CRASH!
Troy looked around and noticed he was on his bedroom floor. His blankets were
sprawled everywhere and one pillow inconspicuously made its way across the room
in a sleep-induced throw. After realizing he wasn't in a temple, but instead on
his cold floor he said to him, "It must've been a dream. Man I need to
stop drinking Mountain Dew before I go to bed." He felt around on his
stand for his phone. When he finally found it he looked at the clock, it read
4:22 AM. "4:22, I still have two hours before I need to get up." He
grabbed his misplaced pillow and crawled back it to bed and threw all the
covers on top of him. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, but he just
couldn't. He rolled around, tossed and turned, and ended up on his back, staring
up at the ceiling with so many thoughts rushing through his head.
"Where
was I, what was I doing who was that other person? It all felt so real, but it
must've been a dream, it had to have been a dream. Maybe a snack or two will
help me settle down."
Troy
quietly walked through the hallway and downstairs, careful not to wake his
parents or his sisters, because in his mind, he wasn't sure which was worse.
Troy finally made it to the kitchen. He slowly turned on the light careful not
to blind himself, and opened the fridge. He stated at the contents inside for a
while before making up his mind. After mulling his options he decided on a
couple of slices of cold pizza and a tall glass of root beer.
Troy
walked out into the living room and sat down on the couch to enjoy his
"meal." He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, but quickly
remembered to hit the mute button. As he flipped through channels looking for
something to watch he began to chow down into his first slice of pizza.
Eventually he stopped at his favorite channel ESPN. "Hmm I wonder what
tape delay hoops game they have on tonight." He said through a mouthful of
cheese. After washing it down with a swig of root beer he read the caption on
the screen. "Duke at North Carolina. Sweet! I can see the end of this
now!"
Troy
used the game to clear his mind off of things, as he watched one of his
favorite players, Tyler Hansbrough, systematically pick apart Duke's defense,
he gave a silent cheer with ever basket and raised his still half full glass in
the air in celebration.
With
less than two minutes left in the game and North Carolina holding a seventeen
point lead. Troy felt confident. Watching his team gain a strong victory over
their hated rivals relaxed him and cleared his mind, he felt he would be able
to go to sleep. He looked at his phone again. "4:52, not bad, I can still
get some nice sleep in."
As
Troy began to leave he got up to gather his dishes, he looked up and noticed
his sister Carly standing at the top of the stairs looking down at him.
"What are you doing Troy? Do you realize it's five in the morning and we
have school in two hours?" She asked in a demanding tone.
"Nothing
its fine can't sleep that's all, needed a little snack to calm me down. Hey,
sorry I woke you."
"It's
okay," Carly said as she walked downstairs and sat on the couch next to
where Troy was sitting, "Come on what's up, no one gets up in the middle
of the night, indulges themselves in food and watches old basketball without a
reason. What's yours?"
"It's
nothing," Troy replied as he started walking toward the kitchen.
"Come
on, I'm your sister I know when something's up I'm not stupid. So get back out
here and let's talk about it."
"Fine,
hold on a minute though," Troy said as he went into the kitchen to reload
his plate and glass with more if he was to stay up.
As
he was walking back into the room he told his sister, "You do realize that
neither of us are probably getting back to sleep right?"
"Yeah
I know, oh well, what's 2 hours, I mean I'll just sleep later."
"True,
true, you got a point there," Troy said as he sat down in his spot, and
exchanged the glass in his hand for the remote on the table, turned on the
early edition of Spertscenter, and began to eat more pizza.
"Troy,"
Carly said and gave him a stern look.
"What
you want a piece?" Troy said with the most innocent look ever for someone
with half a slice of pizza hanging out of their mouth.
"Ew
no, how can you stand to eat that stuff cold anyways?"
"What?
It tastes pretty good. You don't know what you're missing" He said eagerly
trying to get her to join in his early morning feast.
"Nah,
I'll pass," Carly said, "must you watch sportscenter at the same
time?"
"As
a matter of fact yes I must"
"Ugh
fine, just don't turn it up, the last we need is to wake Abby up."
"Heh
yeah true, she is not a morning person" Troy said as the both laughed at
the thought of their sister exploding at them at five in the morning.
"So
Troy, anyways, what's going on?" Carly asked him, foregoing the small
talk.
"Eh,
a few things, I don't know, I've just had a lot going on lately." Troy
said calmly before downing some more root beer and watching Chris Lofton sink
another 3-point shot in a highlight reel versus Kentucky.
"Like
what? Come Troy, you're not helping, be more specific. Um is it school?"
"I
don't know, I guess a little, I mean there's all the homework, bad teachers,
and all the drama. There's a lot of drama I have to hear about. Then there's
soccer too and the field trip and grr, there's just too much stress."
"I
know what you mean, school sucks doesn't it? I've had 3 tests this week, in
hard classes,"
"Whoa
wait, you have hard classes? Since when?" Troy said sarcastically
"Ha
ha very funny. Seriously, school's stressful for everyone. I mean, don't get me
started on our teachers, grr I could teach better than some of them! Yeah I am
sorry though, you do have to suffer through a lot of drama, but then again, I
kinda do end up usually somehow in there. And soccer, I'm just sick of sick of
it. We have fun but sometimes, I don't know it's just not as fun."
"Hey
wait a minute, who has the problems here, me or you?"
"True,
I'm sorry, I did kinda go crazy there, didn't I? But see, we all have the basic
same set of problems, but that doesn't mean we all get up at 4 in the morning
and eat nasty pizza and watch reruns of college basketball games."
"Well
it's 4 o'clock somewhere so people are always eating at 4 in the morning, it
just might not be 4 in their time zone."
"Don't
try to twist the words of that stupid country song around, it's not working."
"Oh
fine"
"So
what's the real problem, is it girl problems? I thought you finally got things
sorted out with that."
"Well
that's not the big thing, but yeah, I don't know,"
"How
do you not know?"
"I
don't know"
"Ugh
Troy, not funny, well do you still like her?"
"Yeah,
of course,"
"Well
have you told her?"
"Um-"
"That's
a no. Gosh why won't you tell her?
"I
don't know, I really want to, I guess I'm just scared to or something,"
"What
that's crazy, why are you scared? Don't tell me rejection. I mean I know the
whole thing with Taryn didn't work out."
"Oh
jeez, don't bring her up. That was just, I don't know, bad timing. She doesn't
have anything to do with this."
"Okay
well if you say so. But come on Troy, gosh you're always like this; you always
have been to shy to tell anyone. You're never shy about anything else, come
on,"
"Jeez,
somebody's bossy for four in the morning. Chill. I mean, I guess I am just
scared. I know it could work with us, but I wish I knew what she was
thinking."
"Well
there is one easy way to find out what she's thinking."
"What?"
"Tell
her idiot!" She told him as she hit him across the head.
"Hey,
what was that for?" Troy asked as he rubbed his head where she hit him.
"To
hopefully knock some common sense into you. Now tomorrow you're going to tell
her you like her, okay? Good."
"I'll
think about it. Even thought it'd be so much easier if I could figure out what
she thought of me, but I doubt I'll be able to."
"Troy,
look, you and her are great friends, it shouldn't be this hard. Just talk to
her don't just go up to her randomly and say, 'Hey I like you' just strike up a
conversation and wait for the right time, it'll work I promise."
"Jeez,
okay, who died and made you miss love advice giverer. Is she like paying you or
something to do all this for her? If so I'd like to know how much because I'll
pay you triple to do this for me instead."
"No
she's not paying me. I'm trying to help my brother since I see he's in
trouble."
"Ha,
who are you and what did you do with Carly?"
"Shut
up. Fine, well if that's not the big thing that's bothering you, then what is?
And Don't give me any stupid answer or I'll hit you again."
"Okay,
besides school, and besides her, the thing that brought me down here, don't
laugh is this crazy dream I had."
Carly
looked at Troy with a face of disbelief and tried to hide her laughter but
eventually burst out into a laughing fit. "Ha ha you're kidding
right?" She said as she wiped her eyes to rid the tears from laughing so
hard. "Aw you poor baby, did someone have a bad dream?"
"Hey
shut up, it wasn't a bad dream, it was just weird, that's all."
"Well,
there's your culprit right there," Carly told his as she pointed to his
empty glass and crumb-ridden tray.
"Yeah,
my dream was your ugly face. That was the whole dream. Imagine being stuck in
there," Troy replied sarcastically.
"Well
actually I'd love to be stuck in a dream all about me personally. But fine,
what was it really about?"
"Okay
I was in this temple thingy, and I had a sword, it was a cool sword. Anyway,
and I went through hallways, into this big room and I grabbed this thing. There
were 2 more like them. Then some person in a hood came and started attacking
me, but I woke up before it ended. It seemed all too real though. And I kinda
fell out of my bed apparently. Then I came down here, and then you came down
here and then, now this."
Carly
looked at him with a blank stare. "Wow, yeah, definitely no more pizza for
you."
"Actually
I blamed it on the Mountain Dew," Troy interrupted.
"Okay
no soda in general then. Well that explains what then thud was that woke me up.
Idiot, thanks again for waking me. Well as weird as it was, and not matter what
you think, it was a dream, they do feel real at times, but they aren't. Gosh
you're so weird sometimes; I can't believe you and me are related
sometimes."
"Yeah
me neither, meet my sister the freak."
"Yeah
real mature," She said sarcastically as she pushed him. Troy grabbed a
pillow from the couch and hit her with it in retaliation. Carly grabbed the
pillow on the other side and hit Troy. After knocking each other senseless a
few times they both felt better about everything.
"Hey,
I'm gonna go try and get a little more sleep before we're supposed to really
get up, you should probably do the same." Carly said as she got up and
headed towards the stairs.
"Yeah
you're right, I probably should. I'll go up after putting the dishes
away."
"Okay,
good night see ya in a couple hours,"
"Okay
night," Troy said as the walked away. "Hey Carly,"
"Yeah?"
She said stopping on the stairs.
"Thanks,
you made me feel a lot better, and for the advice too."
"Well
we're even. You've done the same for me when I needed it."
"Yeah
true, thanks anyways, night." He said as the walked away. Troy went into
the kitchen and threw his glass and plate into the sink. "I guess it was
just a dream," He said as he walked away back upstairs to his room. He
picked up his blanket and pillow and threw them back on his bed. He set his
phone on his table and lay in his bed. But he still couldn't sleep. He was
still too busy thinking about that dream. "Who was that person? Where was
I? What was that object? Why did it seem so real? Will I ever know the
answers?" Troy stared at the ceiling as if hoping the ceiling tiles could
provide him with guidance.
When
the silence of the tiles set in Troy tossed and turned and ended up on his side
staring out his bedroom window. Troy sat up and began to look out his window.
He looked up at the stars gazing aimlessly at them hoping they could show him
some direction. The twinkle of the stars was mesmerizing but no answers were to
be found.
He
then looked down closer to earth at the house next to his, the home of his two
best friends Merideth and Courtney. All the lights were off, like any normal
house at this time. "Well I guess I'm the only crazy one tonight."
Troy said to himself sarcastically. "Hmm, who knows it's worth a try.
She's done it to me, I'll do it to her," Troy said to his reflection in
the mirror.
Troy
rolled back across the bed and reached to his stand for his phone. He flipped
it open, but stopped for a minute, blinded by the brightness of the screen in
the dark room. After he could see again he scrolled through his phonebook until
he came to Merideth's entry and selected the Send Message option. He typed up a
simple message to her saying, You awake? He knew most likely she wasn't and
that she wouldn't get that message for a few hours when she woke up. But he's
been woken up by her random messages at odd hours when she couldn't sleep, so
he decided that that'd make them even.
Troy
watched the little envelope icon go in and out of the mailbox telling him his
message was being sent. Once the envelope found its home in the mailbox,
telling Troy it was successfully sent. Troy closed his phone up and set it back
on his table.
He
rolled back over to how he was before and pondered to the stars one last time
hoping they would change their mind. After realizing they weren't going to,
Troy closed his eyes and began to fall asleep.
A
couple minutes later his phone rang, his loud ringer brought him out of the
state of sleep he was almost in. He quickly rolled across the bed and grabbed
his phone hoping it was Merideth. But when he looked at the screen all it
showed was a picture of a clock. He opened his phone and looked at the time.
The clock read 6:00 AM. Troy looked at it in disbelief. "Aw come on, I was
just getting to sleep, argh, oh well," Troy gut cut of by a long yawn of
his own. "Eh, I guess I better get ready." He said as he rubbed his
eyes. He looked out his window towards Merideth's house. "I guess she's
not awake." He said to himself.
Troy
got a shower, put his clothes on, brushed his teeth, and made an attempt to
brush his hair. He went downstairs to find his family sitting around in the
kitchen. His mom was cooking a second set of eggs on the stove, his dad was
sitting at the table enjoying his coffee and reading the paper. Carly was
standing at the counter sipping a glass of Orange juice. Troy walked over to
the fridge, poured himself a glass of orange juice and went over to the counter
by Carly. "Are you as tired as I am?"
"Yeah,
lets promise we're never gonna have a crazy brother-sister pillow fight at four
in the morning again."
"Works
for me. So did you ever get back to sleep?"
"Yeah,
for about half an hour. You"
"Yeah,
at about five fifty-eight." Carly stopped drinking her orange juice to
think about what he said for a minute.
"Wait
as in, you got two minutes of sleep?"
"Yeah
pretty much,"
"Jeez,
that's sucks." Carly said as she sipped more of her orange juice and
glanced over to their other sister, Abby, who was sitting at the table scarfing
down a mountain of scrambled eggs topped with loads of ketchup. "Look at
herm she didn't lose a bit of sleep, she up and ready to go,"
"Yeah
lucky her," Troy said unenthusiastically as he glanced over at his sister
too. At that moment she looked up with a mouthful of eggs and managed a
"What?" out of her stuffed mouth. Troy and Carly just looked down and
shook their heads.
"Nothing,
just go back to eating your eggs." Troy told her.
"What
you want some?" Abby said with her mouth still full. "Cause mom's
making more; they'll be done in a couple minutes."
"Nah,
I'm fine, I'm not hungry." Troy replied which caused Carly to laugh,
knowing that he had inhaled four pieces of cold pizza a couple hours ago. Which
prompted an elbow belong to Troy to end up in her ribs.
"Okay,
jeez, sorry." She told him. She turned to Abby, "That's okay; I'm
content with my orange juice."
"Okay,
more for me then," she replied before eating another forkful of eggs.
Troy
finished drinking his orange juice and put his glass in the sink. "I'm
gonna go watch some TV, call me when we're leaving." he told his sisters.
"Sure,"
they both replied as he walked away. After he was out of the room Abby put down
her fork on her finished plate. "What's up with him?" She asked her
sister.
"I
don't know," Carly said, even though she did know. "It's Troy, what
do you expect?"
"True,"
Abby replied. She looked at her phone; it read 6:45 AM. "Well time to go,
let's get our stuff and grab Troy.
"Okay,
hold on," Abby said,
"Why?"
Carly asked before Abby grabbed her stuff, grabbed her fork from her eggs and
grabbed a bite from the fresh batch of eggs.
"Okay,
let's go," Abby replied after gulping down the eggs. Carly shook her head
in disbelief.
"Do
you have an end to your stomach?"
"Nope!
C'mon, let's go."
Carly
and Abby walked into the living room where Troy was sitting watching
sportscenter reruns he had already seen.
"Come
on, let's go." Carly said as she headed to turn the TV off.
"Fine,
let me just see what the weather's like," Troy replied.
"I'm
guessing cloudy, seventy-five percent chance of rain, high of
sixty-seven." Abby said sarcastically. Troy turned to the local weather
channel.
"Cloudy,
seventy-five percent chance of rain, high of sixty-seven, wow," Carly read
on the screen. Amazed, she looked at her sister, "You cheated,"
"Did
not," She replied,
"Use
dad's newspaper?" Troy asked.
"Yeah,"
Abby replied.
"Then
why didn't you just tell us you read it in the newspaper?" Troy asked.
"That's
not as fun," Abby replied with a smirk on your face.
"Come
on you two; let's go before we're late." Carly said as she walked towards
the door. Troy got up and followed and before reaching the door turned and
softly said, "Weirdo," to Abby. Abby stuck her tongue out at him and
made a funny face, ending the discussion.
When
they finally got to school, Abby and Carly ran off with a few of their friends.
Troy noticed Merideth standing by the stairs in front of the school and went to
go talk to her.
"Hey
what's up?" He said nonchalantly.
"Not
much, hey, sorry about not replying to your message. I kinda got so busy
packing I kinda forgot." She replied.
"It's
okay. Packing for what?"
"Um,
our field trip today."
"Cookie
say what? Field trip?"
"You
know, the trip that's today, to the ancient temples, we've been studying about
them for 2 months now. You always talk about how you can't wait for the trip so
you can find some treasure or something, and I would always say, Troy that
would never happen, and then call you a freak or a dork or a crack head or
something."
"You
call me a freak or a dork or a crack head all the time."
"Yeah,
true, but you know, that trip,"
Troy
thought for a minute and then he remembered, "Oh yeah that trip! Uh-oh, oh
crap!"
"What?
What's the problem? Hey, Troy, where's the stuff you packed?"
"Um,
see there's a funny story about that."
"Please
tell me you packed Troy. Please, we have to spend three days there." She
said as she put her hands on his shoulders and shook him, "Three
days!" Troy bit his lip and looked around for a distraction, but none were
appearing.
"You
didn't pack did you?"
"Nope,"
"Gosh
Troy, you're such an idiot, how'd I know this was gonna happen? You're lucky
I'm here."
"And
why is that? So I have someone to constantly torture me and call me names?
Because you know you don't have to take that job, my sisters do a nice job of
doing that. Which by the way, remind me to kill them later for not reminding
me."
"Aw,
me? Call you names? Psh, you must be mistaking me with someone else because I'm
such a perfect little angel," Merideth replied trying as hard as she can
not to laugh. Troy rolled his eyes in response.
"So
why am I glad you're here then?" Merideth turned around and picked up a
giant black duffle bag and handed it to Troy.
"To
give you this." Troy looked inside the bad and found an assortment of his
clothes.
"Where
did you get these? I've been looking for some of these. I thought they were
lost in my void of a room."
"A
little birdie gave them to me."
"My
sisters?"
"Yep,"
"Well
why didn't they just give them to me themselves?"
"Duh
Troy, that wouldn't be much fun would it?"
"So
you were in on it?"
"Psh,
of course,"
"You're
all crazy, you know that? All of you, crazies."
"I
know. We try."
"So
how long has this been going on?"
"Oh
a couple weeks, every now and then when we would go out and do something they'd
go run a few clothes over to Courtney."
"So
Courtney was in on it too?"
"Yeah,
she thought it was hilarious. We hid everything in your room, it was my idea,
but we couldn't hide it in my room incase you came over."
"Yeah
true, whoa wait; this was all your idea?"
"Did
I say that out loud? Oops my bad."
"So
what would you have done in I had brought my clothes?"
"Umm
well you would've had extra! Yep yeah well go with that."
"You
had no idea did you?"
"Nope,
we were all praying you'd forget."
"So
this is what it's like to be on punk'd."
"Yep,"
Merideth pulled out her phone and held it to Troy and started her video
recorder... "Come on say it, say it."
"Fine,
I'm Troy Setters and I just got punk'd. There you happy? Didn't think I'd ever
have to say that."
Merideth
closed her phone and put it back in her purse. "Yep, wait til they see
this."
"Wait
til they see this," Troy said in a childish voice mocking her.
"Whatever,
come on, grab your stuff, the buses are here." Merideth said as she
grabbed her bag as a group of buses pulled up.
"Fine,
I'm gonna get you back," Troy said as he grabbed his newly acquired bag.
"Is
that a threat or a promise?" Merideth replied walking to the bus.
"Both,"
he replied as they got on the bus. "Oh, back seat!" he said as they
ran to the back seat and threw their bags on the awning behind them.
After
everyone had gotten on the bus and taken their seats, the buses pulled away
from school, next stop, ancient temples. Shortly after they left, Merideth
asked Troy, "Uh, where's everyone else like you know, our sisters?"
"Um,
good question, our luck, on a different bus," Just then Merideth's phone
rang, she had a message from Courtney, it read, "Where are you?"
Merideth
replied, "On the first bus with Troy you?"
"On
the third bus with Carly and Abby"
"Oh
great Troy, they're on a different bus. We're screwed."
"Yep
pretty much. So what are we gonna do for two hours?"
"I
don't know," Merideth replied, looking around for some inspiration to
provoke conversation. Then she found it.
"Gosh
Troy, you're getting hurt more than me, how'd you get that huge bruise on your
leg?"
"Bruise
on my leg? What are you talking about?" Troy replied confused looking down
to his leg. "There's no bruise."
"Uh
Troy, other leg." Merideth said,
"Oh,
I knew that,"
"Dork,"
"Yeah,
whatever," Troy looked at his other leg. "Oh wow, that is a huge
bruise. That explains why my leg hurt so much this morning."
"You
didn't know it was there? When did you get it?"
"It
must've been last night when I fell out of my bed. I must've kicked the bed
post on the way down or something. I don't know I was asleep!"
"You
fell out of bed. No seriously how did you get it?
"I'm
serious, I fell out of bed."
"You
fell out of bed?"
"Yep,
and apparently I threw my pillow across the room too. I must have good aim in
my sleep because I hit the dartboard and knocked it down. Found it lying next
to the pillow when I woke up."
"Oh
my gosh Troy, I'm surprised even on your standards. That's hilarious. How did
you fall out of bed?"
"Well
when I was in a sleep-induced state of unconsciousness. My subconscious told my
central nervous system I was in trouble and sent a signal to my cerebral cortex
telling my body to thrust it self in such a way that the projection would cause
my descent to end with me gaining velocity and striking the floor consequently
causing me to awake from my state and discover I was resting on the
floor." Troy said, trying not to laugh as he said a bunch of stuff he
didn't even know what it meant.
"Shut
up," Merideth told him "You know I hate when you use big words."
"Yeah
I know, well that's what you get for stealing my clothes."
"Ugh
fine, crack head. So really, what happened?"
"Well,
you're gonna think this is stupid, but I had this really weird dream last
night, it seemed almost realistic.
"Oh
my gosh I had one too. Except I was smart enough to stay in bed, gosh Troy.
Well in mine I was in this really weird old temple thingy. And I was going
through these passageways, oh and I had a sword, and then I jumped out of the
ceiling and landed in this giant room with these two golden things sitting
there. And there was some cloaked guy holding a third one, and I was about to
fight him, and he asked me who are you, then I woke up. Oh well it was good for
him cause I would've beat him anyways."
"You
think you would've?"
"Yeah,
I would've went BA BAM BA BAM on him and he would've been down,"
"Heh,
alright, if you say so."
"So
what was your dream about?"
Troy
decided not to tell her since they were so awkwardly similar. So he made
something up from the top of his head.
"Um,
sky diving. Yeah, ended up jumping out of a plane and falling thirty thousand
feet."
"So?
What's so weird about that?"
"No
parachute,"
"Well
that I guess would explain how you fell out of bed, and you're supposed to be
the smart one." She told him jokingly.
"Yeah
yeah yeah, whatever. Well I didn't get back to sleep."
"So
then you texted me?"
"Well
there was stuff in between, but yeah"
"Well
I watched some sportscenter, ate some cold pizza. Carly came down and-"
"And
what?"
Troy
decided not to tell Merideth about the details of their conversation. "She
got mad at me for waking her up so I hit her with a pillow, and she hit me with
a pillow, and then we got tired. She went to bed, I went to my room, stared at
the ceiling, couldn't sleep, so I texted you. Unfortunately my alarm went off
two minutes later."
"Oh,
sounds um interesting."
"Yeah,
not really, I decided, you text me at the randomest times all the time so I'm
gonna text you. Now we're even."
"What
nu-uh."
"Why
bother, I'm not gonna argue, I never win."
"Exactly!"
"Well
since I only got like four hours of sleep, you mind if I get some sleep on
here?"
"Well
what am I gonna do then?"
"I
don't know, draw me a pretty picture, look out the window, get some sleep,
you'll think of something."
"Fine.
I'll figure out something to do I guess." She said as she pulled her ipod
out of her pocket and turned it on.
"Thanks,
wake me up when we get there."
"Okay
maybe." Troy gave her an evil glare.
"I'm
kidding, I'll wake you up."
Troy
plugged his headphones into his phone and began listening to music. Just as he
was falling asleep it beeped, signaling he has a message. He looked at his
phone, it was from Carly. "I don't know where you are, but remember our
little talk last night."
Troy,
half-asleep, typed up a shaky response. "I will im geuting around to it.
Ill do it eventually I promise. Im too thremd right now im gohng to skeep ill
do it later. You shoukd sledp too."
After
the misspelled response, Troy fell asleep finally. Merideth decided to draw a
picture of trees and birds and any other random things she saw out the window,
including a stop sign.
A
couple hours later….
"Troy
Troy Troy, wake up, we're here." Merideth said as she pushed him, trying
to wake him up.
"What?
What? Okay I'm up."
"And
you didn't fall out of your seat congratulations!"
"Thanks,
so we're here?"
"Yep,
come on; let's go, we have to get assigned our cabin,"
"Cabin,
we're in cabins?"
"Yeah
we're you not paying attention at all?" Troy gave her his "duh"
look.
"Yeah,
true."She replied.
They
got off the bus and headed over to their teacher, Mr. Romsey, who was assigning
cabins.
"Let's
see, Troy and Merideth," He said as he scribbled down a number on a piece
of paper on his clipboard. "Cabin 17, off you go,"
"Whoa
you're putting us in the same cabin but-"Troy started to say before
Merideth interrupted him.
"What
he means is thanks for putting us together, we're happy." As they walked
off to their cabin, Merideth asked Troy, "What was that all about?"
"Oh
nothing I was just saying their suppose to usually separate boys and girls, I
mean think about our school and the people in it."
"Oh
ew, nasty."
"Exactly.
I mean I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised."
"Oh,
okay, just making sure."
"Yeah,
I'm sorry, from now on, open mouth, insert foot."
"Yep,
good boy."
When
they finally got to their cabin they noticed how huge it was. The cabin was a
luxury house. Complete with all essentials, refrigerator, TV, games, the works.
When Troy walked he looked around and remarked, "Um this isn't a cabin,
it's more like a vacation home."
"I
know, it's huge," Merideth replied. "Well let's go see who else were
stuck with."
"Heh,
we get the one hidden in the woods of course."
"Hmm,
yeah, these woods look familiar, I just don't know from where,"
"And
you say I'm crazy, come on, quit staring at trees and come inside," Troy
told her laughing at her. But when he stopped for a second to look at them, he
realized they were oddly familiar, but he couldn't figure out where they were
from either.
When
they walked into the living room they were met with a pleasant surprise. Troy's
and Merideth's sisters were sitting on the couch laughing at the video of Troy
Merideth sent them while he was asleep. Troy's friends, Ben and Keeton, were
over playing Guitar Hero against each other.
Ben
and Keeton paused their game to see who had gotten there.
"Hey
Troy, what's up man? So you in here with us?" Ben asked
"Yep,
I'm stuck with you guys," Troy said kiddingly,
"Hah
sweet, now we got all three setters here, the party can begin now!" Keeton
said, heading to the kitchen to raid the fridge.
"Courtney
and Abby ran over and gave Merideth a hug, glad to see their best friend was
gonna be their. "Oh my gosh we thought we were gonna be stuck with these
two idiots," Courtney said, referring to Ben and Keeton.
"Ha
yeah, unfortunately now we got three idiots," Pointing to Troy while
saying this.
"Yep,
that's true," Merideth added.
"Hey,
I heard that!" Troy shouted to them from across the room. In the meantime
Carly was lying on the couch, with her phone beside her. She shot a look to
Troy, then over to Merideth, then back to Troy. Troy just shook his head and
Carly rolled her eyes. She got up and walked over to the rest of the group.
"Yep,
three idiots now, I like the video Merideth. This was some of your finer
work."
"Yeah
well I couldn't have done it without your help, so lets say this is a victory
for all of us. Well all of us except Troy." Merideth responded, causing
everyone to laugh.
"Okay,
enough small talk, let's get this party started!" Keeton said as he set a
bunch of drinks on the table and Ben dropped an armful of bags of chips.
"Hey
Ben, "Troy asked,
"Yeah
what?"
"These
are supposed to hold 8 people; there are 7 of us, who's the 8th?
"Oh,
it's my cousin Mallory, she had like some doctor's appointment or something so
she won't get here until tomorrow."
"Oh
fun,"
"Yeah
I know, hey, you don't have to be related to her though."
"True,"
The
seven of them spent the rest of their night partying and having fun. Then when
ten o'clock rolled around everyone had to go to bed. Troy, Ben and Keeton
headed off to their half, while Merideth, Courtney, Carly and Abby, headed to
the opposite.
Troy
laid in his bed unable to sleep, wondering if he would have another odd dream.
"Ugh,
I can't sleep, and there's no pizza to eat and no windows to look out. Hmm, its
nice out why look out the window when I can be out there anyway? Maybe a breath
of fresh air with help me relax," Troy grabbed his jacket and slowly moved
outside, just like last night, careful not to wake anyone. "This better
not become a habit," Troy whispered to himself as he opened the door.
"Because Carly probably already wants to kill me, this would just make it
worse." He whispered as he closed the door and stepped out onto the porch.
He looked out to the horizon overlooking the woods, which brought him a
pleasant surprise. Merideth was standing outside too staring at the woods.
"Can't
sleep?" Troy asked as he walked over to join her. Merideth turned around,
already knowing who was talking to her.
"Oh
hey Troy, nope, psh when have I ever been able to sleep like a normal
person?"
"Good
question, probably like before we met."
"Which
was a long, long time ago."
"Yeah
true, you're right. So what are you doing out here?"
"I
don't know, staring at the trees, looking at the stars. It's just, for some
reason, this place seems familiar, but I know I've never been here
before."
"I
know, it's a pain," Troy mumbled to himself.
"Huh
what? Are you talking to yourself again?"
"Yeah
of course, don't I always,"
"Yeah
because you have no friends, so you have to," Merideth said pushing him in
the shoulder.
"Uh
huh, sure I don't. I'm just that depressed. Gosh I thought you were my friend.
I think I might go cut myself now, make the pain go away." Troy replied as
he jokingly began to pretend to put his head in his hands and cry. Merideth
walked over to him,
"Listen
Troy, I have some advice for you."
"What,
how to get friends?" He said still playing along.
"Nope,
just remember, down the alley not across the lane, that way you don't break the
tendons."
Troy
took his head out of his hands and looked at her, and started cracking up
laughing, Merideth did the same. After they both were done laughing so hard
their sides hurt. Merideth asked Troy, "So really what did you say?"
"Um,
I said, um, it's supposed to rain," Troy said thinking quickly on his
feet.
"Yeah
right, it's a beautiful night, it's not gonna rain."
"Try
telling that to Abby,"
"Why?"
"She
stole my dad's newspaper just to see the weather. It said it was gonna
rain."
"Well,
um, can you believe everything you read? Nope, that's what I thought. I'm
telling you Troy, it's not gonna rain," She said as she looked up into the
star-filled night sky. "It's a wonderful night out, I mean look at the
sky, its' great out, isn't it Troy?"
"Yeah
it is pretty cool," he said looking at the stars. "Maybe it's not
gonna rain, "
"Well
duh, how could it rain on such a great night like this?"
"I
don't know, I guess it couldn't. Well at least I'm not the only one who can't
sleep. "
"Yeah
I know, this would've been a lot boring out here if you hadn't come out. Now
I've got someone to cure my boredom."
"Yeah,
I know its pretty great. So now what do we do?"
"I
don't know, um just start talking about something, anything,"
Troy
thought for a moment for a topic before one came to him with the greatest ease.
"Hey Merideth, I-"just then a raindrop fell.
"You're
kidding its actually raining," Merideth complained as the drops started to
fall at a heavier rate.
"We
should probably go inside," Troy suggested as the rain began to pour even
harder.
"Okay
fine," She said as they started walking back to their cabin. "B the
way, what were you gonna say,"
"Oh
I'll just tell you when we get inside out of the rain, "Troy said. As he
put the hood to his jacket up. Just then lightning stuck a tree and set it on
fire causing it to spread to other trees so fast even the rain couldn't put it
out. Then the emergency alarms rang, everybody needed to evacuate their cabins
and get on the buses to head for safety. Everyone ran out of their cabins.
"Troy!
We've gotta go!" Carly shouted to Troy over the roar of the thunder. Troy
turned to Merideth, and told her "c'mon let's go," but Merideth stood
motionless, staring at the fire. "Merideth, come on, what are you-. Oh my
gosh. Merideth, I completely forgot, I'm sorry. You're parent's they were
killed in that huge fire, you always have hated fire since then."
"Troy
come on we have to leave!" Abby shouted
"Go
on I'll be there in a minute!" Troy shouted back.
"Fine,
I'll see you on the bus!" She shouted back as she took off with the rest
of their group.
"Merideth,
look, I know you're scared, but I promise, everything's gonna be okay. You're
gonna be alright, nothing bad can or will happen. This is your great night
remember? Nothing bad can happen to you on your great night. I would never let
anything happen to you. But please, we have to leave, it's not safe here."
Merideth snapped out of her trance, and turned to Troy.
"Thank
you," she told him, "I mean it, I really needed that, gosh thank you
so much."
"It's
fine, you're welcome, but that'll mean nothing if we don't get to those
buses."
Meanwhile
on the buses everyone was taking their seats when Courtney asked everyone,
"Where's Troy and Merideth?"
Carly
told her, "I don't know they were coming he said he'd be right behind
us."
"Yeah,"
Abby added, "He was gonna come after he got Merideth to stop staring at
the fire."
"Fire?"
Courtney said in shock, "Oh my gosh, oh no, Merideth,"
"What?
What's going on?" Abby asked,
"Nothing
I'll be back in a minute." Courtney told them as she headed for the front
of the bus. But before she could get out the door the teacher grabbed her and
stopped her.
"Where
do you think you're going it's unsafe out there?"
"Merideth
and Troy are out there I have to go get them."
"By
now, you'd never make it back before fires engulf the area,"
"No
that's not true, I have to go get them," she said, struggling to get free.
"No
you have to stay here on the bus"
"Well
what about them, are you just going to leave them?"
"If
they don't come soon, we well have two, we can't risk everyone's lives for two
kids."
"No,
that's not fair! I'm going to go get them!" Courtney said as she broke
free from her jacket and ran out into the dark, rainy, night.
"Sir,
we can't stay here much longer, we have to get out of here," The bus
driver told the teacher.
"Fine
they're not coming back, let's get out of here," He said as he threw Courtney's
jacket out the closing doors. The buses started their engines and began to pull
out.
Ben,
Keeton, Carly and Abby looked at each other with confusion,
"Where's
Troy, Merideth and Courtney?" Carly asked panicking.
"I
don't know, what the heck's going on?" Ben replied, looking to see if they
were up front.
"Please
tell me they're on here, please," Abby was begging,
"Nope,
they're not, Keeton" told her, "maybe they just got on another bus,
that's all,"
"Yeah,
they're on another bus, safe and sound," Ben told them. None of them
believed it, but it was all they could do. They sat in their seats at watched
outside, hoping their friends were okay.
Back
at the cabin area. Troy and Merideth were heading towards the parking lot, when
they saw Merideth's sister running toward them. They stopped when she met up
with them.
"Oh
my gosh you two, come on we have to get going the buses are about to leave, we
have to go come on." Courtney pleaded.
"We
know, we know, we're going, come on," Troy told her as they ran toward the
parking lot.
"I'm
sorry," Merideth, told Courtney, "It's all my fault,"
"It's
okay, don't be, I kinda figured out what happened, put two and two
together,"
"Okay,"
Merideth told her as they reached the packing lot.
"Oh
no," Troy said, "They left without us,"
"Hey,
what's this?" Merideth asked as she held up a soaked jacket.
"That's
my jacket! I can't believe he just threw it out of the bus like that."
Courtney told them, glad to have her jacket back.
"Wait
who did that?" Troy asked.
"The
teacher of course, I hate him I really do." Courtney told them, " I
tried to get off the bus to get you two and he grabbed me and wouldn't let me
go, so I pulled out of my jacket and ran off."
"Aw,
you did that? Thanks" Merideth told her sister.
"Yeah
I love the touchy feely moment and all, but I can't help but notice, we're
stuck her with no buses!" Troy told them, getting a little frustrated.
"Yeah,
I know what do we do now?" Courtney asked,
"I
don't know," Merideth said, realizing how bad the situation was.
Troy
turned around and looked them in the eyes, bangs dangling over his, with the
rain pouring down and told them,
"Try
to survive, that's all we can do…"
