It was at a camping trip where everything changed for me. It was at a camping trip when I discovered what the world was hiding. The world was hiding things that I had only read in books or in movies— something I always dreamed about; something I've never wished was reality. That night during the camping trip, my life as I knew it ended.
It all started with the trip to the forest. It was a biology class trip and we were graded on our performances. The trip was only supposed to be a one night stay, but I couldn't have been more nervous about it. I had to spend the night around a class of Socs without the gang around. I will be the only Greaser going.
The bus ride was chaos. I sat near the front, closer to the teacher and middle class students. It would be safer than sitting with the Socs near the back and middle. It felt like an hour until we were dropped off in front of a large patch of trees. Everyone grabbed their bags and watched as the bus retreated away from the class.
"Okay, class, let's head in. Stay close; don't stray," the teacher Mr. Brown instructed. Everyone huddled closer together and we ventured into the foliage. The morning sun shone through the filters of the looming trees. The road turned into fallen leaves, twigs, and dirt. Birds sung in the branches and other animals chased after others.
As we hiked deeper, everyone started to spread about, talking loudly, and pushing everyone around. I was one of the ones pushed. I sighed, readjusting my bag on my shoulder, and moved farther behind everyone else. It felt like hours until the teacher stopped, we stopped soon after. Mr. Brown turned to face us, smiling. "Alright, those assigned with the tents, find someone from this class, of your gender, to share with. Make sure it's with someone you can collaborate with because they will be your partner for the rest of the trip," Mr. Brown instructed.
The students snapped their heads up, huge smiles forming on their faces. Eyes roamed to catch those of their friends. I waited for everyone to pair up since I was the only greaser in the class and didn't have any friends. No upper classed student would want to be friends with a greaser.
Everyone paired up except for a Soc and me. The Soc was one of the snobbier ones in the class. He always bragged and was as selfish as a bitch. The Soc, Brent, sneered at me, eyes glaring. His tall, robust body shuffled away. I followed as the class disappeared to set up their tents.
The Soc led me to the bottom of a small dirt cliff. "We're setting up here. Set up the tent, greaser." Brent barked.
"I'm not your slave. This grade is yours well as mine," I argued, crossing his arms. I knew it wasn't smart to talk back to him, but I was tired of this whole day.
"Only white trash like you should do trashy jobs like this." The bag was thrown at me. I caught it, grumbling. Arguing would get us nowhere. Brent obviously won't do anything to help. I opened the tent bag ad set the tent up. This was going to be a long trip.
That night, both Brent and I was walking back to our tent. I shivered. I didn't know that feeling cold was me or not. In truth, he felt like he was being watched.
I scrutinized the foliage, freezing. Red eyes gleamed at them from the shadows of the trees. "Brent—"
"What?!"
"We're being watched. Something's out there."
"Now you're just being a paranoid gr—" Brent turned to where I was looking and froze. "What is that?"
"I think it's a coyote."
"Coyotes aren't that big."
"Well, I'm pretty sure it's not a wolf. There are no wolves in Oklahoma."
The animal growled and Brent inched back, body tensing. His body slowly turned. "Brent," I said slowly, "don't run."
But Brent didn't listen, he turned around fully and sprinted off with a petrified scream. The animal growled again, lunging forward. I ran after Brent. The animal tailed behind me. Brent started to come into view and I soon passed him. Seconds later there was a blood curling scream like someone was being murdered. I shut his eyes and kept running. I was almost upon the camp now. The large animal was upon me now. It pounced on top of me, causing me to fall down. I let out a yell as I turned around to lay on my back. The animal dove its head. I barely managed to move out of the way. I thrashed out my arms to hold the head from getting nearer. I kicked my legs, feet connecting with the large animal's torso. The large animal hit the ground next to me and I took the time to scramble up from the ground and ran, not knowing where I was going. But anywhere would be better than with that animal. The animal was right behind me.
Right when I saw light from a fire, my feet tripped on something. I fell to the ground. I looked back, thinking it was just a branch, but upon looking at the object, my eyes widened. A scream caught in my throat. On the floor was Brent's bloody body. His throat was thrashed out and his legs were cut up as if someone grabbed his legs.
The animal let out a growl and pounced on my back. I squirmed. The large animal growled and bit down at my side. Red seeped through my skin and torn shirt. I screamed, trying to pry the animal off of me.
"The scream came from over there!" someone shouted. The large animal removed its teeth from my side, looking back. Lights were becoming brighter, shining on the large animal. I could now clearly see what it was. On my back looked like a large wolf but it had more human-like features. The legs looked strong and shaped so that the animal could stand on its back paws. But the paws looked larger, like human feet but with sharper nails. So was the front paws— they were hands.
The wolf jumped off of me and disappeared in the darkness of the forest.
"Are you alright?" People rushed to me and the dead body, gagging at the sight of Brent.
"Someone, shoot the flare!"
My eyes started to droop and the worried face of his teacher was the last I saw before I blacked out.
When I woke up again, I was in a hospital room. People were surrounding me and it took a while to blink the haze away to see who it was. Surrounding me were my two brothers.
"Ponyboy!" Soda gasped out with a smile.
"What happened?" I asked, sitting up. Darry pushed me back down.
"Don't get up yet. You'll only reopen your wounds."
"Wounds?" I looked at my side to see my torso was wrapped in gauze. That's when I remembered the camping trip and the wolf.
"We got a call saying that you were in the hospital. Some sort of animal attack, the doctor said. Do you remember what happened?"
I wanted to say something, that what I saw was a wolf… but I didn't know what it was. It looked like a wolf, but was it? "It was probably a coyote. It was really dark." Once again I sat up.
"Lay down!"
"But I feel fine! Can we go now?"
Darry sighed. "Sure."
The next day I got up from my bed. Soda was already up and out the room. I stripped off my shirt and poked the bandages. I felt nothing. Strike that— I felt better than I've ever done before. I unwrapped the bandages. I was expecting to see the wound but nothing was there. It was like it never existed all together. The only proof that I had that wound was the bloody bandages. I threw the bandages in the wastebasket and put on a new shirt. Maybe I couldn't see the wound well from my angle. After finishing my morning schedule I picked up my backpack and headed out the door.
"Be careful with your wound!" Darry called out.
Outside the door, Johnny was waiting. He shifted from one foot to the other. He smiled shyly when I emerged from the door. We headed down the street towards the school. "How's your wound?" he asked.
"It's better."
"Are you sure you're okay?
"Yeah, I'm fine."
We spoke little words to each other— we didn't need to speak to understand one another. When we entered the school we went straight to our lockers which weren't too far from each other.
"I know, he's horrible! How could he do that?" a girl asked. I turned to the voice to see who was obnoxious enough to talk about their relationships near other people. My eyes zeroed in on two girls across the hallway. It couldn't be them though. They looked like they were whispering. "He's such a jerk. Next time, remind me to date someone from the swim team." The words matched the girl's lips. How could I hear them? This brings me to my next question: how could I see them so clearly from this far?
Johnny moved in front of my field of vision. He looked from me to where I was looking at. He looked at me with eyes that asked why I was looking at those girls.
"They were just talking loudly."
"Didn't hear them. What were they talking about?"
I knew that his question was meant as a joke so I kept a straight face and answered, "She just broke up with her boyfriend. He did something she didn't like. But, if you like her, she's going to go out with a guy from the swim team next."
Johnny rolled his eyes as the bell rung. It blared in my ears like a loud screech. I flinched, covering my ears but it was still unbearably loud. I was relieved when the bell ended.
"Are you okay?" Johnny asked.
"Yeah. See you later?"
Johnny nodded and we parted ways to our first class. After classes I had track practice. I knew it was a bad idea, with my injury and all, but I felt really good like I could run a marathon. I'm going to regret going.
On the field, the coach sent me off to time my 200 time. But I didn't know that running would catch others eyes from the school.
o-o-o
So, this was in second place for my next written story. I'm working on the first place winner which will be posted soon.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders.