Eli woke up, feeling calm, serene. It's been a while since she had a good night's rest, but she was still confused. What time was it? Are her parents still here? She grumbled from the pain coming from her stomach. Hunger pains.
She got up and stumbled out of the room, closing her door when she saw the empty space. She didn't hear anything; the house was quiet. "Wow, there's definitely no one here." She said, slowly walking towards the stairs to go and get breakfast, if there was any.
It's not like her parents had a bad habit of forgetting to feed her, no, that would be a stretch. It's just that they tend to sleep later than Eli, and that's something to say at 11 A.M. She never knew if they were still in bed or if they left the house, seeing that her mother worked at home and her father was always changing his work hours.
Wandering into the kitchen, Eli didn't see anything on the counter. She walked further and looked inside the fridge. All ingredients.
She walked to the pantry, seeing a supply of breakfast bars in the front. Eli took one and opened the wrapping before she heard a sound, the door opening. "Hey mom!" Eli shouted from the kitchen, nibbling on the snack bar.
However, the voice she heard next was not her mother, not her father, it was- "Hey Eli!" Leah?
Eli ran to the foyer, seeing the familiar blonde teen, as peppy as ever. "Leah? What are you doing in my house!?" Eli panicked, how had Leah broken inside her house?
"Sorry for intruding, but you wanna go on a walk? I know a great pathway down the hill that we can take to get to more houses! Can you believe it?" She rambled, ignoring the obviously worried Eli, at first. "I just found it and the place is- Hold up, Eli are you okay? You look scared."
Eli shook her head, hoping that Leah was just an illusion. had her parents left the door unlocked?
"Leah... how did you get inside my house!?" Eli yelled, shaking Leah a bit. "Do you know how to break into houses because I'd prefer if you don't break into my house!"
Leah blinked twice, then broke from Eli's grip on her shoulders by backing up. "I don't know how to break into houses, your front door was just unlocked!" She said, going back to rambling on about the pathway down to more houses. "Oh, thank god!" Eli thought, tuning Leah out.
"So, you wanna go?" Leah asked. "Well, I have nothing else to do..." Eli thought and nodded to which Leah jumped at as she started dragging Eli out of the house before she came to a halting stop.
"Leah, I'm still in my pajamas, let me go through my morning routine before you take me on an adventure." Eli walked upstairs, leaving Leah to just sit in the living room on her phone.
Eli showered, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and got dressed before getting back down to Leah who seemed to be rotting on the couch.
"Come on, let's go." Eli said, seeing Leah jump up in excitement from the couch and run out of the front door. Eli followed her after locking the door, running past the houses surrounding hers. Leah slowed down a bit for Eli who was keeping a steady pace down the sidewalk.
Once they got down the hill Leah took a turn to the left going down a dirt road beyond a passage populated with trees. Eli had never seen this place before, and she didn't expect to be awed by the sunlight coming through the trees.
It was like she was walking through a movie set; she even saw more greens than her entire month of living there. It was like stepping into a whole new plane of existence and Eli wasn't used to it. Once the two made it to the new row of houses, Eli noticed that they were smaller, but not the ones like in Brindleton Bay, like ones you would see in Willow Creek which Eli had been to at least two times. Not enough times.
The sun seemed to shine in a more majestic way and not in a "set your skin on fire" way, but in a "you can tan safely" way. But since when had Leah known about this place? Does she just wander around Strangerville and find places like this?
"So, when did you learn about this place? I don't go around exploring Strangerville so I guess I wouldn't find this place on my own, but..." Eli paused, stopping herself from going on for too long. "Oh! I found this place by looking at a map, the name sounded pleasant, so I just wanted to check it out with you." Leah said, still walking past her when Eli had stopped.
"Right, well, is there a playground here?" Eli asked, seeing Leah nod and walk right. "Huh? Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go see if they have a playground, come on!" Leah said, once again dragging Eli along with her.
–
Eli sat on the sidewalk, swaying around side to side. Keen on watching Leah circle around and around on the merry-go-round. She chuckled as she saw Leah get more and more dizzy with each turn she took.
But it was fun, the last time Eli had hung out with Leah, well... it was good. I wasn't the best, but it was good.
"Alright, when are we leaving this place? I gotta make it home for dinner." Joked Eli, hearing Leah come to a halting stop. When she looked up, she saw Leah wobbling around, mumbling the words "huh, what?" over and over.
Eli took her arm and dragged her down to her level to sit down. "Sorry I didn't bring any water with me, but there's a water fountain over there." Eli said, pointing to the other side of the park about a sidewalk away.
"Ah... I can't do it! I'm literally going to puke." Leah said, her face painted in horror.
"You'll be okay, you want me to walk you over there?" Leah nodded as slowly as she could, and Eli swore that she could see her face go green for a split second.
The two stood up, Leah taking it slow. Eli put one arm over Leah's shoulder and the other holding Leah's hand as the two hustled towards the water fountain in a very leisurely fashion.
While Eli seemed to be fine, Leah was the opposite with her being hunched over and a slightly pouting face.
While they made their way over, Leah got even more sick as she covered her mouth like she was about to projectile vomit everywhere. It was worrying.
The two started to take a faster pace trying to move faster than a snail, as Leah tried to match with Eli and walked, no, hobbled across the land.
Once the two met the water fountain Leah broke apart from Eli, pressing the button in the middle of the machine, watching the crystal-clear water sprout out from the faucet. "Oh, thank God!" She said as she slurped up every ounce of water there was to offer, savoring the non-existent flavor she felt on her tongue.
Once Leah calmed and started to stand straight up, Eli started walking down the path that the two came from, before Leah stopped her.
"Wait! We've yet to try one last thing, the swings!" Leah stressed, pointing to the one part of the playground that had yet to be explored. It was the same as every other part, but the swings seemed newer and more refined than any other set on the playground.
Eli sighed, shortly smiling and nodding to Leah's request. "Okay, but you better not be on there for ten minutes."
Leah jumped in excitement, racing over to the swings and practically bursting with eagerness to start swinging when Eli sauntered over and sat down next to Leah.
Leah kicked back, allowing herself to fall and rise back up again. "Hah! That's how you start swinging? Let me teach you how, watch me." Eli said, making sure that Leah was focused and listening when she kicked back, but stayed standing up, and was only leaning back by 120 degrees.
Once she was ready, she lifted her feet up from the ground and let herself swing, higher than Leah, higher than she could have ever gone.
"See that Leah!" Eli said, flying through the air as Leah watched in awe. "Woah… that's crazy!" Leah said as she gained new confidence, trying Eli's method and letting go right whenEli was about to go again.
The two began swinging in sync, Leah humming to a simple tune. But what had been started soon had to stop when Eli glanced around, seeing the sun on the opposite side of the sky, she knew she had to go. She didn't want to stop, she wanted to play forever with Leah, but time won't stop for her, nothing would change the fact that she had to go.
"Right, for what do I owe you to part?" Eli shouted, stopping the swing and getting up. Leah laughed, inciting a loud "Ten thousand hugs!" Before she slowed.
"Huh?" leah muttered, noticing what she had replied to. "Oh, you're going home. Well it doesn't matter that much! I can walk you home, my mom wants me home soon too."
"Thanks, so should we go…?" Eli started, glancing up at the sky, seeing the sun standing still. "I might as well walk you home since my house is farther. You ready to go, or do you want one last swing?" Eli joked, but Leah took her statement seriously and took off on the swing, going so high that the chains buckled when she went to the highest height she could get to.
–
Eli walked up the stairs of her foyer, masking the evidence that she ever left the house by making everything look the same. If her parents even noticed any oddities she could just say that "I went outside to sit on the porch." to get out of it.
"God, have I really stooped to such lows that I'm lying to my parents?" Eli thought while sitting on her bed, taking a pillow in her arms and hugging it close. "When will I stop having to worry about being caught by them?" Eli scooted up to the front of the bed where the window was. She sat on her knees, shaking her head in the faded reflection of her. It's not like those two ladies were going to be out, the blue sky could still be seen, the sun hadn't even set yet.
She fell on her back, staring up at the blank ceiling. "I really need to put a poster there or something".
After a deep ponder Eli turned on her side, listening out for anything she could hear. Suddenly she heard a door open, a heavy door, it was probably the front door. It seemed like her mom and dad were home. Eli stood up, since shenhad nothing to do she would go and greet her parents.
"Hey guys, what's for dinner?" Not the greatest greeting, but alright. "I'm not sure, how about you tell me?" Her father answered, hanging his cardigan up on the coat hanger at the doorway.
"Alright… How about meatloaf?" Said Eli, making her way down the stairs, hand firmly on the railing. She looked outside, it was still evening, which made for a great picture. She searched her pockets for her phone, finding it in the last one and taking it out to snap a quick picture of the early sunset.
"So what do you think about meatloaf?" Eli's father asked, but not to her, to her mother. She stood still for a moment, humming with an inquisitive look on her face. "I think that'd be great. Eli, please set the table." She said.
