The Not So Great Outdoors

 

I awoke to my alarm buzzing in my ear. I didn’t remember going to sleep last night. When I got out of bed I saw that I still had yesterday’s clothes on. I must’ve wiped out completely. I stretched causing all the blood to rush to my head. Then I saw it. The note. It was nestled in the far corner of my room next to some broken equipment. I looked around and saw my shelves all torn off the walls then realized it wasn’t a dream. Everything actually happened. God. What am I going to do? I can’t tell Mom about this. She will just freak out, and we will move again. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Someone was probably just trying to scare me. I looked at the time. It was 6:30. I had time to get ready for school, eat, and then try to get myself together.

I put on my pajamas and bounded for the stairs wearing a fake smile. My mom was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.

“Good morning, Mom,” I said as happily as I could.

“Good morning. Hey, how come you didn’t come down for supper last night? Did you go to bed that early?” She was sitting there awaiting my answer.

“Yeah, school really wiped me out yesterday. I wanted to be sure to get a good rest so I could be ready today.” Well, ok, that wasn’t really the truth. But it was close enough, wasn’t it?

“Oh, I see. Well, what do you want for breakfast, Dear? We have almost everything.” She stood up and walked to a cupboard.

“I will just have a pop tart if that’s ok with you.” I liked the way the word pop tart sounded when I said it. Pop tart. I laughed to myself.

“What’s so funny?” My mom turned around.

“Oh, nothing. I just thought the word pop tart sounded cool.” I laughed again.

“Oh. Pop tart. Pop tart. Ha! That does sound kinda neat.” My mom all of a sudden turned into a little kid again. She skipped to the pantry singing about pop tarts all the way. I realized I was the one who started this, so I didn’t judge her. She was distracted for the time being so it was ok with me. I didn’t want her to keep questioning me about last night. I knew I would break down and tell her everything sooner or later.

I ate my pop tart and then went to the shower. The water felt amazing. My body tingled and suddenly all my muscles were relaxed. I ran my fingers through my shampoo-soaked hair and closed my eyes for a bit. I felt myself falling back asleep so I ended my shower quickly. After my towel was wrapped securely around me I went to the mirror to put my contacts in. Yes, I was a dork. I used to have glasses but changed to contacts. I thought about getting different colored ones but decided my brown eyes were alright. I took one out of the case and started to put it in. I didn’t quite get it on the spot, and when I blinked it fell out. It made its way to the counter. After I picked it up I looked back into the mirror. There behind my reflection was a shadow! It looked like a person lingering by the door. I spun around and saw nothing there. I swear I saw something! Well, my vision was blurred with my finger in my eye. Maybe there was some dirt on my contact. What was I saying? There was definitely someone there! I just know it! I looked at my contact and saw that there were some dark smudges caked on it. I was having second thoughts. I didn’t know what to think. I took a deep breath and splashed some water into my face. Okay. This is going to be okay. I really wasn’t taking my own advice because I found myself double taking everything. Everywhere I went I had to look around the corners. I was so paranoid.

After getting dressed I went back to the kitchen. My mom was on her third cup of coffee. She tapped her wrist as if saying it was almost time to go. So I went back upstairs and finished getting ready, still surveying my surroundings. My closet even posed as a threat. I knew I was losing my mind; I didn’t care. I got everything for school and went back to my awaiting mother. She hopped up and grabbed the keys; we were off.

 

“Hey there, Hayley!” Emma, being her cheerful self, greeted me.

“Hey.” I said to her and the others.

We started to talk about meaningless things then hurried inside when the bell rang. Tyler was standing outside of Mrs. Swilter’s room. He was casually talking to some guys I saw him yesterday.

“Hey, Hayley! Over here!” He was standing there waving to me.

I walked over to where he was trying not to seem too eager.

“Hey, you know what? We should get a group of people after school to hang out. We could go walk around or something. What do you think? I mean, we already had this uh planned and everything. I don’t care if you go or not. I was just asking.” He almost looked at me pleadingly. I knew he really wanted to hang out with me for some reason. Then I remembered Mr. Peppermint coming over.

“Ugh. Tyler, I’m really sorry. You see, there is this guy coming over for supper. I think I should be home. He really gives me the creeps, so I don’t want him alone with my mom. Sorry!” I was really looking forward to hanging out with him. Now I felt terrible I had to reject my first real crush. He had a hurt look on his face. It made me feel even worse.

“Oh. Ok.” He started to walk away.

“Wait! Maybe my mom will let me take some people out to my house tonight. I could tell her that I will do all the cooking.” I kind of liked the idea of having people over to my house. My mom will just have to give in to it. She might be happy that I have friends, too. She is probably used to me being all anti-social.

“Hey, yeah! That would be cool. Where do you live again?” Tyler’s face all of a sudden lightened up. He was smiling now.

“I live in Slaughterville. It’s about nineteen minutes away from here. My house is pretty big if that helps. Ha-ha. I live right outside of town next to the timber.” I really hoped everyone would be able to come out tonight. It was a Friday after all.

“Ok. I guess I will see you in P.E.” He then walked down the hall. I couldn’t help but notice he was walking with a happy swing in his step now.

I could tell you all the boring stuff that went on in English, but I was too busy thinking about Tyler to remember anything. Emma kept waving her hand in front of my face trying to get my attention. I guess I was spacing off a lot. Calculus went by slowly too. We ended up helping Mr. Monson rearrange his desk. It took the whole period because no one could get it good enough for him. Once fourth hour came around I was full of energy.

“Let’s play some dodge ball today class! Everyone line up! Team captains: Tyler and Steve!” Mr. Magro’s voice boomed throughout the gym. Everyone lined up on the line except for the captains. They stood in front of us playing rock paper scissors. Steve won and chose the strongest looking guy in line. I guess his name was Eddy. Then it was Tyler’s turn to choose. He looked at me and smiled. I knew what was coming next. Oh man. I did not want to be picked right away. Didn’t he know I sucked at dodge ball. My black eye was still luminous on my face. Why would he pick me?

“Hayley!” Crap. Of course he did. I shuffled over to his side of the court. He elbowed me a little bit. It was a friendly gesture.

“Hey, lighten up. You’re on my team. We never lose.” Great. Guiltiness washed over me once again. I would end their winning streak with my bad luck. As if reading my mind, he added, “You might not even have to do much.”

Once the teams were picked the game started. It was just as gruesome as yesterday. People were getting whammed in the face by balls. Ha-ha. It sounded pretty perverted when I thought of it like that. I was laughing to myself when someone shouted my name. I looked around and didn’t see who said it. Almost everyone on the other team was out. Then I saw Tyler running towards me. Then I saw a ball flying at me. Then Tyler caught the ball. It happened pretty fast. God, why couldn’t I have good reflexes. I felt like a retard standing there doing nothing. Tyler was laughing at me.

“You almost got hit in the face again!” He was looking at the remaining opponents. Then he threw the ball at someone as they were bending over to grab one. We won the game. Ok, let me try that again. We won the game! Yay!! Well, I wasn’t that excited. I was still the damsel in distress. I hated playing that part. At least I was saved this time.

“Ugh. I told you I sucked at dodge ball.” I looked back to Tyler.

“Hey, you weren’t that bad. Besides almost getting hit again. But this time I wasn’t the one throwing the ball.” He smiled at me again. He made me smile too. How could I be mad around him? He just had that caring personality.

He walked me to lunch and like yesterday, we talked the whole way there. It was nice to talk to him. This time we talked about movies. It turns out he really likes scary movies too. He was actually surprised that I enjoyed them.

“You know, most girls like to go see those chick flicks.” He said gazing into my eyes.

“Well, I’m not like most girls.” I said back.

“You’re right. You still can’t play dodge ball though.” Then he went and sat at his table leaving me to walk to mine. I was fuming the whole way there. ---

Lunch was ok. Emma made sure I was caught up on all the gossip, which I didn’t really care about. Half the people she was talking about, I didn’t even know. I just wanted to fast-forward to the end of the day. If only it were that simple. I decided if I got lost in my thoughts the day would seem faster. It worked. It also got me in trouble a couple times. The teachers would randomly call on me when I wasn’t paying attention. Then they would tell me the next time it happens would be an instant detention. At my old school we didn’t get detentions that easily.

I snapped out of my spacing off trance when the final bell rang ending the day. I was confused at first. I didn’t think school was over then realization got the best of me. I was so happy that I skipped out of 8^th hour class. Oh Crap. I didn’t call my mom or anything. She doesn’t even know people are coming over. I don’t think she would care too much. Well, it turns out I was wrong.

“Mom, it’s only a few people! Why do you have to be so difficult? I didn’t think you would make such a big deal out of this.” I was at Neighbor’s Grocery along with my friends waiting outside.

“Hayley, tonight was supposed to be a special night between you, me, and of course, Mr. Peppermint. I can’t believe you would have the nerve to ruin that for us.” My mom was being difficult.

“Us?! Us? This is about you, Mom. Not us. This was all your idea. Not mine. You are the one giving in to this Mr. Peppermint guy. I don’t even like him one bit! I can’t believe you have the nerve.” I was really mad now. She can’t just expect me to agree to eating with a complete stranger and have fun. I hated her. I hated him. Mr. Peppermint. What kind of name was that anyway? Ugh!

“Mom, please. Please. Can they just come over this one time? I will cook and everything. It will all be cleaned up too! I will clean the house for a whole week. No- scratch that- a whole month! I promise!! Please!!” I was desperate now. I simply could not leave here without a fight.

“Ok.” my mom simply said.

“What?” Alright, well I really didn’t think she would give in that easily.

“They can come over but on one condition.”

“Ok! Tell me!”

“No one will come inside our house while Mr. Peppermint is there. He is not to be spoken to by any of your little friends. Got it? Ok. I think we have an agreement.” She then proceeded to smile at me. I tried to smile back, but who was I kidding? My mom had turned into someone totally different when she met that Peppermint guy. I did not like him one bit. I think I’ve made that quite clear but will say it once again. I hate him.

I went back outside and told everyone they could come over. Everyone as in Tyler, Emma, and these two new faces added to my group. Nettie and Nathan. Yeah, they were twins. They were actually pretty cool though. Nettie was one of Emma’s friends, and Nathan one was one of Tyler’s. So it all worked out. At least Tyler wouldn’t be the only guy there. It didn’t bother me, but would be kind of awkward for him.

Somehow we all managed to fit into my mom’s car. It was a tight fit so we had to sit on each other’s laps. It wasn’t that bad. I found out that we had an hour before Mr. Peppermint came to my house, which we had just gotten to.

“Wow. This is your house?” Emma had her head tilted back and was looking up at it.

“Yep. It sure is. Ok, now let’s go inside.” I didn’t really like to be the center of attention too much, so I didn’t give my friends a chance to marvel for too long.

We went inside and I headed for the stairs. I turned around after I was halfway up to make sure they were following me. Nettie and Nathan weren’t very talkative. I don’t think I heard them say anything at all on the way here. Tyler had been talking to Emma. Well, it was more like Emma was talking to him. I didn’t mind that too much. I didn’t want Emma to know I liked him. Trust me. She would find out after seeing me flutter my eyes at him. Anyway, they were right behind me.

“I was just making sure you guys were following me.” I said back to them.

“Well where else is there for us to go?” Tyler replied back. It made me laugh, but I realized that it wasn’t even that funny and the only reason I was laughing was because I liked him.

When we got up to my room we put all our bags on my bed. I was almost ready to go back downstairs when I noticed all my friends were looking around my room. I knew what they were looking at. My disaster I made. All my shelves were still destroyed and I had broken equipment all over my floor. Ugh. How was I going to explain this one?

“Uh. I was looking for something this morning. Ha-ha. Yeah, I found it.” I smiled nervously hoping I convinced them. Sure enough, I did!

“Oh, ok. Ha-ha. Nice, Hayley.” Emma was the one who broke the silence.

“Let’s go outside!” I said to all of them.

They all agreed and outside we went. I thought hanging out in the timber would be fun. Turns out, I was wrong.

You know how in the movies people are always laying around outside. Yeah, where they lay in the grass and it’s all nice and peaceful. Well, that is not how it is in real life. Believe me. We walked out to a little clearing and sat down on the ground. First of all, it was noisy. The birds were being very annoying and flapping around all over. I almost got crapped on! Secondly, when I laid down I got this itching feeling on my legs. Then on my arms. Then on my face. Ok, that was it! I sat up and looked at myself. There were little ants crawling all over me!! I looked at Tyler and saw he was vigorously itching himself too. Everyone was! This was terrible! So much for the great outdoors.

I went running to the nearest tree to hopefully rub some of the ants off. My breath caught in my throat when I saw it. There were words etched into the bark of the tree. I slowed to a walk and approached it. Once I was close enough to see, I wished I hadn’t even bothered walking towards it. I read the words over and over again:

We can see you, Hayley. We are everywhere.

 

Ok, this was a holy s**t moment. Holy S**t! This was just terrifying! I was starting to believe that the shadow I saw this morning was not just a shadow. It was real. It was all real. Everything. I don’t exactly know what happened next, but I do know that I woke up screaming.

Emma had her hands on my face trying to shake me awake. Tyler was pacing in the background and the twins were whispering to each other.

“Hayley! She’s awake! Oh my god! Hayley, it’s ok!” Emma was trying to comfort me now. I stopped screaming after realizing that I wasn’t in any danger. At the moment.

“I’m ok. I’m ok.” I tried to sit up but got dizzy.

“Tell us what happened. We just heard you scream and then saw you pass out! You had us so worried!” This time it was Tyler who spoke.

“I uh. Go look at the tree.” I pointed at the massive oak. It looked more threatening than before.

They all looked at it. Then they looked back at me with confused faces. I knew they saw it. It confused me too. Who would be sending me all these messages? Why? It just had to be some kind of sick joke.

“Hayley, you need to get up.” Emma took my hand in hers. I stood up slowly then walked over to the rest of the group around the tree.

“Can you guys see why I was scared now? Who would do something like this? Was it one of you? Tell me now if it was!” I didn’t really believe it was one of them, but it could be possible.

“Hayley, you need to come see this.” Emma led me to the tree. “Hayley, there is nothing there.” I looked at it and couldn’t get over the fact that Emma was right. There was nothing there at all.

Author's Note

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Reviews

[Shellie]

This was great, again!!! Im intrigued to the message on the tree and how it disappeared but i trust you'll explain that well. Im wondering is she imagining it but i doubt it!