The Trials of Panic

Chapter 4. Run, Hide, Seek

Monday, December, 11, 2031

The hallway was almost empty. Avery stood at the back door of the school playing with the end of his oversized faded green jacket. It was once Nat's, but now it was his. He hoped Ramona would show up, but his hope was starting to fade. He felt disappointed, he really wanted her to come, but maybe he was wishing for too much. He didn't know if she was the type of person to hold a grudge. He wished he could have spent more time with her, but his invitations to hang out were usually let down.

"Avery!"

Looking up he was mildly surprised to see Ramona and Aiko walking over to him. Ramona looked tired, but Aiko looked cheerful.

"Thanks for coming!" He said with a little too much enthusiasm.

He wanted to apologize for yesterday although he didn't really know what he would apologize for, but he got distracted by the mark on Ramona's face before he could think of what to say. He wanted to ask about it, but stopped himself. It would probably be best to not dampen the mood; besides it looked like she noticed that he did. Thankfully Aiko spoke up distracting them from the short awkward silence.

"What kind of training do you do?"

"Well." Said Avery, pushing open the door and stepping out into the gloomy outside. "The games are pretty unpredictable so there isn't really a one fits all training regiment. It's more like a workout if anything, but we do sometimes play Trial-like games."

"What kind of games?" Aiko asked, her curiosity growing as they walked down the street.

"Well, the last one we played was a game where one of us would tie ribbons up a tree and the other two would race to collect the most within a time limit. There are a lot of games in the Trials where you need to climb."

"I want to play that!" Aiko said excitedly.

"I'm sure Nat won't mind if we play a game today." Said Avery, his own excitement growing as well.

Ramona stayed silent. Even with Avery's description she didn't really know what to expect.

They walked through the town and past the shelter, walking until the buildings started to grow fewer and fewer. Soon they reached a small open field with the forest on the other side. It only took them a few minutes to cross the field and find the wide path into the trees where a little clearing was waiting for them. In the clearing was a little shelter made up of four wooden pillars holding up a red painted roof; the color was faded by the many years of weather. There were two boys waiting there and upon seeing the newcomers they came over to greet them.

If you were to look at Avery and his brothers your first thought wouldn't be that they were related. Nat was tall and good looking with fair skin and dark brown hair that was neat and straight. Henry had thick dark blonde that was messy like Avery's and his blue eyes were almost as bright as Ramona's. All three of them wore jeans and soft jackets each a different color. Avery's was green, Nat's was red, and Henry's was yellow.

"Right then, I want to get straight to work before that storm hits." Nat said immediately.

It sounded like Avery told them they were coming. He turned looking at the storm apparently deep in thought.

"So who's the short one?" Asked Henry, pointing to Aiko.

"Ramona's little sister." Said Avery. "I'm sure I brought her a few times."

"You have." He said his own eyes turned up to the sky as he scratched behind his ear.

He looked bored. Ramona walked up to Nat, she could see his lips moving, but couldn't hear any sound coming out of them.