Death Doesn't Due Us Part (Haunted)

October 6th

            I pulled on some new jogging shorts (I’d always used sweat pants inVermont because of the chilly climate), a t-shirt with the Coca-Cola logo on it, and a zip-up sweater, but I left it open.

            “Hey, mom,” I called as I was walking down the newly finished wooden stairs.

            “What is it, hon- Ouch…” I hurried to find her to see what had caused her pain.

            She was in the office, setting up our computer. Apparently she’d been plugging something in underneath the desk, but when she was standing up, she’d whacked her head on it.

            “You okay?” I asked politely. I knew she was, she wasn’t even rubbing her head, but manners before common sense, I suppose.

            “Yes, honey. I’m fine. Where are you going?” she asked, giving me a once-over.

            “For a jog. I want to check out the neighbor hood, too, so I’ll probably be a little longer than normal.

            “Okay. Remember- Don’t give out your phone number unless you’ve talked for at least ten minutes with them. Do not enter anyone’s house; they could be pedophiles or kidnappers. No alcohol. No smoking. No drugs. Don’t mix with anyone you shouldn’t be mixing with. Don’t talk to creepy looking adults. Always remember; you’re a fast runner, use it if you need to.” She paused for a second. “But no worries, this neighborhood looks alright.”

            The funny thing is, she was serous about that whole speech.

            “Got it, mom. Now can I go run?” I asked with a little bit of a whine in my tone.

            “Yes, dear. Have fun,” she answered warmly.

            “Bye. Love you.” I exited through the side door and went down the cute, little path towards the road. I stopped at the end. Which way do I go?

            “Left looks safer!” hollered my mom out the window, clearly sensing my dilemma.

            “Thanks, mom.” So I turned left. Nothing was really unusual. I saw a few middle-school-age children playing tag in someone’s yard. There had been a cute puppy I’d stopped to pet. I passed a little bakery, I almost went in, but I decided I didn’t want to gain back what I’d just worked off. Shortly after that, I encountered some junior boys (I’m a junior) playing basketball.

            I just intended to run right by them, no words being spoken, until one of them yelled out, “hey!”

            I stopped, turned, and let out a breath. Why had I worn such short shorts?

            The guy who’d called out to me looked like the kind of kid all his friends aimed all their teasing at. He had shortish, brown hair and big glasses. He was on the short side. “Hi,” I said, with no tone to my voice. All the other boys immediately ended their game and turned to me.

            “Well, what’s your name?” asked one of them seductively. This one was hot. He had wavy blonde hair and was rather tall.

            “Victoria. I’ve just moved in down the street. And yours?” I asked.

            The blonde one began speaking, he quickly rattled off names, pointing to each one and saying something, mainly an insult directed towards them. “I’m Austin. This is Sheldon. He’s pretty much the biggest loser out of us all. But this is his house so… pretend I didn’t just say that.” He gestured to the kid that had originally spoken.

“This is Cale. He’s on the football tem, but he sucks at basketball. That’s why he’s on Shel’s team.” He motioned to a tall, muscley kid with big eyebrows, a thick-looking scull, and short brown hair. Cale made a protesting face at first, but then realized it was true and shut himself up.

“This is Chris. He’s a player… watch out for him.” He pointed to a guy with bright blue eyes and brown hair. Chris called out a "hey!"

“And this is Ted, sometimes Teddy… He’s ugly…”Austin had obviously run out of insults so he went the simple, “you’re ugly.” How original. Anyway, the boy he was pointing to was a read-head with small facial-features. Ted fowned and jokingly huffed like a girl.

            Then, a very beautiful girl walked out of the house, her sundress whisking in the wind behind her and her brown hair swirling around her head.

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Author's Note: I just changed that girl's hair color from blonde to brown. I had forgotton I'd made her a blonde and I just didn't visualize her like that after.