The Weirdos

32

Jasper...
He could see glowing eyes like hot coals, red and burning.

Jasper's eyes snapped open. Freak was staring down at him. Jasper jumped and let out a yelp of,
"Shit!"
Freak giggled and headed for the door.
"Breakfast is ready. They sent me up to get you."
Jasper frowned and slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. Those eyes... Who did they belong to? He'd never seen them before in his life. It was just a dream... It was just a dream. He got washed up and headed down to breakfast. As soon as he sat down with his plate of eggs, bacon, toast and grits, Narcolepse stood and left with a murmured,
"Fucking disgusting..."
Jasper didn't know whether he were talking about the food or Jasper himself. He hoped it wasn't the food. But he didn't want it to be about himself, either...

The breakfast turned out to be just fine and the group soon gathered in the training room for Skins to begin her lessons. She did a lot of talking and a bit of demonstrations, then had the group stretch and prepare for a run. She handed out hiking shoes for their individual shoe sizes, then backpacks with water bottles.
"We're going into the forest, boys. Don't lose your backpacks."
Jasper put on his shoes and grabbed his backpack, then started to get in line with the rest of them. Before he got far, his shoulder was shoved back and Narcolepse glared at him.
"Don't slow us down."
Then he went up to the front of the line.
"Tch. You're all legs... Hard to slow that down."
Jasper mumbled to himself and took a spot in the back. The group filed out of the house and out into the forest. Jasper learned the meaning of Narcolepse's words minutes after.
"Everyone, stick together. You will not survive this challenge without each other. Every one of you is important and you only have each other out there. So if one of you goes down, you all go down."
Jasper gulped. This wasn't going to end well, was it?
"In order to win the challenge today, you will need to get to the X on the map located in one of your backpacks and create some sort of signal for me to know you've reached your mark. Everything you need to defeat the obstacles along the way can be found around the trails and in your backpacks."
Jasper looked down at the backpack in his hand, then pulled it on over his arms.
"You have until sundown. Ready?"
The others responded simultaneously with,
"Ready!"
Jasper's brows drew together and he mumbled,
"Ready..."
"Alright, get going!"
Skins said to the group and they all started moving, running deeper into the forest. Jasper followed along behind the group, surprised at how fast they all were. Especially Freak. Where was Roderick? Had he joined this challenge, too? Jasper scanned the area and found that the albino was there. Books had his hand and Roderick followed along easily. Jasper's foot suddenly caught on something and then he was going down.