Above: Zendaya Coleman (my queen) as Jade Stewart. This was a no brainer, because I've always wanted to include her in my stories. She is so amazing. So, if I use her more than once in my future stories, don't get mad. I just love her so much, she's such a great actress.
Moving on...chapter 18!
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Lia James
The metal gate opened with a short click, before it moved to the side. As the boys all began to enter, I got the chills. The atmosphere is so eerie at the moment, it's like one second a wolf could catch us and eat us for lunch.
But I'll definitely save that idea for my Teen Wolf marathon I plan to have in my bed on Saturday.
I was the last one to enter the maze, and I quietly followed behind. I made sure I had a short following distance, so that I wouldn't get lost. These guys knew this place by heart, they knew all the shortcuts and secret hidden spots.
"Ow! Okay, there's a sunflower right here. Don't hurt yourself...like I did." Eli advised, and I took initiative to make sure of it.
"So, is this place still used? Do people come here?" I asked the group, who's eyes were towards the narrow walkway.
"During the summer, yeah. But we make it ours all the other seasons." Andrew spoke softly, and I heard the occasional raspiness of his voice come out.
It soon fell silent after that. All that could be heard was the sound of the night sky, and the crickets chirping in the ground. It was still eerie, but at least it was peaceful.
After minutes of walking around mindlessly, we reached a patch of dirt, probably about the size of a small bedroom. It was big enough to fit all five of us, and even gave us plenty of room for us to sit down next to each other.
The bright yellow sunflowers stood so tall, I could barely see about a few feet ahead of me. It was like at any moment, they could swallow me whole, and drag me into darkness.
"Is this the part where we sit down in a circle and tell each other ghost stories while shining flashlights on our faces?" Nick put his hands on his hips in triumph, but we all knew he was being sarcastic.
"Asshole." Andrew muttered under his breath. Nick smacked the back of his shoulder.
Everyone began to sit down, one by one, they sat cross-legged on the dirt, not having a care in the world if it got on their pants.
"Sit down." Eli patted the spot next to him.
"On the dirt? I'm wearing my softball outfit, I can't afford to get this dirty." I gestured to the gray fabric that wrapped around my thighs and ankles.
"Don't you get those dirty anyway in games?" Julian asked, and I heard a faint snort from Andrew. He was so pathetic.
"I like to preserve them before the first game. Plus, these are new, I just got them a few days ago at the store." I whined, and I saw Julian get up from the spot in the dirt.
"Good thing I brought supplies." Julian nodded his head, and began to dig into his Nike backpack.
When he retrieved what looked like a soft blanket, he laid it out in front of us, and gestured for us all to sit down on it.
"Come on, Lia! You have to make the gentleman use his blanket?" Nick smiled at me, and I shook my head.
"I'm not amused." I said back, and his laughter faded.
"So, tell me." I turned my focus to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. "What's the purpose of bringing me here?"
"Well, we heard you were having some trouble with Butler..."
"Don't think that you can somehow try and help me, you know completely that this is making it worse." I told Eli, and his expression turned cold.
"Geez, woman! What's with the harsh tone?" Nick put his hands up to pretend to calm me down.
"You know, you are nothing like your brother." I said to Nick, and he creepily winked at me.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Andrew asked as if it took a blow to his ego.
"It means that Nick is more upbeat, and a total goof while you're sort of broody and angry all the time."
"Why thank you."
"I'm not broody!" Andrew exclaimed defensively.
"You kind of are." Eli leaned toward him.
"You're a dick." Andrew punched Eli in the arm.
"Language!" Julian yelled at Andrew, while Eli was wincing in pain from the sucker punch he just received a few seconds ago.
"Chill out Droolian. I'm only 15." Nick defended, and Julian glared at him for the nickname.
"Yeah. Only." Andrew rolled his eyes sarcastically.
To be completely honest, I totally see where Andrew's coming from. I'm always looking after Noah or Layla, and making sure they are being responsible and are always nice to each other and other people. I also remember Henry doing the same to me. We have these sibling instincts to always protect our younger brothers or sisters, regardless of their petty attitude towards us.
"So Eli, do you have any brothers or sisters?" I ask him.
"No. I'm an only child. But I do have a cousin who lives with me in my house."
"What's their name?" I asked, curiously.
"Her name is Camilla. She's had a rough life so we took her in before we moved to the U.S." He explained, and my mouth dropped open.
"You're not from here?"
"No. I'm from Spain. I was born and raised there until I was 3, until we finally got our legal documents and flew from Spain to Mexico, and then to California."
"You lived in Mexico?"
"It was more like a vacation for a week. We were all tired from the plane, so we vacationed there. Plus, our flight wasn't until the week after anyway." He explained, and we all nodded our heads, concentrating on our conversation.
"So, how did you and Andrew meet?"
"We went to a prep school, that offered years K-12. But unfortunately, due to tough circumstances, we relocated to a public school." Andrew's face turned pale after explaining why they left. I wasn't going to ask, because some feeling inside me told me that I was going to find out sometime soon.
"So, Andrew?" I turned to face him, quickly changing the dark topic. "Where are you parents from?"
"They're originally pirates who set sail to find Davy Jones Locker." Nick cut him off, and Julian punched his arm.
"Watch the bicep, dude." Nick moaned, and eventually shut his mouth.
"My Mom is from England, and my Dad is from France. All my relatives live there and we are the only Price family in the states." Andrew explained, and I was quite intrigued. All these boys had some sort of cool ethnic origin, and my Mom was from Italy and my Dad was from Ireland. My great great grandparents moved to the US.
"You guys all have cool stories about how you came here, and I was just born here." I pouted.
"It's not that bad being born here. My whole family was born here except for my grandparents. They raised my Mom and Dad and went back to their countries after they left for college." Andrew told us, and Nick nodded in agreement.
"I'm a U.S. baby too."
"Guys we should all make a group chat called 'cool ethnic origins'." Julian blurred out, and we all have him a weird look.
"What? We should!" He defended.
"He's not wrong about the group chat part. Let's do it." Eli agreed, and gestured for us to hand over our phones.
"Wait," Eli paused. "What should we call it, other than Julian's idea?"
"Hey! Mine was pretty snazzy." He stated, causing Nick and Andrew to snort out loud.
"Lets name it 'Barbecue Sauce On My Titties'" Nick shouted, and Andrew punched him in the arm.
"How about we name it 'Cowgirl Style'" Andrew suggested, and nodded his head boldly.
"I think not." I pointed at him, narrowing my eyes.
"Done." Eli said, distributing our phones back.
"What did you name it?" Julian asked, looking at his phone up close to his face.
"Sunflower Squad?" Andrew raised an eyebrow at Eli, who was putting his hands up in surrender.
"What? All your suggestions were shit." He said bluntly, and I nodded in agreement.
"He's not wrong."
"Fuck, I have to take a piss." Andrew blurted out, taking off into one of the trails.
"Is he usually like that?" I asked the remaining boys in front of me.
"Like what?" One of them asked back.
"Like...anti-social?"
"No. Not usually." Nick began. "He really gets all up in his head. He thinks too much about certain things. Sometimes when I talk to him, he just ignores me because he's just way too deep in thought."
"I would be too, though. He's had a hard life." Eli agreed.
"He's been through hell and back." Julian also agreed.
"I'm lost." I moved my eyes from the two boys to my left, and Eli on my right.
"I'm not obligated to say." Eli spoke softly, clearing his throat.
"Don't talk about it-" I looked towards Nick. "It's even hard for me to talk about. I was with him before it happened. It's too sad for me."
"It's sad for everyone, Nick! Think about how Andrew feels." Julian hissed, and my blood turned an icy cool temperature.
"I know how he feels! I. Was. There!" Nick yelled, and Julian's expression turned into a growl.
"Stop talking about it you two. You're just both idiots." Eli rolled his eyes at them. I just sat there, in between their dispute. Just listening to the whole thing, no emotion running through my head.
I honestly didn't know what to think. I'm sure they've been through some things while I wasn't here. Things I shouldn't even know about. So, I don't bother to ask. I just mind my own business, and put away the lingering question circling around in my brain.
"Okay..." I mumbled quietly to myself.
I was just about to change the subject when we all heard the faint rustling in the maze. We all jumped to our feet, making circles around the premises that were we just in.
"Guys, it's probably Andrew." Eli shook his head, taking a deep breath.
"No it's not." Nick said, his eyes growing wide. "Andrew went that way." He pointed to the complete opposite direction the rustling was coming from.
"And that's the only entrance to the maze." Eli said quietly, and we all froze. We couldn't think of anything to do.
"Maybe we should go." I told Eli, patting his shoulder in nervousness.
We saw a faint flashlight in the distance, followed by more rustling. We all thought of the absolute worst.
"We're busted. Come on!" Eli started to run in toward a narrow pathway that led to multiple turns. All but 2 were dead ends.
"Split up." Eli said harshly.
"What?" We all said, our voices raising an octave.
"Split. Up." He hurried. "Julian and Lia got that way. Nick and I will go this way."
We all complied with Eli's instructions. We split up and went opposite directions hoping of finding someway to get out without getting caught. Whoever it was, better not refer us to the police or something.
"Julian, I think we should go this way." I pointed when we reached yet another four way section.
"Julian?" I whispered again, and turned my head.
He wasn't there.
I huffed quietly to myself, and turned back around. I don't need some dumb scaredy cat who doesn't want to follow a girl.
I made the decision myself and turned right, walking down the narrow pathway and pushing sunflowers to the side that were in the way.
I was absolutely infuriated. What happened to splitting up? Julian is such a baby. I'll have to tell him that.
After a short amount of time, I reached a large spot, much similar to the one we were all at before.
Wait...
It was the spot.
No. No. No. No. No. No. Not today.
Before I was able to turn around and get the heck out of there, a large pair of masculine hands wrapped around my waist, hoisting me up into the air.
My first instinct was to scream, because I was unaware of the figure standing behind me. If it was a criminal, or worse, the police.
I struggled attempting to be released from his grasp.
"Let go of me!" I yelled.
I was then dropped harshly, only to land straight down on my ass in the dirt. I whipped my head around when I heard soft snickering from the person who was behind me just a few seconds ago.
It was Andrew, holding himself, laughing hysterically.
I was fuming with anger.
"What the hell, Andrew?!" I screamed, shoving him and he fell back slightly.
"Gotcha." He managed to breath in between laughs.
"You're such an asshole!" I shouted, stomping my feet on the ground.
"What's going on?" I heard someone say behind us.
Andrew and I both turned our heads to see Eli, Julian, and Nick walking out of one of the pathways.
"That was you?" Nick pointed a finger at the culprit.
"The rustling and the flashlight? Yep, that was me. It was all part of my demise." He said triumphantly.
"You're a dick." Eli said, and I noticed Julian hiding behind him with a look of fright.
"I'm a funny dick." He corrected Eli, and Eli just rolled his eyes.
"You little fucker." Nick shoved Andrew, while Andrew pulled him into a headlock.
"Wanna try saying that to my face?" Andrew mocked, while Nick tried to break free.
"I did." Nick yelled.
I was getting annoyed, beginning with Andrew trying to scare the life out of us, and now two siblings fighting.
I shook my head, not caring the slightest, and rose my head from its position, which was parallel to the ground. I looked up, with my arms crossed, and noticed a familiar flashlight in the distance, one that Andrew had used to scare us.
"Ugh, guys." I said quietly, but they didn't listen.
"Guys." I whispered harshly, once again and they finally stopped.
"What?" They both said.
"Andrew, where's your flashlight?" I asked him, trying to clam myself down a little.
"On the ground, why?"
I pointed to the flashlight in the distance, and I heard both Eli and Andrew curse under their breath. It started off as one light, but then they multiplied and we all looked at each other in fright.
"Okay, guys, you know how we thought that Andrew was someone trying to bust us? Well, now their actually is. Run!" Eli yelled, and we all sprinted off into the maze, hoping for the quickest route to get out.
~*~
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Dun, dun, dun! Hope you all enjoyed! See you soon.
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XOXO