Hunting The Hunter

Chapter 1: It can help being clumsy

Anika

“Ani, come here!” my mom demanded as I ran up the stairs to my room. “Ani!”

“What?!”

She started up the stairs after me but stopped when I turned to face her. Her black hair was messy, and her hazel eyes were open wide in determination. She thrust a small plastic bag filled with ice towards me and glared into my eyes. “Take it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why should I? I'm in no pain whatsoever.”

“Anika, you almost got hit by a truck! How could you not be hurt?”

“You just answered your own question.” I smirked. “I almost got hit by a truck. It missed me.”

She huffed in frustration and turned around, heading back into the kitchen, most likely to put the ice bag in the freezer. “Fine, Ani. I give up.”

“Thank you.” I mumbled to myself before running up the rest of the steps and throwing open the door of my room. My bed was soft as I fell onto the deep purple blankets and let out a dramatic sigh. I winced when my arm hit the mattress a little too hard. I had lied; I was in pain, but not from being hit. The black truck came speeding at me as if I were its locked target, but I luckily tripped myself with my own foot and dodged it. There are some pros and cons of being clumsy enough to trip over flat surfaces.

Pro: You just might be able to escape from certain death.

Con: It hurts like the devil when you hit the ground.

I adjusted myself on the mattress so I was sitting up and my back was resting against my wall. Suddenly my phone vibrated in my pocket, so I had to move out of my comfortable position to dig it out.

“Hello?”

“Ello Mate!” An all-too-familiar voice giggled from the other end.

“Oh come on Jace, who are you trying to fool? You ain't no Australian.” I switched my phone to my other ear as I settled back into my former sitting position. I had met Jaycee in junior high when she ran into me and spilled her pasta down my brand-new sweater. Don't ask me how, but that mess sparked up a new friendship that would last for years.

“Yeah, whatever. I could totally pull off some British person though!”

I laughed and shook my head. She was always trying out new accents. “Of course you could. So what's up?”

“No, what's up with you? I want to tell you my news after you share yours.”

“Not a lot, I almost got killed by a truck about a half hour ago, no biggie.”

There was a short pause from the other line before Jaycee screamed so loud I had to hold the phone away from my ear to protect my ability to hear.

“You almost got killed! What the hell happened?”

“Nothing really. I was walking on the side of the road and this black truck came speeding at me.” I shrugged, even though she couldn't see me.

“Did your clumsy-ness save you again, Ani?” she laughed. Yeah, this isn't the first time I've escaped death by falling over.

“You know it! Who knew being able to trip over nothing would be so useful? Now what's your news?”

“Okay, well Jack's throwing one of his 'My Parents Aren't Home So Let's Trash The Place' parties, and we're invited!” Jaycee squealed. I didn't see what the big deal was; we were always invited to Jack's parties. He's like our brother.

“Oh cool, when is it?”

“It's tonight.” she said quieter. “Sorry, I found out with short notice.”