Hush, Little Baby

Chapter 5- Cool Guys Die By Fire

Chapter 5- Cool Guys Die By Fire

Kale

I strained to hear their conversation and focused on the other girl's face. The last time I didn't listen to Nikki's warnings I almost got stabbed in the eye. After a minute, I realized that their mouths weren't moving. How could they carry a conversation if they weren't talking?

"Hey guys. I don't think they're talking," I said.

"Yeah, I noticed they haven't moved their mouths," Logan said.

"Maybe they're having a staring contest," Theo whispered.

We all gave him a look. "What? It totally does!" he exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. I'm pretty sure Theo loses brain cells every time he talks.

"We should do something!" Garret complained. "I don't want to sit here all day."

Theo joined Garret in pouting. They slowly lost their credibility as 15 turning them to certifiable 5 year olds. Congrats to them.

Logan and I ignored them and our duties as their babysitters to discuss what we should do. Garret and Theo would eventually get up and do something stupid after they had whined their hearts out. Logan sighed and I nodded in agreement. All four of us couldn't take much longer of sitting still. We were four growing boys not gossipy girls.

"If we can't interfere with them, can't we back away from them? Then we could actually do something," Theo whined.

Logan and Garret agreed. I was tired of this as well. We might as well just back away. It wouldn't do any harm.

"Okay but let's make a game of it. We can amuse ourselves while we are leaving. The code word if we're caught should be-" I started.

"Peaches!" Theo interrupted.

We all turned to him with an obvious message of 'Where the heck did you get that?' plastered on our faces.

"I heard some girls in our grade say it a lot in 7th grade. It must be some kind of inside joke they used or maybe a code word..." Theo continued after seeing the looks on our faces.

"Dude, we are men not girls. I refuse to use that code word! It would be an insult to our manliness," Garret pronounced arrogantly.

I glanced over to where the two girls had been talking. The no-emotion girl's head had snapped toward us as if she had been listening to us.

"Uh, guys..." I murmured.

They ignored me and continued on with their conversation. This type of conversation is what our group and others of our type at school thrived on. It was expected from us and it entertained other people rising us up on the scale of popularity. Eventually this became a habit.

"That's right. Beast men like us need manly code names. We are way to raw for girly code words," Logan puffed. He pulled himself up to make himself look taller.

Nikki started gestulating wildly trying to distract the girl from looking in our direction.

"Guys?" I said a panicked edge starting to pick up in my voice.

"All the girls run to us,

We leave all others in the dust,

Leave us to the big stuff,

Because we are the only ones who know enough," Theo recited. We had made up that poem in 8th grade and later became our theme song.

Nikki had started jumping up and down desperately trying to grab the attention of the other girl. I turned my eyes to the girl. The brown in her eyes seemed to fade leaving her eyes a pearly white. A new color started pooling into her eyes. Red. They seemed to glow pointedly at me.

"Guys!" I yelled panic clearly lining my voice.

"What's up man? You weren't joining the fun," Logan returned.

I didn't spare a glance at them. I kept my gaze on the girl. A ring of fire appeared at the girl's feet. It pulled her up in the air and grew around her. It looked as if she was being consumed by a fire tornado.  

I rose a shaky finger up and pointed at the red-eyed girl. They all turned in that direction and stared at the sight frozen in terror.

"I'm pretty sure she's angry," I said in a whisper. 

They all nodded in agreement. Although the fire must be scorching her, Nikki didn't take one step back. She took up a predatory stance. She turned her head in our direction and shrieked, "RUN YOU JERKS!" 

Nikki's screams shook us out of our trances making us turn around and run. Run for our lives. We better make it count.