(Odd P.O.V.)
I have to time this just perfectly. If I go too early, they will try to sit next to me and talk to me. If I get there too late, I'll be in trouble. At five minutes before the bell is supposed to ring, I drop down to the bottom of the tree and begin running. The only reason I'm going to class is because I know I will be far worse off if I don't go then if I do. At three minutes before the bell rings, I enter the school grounds and start sprinting. Just before the bell rings, I enter the classroom and shut the door.
"Della-Robbia, you're late again!"
"Sorry Mr. Johnson."
"Well, go take a seat, we have a lot of material to cover today." I walk over quickly to the only open seat. Unfortunately, it's right next to Jeremie and behind Ulrich. Aelita is sitting next to Ulrich. I plop down and look away from Jeremie.
"Now class, we have a quick warm up today and then about three pages worth of notes to take…" Mr. Johnson begins to drone on and on until we get to the notes, when I realize my bag is still in my room. I hadn't really expected to be hiding from my best friends all morning. I raise my hand and wait patiently for about four minutes until Mr. Johnson realizes I have my hand up.
"Yes Odd, do you have a question?"
"Uh, yes. I accidentally left my bag in my room this morning when I rushed out. Can I go get it?"
"I'm sure Jeremie would be happy to loan you the necessary materials, right Jeremie?"
"Of course sir." Jeremie says. I look over to see him reach into his backpack and grab a notebook and pencil. He scribbles something on it and slides it over to me. I look at what he wrote, and my annoyance immediately triples.
Why Odd?
I scribble back my response:
I don't want to talk about it
Why not
Cause I don't
I copy down some of the notes, but I don't really want to do this. After a while, I begin to feel sick to my stomach, seriously not feeling good. I write down a couple more notes from the teacher, but I can't understand a word he's saying. I put my head down on the desk to try and shake the feeling, but it steadily gets worse. About halfway through the class, I can't take it anymore.
"Sir, can I go to the infirmary?" I ask, standing up and raising my hand. Mr. Johnson eyes me, trying to determine if I'm really sick or not."You do look a little pale… I guess you can go. But you need to copy down these notes from someone later."
"Yes sir." I quickly stand up and walk out of the room. I don't intend to go to the infirmary, but I do feel sick. I head for my room, hoping that I will wake up before school gets over and I can go somewhere else. I get to my room, open the door, and stagger inside. I look over at my bed and jump in surprise. Avery is fast asleep on my bed, her head buried in my pillow, a content smile plastered on her face.
I immediately forget the pain in my stomach, at least for the moment. I quietly walk over and kneel next to my own bed.
"Avery…" I breathe softly. I find myself gently running my fingers through her hair… just like she had done to me. She reaches up and grabs my hand subconsciously, and I freeze. I realize what I had done, and how close I had come to kissing her.
I don't want to be like her… no… I don't!
I pull my hand away, out of her grasp, and her smiles fades away. I take my blanket and cover her up with it carefully. I back away and sit down heavily on Ulrich's bed. The pain in my stomach slowly comes back. I find myself slowly laying down on Ulrich's bed and the pain subsides. Before I can help it my body is drifting into sleep and my mind goes blissfully blank.
I wake up clutching my stomach. The pain is immense, I have to go somewhere, I have to get up. I force myself to my feet and I stumble to the door. I lose control and hit the door hard, slowly sliding to the floor. My stomach pain is beginning to become unbearable, I turn around to see Avery rise from my bed.
"Odd?" Black spots are forming in front of my eyes and it's getting harder to see clearly. Sweat is beginning to form on my face and it feels like it's 900 degrees in here. But even through all this, I still feel a burning desire to get away.
"Odd! What's wrong?" Avery jumps up and runs over to me. She puts her hand on my forehead… it's such a nice sensation… a relief from the burn. But I shake myself away and pull myself back to my feet.
"Nothing, nothing's wrong. I have to go now…." I say, turning and reaching for the knob. Avery grabs my hand and prevents me from turning it.
"Odd, you're burning up. I have to get you to a doctor." She leads me over to my bed and sits me down. She pulls out her cell phone and dials a few numbers, putting it to her ear.
"Ulrich, its Avery. I have Odd here, but something's wrong with him. It looks like he's sick." She listens for a couple seconds.
"Yah, I'm in your room. Please hurry."
No… not Ulrich… not him….
She turns around and takes her phone away from her ear so she can dial some more numbers. I quickly stand up and walk quietly for the door. I open it and dash outside, despite the pain.
"Odd!" She yells, and begins to chase me. I can't explain why, but while I'm running, I can think clearly again. Maybe running is forcing the blood to flow to my brain or something, but I have only one thought in my head.
Get away… get away…I dash out of the school grounds and into the forest, Avery still trailing me.
I have to find some way to get rid of her…I remember one of the few things Avery has told me about her. She has claustrophobia.
There's a cave nearby somewhere, I remember seeing it before…I run harder, and Avery is starting to fall behind. But unfortunately all the pain is sapping my strength. I can't go on much farther.
(Avery P.O.V.)
I slow my pace a little bit, trying to conserve energy. I'm not in the best clothes for running, and it's showing. My cell phone is still clutched tightly in my hand. Odd must be headed for somewhere, it could be where he was before. When Odd rounds a bend, I stop and walk to the corner. I peek around the edge. Odd looks back and I duck. He slows his pace down to a fast walk.
He thinks I'm out of energy….
I dash out, as quickly and quietly as possible, towards Odd. When I get to about ten feet from him, he notices me and begins to run furiously, but I have momentum already built up. I catch him and grab his shoulder.
"Odd stop! You're sick, I have to get you to the infirmary!" He spins around pain obvious in his face. His eyes seem to be almost devoid of any emotion, except for despair. And anger. He's furious that I caught him.
"L-let go!" He yells, trying to get out of my grasp.
"Odd please." I say calmly, but he doesn't respond with words. I think he's delirious with pain. He does an unexpected move which makes me let go of him, something I never thought someone like Odd would do. He hit me.
I fall back onto my back and he takes off running again. I rub my cheek where he hit me, but get back up again. I keep running, but eventually he runs into an open clearing.
(Odd P.O.V.) I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…
It kept repeating through my head, like a broken record. I still don't know why I'm running from her, but my body refuses to stop. I didn't want to hit her, I tried to stop myself. But instinct took over, when she stopped me I lashed out at her.
Finally, I see my target. There's a cave in the nearby hillside, there's actually a couple of them. I head for the farthest right one, which appears to be the smallest, but it isn't. I've explored these caves on multiple occasions, and this one just has a small opening. It actually has the largest inside chamber, reaching up about ten feet. I dash over and dive inside, rolling for a couple feet and then stopping.
"Odd! Please come out, I just want to help." She calls to me. I get back to my feet and lean against the cave wall. My legs won't support me, so I slide down slowly until I'm resting on the bottom.
"Odd please."
"D-don't waste your time Avery. I know you have claustrophobia. This is the smallest cave, if you came in you would be scared to death." I say, ruthlessly.
(Avery P.O.V)
When I saw where he was headed, I groaned inwardly.
Why does it have to be a cave…?He dives into the cave and I hear him roll. I stop just outside the cave and assess my situation.
I'm all alone. I have claustrophobia. Odd is sick. He's hiding in a cave that I know I wouldn't last two minutes in before I pass out from hyperventilation. I have to get him to come out by himself.
"Odd! Please come out, I just want to help." I call loudly. I hear scuffling inside, but he doesn't respond.
"Odd please." I ask a second time.
"D-don't waste your time Avery. I know you have claustrophobia. This is the smallest cave, if you came in you would be scared to death."
He led me here on purpose!"Odd, you'll have to come out of there sometime."
"No I won't. I can stay here a lot longer than you can."
"You have to eat, and you skipped breakfast."
"I've also skipped last night's dinner, yesterday's lunch and breakfast, but I'm still not hungry."
"Say what? Odd, you have got to get something to eat!"
"I said, I'm not hungry." I sink down against the outside of the wall. I hear Odd coughing, and it doesn't stop.
"Odd?" I ask when it finally does, "Are you okay?"
"I'm… fine." He says hoarsely.
"Odd, please come out. I won't be mad at you."
"Everyone else will."
"No they won't."
"Why not?"
"Because I won't let them." Odd starts coughing again. This time, it goes on for about a full minute.
"Odd, please come out." He doesn't respond. "Odd?" I hear retching noises coming from inside.
"Odd!" I yell, "Answer me!" Everything goes dead silent.
"Odd are you okay?" No answer. "Odd answer me!" Still no answer.
Oh god no…I must have kept yelling at Odd for another two or three minutes before I realize he wasn't going to answer.
I have to go in… to save him…I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, running my hand through my hair. I quickly crouch down and crawl inside the cave. Once I get inside, I refuse to look up, because I know that would make it worse. I can feel myself starting to hyperventilate already.
I'm not going to get out…! I'm going to get stuck here, I'm going to die stuck inside a cave!
No! I will not! I have to save Odd!
My eyes adjust to the darkness and I see Odd lying face down near a wall. I quickly grab him and drag his body outside of the abyss, back into the bright sunlight. I sit down and look up, taking in the warmth and freshness of the sky, the big open spaces. I'm starting to breathe less, my breathing is going back to normal.
I hate caves.
I quickly crawl over to Odd to see he isn't looking well. He's extremely pale, his skin is hot to the touch. I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and dial Ulrich's number.
"Avery?"
"Ulrich, I need help."
"Avery where are you! I came to my room, but there was no one there, and the door was wide open!"
"Odd ran out on me, I chased him into the woods. He's unconscious now, he's really sick."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know exactly, but we're near some caves."
"I know where that is, I'll be there in a second." He hangs up and I do too. I try to lift Odd's body, but I can't. I'm too exhausted from the run here. In about five minutes, Ulrich comes sprinting into the clearing.
"Ulrich! Over here!" He runs over and drops down to examine Odd.
"This isn't good, we need to get him to a hospital." He picks Odd up and puts him on his shoulder. Now unable to run, he begins to walk quickly back towards the school. I drag myself up off the ground to follow him.
This is the end of the angsty parts of the story, now it's going to start getting better. Less angst, more fluff. I think that's what most of my loyal reviewers wanted anyway.
Thanks to the reviewer who mentioned I forgot the quotes in the last chapter. I apologize for that, and also for the fact that I don't have any on this one. My list of quotes has decided to go missing. I'll find it eventually.