Ship Falling

Chapter 1

Mary Valentina Robins trudged through Rosedale Forest on a cold Autumn morning. She adjusted the strap on her backpack and tried to ignore her consciousness telling her to turn around and run for the school bus, but she championed it. Her friends were waiting for her. She moved on through the woods, not bothering to look back, partly because she was afraid her inner moral compass would get the better of her and turn her around and partly because she wanted to get to her destination as soon as possible. Eventually, the little wooden house she and her friends had been visiting 8th grade came into sight and she knocked on the door in a rhythm only her and her group knew. Tap. tap-tap. Tap. tap-tap. The door was open before the last tap and Mary looked up at a smiling face. "Mary! We thought you weren't gonna come." She cocked her head in confusion. "I always come, Oli. Is something wrong?" She walked in and closed the door behind her. Oliver sat down on one of the broken lawn chairs scattered around inside. "'Course not. You just are always early." Mary rolled her eyes and sat down on her usual chair. Katherine, her closest friend, was sifting through the milk crate filled with records they keep on a wooden block. "Which one today, guys?" She asked, looking at Mary more than anyone else. Ted interjected. "FOB, all the way." everyone else groaned. "Ted, we've listened to Fallout Boy 2 times in a row. Anyone else?" Ted slumped down in his chair. Oliver perked up and suggested a classical record. Classical was the default when they couldn't agree on music, and Oliver loved Mozart too. They spent the next hour and a half talking about nothing, checking up on each other's schoolwork and turning up the volume on the record player between breaks in the conversation. Eventually they were sitting comfortably in silence, drinking soda and daydreaming. In the corner of their hangout closest to the quietest girl named Anya, she suddenly sat up and looked around at the group. "Did you hear that?" Everyone sat up a little straighter. "D'you think it's a fox? I bet I could pet it," Ted stood up and started for the door. "Sit down, Ted!" Katherine said urgently. "It could be rabid! Do you want to get sick?" Mary could see Ted hesitating for a moment before opening the door with a creak. "If the fox is cute, it's totally worth it." Oliver stifled a chuckle and the conversation started up again in Ted's absence. "So, is anyone going to go in the talent show?" Mary suggested, hoping for some interesting takes. Anya spoke up for the first time in a while. "Well, none of us have talent, so it wouldn't apply." they laughed, but Oliver looked annoyed. "I'm singing for it, actually." Katherine giggled. "You've sung in every talent show since 2nd grade, and you've never won, Oliver. No offense." He rolled his eyes. "It's not about winning, Kath. It's about-" He's interrupted by Ted coming back in. "Well, there wasn't a fox, but there's definitely something in the bushes. Probably a mouse or something." Anya tensed up. "No, no, it was something else. It was like a growl but high-pitched." Mary laughed. "I guess the mouse is ferocious." They share a smile, but Anya's was weak. It was supposed to rain at noon, and it was already almost 11 in the morning, so Mary and Ted started heading home. It was a school day, but they'd done their work faster so they wouldn't get too behind. "Hey, Mary?" She snapped out of her daydreaming to look at Ted. "When I went looking for what made the noise, whatever it was had really dark skin. And I've never seen a mouse with black fur in Rosedale forest." Mary looked away. "Well, you saw something. Maybe it was just a mouse with a weird genetic thing. You can't judge." Ted shrugged the shoulder straps of his backpack. "It gave me a bad vibe. Next time there's a noise outside our hangout, don't ask me to check it out." Mary held up her hands. "Alright, alright." They walked the rest of the path in silence. By the time both their houses were in sight, the sky had started to open up. Mary barely made it to the eve above her doorstep before the rain started to come down hard. Thankfully, it only lasted a few minutes. She was too focused on getting to her front door and hadn't seen if Ted had gotten safely to his house, but she figured she'd text him later. She spent the rest of the day watching TV and playing with her cat. Although she knew her parents would be mad at her skipping school, they didn't get home until 6. She still had time.