Aliana Bailey and the Axe of Perun

Lake Seneca goes Kaboom!

I was sitting in seat 8 next to my friend named Ellie Hansen, who was at least a good friend (most of the time). She would always read and didn't really talk to me all that much on the bus, even though we are friends. But when we aren't riding the bus? She loves to call me an idiot and in general, roast me in her British accent (She's from the U.K).

Then there was this girl, Lila Lewis, who sat in the seat across from us. She was shooting us death glares and whispering to her friends. I honestly don't know why she hates us so much. Last time I asked her, it had something to do with my dad and Ellie's mom. And if you didn't catch that, I haven't seen my dad in at least 10 years.

But yeah, basically, she's made it her job to get Ellie and me in trouble at any point

One last introduction, because I know they suck. Vera Collins. She's tall, has really dark brown curls, freckles, glasses, and weirdly bright green eyes. We're sort of friends, but she's like the mom of the three of us. She basically tells us off when we're doing something dumb, which means we get yelled at a lot.

For the rest of the bus ride, I stared out the window. We passed by a lot of forests and stuff, so it was a really pretty view. I especially liked the lake.

We finally got off the bus at this nature trail thing. "Alright, Listen up, please. We are going to hike about two miles to the lake, so please use the restroom now if you have to. Get water, and do whatever you need to do." Mrs. Sandor announced, pointing out the restrooms to us.

"Also don't eat poison sumac!" Vera shouted, raising her hand.

"Way to state the obvious," Ellie muttered under her breath. Vera could apparently hear her because she sent Ellie a look.

Kids ran to the bathrooms, pushing each other out of the way so they wouldn't have to wait in line. Lila was throwing sticks at Ellie, who just ignored her and just continued sitting on a large rock while reading The Hunger Games. I'm normally not the violent sort of person, but if I could, it would give me great pleasure to battle it out with Lila in The Hunger Games. Ellie and Vera could be my back-up.

Anyways, we eventually all gathered around Mrs. Sandor, and she did that weird headcount thing that teachers do before she gave us each a piece of paper. "Alright, document the different animals you see and create a food chain. I want at least two different food chains from each of you." She explained, reading off of a notecard.

We started walking into the woods.

I was jogged next to Ellie and Vera, and I was trying to start an actual conversation. "So what book where are you reading on the bus?"

"Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Why do you care?" She grumbled back, handing me a red-orange paperback book.

"Ellie," Vera warned. She was glancing around the woods and constantly looking behind
us like she was scared of something happening.

I didn't bother reading the blurb, so I just handed it back to her. I've never been the kind of person to read any type of classical novel. When we are assigned one, I usually just google each chapter summary. (Any teachers who are reading this, sorry)

"Do you think it's any good?" I asked her. The cover looked boring, and the summary looked borning, and as far as I knew, the author was boring.

Then again, I'm not much of a reader myself. I've been in intervention most of my life, and struggle to maintain a C in my literature classes.

"Yeah. It's okay I guess. The only character I liked died." She grumbled, pulling a strand of blonde hair out of her mouth. Vera was walking next to us, but she wasn't really talking much.