Chapter Five: InvitationA Chapter by Joshua DonahueForbidden. Evan ends up getting invited by Luke to some sort of "gathering" and he is unsure of what he is really walking into. Also, at lunch, Evan humiliates himself by trying to talk to Summer.
Previous Version This is a previous version of Chapter Five: Invitation. FORBIDDEN
BY: J O S H U A D O N A H U E
Chapter Five Invitation A week had now passed; it was just Tuesday of last week that I was at
the park fighting over the best swing of the bunch. Things were now settling
down a little---school was becoming to feel normal to me. There were still a
lot of kids that I didn’t know yet, but Luke, Austin, Mitchell, Cheyenne, and
Jessica were great. We had already walked around town twice, played video games
at my place three times, and rode Austin’s golf cart around town once (which
Cheyenne just about killed us with by running into a tree). But other than
that, the week was uneventful. My mom had just dropped me off at home,
and then headed back to the seafood place. Sunday night she had brought me home
a plate of their food in order to try and make up for lost “quality time” with
her. Apparently, on the weekends the restaurant is extremely busy and needs all
the help it can get, so my mother had to work both day and night that day. But
she seemed to enjoy it. She claimed she had gotten to reconnect with long lost
friends that she hadn’t seen in a while. That left me home alone. Being the
parent that she was, my mom made me promise not to throw any kind of party or
anything while she was away, and I assured her I wouldn’t seeing as how the
secret would be out before sunrise. While she was away, I was forced to make my
own food---consisting of microwavable HotPockets and glasses of acidic sodas---and
clean up after myself. Nevertheless, I remained inside. I wouldn’t dare enter the world outside
unless I had my friends to shield me from the constant peace of the village.
There was no action or excitement---no crazy drivers honking at you to move out
of their way or anything like that. Where was all that drama at? Back in San Francisco, that’s where, I answered mentally and
miserably. I walked into the
still-kind-of-strange home through the front door, and I went into the kitchen where
I grabbed me a soda satiating my dehydration and then placing my backpack on
the countertop. After a moment, my cell
phone let loose its normal chime whenever I get a new text message. I whipped it out my
back pocket of my jeans and saw it was from my cousin, Luke. Hey! Wanna come to a gathering thing with
me this Sunday night? I texted back the reply: Is Austin and the others going? A moment later I threw my can away as I
awaited his response. My phone gave out another chime. No. They’re not invited. I didn’t know how to respond because I had
no clue what this “gathering” thing was exactly. But Luke was family, and I had
to trust him. So I typed out: Ok. Then I mashed the Send
key. I waited to see if he
had any other response but he did not reply. Apparently, the texting conversation
was over. It’s just a
“gathering”---probably a party of some kind. Some kind of party that only the cool people
got into, my brain suggested. I didn’t know, though. I placed my phone on its charger when I
got to me room. Then I blasted the radio and began doing my homework. So now I had friends, a
small school reputation, a strange girl in history class---who I haven’t
thought much of---, a new home, a
long-lost family, and now I was being invited to parties. What more could I ask
for? * * * As the school day seemed to nag on as usual and tend to be a perpetual
prison for teens like myself, things were getting… weird. I know Hale was weird
itself, but I was squirming my way into adjustment while still fighting my love
for California sun. Even Hale High School was becoming very familiar to me, but
that’s where the weirdness strikes. I was already memorizing all of my classes
and I potentially remembered the nameless faces in each period, and I
especially knew that Summer was only in one
of my classes. But not today. Today, I thought I
might be going a little crazy or just had a head rush from all the adjusting
that I was doing lately---or maybe it was just my eyes playing tricks on me
again. I didn’t know. But what I did know was that in practically every class I
had today, it contained the physical appearance of Summer. In chemistry, I have
this male lab partner (he was sick the day I started school, I discovered) whom
I talk to just to bypass the time of the boring class because he was just one of
those laid-back kind of guys. The moment Summer walked into the room and handed
Mr. Wallace a piece of paper and then was directed to sit in a vacant seat in
front us, my partner’s eyes bugged out. Summer seemed to glide to her seat with
ease, and when I looked up into her eyes, I found that they were looking back
at me! But that only lasted a second. Then she sat in her chair without another
glance towards me. Her partner---a copper red-haired girl covered in freckles with
glasses over her eyes---seemed intimidated by her presence and scooted her
chair over a little to avoid contact as much as possible as if Summer was an
infectious disease. After Mr. Wallace resumed his teaching, my partner and I
began chatting away about her mystical presence. Occasionally, we never
got to finish a conversation because we were afraid of Summer overhearing or
someone else, but I basically got the same information that I had received from
my friends. The dude seemed a little frightened by her, and he also appeared to
be attracted to her. Unknowingly, I became a little irritated with the guy’s
hormones that I became a little rude to him whenever he showed interest in her.
I couldn’t explain my actions or why I would even care about the situation. Still,
she was there in chemistry, sitting
right in front of me---an experience my brain couldn’t entirely process. And the same sort of
event played on through my classes: algebra, health, and literature---she was
there. She would walk in, several people would let their jaws drop open for a
moment, she would glide to the teacher effortlessly, hand them a slip of paper,
then be directed to a seat nearby. I found it a little freaky, but that doesn’t
mean my eyes didn’t keep directing their pupils in her direction; I stared at
her. I think the sight of her was like an addiction to me. It made me
feel…something. When I entered the
lunch room today, I insisted on me getting the food for everyone at the table,
and they agreed; I rested my books down upon the lunch table. I wished that I
could have carried them with me so that I could have something materialistic in
my hands to fumble with because what I was about to do was unthinkable. Every step that I took
up the stairs to the buffet line seemed like an endless and historic journey,
but at the same time, the top began to creep closer and closer to me as if
desiring to smother me. My legs seemed to barely be able to lift itself up each
step, feeling like I was being held down by weights. I was going to do it. I was actually going to do it. My heart beat faster
and faster, wishing to just stop and fall dead immediately to not have to face
the humiliation I felt I was about to bring upon myself. But I urged on up
until I reached the top landing. The buffet lines were really short today (lucky me, I thought), so I got through
them quickly with food for my friends. I was trying---hoping---to procrastinate
with the lunch line and do “it” afterwards. But it didn’t seem to make a
difference. As I came out of the line, I was supposed to go to my right to head
back down the stairs with our food. Instead, I headed to my left, over to the
few tables that resided in that area. And there was only one group of people
over there: them. I was going to speak to
her and her friends. I… I was closing in on
them now. What was I going to do? Why did
I even think about this? Dummy,
dummy, dummy, I kept saying over in my head. There was no turning back now.
I had to go forward with my plan. So I got closer, both trays of food in my
arms becoming heavier like sacks of pure stone and wobbling terribly from poor
balance. My breathing quickened so much that I felt like my oxygen tank would
was being depleted, and my body was beyond normal human temperatures. Just as I got closer to the table, one of
them---the dark auburn red-head, Rose---looked at me and nodded her head in my
direction as if to point me out, with a small, wicked smile starting to dance
upon her lips. Sure enough, the entire group of girls suddenly turned their
heads in synchronization and looked at me resembling Children of the Corn. It
was weird, but I ignored the action because I saw Summer looking at me head-on
and this time, I knew it wasn’t my imagination. She was at the head of
the table where she had been missing my first day at HHS and all of the other
girls seemed to be seated in the exact same position and exact same spot as
before. But I didn’t have time to think about that because all of them looked
at me with a questioning stare to see why I had crossed over the line that
marked their territory. So without any specific
direction to an individual I fumbled out a jumble of words. “Er---Hi. I’m---Um---Evan.
Evan…Woods. I’m new here and---” “We know who you are.
Now stop babbling and say what you want. We have better things to do,” Rose
said with a sneer and cutting me off before I could actually make myself sound
as civilized as possible. I was nervous and my
intestines were in a tight knot that was unthinkable of loosening. I could feel the entire student body
looking up at me from below (even my friends), and I could only imagine their
expressions. So with an intended dodge from Rose, I
spoke a little more directly at Summer. “Well---You see, I---er---just wanted
to get to know everyone, and---and---I already know everyone else, so---I---” Rose then said with
just as much hate and rudeness as before, “Does it look like we want to get to
know---” “Quiet, Rose!” Summer
said with such force. Her voice made Rose seem feeble. It was like comparing a
true goddess to a mortal. And Rose immediately shut her red-glossed lips together
in a tight line. But then Summer spoke again, only this
time, it was directed to me with such smooth words that made me want to swim in
them for eternity. “Well---Evan, we obviously don’t get to know many others
here, so as you can see that my friend, Rose, here has been not herself lately,
so I request that you please forgive her. And just to ease the emotions here,
might I suggest that you head back down to your friends, just to make Rose feel
at ease.” I heard a familiar voice
come up behind me and say, “Well, Evan, let’s get this food back to the table
before it gets cold, eh?” It was Luke. He rested his arms on my shoulders and
steered me away from the table of the girls. But before he turned himself, I
saw a look pass between him and Summer. It was a look that I couldn’t describe,
but it was definitely a look that would resemble a mental conversation between
them. After a moment or so, I
found myself sitting at the lunch table surrounded by stares of astonishment.
Every one of my friends was looking at me as if they had been petrified while
in the state of shock. But that seemed tedious to me. I kept on replaying
Summer’s charismatic voice in my head continuously. That is until Luke said,
“What the hell were you thinking, Evan?” “W.T.F. dude?” Cheyenne
exclaimed. “What was that all
about?” Austin questioned. Mitchell and Jessica
were just waiting for an answer from me silently, not wishing to badger me
anymore than necessary. “I---I don’t know. I
just---” I stammered. “You just made a fool
of yourself, that’s what you just did!” Luke said. “I---uh---I---” I was
at a loss of words. So many thoughts were swirling in my head. Why did I do it?
What force controlled me to make me even think of doing something like that? I
didn’t know how to explain my actions. * * * News travels fast. Potentially everyone had known of my “little trip
down Nature Lane” during lunch yesterday. I caught numerous stares directed at
me and soft whispers involving my name, but I didn’t say anything directly to
the gossipers, and vice versa. It was the top subject at the lunch table
yesterday, but it was dissolving slowly, and was turned into more of a joke by
Austin or Mitchell. None of my friends had
asked me why I had gone up there anymore since they knew I wouldn’t budge. I
think it was just more of a shock as to see me actually do it and speak to them. Still, I’m sure that and more
thoughts swirled in their heads a few times. And surprisingly, I
felt no more of a need to communicate with Summer. I decided that what I had
done was a mere act to discover what the “nature girls’” secrets were and was
simply a temporary spasm that I had already gotten over. It was nothing and
didn’t matter to me anymore. However, during the
course of the day, I allowed a few glances in Summer’s normal direction, but
her seat was vacant. I thought maybe she had had her classes switched or
something again, but her lunch seat was empty as well. It was really weird
cause every time that I glanced up over the balcony at them, I could sense a
few stares back at me. They obviously knew about me now; they probably thought
I was talking to them based on a dare or something or just to be funny. This
didn’t make me feel too good about myself. While glancing up there several
times, I even caught a few looks of disgust from Rose (I could only remember
her name because her hair resembled it). The first time I looked up there
however, my friends noticed me, and immediately pounced on the opportunity to
question about who I was looking for. I played it off by saying that I thought
I had seen something. Friday soon passed by,
but not before Luke made sure that I was going Sunday night with him to that
gathering thing. “So…you’re still coming
Sunday night, right, Evan?” he asked me when he and I were walking down the
hallway deprived of our other friends. “Um…yeah. I guess so.” “Okay. Great! I will
come by and pick up you up in my dad’s truck at around eight ‘o clock. Have you
told your mom, yet?” “No. She’s probably
gonna blow the house up when she finds out though. But I’ll convince her to let
me out. You have you’re license?” “I got my permit. But
we know all the cops of Hale. They don’t say nothin’ when they see me driving,
so it doesn’t really matter. And okay.” “Oh…okay. Well, I’ll
see ya then!” “See ya!” Then we departed for
our classes with me eagerly waiting to see what was going to occur Sunday
night. © 2010 Joshua DonahueAuthor's Note
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5 Reviews Added on July 21, 2010 Last Updated on July 26, 2010 Tags: forbidden, chapter, five, invitation, Evan, Woods, teen, werewolves, supernatural, love, reltionship, paranormal, nymphs, high, school Previous Versions AuthorJoshua DonahueJefferson, SCAboutUPDATE! 06.27.13 Hello, WritersCafe! I realize that I have abandoned my account since the summer of 2013. Since then I have started college, and I have experienced... a lot. However, this does no.. more..Writing
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