Painful Lullaby

We laughed our way to the trailer but before we got there the door whipped open and Abbie flew out, tackling Zoe, Veronica and I to the ground, which sent us into another (harder) fit of laughter. My heart squeezed as I realized that, if not for Jag, I might not be here, hugging her. We all filed into the camper, looking for a place to sit down. Kori and I sat on the bench thing on one side of the table and Veronica, Abbie and Zoe sat on the other side. Jag, Bryce, and Adam all sat on the couch. Donny sat on the armchair.

All the girls talked about stupid things, ranging from The Sims 2 to music. It might seem stupid, but telling tales of how Veronica married Bob Bryar and had six kids just to see her eye twitch is worth the yelling and slap that comes afterward. And talking about the time at Zoe's birthday party where people she didn't invite were running around her house was worth the fear and excitement the memory brought back. The guys didn't really say anything, but they did laugh, because they hadn't been around for a lot of what we talked about. Or they didn't understand our inside jokes.

After about two hours of talking, Zoe, Kori, and Veronica all got up to go to the bathroom since they'd had a contest to see who could drink the most Coca-Cola. Veronica had won, but they all majorly had to pee. So when they left, Abbie and I stretched our legs out on the bench, being crammed in a small space always gave me leg cramps...

It was silent for the time being, which was suprising. My jaw was already tired from all the talking and my mouth was dry. Jag smiled at me, and I couldn't help but smile back at him. Abbie seen this exchange and smiled at me, so I smiled back at her. And she smiled at Bryce, Donny and Adam, who all smiled back at her and then to me. Kori, Veronica, and Zoe all came in, and everyone smiled at them, and they all smiled at us, and eventually, we were all smiling at ourselves. Which made us laugh, but that's no surprise because mostly everything made us laugh when you put us in a room together.

"My mom said she's ordering pizza!" Veronica announced. Nobody knew what to say to that, so we smiled and laughed again at the awkwardness. My chest hurt from laughing so much already, but I knew that there would be just a little bit more to come. We usually got serious at night.

"Who wants to play...hide and seek!" Kori exclaimed, relieving us from our awkward laughing. We all jumped up and went outside. I know, 14-18 year olds playing hide and seek sound lame. But again, it's more fun that people think. Besides, who wants to be serious all the time?

"Let's do two people who count so that not only one person has to sit up here alone," Veronica suggested. She wasn't the only one who was scared by the idea of being alone outside surrounded by trees with people randomly hidden in them.

"I nominate myself to be a seeker," Kori declared, raising her hand.

"Ooh, I wanna be a seeker, too!" Bryce offered. They both went to sit at Veronica's swingset and told us that they would be counting to 100 and it seemed like a far enough number. They covered their faces and started counting as we ran off to find a place to hide. I automatically ran through some trees so that I'd be out of sight ran down to the very farthest edge of her yard. Some people were building a pond or something back there, so there were mounds of dirt surrounding a big hole. It seemed like a good enough place to not be seen at, but I chose to hide in a patch of weeds instead. I could hear someone whispering behind me. I shook it off as one of my friends, but pretty soon I heard 'that's her.' One of my friends probably wouldn't have to point out who's who...

I took off running like there was a murderer chasing me, which there very well could be for all I knew. But I wasn't looking back, I ran until I could see Veronica's house and didn't stop until I got to the swingset. Kori and Bryce were just saying "Ready or not, here we come."

"Roxie, the whole point of the game is to let us find you." Kori giggled. I gasped for breath, and I'm sure I looked terrified, because Bryce asked what was wrong.

"Someone...back...there," I gasped, pointing back behind the trees. Kori started looking scared, too.

"Come on, everyone! Game's over! Let's go inside!" Bryce called. I could hear groans as everyone headed back to the direction of the camper. I felt an arm around me and automatically recoiled against the touch.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jag asked, attempting to put his arm around me again. I hugged him close to me as we went into the camper. I shut (and locked) the door behind us. We all went and sat on the big bed that was in a whole separate room of the camper. All seven of us crammed onto the bed and for some reason it was shaking.

Wait, it wasn't shaking. I was.

"What happened?" Zoe asked, her voice thick with concern. Everyone was watching me with wide eyes.

"Well, I was hiding way out there, in the place where the weeds are really long. And I heard some people talking, but I just figured it was one of you guys," I motioned at everyone, "until one of them said 'that's her!' I knew none of you would have to point out who I was, and I hadn't heard anyone call that they were looking for us now. So, I just ran as fast as I could to get away."

It was really quiet for a moment, which was weird. Suddenly, there was a bang on the door. I squealed and Zoe and Kori shreiked.

"Veronica, open this door right now!" Mom Smith said. Yes, we all called Veronica's mom 'Mom Smith' because Smith was Veronica's last name.

"Guys, get off the bed!" Veronica hissed as she stood up to get the pizza. They guys scrambled to get off the bed in the few seconds that it took to get to the door and open it. Kori and Zoe took some of my hair in their hands and started braiding it like they'd been doing it the entire time. Veronica opened the door and grabbed the pizza, closing the door before her mom could ask any questions. She set it down on the table and pulled some plates out of the cupboard.

"Come and get it!" she called, like they did in the movies, making us laugh and forget my problem. I was just happy to be there, and not wherever a person goes after death.