The Boy in the Black Hoodie

Chapter 2

"Lacy you butthead!" I hear a voice shout at me.

I groan and throw my pillow over my head and pull the blanket up a bit more over me. "Shut up," I mumble.

I feel a body jump and land beside me on my bed, I poke open an eye, Derik. My nineteen year old, older brother.

"Get up Shrek!" he taunts turning his red haired head to face me.

"If I am Shrek," I groan, shutting my eyes again, "Does that make you Fiona? I mean, you have the hair."

"Hey! This face could never be a goblins!"

"Their ogres," I sigh, yawning.

"Whatever! But I defiantly don't have the face of an ogre! Especially a girl ogre!! I have been touched by the hand of God!" I feel him get up off of my bed, I open my eyes to see him throw open my curtains, immediately bathing him in sun light, his arms are extended and his eyes are closed with his head tipped back. I squint from the blinding light and frowning, burry my face back under my pillow.

"Derik!" I groan.

"Hey, it's time to get up sleeping ugly, it's already seven fifteen."

"It is?!" I shriek, bolting upright and turning my head to get a look at my alarm clock, the clock is flashing, 12:00 - 12:00 - 12:00.

"Yha the power went out last night", Derik says matter-of-a-factly.

"Gah!" I grunt rubbing my eyes and standing up to do a series of stretches and more groans. I have to be at school in forty five miutes.

Derik laughs at me and walks out of my room. I take a glance at myself in my mirror, my hair is in knots and I forgot to take off my makeup from yesterday, and it doesn't help that yesterday, I didn't take my makeup off from Lea's party. I look this a freaking racoon and I am bound to have like thirty new pimples.

I grab some grey sweatpants and a loose white hoodie, hey, it is Monday, Monday's are depressing.

I saunter out of my room and down the hall to the bathroom that Derik and I share. I throw my clothes on the floor, strip out of my pajama's and hop in the shower, letting the hot steam, gather around me until I have washed all the greasiness out of my hair and my skin has got too hot to stand being in here anymore.

I step out of the shower and dry myself off, then I throw my loose ensemble on, brushing my teeth at the same time. Once my hair is dry, I brush out the knots and throw my hair into a loose ponytail. I wipe off my eye makeup from the past couple days and wash my face with soap and water, happily discovering no new pimples, but my skin is still housing a few older ones on my forehead.

I lather on some sunscreen and after, dab on a bit of concealer and just a small dose of powder to make my skin less shiny. I do a light cat's eye, with my liquid liner and then I go to town with my mascara. I think that the eyes are the most beautiful part of the human face, especially when made up properly.

Once finished in the bathroom, I bolt down stairs, toast a bagel, lather it in cream cheese, grab my book bag and phone and yell, "I'm leaving!" up the stairs to my family and walk out the door, while munching on my cheesy bagel.

Now, this next part of my morning is always very tricky.

My parents and Derik don't know I am dating Kacey, they don't even want me dating even though I'm seventeen. But, every morning instead of taking the school bus, I walk to Kacey's place and he drives me. He has offered to pick me up at my place, but I don't want to risk my parents seeing him and then them starting to ask questions, so it's best just to stay on the down low.

So I walk quickly around our block, trying to look inconspicuous, as I then jump into a cluster of trees at the end of the street. Where I live, we have many small forests and groves of trees, it's kinda cool and you can sometimes find paths on them. Kacey lives in my neighbourhood, so instead of walking like a kilometer on the side walk to get to his house, I just take a fairly short path through the maze of trees.

It's late September and the leaves on the trees here are already changing to vibrant shades of oranges, browns, yellows and reds. The fallen leaves crunch under my feet as I walk the beaten path. I love this walk, even when it is fairly chilly, like today and the cool wind is nipping at my ears, nose and cheeks.

Then all of the sudden I spot a brown, rectangular object up ahead of me. Interested in it, I approach it to find out that it is a book. And it reads "The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin BY: Mark Twain."

I tilt my head looking at it, it looks really old, but the cover looks in pretty good condition. I bend over and pick it up inspecting it. But something feels off. . . I feel almost like I am being watched. . .

Then all of the sudden, I hear a crunch come from behind me, I turn around half surprised and half scared. There is a teenage boy probably about my age, maybe a year or two older standing about ten meters away from me. His hair is jet black and fairly short, kind of wispy at the front. His eyes look grey from here. He is wearing a pitch black hoodie along with edgy holes-everywhere jeans. He's pretty pale, really, pale actually, but, it suits him. He has on ear pierced with a little green stud in it.

He looks from me to the book in my hands, then back to me, raising an eyebrow. I look at the book that I am grasping, actually quite tightly and look back up at him. It's silent. Then. . .

"I'm Eric," the boy says, his voice is fairly low and really sexy, I wonder if he is a singer.

"Hi," I whisper. Why can't I talk? I am always talking!

"What's your name?" this Eric asks, the slight wind moving his hair ever so gently. I shiver just a little bit.

"La-La," I stutter, "Lacy."

"Well, Lacy," the boy says calmly, "I think you have something of mine."

I am confused for a moment and then I see him nod his head towards the book in my arms. "Oh!" I gasp and I slowly approach him, eyeing him like he is a wild animal and handing it out to him he takes it and gives me a little nod.

"Thanks."

"No prob," I gasp, shoving my hands into my hoodie pockets.

"Nice meeting you Lacy," he says gently and gives me a smile without teeth, just lips, turns around and walks away.

Once he is out of view, something catches my eye:

A large black bird swooping down from the sky it comes up to the nearest tree to me and perches on it. I realize it's a raven. And that it is also the same kind of bird I saw at the party on Friday. The pit comes back to my stomach.

What does this all mean?