Something in the Woods

Chapter 12

Katie was unsure as the night of the Hallow's eve ball drew closer. She had never done anything bad before, and now she expected to pull off a pizza heist with Byssa and Barrett? There was no way they wouldn't get caught, and not just them but Barrett could too, should they really risk his chance of going home for some pizza? 
But then Byssa explains the plan with so much confidence that Barrett gets all excited about pizza and Katie just can't bring it to herself to ruin the fun for them. 
The sun began to set and Katie ventured into the woods to give Barrett the signal to get ready. The giant boy was slathering mud on his face before he noticed her. 
"Oh hey." He smiled. "Shouldn't you get ready for the dance?" 
"It won't take me long to put on a dress." Katie stated. "But you seem to be almost ready." 
"Yeah, I can't wait. Where is your school anyways." 
"So remember when we almost walked near that military base? You're going to have to go by there again." She warned. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about." 
The smile on Barrett's face was gone, now it was replaced with a more serious look. 
"The last thing I want is to put you in danger. So if you see anything weird going on by the base, please don't head to the school."
"But what about you two?" The giant asked. "I won't be able to tell you guys if I can't get there." 
"What happens to us will be nothing compared to what could happen to you if you get caught!" Her voice quivered, just the thought of the military catching him made her stomach do backflips. "So please, promise me you won't come." 
Barrett nodded. "I'll make sure I'm covered head-to-toe in camouflage, and keep low when I'm passing the base to get to the woods by the school. I'll do everything I can to get there but I won't jeopardize my life for this heist, if that makes you feel better." 
Katie let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you." 
~~~
More dread built up in Katie as she walked through the doors of the cleared out cafeteria. Pop music was blasting as she watched her peers dance with each other. She couldn't help but notice that she stuck out like a sore thumb. While all the other girls her age wore these elegant ball gowns, Katie was stuck with a modest yellow dress she's had since she was ten. The floral pattern on the lace really screamed childish compared to the more mature looking dresses she saw tonight. 
"Finally you're here!" Byssa said from behind. 
Katie turned and nearly gasped when she saw her friend. The dress she wore was a beautiful strapless purple dress that was fringed and torn at the bottom of the skirt, which was definitely shorter than most evening gowns that were worn tonight. "I don't think that's in the dress code." 
"So? It's not like we're here for long." Byssa shrugged. "You're looking pretty modest though."
"I know I look stupid, but this was the only dress I owned that still fit." 
"I didn't mean it like that, but if you asked, I could have let you borrow one of mine." Byssa suggested. 
"I didn't think you would have a dress that would fit me." Katie gestured at her scrawny looking body. "But anyways, do you have the fire crackers?" 
"About that… my brother took them away from me." 
"What?!" 
"I kept coming in late to class, so he decided that was the appropriate punishment for me. So lame!" Byssa sighed. 
"How are we going to distract the teachers now?" 
"Relax Katie, I got a backup idea." Byssa began looking around the dance floor. "But first we need a couple friends for help." 
"Friends?!" Dread built up inside Katie as she realized how badly the plan was going. Barrett's life was at risk because of this, and it would all be for nothing! "I don't know if you realized this, but you're a loner and I'm a loser. We don't have any friends!" 
"Ew, what are you doing here?!" 
Katie spun around to see Sarah and Michelle marching up to her with a malicious intent in their eyes. 
"I didn't know you could even afford to come here." Michelle said. 
"Obviously she can't, just look at her dress." Sarah taunted. "Pretty sure I wore that same dress to church when I was seven." 
Katie clenched her teeth. They hadn't tormented her for about a month, which was great. Katie had nearly forgotten what it felt like to be constantly harassed for how she looked or her inability to understand math. Nevertheless, their words still hurt, and what made it worse was that they were right. Katie looked ridiculous compared to Sarah's sparkly pink ball gown and Michelle's skin tight blue dress. She knew she shouldn't have come here. "Don't worry, I was just going to leave." 
Katie turned to leave but then Byssa grabbed her hand. "Actually, you two are just the girls I was looking for." 
"They are?" 
Byssa smiled and looked over at the two girls. "Yeah, you two are going to help us get all the pizza."
Michelle stepped forward and stared down at the goth girl. "And why would we do that." 
"Because it would go down in middle school history if we could pull off this heist!" Byssa exclaimed. "Don't you wanna be a part of that?" 
Sarah and Michelle stared at Byssa with sour looks on their faces. 
"Forget it!" Sarah said. "There's no way we're gonna help you two ruin the dance!"
This was getting them nowhere. Why Byssa thought she could convince the two most vile girls in seventh grade was beyond her. The only way they could ever be convinced is through… fear. 
"You know, he's very hungry right!" Katie blurted out. 
"W...what?" Michelle said, color draining from her face.
"You don't remember? Barrett, the giant in the woods. He said he was very hungry and demanded pizza to eat. I tried telling him that we probably can't get pizza but he said if we couldn't get pizza then he'll have to eat some of the students." Katie smirked, seeing the terrified looks on their faces. "I have a list of classmates that have tormented me and you two are at the top!" 
"You're lying!" Sarah snarled. 
"If you don't believe me, you can walk out in the woods. I guarantee you he's out there right now." 
Michelle and Sarah kept looking at each other, then back at Katie, who stood in front of them with the most serious look on her face. 
"Let's just do it!" Sarah whispered. "I don't wanna die." 
Michelle sighed. "What do you want us to do?" 
Katie looked over at Byssa, who just stood there wide eyed. When she glanced at Katie she snapped outta her trance.
"So first you need to get Ricky Finster and Shawn Malcom to start a fight in the middle of the dancefloor." 
"How do you expect us to do that?" Sarah asked. 
"I don't know, say Shawn was dancing with his girlfriend!" Byssa snapped. "It shouldn't be hard to get them to fight. But after they start duking it out, you need to take two other guys and head to the bathrooms down the science wings." 
"What's that gonna do?" 
Byssa smiled. "You'll find out soon enough. And whatever happens, do not rat us out! Remember, it's to keep the giant from going hungry." 
Michelle and Sarah didn't argue, they just nervously nodded and took off. Once they were gone, Byssa glanced back at Katie. 
"You weren't serious about getting Barrett to eat them?" 
"What? No! Of course not! Barrett would never do that." She reassured. "Besides, he's scared of blood."
Byssa crossed her arms and shot her a skeptical look. "Really?" 
"Yes, really! I just said that to scare them into doing what we wanted." 
"But what if that threat didn't work?" 
"Well, then… I guess we'd have to get Barrett to scare them once they left the school." Katie shrugged. 
"Well, the only way they would have gotten scared was if Barrett tried to eat them." Byssa pointed out. 
"Well, I don't know why you're dwelling on it now!" Katie snapped. "The threat worked." 
The young girl sighed. "I just think you should be careful with those types of threats, but I guess it's whatever." 
Katie wasn't sure why Byssa was giving her such a hard time over this. The threat worked, plus Sarah and Michelle got put in their place, it's a win-win! But before she could counter her argument, shouted erupted from the dancefloor. 
"WHY ARE YOU HANGING OUT WITH AMY?!" Shawn screamed. 
Katie looked over to see what was happening but a bunch of kids started to crowd around the commotion, the crowd quickly began chanting for them to fight! Several teachers rushed to the scene and attempted to push passed the kids. 
"Come on, Sarah and Michelle just left the dance." Byssa tugged on Katie's arm and led her down to the kitchen area. She saw Mrs. Biggs setting all the pizza boxes on a foldable table. 
"What is going on out there?!" 
"Shawn Malcolm and Ricky Finster are in a fight." Byssa stated. "All of the other teachers are trying to break it up." 
Mrs. Biggs rolled her blue eyes. "Of course they all had to run over there instead of trying to help me out!" 
"Yeah, they wouldn't even listen to us when we said Sarah and Michelle walked off with two boys." 
The teacher narrowed her eyes. "Walked off where?"  
"To the science wing bathroom." Byssa said. "I heard Sarah mentioning that they wanted to do something with the boys. I can't quite remember what she said..." 
Mrs. Biggs' eyes nearly popped outta her head when she heard that word. "Oh no!"
"Wait, what are they doing?" Katie asked. 
The teacher's face grew red. "Ask your health teacher on Monday, but I'll be right back, I got to get to the science wing!" She hastily ushered the girls out of the kitchen and then ran across the dancefloor to get to the hallways. 
"She forgot to close and lock the doors." Byssa snickered as she calmly strolled back into the kitchen. 
Katie took one last look at the dancefloor and admired the chaos they had created. The heist wasn't over yet and there was still a chance to fail, but as long as she could leave this world knowing that she ruined the Hallow's eve ball for all the students and teachers that had left her behind, she wouldn't care if she got caught right now. 
Byssa was piling the pizza boxes in two towers. "Okay, you grab that stack and I'll take this one." 
"You can't expect us to carry all that without dropping it!" 
"We just have to make it out to the woods and Barrett can do that rest of the heavy lifting." Byssa ran to the back door and opened it. "Now hurry before someone comes back!" 
Katie grabbed the tower of pizza and hastily shuffled out the door. A cool breeze greeted her as she headed towards the forest. But walking across an open field to get to the safepoint was easier said than done. Katie really hoped Barrett was able to safely get by the military base cause there's no way they'll be able to get to the woods in time before teachers go looking for the missing dinner. 
"Pick up the pace!" Byssa ordered from behind. 
"I'm trying!" Katie whined. "It's not easy balancing dozens of pizza boxes in your hand!" 
"Well, Barrett needs to hurry up! We're so close!" 
They made it halfway down the field before Katie's legs collapsed. Her lungs felt like she was about to explode. 
"Come on, get up! They'll be investigating any minute now!"
Katie shook her head, even if she could get up, there was no way she could carry those boxes any further. "Leave me behind."
"No way!" Byssa snapped. "You'll get in trouble!" 
"So will you if you stay!" 
"I'm not leaving you behind!" The girl set the pizza boxes down and sat next to Katie. "If you get in trouble then so do I!" 
A sigh escaped her lips, there was no convincing her. "I wanted to do this for you two." 
"And I wanted to do this with you, but if you're too exhausted to move and Barrett isn't showing up then I guess we'll get caught together." 
"I'm sorry I ruined the heist, I know how much you wanted this to succeed." 
Byssa smiled. "You know what, I think it was a success"
Katie raised an eyebrow. "You're crazy." 
"Think about it, when we're old at forty and we go to a class of twenty sixteen reunion, we'll always be known as the girls who ruined Hallow's eve ball in middle school! Won't that be great?!" 
Katie couldn't help but smile. "I guess that would be pretty cool… if I was staying here." 
"What do you mean?"
"Well…" All this time, Katie never told Byssa that she would be leaving. She never really knew how to go about telling a friend she was moving to another dimension. She wasn't sure how her old friends were able to easily cut her off, because to Katie, that seemed like the most difficult thing to do to someone. 
Vibrations from the Earth interrupted Katie's thoughts. She immediately locked eyes with Byssa, who mirrored the look of shock and joy.
"Come on!" Byssa jumped up and pulled Katie up. "We can still win this!" 
A surge of energy pumped through the scrawny girl, despite the wave of pain that ached in her arms as she lifted up the pizza boxes. She couldn't give up now, she wanted to give Barrett the pizza he never had, and Byssa the Halloween she never had - she wanted to give her friends anything that could make them happy! Both girls ran as fast as they could towards the woods. They almost made it when they heard the backdoor from the school open up.
"Hey you two!" A teacher called out in the distance. 
"Don't look back!" Byssa snapped. "Just keep running!"
She didn't have to tell Katie twice. She she kept her eyes on the woods, trying to make out where Barrett exactly was! Then she fixated on one part. Leaves fluttered to the ground as the trees seemed to shift around. 
"This way!" Katie made a Beeline in that direction and Byssa followed behind. They entered the woods, their shoes stomping on the dead leaves. 
"Well, where is he?" Byssa asked. 
"Right here." His voice boomed aboved. 
The girls craned their necks up and saw Barrett staring down at them, they could hardly see his face due to the fact that there was mud caked on his cheeks and the ghillie suit draped over him. 
"You came!" Katie cheered. 
"Told you I'd make it." Barrett smiled as he quickly scooped up the girls along with the pizza boxes. Once everyone was securely in his palm, Barrett stealthily merged back in the shadows, and watched as two teachers bickered at the entrance. 
"Did you see who they were?" 
"No, but they can't be far!" 
All three held their breaths as they watched the teachers venture into the woods. Once their voices could no longer be heard, Barrett tiptoed down his pathway to get back towards the lake. 
~~~~~
"I can't believe we did it!" Byssa cheered as soon as Barrett lowered the girls to the ground. She didn't even care that her favorite dress was covered in dirt from the ride to the lake. Her heart was racing a hundred miles a minute from the adrenaline rush! In a burst of joy, she nearly tackled Katie in an attempt to hug her. "You just gave me the best first Halloween ever!" 
Katie giggled. "I'm glad I could help you celebrate it." 
Byssa turned to Barrett who was washing the dirt off his hands in the lake. "And you came at the right time!" 
"I would have come sooner but something was going on by that military base. There were a lot of soldiers coming in with tanks and trucks"
"You didn't get caught, right?" Katie's voice wavered. 
"No of course not!" Barrett reassured. "But it took forever for them to load whatever they were in their base." 
Katie started to pace anxiously. "Why do you think they're loading a bunch of tanks around?" 
"Oh I'm sure it's nothing," Byssa stated. "Military bases load a lot of useless crap around." 
"Yeah but if they have tanks, then it's not safe for Barrett to hang around here." 
Byssa rolled her eyes. "Look, my brother works down in Fort Clemmons. If it makes you feel better, I'll ask him what's up and you won't have to worry about it anymore."
Katie seemed weary from her answer but sighed. "I guess, if you can find out more information." 
"Great, cause we can't worry right now, we're about to have a party!" Byssa smiled and pulled out her phone to play some music. "Should I play some Successful Failures or Tripknot?" 
Katie shrugged. "I don't know, I've never listened to either of them." 
"Well, that's gonna change tonight." Byssa scrolled through her playlist and put on her favorite song by Successful Failures. Then quickly took her friend's hand to dance with her.
The night began to wind down, Barrett happily munched down on the last of the itty-bitty slices of pizza. There may not have been enough to keep him fed for two more months but he was satisfied nonetheless. 
"Wow, this was amazing, guys. Thanks for sharing pizza with me." 
"I'm just glad you could finally know the joys of eating pizza!" Byssa smiled and then turned to Katie. "I seriously can not thank you enough for giving me the best Halloween ever!" 
"You don't need to thank me, you're the one that came up with the idea."
"Yeah, but I couldn't have done this without you two!" Byssa said. "The only problem is that every Halloween after this is going to suck by comparison. How are we ever going to top this?!" 
The smile on Katie's face disappeared. She noticed her looking up to Barrett as if they were using telepathy to talk. Finally Barrett softly spoke up. 
"You never told her?"
"I wasn't sure how to tell her."
Byssa raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?" 
"I guess I can't avoid it now." Katie sighed. She looked Byssa in the eyes, but then averted her gaze in favor of staring at the ground. "Once that portal opens, I will be leaving with Barrett to go to Jotunheim." 
Her words felt like bricks had crashed down onto Byssa's heart. Her brain racked with questions but each thought seemed to get tangled in her head before she could ask them. But one word managed to escape her lips. "Why?"
"I never really felt like I fit in this world. No one really likes me, and once Barrett's gone, I'll get bullied again. I can't go through that again." She explained. "But if I go to Jotunheim, I can always go on the adventures like in my favorite comics! Everyday will be a new adventure for me and life will finally be exciting! And best of all…" She looked back at Barrett who was smiling ear-to-ear. "I'll always have a friend with me." 
"Jotunheim is great, there's no war, everyone is friendly and my mom makes the best poultry broth. Sure, there's no pizza but I think it's worth it!" 
This had to be some sort of joke. There's no way Katie would drop everything to run into some unknown world just because Claymore is a garbage place! Byssa read her friends' expressions like a book, trying to find a small hint of humor in their faces, but she could see the sincerity in their smiles. They meant every word they said. Byssa wanted to scream and cry and call her friends dumb for coming up with this idea. It wasn't fair that Katie would come into her life, make her care and then just leave! But when she looked into the eyes of the small nerdy girl, her anger and sadness shrunk away into a small pit in her stomach. She couldn't be mad at Katie for wanting to leave, because Byssa understood what it was like to want to leave a place that offered no love. 
So Byssa swallowed any pain she still had with her and plastered a smile on her face. She congratulated her friend for making the big move but in the back of her mind, Byssa was devising a plan. She was going to spend every minute she could with Katie and show her that she was still loved in this world, and hopefully, she will want to stay with her.