Timeless

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

            The next day, thankfully, was Saturday. I convinced my sister to hang out with me and my friends today instead of Ethan. Despite the age difference, I knew Starburst would get along with them. Starburst liked unique people, and if my friends weren’t unique, then I really don’t know what the hell they were.

            I woke up earlier than I normally did, got dressed, brushed my teeth, threw some Juicy Fruit in my pocket and went downstairs to meet Starburst. Our parents usually slept in on the weekends. Starburst and I biked to this park that London told us to meet her at.

            When we got there, we had to scout for London and her friends. This particular park was dense with trees around the open field where most people were hanging out. Leave it to London to want to be hidden.

            “Hunter! Hunter!”

            “Emily! Emily!”

            I saw Emily clumsily charging towards me from some invisible place in the trees. She was running surprisingly fast for someone so short and petite with a bad limp, sorta skipping only on her left leg, and I couldn’t really hear the sound of her footsteps because of how light she was shambling. It was like she was prancing on ice.

            “Hey, soft! Hunter! Hunter! Soft! ”

            Oh. Yeah, soft. I stopped walking and waited for her at the end of the pathway; it looked enchanted with all the trees angled just right so the sun shone through the leaves, making irregular shadows dance when the wind blew. I don’t remember when exactly, but it was only recently that Emily read Romeo and Juliet and after reading it, had started using “soft” for “wait.” The things you can learn from classics.

            “Okay.” I replied. I, in turn, after reading The Fault in Our Stars had begun using “okay” for “always.”

            “Hunter!” Emily stopped in front of me, out of breath but still smiling, leaning so far on her left side I thought she would just topple. She noticed Starburst for the first time, and a frozen expression crossed her features. I’d already told Starburst about her, so she just smiled and introduced herself.

            “What do your initials stand for?” Emily asked with her nose in her air as if trying to prove something, as if trying to keep Starburst out of our initials group. Or maybe she was just smelling for something; it would make sense. Out of everything to talk about and all the strange things that have been happening to me, I never once thought to mention the whole secret-story-of-names thing between us. Starburst looked hesitantly at me. I shrugged and raised my eyebrows. Well, what was I supposed to say?

               “My initials are SCE...so...”

            “Alright, cool. Now what do they stand for?” Emily pushed. Where was London? She’s so much better at talking to Emily than I am. Emily got into these mood swings where for just a moment, she’d act like a normal person. Unfortunately, the type of normal person she acted like was a normal stuck-up person. Thankfully, Starburst never got a chance to answer because a boy about my age ran up behind her and gently nudged her shoulder. Gone was the aggressive behavior and loopy Emily was back.

            “Come on,” the boy urged. He had these wide, innocent eyes. Like a puppy’s. He reminded me of a puppy actually with his shaggy head and hyper movements. Strange how all of London’s friends reminded me of some sort of animal. “You must be London’s new friends she keeps talking about. Hunter and...” The boy said politely.