The Forest Keeps

Chapter One: How many gnats

Silverton falls is a small town and let me tell you the thing about small towns, they're cute, everywhere, every store or restaurant even the attractions(if any) feel like this little hole in the wall place which is great until the first couple of days have past when it is no longer cute, it is cramped and boring, and there is nothing to do because you soon find out how shitty the wifi is. Except perhaps frolic around in the woods, which luckily, Silverton has.

Frolicking around in the woods is a great way to spend time because unlike Silverton the woods actually change (I'm pretty sure this town has kept all of the original buildings). The forest is like 200 acres so it's pretty difficult to run into people its only nature it's nice.

I actually like to be outside, old Mrs. Wilson says that I'm a "natural phenomenon to be cherished" because I don't use my phone that often, again, shitty wifi. Mrs. Wilson is in the town coffee & tea shop, 'Donnalds Drinks & Pastries' almost every day, I didn't know how fast you could get to know someone until I moved here I think I know practically everything about Mrs. Wilson there is to know now, I only moved here a couple of months ago.

I go into 'Donnalds' relatively frequently after school and she always insists that I sit with her, apparently, all of her grandkids are either in college or off at some boarding school which seems kind of odd for a place like this but people are like that sometimes. Shes actually pretty interesting though and likes to talk about thing I consider important shes pretty cool for an old lady.

We talk about a lot of stuff sometimes it's just weird fluff or how she basically has a whole library in her house and has owned and continues to own several birds, or sometimes she cut straight to the meat of an issue like she was doing today because I happened to bring up how,

"People are always talking about how many spiders you eat while you're asleep per year, what I want to know is how many gnats fly in your ears per year? That's way more freaky."

Mrs. Wilson got very interested in this; was firstly very concerned that I thought of this and secondly wanted to figure this out immediately so we went on a wild goose chase down an internet rabbit hole that gave us no results, this took much longer than it should have due to the shitty wifi so now I'm in the library it's 11:15 at night and I'm trying to figure out how many gnats fly into your ear on a yearly basis I don't know why I did this, what book would I find this in? If there ever was such a book it would probably be banned this is clearly forbidden knowledge.

Ugh I think I had to much mountain dew.

Walking out of the library at night is weird. Especially when you hear wolves howling while you're walking home. I want to say I'm too tired to care but that would be a blatant lie they sound beautiful, and absolutely fascinating and like if I listen hard enough, I can understand which is ridiculous I know but-

"AGH, ow ow ow I really need to pay attention to where I'm going." I rub my knees, blood. "I need to get home before I bleed all over my new docs.", yes I know, very edgy of me but what can I say if I ever need to stomp on someone I can 100% do so, right now I want to stomp on pavement cracks that have clearly been here for over ten years but that would probably just make it worse. At least walking doesn't hurt. I wash off my knees at home, put some Neosporin on them and crash in bed.

"Hey its time to get up!"

"What?"

"Up! your alarm clock already went off its 7:45."

I throw off my covers, "What?!?! Why didn't you wake me up sooner?!?!"

"I figured you were just dicking off in here."

Pants where The Fuck are my pants.

"Sister dearest I love you but if I don't come out before 7:20, I. AM. ASLEEP."

Yesssss.

"Okay okay, I considered you might have been asleep so I got your food shit done."

I tug on my pants, "Ohhhh thank you you are a lifesaver I'm going to finish getting ready and bolt."

I sprint into the linoleum tiled kitchen and nearly avoid stepping on the cat

"Sorry buddy!"

"Hey hey hey don't kill my cat."

"Sorry sorry, they're having us do the hiking seminar today, even though we're going next week. It's so dumb."

"I mean better to get it over with you'll have more time to hike.",  I walk over to the door, sling my backpack over my shoulder and yell, "Logic, this early in the morning? I don't think so!"

I move my legs as fast as I can.

I hear my sister yell after me, "Hey you didn't eat your breakfast!"

Turns out I can go faster.

I arrive at the school, with my chest heaving. Holy shit I am out of breath, that was real sprinting not some suburban mom shuffle, I'm just glad P.E. is next semester. There's a tap on my shoulder, I spin around.

"Libby you're here!"

She flips her long dark hair "Uh, duh."

We both extend our arms and wrap each other in a massive bear hug.

"Ugh, I'm so glad to see you."

"Dude chill its only been like two weeks that we've not talked in person."

"Well excuse me Mr. 'Libby you're here!'" She feigns swooning, "To macho to be excited to see your best friend, huh?"

"Pshhh, Dork."

We walk into the auditorium together. Even though there are only about 6oo students its still so loud my ears are buzzing. The principal taps the mic and we look up to the stage.

"Listen up children!"

⊙_______________________________________________________________________________________⊙
Authors note: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Please give me feedback on anything that I might be able to improve on!
Thank you for reading!!!!!!😁