Kaitlin POV

That night, I stood in front of my mirror thinking about the strange boy from earlier.

Who did he think he was, telling me that baloney.
It was probably just some dumb prank.  But he looked so serious.
Part of me wanted to believe him.
"This is ridiculous," I said to myself running a hand through my wavy copper colored hair.

I walked across the room and got into bed.
I grabbed my book from my nightstand, but after having to read each sentence multiple times just to process it, I decided I too shaken up to read.( *sharp intake of breath* I know. Shocking right. Ok, sorry, I got sidetracked.)
I laid the book on the nightstand and turned my lamp off.
I lay on my back and stared into the darkness, mulling my thoughts over once more.

I lay like that for a while, my amber eyes staring into nothingness, until eventually, at around one in the morning, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

                                                                                           ----------

Waking up at 6:15 the next morning was torture. Well 6:15 was when I was suppose to get up, but it ended up being more like 6:45 because that's about how long it took for me to drag myself out of bed.
I scrambled around trying to get my stuff together in time.
I threw on a pair of jeans from my dirty laundry basket, that I decided didn't smell too bad, and a decent blue t-shirt.
I hurriedly brushed my teeth and ineffectively tried to run a brush through my hair a few times.
With the thickness and the waves, my hair was practically unbrushable.( hmmmm... Is 'unbrushable ' even a word?)
Oh, well. It looks fine slightly messy.

By 7:20 I was out the door with a piece of toast clenched between my teeth and heading for the bus stop.
I just barely made the school bus and sat down next to my two best friends Hayley and Becca. A word about them before you meet them.

Hayley and Becca are two polar opposites.
Becca is the kind of person who would jump out of a dumpster and yell 'April Fools!!' at a random bypasser. She's got bright red hair cut into a bob and always wears several brightly colored hair clips in it. She has fair skin, and freckles on her face and arms, and has pale green eyes that sometimes look more grey depending on what she's wearing.

She's only slightly ADHD like me, but I doubt she's ever stood completely still for more than ten seconds in her life.
It's just her nature.
She doesn't make the best grades and she's kind of impulsive, but she's the person who can always make me laugh and she's definitely the bravest of us three.
Becca's an orphan.
She lives in the town orphanage, which is pretty nice, but you can tell that she isn't as well taken care of as us.
Some of the kids there are pretty mean. She has no memories of her parents at all. They died when she was still a baby.
The people at the orphanage don't know who her parents were or how they died.
They just found her on their doorstep one evening with an anonymous note telling them to take care of her and what her name was.
Rebecca Reese.

I got the best luck in the parents department .
Hayley's mom left them when Hayley was very young, only her dad never remarried. He's been raising Hayley on his own ever since she was a baby.

Hayley has brown hair so dark it's almost black, a fair completion and dark grey eyes.
She's definitely the brains of the operation and always gets As.
She's always organized and has probably never lost anything in her life, whereas Becca and I lose practically everything we touch.

She worries a lot though. About tests, about Becca and I, about getting sick, even about going out alone. She tends to overthink her decisions.
Becca often tells her to 'chillax', but it doesn't help.

But today, I had something important to tell them.

"Hey, guys! You'll never guess what happened to me yesterday!" I gushed.
Hayley looked up from the math textbook she was buried in.
"Is it that important?" she asked. "Because I still don't feel prepared enough for the math quiz today."
"There's a math quiz today!?" Becca and I asked in unison.
A look of concern came over Hayley's face.
"Um, yes," she replied. "Mrs. Burke announced it during third period on Friday, last week!" she said as if this were obvious.

I racked my brain.
Third period on Friday... Darn it. I was probably daydreaming or something.

"What's it on?" Becca asked. "Maybe it's something we know."
"Let's see..." Hayley said thoughtfully. "Solving for 'x', equations, the usual pre-algebra stuff that we've been doing lately."
"I'm doomed," I said flatly. "Oh, well. The thing that I have to tell you is important. The weirdest thing happened to me as I was walking through the neighborhood yesterday..."

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

By the time I had finished telling them the story, the bus had arrived at Lakewood Middleschool. Our town isn't even called Lakewood, so I have no idea why our school is called that. Probably named after some weird smelly old guy from the pioneer days or something.

"Good on you for spraying that weirdo with your pepperspray," Hayley remarked, as we stepped out of the bus onto the sidewalk.
"Are you sure?" I asked. "I feel like I kind of overreacted."
"Yeaaaahh...maybe a little..." Becca said.
"Well," Hayley said matter- of factly. "In my opinion you can never be too careful."

Becca snorted."Yeah. Like last week, when you made us swerve down a side street and take a super long detour, all because you saw a guy in a black hoodie walking towards us."
"Whaaaaat?" Hayley said defensively. "Guys in black hoodies are notoriously suspicious. Plus, I thought I saw something weird under his hood. Like he only had one eye or something."

"Whatever," I said, as I stuffed my History textbook into my backpack. We had History in the first period today. It was one of my favorite subjects, along with art. Though I'd never be able to draw as well as Hayley. She was the master.

"Hey, you know what would be awesome?" Becca exclaimed.
"What?" I asked, as I closed my locker door.
"If that weird kid was telling the truth!"
"Um, how would that be awesome exactly?" Hayley asked sceptically.

"Well, think about it," she continued, as we walked through the classroom door. "Nothing exciting ever happens in this tiny town. Don't you guys think it would be cool to go on an adventure or something?" (Oh, Becca. Now you've jinxed it.)
"I see what you're getting at," I said thoughtfully.
"As long as it's not too dangerous!" Hayley put in.

"Ok, class! Listen up!" Mr. Scott said to quiet us down.

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

By the time it was lunchtime, I was starving. 
Hayley and I waited by the cafeteria door, while Becca bought her lunch. Hayley and I always brought our lunches from home.

When Becca had her lunch we went to eat outside. Even though it was a November day, it was pretty sunny out. The storm from yesterday had worn off completely. Most schools only have a blacktop outside, but ours had a nice grassy lawn that eventually marched off into the woods behind the school.
We headed to our usual spot. A park bench under a small maple.

I pulled my lunch out of my bag and unwrapped my turkey sandwich.
Becca and Hayley were complaining about how much math homework Mrs. Burke had given us, when I heard a sort of soft whisper in my ear, a cool tickle on the back of my neck.

I turned around and looked up into the branches of the maple tree. The branches and leaves were rustling softly.
That's weird. I don't feel any wind.
I moved my eyes away from the tree, when I saw a hint of movement out of the corner of my eye.
Instantly, I jerked my head back to the tree. I was certain something had moved. Not just the branches but the pieces of bark themselves.
No way...
"Uuuh...Kaitlin?" Becca asked.
I realized they were staring at me.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah," I said, turning back to the tree behind us. "Just...thought I saw something. That's all."

"Oh," Becca said slyly. "You saw something did you?"
Hayley shot her a look. "Don't even go there."
"Oh, come on! You know I was just jo-" Becca stopped abruptly.
Their mouths were hanging open and their eyes were glued to a spot above my head.

I whipped around, but only saw the trunk of the tree. I tilted my head back to see farther up and saw... a face. No, I'm not kidding. It was as if the pieces of bark had rearranged themselves to form a face. Like that creepy old willow tree lady from Pocahontas, only about a hundred times prettier and younger.

Becca was the first to find her voice. "HOLY SHI-"
"DON'T SAY IT!!" I shrieked.
"-izzlepuffs"

I studied the girl in the tree.
She had beautiful, delicate features and pointed ears.  The tree trunk was her dress, and the branches her arms.
She smiled serenely down at us, and moved her arms - ugh, I mean branches- toward the woods. I looked past her and saw that all the other trees dotting the lawn were also leaning towards the woods.

Suddenly the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period.

"I think she wants us to go that way," I said, pointing towards the woods.
"What!" Hayley burst out. "The woods are off-limits and the bell just rang. We've got to get to class!"
"Well," Becca said, swinging her backpack over one shoulder. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going into the woods."
With that, she started jogging towards the woods.

"Oh, great!" Hayley said, exasperated. "Now what do we do?"
I took one last look at the cafeteria door where the last couple of kids were filing inside. "We do the only thing we can do. We follow her."

A/N:  Yeeeeessss! So glad I finally finished writing that. Sorry for the wait. Hopefully the longish chapter makes up for it. :)