Chapter Three


Sherry awoke to the sound of the chirping outside her window. Lying in bed for a few minutes, she yawned and smelled something cooking down in the kitchen. After a few minutes the delightful smell of sausages sizzling in a pan turned into a smoky, choking stench.
"Oh SHIT!" she heard Chris yell. A few clanging on pots and dishes and then a crash. Oh boy, Chris had begun to think that he could cook again. Hoping out of bed, she rushed down the stairs and saw him a spatula in one hand, a paper towel in the other. He was trying to salvage the food and pick up the scattered dishes at the same time.
After a few seconds of fumbling with the plates, he glanced up and saw Sherry in the doorway. He froze for a fraction of a second before replying, "If you help me with this stuff, you can laugh all you want."
"Okay." Sherry agreed. She bent down to pick up the fallen dishes while Chris scraped out the charred remains of the sausage and what appeared to be bacon.
After she had placed all the dishes back where they belonged, she practically collapsed with laughter. Clinging to the sink to support herself, she stifled her giggles down and bit her bottom lip. Chris was standing by the stove, his arms crossed, and a hurt expression on his face. Finally he asked, "Are you quite done here?"
"Yes." Sherry replied, wiping away a tear. She'd been laughing so hard that she'd begun crying.
Chris sighed as he gazed forlornly at the stove, "Well, obviously we don't have much of a breakfast here. Wanna come with me to get McDonalds?"
Sherry shrugged, "I guess."
"Go change then." Chris replied. "Unless you want to go out wearing those frilly little pajamas."
Sherry gazed down and blushed; she was wearing her light blue flannel pajamas with yellow moons and smiley face stars.


Sherry turned the page of the novel she was reading for school. She had to finish it by the end of break, but she always got distracted around here. It wasn't the unpleasant kind of distraction, it was just so pretty here she had to look around at it every other minute and admire it's beauty. 'Sometimes distractions could be a good thing...' she thought.
She leaned back in the hammock that Claire had set up for her. She'd finally learned where that trail in the woods led. The trail went on for about half a mile, surrounded by trees and flowers, before ending at a small lake. That was when Claire had put the hammock up and relaxed. About five minutes ago, Claire had gone back to the cabin for a book that she was reading. She would be right back.
Getting up, Sherry walked around the lake's edge and peered out over it. If you looked up and over the trees, you could see a big mountain that still had snow on the very top. Sherry had been staring at the mountain for a quite a bit when she heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. Speaking of distractions...
Sherry turned and walked toward the rustling, probably a rabbit. She was about to pull away the long grass, when something jumped out and flew at her. For reasons unknown, her mind thought back to Raccoon, when she found out all too late that there was a zombie lurking around that corner after all. She let out a scream as she and something-or someone fell to the ground.
"Get off of me!" she screamed as she tried to get away.
"Hey, hold up! I'm sorry!" a voice-a boy's-said.
Sherry stopped flailing long enough to look at him. He had short, curly brown hair and the softest brown eyes she'd ever seen. Maybe with just the slightest hint of green in them. Probably about her age.
She also noticed that he seemed to be... well, kind of on top of her...
"Um," she paused. "do you mind?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah." He got off and grinned sheepishly as he helped her up. "Sorry about that, it was stupid really. You see my-"
Before he could reply, a few other kids emerged from the brush. A girl, who seemed unusually tough looking, brushed her long, stringy red hair out of her eyes.
"Fair's fair, Toby," she said. "What's my dare?"
"She," the boy-Toby? -Said pointing a finger at the girl. "Dared me to do that."
Sherry nodded, as if she understood all of this, but her mind was really asking, 'But why?'
As if reading Sherry's thoughts, the girl replied, "It's a game we play when we're bored. What's your name kid?"
"Sherry." She replied. "And I'm not a kid."
"Oh, well sorry." The girl said with an amused coolness. "Well, I'm Angelene, and I'm no kid either."
Sherry glanced at the rest of the group. Aside from Toby and Angelene, there were two more boys (both with black hair and blue eyes) and another girl (with brown hair).
"Here's the rest of my gang," Angelene said, again, as if reading Sherry's mind. "That's Damien, Derek and Trini." Angelene turned back to Sherry, her eyebrows raised. "You're not from around here are you?"
Sherry shook her head, "No, I'm afraid I'm not."
"Oh," Angelene said with sort of a dangerous curiosity. "We could show you around, if you'd like."
"Well, you see," Sherry began. "I'm kind of waiting for my friend--"
"Your friend wouldn't mind would she?" Angelene asked. "Maybe we could give you a few dares."
"Well, I don't know..."
"What? Are you scared?" Angelene asked.
Sherry tensed up. Who did this Angelene think she was? If she had known what Sherry had been through, she wouldn't dare ask that question. But the point was she didn't, so Sherry would have to prove it.
"No, I'm not." Sherry replied, flipping her hair defiantly. "Where to?"


Sherry carefully walked over the train tracks. It was a few hours later, and after "proving" herself, the group had winded down and just began walking down this train track that had been around since ever since. At two o' clock, everyday, a train would pass by. Now, they had reverted to an ancient game called, 'Chicken'. First one off the train tracks loses.
Sherry gazed at her watch, 1:59p.m. Claire would be worried. She'd been gone for over an hour and she hadn't given notice.
Choo! Choo! A loud train whistle came from somewhere in front of her. From around the side of the hill, a black train appeared, with even blacker smoke trailing behind it. Sherry continued walking. Until it was about fifty feet away... and then forty....
"Sherry!" Trini called. "Get off! You won!"
Looking behind her, she saw it was true. Everyone had gotten off, she was about to get off, when her foot slipped and she fell to the ground. When she tried to get up, she realized her foot was caught under the wooden planks of the tracks. The train was getting closer. Thirty-five... thirty feet...
Sherry grabbed her ankle and tried to yank her foot out, but she couldn't get it out past a few centimeters. Twenty feet away... That train sure seemed huge now. Quickly unhooking her sandals, she wrenched her foot free and tumbled backwards, away from the track. As she flipped into a backward somersault, she saw the train go past, her heart began pumping so heard it felt as if it were in her ears. If she hadn't moved fast...
She was just recovering from shock when she felt a slap on the back.
"God, Sherry, you're it!" she heard one of the boys say.
Angelene appeared in front of her, her face a bit pale, but grinning, " Not even I've been able to stay on that long. You can hang with us anytime."
Despite her earlier dilemma-which now seemed far away-Sherry grinned, "That was nothing."
Angelene gave her a pat on the back, "You've got guts Sher,"


Sherry may have had guts at two o' clock, but she sure didn't have it at three. She entered the cabin and met up with a very worried Claire Redfield.
"Sherry!" Claire exclaimed as she rushed over to hug her. "Oh, I was so worried about you! What happened?"
"Nothing." Sherry replied.
Claire gave her another look, probably to check for scratches and such, then another hug. Finally her relief turned into bristled anger, "Where in the world were you? You know what I thought when I didn't find you at the lake? I thought you had been kidnapped. Or worse!"
"I'm fine Claire," Sherry replied. "I just met up with some kids my age, it's no big deal."
Claire could have done worse, but she just sighed, "Well, next time, just tell me when you're going somewhere, okay?"
"Sure. Whatever." Sherry replied. She'd quickly picked up on Angelene's most used word. Apparently this wasn't Sherry's most used word because Claire stared at her for a moment.
"You're okay thought?" she asked.
"Yes." Sherry thought. "I'm fine."
"Okay." Claire replied. "Oh! Look what I got in town today. I'm going to plant them when I get home."
Claire gestured to a potted plant on the coffee table. Sherry froze when she saw them. Lilacs. And poor Claire had no clue when Sherry had turned wordlessly and walked up the stairs.
'Just ignore them.' Sherry thought. 'Think of everything else that's happened today."