Chapter 5
June 29, 2026 at 7:00 PM
I tossed my now-empty ice cream container away and stood up. I looked at Ava and motioned. She stood up and finished her ice cream, then she checked her person.
Oh. Good idea. Once we were home, there was no coming back. I rolled my jacket sleeves down since the air was starting to get pretty cold, and I was starting to shiver.
“Guess we should get going now, it’s getting late and we don’t wanna worry Mom and Dad,” Ava said.
Right. I nodded. We started towards home. I checked my phone for the time and saw I had a text. It was from Sophie. That was fast.
Sophie: Hii! Just checking up on u and ur sis! Saw you guys headed out, Id love to meet her!
I read the message with a smile on my face. I took a moment to re-spond and then decided on what to say.
Me: Haha, sorry I didn’t get a chance to say bye! I’m sure she’d love to meet you too! We should hang out soon!
I hit send and then put my phone away.
“What time is it?” Ava asked.
Whoops. I completely blanked on checking that. I sheepishly took my phone out again. “It’s about four, so we’ve got some time before the sun’s down.”
As soon as I put my phone back in my pocket, it vibrated. I pulled it out for the third time.
Too obvious.
Ava gasped. “What’s that?” More amused and knowing than curi-ous.
“Nothing. Just texting someone I met at the hospital.” I tried to make it nonchalant.
Sophie: Totally, wht abt this wknd?
Huh, that was kind of sudden.
I mean, we didn’t really have any plans beyond the usual. I didn’t see why we couldn’t. I didn’t respond yet, and I suddenly felt really awkward about the idea of us all hanging out.
“Hey, what are you doing this weekend?” I tried not to seem nerv-ous.
“Why? Got something fun planned?” She had a hop in her step and her eyes lit up and I felt a little calmer about it all.
“Well, me and that girl from the hospital are gonna hang out, and—” I paused to think about how to ask her.
Ava took this opportunity to interrupt me. “A girl, huh? I get it, I’ll leave you alone,” she shrugged. “Besides, I’ve been meaning to catch up on some schoolwork.”
I stumbled. “Actually, I was gonna invite you. If you want to tag along, I mean. She saw us leaving the hospital and wanted to meet you.”
“Oh, well, if you’re bringing a date,” she clasped her hands behind her back and turned to face me, walking backwards with a rhythmic beat, “can I bring Toby along?” She gave a small, innocent smile.
She always knew how to ask and not let you say no.
I groaned but didn’t want to seem too upset. “I guess. I don’t see why not, I mean.”
“Then it’s a double date,” she said, skipping.
She seemed almost too excited. But there was nothing wrong with that. I looked back down at my phone.
Me: This weekend works! Just an fyi, Ava (my sis) is bringing along her friend. Hope that’s ok. Where’d you wanna go?
I sent the message then put my phone away. I put my hands in my pocket and took in the crisp air and natural sounds. The city sounds were nice, but nothing beat nature.
Birds cried, insects chittered, and our footsteps crunched the peb-bles underneath. We continued walking and then reached the small bridge that crossed the river. Ava stopped and looked around.
“We should get those lichen samples while we still can. You mind?” She crouched down near the riverbank and analyzed the water.
I sighed. I forgot all about that project. “Yeah, I guess. That’d be the smart thing to do, I mean.”
I crossed the bridge and examined the rocks across the river from Ava. We were silent as we looked around. We didn’t need much, just a cou-ple of live lichen samples to ‘prove’ we knew what we were talking about. It felt dumb, but it was also the funnest part of the project. Double edged blade, I guess.
My hands were muddied by the rocks, so I rinsed them off in the cold stream. The river gently washed away all the dirt, but bit my fingers in return. A natural and agreed upon give-and-take. A few minutes passed and, surprisingly, nothing. I kept rummaging through small rock deposits, but there were no signs of lichen anywhere. Just some slick grime that smelled like marshy fish water.
Yuck.
“Oh hey, here’s some. It looks like the sunburst lichen we read about, it’s really pretty!” Ava lifted a large rock with some bright orange lichen. It looked too comfortable there. She placed it off to the side and air dried her hands. “We should look somewhere else. The samples need to be different, and we’re not finding much here anyways.”
I’d say.
I stopped picking through the river and fanned my hands out be-fore wiping them on my pants. My fingers ached from the cold and I was starting to really change my opinion of Ms. Rohd.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Umm,” she scratched her temple with her pinky and thought of an answer.
As she did this, I picked up the rock she found and examined it. The lichen was pretty concentrated, but it’s a really colorful orange. Like someone took a highlighter and bled it all over the rock. There were thou-sands of small petal-like nubs splaying out into, well, a sunburst pattern.
It was really pretty.
I tried to turn the rock in my hands, but the grime made it too slip-pery for me. I dropped it.
“Whoa, careful,” Ava chuckled and picked the rock up. “I just found this. You can’t go losing it already.”
“Shut it or I’ll wipe my hands on your shirt,” I said, my threat fall-ing flat from a stifled smile.
“Do it.”
Crap. She called my bluff. I waved her off and then stared out to-wards the woods. I didn’t want to go too deep in, and the sun was still up. I figured that if there was one place that would have lichen, it’d be there.
I raised a pointed finger. “Hey, what about—”
“No. Evan. No.” She shook her head. Her words sharp. “Not after what happened.”
I got it. I did. But.
“Look, I’m scared too, but we’ll just hang around the outskirts, stick together, and the sun’s still out.” She bit her lower lip and furrowed her brows. “It won’t be that bad. We’ll be in and out, c’mon,” I tried to seem positive.
“Fine.” Her eyes were nervous, and her frown said it all. But the sooner we could find this lichen, the sooner we would go home.
“I’ll lead the way, just stick close.”
I took her free hand in mine. We started trekking up the small hill and then looked at the trees on the outskirts of the forest. Ava checked out all the trees I didn’t, but she stayed within arm’s reach, and I made sure not to stray too far from her. I scanned the trees, many of them pines that were towering over us, reaching for the heavens.
Even the trees seemed like they didn’t want to be here.
My body hated this. My legs started to shake and my hands trem-bled. It took everything in me to push back the pit in my stomach that formed from a hailstorm of anxiety.
Keep cool.
My stomach didn’t quit. It told me to get out, run, never come back. Begged and pleaded. Asked the most important question: why? But. I ignored it. Something in the back of my mind told me to stay; that this was the right call.
“Here!” I spotted a flowering lichen that was gray at the tips and had a balanced gradient to white at the base. It was perfect.
“Great! Let’s get out of here, like, now.”
Right there with you.
We both jumped down from the hill and then jogged home. The trees ahead almost felt like they came alive and were running alongside with us, trapping us here. But we kept our steady pace and were making good time. The trip home wasn’t bad, but couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched the whole time. Like whatever was lurking knew more about us than it should.
That was a crazy thought.
Probably just paranoia.
When the sun started setting, we booked it home. We made it back, out of breath, but our lichen was safe and sound. Ava knocked on the door.
“We’re back,” she exclaimed.
“One second,” Mom’s voice chimed, muffled and distant. She was probably cooking dinner. After a small while, she answered the door and welcomed us back. We proudly presented our lichen samples and she gig-gled. “The lengths schools make you go to for a grade. I’m proud of you kids, come in.”
We entered; Ava wiped sweat off her brow. The TV played some sitcom Dad loved, and he was laughing at some lame joke about portals and teleporting. “If only it were that easy.” His laugh had an edge to it.
Imagine that. If only.
We made our way past the kitchen, the smell of cooking chicken made my stomach rumble and I groaned. But we had to take care of our project and pushed on. Once in our room, Ava plopped the lichen samples in some jars, carefully labelling each one with her bright green label maker. I hopped into bed and stared at the ceiling.
Nothing even happened. So why was I still reeling?
“We should finish the project after dinner. We’ll get five points ex-tra credit for turning it in early,” Ava said.
She tried to keep the mood light. Good call. “Yeah. We’re almost done anyways, why not?” I smiled and then sat up.
I was tired, but the day wasn’t over yet. I checked my phone, but only had an email for some ‘super comfortable mattress’ that promised per-fect night’s sleep. Right. The hospital bed wasn’t bad, either.
Oh well.
I swiped it off and then opened up my calendar. It’s Thursday, and the project was due late next week. We were really knocking it out early. It helped that Ava was there to motivate me because I’m not usually good at doing that kind of thing.
Sophie made plans for this weekend, so only had tomorrow to worry about. But we also had to start seeing that psychiatrist. And tomorrow we’d be going to the library to research the vestiges some more. At least, I was assuming we’d do that tomorrow since today didn’t quite turn out as expected.
“Sounds like we didn’t miss much. At school, I mean,” I said.
“Yeah, thankfully. We should catch up on that as soon as we can. But I have a whole project to do. That isn’t fair. But, hey, I have the weekend to work on it. Actually, yeah, what are we doing this weekend? And I need to ask Toby if he’s free.” Ava’s thoughts trailed off as she whipped out her phone and texted away.
“I don’t know. I asked Sophie what she wanted to do, but she hasn’t responded yet.”
“Sophie? Oh, that girl you mean! So that’s her name.” Ava tossed her phone onto her bed and the corners of her mouth crept into a smile. She smiled so big her teeth showed, biting her tongue between her teeth. “That’s a pretty name!”
I mean, it rolled off the tongue fine, sure.
“Right, I never told you. Yeah, she’s a bit older than us though. I think she’s sixteen?” I started thinking about it. I never asked her how old she was, but she didn’t look that much older to me. I’ll have to ask when I get the chance.
Ava giggled. “Wow, Hazel and Sophia. Hazel’s really sweet, though. And cute.”
I grunted. Yeah. Hazel was pretty. And she listened. Saw me for me. Not as “the other one.”
But Sophie. She made me feel butterflies. Turned my brain into an egg in hot oil.
Our phones vibrated at the same time. I pulled mine out and it’s from Sophie.
Sophie: Idk, I was thinking of the arcade or smth…wbu?
Me: Oooo! I love the arcade! That sounds fun!
Sophie: Arcade it is! Saturday at 3 :D?
Me: Yeah! See you then!
I tossed my phone down and let Ava know about our plans.
“That works. Toby’s free to join, so double date confirmed!” She giggled and then stood up. “We should probably go eat dinner. I’m starv-ing.”
I stood up and nodded. At least things were looking up.
“Same.”
