I Glanced up at the seemingly never-ending rope which lay in my quivering hands, why am I so scared... it's not the first time I've had to do this, so what's different this time? Tugging the rope to test its strength I continued to try to overcome the strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. I can do this; I can do this, repeating this again and again I tried to unglue my feet from the gym floor. I could feel all eyes on me, waiting. Coach McCallen sighed heavily, running his hands through his short blond hair.
"This week, Turner!" shouting my name, lately I had been getting on his last nerve and he had finally cracked. He began tapping his foot impatiently "Before I make you run laps for wasting my time!" ok... he's completely lost the small amount of marbles he had left... I've released the demon.
"You can do this." Dahlia said from somewhere behind me.
"Easy for you to say" I said turning to my pale skinned, dark haired friend.
"Are you sure you're not related to monkeys, you climbed that rope like a boss." Dahlia rolled eyes, smirking to me.
"Sam, theoretically we all are."
"A boss..?" groaning Dahlia sighed
"No you douche, monkeys." I rolled my eyes. Dahlia slapped me with all the force she could muster, which still only felt like an extremely fluffy feather.
"Ow. That hurt...my feelings"
"ahem." Hearing a cough I turned around to face him. Coach's expression said 'get the fuck up that rope' yesh that was scary. Dahlia pushed me roughly in the back, imploring me to climb the rope. Closing my eyes I blocked out the chatter of the class, imagining that I was alone. Gripping the rope tightly, pulling my body upwards before using my feet to clamp the ropes slack. Ok, ok. I can do this just keep going. Pushing off with all my strength I reached for the next section of rope. The rope pressed into my palm as my grip tightened.
"You're going to fall!" I heard Anna shout in a mocking tone. Rolling my eyes I continued to climb the rope.
"Anna, she is already doing better than you can ever hope." Dahlia snapped, glaring at the schools 'Plastic'
"Girls!" Coach McCallen's voice boomed over the chattering teens
"Be quiet or you'll be doing laps into the night-time!" Silence filled the gym as I continued up the rope, as I moved up my foot became entangled in the ropes slack. I tried wriggling my foot to untangle it but it wouldn't come loose. Looking down I noticed that it was a simple enough problem to fix. Reaching down I untangled my foot, however I lost my grip falling to the gym floor and taking Dahlia with me. Opening my eyes I looked at the faces of all the people surrounding us. Groaning Dahlia pushed me off her.
"Get off me you flightless bird" chuckling I rolled off her only to be looking straight into Anna's cake face.
"Be quiet" Coach yelled
"Go to the locker room there is nothing to see here." Reaching down he helped me to my feet, Dahlia who was already on her feet punched me lightly on the shoulder
"I'm not a cushion for you to land on"
"Huh. I thought only cushions could be that comfy"
"Sam, Dahlia" Coach said looking between us
"You need to go to the nurse for a check-up"
"Nope" Dahlia and I said simultaneously. The nurse was by far the meanest person we had ever met; last year I broke my arm during gym. I went to the sick bay and she gave me some Band-Aids telling me to 'stop being a wuss' turning I grabbed Dahlia, pulling her towards the lockers. A strong arm however stopped my advance
"Stop right there" Coach said pulling me away from the locker doors; he pulled a sheet of paper out of the pocket of his sport shorts.
"What's that?" I asked looking at the folded piece of paper that he held in his hand.
"An incident report." He said, smiling slightly at my confusion.
"Why do you have that with you?"
"Because I have you in my class, you're the most clumsy person I've ever met" Dahlia laughed, ignoring my glare.
"What" she said, shrugging. Take that back, I thought glaring at her
"It's true" Argggg, I'm not that bad.... Or am I. ok, let's see there's the time I broke my arm, the time I stabbed myself with a pencil, the time I tripped over a pencil. Ok so maybe I'm a little accident prone, so what?
"Turner, sign this I can fill in the rest." Coach pushed the paper into my hands, I signing it quickly I handed it back thanking him before pulling dahlia into the girls locker room. The lockers were still full of girls, some were showering, and others were drying themselves before getting changed.
"Oh look, here come tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum" Anna exclaimed, over the voices of her talking class mates, Again with the nicknames will this girl ever give up? Wow that towel of hers is so skimpy it hardly even covers her ass.
"Sam, did you know that if you were a day of the week you'd be Monday because nobody likes you" Anna smiled looking very proud of herself.
"Does your ass ever get jealous of the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth?" Dahlia retorted. Anna glared at Dahlia trying to find a retort and failing. A few giggles escaped the girls standing nearby. Anna stormed out of the gym, slamming the door behind her. Ginning Dahlia walked towards the showers with me in tow.
* * * * * *
Leaning against the large oak tree, I waited. The school gates in view, someone exited walking in a beeline towards me. I sat waiting for Dahlia who was talking to Ms. Trevor, our art teacher; she needed to hand in her newest art project so she could be graded for it. More likely than not she would end up with a new project for this month. The figure continued to approach, picking up speed. It was Dani, a long-time friend and great moral support. She always seemed to be there when you needed her most.
"Hey Dan-Dan. Whatsup?" I yelled over the oval. Waving enthusiastically before accidently whacking myself in the face.
"Nothing much, just kicked some ass." She yelled back
"Whose ass?"
"Dean's"
"Dean Camerons or Dean Stellnar?"
"Dean Stellnar, Duh" Sighing I rolled my eyes. He probably tried touching her ass again, he had it coming... it still impresses me that she can beat up the captain of the football team, most guys should be scared but it seems to just make them try harder. Dani slumped next to me against the large tree, pulling out my headphones I offered her one pressing play on my phone. My Chemical Romance, Na Na Na, blared into our ears as we sang along in our worse singing voices.
"My Ears they're bleedinggggg!" Dahlia exclaimed yelling over our out of tune voices. Smiling I continued to scream the lyrics along with Dani, I feel a little evil but completely satisfied with my effect on Dahlia. Groaning Dahlia looked at me.
"Stop. That smile is creeeeeepy!" She shuddered taking out her phone and taking a photo of me, she burst out laughing after about ten minutes of looking at her phone.
"what is it?" I whined, pouting slightly.
"It took me ten whole minutes to figure out who you looked like. I've just realized who it is."
"Who" Dani asked, reaching for the phone. Dahlia passed it to her glancing at it she burst out laughing.
"Give me the phone" I said groaning. Who could it possibly be?? Dani passed the phone to me whipping tears from her eyes, looking down at the screen there was a split screen photo one side was a creepy photo of me, the other was of Dylan O'Brien as stiles smiling at a guy trying to make him vomit. I can see the resemblance; it's a little creepy actually. I couldn't hold it in any more, it poured out of me, an unstoppable flood of laughter. The smiles were identical, thin and menacing full of evil deeds and mischief that lurked just around the next bend. Dahlia reached forward taking her phone before standing and stretching.
"I've got to go; Ms. Trevor has me doing another project. This time she wants 'the beauty of solitude' which means finding a beautiful place untouched by the manmade world." Shrugging she sighed looking up at the clear blue sky.
"Do you guys have any ideas?" she asked looking from me to Dani.
"No sorry, I more the skate park type" replied Dani
"How about you Sam." Dani said looking at me
"You've always been the outdoorsy type" I closed my eyes thinking hard. Only one place came to mind, the woods outside of the town limits. If you walk far enough in to the overgrown tangle of trees you would come across a collection of luscious green hills covered in flowers of any and all colours imaginable. Some time ago it was the teenagers 'hangout' spot that was until the animal attacks began, three people were injured and one died his body was never found.
"The only place I can think of is the red woods" Dahlia seemed thoughtful, the red wood was not its real name it gained the nickname after the attacks.
"I guess that'll have to do" said Dahlia looking uneasy. I wonder what going through her mind... she never looks this uneasy. Dahlia said her goodbyes walking towards her beetle, unlocking the door she stepped inside, igniting the engine. The rusting, sky blue car splattered and coughed as it drove past the school and out of sight. Dani looked over at me.
"You've just bought yourself a one way ticket to Creepyville, have fun!" sighing I looked into her tired face.
"Come on Dan-Dan lets go now" Dani nodded holding back a yawn. It's nice having a friend that lives so close to me I thought looking over at Dani. She was the best friend I could ever ask for she was there when my family moved away leaving me alone with nobody, I can't believe that we used to hate each other and even though we hated each other it did stop her from putting that aside which allowed our unlikely friendship to bloom. As I entered my empty home I once again felt all alone, even with Dani just across the street. A knock sounded at the door looking through the peep hole I saw Dani arms overflowing with candy, popcorn and movies. Over her arm was her blanket and under the other was her fall out boy pillow. A movie marathon ensued which consisted of The Breakfast-Club, 8-mile and Cabin in the Woods.
* * * * * *
Groaning I slammed the button on my alarm clock shutting it up, Dani rolled onto the floor, practically crawling to the bathroom. Standing up I walked to the kitchen. The cereal boxes were practically empty with only the powder left over. I guess its toast again this morning, vegemite sounds good. Putting a lot of butter onto the fresh toast, and then adding a small amount of vegemite I mixed the two together spreading it over my toast. Dani walked into the kitchen still half asleep, she grabbed an apple munching on it in a daze. My phone beeped; looking down at it I noticed a text from Dahlia.
Dahlia:See you on Saturday at 5, for the exposition to the red woods
Me:Since when were we going out on Saturday? 5pm will be too late how about earlier? I texted back
Dahlia:Yeah that would be too late that's why we're going out at 5am.
Groaning I shut the phone. Of course she meant am, this is dahlia we're talking about.
"Let me guess" Dani said interrupting my thought process
"she's got you getting up really early again?" I nodded. Mornings were never my ball in the park.