Dear Journal,
Lost. I tried to think of it as an adventure. That lasted right up until the part where a raccoon walked up to me and sniffed my pocket. Remind me never to kick wild animals again. It pretended to walk away after a hard kick to the side, but then it pounced on me. Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking. 'Kicking a raccoon in the side?! That's animal abuse! You get what you deserve, animal abuser!' But if you were the one who had a raccoon trying to steal your only source of food in sight when you were lost in the woods, you'd do the same thing. Probably. So anyways, it sprang towards me. Then I did something I thought to be impossible for ol' uncoordinated me. I sidestepped it, gave it a chop to the ribs, and then caught it on my foot. After balancing it on my foot for a second, I flicked it to the ground, where it sped away. Poor guy. Don't mess with me and my food. I took another look around. I still had no clue where I was, or how to get back. Then I heard a scream. I knew that scream.
I ran toward the sound an saw my sister flailing up and down. "SPIDER! SPIDER! Get it off!" Her eyes were shut super tight to block out the image of the arachnid on her nose. She didn't notice it was gone after I flicked it off- until I poked her in the shoulder. She opened her eyes, and actually hugged me. "Thank you so, so much! Oh God, that was horrible."
"You don't know the definition of horrible."I proceeded to tell her the story about the stupid raccoon. She tapped her foot (as always, but this time, it was caked in mud!), but gave me a sympathetic look with a hint of sarcasm. Too bad I didn't catch the sarcasm until after she slapped me.
I rubbed my sore, red cheek. "What was that for?!"
She narrowed her eyes, "Bite me." Then, she stormed off. I had no choice but to follow her. Her eyes were closed, and she sniffed the air. She held her head high as she said. "I have a keen sense of direction. I'll have us back in no time." It was a dead giveaway that she was bluffing when she walked into a tree. "Ouch!" She rubbed her head. I thought about taking a picture of her in a bad state again, but, me being the nice guy that I am, I pushed the idea away.
We walked for about ten minutes, following Chelsea's "keen senses". She decided to keep her eyes open this time. She continually brought up the fact that this was my fault. Which it was. Sort of. So we walked, then we stopped.
"Huh." Chelsea bent down to pick something up. She held it up to the sun. It was a beaded butterfly bracelet. "Oh!" Her eyes widened in realization. "This," she continued, "Is Karen's! She lost it in the woods the other day when I kicked the soccer ball in there! She went to go get it, and lost her bracelet. We must be close. I wish we knew which direction camp was though." Just then, the bracelet started to hover a few inches above her palm. It glowed pink. Then, a brilliant, white light flashed across my eyes.
"I can't see!" I yelled.
"Me either!" Chelsea squeaked. Then, the light was gone as fast as it had come. In its place was a line of glowing pink tracing a path along the ground. It matched the glowing bracelet. Chelsea grabbed the floating bracelet out of the air. For once, she was too stunned to talk. She looked at me, and I looked at her. We silently spoke to each other, as we do too often.
"It's like..." I started.
"Magic..." Chelsea finished my thought. I remembered the book Chelsea and I had read together in fifth grade. The protagonist, a witch girl, had used a spell to find her way through the forest. Chelsea apparently had the same thought.
"It's charmed!" We both cried in unison. I looked at the bracelet again. It seemed so... ordinary.
"Let's follow it!" Chelsea gave me a look that I knew all too well.
"Are you nuts? It could lead us to a death trap, or something!" I ignored her, and started following the path of pink.
"It could also lead us back to camp." At that, Chelsea started after me.
"You do know what this means, right? Karen must be a witch!" True, that seemed like the only possible answer for what just happened, but Karen was normal. She couldn't be a witch. Could she? Then I had another thought. What if it wasn't Karen? What if it was Chelsea? After all, she was the one holding it. Then a thought hit me. If Karen was a witch, she could've easily used her powers to find her bracelet. So why was it lost? She couldn't be a witch. So that left Chelsea. But she couldn't be! True, she was weird, but not like this. I'd grown up with her. She couldn't have hid something that big from me, could she? Relief washed over me as I realized how stupid we sounded. There are no such things as witches. It was just a book. There's no such thing. Right?
