Cole sighed as he got up for the day.
"Senior year.", he said before yawning, "The final school year."
It really was the last year of school and Cole really wanted to make it count. For a seventeen-year-old, he was looking pretty fine after selecting his jeans and shirt for the day. Blake was going to meet up with him for their usual run to school as they had grown into the habit of doing, but first he had to eat his breakfast.
"Cole, are you up yet?", Mrs. Marty asked from upstairs.
"Coming Mom.", Cole called up.
As Cole laced up his sneakers, he felt up to his neck and suddenly got anxious.
"Where is it?", he asked before he saw a small black velvet box on his desk near his laptop and textbooks, "Oh, there it is."
Cole took it and opened it to reveal his special Inuit necklace with the carved ivory facing him like an old friend. Cole took a moment to recall the last time he visited that world where he was a sled dog named Togo and the journey Balto and him took together with Aleu.
"I sure hope Nava made it with his clan.", he said to himself as he put the necklace on, "He was pretty old for a wolf."
He couldn't help but smile at the thought of interacting with Nigaq and Sura who had helped him find Balto and the song they sang to him.
"There are voices all around you. To comfort and to guide you. Fathers and teachers, powerful creatures, and a voice that sings inside you."
"Cole, your breakfast is getting cold."
Cole snapped out of his thoughts and headed upstairs where he saw the French toast breakfast his mother had prepared. It was still warm so Cole managed to get it down easily.
"Oh Cole, Blake called and asked if you're still up for the run to school."
Cole was just finishing the glass of milk he was on and looked eager.
"Sure."
After saying good-bye to his mother, Cole went back down to get his textbooks, homework, as well as his jacket before heading outside. It was early spring and snow still covered the ground, but Cole had grown to anticipate the rough weather if there was any. It was a clear sunny sky with hardly any clouds at all as the warm air met him.
"Ah, nothing like a jog to school in Spring to get the old cross-country vibes going.", he said to himself as he headed to his driveway.
Blake was waiting for him as he usually was with his warm smile.
"You ready to go?"
Cole nodded.
"Ready when you are."
"Hey Cole, you think we should let Sarah and Nora drive alongside us so we can get our run in?"
Sarah and Nora were waiting for them at their house next to Blake's with Nora behind the wheel of their family car. Aleu was full grown and had greeted them.
"Wow, has it been so long since Blake and I met you?", Cole asked as he petted the beautiful wolf dog.
Sarah chuckled lightly as she got Blake and Cole's backpacks in the car.
"Yeah, it may have taken a while, but it was all worth it."
Blake rolled his eyes comically.
"You call three whole months a while?", he asked.
Then the front door opened and Mr. Polar came out with his smile and took a breath of the air.
"It does my heart good to get some good old-fashioned air into these old lungs.", he said before noticing Aleu, "Okay girl, it's time to come in again."
Sarah looked her father's way a bit worried.
"Father, does she have to?"
Mr. Polar looked her way the way an understanding father would.
"Sarah, you know that Aleu can't be around public without the proper things."
Nora looked Sarah's way firmly.
"Sis, we have to get to school."
Aleu seemed to know what was going on so she followed Mr. Polar inside and Sarah got in the passenger's side as Nora started the car.
"Okay boys, on our mark.", Nora said as she shifted into reverse.
Blake and Cole got into running positions as Nora pulled out. As Nora started going forward, Sarah gave a notion and the moment the car was off, so were Blake and Cole. Sure the car was faster, but they managed to keep up with it until they finally reached the school were Sarah got out a couple water bottles that Blake and Cole started drinking from once Nora parked and they came over.
"Wow, you both still got it.", Nora said as she got out of the parked car.
Other students were already arriving and clearly ready to start the day. After Blake and Cole got their backpacks, they headed in with Nora and Sarah where a familiar voice broke their serene walk.
"Still running with those deadbeats, are you?"
Blake and Cole turned to see Keith leaning to the side of a hallway wearing his usual cruel smile and his own backpack looking pretty spiffy.
"Hello Keith.", Cole said plainly
"These deadbeats as you call them are my neighbors.", Blake added firmly as the group walked by, "And they're not all that bad."
Keith chuckled darkly as he walked alongside the group.
"So what? Does that make you and them related?", he countered, "I'd say Mr. Polar should do them a favor and just put himself out of his misery."
Nora looked his way coldly.
"You will keep your remarks to yourself if you please."
Keith shrugged and walked off clearly not going to take Nora's words to heart, but Sarah was grateful that he left.
/
By the time lunch rolled around, Blake and Cole were a little bit down from the homework they still had to do when they met up with Nora and Sarah at the lunch table they usually shared.
"Was Keith always so mean spirited or was he just born that way?", Sarah asked as she munched on her burrito.
Cole shrugged as he munched on his salad.
"You're not still miffed about the time Aleu bit his hand are you?"
Nora looked more tense.
"It wasn't our fault.", she insisted, "We warned Keith not to get her worked up, but he just wouldn't back off. Aleu just let him know."
Blake sighed as he finished sipping his milk through a straw.
"I can't even describe the mean things Keith has done to me before Cole came along.", he sighed.
"Like what?", Sarah asked.
"Try having a bucket of fake blood fall on you during the school's Halloween event, him putting live worms in my lunch, making me the behind of all his mean pranks, and sabotaging my chances of joining the cross-country team every year.", Blake stated, "And please don't make me recall the time he put ghost chili juice in my sandwich."
Cole flinched. He had been told this tale before. Blake didn't eat his sandwich, but Keith had still gotten away with it cause he ate it himself and when questioned by the principal, he pointed the finger at Blake. Even though Blake tried explaining that he never put the juice in his sandwich, Keith clearly was more liked and therefor was given the benefit of a doubt.
"You think that was bad?", Cole countered, "What about the time he sabotaged my science project? I had to do the whole thing over again and wound up with half credit before I had to make up the work I missed."
Nora shook her head as the group finished up their lunch of burritos, salad, and brownies. But as Cole stood up, she looked alarmed.
"Cole, duck!"
Cole sat down fast just in time to have a scoop of mashed potatoes fly over his head and splatter the wall. Blake looked in the direction of where it came from and it didn't come as a surprise that Keith was the culprit by the way he was smiling.
"You are such a disgusting, obnoxious creep.", Sarah said firmly.
Even at his distance, it was clear Keith heard her, but his smile got bigger.
"Thank you."
"Ignore him Sarah.", Cole advised, "He's not worth it."
Sarah tried calming down, but she clearly didn't like the way Keith was smiling, but luckily she didn't have to say anything cause a teacher standing nearby looked Keith's way firmly.
"McSnarl, to the principal's office!"
That wasn't something Keith wanted to hear as his smile melted into a look of cold malice and anger as he got up to leave. Before he did, he shot Cole and Blake a sneer.
"See you in gym.", he stated before looking Sarah and Nora's way just as cold, "And if you two know what's good for you-"
"Keith!", the teacher who called him out snapped, "Principal's office, now!"
Keith didn't wait around as he walked out with the teacher. This time, Sarah was smiling.
"Finally, he's gone."
"You should've seen how he looked when me and Blake blew his record away in the trial run a few years back.", Cole answered, "I thought he was going to clobber me in front of the coach."
/
After lunch, Cole's next class was British Literature where he found comfort in studying the ways of how the British wrote and the creative essays the teacher often assigned. As Mrs. Arla started getting the class in order, seeing her helped Cole remember the time he wrote a creative story he based on his previous adventure as Togo.
"Well Cole, I must say I found your story pretty interesting.", she had told him after he turned it in and she got a chance to read it before grading it, "The idea of a spirit of the sea using natural forces to allow a pack of wild wolves lead by an elder across to where a herd of caribou live alongside a wolf dog who was more wolf than dog."
Cole remembered the tension he had felt when she said it thinking he probably went out of boundaries, but luckily Mrs. Arla was pretty impressed with what he presented her with so she gave him an A+ on it.
"Cole?"
Cole came back to reality as he noticed Mrs. Arla look his way a bit curious.
"You going to take your seat or you going to stand there all hour?"
Cole took his seat quick as he was almost late and managed to get his books for the class out before the bell rang signaling the class had begun. The other students had arrived as Mrs. Arla started getting the assignments ready.
"Okay class, you do recall that poem assignment for Friday right?"
Some of the students tensed, but Cole wasn't too worried. He had his poem and he had to admit it was a real beauty. "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. His assignment was to decide if the author was dying, the whole thing was just a dream or was it nonsense. Cole couldn't really decide, but he had a strong feeling that the author wasn't dying even if the raven was a kind of omen of the inevitable event. He got out his paper and started writing what he thought to himself.
"Cole, would you mind sharing your textbook for a minute?"
Cole turned to see Alice sitting near him and looking pretty anxious. Guess she must have forgot her book or something so Cole felt obliged to do so.
"Thanks.", Alice said a bit shyly as she blushed a bit.
Cole knew she was thinking about Blake the way she looked his way and how her face brought a smile to Blake's face. Cole could tell there was a spark between them, but they were taking it slowly so as not to make it too complex. After writing down what he could, the class ended with another ring of the bell. As Cole headed to his Study Hall class, he stopped by his locker to make sure he had everything he needed to catch up on, but unfortunately for him, he wasn't the only one there.
"Still going to that lame study hall?", Keith's voice broke into his ears, "Not if you're behind enough."
Cole sighed as he turned to see Keith as he shut the door of his locker.
"Why are you here?", he asked plainly.
Keith's smile got bolder.
"Good question. The principal has arranged me to be in the same study hall as you in order to get caught up."
"You meant the study hall that was next door to mine?", Cole countered, "Cause I don't recall my study hall teacher telling me anything after lunch."
Keith raised an eyebrow.
"Touche.", he answered still wearing his smirk, "Well played."
He left, but Cole could still feel his smirk boring into his head like a drill.
/
When school ended and practice was underway, Blake and Cole tried to tolerate Keith's bad attitude, but since he had recovered and was allowed to be back on the team again, it was quite hard to do so.
"Oh yeah, I'm back babies!", Keith sang out as he did his usual swagger dance.
Cole rolled his eyes while Blake looked super annoyed.
"Does he have to do that every time he gets his way?", Cole muttered.
Coach Blakely clearly wasn't going to have it either.
"McSnarl, you will keep your eagerness in check or you will be running laps around the building instead of the gym."
That cut Keith's celebration short as the team practiced their running. As usual, Cole and Blake were the best though Keith had almost beat them on a couple turns. After a couple hours, it was clear Keith was losing his edge by the way his times were getting slightly lower than he used to make.
"Geez, maybe it's time Keith called it quits.", a teammate said flatly.
Unfortunately, Keith didn't take the comment too well by the way he sneered the boy's way. Coach Blakely almost caught it, but Keith managed to cover it up quickly as the coach reminded them about the final run they would have for the year and needed yet another permission slip to make it official. As the team hit the showers and got ready to leave, Keith wasn't done causing issues.
"Is that your shampoo or is it something to make your hair better?", he asked as he had finished drying himself off and starting on another, "Garret, did you even practice the turns over the year?"
Cole and Blake were both already picturing duct tape over Keith's mouth and were more than happy when they left with Sarah and Nora. As they neared Cole's house, Cole remembered something.
"Oh Blake, you think you can make it to my house next weekend?"
"Why is that?", Blake asked.
"It's my birthday that Saturday.", Cole answered.
"Oh, we'll be there alright.", Sarah said eagerly, "We'll bring Aleu too."
Cole felt better knowing that Blake was coming along with Sarah, Nora and Mr. Polar. No doubt Blake would bring his family also by how close he and Cole were. As Cole got inside, he finished up his "The Raven" assignment before looking to the mirror imagining visiting Balto again even though nobody in his world believed his stories. He reached up and touched his necklace.
"Balto.", he thought to himself remembering his adventures in that world, "I sure hope Nava made it across with his family. They're very lucky to have him as a leader and Aleu would be lucky to learn from him."
Then a familiar wind blew into his room and the mirror turned icy as it had twice before.
"Well, here we go again.", Cole said to himself as he came up to the mirror.
The sound of an airplane engine rang out instead of a wolf's howl which took him by surprise.
"Huh, that wasn't how it went before.", he said to himself.
Cole decided to ignore it and touched the mirror and vanished without leaving a trace behind. And the moment he did, his whole view went black.