Title of Story

“I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this.”

The fourteen-year-old pressed her iPhone closer to her ear as her best friend, Marcus, said something about how she, though she had just moved two months ago, didn’t have to end their friendship.

“I thought we were going to college together, and getting married, and raising children.”

“I don’t know, Marc. I made new friends at my school, and there’s this really cute guy. He’s really funny, and good at soccer. We’re captains of the soccer team. I may have moved homes, but that doesn’t mean I necessarily moved away from you—entirely. I mean, we’ll still see each other at the store, or one day at the movies. I mean…”

“Did you even want to be friends at all?”

“Don’t give me that, Marc. You know—and have known—since kindergarten whether we’ve been able to keep our relationship. And we have. Ever since I moved, you’ve been asking. I know I have been a little chip-on-the-shoulder about it all, but I don’t mind moving. Today’s Saturday—no more hockey—”

“Hockey is my thing. Your thing is gardening—”

“Yeah, and I don’t want to fall to my knees, letting them get dirty in the soil amongst the weeds and roses anymore. I’m always practicing for soccer—”

A bang at the door.

“Mom, is everything okay?”

Her mother was crossing the kitchen over to the sink with a lot of dirt on her hands. “Yes, honey. Everything’s fine. I’m just helping your father get this wormy mud off out of the place we’re going to build a new doghouse for Achilles.” As she pushed the faucet up with a wrist, she looked over. “How’s Marc? Everything’s going okay?”

But the teen’s eyes were spilling over with tears as the mother gasped, shut off the faucet and grabbed her daughter in a muddy hug. “Oh, honey.” She let go and guided her over to the table, where the mother washed her hands and then provided two glasses of water. The daughter took one, and, sipping it, looked at her parent.

“I understand it’s hard moving, honey—”

“It’s not moving. It’s not the new school. It’s not even the new neighborhood. It’s…” She inhaled. “We’ve been different since we were toddlers, and we’ve made so many memories. Now I feel I don’t even know him anymore. Like I’ve just met him at my new school. I just…” She brushed a hair from her face and sniffed, wiping her nose. Her mother went to retrieve something from outside, which was barking, and as soon as the door closed, it bounded up to her.

“Hey, Achilles!”

Licks all around, and then the firm voice of the mother telling him to lie down. Suddenly, the mother spazzed about his dirty paws. She retrieved a mop and rags and water from the tap. A bucket was filled. “Help me clean this up, would you?”

“Okay.”

Fifty minutes later, while Achilles, who was now licking his clean paws, the two women and a man sat at the table. “I just feel I need to move on. I want to. But our friendship is holding us back.”

“Have you told him that?” Her mother asked.

“He guilt-trips me.”

“I was always ready to go out and garden. Sometimes I would join everyone, but, lately, I’ve lost interest in Marcus’ desire to go on Facebook every night. I’ve been texting Alaina, Riley and Poppy about our upcoming soccer tournament. I’m not on Facebook anymore. I’m just a soccer-playing high schooler. Soon, I’m off to college, and then what? Maybe I’ll get married. I don’t know.”

Her mother put a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to smile about the awesome things in her life. “Maybe Marcus just wants to make some more memories before you go off and make a whole set of new friends.”

The teen discussed some activities she thought she might like. While her mother made dinner, the teen went upstairs. “Come on, Achilles!” Achilles’ whine was a little hard to hear, reminding her of Marcus’ pleas for her to get on Facebook right after she moved.

The Golden Retriever bounded upstairs, tail wagging furiously as they went inside her room. The teen grabbed her computer. “Guess I’ll have to tell him on Facebook.”

Typing out that she was going to her soccer tournament with her new friends Riley, Alaina and Poppy immediately after Marcus asked whether they could go out for ice cream one last time, the teen said that she lived forty minutes—

“Dinner, Alexis.”

She exited, Achilles at her heel. He beat her to the floor, she eating her spinach salad and garlic bread in silence. Then she said, “Mom, can Alaina, Poppy and Riley come over this Friday? We could have a sleepover and then we can all go to the tournament in Florida, which is basically two minutes away. I thought it’d be easier since, you know, the tournament is just the next day. Besides, we’re staying in a hotel overnight, so it’s a double sleepover!”

Her mother shrugged as she turned back to the TV, her husband swinging an arm around her. “Sure—if they’re fine with it. The parents, I mean.”

That night, in Alexis’ room, with a snoring Achilles curled up on Alexis’ bed, the four girls—Poppy, Alexis, Riley and Alaina—munched on Brownies the teen’s mother made for her daughter’s new friends while High School Musical played on the teen’s laptop on her desk behind them.

“So.” The teen gathered everyone into a circle, their sleeping bags all lined up so as to imitate the rays of a sun. “My old best friend—”

“Old?” Riley and Alaina spoke in unison. They looked at each other. “Isn’t he or she still your best friend?”

The teen shrugged a shoulder, giving a limp smile. “I can’t really talk to him without him begging us to be friends again. I mean, we’re different—he’s into Hockey, and I loved gardening—but I’ve always talked my way through the roses and weeding and magnolias. I just don’t want to continue a relationship—”

“Why?”

The teen looked at Alaina in the face, like they were going to suddenly lunge at each other over who ate the most brownies and who should’ve reserved some for the other two. But the teen just blinked. “I got upset, but…we’ve been friends for a long time. Since we were three. But once I didn’t really like gardening anymore, I’ve always wanted to go out and play sports. He played hockey, but I couldn’t stand the stands. I wanted to get out there, move the stupid ball around, something to get my legs going. I was always—”

“How about a dancer?” Riley slyly advised.

“Or a cook.” When all the girls looked at Alaina, she blushed and said, “In a heavy competition—because they all have to go at, like, mock speed, and it’s crazy!”

The teen nodded at that suggestion, but she said, “Hockey’s been him since he could walk, he said. Like two years before I met him. I thought of ice-skating, but…” To prevent any tears, the teen blinked hard. Alaina put a hand on her knee, but the teen jerked away.

“I know. I’m a whiny person. I’m boring.”

“Hey, every sleepover I’ve been to, the mother’s handed us red plastic cups, told us to watch some cheesy soap opera and then tell us light’s out at, like, seven thirty.”

The teen tried not to hide herself, but the fact that Riley mentioned seven thirty almost tore the teen’s heart out. She turned slightly towards High School Musical, and Riley asked her whether she wanted to watch it. “Hey!” She exclaimed. “I thought we could get some popcorn! How about it, Alaina? Poppy?”

The teen forced herself back into reality. “Sorry—just had a moment.”

“Where’s Poppy?”

“She’s been so quiet. I haven’t heard a peep out of her since we got here.”

“I haven’t heard a peep out of her even before she got here!” retorted Riley. “And she arrived with us, remember?”

The teen stood still. “Guys, I think we’re in for a midnight chase through the neighborhood.”

“But—but we have that tournament tomorrow. We can’t miss it. It’s…” But Alaina’s shoulders were turned firmly but gently by Riley’s hands, which squeezed them and said, looking right into Alaina’s trembling face that everything will be okay.

She snapped out a pad and notepaper. “Well, if we think a little bit, we’ll be able to solve this case.” As soon as her pen began scribbling some notes as to whether Poppy had been downstairs with the teen’s parents, the bedroom started shaking. Roots as thick as carrots at their very beginning began to wind around a speechlessly terrified Riley and a pale-faced Alaina who looked like she was going to faint. The teen let the roots take place—literally—as they were all swept away by them, some tree hungry for some high schoolers.

“Achilles!” The teen screamed for her dog, but he was fast asleep, somehow too oblivious to notice her as she was being dragged to—

“Hey!”

The three girls swung around.

“Marcus?”

A white-faced boy with blackish-grey eyes and normal skin skulked out from the trees. It was midnight, crows landing on the trees’ evil-looking branches. A wolf appeared, followed by another wolf, and, soon, some more wolves emerged. The boy laughed. “No, no, this is no Twilight.” He sounded genuine, but the teen and her new friends stayed rooted to the spot. They had to—the tree wouldn’t unwind.

“Please—if you’re Marcus, I’m sorry our friendship—”

“Marcus? Who’s that?”

“My old best friend. We laughed and played and spent endless hours together mocking terribly-made movies until two months ago, when I moved here. We’re all freshmen in high school. Please—I don’t know why we’re here.”

“I didn’t take you.”

“Who did?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why? Why can’t we know?”

Riley turned to the boy, narrowed her dark blue eyes at him and crossed her arms. “Where are we? We have important matters to get to. What are you doing, invading our life?”

The boy sighed. “Well, I was lonely, so I thought we’d go hunting. I have a pack of wolves here, if you want to use them to track down the scent of the deer.” He swept a hand to them. The teen tried not to be all emotional at seeing a beautiful creature—like Achilles, her dog. Like with Marcus, she was reminded. She didn’t need to even see a wolf to know her dog was left behind, somewhere in dream world. He’d wake up and cry for her.

“We don’t want to hunt. We’re here for some stupid reason. Besides, where’s Poppy? Our other friend. She—”

The boy pointed to one of the wolves. Riley slowly slid her still narrowed eyes over at a majestically white one. Then she widened them. “You mean, she shapeshifts?”

“Yeah.”

Riley started to panic, when it was Alaina who tried calming her down. “What—how in the world? She never told us? We always got together at lunch, discussing awesome soccer moves while she sat there, munching on her sandwich and eating her cookies and then cleaning up. She’d make some comments about her ice-skating routines, but then she’d return to a book or something.”

The teen told the boy, “I didn’t know Poppy shapeshifted. Could she lead us out of here? Did she bring us here?”

“No, not directly—”

“Did she bring us here or not?” Thundered Riley, glowering at the boy.

“Uh—y-yeah—yeah!”

The girls were untangled by the tree roots. Watching the boy who looked familiarly like Marcus, she walked over to Poppy, who picked up a paw and sniffed the air. The teen put her hand over her head and grabbed her scruff. “Get us out of here, Poppy.”

She didn’t answer.

“Poppy!”

The teen released her. “Let’s go. I let go. Now, we need to go. I know you’re not a soccer player, but I want you to get us out of here.”

“I want to invite you into my world.”

“What world?” Then the teen didn’t care about her sudden nastiness. “Yeah—it’s great. But—”

“You’ve always been at the top, the co-captain with Riley. Alaina’s there, too, but she’s the goalie. Every school I’ve been in, I’ve felt I couldn’t contribute because I was the only ice-skater.” She morphed back into a young woman, glaring at the teen with frosty white eyes. Tips of white were in her pin-straight brown hair. “I never participated—”

“Poppy, you’re a great skater, but I’m sure you’ll be a great defense or offense.”

“Boring.”

“Come on, Pop! You—”

She morphed into a wolf. “Don’t ever call me ‘Pop’ to my face again, wierdo!” Then she burst away, howling to the other wolves. They disappeared into the woods, Poppy their leader. The teen shook her head, returning to Riley and Alaina. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare—and be star-gazing with these girls outside of the hotel Saturday night instead of here in this dumb fantasy world in which Poppy would never free them. 

“Girls, I think we’re stuck. We need Poppy to understand something.”

“But she won’t!” Riley pointed in the direction from which the teen just came. “I heard you. Poppy will never be anything but—”

“Shhhh!” Alaina rushed over, grabbing Riley’s arm. “What are you doing?” She hissed. “You’re messing the whole thing up. She’ll never free us now.”

The teen stood there, her eyes downcast. The girls looked at her. “What’s up?” Riley spoke, yanking away from Alaina, the teen saw for a second. “Come on! What’s going on?”

The teen asked Riley for her notepad paper. “Uh…” She searched her back pocket. “Nope. Sorry!”

The teen looked over at the boy. He was still here. Couldn’t he go hunting or chase after his pack? They already left.

“I was made to stay here. This place won’t let you leave. It needs a population to run it. If you try, you’ll only have to try again. Until you give up. And you will.” The boy launched into his little backstory of how he got here. His arms had tree branch dirt on them, and his face was pale—probably from fear of staying here forever.

The teen forced herself to say, “Maybe if we tell Poppy—no. Riley, convince Poppy we need to get out of here. If she’s lonely, we’ll include her. She doesn’t need to be this way.” The girls chased after Poppy and her wolf pack until they ran out of energy. Exhausted, they sat next to them, but the teen didn’t even touch the wolves. Flashes of Achilles, his tongue lagging out of his mouth, his brown eyes sparkling with excitement whenever the teen pounded down the stairs to take him for a walk, and his tail whipping back and forth whenever the teen invited him into her room, flooded her mind.

She started to bawl. Wet, thick tears cascaded down her cheeks.

“Man, what’s wrong?” Riley asked softly, keeping a wary eye on Alaina as the roaring campfire crackled in front of them.

“I…I don’t know how to let go of Marcus, or Achilles. Or anyone. I try, but…I made up my mind.” She swatted her face, killing the tears. “Soccer’s…” She got up. “We need to make it to the tournament. We have to get out of here.”

Riley jumped up. Her face said it all, and the teen looked at Alaina. She blinked nervously, but nodded brusquely. As they headed out, the boy warned them they’d be here forever.

“Riley’s going to be a great detective!”

A punch to Alaina’s arm, and the two girls ran off together, and then waited for the teen to catch up. Something told her to run with them, and she did, not looking back. Tears threatened to emerge at the mention of Achilles, but when Riley slammed her mouth shut, the teen nodded that it was okay, and while Alaina scolded her, the teen described Poppy’s distinct wolf tracks.

Riley started to track them down, and found some that were different than the others. “Yes! She went…” They all followed. “They were headed this way, and then, by the branch that had snapped in two, and her paw tracks diverting away, she’s…

“There!”

Riley signaled for the teen and Alaina to be on their tiptoes, too, and the two girls imitated her. When she swiped a finger to let them through, the teen whispered that Riley was a brilliant young woman. Alaina looked like she wanted to hug Riley.

“Poppy, can you let us out of here?”

“I don’t have that power.”

“Who does?”

“Only you do.”

Everyone looked back at the teen.

“Me?”

“Think about it.” Riley advised. “You’re always upset, like you’re upset…”

“About Marcus’ and my relationship.”

“And Achilles.”

The teen didn’t cry. She didn’t heave a sigh. All she did was say to herself she’d talk to Marcus.

“Hey.”

She swung around. “Marcus,” the teen said triumphantly, “we’re not friends anymore. Drop it. I’m not your friend anymore. We can still see each other, but if we don’t, move on.”

“Why’d you just ditch me…? You know what, bye.”

He disappeared, and he wasn’t in the forest anymore.

The teen felt the trees’ roots had come off her. “Let’s go. He did, too.”

The teen hurled herself onto Achilles, who was still sleeping. But Riley and Alaina mentioned Poppy.

“She’ll have to think over whether she wants to join us.”

The teen said that they’d better get some sleep before the tournament tomorrow, and, as all three got into their sleeping bags, the teen couldn’t help but worry for Poppy. Or what she’d say when maybe they’d find themselves in the forest again.

Trying to get away.

Why was Poppy so difficult to deal with?