Prologue
A
be sat on the hill, overlooking the small town. The luscious green grass swayed back and forth in the gentle breeze. I tiptoed over to him, careful not to make any noise. I didn't want him to turn around yet. As soon as I was within 4 feet, he cocked his head to the side. I knew he heard me. He quickly stood up and spun around. Before he turned around all the way, I lunged at him. I tackled him to the ground and hung onto him with all my might. He struggled to escape my grip as we rolled down the hill. He was defiantly strong, but I knew how to hang on. Abe and I hit the bottom of the hill. Abe landed on his back with a grunt, and I was clutched onto his chest, laughing. I jolted up with a triumphant look on my face.
"Point for me," I revealed excitedly. "So what's the score now? Me 8, you 6?" Abe laughed at me.
"Actually, it's You 8 and me 7, but I'll let you think what you want to think," Abe cockily answered as he stood up, rubbing some dirt off his arm. I playfully pushed him back. I started picking grass out of my wavy blond hair. I felt dirt caked on my face, but waited to clean it off until I got home.
Abe and I had a point system based game. Whoever could sneak up on one another and defeat them, like what I just did, would get a point. If I was to sneak up on Abe, and he would defeat me, he would get the point. It was something we had developed as best friends. There wasn't much to do in Bay Grove.
Bay Grove was a town with a population less than 900. Everyone pretty much knew everyone. The last graduating class had 46 kids. Our class had even less. In the town is a grocery store, a cheap clothing store, two family owned restaurants, a library and the school. The rest of the town consisted of small quaint houses. We weren't in the middle of nowhere; we were just a little secluded. The nearest town was only ten miles away. We were like an average town, except for the fact that we were all like family. Everyone watched out for one another, especially my circle of friends.
"So Bridget, do you want to go find Nina and hit The Dish?" Abe asked. The Dish was one of the restaurants in town, and teens went there the most. The Dish was around since our parent's parents were our age. It looked like the restaurant needed a renovation, and it looked that way for over 14 years. Once you got past the look of the place, you could enjoy their amazing food.
"I suppose a dinner at The Dish is long over due," I reasoned. "First one to Nina's house wins!" I took off down the hill, with Abe not far behind. The rush of the wind flowing through my hair felt nice. I wasn't a big runner, but I enjoyed short distance running. The breeze felt nice on this humid day. I made it toFirst Streetand lost sight of Abe. For all I knew, he was taking the back routes. If he was, he was smart. I wondered why I didn't take that way. I continued with a fast walk on the busy sidewalk. It was a Saturday, so most people were outside enjoying the day. I dodged groups of townspeople saying a short "Hello" to each of them. I was the type of person that couldn't not say hi to people I knew. I rounded the corner leading ontoElm Drive. I could see Nina's two story A-frame house.
Her house wasn't an A-frame house that had just one giant triangular shaped ceiling. Nina's was a rectangular house with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a study and the other necessities. There were just triangular shaped roofs over the parts of the house that stuck out a little, and a giant triangular shaped roof covering the rest of the roof. Her house wasn't triangular shaped, except for the roof. The house was located at the end of the only cul-de-sac in town, along with my house, Abe's house and our other friend Max's house.
I sprinted hard most of the way to Nina's house. I saw two figures lounging on the deck, casually talking.
"Damn," I cursed under my breath. I slowed to a fast walk, and when I was within 20 feet of the place, I slowed to a walk. I acted like I was just strolling along. I swung my arms back and forth, and tried my best to whistle. I looked up at the sky and when I was just a few feet from Nina's house, I looked at Abe and Nina.
"Look who finally showed up," observed Abe.
"Oh, were we racing?" I asked, pretending like we never agreed on a race.
"Just shut it Bridget. You know full and well that we were racing," Abe jokingly said, smirking. "What's the score now? 8 me, 8 you?"
"Something like that," I admitted, defeated. Abe stood up from the cushioned rocking chair and took a bow.
"Abe Morrison," he shouted triumphantly, "will regain kingship!"
"Now look what you did," Nina said, chiming in, "you let that ego back inside his head!" Nina panicked, running down the stairs towards me. "We will never get the old Abe back!" She freaked, then we burst out laughing. We laughed until we couldn't breathe.
"Well, before I have to perform CPR on you two, how does going down to The Dish sound?" Abe questioned Nina. Nina and I took a deep breath, as she agreed to come with. Nina ran inside and shouted to her mom that she would be with us at The Dish. Nina returned with her silver purse, and fixed her long brown curly hair in the reflection of the glass door. When she decided she was ready, she bounded down the steps to join Abe and me.
"Is Max coming?" Nina asked.
"No for the second time! Remember? He's out of town with his family. They won't be back until next week," Abe answered. Nina always had a problem remembering things. We started down the sidewalk, gossiping about kids at school, and talking about what was due on Monday.
In about five minutes, we got to The Dish. We took a pale yellow booth. Nina and Abe slid in together, and I had the other side to myself. We had just settled in when our waitress came over.
"Why look who we have here," observed the waitress, smiling.
"Hi Mrs. Michelson," Nina and I said almost in unison. Abe just smiled politely and waved. Kerry Michelson was our English teacher. She worked at The Dish part time. Mrs. Michelson gave us each a green menu. It had the logo written on the top of the front, with catering info underneath. It unfolded into three sections which were breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On the back were choices to drink and desert.
"I'll give you kids a little time to look over the menu."
"Actually, I think we are ready to order," Nina indicated. "I'll have a cheeseburger with everything on it and a Mountain Dew."
"I'll have a patty melt with fries and a Pepsi," I ordered.
"I'll have a Reuben and fries with a Mountain Dew, please," Abe ordered. Mrs. Michelson told us that our order would be ready soon, and walked away. Until our food came out, we just chatted about the normal stuff teens talk about.
Looking back on this day, I wish things could have stayed this simple forever. Too bad within a few days, things started to change, and would stay as far away from normal as things could get.
