Change For Me

38. nobody's perfect

~~~~

"On your marks...get set...go!" Gladis' whistle indicates the beginning of our massive game of Tag—of course with Mother Nature and Youth Ranch elements as well.

Students frantically move into the forests, towards the hills where trees and snow fill up the area so that they can have a head start in their hiding spots.

"They're literally spreading around like a disease." Sofie looks around at the now empty starting line. "Get it," she smiles at her joke.

"Good one." I laugh.

In this game there are different roles of the ecosystem, and it's been distributed among the students. There are the predators, prey, and diseases.

Most of the groups have separated themselves to their liking. Since me, Sofie, and Eric are in the same team, we decided to stick together through the hour-long game.

Our goal as diseases is to catch as many of the predators and preys. At the same time, we can not get caught by the 'cures'.

"Be careful to not hurt your okay-looking faces!" Eric tells us over his shoulder as we make our way up the mountain.

"Okay-looking?" Sofie narrows her eyes. Eric suddenly stops to turn around and face us.

"I look better," he shrugs before continuing his way up.

"Whatever—isn't this dangerous?" Sofie groans. You'd think that they would've learned from the last time we hiked up this mountain.

"Yes." I scoff, holding onto tree branches for support.

"Shh," Eric pulls both us in the depths of the forest once we notice a few people hiding behind trees.

"Slowly," he motions for us to follow him. "Loser!" He quickly tags Roman.

"Fuck!" he curses, looking around for anyone else. "Here," he rolls his eyes before handing each of us one of his life lines.

"Thank you." I say as I clip them onto the badge Gladis gave us.

"Whatever," he mumbles. Our heads snap at the distant screams of our classmates, which causes him to run away from us.

"Imagine getting lost in these woods." Sofie worriedly looks down the trail we're taking.

"I don't know how we're not already." I peek behind at where we came from. Only trees and snow covered footprints follow us. Otherwise, it's serene and becomes eery when the casual yells echo all over.

"Shit," Taron appears in front of us with wide eyes. "Hell no," she runs in the opposite direction me, Sofie, and Eric exchange knowing glances. We all agree on chasing after her.

"Go there," Eric ushers me and Sofie to the other side of the trail. Me and Sofie round the corner meeting Eric half way before we surround Taron.

"Fuck!" her shoulders slump in defeat and gives us her life line. "Ugh, I'm down to two."

"Sucks," Eric happily clips his tag on his badge. Not so subtly giving Taron a smug smirk. "Go on."

Taron beelines into the trees, leaving the three of us alone in the middle of a snow patch.

"We're doing surprisingly well." Sofie somehow jinx it because we flinch from the sudden noises of the other groups. At least we know that we caught up to them.

"They're so many people down there. Let's go get some bread." Eric rubs his hands together. Me and Sofie look to one another before following the leader.

~

"Where the hell is Sofie?" I mumble to myself as I hide behind a bush.

After colliding with a big group of people, sprawled around an isolated area in the forest, Eric's great plan was to separate then meet at a spot we randomly chose. Obviously, the last minute decision made me anxious. I was doing well on my own but chasing after people on slippery grounds alone...that's different.