16 | In The Dust

16 | In The Dust

Paige's Point of View ~

The game Alpha Wolf is a classic. The sort of classic that you will remember the rest of your life. Every summer, me, Sarah, and Bella, were the definite champions of this game.

How to play:

There is a large area for participants to play (The area we always use in the woods. There are flags at the boundaries where you cannot go past. If you do you are out of the game till next round). There are two teams; the wolves and the sheep. At first there are two wolves. The rest of the players are sheep. First, the sheep get 1 minute to hide (Anywhere inside the boundaries), Once the sheep hides the 2 wolves set out to catch the sheep (like tag). Once a sheep is tagged they are automatically a wolf. This goes on until there is one sheep left. If the sheep makes it back to the starting line before any of the wolves can catch them, they win.

It makes much more sense once you play a game or two.

"Heyo everybody, I'm Nick, your instructor for today. We will be playing Alpha Wolf!" Nick said enthusiastically.

"Cabin 3 will be the..." The instructor started beating his hands on the table like drums "Sheep!" The kids cheered as our opponents appeared. A group of kids around 10-12 walked closer to us making their cabin counselors appear too.

Great. How convenient. Leo's cabin.

"You guys are the wolves!" The other instructor told Leo's cabin. The guy next to Leo looked his age and really hyped-up. He's cheering along with the 10-year olds with a large speaker on his shoulder. The music coming out of it was definitely not appropriate for the 10-year olds.

Cash money mama that be dining in Bahamas

Eating Fettuccine pasta with the scallops and the lobsters

Huh, I don't got no time for these h*es

Speaking on my name like I'm someone that they know

I'm the big cat bitch yes these people love me

Is that Gucci on my feet? Shit, bitch it might be!

The music boomed through the forest. The kids sang and danced along, not knowing what the lyrics mean what so ever.

Leo snatched the speaker out of his hands and turned off the music. The guy's face became more clear when he turned around to boo Leo. Carson.

"Dude," He snatched the speaker back and glared at him. " You're killing the mood."

"Dude," Leo flicked him on the forehead and Carson groaned in response. "You're ruining their childhood."

"I'm not ruining their childhood, I'm making it interesting." He crossed his arms against his chest dramatically.

"Right guys?" He held out his arms high and sung along with the little kids, ignoring Leo. They cheered, jumped and bounced to the music.

He has a point. I would have been a much more interesting child if I had listened to that type of music when I was younger.

"Paige!" Carson cried out. "Go long!" He firmly bent his knees a little and gripped the speaker tightly. Go long? What?

He moved his arms into a throwing position. I got scared and slowly backed up. He wasn't going to actually throw a speaker at me, right?

He threw the speaker in my direction and I panicked. I closed my eyes and helped my hands out to attempt catching the probably really expensive speaker.

"Paige come on!" Carson's voice yelled from afar. My eyelids were still tightly shut, afraid to see what happened.

"Open your eyes." A strong voice commanded. I slowly opened my eyes, and looked up at Leo.

His green eyes were unreadable, and he was dangerously close.

"Why are you here? This is my camp."

"My mom wanted me to make sure Maddie was okay while she was here ... and this isn't your camp." He looked at Maddie who was being held by Carson and dancing in his arms, then to me.

"It's basically my camp."

He stood a few inches away and kept his gaze on me. I turned my head down to where Carson was kneeling down on the ground, picking up the dented box that used to be able to play music a couple seconds ago. I assumed Leo had cough the heavy before it me, but dropped it in the floor carelessly.

Carson didn't look mad, but he looked like he had just lost a loved one.

"Noo, Aaliyah!" Carson said with a hint of grief in his voice.

"Who's Aaliyah?" Leo asked, turning to look down at Carson's sad posture.

"This" He held up the speaker, "This was Aaliyah."

Leo opened his mouth to say something, but the instructor interrupted him with the horn, meaning it was time for the sheep to hide.

I turned back to Leo. We kept our gazes on each other for a couple of seconds. We didn't look away from each other until I turned towards the forest full of green and ran.

My arms moved back and forth. So did my hair that I put up into a ponytail this morning.

The only thing I love about the forest is that it's quiet. If you cancel out the rest of the world you can only hear the trees swaying back and forth and the birds singing along to the cool breeze.

Another horn goes off breaking my train of thought. My hiding time is up.

I look around. There is a large bush to my right. I could hide behind that, but it looks too see through. There is a tree to my left.

There's no rule against hiding in trees.

But you hate spiders, Paige.

But you need to win this thing, Paige.

It's like my own head was having an argument with itself. I ignored the voices telling me to stay away from the bugs and cobwebs, and climbed up into the tree. The branches were thick enough for me to sit on one like a chair. I leaned all my weight on one branch behind me and sat on the branch below me. My sigh held both tiredness and annoyance.

How do monkeys do it?

***

~ half an hour later ~

It feels like it's been a million hours.

A million hours of being stuck in a tree.

Yes. You heard me right, I'm stuck. I've been stuck in this uncomfortable tree, full of dirt and bugs. Dirt I don't care about, but the bugs, the bugs scare the hell out of me. What if I get bitten by some deadly spider or a diseased Mosquito?

Somehow nobody has found me yet, and I don't think anyone will ever find me.

It reminds of the million times people either forgot or gave up on trying to find me during a game of elementary hide and seek, and I'd cry about how they didn't care if I sat there for hours waiting for them to find me. Honestly, everyone's been through that. I hope.

Shuffling leaves and movement interrupted my conversation with myself. Should I give up and yell for help or try and win?

No way I was going to let Leo's team win.

A head appeared. Then two more. There were two kids and...Carson. They looked around cluelessly and moved through bushes looking for me.

"There's only one person left, where is she?!"

I tried to keep myself from snorting, but failed. I covered my mouth with the palm of my hand to keep myself from making any more noise. I'm 3 feet above you.

They definitely heard me because they moved their heads in so many different directions and made me dizzy.

"It's Paige she's the last one." A girl called. How does she know my name?

"Paige came out! I have cheese!" Carson's voice called out.

Is he joking? Cheese? What does he think I am, a rat? Either way, I'm lactose tolerant and if I eat even a crumb of any sort of cheese, my stomach will hurt so bad, I won't be able to walk.

Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but still.

Shuffling sounds came from behind me. Is someone coming up? My only option is to try and jump off without breaking a bone and attempt to run to the starting point.

But I'm not a good runner.

But I'm not getting tagged.

"I think she's up here!"

I start to freak out. I'm not going to lose and get tagged while stuck in a tree. No way am I giving the victory to they're team.

I move both my legs so that they are dangling off the thick branch I've been sitting on.

Am I the only one who used to get those annoying marks as a child, when I pressed my leg or hand down on something textured for a large amount of time?

The branch I was sitting on shook.

Someone was getting closer.

I leaned my body closer to the edge of the dark wood. If I break something jumping off of this tree I'm going to lose it.

I've only ever broken a bone once. I used to like to pass a football back and forth with Sarah and my old friend Nick, and not actually play the game. We were playing pass one time and Nick threw the ball so far I ran as fast as I could to catch it, but when I caught the ball, my hand caught it, but my finger was in the wrong position and was hit too hard. Yeah, yeah. I know, It was only my finger, but it hurt really bad. I never played again.

I remember Nick. I called him Saint Nick because he would always give the best presents. Nick, Sarah, Bella, and I, would be together all day everyday during the summer when we were 11-14 years old. Including going to camp together for years. Nick was probably closer to me than any of them, but he moved away. I used to get letters and phone calls all the time, but his mom passed. We talked about it and Bella, Sarah, and I helped him through it, but one day it just stopped. No more letters or calls, nothing. I didn't get over it until I was 15 last year.

"Paige, why the hell are you in a tree? Let me join, monkey!" Carson's voice interrupted my story time. I screamed in shock. I fell off the branch I sat on and onto the hard brown dirt.

"Ow!" I looked up and two kids were approaching me like I was they're next meal. I jumped up and patted my butt in case there was any dirt there. I looked up and the kids were ready to pounce.

When one of them giggled I ran.

My legs hit bushes and my feet made dark marks on the hard ground. I'm not a runner. Whenever there was a pacer test in P.E. I would make up excuses or pretend I was sick on the exact day it was planned.

I ran further through the forest full of trees. I stopped and out my hands on my knees, out of breath.

A strong hand grabbed my arm and I shot up from my lazy position.

"You lose, Pay." I winced in embarrassment and turned to look at him. He smirked when he saw my expression as the kids cheered and danced around him. That better not be a permanent nickname.

"Did you just call me pay?"

"Yes." He says keeping his signature smirk plastered onto his to-pretty-for-his-own-good face.

"My name is Paige. You will not call me Pay"

"Same thing" He shrugs

"Is not"

"Is too." He said. I don't know what made him more annoying; his attractiveness or his sense of humor. He seems to be a good person for a minute then he gets all; I'm a jerk because I can be. It's really confusing.

"Don't start," I say sternly, backing away from his tall body.

"Pay, I believe you started it."

"You're so obnoxious." I say, my tone as cold as ice. I'm not lying, his obnoxiousness makes my head hurt.

"I know." His face changes to an unreadable expression and he walks away leaving me in the dust. Dust meaning the 2 cabins containing 20, 10-12 year olds I have to deal with now.

***