The silence was unnerving, between Neo's sharp intakes of breath and James' pacing, there was no calm left in the environment.
They refused to speak to each other, one too ashamed to face the young boy while the other was too angry and consumed by sadness to even formulate a proper sentence.
"Neo-"
"-don't" His voice came out broken, although he showed no external signs of wanting to cry.
The Wood siblings teased each other beyond belief, they annoyed the other to the point where they would explode. Constantly at each other's throats. But nevertheless they loved each other endlessly. Like almost every sibling does.
They were allowed to tease and bully each other, but when someone else came and did it without their permission there was hell to pay.
But that time, Neo had no way of punishing the person who hurt his sister.
"Can you tell my parents I needed some time alone?" Neo replied to James with a stiff nod, his sorrowful brown eyes glued onto the soles of his shoes.
James didn't waste another second and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the last spot he had seen her.
When you're stuck, start your search again from the last spot where you last saw the thing you had lost. Or in his case person.
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As expected the pitch was void of any form of life. Old banners that had gotten trampled by frightened students still laid there, their once proud green and red colouring now mostly muddy.
The wind appeared to laugh at James' loneliness, ringing past his ears every time he saw the ghost of Zoe in some area of the bleachers.
Her smile was engraved into his brain, and in moments like those he had mixed feelings about wether he wanted to remember her smile forever, or forget it so the guilt wouldn't eat him alive.
"Hey" Gavin sat next to James, the same wind that hollered at him before only seemed to tickle the raven-haired boy.
"Hey" Silence fell on them, just staring off into the distant weirdly blue sky.
Suddenly it wasn't only Gavin there, Ty showed up and sat behind them, Theo hiding on his right. Melody and Leslie were the last to show their faces, sitting at the bench below James's feet.
They all held the same sorrow filled eyes, but there was some glint behind the sadness as well. Determination.
"We're tired of moping around and hoping someone else will solve this for us" Leslie always spoke with a sense of authority, but it was even more noticeable in her words in the moment.
"Zoe's our friend, and as much as I would love to not face your psycho brother, sleepovers wouldn't be nearly as fun if I can only flirt with Les" Melody always added humour when she could, she was a breath of fresh air in a sea of seriousness.
"She'd want us to look for her. I mean maybe not, but I like to think she would" Theo, ever the kindest member of the group, their glue of the two drastically different friend groups.
"We know more about the subject than any professor or official. It should be us out there" Ty, a boy of few words but filled with wisdom. Whenever he spoke, he said facts and you should listen.
"We'll find her, James. In the exact same way we lost her...with our stupid ideas" James suspected something way cheesier was supposed to fit in that sentence, but Gavin wasn't one for sentimentalisms most of the time.
Looking around his friend group, James found himself absorbing their determination, his sadness being highly overpowered.
He was going to find Zoe no matter what. And sure, she would probably punch him senseless once they found her again. But he'd rather have that than her being tortured by his evil brother.
Tears welled in his eyes at the overwhelming amount of support and determination he was receiving. It was something he had only heard of from his father in his magical adventures, he thought he'd never get to experience, but was happy he actually got to, because he wouldn't change it for the world.
"Where do we start?"
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a/n: enjoy the only cheesiness ur getting from me. The rest is tragedy 😌
Here have another fun question: let's say u get stuck in an island, what ONE item would you take with u? (If u say a yacht or sm it would have no gas or furniture or food like just the plain yacht, u get the point)
Anyways vote and comment for our baby Neo who needs the support