3 by Shera Eitel-Casey Page B

anonymously?”
    “I don't know” I said
sounding defeated because I felt it, “I'll think about
it.”
     
    I don't know who made up the
saying, but by the end of the day our class had a new
motto “85 Stay Alive.” Not that I think a lot of murders were
happening but each class had more than a few students die each year
and we were going to be the smart class, the one where no one dies
before graduation. It’s not like we had that many students in our
high school, we were in the country more than less. Richfield only
had about 2,000 residents, so when you lose a couple of classmates
you could feel the emptiness from their absence.
    We have lots of hills
everywhere, no sidewalks or curbs and not many street lights
either. So when students were screwing around when driving,
especially at night, accidents happened. I heard car accidents were
the leading ‘cause of death in teenagers, then comes homicides and
these two seem to be very high in our school. Plus, there are the
normal run of the mill deaths, suicides, cancer, heart disease and
silly accidents. However, I’d like to find out how many we lose by
foul play.

CHAPTER 3
    Nic and I went to see Journey in concert, it
was really good but I just couldn't seem to get into
it and I think Nic sensed it. Afterward we went
to her house, I was spending the weekend. Her mom was very
cool about dropping us off and picking us up places. Plus, we
could get away with more stuff around her mom, if she knew what we
were up too, she didn't let us know.
    When we got back
to Nic's house she looked anxious, and as soon as her mom
announced she was going to bed Nic smiled and waved me on to
follow her, intrigued by the cloak-and-dagger I followed. She
turned off all the lights until we came to her back sliding door.
For a minute, I couldn't see a thing,
then Nic flipped on the outside light, she had a menacing
smile on her face. Her dog was just as intrigued and stood
right next to us; Rusty was a good dog never barked, well trained
and always stayed near the house. She grabbed my hand and
yanked me out the door called for her dog but Rusty didn’t come. We
were running, the light faded fast as we ran away from it, the
darkness enveloped around us quickly, I had a hard time seeing Nic
in front of me. We ran through her properties first tree line as
far as I could tell. Her feet found every step with
familiarity and ease, where I fumbled behind her slowing
us down.
    We began to giggle and
finally slowed to a brisk walk, through another tree line and there
it was, her pond surrounded by nothing but trees and fields.
She brought us around by a dock and we stepped onto
it.
    She turned and said
“I've always wanted to skinny dip so we're going to
tonight and you're doing it with me.” She started taking off her
shoes and then her jeans. 
    “Since when do you have a
dock and a beach?” I asked.
    “My dad and I finished it
last week!” Nic said excitedly.
    “We put sand in the water
too.” She pointed to the area where the beach should be, I think I
could see it, I felt it under my feet. I would definitely have to
check it out during the day.
    Before Nic pushed her jeans
down she started talking slowly and cautiously “Addie, I know there
is something very wrong with you… I know because I can feel it
and because of the way you've been acting lately. Plus, you were
trying to hide the bruises and scratch marks on your arms and
legs.” She took a deep breath, I said nothing. “You are my very
best friend and I thought we told each other everything.” She
paused; I could tell she was choosing her words carefully. “I'm not
going to make you tell me but, if something bad is happening at
home I can help. You can stay here until we figure it out. Or
if it's something else, if you need any help at all tell me, your
parents, or if you can't tell us you should go to a counselor or
the police.”
    I started crying, of
course, me who usually never cries