She was running.

Drenched in sweat.

They were after her.

Fizz turned the corner by a row of houses into a forbidden looking alley. From close behind her, she could hear the shouting coming from those people who were after her. Lucas and Ben, two of her fellow classmates, Tess and her gang of girls yelling insults, Mr Aster and Mrs Waters from school yelling her full name repeatedly, Fizz's own parents yelling at her calling her blogging stupid. There was no end to all of the loud noise.

In vain, Fizz pounded on her Auntie Ruby's flat door but to no avail. From the ground below, she could hear loud pounding footsteps and the creaking of the main council flat building door. She was going to have to move and quickly.

Just as the group of people after her reached round towards the side of stairs on the left, Fizz had darted back down the block of stairs on the right-hand side of the tall building reaching the bottom. Tears were stinging in her eyes and her hands red and numb from the cold. In the distance, she noticed someone waving at her. But who was it and was this a trap?

In a spilt second of her turning away from the figure in the distance, she felt a warm embrace and on looking up, noticed that the figure was indeed the boy who was known as, "The Boy".

"Quick, there's no time to lose!" he whispered angrily into the depths of Fizz's ears, "We have to move now!"

"But why me? Why does the whole world have a problem with my existence?" wailed Fizz deep into the ears of the male figure who was leading her away into the dark streets surrounding the neighbourhood, out of sight away from the big group of people.

"They have seen your Anxiety as your weakness, your downfall but as a genuine human being, I won't let that happen to you." smiled the male figure as they waltzed away from the shadows into a bright light. So bright that Fizz wasn't able to witness what happened next.  

It was only a dream.

But yet that dream had revealed to Fizz so much more than she already knew.

It was 4AM and with no hope of falling back to a state of sleep, she sat up and decided that fresh air in the dark was going to be the only way to cure this once and for all. That boy in her dream was making her do this, step outside the safety of her home so early in the morning but not for a negative reason but a positive one in the hopes of finding comfort. The clothes that she had been wearing yesterday for the trip to look for Auntie Ruby lay on the back of her chair, unfolded but still clean and sensible enough to wear in the cold air.

As Fizz quietly got dressed, she listened out in case her parents decided to stop snoring and climb out of bed to investigate any movement from within the house. Although her parents did snore like elephants, sometimes they slept light and any movement which didn't come from them, they would go and investigate for themselves. To make it less suspicious, Fizz kept the radio and her bedroom light on and making a fake lump in her bed to make it look like she was still asleep. On arriving downstairs, she snuck out of the back door which to her surprise was unlocked still from yesterday. Both of her cats sat up from the side of the kitchen counter and watched her every move.

Fizz grabbed the emergency waterproof torch from the small shelve by the back door and switched it on to make sure there was enough bright light so that could see. The next-door neighbour had one of the first floor back windows open so this had to be a cautious walk.

Pounding deep down in her heart, Fizz walked down the garden path in the pitch black with only the guidance from the torch and the weight of her mobile phone still in her jacket pocket. The walk felt like hours but in reality, was only a few short minutes. Getting down behind the back of a long, thick hedge in the bottom of her garden which on inspection looked overgrown and in need of a radical makeover, she sat down on a small rock and heaved a sigh of relief.   

On arrival, the cold breeze made her feel refreshed but also more alert. In her mind however, she was still replying the events of her dream and the encounter with the male figure, "The Boy." In all honesty, she was still reeling from the occurrence of actually meeting him at the play park yesterday.

"I'm still pissed off with myself that I didn't ask him what his name was," whispered Fizz quietly to the overgrown bushes, "What a bummer and an idiot you are Fizz."

"You can ask me if you want." replied a deep voice from the bushes next to her.

In the heat of the moment, Fizz let out a small scream as a figure showed himself to her, the same one from the dream, "The Boy."

"I may have woken up the whole damn neighbourhood thanks to you!" spat out Fizz as she trembled from the shock of seeing him.

"And I just so have the tendency to do just that," the boy smiled, "So, you need to get used to it."

Fizz took a few short seconds to take in the male figure's appearance again. The curly hair, which was neatly positioned on top of his head was now a fluffy mess and the deep hazel eyes stared right into her own brown eyes.

"So... You aren't playing any games with me right?" questioned Fizz as she took out her mobile phone.

The male figure shook his head, "Nope, no games. But I saw you upset yesterday in the play park. Fighting over guys eh?"

Fizz giggled, "No no, no guys like me in that way. I was upset because my Auntie Ruby took off from her flat without telling me. My parents won this Spanish food hamper you see and..."

"Won Spanish food?" questioned the male figure, "I've been to Spain, trust me, once you are in Spain the food is so much nicer than what supermarkets here put out for sale. I think it's to do with you actually being there to experience the whole cuisine that you take in the sights and smells of all of the food."

"Sounds interesting... but anyway, the big question I really want to ask is who are you?" smiled Fizz as she found herself moving a bit closer towards where he was sitting in an attempt to talk to him without looking like an idiot.

"Thought you would never ask," he smirked as he held out a hand for Fizz to shake, "The name's Toby, Toby Hastier."

"Felicity Berry known as Fizz, nice to meet you Toby. Um, you can take off your hood you know?" replied Fizz as she accepted his hand for a shake and noticing that his hood was still covering part of his head.

"Of course I can and I will just for you." said Toby as he pulled down the hood. Fizz took in the sight of him with the hazel eyes and curly hair as well as the sight of acne all the way around his face, down the side of his neck and what looked like a papercut by the side of his ear. His cheeks were pale and his brows small but bushy. 

Fizz tried to stop the shaking. Not anything to do with first love but because of the threat that both of them may be caught and the police called to accuse them of being thieves.

"You're really pretty Fizz, has any boy told you that?" noted Toby as his gaze never left Fizz.

"Not really I guess. The boys at my school don't even call me by the name Fizz, it's always Berry or raspberry. I don't like the latter." pointed out Fizz as she scrolled through her blog feed on her mobile phone.

"You write really well too, a lot better than me if I do say so myself." smiled Toby as he peeped over the side of Fizz's arm to stare at the screen which projected the sight of her blog up towards him.

"I'm not good with compliments but thanks." replied Fizz as she logged off her blog.

By now, the sun was starting to rise and the cool breeze was starting to fade away as night turned into day.

"Got school?" asked Toby.

"Yeah, sadly. I'm in a lot of trouble though, I bunked off because some people in my year have been bullying me. I just don't want to go in today." sighed Fizz with a heavy heart, "The school want to cancel my GCSE exams too just because my grades have slipped. A to G, that is me."

"Well, the answer to that is don't go in. The school I used to go to, the old Academy on the other side of town got so fed up of me bunking off all the time just because I was getting bullied that they just stopped letting me go into school. I've been out for nine months." added Toby as she started to rub his hands together to keep them from going numb, "I literally have nothing to do today so let's get to know each other."

"Shall I call in sick then?" questioned Fizz as she looked back through the tiny gap within the bushes, "I have to get back in there anyway since my parents are getting up in ten minutes once their alarm goes off."

"Act naturally, pretend that you are all excited about school and once they have gone, sneak back and I will meet you within the hour, got it?" said Toby as they both stood up.

Fizz tried to ignore the trembling from within, "Got it!" 

"Till then Fizz." waved Toby.

"Till then Toby." waved Fizz.

Both of them turned and went their separate ways out of the bush. And the only thing that Fizz thought about was that she had a new friend who seemed to take her seriously.

We've met him! Thoughts? Doesn't sound like he's all that bad right? Will Fizz and Toby stick to their meet-up plans and will the issue of going back to school ever be resolved? You can find out in the next chapter, coming soon! Scarlett x

PS, Thanks for 1,100 reads on my story!