Chapter 1
"Right now I feel invisible to you, like I'm not real."
-Avril Lavigne
"I think I got it!" a blue-haired boy with big brown eyes, which reflected the light from the sun, plunged his tan hands into the river he was standing in, grabbing one of the silver fish. With a firm grasp on the struggling creature he pulled it out of the sparkling blue river as he lips spread into a smile that could melt the most cold hearted person. Sadly, his happiness was short lived. The fish started to thrash and hit him with its tail, shocking the boy and making him drop it.
Light laughter filled the area as the blue-haired blue scowled at the river and glared from the corner of his at the one laughing at him.
The laughing blond teenager with blue eyes saw the glare aimed at him and ceased his laughing fit. He walked up to his best friend and slung his arms around the other boy's shoulders, giving him a hug from behind. Burying his face into the boy's blue hair, which was in a ponytail, he said in a childish voice, "I'm sorry, Tyson, but if we switched places you would have been laughing too."
Sighing Tyson leaned into his friend to show the blonde he was forgiven for now. "Yeah I know, Max, but I really wanted to catch a fish with my bare hands like in the movies." He knew it was a silly reason but who doesn't at one point want to copy what they see in the movies?
Looking up at the sky the two friends began to daydream together.
"Tyson! Max!" A voice called from the woods.
The two teens looked in the direction from where the voice came and waited for whoever was looking for them. A tall boy with blue hair—that was a lighter shade than Tyson's—tied in a ponytail, and brown eyes emerged from the bushes, brushing off all of the leaves that had stuck to his shirt. Relief washed over his face when he saw the two teens he had been searching for standing together in front of him. "There you two are, get back to camp this instant, you know very well that you are not supposed to stray too far from the campsite."
Doing his best to snicker subtly, Tyson separated himself from Max and walked up to the older teen. With a playful grin plastered on his face, he teased the older teen. "Aw, Hiro, Big Bro," Tyson mocked whined to his older brother. "Can't we please stay here and play? I almost caught a fish, please." Then switching his expression from mischievous to somber, he on his best puppy dog eyes.
Frowning, Hiro shook his head at his younger brother's antics. "No Tyson! Now go to the campsite." Tyson's whole form seemed to deflate at the harsh words and even Max seemed a little hurt by them. Feeling like a bad guy, but not willing to let Tyson have his way Hiro compromised with himself. "Okay, Tyson, I'll make you deal." The younger boy perked up at the sound of a proposition. "You will go back to camp with Max and stay with the others, and I'll stay here and look around. If it seems safe I'll let you and Max come back here again, deal?"
Both boys beamed with happiness, knowing there was nothing dangerous in the area. Tyson wanting to thank his brother threw himself at the older teen and hugged him as tight as he could, but Hiro being uncomfortable with the contact gently pushed the younger boy away, not seeing the hurtful look on his face by doing so.
Smiling at the younger boys Hiro patted Tyson on the back and pushed him in the direction of the camp while Max followed behind his best friend. When the younger teens were gone Hiro began looking around the river, never noticing the pair of eyes watching him.
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Tyson and Max walked in silence together through the woods. Max knew how much Tyson liked his brother but Hiro rarely if ever showed compassion towards his younger brother; it made the blonde deeply depressed at the thought.
"Hey."
The sound of Tyson's cheerful voice dragged Max out of his thoughts. Even when his mind wads full of less than cheerful thoughts, he couldn't help but smile when he saw Tyson's smile radiating with happiness.
"Don't get depressed about my problems pal. Yeah it's sad but I'll live, I just wish I knew why he was so distant with me."
Max looked down at his feet. He wondered that himself and he did have a theory but he didn't like it. He believed that maybe Hiro thought of Tyson as their mother's murder since she died giving birth to him, but he'd never say it out loud, and he didn't want to believe it either.
The smell of hotdogs and smoke filled the friends' senses as they came closer to their campsite where their other camp group was. They were on a trip with their science class for extra credit. There were three chaperones, including Hiro, and ten kids, including Max and Tyson.
Three of the other students were sitting around a campfire. From the distance it looked the kids were sitting on the ground, but Max knew better. Last night all of the teens and chaperones had gathered thick logs to use as seats. They weren't the most comfortable things to sit on, but they got the job done.
Practically drooling by the time they reached the roasting hotdogs, Tyson and Max sat on the logs surrounding the fire joining their friends Kenny, Hilary, and Tala .
The red head with icy blue eyes smirked at the two and snidely said, "We should have known when we started dinner Tyson would show up dragging Max with him." Tyson growled at the comment and Max frowned.
"Tala, could you please leave Tyson alone," Hilary defended the blue-haired boy. Smiling at the girl who usually made rude comments about him he was about to thank her when, "It's not his fault his stomach takes the place of his brain since he has none."
Steam was rising from Tyson.
Max began to scoot away onto the other log. Tyson was his best friend, and he loved him, but he rather keep at least ten years of his life. He knew by the way Tyson's fingers twitched and how his brow furrowed that he was on the edge of a rampage. Before Tyson could erupt though youngest of the group spoke.
"Hilary, Tala, leave Tyson alone." It was Kenny. Short, and neither good-looking or ugly, he didn't stand out much. His glasses stood up more than him. "He hasn't done anything to you guys, and you shouldn't talk Hilary. If I recall correctly you forgot to pack toilet paper, and I had to lend you mine. Not only that, but after doing your business you got lost on your way back to camp." The brunette girl's face flushed at the memory.
All the boys, other then Kenny, were laughing at Hilary. Tyson was having a hard time breathing with how much he was laughing and he when he finally had control again he almost lost it immediately when he said, "You should be glad it's only the five of us here Hilary, and everyone else is busy." Whipping tears away the blue-haired boy finally caught his breath and relaxed, Tala and Max had calmed down before him.
A mischievous glint passed through Max's eyes, as he looked everyone in the group over once. "So guys it's getting late, you know what that means right?" Everyone shook their head and an evil smile spread across what was normally an angelic face. In a hushed whisper that could give any brave soul a chill Max said, "Ghost stories."
Tala smirked at what the blonde boy said and leaned back onto the pine tree that was conveniently behind him. "Who needs a ghost story when we are in a haunted forest?" Everyone stared at the blue-eyed boy questionably, waiting for an explanation. Sighing and looking up into the darkening sky Tala gathered his thoughts before looking directly into the fire, giving him a disturbing look. "Centuries ago a group of people went into these woods and were soon forced to start separating into smaller groups. The groups would meet everyday in a clearing, but then one day one group didn't show up. No one knew what had happened and the next day another group disappeared. It continued until one group was left. One member of last group got scared and ran away, and that is how we know about the story, but we do not know what happened to the last group."
The five kids sat in silence and disbelief. It wasn't real they knew but the way Tala had looked so haunted it put that small seed of doubt into their heads, and no one noticed another pair of eyes watching them as they ate their meal in silence.
Hello old and new readers. This is one of my original fanfics, if you can't tell. Well, I have decided to go through and reread some of my old chapters; I'm editing them too. Now I am going to be honest, I am not hard core editing this fanfic. It is one of my original works, and while it doesn't show off my best writing, it is a milestone. I want to respect it. I'll edit scenes that I feel are confusing, and I'll try to fix punctuation here and there (it's still my major weakness), but this story will hold its core.
So for the new readers, I hope you enjoy this story, and for old ones, I can't believe you are still reading this.