Lovers of the Woods

2. Paranoid or Instincts?

Since the last fight, Iris and I agreed to work together on this. No secrets, no hesitations and no more missing people. A couple of days after our so-called fight, news started circling in the neighbourhood. Grandpa Greg, who lives nearest to the woods, has told the Chief of the police that he heard noises of a lot of people going in and coming out of the woods with huge wooden boxes. The Police believed that it might be the workers getting into the Reservoir area. But then the way to the river Glee is not that one. It is a relatively long route. Grandpa Greg denies believing the police. He rather claims to be suspicious.

"Now, Grandpa Greg claims it to be traffickers. I'm just going crazy !!" Iris grabbed her long locks of hair ferociously. " And here my Grandpa has written shreds of evidence that leads to werewolves. Are they kidding us? My Grandpa's evidence even makes me believe him. But I do not believe in these werewolves, vampires or whatever. What's much worse? We are still in the same place where we started." she pours it out all at once. This poor soul thought that we could be Detective Conan in a couple of weeks. "Iris, it's not that. You should understand the point here. We clearly haven't witnessed what it is yet. So do you wanna witness what it might be? " I gave her my crazy look. "Yo, Where did you get this idea now? Who was the one that yelled at me for going into the woods," she asked me in awe. I just shrugged. She hit the back of my head when we heard a heavy accelerating sound and students cooing in chorus. A Ferrari pulled into the parking area. I wonder who the show-off is.

Just like the other day, two boys and a girl got out of the car. It was them. It was the same kids. All the students stood afar and watched them as if they were celebrities. The girl took the younger boy to the middle school block while the older boy slipped his hand into his pants pocket and fished out his phone on the other hand. I wonder what he sees on that phone. He kept his phone again in his pocket and looked around. Iris and I turned in the other direction in unison. " Isn't he your neighbour?"I asked Iris, forgetting that she didn't know what I had seen. "How did you know?" she inquired to me in shock. I hissed in silence. " I saw the same kids when I came back after dropping you." I shrugged, and she folded her arms and looked at me suspiciously. I gave her a sheepish smile and dragged her to the class.

"Ju, are you busy this Friday?" Justin asked me. "No, Why?" I gave him a defensive look. "Don't get all defensive, Man. I just wanted to invite you to Derby's birthday party. She'll kill me if you don't come. You know that my sister likes you a lot,' he rolled his eyes. I sighed, "Do not make that face, Mister. I'll come, but you all should accompany me." I pointed at all three of my friends.

Anyta and Iris sighed together. "Of course, I'll be there, and I'm dragging these two with me." We are all the victims of having older siblings except Iris. Her little brother is the world to her. Eugene is always the dearest. He was a very sweet boy to his family. He was very smart and cheeky for his age. I would love such a little brother or sister for myself, but unfortunately, I was fated to be the youngest among the three. We agreed to gather the day after tomorrow for the party and lead ourselves to the classroom.

"Justin, stop running !! We are still not in middle school to run down the corridor." Anyta yells at Justin. "Let him run. He is not going to stop anyway." I tell Any before she chases him. We find that the cafeteria is slowly getting packed. The irritating chattering of the students turned into a hush suddenly. We sat at our usual place to get a good view of what was happening. People were slowly crowding over the pathway to the counter. I could only see a tall figure walking through the crowd. As the figure reached the counter, I could see that he was the guy from earlier. Beside him, the girl stuck to him like glue. I wanted to know who they were and why is everyone gasping at the guy.

"Aren't we getting lunch, guys?" Iris asks and stands up. "Ju, it's the same, right?" I give her a nod, not taking my eyes off him. "Any, come", she drags her out of the bench. I sat there alone, staring at him, getting food and going to one of the larger benches. " Is their family really that rich?" I heard the girls talking and immediately knew it was about him. It was Kelly and her friends. They ought to know everything then. "Whose family are you talking about, Kelly? " I knew I was being nosy unnecessarily, but I had to.