Holding Hope

Chapter 7

We were all sore that evening. And I am still afraid of guns. I blame Eli and the free-for-all. 

We went to dinner wearing our Paintball clothes, which were all covered in splatters of paint. Cable, Eli, and Johnny seemed to bond over the game, as they were pretty much inseparable all that evening. 

Tara and Hunter too. Hunter had pulled the superman pose for Tara during the game, and now I was pretty dang sure she liked him back. I will definitely tease him about this later, and see if I can get Tara's number. She's seems pretty cool.

The boys wanted to go swimming after dinner, but we were all tired. We decided to sleep, and we promised that we'd go swimming the next day.

That didn't really work out though. The entire day was in the water, but it wasn't free-swim. We blobed, had swim-races, and did Noah's Nightmare. Zeke was scared at first, but Eli pushed him in the water, so he was fine. It was so much fun.

After lunch that day, Eli and I decided to go on a walk together and just chat. We had seen a small trail that goes pretty much out of sight from everyone, so we thought it a good idea for some girl-time.

"Jazzy we gotta talk about Zeke." Eli shot me with that question the minute we were away from everyone. Her eyes bore into me with such care and devotion, I just couldn't lie to her.  

"Okay!" I wailed, surprising myself with how loud my voice was, "Okay! Zeke's been creeping me out. He's been rather demanding of kisses, and he says stuff." I shuddered on the word "stuff".

"Jazz." Eli sighed and pushed her glasses up her nose. Her eyes had an unreadable expression and she shifted nervously, "I know Zeke's going through a really hard time, but he seriously scares me. Now more than ever. He, he....." Eli sighed when she couldn't finish the sentence. She ripped her gaze from mine and stared at the path we were walking on. 

"Does he remind you of your dad?" I asked softly. Eli's body stiffened and she scowled lightly. I looked at the forest surrounding us as to not look at the still hurting girl next to me.

The forest was so beautiful. I could see many tree types growing in a vast wilderness of diversity, each with its own mighty trunk and lush skirt of leaves. Like the threads of a ball gown, the branches and vines were weaved together, making the forest appear to be embroidered with a braided pattern. A few minutes later, we were near a beautiful amphitheater.

"We should head back." I said after a few more minutes of walking. Eli nodded sadly.

"Right. C'mon. The boys'll be missing us." Eli said, beginning to walk back to Hium. I uneasily followed her, silence wrapping her eerie self around us. 

I could only imagine what the boys were up to while we were gone.

JOHNNY'S POV

"RUN!"

"HE'S SO CLOSE!" 

"MOVE!"

"TURN THERE!"

"GO!"

I grabbed Cable by the arm and basically threw him around a tree, where Hunter was, far ahead of me and Cable. Hunter helped Cable back up to his feet, and when I finally caught up, Hunter the skinniest out of all of us, climbed up the tree.

"How far away is he?" Hunter asked frantically from the top of the tree. Cable looked around the tree, then dashed back 'round.

"LIKE NOT FAR!" Cable snapped, as I picked him up and threw him up in the tree. Hunter grabbed is hand and helped him sit comfortably on a strong branch.