Blocking out the boy's continued threats and insults at Red, and now Angel, I quickly gathered up my stuff and left the cabin. With some of the others, who were obviously restraining themselves from hurting the boy, behind me.
When I came to the division of paths I turned and placed my feet along the path I thought I would have to take to get back to my cabin and started walking. After about ten minutes I looked around me for the first time, noticing how quiet it was. Aside from my footsteps, the only sounds were the rustling of the leaves in the trees high above me, and the faint lapping of water in the background. It took a bit for this sound to register in my brain, but when it did, I stopped instantly, remembering Red's words about the boundaries of the camp.
I glanced at my watch seeing how much time I had left before supper. Then curiosity got the best of me and I turned in the direction of the water and started walking.
After about five minutes, the shading of the trees lessoned, and they began to thin out; going from decades-old hardwoods to fast-growing oaks and maples. Then the trees stopped altogether, as I entered a clearing, and I had my first look at the lake. The afternoon's sunlight had caught upon the glassy water, and sent off a mirage of colors to dance and mingle in the shadows.
But the lake, however beautiful, failed to hold my attention for long. Because on the edge of the clearing, near the water, sitting upon a fallen tree-trunk, head in his hands, was Red.
I wavered a moment a moment, recalling Angel's words, but my heart won over my head. It was not in me to just watch someone in pain; I had to help them, or at least try too. Gathering up my courage I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then started walking towards the still form.
Red apparently didn't hear me approaching, he was that much still wrapped up in his anger and frustration. Because as I moved up into his line of vision, he jerked sharply, moving swiftly into a half-crouched fighter's stance, fists raised. Hastily I backed up and out of range, my hands held up in front of me.
"Red – calm down. It's just me. Just Moth." I stuttered, surprised at the reaction that I had unintentionally awoken in him.
My words must have sunk in as I said them, for he lowered his fists and I glimpsed a deep sadness in his eyes before he ducked his head and sat back down upon the log. After a brief hesitation I walked forward and sat down beside him. Hoping that, in some unknown way, my mere presence would be the comfort that he so desperately needed.
We sat in silence for what seemed like forever, but was actually only a few minutes displaced by time and the misty breeze blowing off of the sparkling water. Then Red sighed, and ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head. "I'm okay now." he murmured more to himself then to me, as was shone when he turned to face me. "What are you doing here?" he asked, slight confusion muddling the still visible tension on his face. Slowly I looked at him and responded quietly.
"I apparently took the wrong road leaving Tempo, and ended up on the wooded road back there. That's when I heard the sound of water, so I came over and, well, yeah." Red nodded, and then sighed again.
"I suppose you want to know why I snapped like that huh?" he asked softly, not meeting my eyes. When I didn't respond he continued. "How much do you know about Velt anyways?" he asked, waiting for an answer.
"Not much." I told him, my voice equally soft. He nodded.
"I thought as much. But I wasn't sure if Wren – no. She wouldn't have told you, you were an outsider at the time. Well, I'll try to explain. You see, Velt never used to be so, so absentminded. He was brilliant. As an eighth grader he had been offered a full-ride scholarship to Harvard. He was planning on starting there in what would have been his sophomore year. That's when it happened. On January the fourteenth, three years ago, Velt's house was broken into by a masked robber. What the robber didn't realize was that Velt's parents were awake, sitting in the kitchen talking. When they confronted the robber, he stabbed them to death. At some point during the struggle the security alarm had been set off. The ringing awakened Velt, who came down the stairs to see the robber holding a bloody knife and standing over his parent's bodies. Velt grabbed his baseball bat from the side of the stairway – he was the captain of the school baseball team – and ran down the stairs, meaning to hit the robber I suppose. But the robber had turned slightly and glimpsed Velt coming down the stairs out of the corner of his eye. As Velt raised the bat, he turned swiftly; burying his knife deep in Velt's left shoulder. Velt collapsed with the pain of the knife scraping his bones.
Luckily, when the security alarm had gone off – the police had automatically been notified. They drove up before anything else could happen to Velt. But as they broke into the house, the robber escaped through an unguarded back window, leaving no trace of himself behind. He was never found.
Velt was unconscious when they brought him to the hospital. He was pretty close to being bled white. They had to call several of us with the same blood type as Velt in to get the blood he so desperately needed. Since both Angel and I were at the hospital as soon as we had heard, we were among the first to give blood, for all that we were both underage.
The doctor's barely managed to save the arm, and it took Velt almost six months to be able to move his fingers again. He still goes to physical therapy for it. But even after all this time, Velt still has no feeling in the fingers and palm of his left hand, which is one reason that he nearly dropped all of those papers today. The other reason is because he was simply paying attention to something else.
Anyway, Velt has lived with his aunt, his father's younger sister, ever since. She's a nice lady and she loves him with all her heart, but she never married or had children, so she finds it hard to relate to him in anything. It probably doesn't help that he looks just like his father did.
That's the reason why he's so scattered in everything he does, and why he spends more time at friend's houses then he does his aunt's house. Although Harvard still has that scholarship available to him, he doesn't think that he can take it. He's afraid to take the chance of leaving everything he knows behind. Being section leader is the first 'power' role that he's had since the robbery, and it's the only one that he would have felt comfortable taking anyways. Even though he used to be captain in just about every team he played on, and one of the leaders in every group he participated in. The charisma and the courage he had before are gone, at the very least changed to some other form." Red finished, the sighed, shaking his head, as I sat in a shocked silence, attempting to let the reality of what I had just heard sink in.
"It's kinda funny really." he said, a lopsided grin upon his face and I started at his sudden change of topic. When he didn't elaborate I spoke for the first time.
"What's kind of funny?"
"Hmm? Oh! Sorry, I was just thinking, about how well he knew us all before, and how well we all knew him. But know it seems that, although he still knows us, we are constantly learning more about him everyday. Or, at least, those who care are." He muttered, his face growing dark again as he recalled the ignorance and stupidity of the boy back at Tempo Cabin. Then, shaking his head, he stood, reaching a hand out to me and pulling me to my feet.
"Come on, I'll show you how to get back to Tempo – and how to get to your cabin from there. What cabin are you in anyway?" Red asked.
"Umm, it's a Coda Cabin, but I don't remember the number." I told him, worried.
"Well, there's only two Coda Cabins, and number one is a currently unoccupied boy's cabin, so you have to be in number two.
I nodded, relived, and he set off walking, pausing briefly for me to grab my tenor case from where I had left it at the edge of the woods and catch up.
When we made it back to Tempo Cabin, I saw a white-haired figure sitting upon the steps, head in his hands. Hearing our footsteps, Angel looked up, and swiftly got to his feet after realizing who we were, he then walked swiftly over to us.
"Red! Are you okay?" he questioned, worry obvious upon his face. Red grinned.
"Yeah. I'm fine" he said, Angel nodded his head in obvious relief, then looked at me.
"Were you not listening when I was talking earlier Moth?" he demanded, his voice taking on a sharp edge. I opened my mouth to respond heatedly when I was cut off.
"Calm down Angel. She got lost by accident, she didn't go looking for trouble or anything, she just turned down the wrong path when leaving the cabin." Red said softly, meeting Angel's eyes steadily. Slowly Angel nodded and sighed, then turned back to me.
"Sorry about that. It's been a long day." he said tiredly.
"It's okay." I responded quietly.
"I'll talk to you later Angel – I'm gonna show Moth how to get back to Coda Cabin Two from here so she doesn't get lost again." Red said. Angel nodded his head and began to walk away, raising his hand in farewell.
After a brief moment Red spoke again. "Well – we'd better get going if you want to have time to unpack before going to supper." I nodded, and he set off along the path, turning in an obviously different direction then the one that I had taken earlier.
After about five minutes we left the woods once again and I caught sight of a familiar figure walking towards us."
"Moth! Where were you?!? Sectionals should have ended almost an hour ago!" Firefly exclaimed.
"Oh, I turned the direction and got lost leaving Tempo Cabin. Red here found me and showed me how to get back here." I told him, for some reason feeling the strange urge not to say that it was I who actually found Red, where I had found him or what I had learned from him.
"I see, well, you'd better go up and unpack mow Moth. Wren's been really worried!" For the first time since walking up to us, Neal looked at Red, and coldly nodded his head. "Red" he said curtly, barely on the edge of politeness.
Red returned the nod with a barely perceptible tilt of his head, and then looked down at me. "I'll see you later Moth – try not to get lost." he said grinning, looking back at Neal, the grin fading from his face. "Firefly." he said in a manner just as cold as Neal's had been a moment before, and then walked off.
Almost immediately Neal turned to back to me, his rude mannerisms entirely gone and a deadly serious look upon his face. "You really shouldn't hang around with him. He's bad news, with some real issues." He informed me. "We were all really worried that something had happened to you." Firefly finished, then a grin returned to its accustomed spot upon his face as he glanced at his watch.
"If you and Wren hurry while unpacking, we should be able to fit in a game of Fluxx or two before supper." he said, grabbing my tenor case out of my hand and walking away towards the cabin.
I was left confused about the confrontation between him and Red a few moments before, but knew that I wouldn't get a reason for it out of him. Suddenly a new worry surfaced in my mind, and I ran to catch up with the orange-haired boy, calling out in front of me "Hey! What's Fluxx? Neal? Firefly?!? Answer me!!! What's Fluxx?!?!"
a/n –
Yeah!!!! I finally managed to update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm really sorry it took me so long, but our computer got hit by a virus and died completely! And with it I lost this chapter and the next two, plus my homework!!!! So we had to go out and get a new computer, and I got to mess around with the old one. I got it working again. But it'll never be able to stand going online again without crashing. The good news is that I was able to get parts of this chapter back, but the next two (plus my homework) are gone for good. Looks like I get to rewrite them from memory.
Another sorry factor in my lack of updates was homework! I was, apparently, stupid enough to sign up for three AP classes this year. (stupid stupid stupid hits head on a handy brick wall with each word). But anyway...
Thanks to all who reviewed!!!
Jinxed n cursed: number four!?! What happened to the others? Did they like all die in a freak band accident or something???? 32nd notes at 120 – boy is that ever too fast to play while moving. Sitting down – its fine then, but moving?? Boy do Newbies ever not get it sometimes. (shakes head sadly)
Baritone Queen: ahh! It makes sense now, thanks for explaining it. How many drum majors/directing people do you have in all? Yeah, his name does kinda fit now that I think about it... . You guy's play at away games? heh heh, sneaking out of hospitals, now THAT sounds like a fun evening. (But fire is our friend...) Besides the fact that your uniforms can't be in that great of condition anymore of course. A lovely taste isn't it? Gasoline fumes, I mean.
Saxfreak: thanks! Isn't it sad? Our school can't even afford colored paper anymore! what did you think of the character sheet?
xXmRsMaLfOyxX: for some reason yahoo wouldn't let me send that character sheet to either of the email addresses that you gave me. Do you have another email that would work instead. 'cause I feel bad that I couldn't get it to you. I just kept on getting them back from Mailer-Daemon with an error message attached.
Anubuss/EP: I decided to group you two together on this one 'cause I'm gonna make the same message to both of you: FLUXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! heh heh. (evil grin)
To all: later everybody – I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as homework will allow 'k? g'bye!
-gryffyn
