Road to Someplace

Chapter Fourteen

 A few days later, Hailey and I were in the backyard, chatting. It was getting late, probably around eight or so. We had some lawn chairs set up, nothing fancy. The chairs themselves were rather fragile; I had already, by that point, ripped through the seat of one by sitting down too hard. The two of us had flashlights, and we were telling stories, which mainly consisted of me talking about all the stupid things Raveena had roped me into. Hailey laughed a lot, giving me little pats on the arm when I sighed. We eventually reached a point in the conversation where everything slowed down. All we could really hear were annoying bugs chirping in the distance, their call a shrill siren.

It was incredibly humid outside, and I was drenched with sweat. I was foolishly barefooted, so I had to swat at bugs every few seconds. The grass itched at my legs, and I felt like there was a swarm of insects crawling up my leg whenever I kept my feet in place for too long. Hailey seemed rather unaffected, although she was sweating, her neck, shoulders, and arms glistening with sweat.

The only thing we really had to stave off the heat was a small spray-bottle of water. We were both too lazy to dash inside and fill it up, so we restricted ourselves to using it sparingly. It had been baking in the heat for a while. Its temperature barely differed from the torrid heat beating down on us, but it was at least a bit of relief.

The serene peacefulness of the backyard was interrupted by no other than Raveena. At that point, I was already convinced that Raveena was on a mission to crash any peaceful event in near proximity to her.

The Lloyds house is on a corner, one of the last houses on its block. One of the fence sides separates the yard from the sidewalk. The fence on that side was just like all the others, painted a deep, rich green, lined beside some short, stumpy bushes. There was a gate on the side facing the road, as well as two more around the yard. However, Raveena valued connivence and stupid thrill over walking a few feet over and unlatching a gate. She ran full-speed, leaping just as she was about to crash into the fence. She almost landed in the bushes, but she managed to stick her landing right in front of them. She landed in a crouching position, her head tucked into her chest and her arms sticking out behind her. She raised her head, a grin on her face as Hailey gave her a round of light applause. Raveena stood up fully, laughing and dusting off her shirt.

"Thank you, thank you, no applause, money will do," She announced, taking a bow. I rolled my eyes, snorting. Hailey let out a giggle, and went to fetch a chair for Raveena.

"I'll be right back!" Hailey called, glancing over her shoulder as she headed to the garage. Raveena took Hailey's chair. It was sturdier than mine, so it didn't creak and groan when Raveena sunk into it. I wasn't really looking at her at first, just staring off into the distance, fanning myself as the sun began to dip below the horizion. I glanced Raveena's way, only to find her face uncomfortably close, a creepy smile on her face. I yelped and jumped backwards, tipping over my chair. I fell into the ground, my chair's armrest digging into my back. Raveena laughed, her cackling loud and uncontrollable.

Somewhere along the line, Raveena spied the water sprayer on the ground. It had fallen from my chair's cup holder when I had fallen. Just as I began to sit up, rubbing at my sore back, Raveena spritzed me in the face with water, most of it landing in my eyes. I let out another rather embarrassing yelp. I flailed around blindly, trying to smack Raveena's legs. Raveena snorted and ran off. I chased after her, stumbling and falling down due to my temporary loss in vision. She kept spraying copious amounts of water into my face whenever I got too close.

So, that's how Hailey found the two of us in the backyard, me chasing after Raveena and running into trees as she sprayed me with water and yelled 'Aback, you!' and plenty of other exclamations.