Fabled

Chapter 3 - The Forest Behind Marc's

Sam's POV

I walked away quickly as I shut the door and walked across the street to Marc's house. I knocked on the door and entered when they invited me in, and I didn't forget to give his mom a quick greeting this time.

I walked through the Simon's house until I reached Marc's open door and invited myself in. His room was on the first floor, because his triplet little sisters had practically taken over the second.

"Heyo Marcstar," I said. It was a nickname derived from his soccer championship, him being the one who scored the three goals that gave them their win.

"Hiya," he replied, staring at the phone in his hand. 

"Whatcha up to?" I asked, flopping down on his bed on my stomach like him. He chose to just have his mattress on the floor, so it was fine and I wouldn't break anything. I looked over at his phone and eyed his texts. 

"Ooo Amanda?" I asked. He rolled over onto his back and hid his screen from me. "What, you finally got her number? Lemme see!" He did not let me see, and he was stronger than me so I didn't really want to have a wrestling match, so I didn't push it further. But I would make sure to steal his phone when he left to use the restroom at some point. (I knew his password. But shhhh, don't tell him. I've learned many things that way.) And don't ask how I know he's stronger.

"Marc!" his mother called.

"Yeah?" He yelled back, not rudely.

"You ready? We gotta go!"

"Oh, right!" he called. He turned to me, sitting up when I did.

"What's that about?" I asked before he could talk, then got mad at myself. He was gonna tell me anyway.

He didn't seem to get annoyed though, and said, "Sorry, I forgot, I gotta go to my little sister's t-ball game." Which one? I thought about voicing, then didn't.

"MARC!" His dad yelled, louder than necessary but not in an angry way.

"I KNOW!" Marc shouted back.

"Do you know where my hearing aids are?" he shout-asked.

"You left em on the counter!" Marc replied. I knew from experience he had a good memory. Marc got up and left to go help his dad. I stayed in his room, and considered life.

I felt like Marc and I had been getting less close lately, even for best friends, but it was still way better than being at my house, and I enjoyed my time with him a lot still.

I picked my phone up from where on his bed I had left it, and followed where Marc had gone. I also picked up his black Nike baseball cap for him on my way out. We met at his kitchen's light granite counter top, where I handed him the hat as his dad got his hearing aids in.

"Oh, thanks," he said as I handed it to him and he put it on. "Still sorry, bud. Totally forgot about this game." He grabbed my hand, holding it up and shaking it, the end of our handshake. "And they only want the family members there, so you can't come," he said as he got his black Nike shoes on. As you can tell, he liked black and Nike.

"It's fine, it's not like my mom would've let me go anyway," I told him, though she might've. My little sister had a baby sitter right now, so I was fine to go somewhere if it was somewhere I had been before with a familiar family, and all those checks were filled out.

Me and Marc walked together to the garage.

As we approached his mom, she said, "Sorry, I didn't have enough time to tell you we were leaving soon." Oh crap. I did just go past her.

I looked at the ground in shame. "It's fine. Sorry."

She just smiled at me. "Oh, it's fine." There was a sudden commotion, and the triplets exited the door leading to the garage, leaving it wide open. His dad, who had made it outside before us, sighed and went over to shut it, but their dog slipped through at the last minute, making his dad jump.

He breathed out heavily. "Oh, Tucker," he said. "You scared me." One of the triplets, Sabrina, who had her honey vanilla blonde hair tucked neatly into a high ponytail, walked up to him innocently. (I wish I didn't sound so technical about the hair like I knew a lot about it. It's Lacey's fault, okay? She's obsessed. I'm leaving it at that to make you wonder.)

(Sam, you don't sound technical. And remember, we're supposed to write notes on the line under. Not on the line the story's on!! -Amerisa)

(Yeah, well sorry, too late. I wrote in pen.)

(Yeah, and this is why I told you not to write in pen! But you still did. -Amerisa)

(Well you told me to find my own pencil!)

(Yeah well- fair enough.-Amerisa)

(Can I get back to my part now?)

(I mean, go for it. You could've ghosted this conversation long ago. -Amerisa)

She told him, "Dad, don't talk to animals that can't respond to you."

(I'm taking that as an, "that's a great idea Amerisa! What a brilliant thinker you are! I just did, thank you." And very unsarcastically. -Amerisa)

"Well what animals can I talk to?"

"Parrots."

"Okay. When Mom stops being allergic we'll get a parrot."

"Okay," Sabrina agreed, turning to head back to the car.

Soon, I was saying goodbye to Marc and the rest of the family, then standing in the grass next to the driveway as I waved goodbye to my chance of having a good day.

Once their shiny silver car was gone, I sighed and went to turn back to my house. As I was about to cross the street, I thought, wait, what if I go to the woods? Like-instead of going home? I snuck a glance around, then spun to face his house (and the woods behind it), whistling as I went on my way to where I wasn't allowed to go. This kinda thing happened more than you would want to know.

I walked past their house, into the neighbor's yard just along the old wooden fence, running my fingers over its planks, the best texture, in my opinion.

And I walked straight into those woods.

Me and Marc went in there a lot-and it wasn't, like, against the law or anything. There were even some trails you could walk on-just, the thing was, where we went it was highly recommended we didn't.

Yeah, I had gained some confidence since meeting him.

We had even kinda made our own trails-though it helped that they were already kinda there due to animals like deer and stuff. We had a tree house father down- far from the open trails, ready for humanity.

So I started walking down the little makeshift trail connected to his neighbor's yard. It helped that this trail was a little more, well, made, because the neighbors walked down this length to go fishing at the secret pond. Which wasn't really a secret, just most people didn't know about it, so it was brimming with big fish. Predators didn't tend to get that close to civilization.

Soon, I made it past the spot where the one trail split into two, leaving the broader one leading to the pond behind as I placed my feet step after step onto the slimmer one.

A/N

Sorry if this chapter was kinda boring, I promise the next one will be more exciting