River's POV, 1972
My hands were wrapped around the wooden baseball bat, I concentrated hard on the throwers' balling hand. Not even blinking.
And as his arm swung back, I angled my bat, and as the ball came soaring towards me, I took the hit. It went flying, all the way over the court fence and landed on the field outside.
The rest of the boys in the court began to groan and pointed fingers at who was to get the ball.
"Er, sorry guys..." I hesitantly placed the baseball bat on the floor, "I've got to go now guys," I said whilst pushing up my glasses.
As I began to jog out of the baseball court, my best friend for three years now, Leo, caught up with me.
"That was some hit dude." I put on my back pack, and lifted up my trusty bike.
"Thanks Leo."
"You up for another round, me and the rest of the guys were thinking of having a go, then going for corn dogs. You in?"
"I'm a vegan Leo?!" I scoffed, "Sorry but I've gotta get home. I have chores, homework and other stuff to do." I lied. I lied to Leo a lot. Not because I wanted to! But I just had to, nobody could no. Not even my best friend.
"Fine then, see ya!" I got on my bike, waved then started to peddle home.
It was a rather pleasant day; there were birds cheeping and trees were rustling. It was serene.
But then I heard a car tailing behind me, it parked up, and when I occasionally turned my head to look at the driver, they stared back at me.
"Fuck." I muttered to myself. I tried to keep my cool and continued peddling slowly. Suddenly, an idea came to me, and I took a left turn and began cycling through a field.
When I got nearer to the end of it, I could finally see my house. But I had to keep my cool, freaking out wasn't an option.
I dumped my bike in the field when I thought l had lost them, then trekked the rest of the way.
I hid amongst the crops near my front door. "Mojo!" I whispered, "Mojo!" Suddenly our family dog came waddling out through the doggy door. I gave him one of my Chuck Taylor's and told him to give it to Harry. I told him to be quick.
After about five minutes, my younger brother Harry came out, holding my long keyboard case and my shoe. "C'mon, quick!" I beckoned, whilst putting my footwear back on. Harry carried the case, and I held Mojo. And with that, we left our home of three years now, behind.
"Where's Mom and Dad, River?" I quickly turned to give him a stern look as we began to walk.
"What have I told you about calling me that! You have to still call me Danny for now. God sake Harry!"
"I'm sorry okay! It just gets confusing."
"Well I remember to call you Harry, even though you're called Teddy."
"Ugh fine then, Danny! So where are mom and dad then?"
I stroked Mojo's short, white fur. "They're at the store, didn't you hear them say?"
"Well that was before you ditched me to go play baseball, you were supposed to baby sit me. Remember!" Harry exclaimed.
"Well it's a good job I was out, there were 2 Feds following me, 2! What if I hadn't been out, we'd have been screwed!"
Harry groaned at my remark. "I just wanna see Mom."
"Yeah, I know you do squirt. We just need to keep walking, okay?"
Harry nodded.
When we made it to the store, that's when we saw Mom and Dad getting into the RV.
They saw us, and we casually walked to them, as of nothing was wrong. As not to arouse suspicion.
We opened the door to get in the back.
"Two Feds, one shoe. They were on hot per suite."
"Oh no Karl, what do we do? California was going good for us! Where do we go now?" My mother questioned in a hushed tone.
"I know if a small town somewhere. It's discrete, calm, peaceful. We should be fine there. But get ready for a four hours road trip!"
"But what about my friends, my stuff, my toys? We just leave them?" Harry nagged.
"We're sorry kiddo," our mom turned to look at us, "it's the only way."
"Let's get going then." My dad started up the engine, and before we knew it, we we're already in town. That's when my dad came to a stop.
He grabbed Mojo and placed her on the path near a store. He ran back in the car and we drove away.
"Dad what was that!?" I yelled. "You left Mojo!? We've never left her, how could you?"
"I-I'm sorry boys but..." my dad began
"We have to make sacrifices Danny, for the family. Someone will find her and take care of her, don't you worry."
"Don't call me that, I'm not Danny anymore, am I! My real name is River, and you will never take that away from me. You can't dump it on the sidewalk!"
My mom made a sort of muffled noise, which sounded like half sob, half sigh.
"We know dear, we know. Let's just get to Riverdale shall we? Our new identities are, 'The Ryder's' ."
