The time at the shopping center flew by quickly. We found a mattress but told Sam to keep looking just in case. The day was great considering Jake decided to tag along. He hasn’t said anything weird to me since yesterday in the hallway, I had reason to believe that was because Sam was here too. It was growing close to five-thirty, and we were just a few blocks away from the meeting place.“Do you mind if Callie and I go girl shopping in the outlet stores?” I asked, pointing ahead of us to a very lit, very pink shop that screamed girls only.“Yeah sure,” Sam said, Jake looked unhappy about the idea of going into a hot pink store.“Sam, why don’t we let the girls go and we go there?” Jake pointed to the guns and hunting supplies store next to the pink one.“Well…” Sam looked like he was on the edge of considering it.“We will be just next door, what could happen?” Callie said, tipping him over to persuasion.“Okay if it’s only next door… “ Sam said hesitantly.“Great come on Cal.” I gra
Smoke filled my lungs as trees burst into flames around me. Voices rang in my ears, they beckoned me to their side, they could easily take me captive. No one was here, where was everyone? I started to panic.“Just come to me. It will be easier for you.” Someone laughed to the left of me, “Running only prolongs the inevitable.”“Sam?” I call out, jumping over the fallen branches in my way. I was only answered with silence. Hunter and Callie weren’t anywhere to be seen either.A few moments later I emerged from the forest and came upon a large dirt hill. I squinted my eyes and saw a figure through all the smoke.“Sam!” I called, it was him, it had to be. I half-ran crawled up the steep hill, “Sam, he’s coming.” I came up behind him. The figure turned to face me, it wasn’t Sam at all but Nathan. He stared past me, almost like I wasn’t even there. His facial expressions looked scarily like Sam’s.“Collin.” Nathan called from the hill, “Come face me.” Collin? How did I not recognize his vo
Callie was scribbling furiously on her clipboard when I ran into the medical room. “Callie, have you heard the news?” I ran to her breathlessly. “Heard what?” She peaked quickly at me over the clipboard but before I could answer, Jen threw herself through the door. “The prisoner has escaped, stay here in the… Oh, hey Jamie,” Jen yelled. “The exchange has changed.” I found my voice after my breath finally caught up with me, “The new time is today at noon.” “What?” Jen exclaimed. “That’s no time at all to prepare,” Mrs. Cannon replied peeking out of her office, “But I’m guessing that’s Delazar’s plan, catch the other team off guard.” “I need to get to the study,” Jen said turning to leave. “Don’t go to the study, they are in the gym,” I replied, Jen, nodded back and left. When I turned back to Callie her clipboard was on the floor. “What happens if we don’t make it in time for the
Hours passed and it felt like before the van came to a stop. I heard voices outside of the van talking, that told me people were getting out of the vehicles and getting on with the plan. “I’ll wait with the van.” Mrs. Cannon said, “I won’t be of much use on the battlefield anyway.” A few more voices were speaking after her that weren’t very recognizable, and then the voices faded off. “Sounds like they are heading over to the meeting place,” I whispered to Callie. I crawled over to the door and slowly pushed it open with just a crack. When I saw no one, I pushed it a little further, but then a force stronger than mine flung the door completely open. “What are you doing here?” Mrs. Cannon exclaimed, then looked over at her daughter “Callie, you too?” “I wasn’t going to let her go alone now, was I?” Callie said, standing up and walking over to the doors. “Neither of you are supposed to be here at all.” She sighed heavily, “If S
We followed Leah through the trees to a large opening, we hung back behind a large tree and observed. Delazar’s covered the hillside, Sam hung back close to the forest, but not too far from the hill. He was too far away to call without drawing attention. Leah was about to walk over to Sam but stopped and stayed with us when Collin walked to the front of his group.“You have The Heir?” When Collin spoke out, a hush fell upon his group.“Where is Delazar?” Sam said.“On another errand.” You could hear the smile in his voice, “You will be doing business with me today.”“Where is the one I am trading for?” Sam continued. Two men stood on either side of a person walking to stand by Collin. The person had a bag over their head, you couldn’t tell who it was just by looking at them, but a feeling came over me, it was Nathan.“Where is Hunter?” Collin asked, shoving Nathan in front of him.“Here,” Sam motioned behind him and a few escorts brought hunter out of the forest, his hands were tied i
“Heads up!” was all I heard before I felt something slam into the back of my head, knocking me to the ground. Why did I bother coming today of all days? I could have stayed in my comfy bed. Oh, how beautiful the thought of you is you amazing, wonderful bed… But no, I chose to go to school and go to cheer practice. Where did that get me? Oh yeah, sprawled across the astroturf after a freaking football nailed me.“Holy crap! Jamie, are you okay?” Callie, yells from somewhere above me.“Ugh… Fine.” I blinked. She extended her hand toward me, and I took it, pulling myself up to my feet. Great, I just washed this uniform last night. With both hands, I quickly brushed off my uniform and pulled it back into place.“Collin! Watch it! You could have killed her,” Callie snapped at the quarterback as he stepped up to retrieve the ball. I see it now: Jamie Summers, death by football to the head. What a way to die.“I said heads up,” Collin shrugged, tossing the death ball to another team member.
Back at the apartment, Sam and I had dinner, and then I went to my room to shower and get ready for bed. It was only eight, but I’ve been enjoying my routine of watching a movie before bed. So, I crawled into my big fluffy comforter, flipped the TV on, and browsed the movie selection. Gojo stared at me with those big, crisscrossed eyes of his through his bowl.“Hungry?” I asked leaning over to grab his jar of floating fish food. He kept swimming at the side of the bowl until I dropped a pinch into his tank. I watched as he swallowed them whole. Within seconds he was back at the side of the glass begging for more.“Gojo, you eat too much.” I plopped three more pellets into his bowl. Unfazed by my comment, Gojo kept nipping away at the floating sticks at the surface of his tank. After finishing these last three off, he returned to the tank’s side again. I put my finger against the glass in front of him and moved my finger across the surface. Gojo followed my finger around in a complete
The next day of school went by quickly and peacefully. There wasn’t any sign of a new kid that Callie or I knew of. By the end of the day, I ruled it out as paranoia. I met Callie in the gym, and we went over a few cheers with the rest of the girls. After, Callie and I decided to go for a walk around the field track.“Have you heard of any new kid?” Callie asked as we left the gym.“Nope. Nada,” I sighed. “I’m beginning to rule it out as paranoia.”“Or, it could be that he skipped today,” Cal replied matter-of-factly, “In stalker code, one-o-one you are not supposed to get caught, aka not a good stalker. Maybe he is too embarrassed because he sucks.”“Something tells me I don’t think that’s it,” I laughed.“Miss Cannon?” We turned to see Mrs. Galvez walking out toward us, “Miss Cannon can I speak with you in my office please?” I turned to Callie, and she shrugged at me, meaning she also had no idea why she was being called to talk with a teacher.“I’ll be back,” Cal called over her sh