Sparks Fly

Chapter 7

Derek's POV

I shot out of the classroom, almost before the bell had even started ringing. I scanned the crowd as everyone came out of their classes. She wasn't among any of these crowds. My heart was pounding with worry. What if the girls had got her. What if, after the incident in the maths classroom, she had run away somewhere, so that no one could find her because she thought she was crazy. She would never leave school without me. Her house is too far to walk and she can't drive; her mom won't let her near a steering wheel. Even if Daniel had taken her home, she would have told me beforehand.

My eyes suddenly focused on a young girl, with wavy brown hair, walking into the forbidden part of the woods next to the school. I smiled sadly. I understood why she was going there. Whenever we had problems and we didn't know what to do, we would always meet up there and help each other. Fond memories of her cuddling up to me in her saddest moments came to me and the times when she was in a bad mood and kept snapping at me, I tried to push away. I dodged and weaved through the wave of students until I came to the little footpath leading into the woods. I followed the faint footsteps, making my way to our little hideout.

Eventually, I found her sitting on the floor, leaning against a tree with her head in her hands.

"Hey, what's up, Lav," I asked her sitting next to her and throwing my arm around her. She sniffed. I guess she had been crying.

"Nothing," she lied, unconvincingly. I raised an eyebrow at her, which made her smile.

"Come on. You can't lie to me. I can see right through that fake smile. If you weren't upset, you wouldn't be here. We haven't been here in years," I told her, turning her to face me. She sighed, giving in, knowing that she couldn't lie to me.

"It's just....Something happened in my Maths Exam....Well...I..Erm."

I could see she was at a loss for words. She was afraid that I would laugh at her and call her crazy.

"I won't make fun of you no matter what you say. I will be as open as I can to you," I said squeezing her shoulder, reassuringly.

"Ok. Well, you know I have a little trouble with reading some things? Well, this was so much worse. I looked at the paper and the letters kept swirling around and around, making me dizzy and giving me the worst headache ever. Eventually, it stopped and turned into a completely different word, written right across the page. It said 'Crepitus'," she told me, not daring to look me in the eye. "I know you think I'm crazy and that I'm just overreacting because of the test, but I'm telling you, this was real."

This was a lot to take in. She was seeing things on her paper that made no sense at all. It sounded like a Latin word to me. I decided to look it up when I got home. Suddenly, there was a strange smell in the woods.

"Don't worry, I believe you and we will talk about this later, but right now, I'm pretty sure I can smell smoke."

I watched as the smell hit her and panic registered on her face. I grabbed her hand and yanked her up.

"Forest Fire," she said, shakily.

"It's ok, everything will be ok," I told her calmly.

"No it won't the forest is burning down."

"I know, but if we get out of here now, nothing will happen to us."

"I know, but the forest will burn down! I don't want it to burn down," she nearly screamed at me, nearly in tears. I didn't take it personally. It was just the anxiety kicking in. I grabbed her shoulders and span her around to face me.

"I promise you, everything will be fine." I pulled her along as I tore back down the footpath. She was usually faster at running than me, but I knew that under stress, she slows down a lot.

Lavender's POV

Derek was hauling me down the path and I could tell he wanted me to run as fast as I usually did, but my eyes were so blurry with tears, I could barely see where I was going. I could feel the heat catching up to us and I couldn't help but start to hyperventilate.

For Derek's sake, I wiped my eyes and turned on the speed, pretending it was just another one of our forest races. He saw what I was doing and tried to make it into a game as well.

After a while of running, we realised we had gotten lost in our attempt to run away from the fire. I was terrified and my back and ribs were killing me. In the spur of the moment, I had forgottong my injured bones, but now they were really painful. It took all my willpower to keep me going. The flames were licking at our heels and I knew I wouldn't be able to go much further. My arm ached like crazy and I thought it would drop off. I almost wished it would; save me the aches and pains of the broken bones.

I felt myself slowing down and saw the realisation register on Derek's face as he remembered my injured upper body and he immediately wanted to apologise for making me run so far like that, I could tell from his face. But we had no time for that. I kept running with all my might, knowing that it probably wouldn't be enough.

This was all my fault. If only I hadn't come into the forbidden forest, Derek wouldn't have followed me and we wouldn't be in this situation. The last thing I wanted, was for both of us to be in hospital. I had to keep going. Not for my own life, but for Derek's. I knew that if I stopped and told him to carry on without me, he wouldn't leave my side. He was like my brother. He would never abandon me.

Eventually, I had wasted away all my strength and could not run any further. I collapsed on the floor and huddled into a little ball. I heard Derek pleading for me to get up. He tried to drag me, but it was no use. Every muscle in my body had gone on shut down. The heat was almost unbearable.

Then, I realised that if I give up like this, then I am also giving up on derek too. By risking my life, I would be risking his too. I couldn't do that to him. I couldn't let him die for me. I mustered up every last bit of strength I had left in my body and rammed the fire head on. I could hear derek screaming my name and it burnt like crazy, but I had to do it for Derek. I could feel the force of the fire calming down and I found I could control this fire, making it do whatever I wanted it to. I extinguished it and everything that had been burnt was restored, except the burns on our skin. Mine were pretty bad, but I didn't care. Right now, I was completely stunned. I had just extinguished a flame with sheer willpower. Could this this have something to do with what happened in the maths exam?

I slowly turned to Derek. He wore the same expression as me: confused and shocked.

"What just happened?" he said, looking at me like a freak. I felt rejected by his expression.

"I have no idea. I know just as much as you do," I replied. I took a step towards him, but he took a step back.

"Oh no. He thinks I'm crazy. My worst nightmares coming true. My best friend is rejecting me because of something I cant even explain myself," I thought to myself, wanting to cry. I realised then just how exhausted I was. I sank to the ground, curled up in a little ball and cried. I expected him to come and comfort me, but when I looked up, he was gone. There was no sign of him at all.

A/N Hi! I know. Weird storyline but I wasn't sure what else to do. I wanted to do my own unique drama thing and I know it wasn't exactly original, but it was the best I could think of. I make it all up as I go along so I think I've done pretty well so far lol! Comment about what you think of the strange drama.

Thanks for reading

Princess1D xxxxx