Gone but not forgotten:
-Ch 1
"I'm so going to beat you this time, Odin!"
The dirty blond haired 11-year-old boy known as Odin turned his head. His emerald green eyes met the black haired, blue eyed boy's excited gaze as he raced to catch up with Odin.
Odin smirked playfully.
"Ha! Not this time, Chiro."
Chiro began to pedal faster until he brought his bike side by side with Odin's, racing down the sidewalk to the designated finish line. The two boys could hear the shouts of the two smaller boys following after them on their own bikes.
"Hey, you think Chiro might win this time, Max?" One of them shouted, purposefully loud enough so Chiro could hear him.
"I don't know, just might be another win for Odin." Max responded. Chiro could hear a laugh in Max's response to Jaxon.
Chiro rolled his eyes with a grin on his face. Of course he'd win this time! He just knew he would. 'Odin is going to eat my dust." He thought cockily as he pushed himself to pedal even faster.
Odin chuckled, noticing Chiro start to pull ahead slightly.
The boys were all lucky there weren't any pedestrians on the sidewalk during this time. With how fiercely Chiro and Odin were racing to the finish line- which were the dumpsters at the end of the street- anyone unlucky enough to be walking at this time would surely have been plowed down.
As the two young friends found themselves nearing the finish line, Odin smiled and decided to put some pressure on Chiro. He looked over at Chiro with a mischievious look, earning a puzzled look from the young black haired boy in return.
Odin veered to the left, bringing his bike dangerously close to Chiro's before steering away once more.
"What the?" Chiro almost lost control of his bike as he steered it slightly to the left during Odin's threating approach. He almost steered right into a nearby lawn and would've been done for instantly had he not corrected himself.
As the two boys got parallel to each other once more, Chiro got an idea.
With the final destination fast approaching, Odin decided to try one more time. Swiftly, he brought his bike even closer than before to Chiro's to try and throw Chiro off once more.
But, to Odin's surprise, Chiro had applied his brakes as Odin moved his bike towards him. Chiro abruptly turned his bike towards Odin's back tire.
Looking back at the fast approaching tire near his own, Odin, with eyes widened, sped up slightly to not get hit. In his panic... he did not notice how close he had gotten to the nearest dumpster. Odin looked up in time to see the garbage can directly ahead.
With a yelp, Odin jumped off his bike. He landed in the grass as his bike collided with the dumpster.
Chiro spotted Odin's astounded gaze as he coasted past the dumpsters and came to a stop. With a victorious smile, Chiro turned to look back at Odin, who remained on the ground gawking back at him.
"Yes! Woo hoo- I can't believe I won!" Chiro cheered, throwing his hands up in the air.
Odin, who was still amazed, suddenly started laughing. Chiro raised an eyebrow.
"I can't believe you actually did that," Odin said with a laugh. "Think you may have been hanging with me for too long- you're acting more like me now," He said with a wink.
Chiro laughed as he made his way over and helped Odin to his feet.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Odin replied with a warm smile. "Great job, Chiro. That was an awesome race!"
Chiro smiled sheepishly, "Even though I made you jump ship?"
"I'd say that was our most exciting race yet," Odin said cheerfully. "We should have more stuff like that in other races."
Chiro gave him a thumbs up with a wink. "You got it!"
Chiro slowly opened his eyes and stretched as he pushed the covers off of him and sat up straight.
'Huh. Where did that dream come from?' He wondered, slightly surprised.
It'd been about a year since he'd had a single dream about his former best friends. How strange he should have another one again now all of a sudden when it's been four years since he's seen them. The now 15-year-old Chiro sleepily rubbed his eyes before getting out of bed.
Odin, Max and Jaxon... they were the best friends a boy could ask for while growing up. Chiro had gone through a lot with them after meeting them around the age of seven. Chiro spent a lot of his childhood hanging out around his house, alone, while his parents wouldn't come back home until late at night. He got curious and decided to check out more of his surrounding neighborhood one afternoon.
When he stumbled upon the park down the street, Chiro found three boys playing frisbee and asked to join. Turned out that Odin and Max were brothers who lived only a few houses down from Chiro's family. Jaxon, their cousin, was also living with them along with his mother. All it took was one time for the boys to all hang out and the next thing they knew, they hung out every day while Chiro's parents were gone.
When Chiro actually thought hard about it, those boys made him come out of his shell more and helped mold him into the more adventurous and outgoing person he became. Chiro reflected on many of the little adventures that they had all gone on.
Yet the memories brought up due to the dream only caused mixed emotions in Chiro. For no matter how much he missed his childhood friends, it wasn't likely that he'd ever get to see them again. They all up and moved out of town and, ultimately, out of Chiro's life.
Chiro had come to accept the fact that he probably wouldn't find them, and maybe that's just the way it was meant to be.
Besides, he had new friends now- friends who were more like family to him at this point. They were friends who he wouldn't trade for anyone in the world. Chiro has definitely gone through a lot with them as well and has a whole new outlook on life because of them. He didn't have time to dwell on the past when he had the here and now to focus on...