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Chapter one - Betrayed

The sunlight invades my eyes as I awake in the early morning. Just another Friday. If I make it through today then team tryouts for the football are just around the corner. I grab my stuff, put on my shitty shoes, say goodbye to my mother and head off to school. I wait at the bus stop and scroll my phone. Same stuff as usual, my guilty pleasure unfortunately. The bus arrives and I get on, thanking the bus driver on the way in. I continue scrolling my phone on the bus. Then, a notification. It’s a post from Sallie May, she is the most popular girl in the whole school. I have had a crush on her for forever. I stare at the post for a while, deciding whether to like it or not, it’s just a simple status update so she might think it’s weird if I like it, but it does have a really cute photo of her in it so if I don’t like it she might think I’m ignoring her and- BEEP BEEP! My heart jumps a little as the driver beeps his horn.

“Hey kiddo, it’s the last stop, get off the bus,” he says. The last stop? I was meant to get off ages ago. I scramble off the bus and apologize to the driver. I check my phone, 8:56, if I rush I might not be late.

I come to a halt, completely out of breath as I arrive at the school gates. I check my phone, 9:08, fuck, I’m late. I enter school and walk to class. When I get there the teacher scolds me for being late and I take my seat next to my group of friends. Puffed, I say,

“Sorry guys, got a little sidetracked heh.” They look at each other and nod.

“Look man,” Jack says “Your a fucking disappointment.” My expression changes immediately. “This hasn’t been the first time you have been late this week, your nineteen and you can’t get anything done. No fucking wonder you got held back a year mate,” he continues. I try and get some words out but he just keeps going, “So we have COLLECTIVELY decided that we are kicking you off the team.” My jaw drops.

“W… What? You can’t do that, who would replace me?” I ask.

“Josh”

“Josh? Really? Your replacing me with Josh?”

“Look man, at least Josh is on time. Your a fucking pussy mate, you need to get your life together, you can’t go one second without fucking something up. Your off.” I can’t believe my ears. My friends turn their backs and talk at their table and tears swell in my eyes. I wipe my eyes and sit through the entire history class without saying a word.

At the end of the day, Josh walks up to me. I glare at him as he approaches, we have almost never talked but I guess the other guys just make friends with strangers now.

“Hey,” Josh says “Sorry to hear you got booted from the team but hey, it’s not all bad, now I get to play!” I glare at him, I can’t tell if he is being overly joyful or teasing me. “Anyway, the rest of the guys are having a movie night at 5:00 tonight, wanna come?” Josh asks. Oh great, they sent Josh to ask a simple question. I tell Josh that I will be there, angrily grab my back and storm off. When I arrive home I stomp upstairs, ignore my mother’s noise complaints and sulk in my room until 5:00 comes around.

“I’m going to Jack’s house for the night, we are watching some movies,” I yell out to my mum as I hastily pack my stuff, I can’t be late to this, I would never hear the end of it.

Knock knock knock. I rap on the door. Jack opens it with surprise,

“I didn’t think you would actually come! Welcome in welcome in.” He ushers me inside. I walk in and my senses are immediately assaulted with rich people smell. The air in this house smells filtered because of how clean everything is. Walls painted in a perfect white had vintage paintings sprawled across them and plants I have never seen before hang down from shelves. Jack has always lived like this, it makes me wonder how it effects someone growing up. I walk into the bustling living room. The TV is playing the news in the background, many bottles of wine are dunked in an ice tub and everyone is gathered around the cheese board.

“Yoooooo” Micheal exclaims as I enter. His long “yo” is annoying every time. “How are you dude, heard you got kicked off the team, balls!” Micheal is… interesting.

“Forget it Micheal. Here, take a seat, grab a bite,” One of my taller friends says, “We are thinking of watching Halloween or something like that, since that time of year is coming around.” I sit down and pour myself a glass. We talk for a while and then the football team inevitably for brought up again. Michael won’t get off my ass about it, he just keeps bugging and teasing me. He finally heads off to the bathroom, giving me some peace and quiet for once. We talk some more, final exams, girls and shoes, stuff like that.

“Yo, where is Michael at? We are starting the movie soon,” Jack asks.

“I think he went to the bathroom, I’ll check,” I respond as I get up to find him. I walk over to the bathroom door which is just down the hallway from the living room. I approach it and hesitate before giving a little knock. After there is no response I go to open it when it flings open.

“RAAAAH!” Micheal jumps out at me with a cheap mask on and a knife. I fall back from the shock and spill my drink all over myself. Laughter erupts from the living room as they had seen the whole scene play out. Michael shoves me back onto the living room, laughing on the way in.

“It’s not funny guys, he had a knife, you would have been scared too,” I say, out of breath.

“It’s rubber idiot,” Michael says as he pretends to stab me in the neck with it, making silly sound effects on impact. Everyone is still laughing.

“Guys, it really isn’t funny, this isn’t fair,” I plead.

“I know you where a scaredy cat but I didn’t know you where this much of a pussy,” he teases, “you need to get your game together, your such a baby.”

“I’m not a baby”

“I’m not a baby,” he repeats, more mockingly, “If your not a baby then why don’t you…” He looks around the room and his eyes land on the TV, “Turn that up,” he says, pointing to it. Jack gets the remote and clicks up the volume.

“-ny legal disputes, the abandoned playtime Co toy factory will be demolished next Monday. In other news, newborn babies might not b…” The TV reporter chimes in and gets cut off as Jack turns the volume up then back down.

“There,” Micheal says, “Go there, it’s been abandoned for ages so there will probably be some cool shit there or something,” he pauses, “Unless your too scared.”

“I’m not scared of some old fucking, toy factory thing but… There is no way in going there, that’d be trespassing,” I explain.

“You know what, if you go there and get something cool, we’ll let you back on the team,” Michael says. I thought he was joking but when I look at his face he looks dead serious. I look over at Jack for approval, he gives a “yeah sure, why not” nod.

“Yeah, I’ll do it and it will be easy. I’ll even record it to prove I’m not scared.” I announce confidently.

“Yeah, sure dude, now sit down we are starting the movie.” Jack says, rolling his eyes.

The movie is scary. The masked man who stabbed people was unsettling. I had to leave halfway because it was too scary, I blamed it on there being no plot but everyone knew anyway so what’s the point of lying. Jack walks me to the front door to see me off.

“See ya mate, sorry the movie was too scary,” he apologizes. I roll my eyes. “Oh yeah, if you are really going to do that factory thing, you have until Monday. Be safe and hopefully you get something for for Michael. To be perfectly honest, I never wanted you off the team in the first place,” He says before giving me a pat on the back and sending me on my way. I thank him and walk home.

Time to explore this factory.