The Strange Ride : The Beginning

II

So now that you've met my lovely group of friends, we can get to the fun part of the story.

It's been about two weeks since Shadow's suspension. He's back still causing trouble, just not obviously. Right now, we're in gym class playing basketball. The coach arranged us in teams of five. Shadow, Andrew, and I were placed on a team with our fellow classmates, Mike and Scott. MacKenzie found herself on a team with Ryan, Stacy, Lucas, and Michelle. Anthony's team comprised of Britney, Michael, Blake, and Lucy.

My team is scheduled to play against Myles's team. He isn't known to go down easily and his team wasn't playing around either. In the end, we managed a win by one point.

After class, everyone heads for the locker rooms to change out of their gym clothes. Afterwards, I meet up with The Outcasts in front the school. That's what Shadow calls our group of friends for some reason.

"You guys know what would be a good idea?" Shadow suggests.

"We're not playing Cops and Robbers again." MacKenzie says.

"See, I was going to say let's go see a movie. Since we have nothing else better to do." He says quietly.

"A movie?" I ask.

"Yeah. Let's go see the romantic action movie with the lovestruck spy." Anthony says.

"Sounds really cliché if you ask me. I say pass on the movie." I respond.

"What about a nice walk to the park? It's a nice day for a walk." Andrew suggests.

We all mumble in agreement and make our way towards this park around the corner from the school. As soon as we get there, Shadow pulls out a football from his backpack and rushes to the field along with Andrew and Anthony to start playing with some guys that were already there. As for MacKenzie and I, we head straight for the swings. I couldn't help but feel really childish but it didn't faze me. We sat there for a minute kicking rocks and talking about life. Somehow, it turned into a contest to see who can swing higher. I don't know why but I thought it was be the best idea to jump off the swing to see what happens. So I added some more power with a couple more swings and launch myself. I had to tuck and roll in order to prevent myself from getting a sprained ankle.

"What in the hell were you thinking, Scar? Had me worried and shit." MacKenzie exclaims.

"Chill out Kenzie, I'm perfectly fine. A little sand on my back isn't going to kill me." I chuckle.

"What if you got hurt?" She says while placing her hands on her hips.

"But I didn't though. Water under the bridge." I say dusting myself off. MacKenzie rolls her eyes and makes her way back to the swings. I follow and we just swing for a few more hours before MacKenzie suggests we go home before nightfall.

As we walk home, we discuss how our week in school went. Shadow got distracted by something shiny and went after it. We all followed to get him to his senses. He literally ran all the way across town chasing something we couldn't see. By the time we caught up to him, we were in front of the chemistry lab on the edge of town. He stopped to look at the building while we yelled at him to start walking home. Instead of turning around, he ran and jumped the fence surrounding the lab and disappeared into the night. We followed his path and found him next to a barrel with his hands cuffed.

"What do you think you're doing?" MacKenzie asks angrily while catching her breath. Shadow doesn't say anything. He reveals a smile amd opens his hands. It's a bat. This kid caught a damn bat.

"Put that thing down before you catch something." Andrew says.

"He's friendly." Shadow simply replies while petting the bat.