The Beginning: A Novel of Crossed Paths

Chapter 6: Key Carefulness - Mark

 Dear readers,

Sorry I haven't updated in forever - I actually just found this in draft form already on Wattpad. I was probably going to look over it once more before uploading it, but I've paused progress on this story for now. I am going to try to eventually start it back up again, but I don't know how long that will be. I'm sorry in advance.

Abookats

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Chapter 6

Key Carefulness

Mark

Crick.  Crackle-crk.  Shatter!  Darn it.  That was my fifth try today.

I was hanging out at my stream after school, trying to manage to get my ice to stop cracking and shattering after I stopped concentrating on it.  I was not having much luck.

I could now get the ice to stay frozen after I stopped concentrating, but the only shapes that would stay together without cracking were spheres - that was not enough for me to make my idea that I had gotten the night of the disastrous Back to School Dance.

Eventually I planned on showing Scarlett, even if I did not say it was me specifically who made the sculpture I was planning.  That would probably be too weird for even Scarlett to handle.

I decided that that was enough for this afternoon.  I would probably come back after dark like I had been for the last few weeks or so.

As I began the mile run back to my house, I thought I might take a little side trip and see the rest of the stream.  I had only even been to my one spot along its length, and I thought I was due for a little bit of sight seeing.

A few miles from where I had started, I came across a weird scent.  I could have sworn it was Scarlett’s scent, that same cinnamony smell that I had come to associate with her.  I had no clue what she would be doing out in the woods this far from the overgrown trails.  Maybe I had mistaken the scent, but I doubted it.

Decidedly thinking that I had enough weirdness for the day, I turned around and ran back to my house to get to work on beating that high score of Scarlett’s.

As I walked in the front door, my mom stopped me in the kitchen before I could escape to my room.

“I hope you’re not doing anything illegal like arson out in the woods in the afternoons,” she said, not giving a care in the world that I was out in the woods alone.  She knew I could take care of myself.

“No, mom,” I replied snottily, “I’m not.  I’m working on something.”

She shrugged her shoulders.  “Well, at least you’re making good use of your free time instead of playing those computer games like you like to do.”

I rolled my eyes.  Scholars.

I walked up the stairs and into my bedroom, sitting at the now familiar computer chair.  I had been spending a lot of time there in the past few weeks, both trying to beat Scarlett’s high score and finishing up her survey - which I had gotten done by the way.  It took a while, but I did.

Scarlett had not sprung any more unexpected surveys on me, and I do not think I answered any of the questions in a way that she could find the answers offensive later.  I also was taking care to answer my own questions when she answered them as well - I did not want to give her an excuse to do it again.

Other than the obnoxious Q&A sheet, Scarlett was just as lively as ever.  I loved her even more for it too, bouncing back the way she had.  Not many girls had the resilience she had, even if she did have her quirks.  Her silence, for one, and the way her eyes turned red or purple when she was annoyed, which happened occasionally, even when I was with her trying not to be annoying.