Lion's Gift

Chapter 16

The game goes on for a couple more rounds, but the bottle never lands on me or Noah again. Soon, everyone's a bit bored, and I keep my relaxed façade until I feel someone staring at my direction; there is a prickling feeling in the back of my neck. Varun stands a couple of yards behind me at the public volleyball net, wearing a black t-shirt and shorts, with a volleyball in his hands. He waves at me though I subtly shake my head.

I examine him. He's looks as if he just arrived and is playing volleyball with his friends. Before I can warn him not to, he shouts to me across the distance between us.

"Hey, Vee, you want to join us?" he shouts, and everyone hears, staring at me.

"Vivienne?" Noah asks, squinting at me. I flash everyone in the group a grin before quickly getting up, pulling Caspian with me. From the other side of the circle, Belle also rises, standing with us, while Julie stifles her laughter.

"Hey, guys," I say a little cheekily, some of the group stunned and the others getting up.

"On my mark," I tell them under my breath, while the other teenagers bombard us with questions. Some look very angry at the deception. I count down from three and as soon as I whisper one, we all bolt for the chairs, pulling our stuff with us, and we sprint to the parking lot. I slow down so Belle and Caspian can catch up, and in that moment I see a whole group of teenagers chasing us, their phones clicking, trying to catch pictures of me. Noah and Sophie lead the group; Sophie looking murderous while Noah looks determined to catch me.

"Hey," Noah yells, his voice getting lost to the breeze, "Vivienne! Wait up!" The others are all calling for us to stop and talk to them, some asking me how I changed my body in one day, and others asking for pictures.

I throw my laughter to the wind and finally reach the Jeep. I swing myself in and start the car while Caspian and Belle get in.

I drive off so fast the tires make a squealing sound and dark marks on the road before we peel out of the parking lot. We are all laughing; I keep myself straight in the driver's seat, Belle is doubled over in the passenger's seat, and Caspian is gasping for breath behind me. I look in the rear-view mirror and see one last glimpse of the group of teenagers gasping for breath and collapsing in the middle of the parking lot, the other visitors staring at them weirdly.

I drive off the main road and park the Jeep in the parking lot of a small gas station that is a little ways from the town limits. All three of us can't stop laughing.

"D-did you see Julie laughing?" Belle stammers out in the middle of her laughter.

"Yeah, but did you see Noah and Sophie's faces?" I say, giggling. We all start on another bout of laughter. After I become more sober, I start the Jeep and get back onto the main road, keeping within the speed limit while we decide where to go next. I look at my phone to see multiple texts from Julie, telling me that the kids are heading toward where we are; just outside town's south border.

"Okay, where to?" Caspian asks. I hum, thinking.

"Well, I kind of wanted to talk about what happened when Vee sent me a text saying you were about to get beat up," Belle announces in a cold tone. I stiffen and I sense Caspian tense.

As he tells her the story of how he thought the guys were a couple of his friends who he needed to confront about something, and they ended up being a couple of guys from a gang who needed money. When he refused they started beating him up, and after three punches to the stomach I showed up. Caspian goes on to explain in excruciating detail how I knocked out each of the boys. Belle gasps many times while my knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.