Chapter One

“The Crystal Lake Forest. Where’ve I heard that before? Oh, right. That slasher movie with the dude in the hockey mask and those freaky claws.” I sighed. “Tanc, that was ‘Freddie versus Jason’ and you know it. Besides, we’re sleeping in the forest, not the lake.” My best friend Tancred Torsson rolled his eyes. “Right. That makes me feel a whole lot better.” We were in my room, discussing our school’s newest field trip. Chad Bergstrom, one of the teachers’ aides, was sponsoring an excursion to the nearby Crystal Lake Forest for one of the last outings of the school year. Just then, the doorbell rang. “ROBBY! CAN YOU GET THE DOOR?!” yelled my older sister Cat from her room. I sighed and ran down the stairs to open the door for my other best friend, Emma Connors. “Hey Robby!” she said, making me blush. I’ve had a crush on Emma for like forever. Tall and lean with green eyes and flowing brown hair, she made a great contrast with medium-sized, white-haired me and the athletic, black-crowned Tancred. “Hey”, I said as coolly as I could. We ran up to my room. Tanc grinned mischievously. “She probably thought it was Cordova,” he grinned, gesturing towards Cat’s room. Danny Cordova, a blonde senior from school, was a teen heartthrob to almost the whole female population at Jason Brown High. Including my older sister Catalina. I returned the grin. “Remember when he came that one day and we pretended to be mental?” I said. Tanc and I guffawed and slapped skin. “That was totally wicked!” “Oh, be quiet you two. I can’t hear the radio”, said Emma, smiling as she remembered. I backed out of the room, shaking my head as Tancred laughed so hard that the seat he was on threatened to give out. As I retrieved sodas from the fridge, I thought about how long we had been friends. Tanc and I had met in second grade when he poured ice down my back and asked me how it felt. The teacher had run over and protested when I explained that it was an experiment and that I felt perfectly fine. We had been friends ever since. And Emma. I chuckled, thinking back to that day. It was fifth grade and she had just transferred from out of state, so me and Tanc had decided to initiate her into the class, Terror Twin style. We had planned this whole elaborate scheme during recess when Emma came from behind and pointed out a bunch of flaws. Instead of shaking our fists and vowing to hate girls forever, Tanc and I welcomed her into our group and the three of us became the Terror Trio. It was weird to think that, in a few months, we would all be graduating from the eighth grade. Tanc and Emma barreled down the stairs, jolting me from my reverie. “Dude! What was taking you so long?” asked Tanc as he grabbed a Coke from my hand and plunked down in front of the TV. “I was just thinking”, I replied, handing Emma a can and grabbing one for me. “’Bout what?” said Emma. I shrugged. “Graduation.” Emma’s face fell. “Yeah, about that? I have something to tell you guys,” she said. I blinked and frowned. “What?” The word had barely left my mouth when the front door slammed open and I was tackled by two hundred pounds of dog meat. “Baxter! Geroffame!” I said, my voice muffled by the weight of my black Labrador retriever. Emma and Tanc laughed as I struggled to throw Baxter off while at the same time preventing myself from being treated to a slobber bath. “Sorry, Robert,” my dad grinned. “He kinda got away from me again.” I sighed as I helped him pull Baxter to his cage by his collar. “Oh, man! The bus is here,” exclaimed Tancred, poking his head out the doorway. The next half hour was consumed by the three of us jamming our stuff into the bus and getting hugged and fussed over by my mom. “Oh, Robby! This is your first time sleeping away from home!” she said, holding me tightly. “Mom, this is no different from me sleeping over at Tanc’s,” I said, pushing away. “Still! It’s so far! Do you have enough with you? You did remember to pack enough underwear, right?” “Mom!” I half shouted thoroughly horrified. I could feel the tips of my ears starting to get warmer. Emma grinned at me. “Don’t worry. Mrs. D’Lacey. I’ll take care of Robert,” she said. I felt my face get even hotter. Mom visibly softened, since she thinks Emma has the most common sense out of us. I kept blushing even as we piled into the bus. It was super crowded, but we managed to find a couple of seats in the back. I ended up sitting next to Emma, which was great since she tended to lay her head on my shoulder for long rides. The start of the ride was awesome. We sang tons of songs at the top of our lungs until we got yelled at, and then people started to tell funny stories or jokes. After a while, though, the bus lost its initial energy and lots of people settled down. Day turned to dusk, and pretty soon the sun started to set. Emma sighed. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked quietly. “Yeah,” I replied, looking at her and the spectacle outside. “Yeah, it is.” She shivered. “Wow. It’s starting to get chilly,” she laughed. “Want me to close the window?” I asked. “Nah.” She turned to me. “How about we just get a little closer?” she suggested. Without waiting for me to stammer out an answer, Emma scooted really close, pulled my arms around her, and leaned against me, eyes half closed. I swallowed, my heart pounding wildly. Emma giggled. “Wow, you’re really warm,” she said, pulling me nearer. “E-Emma?” I stuttered. “Yeah?” she said softly, turning her head to face me. I gulped. We were super close and our faces were mere inches apart. Our eyes met, and Emma started to close the gap between us. Suddenly, the bus hit a pothole and Tancred, who was sleeping in the seat over, was jolted out of his loose seatbelt and landed in the aisle. Emma and I pulled away from each other as everyone on the bus turned to look and laugh at Tanc. “Torsson!” bellowed Mr. Mitchell, the varsity football coach. “Get back in that seat and tighten your damn seatbelt!” Tanc grinned sheepishly, flashed a thumbs up in my direction, and did as Mitchell had instructed. I glanced towards Emma, who was staring at the front of the bus with a crestfallen look on her face, arms folded in front of her chest. With a sigh, I crossed my arms and leaned my head on the window. I could already tell it was going to be a very long weekend.