Walking a fine line✔️

30. FeMale

June gave me a quick, teasing nod. "Go get your prince. We'll get his flag."

"Goodluck," I shot before stalking slowly towards Griffin in the opposite direction to the way June and Jordan headed.

He looked me up and down. "How did you escape so quickly?"

"Magic."

He laughed softly. "I'll do better next time."

I continued taking slow steps towards him, distracting him with conversation. "There will be no next time. I can't believe you actually tied me up."

"I did warn you." He grinned then added, "And I made your face a masterpiece. 6:6, princess."

I lunged towards him but he dodged me at the last second.

"You'll have to be better than that," he teased.

I lunged again, this time almost brushing his jacket.

"I'd love to stay and chat." He winked. "But you know, I have a flag to get."

He turned on his heel and began running, me hot on his tail. I may not be on the school's hockey team myself, but I did have a brother who was. A brother who would drag me out to our local turf to help him train during the holidays. A brother who I was always determined to beat.

And now I was determined to catch Griffin.

To my relief it did seem as if he had no clue where our school's flag was because he was running in entirely the wrong direction. I chased him past the campsite and into the forest behind. We ran uphill for over ten minutes and slowly, much to my annoyance, he began to gain a lead on me. 

By the time I reached an array of granite boulders near the top of the hill I'd lost sight of Griffin for at least ten seconds. I came to a halt and looked around, he could've gone in literally any direction from here. Just as I was beginning to believe that he'd actually lost me, I heard shouts coming from trees nearby and I began jogging again towards them. 

One second I was dashing through the trees, the next I suddenly felt my body being swung up into the trees, a net engulfing me. It took me a few seconds to process what had happened, to realise that I was now swinging high up above the ground, ensnared in a net made of rope.

And to make matters worse, it was beginning to rain hard.

Today was not my day.

I quickly examined the rope net suspending me and groaned, this thing could contain a bear. There was no way I could break through the rope or somehow fit my body through a tiny hole.

"Someone! Help!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "Help!"

Maybe Griffin was still within hearing distance. After a few minutes of shouting and almost going hoarse I realised that nobody was nearby and I was well and truly stuck. I turned my attention to the top of the net and climbed up the sides of my cage to reach it. To my disappointment the top didn't bring me freedom either, but rather confirmed just how trapped I was.

I began picturing the headline of the news: Bear trap activated by innocent girl who met her end in a tree.

We didn't even have bears in England.

Time passed and the rain and wind began picking up, turning me into a quivering mess even with my thick coat on. Surely capture-the-flag had finished by now? The sky was dark enough now that it had to be past 3pm. People should realise soon that I was missing. Though thinking about it, had they noticed I was missing all morning? No. They'd assumed I was off with Griffin.