The Trials of Panic

Chapter 5. The final decision

How did another boring December turn into the best month of her life? The game was on; she had the next ribbon in her sight. The pink ribbon was high, but the points it would give her might make her victorious. Climbing from branch to branch she kept her eyes on her prize.

"Two minutes!" Nat's voice shouted from below.

Her hands worked fast to untie the ribbon as she balanced on a thick branch close to the trunk. Freeing it she held onto it with her teeth so her hands could focus on climbing; she was always slower on the way down.

"One minute!"

It was no use, if she kept climbing like this she wouldn't reach the ground on time. She would have to find a safe branch and jump. She picked a thinner one and climbed to it before taking hold of it and letting her feet fall. She didn't want to fall straight down so she swinged slightly to gain momentum and let go. She landed and tried her best not to stumble before quickly putting her ribbon into her cardboard box. Even though they only had a few more seconds Henry jumped into his tree again.

"Time!" Said Nat, looking up from his old pocket watch.

As Henry jumped down Nat started counting his ribbons. This might be close, Henry had more pink ribbons that gave you the most points, but Ramona spent most of her time getting the one closer to the ground giving her more ribbons. She hoped that her only pink ribbon would boost her just enough to win.

"Twenty-five points."

That would be hard to beat. Henry was the best climber out of all of them so of course he only went for the highest ribbons. Nat had moved to Ramona's box and started taking them out one by one counting as they both watched.

"Twenty-three, so close."

"Nailed it!" Said Henry, pumping his hand in the air. "Take that little miss!"

Ramona didn't care about losing, but Henry's habit of being a sore winner was starting to get annoying.

"Let's break for lunch." Nat said, cheerfully.

They made their way down the forest path and through the field. It had become routine to eat at the homeless shelter for lunch. At first Ramona felt guilty for eating food meant for those who were more in need for her, but Avery would always insist.

It had been a long three almost four weeks, but in a good way. She was right about Aiko wanting to make this a usual thing; they both had stuck to it everyday the boys trained. Aiko wasn't here today; she was invited to hang out at a friend's house again. A few days ago she was asked to hang out for the first time and was so excited that she hopped and skipped away from Ramona when she told her. Without Aiko Avery and Henry decided it was the perfect time to get some serious training done. Going early before Nat got there, they used pillows for armor and sticks as weapons and with Ramona acting as referee they engaged in battle. It was only when Ramona had to explain to Nat why Avery was limping did they admit that type of training was unnecessary. With the Trials only five days away Avery started to worry about missing the first game, but his mother who looked at his injured foot said he should be fine by then as he only pulled it a little. Nat insisted that Avery stay out of training until the first game. He didn't want to risk anything.

It was new year's eve, but they still had homemade paper Christmas decorations hanging from the walls of the homeless shelter. They had two kinds: green and red twisted streamers and pieces of paper hanging from the ceiling cut and drawn to look like swirly candy. Avery was waiting for them in the cafeteria filled with the candy decorations; he had alright started on his food. They were having sandwiches today. Ramona put lettuce, ham, and cheese on her's before joining the others. She loved it when they got to customize their food. She was very hungry and stayed out of whatever conversation the brothers were having. It was only when Avery turned to her did she look up from her food.