They notice Tommy has already left in his car. The police finally arrive, but with no evidence for them, the three teens escape through the back door. The crowd picks them up and parades them around, and a fan steals Vee's wallet. The DJ invites Vee to make a speech, and she warns against the danger and illegality of the game, but no one listens. A large screen shows NERVE has been playing highlights during the whole escape fiasco. Vee, Ian, and Sydney exit to the club level to avoid NERVE's armed security at the front and find the crowd thrilled to see them in the same building. She presses the elevator button to stop at the club floor rather than the lobby. Vee finds out Tommy fed the organizers her personal information for a dare, injures him, and leaves him. The four back into the elevator and leave the NERVE controller on the playing floor with the other confused contestants. Vee steals his driver's license for the police makes him stop the other players from using their guns on the threat of losing their prizes and extracts Ian, Sydney, and Tommy from the dark playing room. Vee catches the elevator door before it closes and holds one patron at gunpoint, letting the others escape. Vee escapes, and Ian fights off the other players, who realize that if Vee leaves they all lose their prizes.

Vee and Ian realize the row of chairs in the hallway outside the room and curtain are like a stage, so NERVE's wealthy donors must be watching through a one-way mirror just a few inches away. Tommy tells Vee to stall before his kidnapping, he has managed to call the police. Vee flubs a dare early in the finals, so later on, the game arms the contestants and tries to spook them into shooting each other, Tommy, or Vee's best friend Sydney, whom the game organizers have kidnapped and thrown into the room. Vee and Ian complete a series of riskier and more lucrative dares and make their way to the final round, where they compete against five other finalists. Vee proceeds anyway, and the game pairs her up with fellow contestant Ian.

Tommy warns the dare may come from hackers who illegally collect contestants' personal information.

Vee then receives a dare with expensive designer shoes on her wishlist as the prize. After uploading her audition reel, they realize her cotton shirt becomes see-through after she poured cold water on herself. Shy junior Vee, with the help of her friend Tommy, tries out for the online game of dares, NERVE, to impress her crush. Nerve is a 2012 young adult techno-thriller by Jeanne Ryan.

Charisma by Jeanne Ryan