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Chapter 1: Something Rotten

It started the day school let out. How inconvenient. Oh, why don't I elaborate. I go to school only a mile away from my home, if I take the shortcut. I do that most days as long it's not snowing. I cut off the road about a block away from my high school, and head into the forest that extends to my backyard. I walk among the trees for a while. There's not a lot a wildlife, just an occasional frog or deer, and sometimes a squirrel. I reach a creek, the halfway mark, and climb onto the trunk crossing over the water that I had chopped down at the beginning of the year. As I made my way across, I noticed a strange stench coming from somewhere below me. Ugh, it smells like an animal died! Gross. I begin to hurry quicker towards my backyard. Suddenly, I step on what must have been a weak part of the trunk, and it cracks, my foot landing in a hollow cavity. The stench gets stronger. I cough and plug my nose, then pull my leg out and run home to take a shower because I'm sure I smell. As I dart between the trees I almost trip at least twice. I keep coughing, unable to get the rancid smell out of my nose. When I reach my yard, I dart inside then upstairs, drop my backpack in my room and rush to the shower. 

I'm glad to change out of the nicer clothes I wear to school and into a loose grey tee shirt and jean shorts. I tie my long dark hair into a messy bun and walk back to my kitchen to eat a snack. My mom comes out of our office, hugs me and says hello. "I'm going to a meeting later, so If you want to go to one of your friends houses down the street that's fine by me. How was school? Glad to be done?" She asks. "Yeah, very very happy," I sigh. She nods, squeezes my shoulder, gets a glass of water, and sits at the counter. "So, anything interesting happen today?" I could have said a million things. So much drama happens on the last day of school, especially at the end of freshman year. All the girls have their last shot for a while to get a boyfriend, and only one or two are ever even slightly successful. But I never have enough courage to go up and talk to any guys. Some of my friends have tried to get me to interact, but though I am a huge daredevil, I cannot talk to a peer of male gender for my life! My one friend actually can talk to guys, but she doesn't need too. She has a date that lives out of town, and she's going to visit him over the summer. I didn't feel like telling my mom all of this so I just simply replied, "Eh, nothing too different," which is also true in a way. She smirks and shakes her head, knowing that's not really true. My mom knows me too well. She turns and goes back into her office.

I pull my phone out of my backpack. I have a couple snapchats but those dont interest me. The notification that catches my eye is a sentence that reads 'New Text from Error.' It's probably a telemarketer. I should check it just in case. I pull up messages and am confused by what I see. '3333333333333' is what the message reads and there is nothing else, not even a phone number. I really did get a text from 'error.' It's probably an issue with messaging. My phone is so stupid. I check my snapchat and there is nothing interesting. My friend is on her way to visit her boyfriend. Her name is Julie. She sent me a selfie with the dog face grinning widely. I send her a smiling selfie back, telling her to keep in touch. After that, I  decide to go outside.

I put on a pair of blue high top converse and step outside, sticking my phone in my back pocket. I step into the cool woods to escape the sun's heat. I begin to jog over the sticks and stones studying the leaves below me. I follow an alternate path I made in the woods many years ago that heads away from the creek. I reach my favorite tree, a tall maple that stands in some flowery shrubs. I jump to reach the first branch and climb up as high as I can, then I crawl out onto a branch and sit down, looking out at the forest. From here, you can see the sunset over the trees when it's evening. A butterfly flies past my face, but as I hold out my hand to it it darts away. There is barely a breeze today, but when the wind does blow, it rustles the tree, and sometimes a leaf would flutter down past my face until it reached its place on the ground. I close my eyes and take in the soft, filtered sin rays. All of a sudden, I hear the crunching of the leaves below me and almost fall out of the tree because of what I see next.