Emotions In Hiding (Ian Nelson)

Chapter 5

•Liana•

I sat on a small outdoor cushion wringing my hair dry when Tyler P.'s face lights up like a 3 year old and blurts out..

"Let's play man hunt!"

"Play what?" I ask, having never played the game before.

"Do not tell me you've never played man hunt." Dylan O. Pipes up behind me, coming up the stairs to the deck.

"Then I won't say I've never played man hunt." I say.

"Well we have to play now if you've never played." Ian says, sitting on the chair next to me.

"What am I hearing about man hunt?" Holland asks, coming out the door from inside onto the deck, now wearing a sweatshirt.

"Liana here has never played." Ian explained, gesturing to me.

"Seriously?" She asked dumbfounded.

"Seriously." Ian sighed.

"Ok, then it's settled. We're playing."

"Awesome. How do we explain the rules to Liana?" Tyler P. asked.

"I'll just stick with her the whole time." Ian suggested.

For some reason, my insides fluttered at the suggestion.

"If that's ok with you..." He continued, looking to me for an answer.

I nodded. "Yeah, that'd be pretty cool."

At this point, teams were made. The captains were Posey and Dylan O. Posey's team consisted of Tyler H, Dylan S., Holland and Arden. Dylan's team consisted of both Ians, and me.

"Alright then, it's settled. Now, who wants to hide and who wants to seek?" Posey asked, his excitement brimming.

No one answered, so Posey decided. His team would seek, and Dylan's would hide.

"GO!" Posey yelled, and I felt myself being tugged from where I was.

I turned and saw Ian pulling me by the arm in the opposite direction of Posey.

My legs finally kicked in, and I started running, eventually maintaining a speed equal to Ian's.

"Come on, this way." He told me, veering towards the left.

I followed him, and we ran in silence for about a minute before we came to an old looking shack. I looked to Ian dubiously, but he sent me a look of reassurance.

"What are we waiting for?" I asked.

"That." Ian answered, pointing to the left of us.

I looked, and saw Dylan and Ian running towards us.

"Oh."

They caught up to us, both catching their breaths."

"Excercise, I don't know how you do it." Dylan stated between breaths.

Ian just nodded in agreement.

"So what's our plan?" Dylan asked.

"Same as always." Ian said cockily.

"And that is.....?" I asked anyone.

"Oh, right.. Why don't we just show you?" Ian said, more as a question towards the others.

They nodded, and Ian opened the door to the decrepit shed. He went inside, and I followed. I was instantly greeted by the overwhelming smell of books and mold. My nose shriveled momentarily, before my senses adjusted. He walked over to a desk, underneath which there was a pile of boxes. He nudged them over with his foot, exposing a hatch in the floor. He opened it, and started climbing down a ladder on the inside. I peered down, and saw a hole about 20 feet deep. I looked at Ian dubiously.

"Don't worry, it's safe down here." He said, before descending.

I shrugged and began climbing down the ladder. When I got to the bottom, I stepped out of the way towards Ian. After Dylan and Ian descended, we walked.

******

We had been walking for what seemed like hours when we finally came to the end of the passage. There was another ladder leading up. Ian climbed first, peeked out the hatch, then opened it, allowing the rest of us outside.

"Grass! Sweet, sweet grass!" I cheered happily, kneeling down and feeling the natural green hair of the earth between my fingers.

My enjoyment was cut short when we heard hollering relatively close to us. We all shared a glance before making a quick plan.

"Ok, we all head back towards the house, then split once we hit the yard." Ian instructed.

We all nodded, and took off.

We all kept up a relatively quick pace, but the hollering seemed to be getting closer none the less. We reached the yard and Ian and Dylan went one way, and Ian pulled me along with him.

While running, I made the mistake of turning back, and ended up tripping over a tree root, falling quite ungracefully onto my knees. Ian helped to pull me up, but it slowed us down quite a bit.

When we made it to the front lawn, hell broke lose. Arden, Dylan S. and Tyler P. Flanked from one side, and Tyler H and Holland the other. Ian dragged me away from the middle of the lawn back around towards the backyard, just as Dylan got trapped By Arden and Holland. We made it to the back, and ducked behind pool maintenance equipment. As soon as we did, Dylan S and Tyler P caught up, searching for us. They looked right past our spot, and headed towards the woods.

I was about to stand from my spot when Ian gently pulled me back down. At first I wondered why, until Holland crept slowly into the backyard. She glanced around more carefully, and we avoided getting caught by one slight head tilt. She obviously didn't know Dylan and Tyler headed into the woods, so she had the same idea, and took off.

"Alright, I have a plan. by my calculations, Arden and Tyler H are still guarding the jail. I'm going to cause a distraction and take Arden around here, and into the woods."

"Away from the jail.." I finished.

"Exactly. Eventually, Tyler will get annoyed, and come around this way." He said, gesturing to my side, closest to the lawn.
"That's when you swoop in and free Dylan and Ian, and we win."

"Got it." I answered, ready to win.

"Ok good!" He said, before climbing over me quickly, placing a kiss on my temple, then jogging towards the front yard, belting lyrics to "American Idiot" by Green Day.

My fingers grazed my temples, and lingered for a few seconds, until I heard Ian's singing rising in volume, and a few seconds later, he and Arden flew past towards the woods.

I waited patiently until eventually, Tyler P ran right past me, and I waited until I could no longer see him to sprint towards the front of the house.

Sure enough, Ian and Dylan were sitting unguarded, and I ran over and tagged them free.

"Oh my god, you are damn good at this game for your first time." Ian yelled, hugging me.

"Awesome! We won!" Dylan bellowed, and surely enough, within a minute, Ian looped back, and all of us huddled in a celebratory manner as the other team sulked mockingly.

And this was the moment I knew.

I knew they were family.

And it's really nice to have this kind of family.

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Hey diddly go diddly reader-inos!

I know it's been a while, but holidays and school and blah blah blah.

But anyway, I have returned!

I hope you enjoy!

See you next time!

-Em-ily!