My long ponytail violently swishes as I whirl in the autumn sun. With the leaves all floating down, and the sun shining through the red and golden trees, it seems magical. Even better, I am with my best friend and my boyfriend. Axe sprints to catch up with me as I quickly jog to the campsite. Skye's bus had just barely beaten ours, and Axe and I rushed to catch up with her and Archer.

Once we reached the spot, panting slightly, the four of us all grin broadly. Axe walks over to Archer and they begin to set up their tent. Skye and I grin even more at the beautiful scenery and we rush to set up our tent. We are camped a little bit far away from the campfire, on the outskirts of the campsite. Once we finish, Skye and I clamber in and roll out our sleeping bags, and open up our bookbags to peak inside.

"What do you want to do first?" I ask, all choked up in excitement.

"Well... We could check out the stream. I heard from Jullie that it is beautiful!"

"Sounds perfect!"

Grabbing our hiking packs, Skye and I start our journey to a nearby creek. It gurgles and murmurs, and I sit on a mossy boulder next to it. Skye kneels down and splashes her hands in the cool, clear water. We sit together in the beautiful silence of the woods, listening to the stream flow and the trees creak.

After a few minutes, we get to work. We kneel down and collect rocks in the stream, from smooth and round black ones, to jagged chips of granite, to clumps of white quartz. I pull out some Ziploc bags, and store them in there. Once finished, we stand up, brush ourselves off, and smile. Collecting rocks had always been a fun hobby between the two of us.

Making our way back to camp, we spot Archer.

"Wassup? You guys want to play capture the flag with us?" He inquires.

"Oh, I don't know," says Skye hesitantly. "I don't think Arazia would enjoy it..." She grins at me teasingly.

Shoving her playfully, I nod vigorously. I love capture the flag. "Of course we'll play!"

Together, the three of us walk to a clearing in the campsite and meet up with several more students. Over the course of the time at the school, I had liked Archer more and more. Not in a romantic way, of course. Ugh. No, Archer had become a great friend that I liked to hang out with. He was playful, and fun to be with.

Once several more students had gathered, we all split into teams. Archer, Skye and I were all on the Green team, along with several other mutants. Together, we hiked up to a little hill and the sock player with the flags (one for each other team besides ours) sat down at the top. We put four players to guard it, with Archer being one of them. Then, the remaining five of us took off sprinting at the sound of a distant foghorn. Skye and I dashed together toward one of the nearest team, the Red team. I ducked behind a rock, and Skye jumped behind a tree. One of the Red was walking by, looking for anyone attempting to get their flag.

When they were a few meters farther away, I took off. I pounded through the woods, letting my long legs carry me, far and fast. Behind me, Skye dashed along, watching for anyone who would try and tag us. Like in freeze tag, if another opponent tagged you in their territory, you were frozen until another teammate tagged you.

I ran toward the Red team, flying fast and furious. The guards closed in, ready to tag me, but at the last second, I swerved violently, nearly losing my balance. But with the little time I had by swerving, I pounded the ground, grass flying. I snatched the green sock from the Red sock person on top another little hill, and fell, rolling down the hill like a boss.

Grabbing Skye, we sprinted back to our base. Along the way, I couldn't help but think, I'm glad no powers are being used in this game. I get to show off my normal skills!

Once back at the base, I spot a few Blue team members attempting to get their flag from our sock player, until Archer and Natalia, another mutant, tagged them. We ran back triumphantly with our sock, and saw two other mutants, Frasier and Roz, jog back with another sock. After giving our socks to the sock player, Jayden, I asked Roz if she had seen Bill, the fifth runner.

"No, but he told us that he was going to go scout the yellow team to tell us what it was like," she tells me.

But Bill hadn't come back, so I run with Skye, Frasier and Roz to the Yellow team. And what we found was a blood bath. Five Blue players, six Red players, and one Green player surrounded the coveted flags held by the Yellow. Seven Yellow players surrounded the one sock player, Slimeball, while, presumably, two other Yellows ran around grabbing the other Yellow flags.

Ducking behind another huge rock, I looked at my teammates.

"Roz, Skye, go and run and free Bill. Frasier, spot me. Once you guys are finished with Bill, run back to base. We have to have all players in our territory to win. I can grab our flag."

Frasier nods at me, his rocky flesh glinting in the sun. Roz high-fives me for good luck, and Skye grins.

"Let's rock this game!" yells Skye.

"FOR GREEEEEEEEEEEN!" bellows Roz.

With that, we charge.

Skye and Roz sprint towards Bill. The Yellow players attack, tagging Roz but missing Skye. She does a loop and swerves around them, her red hair tauntingly flying by. After looping around them, Skye reaches Bill and smacks him. He's up, and then tags Roz. Then, the three of them charge back to base. By that time, Frasier and I had already rounded to the back of the Yellow base, and dodged a few more Yellow players. Then Frasier gets tagged, but I leave him. He knows the flag is more important, and usually harder to get. We can come back for Frasier. I sprint harder, the wind whistling in my ears, pounding my body, as I approach one of the bulkiest Yellow players: Hox.

He sneers at me, but I barely notice, as I drop to the ground and roll between his outstretched legs. I snatch the Green flag, and fly back to Frasier. He calls at me to go to base, to not risk losing the flag, but I don't listen. I smack him hard, and he gets up, dashing with me around the Yellow players, and we run as hard as we can to Green base. Once we reach it, Frasier and I collapse. I hear groans from our teammates, thinking we weren't able to get the final and hardest flag. But in response, Frasier grins broadly, and I throw up my hand, clutching the sock with a death grip, in a sweaty palm, holding up pure Green victory.

I lean against Skye, panting furiously, as we all yell and cheer and scream in victory. Two frozen Blue team members look dejected as they walk back to their team to relay the news of defeat.

Skye turns to Archer, and they beam at each other. Frasier and Roz high-five and start chanting, "GREE-EEN! GREE-EEN! GREE-EEN! GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENN!!!!!!!!" I join in the screaming, and stand up, tired but happy, make a little fountain with my water powers, letting the Sun shine through, making a stunning rainbow, the green color accentuated.

We head back towards are tents, and stop by a make-shift canteen. I grab a few water bottles and Archer grabs a few pizza slices with Skye. Then we all find a seat on a picnic bench and gobble down the delicious food. After I gulp down half a water bottle, I look around, and something dawns on me.

"Hey, where's Axe? We haven't seen him since he went to set up your tent, Archer," I give him a questioning look, to which he returns with a confused frown.

"I don't know.... We set up our tent, then through our stuff in there, and he kinda took off. I don't know where he went."
Skye stands up, and looks around the campsite around us. Squinting, she points at a figure in the distance, emerging from the woods. "There he is!"

"One sec," I say, and then sprint to Axe, leaving my pizza behind.

"Where were you, we played the most epic game of capture the flag, and guess what, we WON, obviously, ha ha, cause I'm just that awesome! I wish you were there though, it would have been fun to play with you, but..." I trail off, when I see Axe give me a strange, almost dejected look. "Wha... What's wrong?"

"No-nothing, uhh, um, yah. " Axe fidgeted with his jacket pocket. He looked as though he was about to say something, but then winced. "Sorry, uh, yah I keep hearing the leaves. I left my aid back at the dorm, and it's really loud out here."
Axe was, of course, referring to his mutant power of having extremely keen senses. I realized that the trees were rustling loudly, the stream flowed noisily, and birds were chirping up a storm. It was loud just to a normal person, but for Axe, it must be painful.

"Hey uh, we could go back toward the camp, if you want..." I suggest. Axe fidgets some more, looks like is going to say something, but then sighs and nods. He looks sad, like he's in the pit of despair, so I grab his hand and give it a squeeze. Holding on firmly to it, I look into his eyes and smile at him. Axe looks like he wants to vomit from nerves.

When we come back to Skye and Archer, the two of them had abandoned their pizza, looking worried. I sit back down next to Skye, and resume eating, and Archer follows suit. "Aren't ya going to eat with us?" Skye looks at Axe. "I'm... not feeling hungry," he responds, still sitting anyways next to Archer. Skye and I look at each other, worry in our eyes.

"Anyways,..." trails off Archer. "Dude, you missed an epic game of capture the flag, which we absolutely rocked, of course!"

"Nice job, wish I could have seen it," replies Axe, almost automatically.

"Hey, I heard there was an obstacle course right before dinner, we should stretch if we are gonna win!" Skye grins. "You guys are coming to the course, right?"

"Ugh," said Archer, "You mean do I want to compete in a fun race in a team with my best friends and possibly win a prize?"

"Yah, Skye," I continue, elbowing her. "I dunno if I, the most competitive person here, would want to do it..."

"Ok ok, sorry for the stupid question!" We all grin, and even Axe lets out a weak smile. Skye looks to Axe. "You too?"

"Sure, why not!" Axe sits up straighter, and even smiles at me.

Two hours later, the four of us run laughing back to the canteen out of the rain. We stand there, soaked, from the rain that started just after the obstacle course, in which we had all tripped over each other, and couldn't get back up from laughing so hard.

In the cover of the canteen, we grabbed some hamburgers and sat down. My stomach still aches from laughing so intensely, and I had never smiled this much. The rain slowly cleared as we ate the burgers, and the sun slowly settled into the horizon. A little ways away, some of the adults lit a bonfire. Finishing our delicious meal, we walked over, feeling the warm embers turn to smoke, which drifted into the ever-darkening sky.

I flipped my long tangled hair over my shoulder as I sat next to Skye on a log seat. Axe plopped down next to me, and Archer stood up. "Let's sing a song!" Archer suggested to the growing group around the fire.

"I call this one," started Slimeball, also wet from the obstacle course. "The campfire song song."

A few people elbowed each other, grinning. In unison, a little shaky at first, "Let's gather around the campfire, and sing our campfire song! Our C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E-S-O-N-G song! And if you don't think that we can sing it faster than you're wrong, but it'll help if you just sing alonggggg!"

"Bum, bum, bum..."

    We sang until we ran out of songs, and the night had fully taken over. The blazing heat had dried us off, and the roaring fire had begun to die down. Most had already left, but the four of us remained, laughing and talking. I leaned against Axe as Archer told us about the time he had discovered his powers. Axe tensed at first, and then relaxed. Finally, on of the adults came around, telling the remaining campers to go to their tents, as it was past curfew.

"We'll catch up!" Archer told me and Axe. We shrugged and walked to our tents. Axe's tent was closer to the campfire, so I said goodbye and began to walk to my tent. Axe grabbed my arm, not harshly, but with urgency.

"Arazia," he began, but before he could finish, I leaned in and kissed him. It was unexpected, for both of us, but I just felt like doing it. Plus, it was more romantic than any other time, with just the two of us there. I realized that the campfire would also be a good place to be alone with someone...

    I looked at Axe, trying to judge his reaction. He looked shocked, and, oddly, extremely distraught. Like he had wanted to enjoy the kiss, but couldn't. I shrugged it off. "Well, good night then." I turned around to walk away, when I swivelled back around.

"Sorry, that was rude! What were you going to say?"

Axe stood there, staring me as if I was a deer that had just been run over. "N-n-no, no, just,- no. Goodnight, Arazia" Axe seemed to cherish that last word.

"Uh, goodnight then, Axe. See ya in the morning!"

I walked back to my tent, confused at the whole interaction. I decided to ignore it until I could talk to Skye about it. I got in my sleeping bag, and began reading a book, called Scythe. A few minutes later Skye entered the tent.

"Sooo," I placed my book down. "Is he a good kisser?"

"Araze!" Although it was mostly dark, I could see Skye furiously blushing. "Look can we talk about it later, I just need some sleep. Today was wonderfully tiring!"

I had wanted to talk about Axe tonight, but I was exhausted as well. We both got in our sleeping bags, and fell asleep.

-----------------------------------------------------------

1:30 am.

That was the time on my watch when I woke up with a bladder in need of a relieve. Stretching my arms out and yawning quietly, I grabbed a shovel and the roll of toilet paper we had packed. For the camping trip, the school had wanted to make it authentic, so although there were restrooms, they were on the far side of camp, away from all of the pitched tents. Luckily, we were on the edge of the tents, so my trek to a quiet and private area was not long. I had just found a nice area to do my business, when I heard a twig crack behind me. I whirled around, shining my flashlight around. I should have brought Skye with me, stupid! How could I forget!

"Hey! Come out and fight me, unless you're too much of a coward!" I yelled to nobody and nowhere in particular. I didn't expect a response, and I didn't get one. I turned back to the chosen spot, and began arranging the items. I propped up the flashlight on a stone, and the toilet paper on a branch. WHAM! My head went blank for a few moments as I found myself on the ground, my head pounding. My vision made everything appear in triplicates, and I felt like I was about to throw up. I looked up to see what my head had hit, or been hit by, and I was surprised to see the faces of-- Hox and Axe staring down at me. Hox looked down with a leering stare, while Axe looked on the verge of tears. I could have sworn he whispered "I'm sorry", but it was probably my fried brain imagining it. Hox raised his bat again to knock
me out for good, and my last slipping thought echoed in my empty head, "I'm so glad I didn't pull down my pants yet".

The End of Book 1