The sound effects from the TV in the living room woke Maria early Saturday morning. She grumbled and turned over under her sheets, and covered her head in the blue satin encased pillow. She tossed and turned when the noise continued to stay at its loud volume. Finally Maria just sat up and yelled "TURN THAT DAMN THING OFF!"
Her mother poked her head through the doorway and raised her eyebrows at Maria.
"Since when did you start cussing, young lady?" It was said in more of a scolding manner, instead of a question. Her head disappeared back into the hallway. Maria groaned and flopped backwards back onto her pillow. Since there was no possible way of getting back to sleep, she might as well get up. Maria tossed her legs over the side of the bed and grudgingly stood up to go look in the mirror. Her coffee-with-heavy-cream colored hair stood up at all angles, like a porcupine with bad hair day. Maria sighed and dragged her hand down her face, wondering how in the world she ever manages to fix this mess every morning.
After about ten minutes of brushing, grunting, and cursing, Maria finally managed to get her hair back to normal-her strait hair going a bit past her shoulders, her bangs pinned up to the side, her eyes popping with black eye makeup, put on lightly of course.
The suns rays pouring through the open window reflected off her hair, adding a somewhat glint of toffee color. Maria blinked her eyes a few times to help herself wake up, and walked over to her closet, criticizing everything in her mind.
A pink cashmere blouse? Eew no. I hardly ever wear pink.
Orange tank top? It's not THAT hot outside.
Finally she settled on a black, skin tight t-shirt, with a blue and black tie-die tank-top over it. Maria pulled these on, along with her jeans, being careful of her hair, and stomped out to breakfast. She kissed her father good morning, delivered her mother's daily cup of coffee, grabbed a few pancakes sitting on the counter, and went into the living room to yell at whatever sucker woke her up. Her younger brother was sitting on the couch, gazing intently at the TV show playing, Avatar: the Last Airbender.
"Alright Danny you have ten seconds to explain why you had to turn the vol-"
Her sentence was cut short when someone pulled her into a loving kiss. She stepped back in surprise.
"Michael! What are you doing here?"
The handsome blonde haired boy smiled at Maria.
"I just wanted to see you this morning before I go off to the field." Maria grinned back and hugged Michael.
"Aww! Good luck on your game!"
Michael kissed her one more time before walking out the door with a wave. Someone moved in the corner.
"You sure seem to be getting all fancy with the rich boy."
Maria put her hands on her hips.
"Don't tell me your jealous, Marcus."
Marcus laughed and put his hands up in a surrendering manner.
"Don't get me wrong, short stuff. I'm glad you finally found someone, but that guy puts me on edge."
Maria rolled her eyes and playfully punched Marcus on the shoulder, and plopped down on the couch.
"Sure, whatever you say." Maria watched the TV show intently for a few minutes. "You know, Zuko's kind of cute." Marcus rolled his eyes.
"You would say that."
Maria stuck her tongue out. Her little brother Danny was still captivated. Marcus sat on the arm rest of the couch and pulled something out of his jacket pocket and held it out to Maria.
"Wishbone. Make a wish," he grinned coyly at her and she rolled her eyes but took a hold of it anyway. Nothing important occurred to Maria to wish for, so she let her eyes wander around the room to look for something. Her gaze rested on the TV, and she shrugged. Maria made her wish, and they both pulled the wishbone apart.
"Lucky duck," Marcus teased, sticking his tongue out at her. Maria rolled her eyes at him again.
"It's not like its going to come true."
Marcus shrugged.
"You never know. Hey, I found something last time I went to the woods. You might be interested in it."
Maria raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
Marcus grinned slyly.
"You got to come find out." He smirked. Maria sighed and gave him a blank look before grabbing a spring jacket, putting on her boots and running out the door with him. Maria always felt solace at the woods, it was a place for her to just 'chill'. She had shown Marcus the place, him being her best friend and all, and they had dubbed the place as their own secret forest, and thought up nicknames for themselves; after much grumbling on Maria's part because she didn't want to act like she's five again.
Marcus grinned the entire way there, though Maria didn't say a word. After they had bushwhacked their way through the underbrush to the main area, Marcus dragged her to the large rock that served as a seat in Maria's part of the forest. Marcus stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels with a satisfied smile on his face. Maria looked back and forth from him to the rock, and back again.
"You dragged me all the way down here to look at a rock?" she asked, an edge to her tone. Marcus laughed.
"Course not captain bubbles. I dragged you all the way down here to look at what's under the rock." Maria glared at him.
"Don't call me that."
"Why not?"
"Cause you made up a stupid rule that whenever one of us calls the other by their nickname, that just, becomes our name for the moment and I fell really stupid calling you lieutenant green tortillas."
Marcus rolled his eyes. He crouched down to pick up the rock, but before he could touch it a figure dressed in black dropped down from the tree above them and landed on the it, causing Marcus to keel over in fright with a small scream and a thump as he landed on his behind. After a few moments of silence Maria and the black figure burst out laughing, and were still quite involved in the activity when Marcus brushed himself off and exclaimed:
"Oh come on guys it wasn't that funny." He glared at the two hysterical figures in front of him. The person in black wiped a tear from her eye and turned to Marcus.
"Yeah, it actually was Marcus. God! You should have seen your face!" with that she threw back her head and laughed even more.
Finally Maria stood up and wheezed for a second, before turning to the person in black.
"It's good to see you again, Jasmine," she said, smiling. Jasmine pulled her ninja hood off and smiled back, her black wavy hair spilling around her shoulders. "It's good to see you guys again too. It's been way too long." Maria nodded, stifling a giggle when Marcus continued pouting, his arms crossed over his chest. Everything was silent for a moment, then Marcus turned around with a huff and stalked off back the way he came. Jasmine watched him until he was out of sight and shook her head muttering "Gay emo's," then turned to Maria.
"What were you guys doing with a rock, anyway?"
Maria shrugged.
"He said there was something under it."
"Oh. Let's look." Jasmine grinned her sly smile and stooped to pick the rock, and Maria dug her fingers under it, ready to pick it up. Jasmine nodded at her and with much grunting, were able to hoist the rock up and flip it over onto its other side. Both girls gaped.
Where there should have been dead grass, tons of dirt and various bugs, there was a large iron hole that faded into a black abyss at the bottom. Jasmine laughed, saying how awesome that was. Maria crouched down and dropped a rock into the hole, and started counting. She had reached nineteen before the girls heard a faint thunk and the sound of it rolling away. Jasmine reached for a rusty ladder bolted to the sides of the pit and shook it, but the old ladder came off the wall and fell into the darkness below. Jasmine gritted her teeth.
"Well were not going to get in that way. I'll go get some rope."
Maria backed away from the opening.
"Wait. I don't think we should go down there. There might be a thing."
Jasmine raised an eyebrow.
"A thing? You mean like a dick?" she grinned at Maria's horrified expression.
"No! I meant an animal…or…or something."
Jasmine rolled her eyes.
"Quit worrying sugar queen, I doubt there's anything down there. I just want to look."
Jasmine raised her eyebrows expectantly at Maria, who grumbled before muttering "Fine" and folding her arms over her chest. Jasmine grinned victoriously, and ran off to find some rope. She was only gone a few minutes and came back to tie one end of the rope securely around a nearby tree, and tossing the other end down the hole. Maria bit her lip.
"You go first."
Jasmine didn't have to be told twice. She grabbed hold of the rope and slid down a good amount, then called up to Maria, who did the same, though with far more hesitancy. They were halfway down the rope when Maria heard footsteps above them. She couldn't see above the pit, but the next thing she new was that she and Jasmine were hurtling towards the bottom of the pit at full speed.