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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟎𝟕
"ᴵ ˢᵖʳᵃⁱⁿᵉᵈ ᵃⁿ ᵃⁿᵏˡᵉ"
━━━━━━━★━━━━━━━
"We gotta go, we gotta go now!" Dustin quickly told the group.
Artie looked all around her surroundings. They were in a dark tunnel and there was some kind of creature, a werid looking dog in front of them.
"Dart?" Dustin looked at it and he spoke with a gentle voice.
Everyone automatically started yelling at Dustin who was walking towards the dog. Artie kept quiet, not knowing what was going on. She lifted her hand up to feel her face which had goggles and a mask on.
"Trust me," He told them, which made them all quiet down. "It's Dustin, you remember me? Maybe you'll let us pass."
Dustin kneeled down to the demo-dog who opened its mouth which made the others all take a step back. "Ok, sorry. You hungry?" He then put his hand in his pocket, taking a candy bar out. "It's your favorite, nougat."
Artie's eyes opened again, she woke up from being awake. "Oh my god." She blinked her eyes again. "It let us pass. Never forget nugget." She repeated to herself.
━━━━━━━★━━━━━━━
Fixing the strings on her backpack, Artie was listening to Max who was asking her questions. "I still don't get why they call him zombie boy. I mean, I get it. He got lost in the woods for a week or something, but why is he a zombie? Because everyone thought he was dead?"
"Yeah, there was a funeral and everything. He just vanished one night." Artie continued walking down the halls, "Which is why I thought he was abducted by aliens."
Max held onto her skateboard, walking beside Artie in the school halls. "But after a week?"
Artie nodded her head to the side, "There was this other kid who drowned at the quarry."
"What?" Max turned back at Artie after hearing about another death.
Lucas joined them, walking to their class after he saw the two and overheard them talking. "Artie's right, we all thought it was Will because the body was super decomposed."
"Okay, that's not funny." Max glanced between Lucas and Artie, not believing their story, thinking that the two were teaming up to mess with her.
"It's not a joke, all right?" Lucas told her, "It's public knowledge. You can ask anyone. Except Will, because he is really sensitive about it."
Max looked at Lucas, believing it more now because of how serious he sounded. "Okay"
Lucas then looked over at Artie, "I'm surprised you don't get sensitive about it."
"Have you seen Dustin?" Artie quickly asked Lucas as she looked forward.
Lucas turned his head solely on Artie, "Don't try to change the subject. You never explained that day to us. Just small details."
Artie raised her brows as she glanced over at Max who now looked at her. "Nothing bad happened to me. Details are pretty hazy."
"What happened to you?" Max furrowed her brows as they continued walking again. She really wanted to know.
Artie forced a smile, "Nothing"
Lucas tilted his head, "If you want to call going missing for a full day nothing, then please do because we were all worried."
Artie raised her shoulders in her defense, "I just got lost in the woods. I told you guys. It was dark and foggy."
He nodded at her, not believing her, "The same woods we all know like the back of our hands."
"You were stuck in the woods for an entire day...alone?" Max asked her, wondering how much trouble the group would get into.
Artie stopped walking, now beside the door. She gave the two a smile, "I sprained an ankle, okay, that's the worst thing that happened." She then walked into class and sat in her spot which was beside Max.
Lucas looked at Max as he rolled his eyes before they went in. "See, small details."
Truth be told, Artie was never lost in the woods, she vanished for an entire day. It felt like a dream to her, that was the second time ever that she had vanished into thin air. One second she was in the restroom at Will's funeral then the next she was waking up from her bed and getting a call from her friends saying that Will was missing.
Artie was knocked out of her daydreaming in class when she saw Will had turned around. This made Max turn her head to look out the window. Max was previously staring at Will and Will felt her stare.
In the middle of their teacher talking, the door was pushed open, "I am so sorry, Mr. Clarke." Dustin had run into the class, breathing hard. "Really, I'm so sorry. Please continue with the class." He began to walk towards his seat, "Don't mind me. Really, continue, please. Thanks."
Mr. Clarke went back to speaking after giving Dustin a weird look.
Artie watched Dustin turn around and whispered to the boys around him, he then looked over at Artie and Max. Whispering loudly, "Lunch, AV Club."
"Dustin!" Mr. Clarke called him, making the kid turn around.
"Yes, my lord?" Dustin answered as he hurried to face Mr. Clarke.
Mr. Clarke then made Dustin join in on the class reading.
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Steve and Billy were each the captain of the two teams; they now had to choose someone. Billy was the one to choose a teammate first. Smiling, he looked in Ian's direction, "Dave". That was when he looked at the guy beside Ian.
"Whew" Steve clapped his hands together, relieved that he could now have his best friend on his team, "Ian, you're our MVP! Get your ass over here."
Throughout the game, Steve and Ian were carrying their team to victory but Billy was extremely good too. He was guarding Steve and hit the ball out of Steve's hand to steal the basketball. Billy then started running to make the shot.
Just as Billy threw it towards the hoop, Ian jumped up and smacked the ball from the air. Since it didn't go out of the court, Ian's teammate got the ball and passed it to Steve who was closest to their hoop. In the end, they made the point.
Perks of being one of the tallest and best players. Ian stood up tall with a proud smile as Steve and his other teammates went to high-five him as they cheered him on.
"I'm always the first choice, Hargrove. You missed out today." Ian sent him a small smirk as he went to run back to the other side of the court.
