Forgive, Never Forget: Book 1

Chapter 2

(After school)

Nick was aimlessly dribbling his basketball from one sweaty hand to another. He juggled the ball from his hand so fast, his dull orange basketball -- which had black curves running through it -- looked like a big blur. Nick suddenly kicked into gear and started moving towards the basketball hoop on the concrete basketball court. He exhaled, closed his eyes and shoot for the goal. The basketball whirled in effortlessly and escaped through the hoop and slammed to the ground. Whack!

This was his normal after-school training regime -- or 'basketball sesh' as he called it. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and ran his fingers through his chestnut-brown hair. Nick's mysterious hazel eyes darted to his fallen cap and he dragged his converse joggers to where his cap lay. Nick picked it up and put it on his head so that the longer but of his cap was facing south.

"Nice one dude!" An eager voice cheered. Nick turned around. His best friend Ron Everett was approaching him, orange hair certainly standing out. His blue eyes seems to shine like sapphires and when you looked into those eyes, everything else in the world will seem to fade away with Ron's blue eyes locked into your memory. Ron seemed to be carrying his skateboard with no drops of sweat to be seen.

Ron was now standing next to Nick as they both proceeded to do their secret handshake.
"Dude, how are you so good at basketball?" Ron inquired.
"Well how are you so awesome on the half-pipe?"
"I must admit, I am a bit more than that."
Both of the boys chuckled.
"Hey man, why is Crystal over there?" Nick asked.

Both of the guys looked at the girl with a cute ebony-black fringe and ebony-black fringe and similar hair a little past her shoulders. She gripped a creased note in her left hand and started to walk towards them. Nick noticed those chocolate-brown eyes become more distinctive on Crystal's blushing face.

"Nick, by the way, that was a seriously intense basketball game against Daniel yesterday." Crystal complimented.
"So what've you come here fie other than to congratulate my bro, over here?" Ron raised his eyebrows.
"After you guys had won that game -- which I was watching -- I went over to sit by a rock and Daniel threw a note over to me with a furious and tyrannical expression.
He said 'give this to your guy Nick,' and he walked away."

"Your guy?" Nick asked while Ron had an 'ooh!' moment that he kept for himself.
Crystal scoffed. "It doesn't matter. Here's what the note said:"
Crystal opened up the creased note. It was scrawled in big bold letters and the writing seemed almost perfectly neat. It said:

"YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE!! MEET ME BACK HERE AT OUR LAST BASKETBALL GAME. WE WANT SOMETHING FROM YOUR FRIEND CRYSTAL. SHE HAS BEEN HIDING SOMETHING FROM YOU -- FOR ALL THESE YEARS..."
- Daniel.

Nick scrunched up the note into a ball and threw it close to where Crystal was standing. She winced a little bit, despite it not touching her at all.
"Now we know you're hiding something," Nick replied in a scary but gentle voice.
"So now it's time to confess Crystal..." A voice finished Nick's sentence. It sounded strangely familiar and everyone shivered in fear when the voice had spoken. They turned around, and there stood Daniel...