“Sheep,” James said. Emerald looked at him confused. They were walking along the path to school.

“Sheep?” Emerald looks around. They were in the forest. It was small but nice and had the freshest air in the area.

“Next to the tree!” James pointed with his free hand. And James wasn’t wrong there was a sheep. But the sheep was dead. Surrounding it is a pack, a pack of wolves. Emerald has not seen many wolves before just a few times eating the crops and sometimes the chickens but her family put traps around the chicken coop.

“James, we have to go.” Emerald grabbed tightly on James’s arm.

“Why?” James asked. The pack of wolves turns around. The wolves heard them. Emerald starts running, dragging James.

“There’s wolves, James,” Emerald said, still dragging him but not for long since James realized what was happening and started sprinting too.

“Hut, two, three, four,” Ruth, Allen, and Velma were marching in a line, standing tall.

“Do you guys do this every time you go to school?” Kasen says just a few steps ahead of them.

“Yes, we are very organized,” Ruth says.

“Ruth likes being the leader!” Velma adds on.

“I can see,” Kasen says. He turns around and walks backward (Kasen loves walking backward)to see them marching still chanting

“Hut, two, three, four!” Kasen turns around to walk normally again. All he sees is red hair.

Bang!

Emerald finds herself back in the church. “Oh, no, no, no, no!” Emerald is on the ground standing up quickly and fixing herself. “The wolves!” Emerald turns to her left Kasen lays on the ground unconscious. Emerald turns to the bride whose face is still left to be unseen. “I need to get back.” Emerald hands are shaking. “It ended when they left the building!” Emerald thought.

She runs over to the couple. Forgetting about Kasen. She brings out her hand to touch the groom's back. It went right through. “What?” Emerald looks at her hands. Her first thought was. Are they ghosts? But then the groom touches the bride's hands. I'm I a ghost? She turns to Kasen who's still unconscious. Are we ghosts? No, that's not possible because I was just alive like a moment ago…. And how did I come back to life?

“All of this doesn't make sense,” Emerald says, massaging her temple. Kasen moves slightly and groans. Emerald finally realizes that Kasen is barely conscious. She runs over to him. “Kasen? Wake up.” She shakes him gently but he doesn't respond. Emerald shakes him harder.

Ring… Ring… Ring…

Kasen suddenly wakes up. Emerald goes at ease. “Finally, I was losing patience. To be honest I was going to slap you.” Kasens gets up.

“Good thing you didn't.” Emerald gets up and looks down at Kasen.

“We need to leave.” Kasen stands up and fixes his hair.

“And how are we going to do that?” Emerald looks up at him.

“I don't know, I assumed maybe you had an idea.” Kasen rubs his head. And stares at Emerald with an I was just unconscious 30 seconds ago face. Emerald got her answer. “But…but… I-we have to go.” Emerald was shaking and she wanted to see James. “Th-th-t-the.” Emerald was trembling. Kasen grabbed her hands.

“Breathe,” Kasen said. “Bu-b-but….” Her hands were shaking furiously. Kasen pulled her into his arms.

“Calm down,” Kasen patted Emerald's hair.

“But… the wolves will eat, James.” Kasen came into shock. But stayed calm for Emerald. Kasen opened his mouth to say something when the bride and groom started walking down the aisle. Great, finally. But when the couple walked outside of the church it didn't end. Emerald and Kasen looked at each other. “I guess… we follow them?”

He nodded, and they followed the bride and groom out of the church. The church was in a big field. The bright blue sky had no clouds in it. “It's a beautiful day for a beautiful wedding, my love.” Kasen and Emerald looked over. It was the groom who had spoken. “Yes,” the bride agreed. “And now we can be together forever.” “And ever and ever.” As they gazed at each other lovingly the sun seemed to grow brighter.

“KASEN!!”

They were back. It was Ruth who had screamed Kasen’s name. She seemed scared. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily. They were back on the path to school and found themselves on the ground. All of the younger siblings were huddled together next to Kasen and Emerald. James was holding a stick like a sword trying to protect them. Vemla was crying and Allen was calming her down. You could see the fear clearly on Ruth's face but she was trying to act strong.

Emerald looks behind her and there are no wolves. But we should be moving quickly just in case Emerald thought to herself. Emerald got off the floor and hugged James. James dropped the stick and hugged her back.

“Come on, let's go to school,” Emerald says calmly,

“Can we run?” James asks, looking up at her.

“Yeah, sure.” Emerald grabs her books and her small chalkboard off the ground. Emerald caught Velma at the corner of her eye. She wasn’t crying out of fear. She was hurt. A rock had cut her ankle open, and she was bleeding quite a bit. She looked at Kasen and he had realized too. At first instinct, she dropped her school supplies, took her shoe off to take her stocking off, and hopped over to Velma. She bent down and wrapped her stocking around her ankle.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

James picked up Emerald's shoe and brought it over to her. Ruth was trying to calm down from the blood, and Allen was trying his hardest to calm Velma down but she wouldn't stop crying. “What's your name darling?” Emerald said in a soft voice.

“It's Velma,” Kasen said, who was prompting Velma with his arm.

“Let's go to school, the girls will help,” Emerald said. Kasen picked up Velma and Emerald put her shoe on.

They all walked quickly. While they were walking(almost running) Emerald asked Kasen, “Eventful first day of school?”

“And school hasn't even started yet,” Kasen chuckled, “I hope the teacher is nice.” Emerald did not comment. Velma gave a painful groan, while the blood from her cut was slowly bleeding through Emerald’s stocking.

“Why are you starting school now?” Emerald asked. Kasen looked at Velma while still walking quickly. They were almost at school.

“Well because of you. You know that weird thing that happened yesterday and earlier when we…”

“Touched,” Emerald said finishing his sentence. James and Ruth didn't hear them since James was far ahead and Ruth was slugging behind.

They arrived at the school. It was a small two-room building, one for the younger kids and the older kids. Ruth and James showed Kasen to the younger kids' classroom while Emerald went to class. Emerald walked in and all eyes were on her. The door was loud and creaking so everyone knew when someone came in.

Emerald looked like a mess. Her hair was frizzy, her dress was dirty, her face had some grime on it and she only had one stocking on. She placed her lunch on the bench where everyone else did and sat down. The class seating was divided into two boys on the left and girls on the right. Emerald sat next to her best friend Roselle.

Roselle had dirty blonde hair and fair clear skin and loved to wear green and yellow. Today she wore a spring-yellow dress with white embroidered flowers. “Kids,” the teacher said at Emerald, “slacking around and not focusing on school, how disappointing this generation has become.”

“But Mr. Henson we-”

“No excuses.” the teacher said cutting Emerald off. Emerald’s teacher Mr. Henson was a man in his mid-life, strict and not caring at all. Roselle put her hand on Emerald's hand and whispered,

“Everything okay?” Roselle didn't look at Emerald so it seemed less obvious that she was talking to her.

“James and I were chased by wolves.” Which was sort of not true but Emerald didn't want to explain what's been happening with Kasen. Emerald must have whispered too loudly because not just Roselle heard it.

“Oh please like that's true, you probably just slept too much,” whispered Alma who sat behind them. The door opened again and everyone turned around. It was Kasen. He was a mess too. His hair was fizzy, his clothes were grimy just like his face, his sleeve was torn and he had a blood stain on his arm where Velma’s foot was lying. He held a small chalkboard and a book in his hand. Kasen walked slowly not knowing what to do.

“Hello Kasen,” Mr. Henson said. “Take a seat next to Jeffery who is right beside you. Your father told me about you starting school.”

“Of course he did,” Kasen mumbled but no one heard him. He looked to his left. There was a bench with a table in front of it and on the other side of the bench must have been Jeffery. Kasen sat down, he was in the very back of the classroom.

It seemed that Jeffery didn't care about Kasen. He looked out the window beside him. Then Jeffrey opened the window out of impulse. A huge gust of wind came rushing into the classroom. And the classroom becomes chilly quickly. Mr. Henson turns around and his short hair goes in front of his face. “Jeffery!” Jeffery snaps back into reality and turns to Mr. Henson. The fear is clear across Jeffery’s face.

“How many times do I have to tell you to quit opening the window?” Mr. Henson yells and most students are frightened. “Now you can close the window and go outside and start the furnace.” Mr. Henson pointed at the furnace in the corner of the classroom.

Jeffery closes the window and gets out of his seat to grab firewood outside, but Mr. Henson stops him. “Jeffery, once you are done come up to the board and you'll write.” Mr. Henson strutted over to the chalkboard. “I will not open the windows in the classroom.” he wrote the words on the chalkboard while saying out loud. Jeffery sighed and walked out of the room. Kasen looked around to find Emerald. Her bright red hair caught his eye immediately. She was messy just like Kasen. The girl next to her was whispering into her ear.

Jeffery came back to the school with a pile of wood in his scrawny little arms. He placed a few logs into the fire and lit a match. A large splinter was in his thumb he pulled it out he gave a high-pitched squeak but the frequency was too high for anyone to hear. He went up to the board and wrote ‘I will not open the window in the classroom.’ His cursive was beautiful next to Mr. Henson’s writing looked dull. While Jeffery was writing Mr. Henson continued along with the lesson.

The school bell rang unlike others who sat and talked, Emerald walked outside straight to the well. All the boys were right behind her and then followed the girls. Emerald pulled the rope and a bucket full of water came up. She wet her hands and washed her face. She turned around. She saw Roselle hold Emerald’s lunch for her and walk over. “You forgot your lunch,” Roselle said with a smile. She placed it down next to the well.

“Sorry, I just needed to wash my face. It was getting itchy.” The door creaked. Emerald turned and saw Kasen walk out with an expression of confusion. Emerald saw the blood on his arm. Emerald took off her shoe and then her other stocking.

“Em? What are you doing?” Roselle asked. Emerald gave no response. She folded up her stocking neatly. And dipped it into the well. She put her shoe back on and walked over to Kasen while Roselle watched.

“May I?” Emerald asked Kasen. Kasen turned to her and jumped because he was staring off into the distance watching the boys tossing a ball. Kasen saw the wet stocking in her hand and then looked at his dirty/bloody arm.

“Yeah,” Kasen said, “thank you.” Kasen gave a charming smile. Emerald wiped away the dirt and dried blood.

“Is Velma okay?” Emerald asked.

“Yes, her teacher is very kind. She stopped the class to aid her.” The younger kid's teacher was Ms. Wilfred. She is kind, unlike Mr. Henson.

“Well, your arm is all clean. Maybe you should play with those boys.” Kasen didn’t say anything. Emerald turned to Roselle and walked over to her, picked up her lunch and they both walked over to all the girls sitting next to each other. All of them went “ooo”, especially Alma.

“Emerald I didn’t know you and the new kid had a little something going on,” said Alma. Emerald’s face got flustered.

“He is cute,” said one of the girls there named Mary.

“He looked like a gentleman,” said another girl named Rachel.

“No, we don’t have anything going on,” said Emerald sternly. Emerald sat on the ground and Roselle sat next to her. Emerald straightened her back. “We just met yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” said Rachel

“Did he start school because of you?” Alma continued.

“No…” Emerald mumbled. Even though he did it wasn't for that reason. Emerald didn't want to explain the wedding day thing.

…

Emerald’s and James’s walk home was less eventful than this morning. As they trudged home Emerald kept her eyes peeled for any danger. It was unlikely they would run into anything, but she wasn't taking any chances, especially not after this morning. When they got back to the farm they saw Reuben in the distance. He waved and ran over to them. “Mind… if I… walk with you?” He was out of breath after running.

“Sure,” James said. They walked home a bit slower, not talking. The silence was calming, and Emerald relaxed. By the time they reached the house, she was starting to feel hungry.

They walked up to the house, and Rueben threw open the door, barely catching it before it slammed. Inside, Emerald's mom was putting plates on the table. She turned around, probably to scold Rueben, but then stopped when she saw Emerald and James.

“What happened,” she said seriously. James gasped.

“How did you know something happened?!” There was awe in his voice. Emerald's mom put her hands on her hips.

“Son, I am your mother and I have been a parent for nineteen years, of course, I will know when something happened. Now speak.” Emerald spoke.

“We saw some wolves on the way to school so we ran but they chased us.”

“And Emerald and the other kid blacked out and Velma got hurt and the wolves killed the sheep.” James was almost in tears. Emerald's mom quickly wrapped Emerald and James up in a hug.

“That is terrible. Did either of you get hurt?”

“No,” said Emerald. “And Ms. Wilfred helped Velma.” Emerald's mom patted them on the back and pulled away.

“Good, “ she said. “Rueben, finish setting the table.”

“Awww, why?” She looked at him sternly and he quickly went into the kitchen to get utensils.

…

It was dinner time and everyone was finishing their dinner. “Now you two must go bathe.” Emerald’s mom said. She was directly talking to Emerald and James.

“Yes!” Emerald said under her breath.

Emerald only gets baths once a week since her family is not the richest. Emerald remembers a few summers ago there was a huge heat wave that hit her town. They only got baths once a month and they had to take baths together. Emerald’s mom and Emerald take one bath and all the boys take another bath.

Emerald hated taking a bath with her mom. Her mom Would critique her body like body shaming. Saying she’s too fat in some parts and too slim in others. She even shamed her feet saying her feet looked like chicken feet.

Man, Emerald hated that Summer…