Being Casey

Chapter 7: Hiking Finally

I had woken up on the couch, my feet on Ethan's lap and my head on the other side. He still had been asleep when I had woken up. To be honest, I felt super guilty. He had stayed to watch a movie with me and I had fallen asleep. Wow, such a great friend I am. I shrugged and got up, walking over to the fridge. I opened it and grabbed a bottle of water. I opened it and brought it to my mouth. The cold drink wet my dry throat and I drank it even more. Eventually I had nothing left in the bottle. I walked over to the closet and threw the bottle in the recycling. All of a sudden, I felt hands on my eyes, covering them. I jumped and turned around. It was Ethan standing there, grinning. "You need to start keeping your hands under blankets, they're freezing." I said.

He held his hands up. "Hey, your were hogging the blankets last night. Sleep well?" He asked.

"Somewhat, you?" He nodded his head.

"I'm still tired though." He said, rubbing his eyes. I giggled and walked over to the cupboard, grabbing two pop tarts. "Ethan." I said. He turned and I threw the pop tart at him. He caught it and started eating. I sat down at the table and started eating mine. I finished rather quickly. My family joked about how fast I eat, saying that I inhaled my food, not even tasting it.

"Want to go check on your mom?" He asked me. I glanced up.

"Yeah, but shouldn't you be going home?" I asked. He shook his head.

"My parents don't really notice." He said quietly. I could tell that this was a sore subject, so I dropped it.

"Hey, I've got an idea." I said. "Lets get packed, go see the twins and then go on that hiking trip that you promised. Sounds like a plan?" He grinned and nodded. I finished my food and got up. "Be back, Im gunna change." I said, running up the stairs. I ran into my room and pulled out a duffle bag. It was a Nike, and it was big. I began shoving random clothes in it, making sure I had enough, just in case it got cold. I zipped the bag and finished getting ready. After I had finished, I ran downstairs to meet Ethan. "Should we go to your house so you can change?" He shook his head.

"I'll phase if I get cold." He said. I smiled and threw the duffle over my shoulder. I walked over to the pantry, grabbing random food. He raised an eyebrow at me when he saw me.

"What? I'm not eating crap." I said. He gave me a questioning look. "Shut up! Lets go Ethan!" I said, turning and walking out the door. I grabbed the handel and walked out to the car. I opened the back to the car and threw my duffle bag in it, slamming it shut after. I walked to shotgun, and climbed in the seat, starting the car. Ethan walked out and sat in the drivers seat, starting the car. Slowly he backed out and started for the hospital.

****

"So can I go?" I asked my dad hopefully. Ethan and I had seen the babies and were now, trying to convince my dad to let us go on the hiking trip. "We can protect ourselves, you know." Ethan hit me with his elbow, basically telling me to shut my mouth before we couldn't go at all. My dad gave me a stern look.

"Fine," he said. "But you have to call every night. Got it?" He said. Then turned to Ethan. "No funny buisness Ethan." He said. Ethan turned beat red, and I'm pretty sure I did too. Then, I laughed. I couldnt think of anything else to do in the suatation. It was super weird, and I swear to god, I have never been more imbarressed by my oh so lovely father. I turned around and looked at Ethan. He was redder than I was.

"Dad, I swear, if you EVER talk about that again, I will never speak to you again." I said, not facing him. "C'mon Ethan. Lets go." I said, grabbing Ethans hand and pulling him to the elevator. I pressed the button and waited. Without knowing, I was tapping my foot.

"Stop it." Ethan said.

"Stop what?" I asked. He stepped on my foot. "OW!"

"Stop that." He said. The elevator 'dinged' and I jumped. I walked in and pressed the ground level button. The elevator jerked and we made our way down.

"Im sorry about my dad. Hes super..um...not bright." I said. Ethan laughed.

"I think I was more embarrsed than you."

"No! Okay, maybe. But its just an awkward converstaion, no matter who its with."

"I never want to talk about this again, deal?"

I nodded. "Please." I said. The elevator opened, and I stepped out. I walked towards the door and pushed it open. I walked out to the car and hopped in. Ethan climbed in a moment later and started the car. He reveed the engine and drove off to the woods.

***

"So, tell me about yourself, the stuff I dont know." I said. Ethan and I had been driving for about an hour, and we hadn't said anything important. I mean, talking to somebody and trying to learn more about them wasn't the easiest thing, but it shouldn't be this weird. Instead of talking, we had listened to music, singing off key and just goofing off. But the radio wouldn't play anything good, so we were talking.

"Like 20 questions?" He asked.

I grinned. 20 questions. "Okay, first question. Whats your full name?"

"Ethan John Gradd."

"Second question. Favorite color?"

He blushed. "Skip that question."

"No. I wanna know!" I said.

"My favorite color is pink."

"Pink?"

"Yes pink. Don't tell anybody though."

I 'zipped' my lips like a child and threw away the key. "Its safe with me. Thrid question, who do you look up to? LIke your roll model?"

"Probably, Dr. Seuss. I want to do something with my life, and in my opinion, he did a lot."

"Wow...." I said, speechless. And for me, thats seriously saying something. "Favorite quote?" I asked. His eyebrow furrowed together, as he was thinking very hard. I smirked. He did that, a lot. The dumb blonde jokes didn't go to Ethan. He was smart, he just didn't get credit for it. It's like with one of my cousins, her name is Shayna and shes really smart. But when she was younger she couldn't read that well. So her older brother made fun of her. And now he makes fun of her infront of people, and they get the impression that she can't read. And belive me on this, she could blow you right out of the water with how smart she is.

He was still thinking very hard, stroking his chin like he had a gote."When life gives you lemons, make grape juice and watch the world wonder how you did it." Ethan said smiling.

I laughed. "Thats great!" I felt my sacrasm coming on and couldn't help it. "But, if life gives you lemons, without the water and sugar, your lemonade is going to SUCK!" The only kind of lemonade that I like has to be super strong. Most people make really watered down lemonade and its nasty. I laughed. "Whatever! My lemonade is better than your grape juice!"

"Oh, whatever! Your wrong." He said.

A thought popped into my head. "Ethan," I asked. "What happens if somebody finds out about us being werewolves?"

"It's better off if you didn't know." He said. He looked upset about the matter but I pushed it.

"No, its not better off. I need to know this." I said. When I first found out about being a werewolf, Ethan told me not to tell anybody. But he never told me what happened if I did tell.

"Fine. If we tell, we die. This gene in our body, the part that makes us phase, if it knows that people know, we will end up in a science lab. So the gene will overpopulate our bodies, and kill us."

"What the fuck?! Its going to kill us?!!"

"Yeah, you know how you breath and blink? You dont think about it, but when you do think about it, it gets messed up. Right? The gene will start overpopulating itself. And we have no control over it whatsoever." He said. "Well, on that happy note, we're at a gas station. Go get food"