Donating Time

Enoch I

When I enlisted I was barely an adult,  honestly I only was in legal terms, it was an age where I thought I knew what I wanted- this was my future. I was sworn in at the ripe age of seventeen because this was all I had ever talked about, my family had came to accept it and signed me over once I had the courage to ask.
They were supportive, they wanted me to be happy in my future, but a part of me wished they had some kind of protests. My story starts right after they signed those papers- before they signed my life away.

I met Adelaide a week afterwards, it was the beginning of senior year and all seniors had PE sixth period. I was playing Frisbee with a few friends on the courtyard and she came over and asked if she could play. We could've really cared less, but our teams were uneven and my team needed another person. Honestly she wasn't a bad player either, we ended up winning that day and she disappeared at the end of it.

"So what did you think," Jason asked me as we made our way back to the locker room. "What did I think about what- you know you're really bad at this whole asking a question without specifying a subject thing," I laughed and started walking backwards to be facing him as we spoke. "About that girl, she's without a doubt the reason we won today, and she pretty much stared you down the entire time," he gave me a look. "I didn't notice, and I mean I was focused on the game. She was a decent player- nothing spectacular in my opinion. We don't even know her name." "You're incredible, man. The only guy I know who could have a girl in a snap and not even think about it, I swear," he turned to his locker once we reached it and the conversation ended.

For whatever reason though, his words didn't settle well with me, they weighed on my mind. I was sure she wasn't staring me down today, everytime I went to pass her the Frisbee she was looking another way and I would have to get her attention somehow. I looked for her the rest of the week with no traces of her, it probably didn't help that I could barely remember what she looked like, she wasn't prom queen material, but she didn't catch me as an outcast, one who melded with the crowd. The only feature I could tell different from other average girls was her stick straight auburn hair. Friday came and I brought her up to Jason, "Hey, remember that girl who played Frisbee with us?"

"It was only a few days ago, I'm gonna say I do or else there's a problem. What about her?"

I looked around the hall, "Have you seen her since then?" He started laughing, "Why have you been looking for her? I thought she was nothing spectacular? But no, I haven't saw her." I nodded and walked out towards the courtyard.

My freshmen year in shop class we had a year long project, we each had to build something to add to the school's campus- my addition was a sort of tree house, but only six of us had a key to it. It was more like a deck with some railing around the top of this huge oak tree. Over the years we had made a good set up between myself, Jason, Percy, Henry, Will, and Carter. I built the main part of it, but we all had added on parts- Jason a wooden box for a cooler to sit in, Percy a bench around the inner part closest to the tree with storage inside, Henry a strange hammock looking thing but it was great to nap in, Will and Carter a snack shelf which they kept stocked. Rarely did we ever have anyone else up there, every once in awhile one of us would have a girlfriend we would let come up but usually all relationships were short lived with us all. Jason was looking for someone to bang for awhile, Percy was just really awful with getting himself into trouble, Henry thinks all the girls here are whores, Will likes to use gross pick up lines that never would work unless he was trying to get slapped, but both Carter and myself have never seen the point in relationships seeing as we were all already enlisted.

I leaned against the railing and looked around the school, it was always the same, we were all from small towns around our county and we knew most everybody besides a choice few. It must've been a crazy chance but I caught a glimpse of stick straight auburn hair walking into long hall (our school has one hall that you can only get to from outside and it doesn't connect to any other hall in the school, I couldn't lose her there). I pushed myself from the rail and made my way down the tree, not even bothering to lock up again. I ran down to the doors and looked for her in the desolate hallway, I didn't see her but I just started walking through trying to find her, there weren't any classes in long hall this period so she had to be borrowing a room for something,

"You know you aren't discreet whatsoever, right?"

I turned around and she was standing outside the health lab, "Who says I was trying to be?" "Well good, because you absolutely failed; what do you want," she cocked her head to one side. "What's your name," is all I could blurt out. She doubled over laughing, "You expect me to believe that's it? You pretty much just jumped out of a tree and sprinted down here to ask me my name? Flattering but no, what's your real question?" "Why did you want to play with us?"

"You were down a player, I figured I could help,"

"I don't believe that, I've never seen you around before that day," she stared me down, not nicely either, I couldn't help but wonder if this is the look Jason was saying she had during the game. "I've never wanted to be seen, so there's your answer for that. Anything else?" I thought carefully about my next move, "Come with me."