Time Capsule

"Hurry!" I exclaimed, willing my mom to drive just a little bit faster. She sighs and rolls her eyes, "I still don't get why you guys do this aren't you a little too old?" Ignoring her comment I scan the road, looking for a blue Prius, red truck, silver slug bug or a green bike to my pleasure I see none. My mom pulls up next to the forest telling me when I need to be home, telling me don't do this, don't do that but I tune it out and sling my bag over my shoulder, I wasn't going to be in the lead for long.

"Bye!" I exclaim, jumping out of the car and slamming the door my mom sighs again and drives off, I take a deep breath and sprint forward but out of the corner of my eye I saw a neon yellow sweatshirt flit from my sight. Dang.

"OZIAS!" I scream pumping my arms to gain further momentum as I zigzag around fallen logs sharp branch and thorn bushes desperate for him to make a wrong turn, make a time consuming mistake anything for him to fall behind but we knew this place all to well, in the end it was always about skill, and who could convince their parent to drive the fastest.

"Byeeeeeeee!" I hear someone exclaim and I know instantly that my friend Harper has arrived no one has a voice like Harper. "No! You evil scum!" Harper exclaims and a cackle confirms that Greyson has arrived. The only person who I hadn't heard from was Rahim but he very well could be hiding in the bushes.

I see the neon color again this time not too far ahead of me so I speed up, faster and faster I run ignoring the pain from the thorns or the hot august sun sending sweat down my back. I needed to win.

I see our special spot coming into view and it drives me to run faster, the fire burning in my arms and legs fuels me to run harder I push forward, snap goes branches blow my feet, huff huff goes my ragged breath, And then I  see Ozias with his neon coat sprinting towards the stump and right on his tail Is Rahim both of them with fire in their eyes, but I need to beat them all prove that I am better, and for once I will not settle for second, first place here I come! But sometimes you just have to bend the rules.

"RAHIM, OZIAS WATCH OUT!" I yell. They turn around looking for the danger, but there's none. I smirk internally. Their momentary stop has given me just enough time to sprint ahead of them both and jump onto the stump and pump my fists. I sit down breathing hard, and wipe beads of sweat off my forehead.

"Good job Abri!" Rahim exclaims, giving me a high five. His eyes sparkle like a bowl of onyx's basking in the sunlight and he wipes sweat off his dark forehead.

Ozias rolls his eyes, "That wasn't a deserved win! she cheated!"

"Who cheated?" Harper asks, striding into the clearing, Harper looks as glamorous as normal, her long blonde hair covering one of her bright blue eyes, her pink heart shaped lips light up with a smile as she sees me triumphantly standing on the stump. "You go girl!" She tells me. And a smile lights up my face, as different as we are, Harper being the glamorous popular girl and me being the outdoorsy redhead we've always been best friends. "Where's greyson?" Rahim asks. "Are we seriously just going to ignore the fact that Abri cheated?" Ozias asks, pushing his blonde hair out of his eyes.

"There were really never rules in the first place.." Rahim points out and I give Ozias a charming smile at which he sticks his tongue out at me and I inwardly roll my eyes.

"So are we ready?" I ask.

"What about gre-"

"I'm here!" Greyson exclaims, popping out of the trees. His brown hair is wild, his large cheeks are rosy and he overall looks frazzled which is a normal thing about Greyson we've all gotten used to.

"Sorry what were you saying?" He asks

"Oh Greyson." I mumble voicing what my friends were thinking.

"We were just about to  create the time capsule." I told him.

"We were? I didn't know we were doing a time capsule!" Ozias exclaimed.

"Wait, did you bring what I asked you to? Didn't you read the email!?" I asked.

He laughed and my eyes narrowed. "Of course I did, you've been talking about it for like the last month!"

"I wasn-"

"I just liked seeing the look on your face" he smirked and I tried to swat at him but he moved out of the way.

"So back to what we were talking about before I was interrupted.." I glare at Ozias.

"We are burying a time capsule!" I exclaim and they dont look as excited as I wanted them to look.

I took out a large glass jar the length of my forearm and unscrewed the lid. “I'll go first.” I suggested. I pulled out the picture of all of us at the same spot were at now. Harper stood on the stump the pale blue lake sparkled behind her, back then her blonde hair was shorter resting lightly on her shoulder, Harper and I wore matching blue jumpers that day, standing on Harpers left side was me, my wavy red hair was put back in a messy bun, and besides me was Ozias, his blonde hair and blue eyes sparkled in the sun and on Harpers other side was Greyson he was a bit larger back then but has been relentlessly trying to lose weight and at the far edge was Rahmid smiling brightly. Around us were thick trees with bright green leaves and lots of flowers and on the back of the photograph were all of our signatures from that day. Just looking at the photo brought back great memories and therefore was one of my most prized items. I put it in the large jar and then took out a note from my pocket which had all the things I like at the moment things about me and then I put it in a red envelope with my name on it and put that in the time capsule.

Harper pushed her way to the front and went next, pulling out her letter. I tried not to take a little peek as I put it in a light blue envelope with her name on it. Then she took out a bracelet and put it in the time capsule and my face heated up and I wrapped her in a hug, It was thee necklace I had given her when her parents divorced my sign of showing her it would be all right and she had worn it every day, I was so honored that she chose that as her most precious item.

I dropped the yellow letter with Ozias’s name on it into the time capsule and he dropped in a signed baseball card he loved. Then Greyson went in, went to the green envelope and then he pulled out something that made us all laugh. He dropped in a snickers bar and a 20 dollar bill.

“What?” He asked. And we all shook our heads. Then Finally Rahmid went, and in went a multicolor pen. A pen that cost so much but Rahmid wanted so much that we all chipped in for so he could have it. “Are you sure?” I asked. He nodded solemnly and I screwed the lid to the time capsule closed and stuck on a sticker that said “Do not open until 2026” the time of our high school graduation when we would all come back and dig it up. Rahmid dug the hole and I put the jar of things that would probably be meaningless to anyone else in the world in the hole and covered it with dirt. And there it would sit for years to come.