The Alternate Extras of Halesowen

An Adventure In New Beginnings

The past month he had been hunting for interesting things to be doing. Ross had taken to the cinema a few times, randomly picking something to watch from the limited selection at the Reel. He had been to outdoor venues such as adventure golf. And in general exploring some nearby cities.

He hadn't gone as far as the capital in his journeys, but knew that's where Brandon and Oliver were due to come back from today. The two had spent a weekend in London for an event. Summer of Sonic, he believed it was called. He'd seen the posts from them on social media, but would still drop in on them for a proper catch up about it later in the week.

For now, he had an adventure of his own to be enjoying.

It had randomly appeared to him on Facebook. Some event down in Stourbridge. Labelled as an adventurous tour around the town, it was raising money for some local charity. Since Ross could easily get to the town, he had arrived at the time stated.

The plaza area that surrounded the bandstand in Mary Stevens Park held a few tables full of information about the charity, along with two tables where people could sign up for this event. One was for families. The other for solo entrants.

Joining the queue for the solo entrants, he was surprised to hear his name called from behind. Ignoring it, assuming they were talking to some other Ross, he felt sure he recognised the voice. When it called again from directly behind him, he turned to see that Carson had also joined the solo entrant queue.

"Hey," Ross said curtly, turning to face the front of the queue again.

His rudeness he felt justified, considering everyone usually ignored him at college. Carson was undeterred by that rudeness.

"This should be a fun day, no matter how we do."

That caught Ross' curiosity. "How we do?" he asked, losing the rudeness of his tone.

"Did you not know what you're signing up for?" The queue moved forward slightly. "This is a competition. Of sorts."

"I didn't pay too much attention," Ross admitted. "I just saw it was a tour and an adventure. Then came straight here."

"I won't say any more. It should be explained once you're signing up. But... team? You and me?"

"We can do that?"

It was odd, Ross felt, that Carson was being friendly. He had never seen friendliness from any of them. It was then he realised something as Carson answered his question.

He knew a lot more about this event than had been advertised. At least on that Facebook post.

"Well, yeah," was the answer. "Though it's called solo entrants, groups can still form. Not like there's a prize for coming first."

"How do you know so much?" Ross had to ask.

"Well... I was part of the team that helped the charity set this up. Not as part of the charity itself," he was quick to add. "But what will be given is stuff the company I'm at created for them."

"The company you're at..." Ross echoed. "You've left the college. You're not returning for the second year."

Suddenly, Carson's friendliness made sense. It was likely this meeting had been an opportunity for him to start anew with his relationship to Ross.

"The others don't know, yet," Carson said. "I'm going to have to do it, but just doing so over text chat seems wrong, somehow. You won't say anything to them, will you?"

"I've got no reason to say anything to them," Ross said, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice.

"Ah... Look, I just want to say it was wrong for the group to have ignored you as they did. And... I didn't want you to leave during that final day. I'm sure Hannah felt the same."