Se7en (Haunted)

Chapter 2

If you would've told me twenty-four hours ago that I would be at the store buying supplies for a spring break trip where me and seven of my classmates will be staying four nights at an abandoned, and possibly haunted, house in the mackinaw forest, I wouldn't have believed you.

But here I am, with those same insane seven classmates stocking a cart with flashlights, sleeping bags, and cheeze-itz.

"I still can't believe we're actually going to do this" I say.

"Ooh now Ryanne's gonna be the pussy. Come on girl, I thought you'd be better than that." Bryson replied.

"I am, really! I just can't believe a classroom argument turned into us all lying to our parents and risking our lives just to have an exciting spring break."

But that's exactly what had happened here. After the initial insults and accusations yesterday in home room subsided, Katy decided she was going to speak up.

"Guys, I know you were just teasing Lexi and all, but what if we actually went up there?"

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Hunter was the first to answer her question, "what do we tell our parents? 'Hey mom, hey dad, me and a few dumbasses from home room decided to spend our spring break in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and it might be haunted.'"

"It's not the middle of nowhere, it's only like 45 minutes to the closest town." Lexi interjected.

"Oh well if it's only 45 minutes I'm sure they'll be okay with it." Everyone noted the sarcasm.

After thinking for a minute Bryson came up with a plan that was so 90's sitcom, it may just work, "Okay, so my parents don't give a shit where I am any other time, so hear me out. We all lie."

"And how do we come up with a lie that'll cover our asses for the entirety of spring break?" Shay asked.

"Let me finish and then ask your damn questions, okay?" Lexi recoiled at his harsh tone.

"Okay, so let's just say I have grandparents living in Florida, why wouldn't I visit them every now and again?"

"I thought this was about Lexi's parents house in the woods?" Mason asked, and then quickly regretted it due to Bryson's glare that he shot his way. Mason put his hands up as if surrendering and then nodded for Bryson to continue.

"I don't actually have grandparents in Florida, or even grandparents at all as far as I know. I'm just saying no ones going to be checking the plans with my parents because no one really knows where they are at any given time anymore."

"So you're saying we tell them we're going on a trip to Florida over spring break, but we're going to mackinaw instead?" I asked to clear any confusion.

"Wow. Pretty AND stupid!" Bryson answered and smirked when I shot him a look similar to his signature glare. "Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. So who's in?"

Everyone looked at each other for a minute exchanging shocked looks which began to turn into "why not?" shrugs. Finally Mason answered saying,

"Okay, let's say we all agree, how do we get there? Obviously our parents will drive us to the airport, what do we do from there?"

"I have a car." Everyone turned to look at Colton as if they heard his reply from Jesus Christ himself.

"He speaks!" Hunter says while throwing his hands in the air similar to how he does after he scores a touchdown.

"Yeah, sometimes I do that. Anyway, I have my own car and I can just tell my folks I'm leaving it at the airport."

"You're a good man Colt." Bryson says as he slaps Colton on the back. Colton winces as Bryson continues. "I have a car as well, so four can ride in his and four can ride with me."

"We're actually going to do this?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah sweetheart, we're gonna take risks. We're gonna live on the edge. We're gonna have fun. We're-"

"Okay wait, flights aren't exactly cheap, my dad knows I'll need to use his money, what are we going to do when he sees I didn't put a cent on my credit card?" Lexi asked.

"If I convince my parents to let me go, I'm going to feel totally shitty if I keep their money and spend it on something else" Katy added.

"I mean we will need supplies if we're camping out all weekend, and technically we would be spending the money on spring break.." Mason suggested.

"Well then" Bryson smiled, "anyone up for a shopping trip?"

And that conversation is what led us here, to Wal-Mart where we raided the camping section and where Hunter is currently nearly wiping clean their snack food section. Not to mention the fact that he already downed half a bag of funions which I really hope he intends to pay for.

Mason laughs when he sees my concerned look and slaps Hunter on the butt in that football-player-way and says, "Slow down Hunter you're scaring the girl. I swear, if it weren't for baseball and football you'd be pushing 500."

Mason's right, the boy is constantly eating. And although Hunter isn't the skinniest guy, he's definitely not what I'd consider fat. At nearly six-four, he's one of the tallest guys in our graduating class of eighty-three students. Even though our school is on the small end of the spectrum, he still finds plenty of girls to date. He can just walk into a room and girls flock to him. And why wouldn't they? He's got that typical football player build where he could probably lift three of them at a time. He has brown eyes and dirty blonde hair which he typically keeps at a shorter length. He definitely has the sporty guy look. I've personally never been into sporty guys, other than Mason. He's admitably one of the best looking guy at Farwell High.

"I'm gonna pay for it girl, who do you think I am?" Hunter said with mock sass and a snap as he turned to me.

Well as long as that's settled "If you can eat a full bag of chips before we even make it to check out, how are we gonna make our food last all weekend?"

"Now you see why we needed two carts" Mason said and smiled at me. That signature smile is enough to make any girl melt. Unlike Hunter, Mason barely reached six foot and isn't quite so bulky. But he does have a defined muscle tone which he spends hours out of his week perfecting. He has messy, curly brown hair and piercing blue eyes that get you every time you look into them.

As I said, Mason is without a doubt the hottest guy in school. We had a short lived romance back in sophomore year, but it got put on hold that summer when I went away for five weeks to go to India for a cultures class trip, and he stayed home and lost his virginity. I don't know all the details, I just know it happened when he went to the lake with some friends, and he hasn't seen the girl since.

I'd like to think it wouldn't have happened if we weren't on a break from each other, but either way we never picked up from where we left off.

"Well that's fine and all, but if he's going to devour most of it himself, he can push this damned thing!" Shay says as she pushes the cart to in front of Hunter.

"I don't know, it looks pretty heavy," Hunter teases. Shay mutters something under her breath and starts to walk away. "Oh come on I was only kidding, it's only sorta heavy!"

We all mentally run through the list we had thought up of things we needed to buy and then headed to check out. After we loaded everything into Bryson's car we all headed to our own cars and went our separate ways.

Once I got home I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. I've never gone away from home without an adult before. As an only child, my parents and I get to go on vacation at least once a year, but I've never gone on a trip quite like this before. Maybe if I wasn't lying to their face about it, I wouldn't feel so uneasy going without my parents.

I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow. Without official permission. With seven classmates who don't always get along. In the woods. Forty minutes from civilization. To a haunted house.

An uneasy feeling started rising in my chest.

What am I getting myself into?