Out of the Woods

Seventeen Years Ago

Seventeen years ago

“Sarah!” Win’s voice comes around the corner of the school’s hallway before the rest of her follows. She’s running faster than I’ve ever seen her move—outside of a swimming pool that is. “Would you please get out of the way?” she shrieks at a pair of seniors who seem about ready to dry hump each other, parting them as Moses did the Red Sea as she continues running like a puppet freed from its strings.

“What on earth…” I say, just as she, panting, stops and bends over to catch her breath in front of me. “Are you okay?”

“We really need to stop faking our periods to get out of gym class.” She straightens, placing a hand on her heaving chest. “Coach Smith is right; cardio is important. I will not make it past tryouts if—”

I hold my right hand out to silence her, reach into my locker for my inhaler, and present it to her with an open palm.

“I’m good.” She shakes her head, slowing her breaths as she moves to lean against the row of lockers next to mine. “Plus, we both know that thing expired in middle school.”

“Mom says that expiration dates are a tool from the government to take more of our money and limit resources.” I toss my inhaler into the abyss behind the neat row of library books that sit front and center. What lies beyond those books is no longer my concern. At this rate the inhaler’s fall is probably cushioned by hundreds of discarded gum wrappers and abandoned scrunchies.

Win nods slowly, making no effort to hide her disgust. “Let’s hope Marcie doesn’t have the same attitude about the food in our fridge.”

I wince but shake it off. “Wait…why were you running? And yelling? And—”

“There’s a new boy,” Win interrupts. “A cute one. A tall, well-dressed, glasses -wearing boy…” She waits for my reaction eagerly while I await a valid reason for her behavior.

“Okay? And?”

Win grins like the devil herself. “He was reading a book…like a real book. A hardcover with a broken-in spine. Something old.”

I gasp and slam my locker shut. “Where is he?”

“By now?” Win looks around the hallway which is only growing more crowded as the clock ticks closer to first period. “He could be anywhere.”

I chew my lip, my grin growing lopsided. “Let’s go find him.”