Out of the Woods

Chapter 1: A Helping Hand

It is 4 in the morning and instead of sleeping, Alexander Pavel is getting ready to go out and take a run in the woods.
He does this every morning, even in the weekends. Something about it just calms him down. Alex quietly walked out of his house and started to run towards the woods. As he is running with his headphone on, he sees the sky turning a lighter shade of dark blue.
The wind blows through his brown, wavy hair while he listens to 'No light, No light' by Florence and the Machine.
He only had to run 7 minutes and he already reached the woods.
The beautiful autumn leaves were dancing with the wind, all the animals were still asleep and Alex was running with a smile on his face.
"No better way to start a day", he thought.

As he kept repeating the song, one and a half hour had already gone by and he looked at his watch.
"Oh God! I have to go back home and get ready!", he whispered to himself.
The young man ran as quickly as he could back to his house.
When he got home, he found his younger sister in the kitchen.
"Had a good run Al?", she asked.
"Like always.", he smiled.
"Well you better get ready. I'll be making breakfast since dad is still sleeping and mom had to work a night shift at the police station."
"Alright Melanie. Thanks you're the best sister ever", he yelled from the stairs.
"Yeah yeah, I know. And happy 16th birthday!"
"Thanks sis!"

Melanie and Alex are like best friends. When they grew up, Alex was very shy so he only hung out with Melanie. He is very protective over her and adores her. He loves his family and is very thankful. If it wasn't for his mom and dad, Emily and Colin Pavel, he would've died of hunger and would've been freezing in the woods. Luckily he is as alive as he possibly could be 'till this day. Alexander put his outfit for school on his bed and hopped into the shower. Twenty minutes later, he got out and put his clothes on, did his hair, brushed his teeth and washed his face. He checked his bag before he headed to the kitchen to eat some yogurt with fruits, that his sister made.

"Mel this is delicious. Thanks."
"You're welcome. Oh by the way when are you done with school today?"
"At 3 'o clock. Why?"
"I was just wondering if we could hang out after school. Do something fun for your birthday, you know since mom and dad are going to be be busy with work today. Maybe we could go to the arcade?"
"Sure why not. I don't have to work this afternoon, besides we haven't been there in a while."
"Great! Well I'm already done eating so I'm going to see if dad is already awake and get my school bag."

The young girl walked up the stairs and her brother was now sitting by himself.
When he was done, he put the bowl and spoon in the sink. Alex decided to wash the dishes and afterwards he just sat down in the living room.
He went to his notes and continued writing one of his many unfinished stories.
Soon after his sister came back and told him that their dad was still sleeping.

"Okay well we should probably let him sleep and write a note so he knows we're at school.", Alexander said.
And so they did before they hopped into his car and drove to school. Melanie, who was sitting in the passenger-seat, turned the radio on and the two of them jammed out to the songs. When they got near the crossing, Alex immediately stopped the car. "Alex! Why did you stop?", his sister yelled in shock. "If I didn't then I would've driven over a child!", he yelled back. "Oh God. How did you even see him that fast? I didn't even see him until you stopped the car!" "I don't know. I guess I just saw him in the corner of my eye. Let's just go to school. He already crossed the street." "Okay, fine."

The two were still shocked but they continued their way to school and when he parked his car, they walked into the school and separated to go to their lockers. "I'll see you during lunch. Bye M." "See ya."Melanie responded. And with that he was left alone. "Okay what is my first class again?", he asked himself. "English and then PE. Alright let's get going." Alex put his headphones back on and walked to his class as he was listening to his music. Melanie, his younger sister, is really his only friend. Alex is honestly pretty shy so he was never good at making friends. His sister on the other hand is good at socializing but she only considers Alex, her best friend even though she has other friends. She is always there for him and defends him when he gets bullied. Alex is kind of the quiet mystery kid, that not many people know anything about. 

When Alex walked into  the classroom, he greeted his teacher and sat down in his seat. The class started to fill up and as Alex was looking out of the window, one of his classmates threw a paper ball at him. Without even looking, Alex catches it. He slowly turned his head around, to look at what he had just caught. "How did you do that?", the guy who threw it asked. "Uhm I have no idea. Reflexes I guess.", Alex responded. "Weird. Second time today.", he thought to himself. Alex never had this good of reflexes. I mean yes he was fast to notice things, but catching a paper ball without even seeing it, not even through the reflection of the window, yeah that had never happened. 

"Alex how about you take of your headphones and just throw the paper in the bin and we can start class. Oh and happy birthday.", the teacher told him. "Thanks.", he responded and walked to the front of the class, to the bin. "So it's your birthday today. Wait didn't your parents find you in the woods? So it isn't even your real birthday. It's the day you were saved from all the scary beasts in the woods. Wow that's so pathetic. His own parents left him in the woods just to be found by some strangers."

"Conor that's enough! To the principal's office.", the teacher told the bully. Alex walked past him and didn't even look at him. He sat back down in his seat as some of his classmates laughed at him. The teacher started their lesson and explained their assignment. When class was over, he had to go to the boys' changing room, to get into his PE clothes. When all the students walked into the gym, the coach had them all sit on the stand. "Good morning everyone. Today we'll have an outdoor lesson. You see we are going to run in the woods. We will be doing this every Monday as our training for the school's marathon. Now please follow me.", the coach explained. Alex didn't know whether to be happy or annoyed. He enjoyed running in the woods, but he didn't want to do something he enjoyed all on his own, with his classmates who always bully him, just because he was adopted. He didn't really had choice though. With that said, they all started jogging towards the woods. When they got there, the coach told them to follow him, otherwise they would get lost.

So they all started running and Alex was the fastest out of all of them. That wasn't a surprise for himself since he runs every morning, but the other's never knew that he could run so fast. He slowed down so he was running next to the coach. "Alex you're a great runner. Have you done this before?", the coach asked. "I run every morning before school. It's a good workout.", he explained. The coach nodded and they continued running. When they were halfway on the route, they took a break at a river. Everyone was either catching their breath, stretching or just simply chilling. But all of a sudden one of the girls yelled. "Guys there is a wolf! And it doesn't look very happy!", she yelled. Everyone started to freak out and backed away. "Students calm down. All the yelling won't make it any calmer."

They listened to the coach and stayed in the places. Well except for Alexander. He just calmly walked up to the animal, with his eyes glowing a faint orange. The wolf started growling and slowly walked towards him. It eventually stopped growling and Alex carefully pet the wolf. "Alex come back here.", the coach commanded. "No she's just hurt. Don't you see the wound on her leg? I have to help her."