first chapter in a love series

“Dinner!” called Mrs. Leroy, walking out of the R.V. Out of some nearby bushes, popped a lanky blonde boy with hazel eyes. Raking leaves out of his messy hair with his hands, Tommy made his way over to the wooden table situated next to the R.V. he was soon accompanied by his three best friends. Leanne, Timmy and Jo Dee. “What’s for dinner mom?” “Pork and beans” she declared proudly, setting four bowls of beans and hot dogs on the table. Tim looked down at the food. “Mrs. Leroy, there’s no pork in here, there’s hotdogs. So shouldn’t it be called hot dogs and beans”? “Timothy, we’ve had this conversation several times before. It’s always been called pork and beans. And I am not about to be the one to break the tradition dear”. Tim nodded and sniffed the steam wafting from the food. “It smells great”. “Why thank you!” Mrs. Leroy cried happily. She beamed at Timmy and headed back into the camper. “It’s about time she got the camping cooking thing down” said Tim in a low voice. For the past two days Maggie Leroy had managed to destroy their dinners. “I was about to start calling her the meal massacre”. Jo Dee reached across the table and slapped Timmy’s arm. “That’s mean!” she exclaimed, but she was smiling when she said it. “Anyways, she’s trying her best”, “yeah; it’s just that her best isn’t good enough”. There was an odd noise as Leanne gasped through a mouth full of hot dogs and beans. They all looked at her expectantly. “That good, huh?” asked Timmy, spearing a piece of hot dog onto his plastic fork. “These aren’t veggie hot dogs!” “Oh gosh” said tom, “I'm so sorry, my mom must’ve forgotten you are a vegetarian!” “Its ok” replied Leanne in a flustered voice. She got up and started walking off towards the lake. “Where are you going?” Leanne turned and looked at tom. “Going to feed the ducks”, she continued walking, soon followed by tom. “But, ducks don’t eat meat” said Jo Dee. “Uh, yeah, they do” scoffed Timmy. “Who cares whether or not they eat meat? I eat meat!” he exclaimed, reaching for toms bowl. Jo Dee watched as Timmy dug his spoon into toms’ rations and sucked the spoon clean. “Are you going to eat this?” he asked.

Leanne stopped a few feet from the murky lake water and tossed a hot dog slice towards a group of ducks floating lazily in the water. “Hey” said tom, coming to a stop next to Leanne. “Hey tom” she replied, holding out the bowl to him. Tom carefully picked some hotdog pieces. “Can I ask you something?” he asked, flinging a few hot dog bits in the water. “Sure”. “Why are you a vegetarian?” “When I was eight I didn’t really have any friends, except for my pet rabbit. I would play with that rabbit for hours on end everyday. I would tell it everything.” Leanne said calmly but quietly, not taking her eyes of the water. “Then one day on thanksgiving, I came home, and found out my grandma had cooked my rabbit”. “Oh, I’m sorry” tom said, looking at the side of Leanne’s face. “You’re not the one who made a stew out of my rabbit”. Leanne hurled a handful of hotdogs at nowhere in particular. They landed on an unsuspecting sleeping duck. The duck quacked and flapped around crazily. Leanne laughed and walked to the very edge of the water and knelt. Tom walked closer and looked over her knee to see four ducklings drifting in the shallow water. He watched as Leanne scooped up a large pale yellow duckling out of the water, and held a bit of hot dog in front of it. The duckling hesitated a little, but took the food soon enough. The second duckling, a bright white one with a long tail, snatched the hot dog slice almost immediately out of Leanne’s’ hand. The third duckling was bright yellow with sort of beady eyes. This one walked around a bit and pecked at leanness hand once. They both laughed when she nearly dropped it back into the water. Then the fourth one. It was the runt; the duckling was gray with a short fluffy tail, and big eyes that reminded tom of Leannes’. The duckling carefully took the hot dog out of her hand, then laid down and snuggled up next to Leanne’s’ fingers. “Where do you think the mom is?” tom asked quietly. “I don’t think they have one, if they did she would have been here a long time ago.” tom nodded. There was a few moments silence as they watched the duck. Finally “we should probably get back.”

Tom looked down into his empty bowl. “Uh, where’d my food go?” “She ate it” declared Tim, pointing an accusative finger at Jo Dee. “I told her not to!” “No, you ate it, all, in half a minute flat”. “Guys, I really don’t care, it’s ok”. “Whatever” muttered Jo Dee. “Hey, ducks aren’t vegetarians, right?”. Leanne looked at Tim, “is that some kind of joke?” tom’s chest burned as he saw the slightly taunting look Tim was giving Leanne. “No, I seriously want to know Leanne, do ducks eat meat?” “Oh, um, yeah, they do”. Tim turned to Jo Dee. See I told you, they do eat meat. I told you Leanne would know she is a vegetarian.” Tim didn’t put any emphasis on the word vegetarian, he didn’t need to. It was like he was looking down on Leanne. The feeling was now burning his chest. “I forgot something in my tent”. Leanne nodded, and Tim looked at tom, but no one said anything. Thankful for the easy get away, tom jogged off in the opposite direction of the lake.

The flames cast an odd light on the youth’s faces. Tom was talking to Leanne, thankful he had a reason to look at her face. The firelight danced in her eyes. Jo Dee was sitting on the other side of Leanne, and Tim was sitting on Jo Dees other side. Tim was poking Jo Dee with a marshmallow stick, while she threw marshmallows at him. “Hey, Leanne”. Leanne looked at Tim. “You veg heads can eat marshmallows, right?”. Leanne shook her head. Tim examined the roasted marshmallow on his stick. “Well, here’s one just incase.” With that he plucked the marshmallow off the stick, leaned over, and threw it onto Leanne’s shirt. Leanne looked down at the marshmallow goo all over her shirt. Jo Dee looked worriedly at the other three. Leanne frowned at Tim. Tim laughed hysterically. He was too busy to notice tom glaring at him. “Come on, Leanne, I’ll help you get it off” said Jo Dee, pulling Leanne up with her by the wrist. The two girls disappeared into the pitch black, leaving the two boys alone. One in a fit of laughter, the other one infuriated. “Tim!” tom snapped. Tim paid no attention. Tom got up and stomped over to Tim’s chair. He was only a few feet away when Tim stopped laughing, too late. Tom kicked the side of his foot. Tim looked up at tom. Tim wasn’t scared-he was two years older than tom, and quite a bit larger-just surprised. “What’s wrong with you?!” cried tom. “Jeez, keep your shirt on tom. It was a joke. No need to get huffy about it”. “That was mean, you should go apologize!”. “Why?”. “Because that was stupid” said tom. “Why?”. “I’m serious!”. “Okay, fine” sighed Tim. Tom watched as Tim got up and walked off into the darkness towards the girl’s tent.

A moment later tom was alone in the flickering circle of light cast by the fire. He sat back in his chair and stared at into the glimmering flames.

“Hey Tommy boy” said Tim, dropping back into his seat a little while later. “That was quick” muttered tom. “Yeah, well, I think it went well”. “Really” asked tom. “Yeah” said Tim, quickly. Tom’s strange feeling towards Tim gave way to the usual paling around atmosphere.

They were soon joined by the girls. Tim patted his hand on Jo Dee’s seat, gesturing for her to sit. Jo Dee dropped into her seat, Leanne took a seat next to her. Tim commenced prodding Jo Dee with a marshmallow stick, while Jo Dee giggled and stuck marshmallows down Tim’s shirt. Tom threw twigs and pinecones into the fire, and watched the flames engulf them. Leanne leaned her head back and looked up into the sky. “Do you think the stars talk to each other?”. Tim looked at Leanne. She had changed into a purple tank top. And she smelled like apples and cinnamon.

Tom was suddenly aware of Leanne’s question. “Oh, I don’t know” tom leaned his head back too and gazed at the stars. The sky was a stunning midnight blue, with little brilliant dots, that were the stars. For a moment tom was lost in the ocean of endless blue. Then Leanne’s voice pulled him back. “I’ve always wanted to see the earth from space” said Leanne quietly. “Yeah”. Tom thought he felt himself sink into his seat. He had a cozy feeling gently flowing through him. For a minute it seemed to him he was looking into Leanne’s eyes, even though he was only looking at the night sky. “I love looking at the stars” sighed Leanne. “Yeah, me too”.

“So what’s up with you and Leanne?”. Tom looked up from his book at Tim. “What do you mean?” tom half asked. “Are you kidding. You freaked out on me when I threw that marshmallow on her. And don’t you think I didn’t see you and her cuddling over there”. “We weren’t cuddling”. “For crying out loud tom! She was almost on your lap!”. “Stop it” said tom, a little louder than he had planned. “Why didn’t you look down her shirt?”. “Whatever!”. Tom tucked his book under the camping mat and laid down with his face in the pillow. “Turn off the lantern” mumbled tom, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Jeez” but Tim turned off the lantern and rolled over, putting his back to tom.

About a half hour later tom could hear Tim’s snoring. “Tim…Tim…Tim?” tom said gently. Tim’s only response was a snore loud enough to belong to an exhausted rhino. Tom slowly sat up. Tim’s only movement was the rising and falling of his side as he breathed peacefully in his sleep. Satisfied, tom crouched on his camping mat and searched for what he was looking for.

Tom soon found what he was looking for. An old shoe box he and Tim had brought along to keep their flash lights in. tom removed his and Tim’s flashlights, tucked his in his pant pocket, and placed Tim’s by his bag. Being careful not to wake up Tim, tom unzipped the entrance flap to his and Tim’s tent, and stepped out side. The night was cool and crisp.

ZEEEEEEP. Tom zipped up the tent flap behind him. For a moment he watched the figure of the slumbering Tim. Tim had been tom’s best friend since he was in second grade. They had been friends for six years. And Tim hadn’t changed since. Maybe tom was the one who was changing. It made him so angry when Tim teased and harassed Leanne. Six months ago he thought nothing of it.

“Good morning” said tom brightly to Jo Dee. Jo Dee and Leanne had always been the morning people, but only Jo Dee was sitting at the wooden table. “You’re in a good mood” commented Jo dee, sprinkling sugar on her cereal. “Yeah. Why?”. “You haven’t been getting along with tom very well recently” stated jo dee in a matter of fact like way. “well he’s been acting like a jerk recently”. “tom, Tim always acts like a jerk. He always has. You just haven’t noticed it.”. tom was quick to respond. “well if he’s such a jerk then why do you like him so much?”. jo dee looked up from her cereal. She looked cross. “I’m sorry I brought it up, lets just drop it” she huffed, and continued eating her breakfast.

“so, where to?” asked Leanne. Tom looked back down at the map of trails. The three main ones were the Indian path, the budding trail, and another one that was labeled as DM’s trail. “what’s dm stand for?” asked Tim. Tom hesitated slightly. Tim was one of those people whose only motivation to really do something was knowing they shouldn’t do it at all. “dead mans trail”. “oooh,” said Tim, “lets go on that one!”. “no” was all tom could say. “why not? don’t be a spoiled sport” jeered Tim. “Tim, that’s the one trail my mom said not to go on. Its way too hard to climb. Its really dangerous”. jo dee looked from tom to Tim, Tim to tom. Leanne shifted her weight a bit and walked over to the shade of a nearby tree. “I say we vote on it. All in favor of going on dead mans trail, raise em’ up high!”. tom just stood there, but Tim didn’t notice, for he not only raised his hand, but grabbed jo Dee’s and put it in the air for her. Jo dee giggled nervously. “okay, it’s a tie” said tom finally. “wait a minute”, began Leanne, who had rejoined the group, “jo dee, this is stupid. Toms been here before, he knows this place. If he says we shouldn’t go on that trail, then we just shouldn’t”. “lea-” began jo dee, who was cut off by Tim. “Leanne, don’t be a wimp. Are you gonna listen to everything tom says?”. “fine, if jo dee is going, then so am I” declared Leanne. “good. Its three against one tom. Your with us or without us”. “Tim, don’t be an idiot” asserted tom. For a moment Tim looked like he might slap tom, but instead he calmly said, “I suppose that means you aren’t coming”. tom looked at Leanne, who was looking at jo dee. “I’m going, but that doesn’t mean I like it”. Tim pumped his fists in the air. “YESSSS!” he cheered. “lets go!”

“Ouch!” cried Leanne, she bent down and wiped the blood off her knee. Tom stopped and knelt beside her. The cut in Leanne’s shin was already producing more blood, which dribbled down her knee. The skin around her cut was turning red. Tom opened his mouth to tell Tim to stop, but Leanne shushed him. “I’ll be fine” she muttered, “its just a scratch” . they both stood up and kept on walking, though a bit slower so as to let themselves fall more behind. Tom watched Tim, who was about fifty feet ahead, hopping over rocks and fallen trees. Leanne stared at the back of jo Dee’s head, she was about thirty feet ahead. Leanne could see sweat already running down jo Dee’s neck, though she’d only been trying to keep up with Tim for about an hour. Tom caught Leanne giving him a “what do we do?” look out of the corner of his eye. “we cant do much” muttered tom, “Tim’s obviously the leader of this pack right now, and wherever he goes, jo dee goes”. “but we should do something. Jo dee nearly fell down the hill. You’ve almost broken your ankle”. tom was now much more aware of his swollen, sore ankle, but he didn’t care. “and your cut” concluded tom. “yes, but we have to do something before we get ourselves killed” pressed Leanne. “well, what do you propose we do?” inquired tom. “you know these trails, go ahead with Tim, make sure he doesn’t lead us off any cliffs. And I’ll try to keep an eye on jo dee. I ‘ll make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid”. tom watched as Leanne turned her walk into a jog to get to jo dee, who seemed to be struggling now. As for tom, he bounded off to catch up with Tim, the boy who’d once been his very best friend, now his very biggest worry.

“slow down” instructed tom, “there’s a narrow bridge around this bend”. Tim grunted in response. “we’ll have to turn back soon” pressed tom, “we’ve already had a couple of accidents, and its going to be dark in less than forty five minutes”. Tim ignored him and called back over his shoulder “hurry up jo dee!”. tom looked back at the two girls. Leanne look worried, and jo dee was really dogging it now. Her face was bright red, tom could see her breathing was rapid and uneven. Jo dee nodded and picked up her pace as best as she could, though it wasn’t significant. Tom turned back to Tim, who had an unhealthy look of determination on his face. “hey, there’s the bridge!” shouted Tim. EEEEEEEEEEEK!!!! Tom and Tim turned around just quick enough to see something slither over jo dees toes and off into the bushes. The two boys sprinted back to the girls. When they got there Leanne had her arms around a hysterical jo dee. Jo dee had a phobia of snakes. “did you get bit?” panted tom. Jo dee was crying to hard to speak. “no she didn’t get bit” answered Leanne for her. Tom turned and glared at Tim, while jo dee shook uncontrollably in Leanne’s arms. “what?! What are you looking at?! “ tom didn’t say anything. “okay fine, have it your way, lets turn back and go back to camp”. “no, we cant” sighed tom, “it took us hours just to get up here, if we left now it’d be pitch black before we got even halfway back. Plus there’s no way jo dee is hiking all the way back down today”. “well, what should we do then?” Tim sounded slightly scared. “I don’t know” said tom, looking back at jo dee, who’s face was redder than a tomato now from hiking and crying. “look tom, you’re the one who got us into this mess, so now you’d better get us back out!”. tom ignored this completely. “well, if I remember correctly there’s and old camp ground that we can stay at for the night, less than a quarter mile away”. “if there is, then why didn’t we see any signs for it?” demanded Tim. “like I said, its old. They tore most of it down a while ago, but there’s still some fire pits and benches left. You got any better ideas”. Tim looked down at his hiking boots. “okay, lets go then”

Yes. Sweet salvation. There was an old campground area near there. And they had made it. It was about eight minutes after the snake incident. They had come up a short, steep gravelly path and found themselves on a flat area , sporting the wreckage of what used to be a popular camping ground . Leanne helped jo dee over to a nearby bench and eased her on it. Jo dee had stopped crying a few minutes ago, but her face was still bright red, her face stained with dirt and tears. She looked like a wreck. Leanne sat down next to her, put one hand on her shoulder, and began to dig through her backpack with the other. Tom and Tim came and sat down on the other side of the bench. “I’ll stay here with Leanne and jo dee, tom, you go get some firewood” said Tim, pointing to a nearby forest line. “NO” said tom, almost so boldly he surprised himself, “I’ll stay here and figure everything out. You go get some firewood” Tim dropped his hand and opened his mouth to protest, to try to regain his role as leader, but tom cut him off “you’ve already done enough damage”. Tim scowled for a moment to himself, then got up without a word and began jogging towards the forest. Tom watched him until he disappeared into the trees, then turned to the two girls. Leanne had pulled out several things and placed them on the table. There was two apples, some dry cereal in a baggie, and a bag of the left over marshmallows from the night before, plus three bottles of water. There was also three small bottles of clear liquids on the table, as well as some Band-Aids, varying in sizes and shapes, and a flashlight. “what’s the stuff in the bottles?” asked tom. Leanne pulled out a blanket, set it on the table, and looked up at tom. “two of them are different types of alcohol to clean cuts with. The other is just hand soap”. “oh” said tom. Tom watched Leanne fish through her backpack for a few more minutes, then set to finding useful things in his own.

Ten minutes later he had everything he thought might be needed from his backpack laid out in front of him. He had a baggie of twelve water purification tablets, three oranges, four mini packets of assorted crackers, a blanket, a flashlight, and a book about edible and poisonous plants, as well as a sturdy pocket knife. It wasn’t exactly all that they needed, but they’d survive. The only two things tom was worried about was the temperatures dropping when it got darker, and that some coyotes might wander too close to where they were sleeping. The temperature thing worried him more. They were all dressed in light clothing, it had been hot when they had left camp. Now the cold was nipping at toms face. It was cold outside, especially since they were on a mountain, and the sun hadn’t even gone down. They didn’t have anything to cover themselves with, and the temperatures were only going to drop during the night. Hypothermia was on toms mind more than the thought of a coyote coming too close to them. He had a good pocket knife, and he was pretty sure Tim had one too. If any coyotes came closer than necessary, they could easily scare it away or wound it if worse came to worse.

“tom” said Leanne, snapping tom out of his troubling thoughts. “yeah?”. “look at your ankle, its worse now than ever”. tom looked down at his ankle, Leanne was right, it was swollen to almost twice its usual size, the skin was a nasty black and blue. “there must be a cold stream somewhere near the woods. Go stick your ankle in it, the cold water will help the swelling”. tom looked like he was about to hesitate, so Leanne persisted. “jo dee and me will be fine. I’ll go through Tim’s backpack and see if he has anything we can use.

Tom stopped and peered into a small stream, only about four feet wide, maybe a foot deep at the most. The water was clearer than air, and colder than drinking water. Tom gritted his teeth as he sunk his swollen ankle into the freezing cold water. It stung and ached a bit, but tom knew it was the only way to help his ankle. As he sat there he thought about what his mother must be doing. She had definitely woken up by now. She was probably scared to death that they weren’t back by now. The sun was starting to set, and it would be dark in twenty minutes, more or less. Would she call the park rangers? Would they find them? Tom watched the water. It was so clear you could see the pebbles and stones it flowed over. A couple minutes later the swelling in toms ankle had reduced considerably. Not only that, but his foot was aching a lot from sitting in the cold water for so long. Without really thinking about it, tom put his hiking boot back on and stood up. He would have no problem getting back. It was a short walk from there to the place where his friends were. Tom put a moderate amount of pressure on his injured ankle. It felt a lot better than before, he knew he’d be fine walking back the next day on it. He thought to himself that he ought to thank Leanne when he got back, then began walking towards the edge of the forest line. It’d only taken tom about five minutes to get there on his severely injured ankle, but now that most of the pain was gone, he found he could see the clearing in little more than two minutes. Tom hurried out of the trees, eager to get back to the group. Surely Tim had come back with fire wood by now. Tom shoved and some branches out of the way and stepped out of the forest, then froze. He squinted in the near dark to see what was going on. Tom could see two figures, one bulky, obviously belonging to a male, had a hold of the other figure, a more feminine one. Tim and Leanne! Before tom knew it, he was running so hard his shoes nearly came off. As he came closer, he could hear Tim yelling. A few seconds later he was near enough to see what exactly was going on. Jo dee was standing aside by the light of the lit fire, crying and telling Tim to stop. Tim was holding Leanne bye the wrist about a foot off the ground. Leanne was thrashing about, trying to free herself. Without thinking, tom launched himself at Tim. If Tim had been paying more attention to tom, toms attack probably wouldn’t have had as much affect, but Tim was busy shaking Leanne. As soon as toms body made contact with Tim’s side, the older boy released Leanne’s wrist and was knocked down. Tom landed on Tim and began pounding his fist into every bit of Tim he could reach. The hits didn’t have much effect on Tim, instead tom took a nasty blow to his gut, which sent him flying off Tim. Tom looked up with a sick stomach at Tim, who was now standing over him with something in his hand that gleamed from the fire light. Tom rolled away just as Tim brought it down, barely avoiding being stabbed by Tim’s pocket knife. Tim stumbled forward a bit, tom stood up, but before he could get to his pocket knife, Tim came between him and the table again, and was looking madder than a bull who’d just got its nose pierced. For a moment tom had the slightest bit of hope that Tim might calm down and drop the knife, but a second later Tim was lashing out at tom, trying to get a good stab at him in the gut. Tom dodged and backed up from Tim’s blows for a minute or so, then started to feint. Things were getting to the point where if Tim got a good shot at tom, it’d be fatal. “TOM!” cried Leanne. Tom caught Leanne out of the corner of his eye. She had scrambled up to the table and was holding his pocket knife. Tom, knowing what she was about to do, held up his hand and backed away more from Tim, who was still oblivious to Leanne. With one swift movement, Leanne tossed his pocket knife to tom. Tom grasped the pocket knife out of the air, then brandished it in front of him. But Tim was distracted now. He had turned to Leanne. He smacked Leanne across the face with the back of his hand, Leanne collapsed onto the bench seat. that’s when instinct kicked in. tom darted forward and thrust his knife into Tim’s spine. Tim let out a screech and stumbled backwards, and fell, his head landing in the fire. The fire hissed and spit, as if it had just swallowed something foul and disgusting. Jo dee screamed and jumped up. Leanne got up to stop her, but just collapsed back onto the bench, watching jo dee drop to her knees and cry and scream hysterically beside Tim’s body. Tom watched as his old friend writhed and twisted in agony as the fire set to his hair and began licking his scalp and face. No one got up to help. Jo dee screamed and bawled like there was no tomorrow. Leanne sat on the bench hugging her knees against her chest, shaking. Tom did nothing more than watch as the flames engulfed the head and neck of what was once his best friend, now his worst memory.