2.

The days leading up to our game go by quickly. I only do the homework that is necessary to scrape by in all my classes except English, then use any free time that I have to practice. My nights are for reading, although I don’t read during any of my classes on Wednesday or Thursday, afraid that I may be given another detention that will prevent me from going to practice.

Thursday’s team practice, the last practice before the game, goes well. In the beginning, however, Coach Kuvkas chews me out for a solid five minutes in front of the entire team. But under her angry impression, and her threats of banning me from playing in the game if I act up again, she seems to be glad that I’m back. The practice goes by smoothly, with everyone doing well in all the drills and during the practice matches. I remain one of the best offensive players there, and the practicing I did on Tuesday and Wednesday shows.

Bela has been coming to our home every day since Tuesday, and leaves when Drake and I get home. It’s not unusual, seeing that Bela and my mother are neighbors as well as best friends, but the way they act when she leaves is strange. They both seem tense and worried about something, although they always cover it up with the impression that nothing is wrong. When I asked my mom about it, she gave me a very vague answer and changed the subject. I haven’t asked since then.  

Saturday afternoon, I’m thinking about my game in a few hours and daydreaming a victory when the doorbell rings. After a few seconds, I figure that my mom isn’t going to get to it, so I bound down the stairs, my bare feet cold against the tile, and pull open the front door. I’m greeted with the sight of Drake and Bela, with Bela looking tense and Drake looking impatient and slightly irritated.

“Hi, Collins,” Bela says, smiling thinly.

“Hi, Bela,” I say uncertainly, looking to Drake. “Hey, Drake.”

“Hey, Col,” he says, looking nervously at his mother.

“Come on in,” I open the door wider, stepping out of the way so they could pass through. “I’ll get my mom.”

I make sure that they’ve safely arrived in the kitchen, and then close the door and hurriedly dash up the stairs, taking them two at a time. I hesitate outside of my mother’s room before knocking.

“Mom?”

  “Come in,” her voice calls cheerfully. I open the door to see her sitting at her desk, typing away at her computer with her earbuds in.

“What is it, Col?” she asks, looking away from the computer to face me, her face looking relaxed as she removes the earbuds from her ears.

“Uh, Bela and Drake are here,” I say, reading her eyes for- I don’t know what I’m searching for. A sign, telling me what’s been going on for the past few days, maybe?

“Oh, really?” she asks, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise, and her forehead immediately creasing with what is probably concern. “Well, I guess I should go and greet them.” She presses a few buttons, then closes the lid of her laptop and hurries to the door. I quickly sidestep her so she can pass, and close the door behind us as we rush down the stairs.

“They’re in the kitchen,” I murmur to her, and she nods, walking calmly into the kitchen. I trail after her to see Drake and Bela sitting at our kitchen table. Bela has her arms folded around her head, and Drake looks at her worriedly. My mother sets a reassuring hand on his shoulder as she passes him on her way to Bela, then takes the seat directly next to Bela. I gesture to Drake to come with me, so that our mothers could talk privately. He slowly gets up from the table, his eyes still on his mother, and walks towards my spot at the foot of the staircase.

“Wait here for a sec,” I whisper to him before scampering upstairs and slipping into my room. I shut the door and head to my closet, looking for my soccer uniform.

When I open my door again, I’m dressed in my athletic shorts, soccer jersey, and crewneck. My clothes have been kicked under my bed, so it’s safe as I beckon to Drake that he’s clear to join me. I wait for him to reach the top step, and then retreat in my room again to sit in my desk chair.

“Is everything okay?” I ask immediately. He lays sprawled on his back on my bedroom floor, staring up at my ceiling.

“I don’t know,” he says.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“Mom’s been acting weird all day,” Drake says, sounding both confused and frustrated. “Whenever I asked her what was wrong, she would just dodge the question, but she started freaking out that she needs to see your mom, like, fifteen minutes ago, and dragged me over here.”

“My mom’s been acting kind of off, too,” I confess, leaving my desk chair to sit cross legged across from him on my bedroom floor.

“Really? How?” he asks, propping himself up with one arm to look at me.

“Like, she just acts really tense around the house after you and your mom leave,” I say, thinking back to the last few days. “Whenever I ask her, she doesn’t really answer me and just changes the subject.”

“Knowing them, it’s probably just some weird mom thing,” Drake says, although his furrowed brow shows that he hasn’t completely brushed off the situation at hand.

“Yeah, maybe something political related,” I recall to a few months ago, when Bela and my mom had been freaking out over some new bill that had been passed.

“Yeah, maybe,” Drake says, cheering up. “You know them, always getting worked up.”

“Exactly, it’s probably not anything all that bad,” I smile reassuringly at him. He leaps to his feet, obviously encouraged by our positive thinking.

“Should we head to the field early?” he asks, looking at me. “We can practice some drills before the warm up.”

“Yeah, sure,” I say, standing as well. “Let’s just let them talk out whatever’s going on.” We both knew who I meant by “them”.

“Can we stop by my place real quick?” Drake looks at me quickly, standing in my doorframe. “I still need to change.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll just tell mom that we’re going,” I say, grabbing the house keys from my desk and walking briskly down the stairs. I turn into the kitchen, catching my mom’s eye as she listens to Bela, who is speaking in a voice too low for me to overhear. I motion with my hands that Drake and I are leaving, and she nods absentmindedly before turning her focus back on Bela. I feel a stab of worry, but shake it off, remembering the conclusion that Drake and I had reached.

It’s probably just some adult business, nothing serious or they would have told us about it.

Right?

 

“Nice one!”  Drake shouts hours later, chasing after the soccer ball that I had just kicked towards him. It was minutes before the big game, and Drake and I had been practicing with the occasional teammate for the past hour and a half. I grin at him, standing on the tip of my toes and leaning forward in anticipation as he aims a shot at me. I quickly catch the ball with the side of my foot, and then dribble it back towards the two water bottles that were serving as our goal. I kick the ball towards the goal, but Drake hooks it with his foot before it can reach its destination. I chew the inside of my cheek, frustrated. I’m determined to win this last match before our game begins. As he positions the soccer ball, ready to let it fly, our coach rushes into the high school gym where we’re waiting at.

“Bennett, Furner!” she calls, her sharp voice piercing. “Get to the field, its beginning.”

I feel the adrenaline beginning to pump through my body as I run from the gyms double doors, jogging towards the high school soccer field where I can see parents beginning to take their seats at the bleachers, and other soccer players gathering on the field. I hear Drake behind me as I crane my neck, searching for our moms as I head towards my team. I still haven’t found them by the time we’ve all gathered, and by the middle of Coach Kuvkas’s pep talk, I give up searching for them and try to pay attention to her words, ignoring the nagging feeling I’m getting in the back of my mind. I shake my head in an attempt to focus, trusting that they’ll be here soon.

Well, I wasn’t wrong.

“COLLINS! COLLINS, DRAKE!” I hear my mom’s frantic shouts as I tear myself away from my group huddle, despite the protests of Coach Kuvkas, and catch sight of my mom, along with Bela, running towards us from the parking lot, both holding a large object in their hands. I turn back to Coach Kuvkas and my team, who are looking at me in expectation.

“Guys, can I please go and see what my mom wants?” I plead, looking at Coach desperately.

“Me, too? My mom’s there too, we’ll just figure out what they’re yelling about and come straight back,” Drake promises.

Coach Kuvkas looks reluctant as she clears her throat, nodding. “Alright, but get back here as soon as you get what you need, understand?”

Drake and I nod, before turning our backs on our team and jogging to our mother’s, who have just left the parking lot and are crossing onto the high school’s land.

“Mom, what’s going on?” we both ask our mother’s separately, almost in unison.

“You need to go,” my mom says urgently, thrusting what I now can tell is a large duffel bag at me. “Now.”

“What?” I ask in disbelief, not taking my mother’s offering. “What do you mean, go?”

“Please, Collins, there’s no time to explain,” she says desperately, her eyes flickering around at our surroundings. “You never should have left the house earlier.”

“You said I could!” I say defensively, beginning to grow irritated with the whole situation.

“I did?” she murmurs, and I can tell she’s asking herself that more than she is asking me. “Well, that can’t be helped. But you and Drake need to leave here, now.”

“Why?!” I ask, looking bewildered as she forces the duffel bag into my arms. “Mom, the games about to start in a few minutes! I can’t leave!”

“You have to,” she pleads with me.

This is ridiculous. I’ve been preparing for this game for months, and now she’s insisting that I leave minutes before it begins? And without a reason?

“Mom, I have a game to play,” I say firmly, ignoring Bela’s cries from beside her. “Whatever this is, I’ll talk to you about it after.” I turn and am about to walk back towards the field when she catches hold of my wrist roughly and yanks me around. She looks at me, her tone low as she speaks.

“Your lives are in danger, do you understand? You need to leave, if you want to live.”

I pull away in shock, my eyes darting to Drake’s, seeing that his face has gone deathly pale. I open my mouth to speak, but find that I’m practically choking out my words.

“If I want to live?” I croak. My mom looks at me, no trace of sympathy in her eyes, only determination, and under that, fear.

“You and Drake need to leave now.” She presses something into my free hand, and I don’t have a chance to look at it because she’s talking again.

“You remember the water tower that we always pass on the way to the strawberry fields?” she asks in a low voice. I nod, my memories pulling up images of the old water tower that we pass every summer when heading to pick strawberries with Drake and his mom.

“Good. Can you get there from here?” she asks, her voice urgent. I glance at Drake, who looks back at me, and he nods slightly, listening to his own mother’s words.

“Yes.”

“Good. Run the entire way there, and do not stop, understand?” I nod, my mind racing with questions. What’s going on?

“When you get there, open that envelope and read that letter. Make sure you do exactly what it says.” She waits for my nod of confirmation, then smiles tightly.

“You have to go, okay? You and Drake keep each other safe.”

“Mom,” I manage to say, my mouth feeling dry. “What’s going to happen?”

In response, she kisses my forehead, and then gently pushes me away from here, and Bela releases Drake as well.

“Remember what I said,” she orders. I nod, as I begin to walk, looking over my shoulder at my mother.

“I love you,” Bela and my mom both say. And before Drake or I can say anything back, they turned in the opposite direction and ran.

Remembering the directions given to us, Drake and I lock eyes and nod. I shift the duffel bag higher onto my shoulder, and grip the envelope tightly before beginning to run.

My thoughts are attacking me as Drake and I leave the school campus, approaching the sidewalk that will take us to the local streets.

What’s going on? What’s going to happen? What about our game? Why would they let us leave like that? Our lives are in danger? How? 

Author's Note

third chapter will be uploaded soon, please review & rate!