Alex

I limp down to the playground 2 city blocks away. Eve and I have come to this playground since we were babies. It's got a big jungle gym, swings, see-saw, and a maze of 2 feet high tunnels. I decide to crawl to the middle of the maze where the cold wind can barely reach me, that is where I'll sleep. When I painfully reach my destination, I turned on my back. Right above me was a window looking up into the night sky, I could see nothing but stars. It took me a long time to drift off to sleep, worrying about Eve and my mom didn't help. I was awaken by someone pulling my ankle.

"Ow," I screamed sitting up, it had been my sprained ankle.

"Sorry," Eve said letting go.

"Hey Eve, you okay?" I asked, she was my first priority.

"Well," Eve paused."Yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened?" I said suddenly worried.

"Nothing," Eve said. I could tell she was hiding something she didn't want to talk about so I just let it go for now. "Here I snuck out a PB&J sandwich for you,"

"Aw, thanks," I said, eagerly grabbing the food and gobbling it down. Licking my fingers clean I asked "So what time is it?"

"When I left the house it was 6:30, I told Zac that I had to get to school early to finish up a project," Eve proudly said.

"Nice thinking kiddo, but why would you have to leave a whole hour earlier?" I asked.

"I don't know but he bought it," Eve replied.

"Okay well I'll go down to the sprinklers and just freshen up a bit if you want to come with," I said going towards the exit of the maze with my things.

"Sure why not," she said following.

When I had said "freshen up", all I really meant was get wet but Eve mad me get some soap from the bathroom, scrub it into my hair and on my body, and rinse off with the sprinklers. I then went back into the bathroom to put on my fresh set of clothes, a lot more work then I wanted to do with my body so sore but Eve said I'd look suspicious if I didn't do it. My ankle was now so swollen that my shoe didn't fit. I had to go to the nurse once we got to school to have her look at it. I had to come up with a story to tell her. Eve let me practically lean on her small, frail body all the way to school. Like I said, she is a tough little girl.

"Okay so how did this one happen?" Nurse Kalli asked. We had gotten to school 10 minutes before the bell so we were good.

"We were walking to school when a car swerved and hit me," I said, it was a weak story but all I could think of.

"And they reason why your shoe isn't on?" she prodded.

"After it happened my foot began to hurt so we took my shoe off to inspect it but it hurt to much to put back on," I suspected this question.

"And the car didn't even stop?," she asked.

"Nope," I said with a smile, to show I didn't care.

"Well then this is a hit-and-run, I have to call the police," she declared, reaching for the phone. I looked at Eve as her eyes opened wide.

"No no no," I quickly said. "I thought you said did the OTHER cars stop, they didn't, the one that hit me did but I didn't want to be rude and ask them for help. They were clearly in a hurry."

Nurse Kalli looked at me with suspicious eyes. "Are you telling me the truth?"

That is the one question I hate because I hate to tell a lie that is so direct. Yeah sure I can tell lies when it comes to telling someone how something happened but that's like story telling. But with this, I'm confirming that it's true. I didn't want to answer. "Yeah" I whispered so quietly that I could barely hear myself. When I looked up, I could tell that she knew what was going on in my mind and what I said.

"Okay well it's a sprain so we're going to have to call the hospital and your parents," Nurse Kalli said, still eying me.

"Okay but our dad is away, in California, so he won't be able to make it and our mom's at work so you can just call our mom's work phone," Eve said the usual lie. Our "dad" was always "away" at some far away place across seas or the country so only my mom would be called.

"Okay then," Nurse Kalli sighed picking up the phone. I hate this. Nurse Kalli is so innocent and obviously wants to help. Why can't I just convince myself to tell her the truth? Zac is still winning and I'm still scared of him, that's why.