Initiation

The Initiation

"Sundown to sunup. Them's the rules. You wanna play you gotta pay baby. You in?"

Hazel tried to swallow, but the muscles in her throat refused to comply. Her brain went into Sherlock mode trying to figure out every scenario that could happen and any loophole to get out of it. There wasn't one that would help her save face and stay part of the group, except accepting the challenge. She shrugged her shoulders and crossed her arms defiantly.

"I'm in dickwad. But no Impractical Joker shit. I just lay low for one night. No pranks or interference. You swear?"

Calvin laughed and spit on his hand before thrusting it out. Hazel reluctantly spit on her own and grabbed his firmly. Afterward she quickly knelt and smeared her palm on the damp grass to rid the wad of sticky phlegm that had sealed their promise.

"Don't worry about that, princess. We wouldn't be caught alive in that cemetery overnight. We've all heard the stories." he nudged Tru in the ribs as he spoke causing her to give him an annoyed slit eyed look.

"This whole thing is stupid if you ask me." Tru said as she made criss cross indents with her fingernail in the center of a red raised mosquito bite on the side of her ankle. She raised her wide blue eyes at Hazel and with an almost pleading tone said "Take the gauntlet Hazel. The swim across the channel is easy if you time it right. And it doesn't matter that it's night, there's nothing to bump into in the water. No one has picked the cemetery in years. There's a reason for that."

Hazel licked her dry lips and stared into the fire wishing the dancing orange flames could give her a signal. She trusted Tru, more than she trusted anyone else in the group but swimming and her had never gotten along. Turns out almost drowning once is enough to give you a lifetime of fear and anxiety. Just thinking about getting into the water at night made her palms sweaty and her heart find an abnormal pace announcing its fragility. No, she wouldn't take the water.

"I'm sticking. It's about time someone proved to you pansies that the cemetery stuff is bullshit. It's not haunted. Old man Smythe probably started those rumors himself to keep out the riff raff." Hazel spoke with the confidence of a well trained academy award winning actress. She wouldn't let them see her fear. Not today, not ever. Fear meant a weak spot, and a weak spot gets used against you.

Calvin spit in the fire. Sizzles rose from the dry logs and the flames moved around as if to protest the intrusion. Hazel saw, just for an instant a picture in the flames. Nothing she could identify or make sense of, but it was there. She struggled to move the topic to anything else but her initiation.

"What's with you and spitting Calvin?"

He snapped his head towards her, smiled, and squared his meaty round shoulders. "I like spitting. Sue me"

Leon giggled. "It's disgusting man. Leaving your nasty mucous all over. You're probably spreading STD's all over town"

Calvin smirked. "What? Your momma's got an STD now? That's ok man, she's worth it!"

Leon jumped up from his makeshift seat of a piece of old birch and dove at Calvin who retaliated by punching him in the side of the head. They began rolling around among the pine cones littering the forest floor. The thumps and groans in tandem with the crackling of the dried leftover leaves.

Kayla moved from her spot next to Calvin to avoid being pummeled in the action and wiggled in next to Tru and Hazel on the rotting log. They ignored the guys who were now acting Neanderthal rolling and grunting like animals in heat.

It was always the same. Boys puffing up and displaying dominance, the girls not watching to show to prove they didn't care. This was Hazel's fifth town in five years. It was Groundhog Day. Every town, every group of teens. Just change the faces and the names and it was one big loop. Each time she told herself she wouldn't play the game, but being stuck in the loop was her part of the game and being a part of a group was as necessary for her as breathing.