Fate By The Forest

chapter 1

             The forest's fog lifted above my ankles, and I could imagine eerie music playing, almost as if I was in a movie. My mind wandered off to how a movie scene would play out in these woods and suddenly a twig broke loudly behind me. Whirling around, no-one seems to be near but with my pulse speeding up, I begin to run ahead back to my house. Why did I have to take the scary shortcut at night? Stupid, stupid! Breath comes to me in short paces and a thought crosses my mind: "Well, here comes that movie scene I was thinking about." The only sound now was my own trampling over the twigs as I tried to not look behind me, petrified of what might cross my eyes. As a squirrel tramples the leaves in front of me, my breath hitches, then comes back to normal. I convince myself that the squirrel was the culprit all along and slow back down to my normal walking pace while my heart relaxes to match. The tinted blue of my window shutters is the first thing that comes to my line of sight, and I start to dull my steps to silently creep back through my window unnoticed. The backpack is the first to go through with a soft thud on my tan carpeted floor, then my head followed by the rest of my lean body. Placing my shoes by the door, my bag at the edge of my bed, closing my window, and throwing on some grey sweats and a black Nike hoodie, I pounce on my bed and go to turn the lamp off when I hear three barely audible taps at my window. Freezing, I wait to see if it was imaginary; a play into my fear from moments ago. I decide that whether it was real or not, I didn't want to know so I grab my phone and headphones and block out all sound with my audible book for the rest of the night.

             The sun blinds me before I can even open my eyes and I groan, realizing that I had hardly slept since I got back so late. I smack the pillow to my face and throw myself out of bed before I lose the will power to do so. The only steps I take to be ready before school consist of: a shower, putting my sweats and a t-shirt back on, brushing my teeth and hair, throwing on my slides, and grabbing my things to go. I'm ready within 15 minutes. Walking to school doesn't take long but I can normally finish at least half of a chapter of my audio book because I walk so leisurely everywhere I go. We'll skip the school summary – it was simply boring and useless and so when the last bell rang, I was the first one out the door. Or I would have been if Mrs. B hadn't stopped me to stay after for "a quick second to talk." Wanting to hurry and get this over with, I jog to her desk and make a puzzled face, even though I know exactly what this is about. My grades weren't what you would call great. One of Mrs. B's eyebrows was cocked as she handed a failed paper back to me. Hey, a D is actually passing so technically I'm in the clear. Clearly she isn't on the same page however, given the look on her face when she sees my smirk. I drop the smug look and stay silent, deciding it best if she spoke first.

"I know my class isn't your favorite Alex, but that's no excuse to not try. I can offer you a few extra credit points if you would like but only if you try to keep your grade up." Huh. Didn't see that one coming.

"Uh yeah, yeah. That works for me. Thank you." She gives me a few worksheets to do and I start my walk through the forest, which wasn't nearly as creepy in the light of day. It was quite serene.

A small stick hits the back of my shoulder and assuming it fell from a tree, I keep walking until two more hit me. I turn around to see a small girl, well, small compared to me, with long strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes wearing a smile. Shocked and confused, I say nothing and instead just stare at her.

She giggles lightly before a "Hey" comes out followed by "I'm Elle. You're in my seventh period? I saw you got pulled after class, hopefully you didn't get in any trouble. Anyway I heard you don't have the best grade in there and mine is decent so maybe you would want to partner up and study together sometime?"

Part 2??