Hunted (book 1)

Chapter 5

On Saturday morning, I slept in. The game had ended fairly late and after we made sure Ryan was okay, a few of us went to a diner. It was mostly the guys on the football team and the cheerleaders, but they had invited me along and I had said yes. After I woke up, I went downstairs. Dad was out fishing and Mum was in the kitchen. It seemed Dad was always fishing when he wasn't at work. It was his new favourite thing. He'd be sending me back to the bait and tackle shop very soon. Not that that was a bad thing.

The night before, I had made plans with Ryan and Sasha to study for the history test. Sasha was in a different class and her test was the day after ours. Mandy had decided not to come because she studied better alone and Hayden wasn't coming because he refused to acknowledge that there was a test and therefore did not want to study and would only distract us. Bree had some how gotten out of taking history and instead had a study line. Ms Bonham knew she had intentionally dropped the class and I could have sworn her eyes narrowed whenever she saw Bree.

Ryan, Sasha and I were meeting at the library at 11am because both of them had wanted to sleep in as well. I had less than an hour before I needed to leave. I made sure to pack my textbooks, my exercise book and my laptop.

I walked to the library and was the first to arrive. Sasha came next, and then Ryan. We found a table and sat together, reading up on dates and events and memorising numbers and terms. After two hours of quiet study, we quizzed each other and practised what we had learnt. We almost got kicked out when Ryan asked a question and Sasha and I both rushed to answer, screaming out our replies.

After the study session, Sasha was meeting Mandy and Bree for cheer practise, so Ryan offered to walk me home. I accepted. We walked slowly because it had rained in the early morning and the ground was wet. We talked most of the way, about history and the football game and about how Ryan's younger brother wanted to join the football team when he was in high school. Ryan was against this because Aiden, according to him, was a lot more reckless than he was and a lot less studious. If he didn't get injured too badly to ever play again, he would get benched for failing his classes.

We were already almost to my house when my phone buzzed. It was from Dad.

Hey, honey. Out of fishing line. If you're in town, please get some.

I rolled my eyes. How did he go through that stuff so fast? Ryan raised an eyebrow.

"It's just my dad." I shrugged.

Ryan again walked me to the door before he said goodbye. "See you Monday, Charlie." Ryan headed back down the path as I waved goodbye and called that I'd see him Monday, too.

As I went to open the door, I accidentally kicked something small and square sitting on the doorstep. I was a cardboard box. I opened it to find a spool of fishing line. The fishing line had a note attached:

To our soon-to-be best customer

- Liam

I smiled. How had he known?

~

I entered the bait and tackle shop and the bell chimed. There was a customer at the counter with Liam so I walked up and waited behind them. Once they left, Liam turned his attention to me.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" His usual teasing air was interrupted by something resembling shame. He seemed to realise that I would be mad at him for tackling Ryan.

"I'm here to return this fishing line. It was delivered to us by mistake." I held out the box.

Liam took it and examined the contents, then offered it back to me. "No, this wasn't delivered by mistake; it was a gift for our new customer."