"Tyler you freak!" I shouted at him the moment I recognized his face in the dark.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you," he apologized with a sincere look, maybe not sincerely sincere as he's damn good at faking that. That's how he gets his way with Mom and Dad.

"What are you doing in my room anyways?" I asked, rubbing my elbows to keep off the pain.

"Nothing, thought I could start my day by scaring you," he giggled. "You should have seen the way your eyes nearly popped out."

"Ha Ha," I said sarcastically. "I'm gonna get you back for this."

Tyler and I have been playing pranks on each other ever since he shoved me from the platform when I was waiting for the school bus and that was like two years ago. I still remember that incident, There I was on the curb waiting for the bus to halt at my stop totally minding my own business and the next moment I remember is that I went flying in front of the bus. The bus swerved to the side and screeched to halt. Every one in the bus stuck their heads out through the windows and stared at me lying flat on the road , like they just saw a dog ran over by a truck. Okay, maybe that's a little exaggeration but trust me I never took the school bus again. I felt a two mile walk and a quarter hour subway ride much better than facing an entire bus of immature jerks calling me Mr Suicide and giving me a look - A look that resembles with the one you give sometimes when you find out that you have accidentally stamped on a bug and you are worried that your boots got this gross sticky blood stains of the bug while you knew that some where deep down your heart that you had just KILLED something and have literally ended it's life and that's what you should actually be worried about.

"I'm going out with Tyler" I shouted across the hall to my Mom in the den.

"Another glum day," Tyler said as he inspected the sky. "Weird, I thought summer was supposed to be sunny in all parts of America."

"At least you now know that you're wrong. Just like you thought that our eyes would pop out of our head if we sneeze with our eyes open." I patted his back.

"Mom said that our school's in the next block," Tyler said interrupting me from my thoughts. "Maybe we could check it out."

"Brain wave," I said. "That way we could run into kids there. So school won't be torturous on our first day."

I sincerely hoped that school never reopens. I was just settled with my previous school mates (which took like seven years) that I became so repellent to the thought of getting accustomed to new things.

We kept jogging for a another five minutes. Tyler kept blabbing about ...Obviously lame things which I totally ignored.

"Weird," Tyler uttered with a sudden serious look. "This doesn't even look like a school."

I followed his glanced towards a huge old style two storied structure and then laid my eyes on a small white marble sign board placed along the entrance saying "Shady Side Elementary and Middle school".

It was pretty hard to read it as it was covered with overgrown shrubs and some of the letters were completely faded.

"Please Don't let this be my school."

"Whatever," Tyler said and rolled his eyes. "I'm so looking forward for school to reopen. I want to make new friends."

"Heya!" Someone said from behind. Tyler was startled by his sudden voice.

I turned and saw a boy of my age standing close to Tyler. He was a little taller than Tyler and had a blond hair that was neatly combed with way too much cream. His eyes were brown and dark and seemed bit queer for his face in some indescribable manner.

"School's closed till next month," he said before any of us even spoke to him. "Trust me, You never want it to open again."

"Yeah," I agreed starting up the conversation. "Not my thing either."

"I like going to school," Tyler said and I gave him a who asked you anyways look.

"Oh, I'm Josh and that's my brother Tyler," I said patting Tyler by his shoulder.

"I'm Eric," he said. "I live across the street."

"Nice to hear that people live around here," Tyler said sarcastically.

He made a face at my comment and said "Well it's not like New york or something, but yeah this is a small town". I fake smiled just to be a good sport, though I didn't feel it funny.

"I got to go," he said suddenly putting a serious expression. He then paused for a while and then eyed me and Tyler sternly. "You want to come with me?"

"Sure, I don't really have any work to do, so why not?" I replied.

"Where are we going?" Tyler asked excitedly.

"To the play ground behind the school. That's where we hang around most of the time," Eric answered.

"But Josh suck at sports. He even looses to me and my classmates at baseball," Tyler said. "And he's nearly twice my age."

"Come on," I said dropping my jaws wide, the expression with which we generally turn a pleasant conversation into an argument. "We took real easy on you guys. It's not easy to play with tiny-toddlers. You guys were like so fragile and we didn't want someone to get hurt."

"We are not playing any sport," said Eric who obviously isn't interested in whatever we're onto. " It looks like it would rain anytime soon , so we might just end up doing nothing."

"Good for you then Josh," Tyler grinned. "Spared by the rain."

"I don't have to explain anything to you so Shut Up already," I said and rolled my eyes. We followed Eric quietly until we were at the playground. It was a pretty big play ground stretching for miles maybe in all directions. The other side of the play ground was all dark and bushy. Eric informed us later that it was the shady creek woods and this playground officially marks the end of the town. To my immediate right we can hear cars, trucks rolling by and that I assume as the..

"Interstate 1o7," Eric completed it as if he read my thoughts. The sun came down suddenly and the fog completely cleared for once. Tyler and I cheered immediately, but we stopped after we noticed that something was wrong.

"What is it?" I asked Eric who was now making funny expressions. "Are you alright?"

"No, Its my Mom," He said stashing his mobile phone into his pocket which I never noticed till now at the first place.

"She needs me right now. So see you guys soon." He said and started to jog in the direction of the woods.

"But the town's this way." Tyler shouted behind him.

"Weird guy," Tyler said walking back toward me. "One moment he's calm and then suddenly he's like .."

"Maybe there's a short cut to his house through the woods," I said thinking hard to come up with a good explanation.

"Whatever," Tyler shrugged