a seven. Ears pierced when I was fourteen, with a needle. Never regretted it. Broke my collar bone at two, falling off a chair. (Uncoordinated, anyone?) Broke my pelvis at fourteen, when hit by a car. (That brings in the near death thing.)
No bungee jumping, no helicopters, no skydiving. (Seeing a theme here?) No Disneyland (deprived child, parent of deprived child.) No cruises. No handcuffs. I'm still conflicted on the tattoo. I look at images of British-themed postage stamps, and try to image where I could put it that wouldn't stretch... Peeing in public? Too many side of the road episodes in Mexico as a kid. And on one traffic jam on the M4 in the UK, if I had had any sort of bottle or cup, I'd have used it. I've refused to drive on a UK motorway ever since.
Okay, Readers, your turn. What is your number of Never Have I Evers?
