In Your Dreams

Part 50

*Shennika's POV*

"Hey remember that tree we carved our initials into but were so rudely interrupted?" Ross rolled his eyes with a smile as he partly looked at me through his shades- which appeared quite big for his face but all the same suited him well.

"Yeah what about it?" I sighed thinking hard as we exited the alleyway onto a familiar cul-de-sac. "Wait." I stopped dead in my tracks, staring wide eyed to my own thoughts- realising where he was taking me. The tree, the field, the quad-bikers, Kelli, Billy, the incident! I slowly looked up meeting his confusion that Shanell and Bradley possessed also.

"You wanna go there!?" I shouted, suddenly feeling the impact of the day's heat. Ross looked at Shanell before giving me another confused look.

"Yeah what's the problem?" he frowned, "I thought maybe it'd inspire you."

"What the tree?" I snapped, flipping my hair back, "Ross what in your right mind would make you want to come back here!" I looked away, fiddling with my necklace nervously, "especially here of all places."

"Wait, Shennika, is 'here' the place where the quad-biking-" I shot a sharp look my sister's way making her choose her words carefully, "the um, thing happened to uh, Ross and Billy," she recoiled quietly looking distractively at the ground.

"Hey," Ross pushed back his slightly damp fringe, released a breath, then rolled his big brown eyes back at me, "listen, I didn't bring you here to upset you, I'm not upset by it so please don't be; I thought maybe the tree will get you inspired, you're an artist! Or have you forgotten? aren't you suppose to look past certain things and uncover the beauty that maybe there?" he shrugged grinning down at me.

"Uh, yes, but-"

"No buts!" Ross spoke with finalty ending the short disscussion. I simply-with a frown- let it be, since it was hot and I couldn't be bothered to argue, if he wanted to come back here then that's his decision, looks like i'm the only one whos actually learnt from him almost dying in the quad biking incident, so who'd want to come back here? oh yes its none other then the victim himself!

Bradley cheered sarcastically, "now let's go take a look at this tree and...the dirt track since we're here." Shanell slapped him on the arm before we all broke into laughter.

We continued down the road and ran the best we could through the tall grass then up the small hill to an old tree that was engraved beautifully with hundreds of initials. I ran a finger over some of the dentures seeing that some were freshly engraved and the ones that were old, maybe even by decades remained still visible.

"So you like what you see?" Ross asked still partly out of breath, I turned seeing him wriggle his eye brows at me; I played along before exploding into laughter pushing him lightly on the chest. "This tree is really something, look at all these initials! I wonder why this tree is so special."

Ross smiled sweetly before leading me around to the other side, where more initials and love hearts were located, "maybe this is why" he nodded at the tree. My eyes scanned the bark before landing upon what he was pointing at. I gasped a moment afterwards.

"It's kinda old but you can still see the lettering, my parents carved it here when our family first moved from Colorado. They moved here for us to pursue our dreams of performing, which, we did do so," he chuckled then cleared his throat, "my parents' love- me and my siblings have admired all our lives and I know there are a lot of loves on this tree but for me, my mum and dad's love for each other, is forever- which makes this tree special."

I smiled looking back at the tree and touched his parents smooth initials, "Mark and Stormie Lynch, a blessed love so inspiration, it seems almost genetic, because like them, their kids possess the same beautiful glint in their eyes; love shines through their family and remains everlasting in the most natural way," I added absentmindedly thinking out loud.

Ross rested his arm over my shoulder and grinned, "see this is why I brought you here for the inspiration and aw you really think my eyes are beautiful?"

"I was saying it metaphorically idiot," I laughed quickly running away before he could try and chase me to take it back. Shanell and Bradley laughed as they just finished edging their initials onto the tree next to ours.

The 4 of us took loads of random pictures and even dared to walk on the dirt racing track; I showed Shanell where the crash happened as well as the exact location where me and Kelli had our little battle.

"Hey guys!" Shanell called out, "how about we play a little game of badminton." Bradley shrugged while Ross looked at me for an answer as if I had to speak for both of us.

"Yeah sure, why not" I shouted back before jogging over to her bag that sat by the tree. I entered the shaded area and grabbed 2 badminton bats for me and Ross while Shanell searched through the rectangular bag for the shuttlecock.

"Ok, Shennika and Ross Vs myself and Bradley," my sister finalised as we moved to a part of the field that had enough square footage for us to  play. We stood not too far from the tree and not too near to the dirt bike track, but had plenty of space to move around freely. "Alright you guys ready?"

"Yeah we got this! try not to mess up," Ross said the last part to me pointedly, I gasped hitting him on the arm, how rude!

We played for like an hour and each time we kept getting further apart due to how far we kept hitting the shuttlecock.

The game played off in snippets; back and forth in a constant loop until it was clear we were growing restless; I watched Ross serve breathlessly; In return Shanell dived hitting it back with full strength in her swing; the shuttlecock flew past my head in an instant, deep into the tall grass behind me. I groaned feeling exhausted from the long game as I staggered to go find it.

I searched through the tall grass until my eyes lay upon what I was hunting for- the shuttlecock was further up from my hand. Just as I took a step forward an overly loud roar of an engine went off as if it were approaching. I carelessly looked up and gasped seeing a quad bike practically flying my way.

"Shennika watch out!" Ross yelled as he dashed over, pushing me hard out of harms way; we both fell to the ground in a motioned heartbeat. The quad bike had scratched his arm but he hadn't noticed, "you ok?" he searched my face with wide eyes.

I didn't register straight away what was happening- my mind was too transfixed for it to reflex. I was still frozen in shock but I somehow managed a nod; I took Ross' hand and stood up staring at the large cloud of dust that masked the quad bike and it's rider, "what the hell was that?"

"Better yet who the hell was that!" Ross clenched his fists tight as he too narrowed his eyes awaiting the dust cloud to clear so we could finally see who the crazy biker was.

More engines revved as 4 other quad bikes sped through the grass from different directions and parked by their leader, we were encircled. An intense moment passed before the dust cloud finally cleared. Shanell and Bradley stood next to us as the 4 of us watched intensively, anxiously waiting to see who the lead biker was....Then finally, she spoke.

"I told y'all I could ride" Kelli grinned taking off her leather gloves whilst smiling slyly to her gang members like she just proved a point.

Yep I knew coming here was a bad idea.

*