Power Switch

Chapter One

I was walking home when I saw her.

Her shoulder-length straight copper hair was shining as the morning sun hit it. She looked around worriedly before looking back down to her feet but I didn't think much of it. I gathered my courage and went to talk to her. At that point, I hadn't paid much attention but there were a few other people with her, of which I knew none.

"Hey!" I said, making myself known.

"Hey...," she said reluctantly, which I recognized but didn't say anything about. We continued making small talk and I tried being a bit flirtatious like I always was with her but not to an obvious extent. I guess one of her friends noticed because she stepped forwards, cutting our conversation short.

"What do you want?" asks the taller slender girl.

"Excuse me?"

"What do you want?" At this point, everyone else had moved out of earshot probably due to her intimidating appearance.

"..." I stayed quiet, not knowing what made me afraid of this girl.

She just stayed there for a moment but then walked back to the group and announced that I was coming with them.

I looked at them confused for a moment but didn't have time to object when she dragged me along.

They took me to the forest behind my neighborhood so I knew my way around fairly well. I followed them closely behind until we came upon a steep hillside with two pathways, one of which I already knew led to a dead end.

I gave Cassie a confused look and she just put a piece of her red hair behind her ear awkwardly.

"What are we doing exactly?" I asked a bit annoyed by this whole thing.

"Shh," the one that had made me come here shushed me.

I was about to ask for some explanation to this whole thing but then I noticed that one of the people with us, a guy a bit younger than me, seemed physically disturbed. Everyone had noticed by now but nobody did anything. After a bit, he started to look calmer.

"Are you okay, Ethan?" asked Cassie concerned.

He simply nodded and left me more confused than before.

"What just happened?" I asked and now everyone noticed me again but didn't answer. I looked at each and every one. Cassie was looking at the ground, the tall bossy one looked angry and annoyed and the rest were just looking at me silently except Ethan who seemed almost guilty in a way.

After a moment of silence, the tall one began talking. "Let's go," she said simply.

"Jade-" one of them tried to object but was stopped by one of Jade's glances.

I just followed her without arguing since I knew I would get nothing out of it. We walked a bit further down one of the paths until we were completely surrounded by trees.

I think Cassie was starting to get irritated because she snapped. "Okay, what's going on? What do you think you're doing Jade?"

Jade didn't say anything.

"No!" Cassie reacted angrily to something. "She's not doing this!"

"Well it's not your choice sweetheart," Jade says and looks at me.

I look around confused. I wasn't sure what I was about to agree to but it couldn't be that bad, could it?

"See? She doesn't even know what's going on, how can she agree to it?" says Cassie but I stop her by talking.