Literal Beings

Prologue

"No no no, that's not-"
I stammered, trying to find the right words. The fact that I was running laps in gym wasn't helping very much.
"I mean, I tried talking to her for you," My bestfriend, Scarlet, looked over at me. She jogged up beside me as we spoke.
At the moment, I'm having clique problems. Everyone in my squad is fighting and I feel like the glue that is holding them together. Pathetic, I know. But right now, I can't afford to loose anyone, because I have no one else to turn to.
"Well? What did she say?" I jogged another lap with Scarlet, only two more to go.
"After what had happened, Colby didn't talk to me." Colby, one of my other bestfriends, is having a few problems. Yeah, maybe not a few, but I wish she'd just be friends with everyone again. Everyone in my group is acting like the world is ending. It's really not.
"Okay... I'll talk to her later then. She's mad at you and Cherylyn anyways." Cherylyn my third bestfriend, is known to be quite the saint. But during lunch earlier that day, she'd said a few horrible things. I didn't even know those words could come out of her mouth.
"I know but I don't really get why she's ignoring me... I think texting her over Snapchat would be the best thing I can do right now." Scarlet slowed down a bit as we closed in on the second lap.
"Text her? Seriously?"
"Yeah, seriously."
"Colby is coming over today, actually. We're having a sleepover."
"Wish I could come."
One more lap to go.
"Well what the hell would you say?" I change the subject, gasping for air as I headed over to the benches to grab my water bottle.
"That I don't know what I did wrong, I don't know. Do whatever Scar does to get out of bad situations."
"So lie?" I snort as I look at Scarlet. I take a sip from my water bottle as she gives me a displeased look.
The gym teacher calls us over, separating the boys and girls into two lines. Time for our dodge ball game. Thank god I'm good at this, I need practice to make softball tryouts.
If you couldn't already tell, I'm the athletic girl. The one who works their ass off to do like every single sport. Karate, softball, cheerleading, basketball, you name it.
I'm Alice Peters, sophomore, 16 years old. My friends usually call me Orange Shirt. Orange shirt is my field name, like when I'm playing a sport or something. Like in dodgeball right now, my friends call me Orange Shirt. I guess it gets my adrenaline pumping.
Scarlet and I get called into the same team. We head to our spots against the wall and wait for the whistle to be blown. The dodgeballs scatter in the middle of the room.
I push my heel against the padded wall, putting a hand on my knee. I took a deep breath; counting down from three.
One... two... three-
The whistle blows right on time. I lunge forward towards the balls, using my full speed. I grab two balls and take a few steps back, ready to get people out.
Scarlet comes up behind me, smiling.
"Why are you smiling so much?" I give her a snotty look as kids start throwing a few balls.
"I- watch out!" Just as I look back a ball comes flying at my face. My arm shoots up to block it, but misses by a few inches. I cuss as I sit down, out. Scarlet winks at me devilishly as she whips a ball at the kid who got me out. Misses.
I wait for someone to get the kid out, Logan, which takes longer than I thought it would. He's good. I would've taken him out if he'd hadn't smacked his ball at my face. Jeez.
Finally, someone got him out. I stand up and stretch, smiling. I high five Scarlet as she hands me a ball, which I immediately use to throw at a girl in the way back. It misses by a mile.
Scarlet looks at me and frowns, "Damn Orange, thought you could do better than that."
I scowl as I look back at her, "I don't... I don't know what's up with me today." I roll my wrist, wondering if something is affecting my throwing skills.
A ball flies right at me, I duck down just in time that it goes by. These kids are really stepping up their game.
I hop back up, Scarlet hands me another ball, I throw, I miss. I pout as she looks at me again.
Logan is back up. So is the other really good kid, Liam. Scarlet and I are the only two left standing on our team. We go to separate sides of the gym room as we take a ball each. I aim at Logan, expecting a clear shot since no one was in my way.
I throw the ball, with out aiming, and miss poorly. This so isn't me, I don't have the name Orange Shirt for nothing.
Just then Logan stops, so I stop too. I'm not paying attention to Scarlet or Liam, just Logan.
He has only one ball.
One ball, one shot, one hit.
I̶ n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ k̶n̶e̶w̶ h̶e̶ m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ t̶w̶o̶
He pulls back both his arms,
I d̶i̶d̶n̶t̶ look away for a split second-
And everything was pitch black