For As Long As I Can Remember

Oscar And Vinnie

The five gladers sat in a circle on the ground as the sun went down. The fire blazed lighting the darkness with an orange glow. Alby passed out the rations, which consisted of a slab of meat on a roasting iron, to each of the four other boys. Each boy seemed to show their personality in how they cooked that slab of meat. Alby casually spun his near the top of the flame; Kevin carefully kept his the perfect distance from the coals; Minho singed the top and then the bottom twice each before eating it; Vinnie lay his in the coals beneath the first flame; Oscar plunged his into the flame and caught it on fire, then he pulled his slab from the fire and watched the flames lick it up before blowing it out and tearing crudely into it.

"Listen to em." Oscar paused and held up his finger. The others stopped their chewing and chatter to listen to the groaning and grinding behind the maze walls.
"They sound more depressing than usual." Minho noted.

"Grievers." Vinnie said; his voice laced with an Irish accent, "Sound like deadly feckers."

"Grievers." Alby chuckled, "I quite like that."
"Classy name." Oscar smiled, "Wonder if the shit heads that put us here like that name?"

"Bet they would." Minho said through exaggerated chewing motions.
"Do ya ever wonder what they look like?" Oscar asked.

The others shook their heads no.

The next morning Vinnie couldn't find Oscar. He was used to it as Oscar was always running off to various places without telling a soul. Vinnie was sure his mother, who ever that may be, probably got angry with his quite often if he had this same tendency as a child. Vinnie saw Alby alone with his notepad near the fire pit and Kevin asleep in the grass a few meters down from him. That left Minho and Oscar unaccounted for. He found them in the second place he looked: the water trough. He walked over to the dock where Minho and Oscar sat with their legs over the edge. Minho was scrawnier then; his stomach not yet lean and his arms more bone than muscle; Oscar was quite the opposite; he was thick and sturdy with muscle carved over every bone. He watched as Minho laughed, his eyes squinted and his whole body shaking through the movement. Oscar grinned back with his eyes sparkling. His wet hair hung in a dark curtain to his shoulders that caught the sun as a brilliant tan.

"Hey." Vinnie came up behind him, his red hair tucked into a bandana shaped piece of fabric.

"Hey!" Minho smiled at him.

"What've you got?" Vinnie asked while looking down at Oscar's hands that were enclosed around something. He opened his hands to reveal a frog sitting in them.
"Ain't she pretty?" He ran a finger down the frog's back causing it to croak.

"Whatever you think." Vinnie rolled his eyes as he sat down next to Oscar.
"I think she's nice." Minho added as he too gently stroked the frog.

"See." Oscar laughed as he proved the point to Vinnie.

"You two are weird."

"Don't let him phase you." Oscar smirked as he talked to Minho, "Some people don't appreciate the beauty which is nature. These people are shanks."
"Hey!" Vinnie hit him in the shoulder.

Oscar just laughed, "You want to hold her, Minho?"
"Yeah!" Minho beamed. Oscar grinned and handed the frog to Minho. It croaked in protest but soon settled into Minho's palm. Minho looked at it with an expression of wonder. Oscar looked at Vinnie and smiled cheekily.

Once Oscar's hair had dried he had put it up in a bun on the top of his head. Stray curls the same colour of his dark brows framed his face.