Tomboys Don't Do That

What would you do if your cat burst out of your window with you on its back? Ask Dani Holtz.

This is a story I found on my computer from a year ago. This was written by Scarlett by the way...

I woke up in a cold sweat. I sat up and wiped the liquid from my brow. The fan up above produced a rather soothing, monotonous hum, like the summer bugs, chirping from their trees. I forced myself out of bed and walked to the window, too awake to fall asleep.

The trees around my house produced an eerie shadow that cast down on her front porch. On the porch I could hear my mom talking, rocking back and forth in the hammock. All was right with the world.

The farmland that stretched away from my house lay in shadow, with the tall blades of grass swaying in the warm breeze. The dream had escaped my mind now, forgotten, lost. Not a trace to be found. My big orange cat Sam jumped from the floor to the windowsill, staring out at the peaceful night.

A crescent moon was out that night. It cast a warm glow over the fields.

Waxing, a waxing moon. I thought, as I very much enjoyed watching the moon and stars, and well, just nature in general.

Sam purred and rubbed up against the windowsill.

“Hey buddy.” I said, rubbing a hand over his muscled back.

He gave a small meow and jumped into my arms.

“Woah!” I said stumbling backwards. “Easy boy, you’re pretty heavy.”

He gave me a knowing look and flashed something that looked like a grin.

Cats don’t grin, do they?

I walked over to my dresser and felt around on the top. My hand brushed the side of the shoe box on top. I gently took ahold of it and pulled it down off of the dresser. Sitting back on my bed, I removed the cover and took out the top page.

Dear Danielle,

I got the photo you sent of you, nice job on winning the science fair by the way. You have grown up so much since I last saw you! Sadly, I will not be able to come home for Christmas like I said I could. I was deployed in Afghanistan, and will be busy until the New Year. I love you so much, and I can’t wait to see you when I do.

Love, Dad

Dear Danielle, wow dad. I had told him years ago I didn’t like that name, and I went by Dani. Danielle is too…girly. I haven’t seen my dad since I was five. I’m now twelve. Seven years ago, my mom and dad were arguing, like, a lot, and instead of getting a divorce like normal people, he just up and joined the army.

I felt tears begin to well in my eyes. They often did when I thought about my dad. No. Don’t cry. Tomboys don’t cry. It’s a sign of weakness.

Sam padded over to me and laid on my lap, giving me a look of sympathy.

“I don’t want your sympathy, Sam.” I said, wiping away the tears.

He did something that looked like a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, shut up.” I said.

He did the weird grin thing.

I shoved him off my lap and shuffled to the computer. Pressing the glowing power button, I sat down in my chair and watched the screen light up. I opened a new tab, and typed in youtube.com. The web page came up, bathing my room in a faint, white light. And that’s how I fell asleep watching X-men origins videos.

“Dani!”

I woke up and peeled my face off of the keyboard.

“Kitty Pryde, born in Deerfield, Illinois…” said my computer.

“Yes mom?” I yelled down the stairs.

“You’re going to be late for school!”

Oh shoot!

I punched the power button, and ran towards my closet. Flinging open the door, I yanked out an old Beatles T-shirt, and a pair of jeans, and slipped them on. On my way out of the door, I grabbed a pair of socks, and ran out onto the landing.

Flinging myself towards the stairs, I yanked on my socks on the way down. I hit the hardwood floor with a bang, and slid on my socks into the kitchen. Shoving my books into my backpack, I picked it up and slung it on my back.

“C’mon, hurry up!” Pleaded my mom, opening the door to the garage.

I ran to the car, flinging the door open, and slamming it behind me. Cramming my shoes onto my sock-clad feet, I waited for my mom to jump into the car and start the ignition.

Soon, we were pulling out of the driveway and speeding down the countryside.

The clock read 8:10. 5 minutes.

“We can make it.” Said my mom, pressing down the gas pedal.

Dust swirled around our old pickup as we flew down the road, and I watched a normally 15 minute ride turn into a 5 minute ride.

8:12.

We swerved around the corner that connected our old country road to the paved town roads.

8:14.

My mom pulled into the lower parking lot of Jefferson Middle.

“GO! GO! GO!” Yelled my mom.

I pulled my backpack over my shoulders and sprinted towards the school.

8:14:20

Up the flight of steps into the upper parking lot.

8:14:45

Across the parking lot.

8:14:59

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg!

The ear-piercing bell rang, right as I arrived at the crosswalk. Hanging my head, I trudged toward the building, and walked through the double doors and towards the office.

When I arrived in the office, Mrs. Smith, the lady at the front desk, looked up.

“Ms. Holtz, I see we are late again.”

“Yes ma’am.” I replied, filling out the tardy form, once again.

I put down the pencil and walked to my locker. Grabbing my notebook and textbook, I made my way to my math class.

To start my already perfect day, once I was in the classroom, I managed to trip over my own feet, sending my books flying across the room. My textbook managed to hit the teacher’s desk, wobbling it back and forth and causing her cup of water to fall on top of me.

The class burst into spastic laughter.

Soaking wet, and embarrassed I picked myself off of the ground and brushed a lock of long brown hair out of my eyes.

“Good morning.” I said to my math teacher, Mrs. Delsey.

“Um, that was an amazing entrance Dani.” She said, awkwardly standing at the edge of my danger zone.

“Why thank you.” I said, on my feet now.

“Do you want to change?” She asked.

“Yes please.” I said, walking out into the hall.

“Um…” Said my friend Zach, walking down the hall, a tardy slip in his hand.

“There’s a puddle on the floor.” I said, grabbing my gym bag and walking into the bathroom without a word.

After I changed into my gym clothes I walked back into class. I found my desk and sat down. My friend Julia gave me a thumbs up and grinned. I grinned back and opened up my notebook.

About four hours later I was seated at the lunch table with Julia and Zach.

“So… what do you wanna’ talk about?” Said Zach

There was like, five minutes of silence.

“Um…ham?” Said Julia.

“Did you just choose the most random thing that came to mind?” I asked.

“Yes.” She replied.

The rest of my day was a regular school day, most classes sleep inducing as usual.

The weird stuff started with a bolt of lightning.

The rain sounded like the percussion line of the marching band was in my closet. The lightning lit up the sky like someone had flicked on and off a light switch. The thunder shook the whole house.

I looked at my computer screen. The cursor flashed after the words “house”. My creative writing project was not going well. The thunder shook the whole house. Really?

“Dani?”

“Yes mom?” I asked

“I need to tell you something.”

“Yeah?” I said, not really paying attention.

“I’m not actually a cat.”

What?

I turned to find not my mom, but my cat.

Okay, okay. I bet by now you assume I’ve gone off the deep end. But I haven’t.

I think.

Anyways…

Sam suddenly morphed into a huge tiger.

“Woah!” I yelled. “Sam!?”

“I’ll explain later.” He said.

“No.” I said. “You will explain now.”

There was a knock on the door.

“They’re already coming for you!” He yelled, picking me up and placing me on his back.

“Sam? What are you doing?” I asked nervously.

“Hold on!” He yelled.

And then he burst out of my third story window.

I’m not crazy.

“IM GONNA DIE!” I yelled, as I fell out of the third story window, towards my porch.

Everything lapsed into slow motion.

I saw the small shards of glass surrounding me. I saw the look of horror on my mom’s face. I saw the two armed guys by my front door. I saw the small drops of rain as they fell innocently through the sky.

Then Sam morphed into a griffin, and began to fly.

No. I’m not crazy.

“What are you?” I asked, now afraid of what had been one of my only friends for years.

“I’m a shape shifter.” He replied, soaring over the trees. “And I’m your protector.”

“You’re kidding…that stuff doesn’t exist.” I said.

“Oh yeah, and cats turn into tigers and griffins.” He retorted.

That shut me up.

“Where are we going?” I asked, after a few minutes of silence…as you can tell…I don’t enjoy silence.

“Somewhere safe.” He replied.

Thank you captain obvious.

Can you say you’ve sat on the back of a griffin in the pouring rain for 2 hours?

I can.

By the time we arrived, I had already fallen asleep. He landed, and I, gracefully as an elephant slid off of his back and crashed into a puddle.

Boy, that woke me up.

When I finally opened my eyes, and wiped the mud from my face, I saw a slender blonde-haired kid, a bit older than I was standing above me.

“Hi.” He said, offering me a hand. “My name’s Cade.”  

I took his hand, and he helped me up.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I believe you know me as Sam.” He said, transforming into an orange tabby cat.

“Sam?” I asked, staring at him. They both had the same, blue-green eyes.

Sa- Cade purred.

“This is weird.” I said.

“Yeah…” He replied, morphing into the skinny blond again.

We sat and stared at each other for a while. Have you ever been in a room and everyone was too shy to talk? This was it, except for the fact that we were kinda’ in the woods, and it was only my ex pet and I.

After a while, I felt the urge to break the nervous tension.

“So…” I said.

“Oh…right, I need to get you to the base.” He said, taking off into the woods. “Follow me.”

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, but Cade just kept running. Finally, after crossing a stream, running through a maze of thorns, and getting stuck in a bush, we made it to a 20 foot boulder.

“Nice base.” I said, looking up and down the rock. “Do you get wet when it rains?”

“Oh, it isn’t on top, that’d be stupid.” Said Cade.

He put his hand up to a small crack on the rock.

“Magicae aperitu.” He muttered.

Suddenly the small crack grew and grew until it was a doorway.

“Welcome to the base.” He said with a grin.

I stared in awe at the giant fissure behind him. He led me inside, and the crack closed with a large boom.

The cavern filled with momentary darkness. Then 6 fluorescent lights flicked on, and I could see the small tunnel ahead of me. The walls were jagged rock, and the lights no more that small bare light bulbs connected to a wire that disappeared at the end of the tunnel.

“Nice place.” I said, gazing at the water dripping down the sides of the cave.

“Just you wait.” Said Cade, walking forward to the end of the tunnel.

“For what?” I asked.

“Patenti hostium testudine munitum.” He said boldly, the end of the tunnel suddenly slid apart to reveal a whole entire open lair. “For this.”

I stared, mouth agape as I surveyed the whole thing.

“Woah.” Was all I could get out of my mouth.

The walls were still jagged rock, but no water dripped on these. The ceiling was about ten feet high, and several fluorescent lights hung from it. All over the floor were mats and booths with kids doing something at every one. Several tunnels also led out of the room.

“Do you want me to show you around?” he asked, grinning at the most likely embarrassing face I was making.

“Sure.” I said, allowing myself to be led through the room.

“Here we have sparring.” He said, gesturing to two kids wearing pads on a mat kicking each other.

“And weapons.”

He  gestured to two boys fighting with bow staffs.

“And the shooting range.”

There was a girl about my age with a bow and arrow shooting at a hay target.

“Mission simulator.”

Several opaque boxes lined the wall. In front of all of them were small screens. I stopped to watch one. On it showed a boy, probably about eight years old, running through the woods. Suddenly a giant cobra slid out of the trees. The boy recoiled in horror. Then, regaining his composure, he stared, fearless at the snake. It began to grow ice crystals all over its body, and was soon frozen in ice. The boy quickly moved on.

“Woah.” I said again.

“For the most important, the mess hall.” He said, leading me down a large corridor. At the end was a huge room filled with several tables, and what seemed to be a lunch line.

My stomach grumbled.

“Dinner’s in an hour, so just hang on.” He grinned.

“Next we have bunks.” He said, leading me down a corridor and into a hallway lined with doors. “Now sleeping arrangements are based on gender and age, so you’ll be in room 312.”

“If there are only fourteen rooms, why is there a three twelve?”

“I honestly don’t know.” He said. “But we have rooms 269, 294, 312, 367, 410, 458, 496, 502, 634, 649, 657, 806, 914, and 997. Younger girls are in 269, younger boys are in 294, 12 year old girls are in 312, 12 year old boys are 367, 13 year old girls are in 410, 13 year old boys in 458, 14 year old girls in 496, 14 year old boys in 502, 15 year old girls are in 634, 15 year old boys are in 649, 16 year old girls are in 657, 16 year old boys are in 806, 17 year old girls are in 914, and 17 year old boys are in 997.”

“Ookaay.” I said.

“You have the empty bunk on the right, so you can set your stuff down, and then when you hear the dinner..um..bell…then just go to the dining hall.”

“Okay.” I said.

“Cade!” warbled Cade’s small walkie talkie I hadn’t noticed on his belt.

“Yes.” He groaned.

“Clean up on aisle three…Ed’s at it again.”

“Be there in a sec.” He groaned, as if this was a common occurrence. “Sorry to leave so soon, but I really have to go.” He ran down the hall and out of the corridor.

I sighed and opened number 312.

Inside, sat five other twelve year old girls. There was an awkward moment of silence before anyone moved or said anything.

“Who are you?” Said one girl. She had a red, mean looking face, with short choppy black hair surrounding it, like some sort of war helmet. Her arms and legs were very well muscled, and she was probably at least twice my size.

“Um.” Was all that I managed to squeak.

“Um?” Said the mean faced girl. “Nice name.”

I cleared my throat.

“Dani.” I said.

“What?” She replied, confused. My guess was that her brain was about the size of a walnut.

“My name is Dani.” I said.

“That’s a nice name.” She said. “For a boy.”

I felt my face heat up.

“It’s short for Danielle, and I bet with a face like that your parents didn’t name you anything much better.” I retorted.

The four other girls in the room stared in horror. I gulped.

“Did you just insult me, elf?” She asked.

I stood motionless, as she towered over me.

“Are you scared, elf?” She asked.

I stared into her merciless brown eyes

“Well you should be.” She said, stomping on my foot.

I clenched my fists and squeezed my eyes shut.

“That’s a taste for what’s to come if you open your mouth one more time, elf.” She said, lazily flopping back on her bed.

I walked out of room 312 and slumped against the wall. For a while nothing happened. It was just me and the jagged rock of the cave. I wondered why I was there, everyone seemed to have powers…but did I? After a while, I leaned over and I believe I fell asleep.

“Um, Dani?”

I jerked my head up.

A girl stood there, one of the girls from my room. She had long blonde hair, fair skin, and was pretty tall.

“You are?” I asked, cutting to the point.

“Oh, sorry.” She said. “My name is Tessa.”

“Nice to meet you.” I said, getting up, eager for company.

“DINNER! DINNER! DINNER! DINNER!” Blared the speaker above.

“Aaaah!” I yelled. “What was that?”

“That was the dinner bell.” She said, walking down the corridor. Tessa turned around. “You coming?”

“That was a bell?!” I asked.

“Yup.” She said. “Wanna’ sit with me?”

“Sure?” I said.

“Come on.” Said Tessa, leading me toward the mess hall.

Once we got there, she led me to the line for food, and stood.

The line was molasses. Well…not literally, but it sure felt like it.

“So…” I said.

“Oh, yeah…um.” She said.

We were both excellent conversationalists.

Finally, we made it to the front of the line. In front of me lay a touch screen computer.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“It’s actually pretty simple.” She said. “Just follow the directions.”

I managed to end up with a hamburger, and a sprite. The whole process took a while, and was slightly annoying.

At last, I flopped down in a seat next to Tessa.

“Y’know,” Said Tessa through a mouthful of lettuce. “Morgan isn’t always so mean.”

“Who’s Morgan?” I asked, taking a bite into my hamburger.

“The one who stomped on your foot and called you elf.”

“Oh, yes, that was my favorite part of my day, apart from when my cat turned into a tiger and burst out of my window with me on his back and turned out to be some kid named Cade.” I said, dripping with sarcasm.

“Cade was your cat?” She asked, obviously finding this entertaining.

“Yeah, he-“ I began

“Hello ladies.” Said Cade, sliding into a chair next to me.

Tessa burst out laughing.

“Did I do something?” He asked, slightly confused.

“Nope.” I said, hiding my grin with the hamburger.

“Cade Matthews!” Came a yell from the back.

“Ugh.” He groaned. “What now?”

“Addison puked all over simulator 6” Replied the voice.

“So?” Replied Cade, obviously not happy about this.

“So, you have to clean it up.”

“No.” Said Cade, angry now. “I’m sick of you making me clean up everything, like I’m the janitor.”

“Well.” Said a teenager walking to our table from the back. He wore a blue t-shirt, jeans, had close- cropped black hair, and wore a smirk on his face. “You’re on probation, probie.”

“I should’ve been off of probation for weeks!” Yelled Cade, seething with anger.

But the kid just kept his cool.

“You don’t want to fight over this, Cade.” He said calmly, still smirking.

“Yes, Josh, I do!” Said Cade.

Cade suddenly turned into a large bear.

“Now, you see that’s the reason mom always loved me.” He said.

“And that reason is?” Growled Cade.

“I’m not a blowhard, and not so soon to fight, drama queen.” He said. “But I haven’t had a fight in very long, so this should sustain me.”

Cade growled again, and lunged.

The fight started with a bang and ended in a whimper.

No sooner had Cade lunged at Josh, all the empty metal trays flew over, and pinned him to the wall.

“Simulator 6, NOW.” Said Josh, walking away.

Cade struggled out of his metal bindings and trudged out of the lunch room.

“Huh” I said, a while afterwards.

“You get used to it.” Said Tessa.

“Who was that kid?” I asked.

“That’s Josh Matthews, Cade’s older brother, and junior counselor.” She said. “Because Cade is Josh’s younger brother, Josh puts him on probation and easy missions all time.”

“Oh…rough family.” I said.

“Yeah.”  

The conversation got kind of awkward after that. I stared at Tessa’s salad for about three minutes.

“Why are you eating a salad?” I asked, curious.

“Vegetarian.”

“Why?”

“Because of my power.” She said. “I can imitate and speak to animals.”

“Oh.” I said, sheepishly moving my hamburger behind my sprite.

“It’s okay, I just don’t want to eat them, for me it’s like cannibalism.” She said, calmly.

“WAR! WAR! WAR! WAR! WAR!” blared the loud speaker.

“What is “war”?” I asked.

“Battle games…they’re really fun.” She said. “C’mon!”

She ran down the hallway and away from the mess hall.

“Is every bell some sort of repeated phrase in this place?!” I asked, as I ran after Tess.

“Yep.” She said, recklessly running through the halls with all the other kids.

I struggled to keep up with Tess as I was dragged through the hallway by the crowd. I was pushed into a large room where kids were putting on pads.

“Pads?!” I yelled over the din.

“They’re so you don’t get as hurt in the games.” She said tossing me a helmet, and a breast plate. “Put these on, and avoid Morgan. That is my advice.”

“Great.” I said, trying to fasten the breastplate around my stomach.

Soon they had us all lined up in the room, in three rows, but on risers so they could see us. Josh walked in and looked at us.

“Derek! Lance! Captains.” He said, jerking his thumb towards the middle of the floor.

Two 17 year old boys stepped down from the risers. One was pretty tall, was tan, and had shaggy blonde hair. The other, buzz cut black hair, and dark skin.

“Lance, you choose first.” Said Josh, pointing at the blonde.

“Might as well.” Said the other boy. “I’m going to win anyways.”

“You keep thinking that, Derek.” Said Lance.

“Try to keep up, Lance.” Said Derek.

“Lance, please choose.” Said Josh.

“Jeremiah.” Said Lance.

Josh turned to Derek.

“Derek! Derek! Derek!” Yelled about half the stands, wanting to get chosen.

Tessa leaned over toward me.

“Derek wins every game, he’s a great strategist.” She whispered.

“Jerod.” Said Derek

“Joey.”

“Logan.”

“Kendall.”

“Molly.”

“Norah.”

“Jake.”

“Harley.”

“Cade.”

“Ryan.”

“Tessa.”

“Morgan.”

“Kerry.”

“Ed.”

I zoned out for a while, and stared at the ground. Soon, I realized that I was the only one left on the riser.

Everyone stared.

“Um…new girl.” Said Derek.

I hopped off the riser and stood next to Tessa.

“Where are all the younger kids?” I asked, looking around for the little kids I had seen around.

“No war games until 12 years old.” She replied.

“Oh.” I said.

“Let’s go!” Yelled Josh. Leading us out of the cave and into the woods.

I followed the herd through the dark woods, the moon creating shadows from the trees.

It reminded me of my own farm house. The bright moon creating the shadows onto the porch, my mom talking to one of her friends from work.

I wondered how my mom was doing. What would she do without me or Sam…Cade. I wondered who those creepy men on our porch were, or if they had done anything with my mom.

“Probie!”

“Hm?” I asked, coming out of my remembrance.

“Kickball, you’re on Derek’s team.”

I nodded.

Derek walked toward a home base they had made out of scattered rocks.

“Okay, we’re kicking tonight.” He said. “If Lance gets 10 outs, he wins, if we get 60 runs, we win. Anyone can run, Josh is ref. Whatever you do, leave three people back at home. Now, this is mutant ball, so also try not to get hit by any powers. The barrier will count how many runs you get, so make sure you cross the barrier. Also, when the 59th runner comes in, all we can do is wait. No one else runs. If the 60th comes back after half an hour of that point, it’s an out.”

“Who is gonna kick first?” asked Joey.

“I will. Running first is Jake, Molly, and Logan. The rest is just whoever is in line.”

“Alright!” Yelled Josh. “Let’s play ball!”

Lance grinned and rolled the ball toward Derek. He swung his foot back and kicked, sending the ball flying forward through the air. Derek took off sprinting into the dark woods.

The game had begun.

Logan, Molly and Jake took off after him, disappearing into the wood. I heard muffled yelling, some crashes, some screaming, some rustling, and a weird electric blast. The ball flew out of the woods toward Lance, and he caught it.

“Pitcher has it!” Yelled someone from the woods.

“Where are the bases?” I asked.

“They differ every time, but don’t worry…they glow.” Said Tessa.

Lance rolled the ball again, and it was sent into the woods by a kid named Milton, and he sprinted forward, closely tailed by 3 more kids.

Derek burst through the woods and sprinted toward home. He slid across the line and lay down in the grass. Soon, Molly, Jake, and Logan crossed too, looking out of breath and beaten up.

“Pitcher has it!”

I stared and watched as my peers were beaten and battered. Some came back soon…some didn’t. Rounds flew by as I watched in horror. But, maybe it was a joke or something, no one would actually hurt each other…would they?

“Wanna’ run with me next time?” Asked Tessa.

“Sure.” I said. “How hard could it be?”

Boy, how wrong I was.

Tessa and I lined up at the running line, awaiting certain death.

Lance picked up the ball, rolling it toward Cade. He pulled his foot back and kicked.

Then we were off, sprinting after Cade as fast as we could towards the eerie woods. I felt nervousness build up in my chest as I found myself sprinting alone.

I couldn’t find anyone…it was not the most pleasant feeling. No sign of friends, no sign of bases, just the dark and the woods.

I ran and stumbled around for a while until I heard voices. Out of instinct, I scrambled up a tree right above the people, and leaned low to listen.

“I’ll bet that new kid’s gonna get pummeled pretty soon.” Said one of the 12 year old boys.

“What’s her name again?” asked another.

“Dani.” Answered Morgan.

“Hey…when she comes this way…do you wanna’ give her a little fire? Just so she can see you’re not kidding?” Said the first.

“You read my mind.” Said Morgan, her hand aflame. “Now we just have to wait for that dimwit to get here.”

I don’t know about you, but honestly…I don’t enjoy being lit aflame.

So I did the only thing that came naturally…I climbed from tree to tree down the path so I didn’t become a Danicrisp. Well, I did before I ran out of trees.

I could see it from there, first base. It was protected by a force-field and glowed a bright green. Slowly, I crawled down from the tree’s branches and hopped to the ground.

“There she is!” Yelled one of the boys.

With that, I took off running towards first base.

Luckily sprinting down a dirt road was something I was good at. But, not necessarily with flames shooting towards my head.

Only about ten meters remained between first base and I when the first blast of fire came. I screamed, ducked, and kept running.

The second one came at about 4 meters.

Then two.

Then one.

Finally, I collapsed onto first base, protected by the force field. I expected people to be on the base, but there were none…I truly was alone.

I lay there for a while, regaining my breath, scared out of my mind. Then, I thought of Tessa, and Cade, and I just wanted to get out of the woods.

I picked myself up, and sprinted forward towards to what hopefully was second base.

I dodged swords, electric blasts, water, ice, people, animals, you name it, I dodged it. After all of that, I finally made it to second.

By now I was freaked out. I wanted to go home, or at least back to the cave. So, I once again, stood up, and made my way out of the force field.

Have you ever been scared? Like, truly feared for your life scared? That’s how I felt.

I wanted to lie down, to surrender myself, to just give up. But tomboys don’t do that. It’s a sign of weakness.

Continuing forward, I realized I had no earthly idea where I was. It had gotten darker, almost completely pitch black now. Oh, what I would’ve given to be at home.

I hid in the trees more, because I realized, secrecy is key. Getting to third base without getting seen is pretty hard, but I managed it.

As I collapsed into third with my lungs burning and a feeling of nausea, I realized I could see home. I was almost there. No more scary woods with people trying to maim me. No more dark and cold, just a nice old cave.

I realized that my only chance for escape was home base. Getting up I got ready for the hardest thing I had ever done, and with that thought, I ran.

I ran the fastest I had ever run before, dodging powers from left to right. I could see my friends and everyone on my team cheering me on as I sprinted towards home.

Everyone’s attention was on me as I ran through the grass, wet with the dew of midnight. No one could stop me…except for Lance.

He sprinted towards me, as if it could save his life.

I wished he would just stop running, and believe it or not, he did.

Small vines burst out of the ground and anchored his feet down to the grass, so tight he could hardly move. Slowly they began to creep up his legs.

Before they could reach his arms, he threw.

I jumped in the air and slid, slid through the wet grass across the barrier, but I felt something hit me on the way across. It was the ball.

There was a moment of silence. A long one actually.

Everyone turned to look at Josh. He slowly blinked, and stared at the rest of us.

“Safe!” He boomed.

My team burst into yelling, and screaming, and good jobs.

Suddenly I felt someone pick me up, and then the whole crowd began to join in.

“Dani! Dani! Dani!” They yelled, holding me above their shoulders, like I was a hero.

“What did I do?” I asked Derek.

“You were the 60th runner, and you won the game for us. Now our team doesn’t have clean up duty. Not even Cade. You’re a hero.” He said, like he was proud of me.

I was paraded around the entire cavern before I was set down before room 312. Sighing happily, I opened the door and flopped down on the empty bed. Some of the other girls were there, but I paid them no attention.

I just pulled the covers up to my chin and snuggled into the warm blankets.

This, I realized was the first time I had been truly happy in a long time. The first time I felt as if I belonged. My eyes began to leak tears of happiness, but I thought, no…

…tomboys don’t do that. It’s a sign of weakness.

Reviews

[Thomas Edward 'Timothy'..]

I really liked this, very quick and energetic. I feel pumped just reading it. I kinda got lost a few times because I skipped a line but thats more to do with my reading style and attention span then your writing. Keep it up I'll keep reading stuff like this.

[MajorMysterious]

Hey, thanks! I appreciate the review a lot!

[LaurenKangas]

You use great action words and verbs. When you're writing you want to create a picture with words and you do that very well.

[MajorMysterious]

Thank you so much! I appreciate your review!