The Hawbridge Chronicles

Chapter 1: Baggie

August 9th

Maggie's POV:

Only a few people see me as a normal human being, Buck being one of them. I can't even recall how long I've known him. Each day seems to have gone by like a swift current pulling me in and throwing my heart around in circles. It pulls me into an ocean of people who cock their heads at me in curiosity, who don't understand and don't care to.

I'm walking into my PE class and he's the first thing I see besides a girl I knew in church, studying me from afar. I can't help but notice that he's changed over the summer. His hair has grown out since he first cut it with his own pocket knife. Buck doesn't notice me, I don't expect him to really; he's sitting beside the girl I used to know from church, talking to Landon. The smile on his face fades as he sees me sitting down then grows back again as he continues talking to Landon. I look down at my crooked fingers, pick at my leggings which are forcefully stuffed into my muddy converse. This is weird, being in high school. Everything has felt the same, was it supposed to change? I don't know what to expect from anyone or anything anymore. My eyes wander into the center of the classroom, Buck's now laying on the floor making a fool of himself again.

Mr. Mayor walks in and claps, "get off the floor Buck." Buck jumps up while grinning at me, still hasn't said a word to me. Again, not really surprised. I take the dead frog out of my pocket and pet it tenderly with my pointer finger, smiling. I remember this frog when I first caught it, it was on the sidewalk beside the general store, I had named him bacon for reasons I can't remember. He eventually died after a couple weeks in his tank, but I was too sad to bury him.  I'm not listening to Mr. Mayor because PE doesn't REALLY matter. All we do is yoga and self-care shit, none of that matters to me because I know who I am. I stuff my frog back into my pocket when I catch the teacher peering at me. All he says are words that mean nothing to me, school means nothing to me really; not when there's a whole forest awaiting! Not when there's so many creatures to touch and collect. That is what I really crave, is everything beside the creak (not the people). I could spend the rest of my days laying in the dead leaves and pine needles...alone.

My thoughts get interrupted by the sound of Landon screaming at a bug on his desk. He's about to smash it when I run over to save it. My mind is going crazy, I can't let Landon kill an innocent creature! That's when I accidently grab Buck's hand. He captured the bug before me, before I could even get to it. My hand stays on his for a split second, my eyes widen with shock. I immediately let go of his hand with this unidentified emotion. This anger that I felt. Why was I so distressed by this? Maybe because it wasn't just anger...

His smile is beaming when he picks up the bug, letting it crawl into the palm of his hand. He studies it like it is a book. I shiver and jerk it out of his hand so I can look at it myself, (I was going to catch it first anyways).

"Hey what the heck Maggie?" his hand slaps my back with sudden force. I don't look back at him as I put the bug into my pocket.

He makes me furious sometimes, "I had my eye on that bug first Buck I don't want to hear it!" I turn around to find him staring at me up and down, "whatever Maggie." he takes his fist and swings at the air and sits back down. What a prick. I take back out the bug which was stuffed under my frog and let it rest on my arm. For the rest of the class he ignored me, not once he looked back over in my direction. It makes me wonder the way he acts sometimes. I haven't talked to him that much since last year, since he'd gotten so tall...

I didn't see the change in his demeanor until the next week.

August 13:

I make no eye contact, I walk in the school with no direction except one. The halls are flooding with strangers and acquaintances. Mr. Mayor offers to take us on a hike today, I can't tell if I'm overjoyed or pissed because it's 9:00 in the morning. We start sweating outside in the hot humidity and we haven't even arrived at the dirt field yet. The morning dew looks so vibrant and fresh on all the green leaves and grass. I close my eyes to feel the suns reflection on my skin, it's so warm. In the distance I can see all the girls walking ahead of me. I yell to my friends who are talking about Minecraft, "guys it's so nice out here isn't it?" they ignore me and keep walking and talking about which video game they like best. I don't care. I look down to see one of my favorite insects, a cicada. I pick It up and run to the other girls. They scream and hide behind each other. Of course they do, there all alike. They couldn't even eat a cricket, well guess what, I have. I laugh and chase them with it as they shout and cry at the insects screams. I finally give up and roll my eyes in disbelief of how 'girly' these girls are. They can't handle the real world. But I guess I'm different, I'm just the 'weird girl.' So what I like insects? I stuff the cicada into my pocket as it yells and cries for help.

Buck jumps off a branch and lands beside me, "Hey, that was pretty cool what you did back there." Oh so he's finally going to talk to me now?

"Did what?" I twirl a strand of hair and tuck it behind my ear.

"Scare those lame girls...what critter did you find?" I take it back out of my pocket. I let him hold it until  it starts jumping around again. We walk beside each other in silence until the quietness is unbearable. I fail to not look at him, he smells of creak water and pine. His long curly hair is knotted and lays perfectly on his shoulders. I look around and realize we're far away from the group. Gosh this is awkward, I don't know what to do. We haven't spoken in a while so it should be easy to come up with things to say.

Buck rubs the back of his neck, "I know that you've always really liked cicadas."

"Oh really? glad you remembered." I turn away, trying to hide my blush.

"How could I not? I remember how excited you were when I caught one for you in 8th grade." he throws a stick at a big oak tree.

We finally arrive at the dirt field and Buck immediately runs off into the distance of the muddy field. I'm left ALONE. Shocked that he left me so quickly...

I walk towards the raggedy-ass benches and see Miles running swiftly in my direction. What could he want? I decide to show him my beautiful cicada that I've grown so fondly attached to in this brief amount of time. Miles jumps eagerly in front of me. I gracefully open up my hand to reveal the bug sitting in the palm of it, barely covering it so it will not escape my grasp.

Miles frowns in disgust, "EEEWWW! What the hell is that man?"

I took a step back confuzzled, not knowing what to say or do, "Excuse you MILES!!!! How dare you talk about this beautiful creature like this. You know what this means to me." The cicada starts to scream in distress, probably from Mile's face. He harshly snatches it from my hands!!! Throws it in the woods to 'free it' and laughs. My face starts to turn red. Why are people such ASSHOLES?! I ball up my fist, I can feel my blood rushing towards my head, ready to make the first move. He steps back, a little frightened...good. The prey has so elegantly fallen into my trap. I take my fist and it meets his cheek with such a force that I didn't even know I had. He falls grabbing his now swollen cheek. HAHA. WHAT A FOOL. FALLEN INTO MY MOUTH LIKE A FLY IN A VENUS FLY TRAP. I turn around after kicking him to the ground with pride. Off in the distance I see Buck; little did I know he was watching me the entire time with amazement and revere in his green eyes, which I saw my reflection in.