Midnight Adventure - February 10, 2011

Chapter 1:
"Tomorrow at midnight." I confirmed.
"Do you really think this is a good idea, Chloe?" Aaron asked with a shaky voice.
"Yes." I said firmly, and whirled around, running to my house before he could back out.

I looked at the clock for the millionth time. 11:00. 
"I'm going to bed." I announced, hopping off the couch and running to my room, not worrying about a reply or a 'goodnight'. I opened my bedroom door and rammed my foot right into the table-leg. I swore in the darkness, and retreated into the back of my room to switch on the light. The room flooded with light and I rushed over to my closet and pulled on a black sweater and black jogging pants. Afterwards, I practically flew over to my bathroom and looked in the mirror. Looking back at me was a 12-year-old girl with jet-black hair and bright blue eyes. I turned the light off in the bathroom just for fun, and with the new disguise, all that was visible was my eyes.
"Perfect. I'm a regular ninja." I said proudly, and scurried back into my room, locking the door behind me. After grabbing the black bag set by the door, I shuffled to the window and tore it open. I was resisting the urge to squeal in excitement as I threw one leg over the windowsill. The sill was cold on my leg, despite the nice spring breeze coming from outside. I ignored it and thrust my other leg over, landing me on the slightly slanted roof. The roof-tiles groaned in protest from the added weight of my presence. Hoping they would listen, I shushed them, and crept along the roof until I reached the edge of it. It's a low roof, so I just jumped off it, and landed lightly in the grass. I stood up straight and waited until my eyes adjusted to the darkness before I started walking down my street, to where Aaron promised he would meet me. I saw his silhouette and heard him shuffling his feet nervously. I moved over to him stealthily and whispered in his ear, 
"Boo." He jumped a little and whirled around to face me.
"God!" He shouted from surprise.
"Nope, just me." I replied, and flashed him a smile before waltzing past him. After a bit of hesitation, Aaron followed close behind.
"So are you gonna hint me in on where we're going?" He asked out of curiosity.
"Nope." He sighed, but kept following. I stopped in front of an abandoned house and shrugged off my backpack. I opened it up and pulled out two flashlights, handing one to Aaron.
"Here?" He asked, clearly confused with a hint of fear in his voice.
"You'll see." I said, loving the fact that I was confusing him. I walked forward and headed to the back yard.
"You know, this is reminding me a lot of your scary movies. Except the people always end up running away, screaming and crying. Then they get murdered by some axe-ghost." 
Let me explain. I LOVE scary movies, in fact, I would call it an obsession. With Aaron being my best friend, I force him to watch them with me. Except he doesn't like scary movies. He says he doesn't like them because they are unrealistic, but I know it's just because they scare the bejeezus out of him. With his ego however, he would never admit it. 
"Well, trust me. If an axe-ghost comes, I'll let him put you out of your misery, giving me enough time to escape and tell the tragic story of your death."
"Great. Thanks. The perfect story to tell me in the middle of the night, in a place like this." He said sarcastically. 
“Aaron Shaw, are you actually admitting that you’re afraid?” I said in a lighthearted tone.
“Haha, very funny.” He replied. I ignored him and moved to the creaky, back porch of the house. I found the ladder I was looking for and leaned it against the side of the house. 
"Steady this for me will you?" I asked Aaron without looking at him. He moved over to it and grabbed the base of it steadily. I started to climb up and reached the top in no time. I stood up and looked around the rooftop. It was flat and had threateningly deep cracks in it. With every step I took, a whirlwind of dust was sent up. I turned back around and looked down at Aaron.
"Come on." I called, motioning for him to come up.
"You're crazy." He called back, but he did as he was told, all the time whispering to himself, "My best friend is insane." Once he made it up and straightened into a standing position, his mouth fell open from the sight. From the rooftop we could see the luscious green forest and the ice-topped mountains in the distance. I walked to the edge of the roof and sat down to watch the scene in jaw-dropping awe. Aaron came to sit beside me and he was so busy staring at the mountains that he didn't notice what I was staring at. I waited impatiently for him to notice until I couldn’t wait anymore and hit him lightly on the shoulder.
"Uh?" Was all he could manage to mumble out, still staring at the mountains and the sky. I sighed dramatically and told him,
"Look." I pointed down, by the forest. There, at the edge of the forest, was a beautiful gray wolf, staring at her two pups. Under the moonlight she looked almost silver, and you could see that the expression in her face was caring. Her two young pups, one silver like its mom, and the other mud-brown, were wrestling in the grass. They separated and instead, turned their attention to a nearby moth. The brown one crouched down, waggled its behind, and then thrashed out at the moth with all its strength. It missed and went down in a tumbling heap next to its mother. He looked up at her with a goofy grin, then went back to play with his brother. I studied the wolves with curiosity and admired them with jealousy. Wolves are my favorite animals because they always seem so powerful and intelligent, almost majestic. Aaron was watching the wolves curiously too, but he has a short attention span, and he was soon fidgeting. After a little while I started to take in my surroundings, and noticed that a sea of fireflies surrounded us. I waved at them playfully, and the movement caused a ripple in their formation. They seemed to dance through the air, making the night sky an even more beautiful place. I'm the night owl while Aaron is the morning bird. Which is obvious by the amount of times he has yawned by now. After a while, it started getting lighter and then there was a sunset in front of us. There was a wide range of colors as it turned from night to day. At first, it was a mixture of dark purples and blues, then changing into lighter versions of them, then going into the deep reds and oranges, until it was fully bright and the change was complete. We admired it for a while, sometimes turning our attention back to the still wrestling pups. The silver wolf eventually moved into the forest, out of our view, with the pups trailing close behind her. After a while, Aaron and I got up and started walking home.
"Definitely worth it right?" I said, finally breaking the silence.
"Definitely." He confirmed.

-Vera Willemsen