Chapter 2

He was standing by an old blue chevy malibu just looking right at me. It was as if he were looking through me.  I'm guessing that he probably heard me jogging out of the woods. It seemed to me as if the crunching sound from the gravel under my boots was echoing, maybe I was right? My first glace at him caught me off guard, he was as still as a statue, just looking right into my eyes.

His eyes were a deep intoxicating green. He had to be my age but I had never seen him around. He didn't attend my high school, There were only about 300 kids in the whole school, I would have remembered this boy. He was about six feet tall and slender. His skin had a dark complexion as if he spent his afternoons out in the sun. Maybe he was a new kid. With school starting up in a few weeks; I figured his family probably just moved to town.

I walked up to him and we never took our eyes off of each other.
"Hi, I'm Shelby"
Nothing.
The silence seemed to go on forever.
Finally, he took a deep breath and introduced himself, "Cole"
"Ok Cole, do you always stand around staring into the woods?"
"Sometimes. Do you always fall alseep at the beach and become victim to aweful sun burns and bug bites?"
"Sometimes."
"What were you doing hiking by yourself? Don't you know there can be creeps in the woods?"
"I've lived here my whole life and have never heard of a creep in our woods. "
"Just because you've never heard of them doesn't mean they don't exist"
"Ok, well this was a great conversation but I need to be on my way"
"Bye Shelby"

As I started walking away from Cole I couldn't help but look back over my shoulder at him. He was still staring at me. What is with this guy?

I got out of the parking lot from the woods and started down the street. Cole drove by in his Malibu and obnoxiously honked as he sped past me. In less t hen 5 minutes I was home. My parents lectured me about falling asleep at the lake (again).

"Shelby, it's one thing if you are there with your friends but you were there alone this time!"

"I know mom, I'm sorry, I was planning on just getting a tan and then before I knew it my phone was ringing and it was 6:00pm already"

"Listen, we know that this is a safe town, but sometimes things happen here too and you need to grow up a bit and start thinking about your safety"

"Seriously mom? What are you talking about?"

"Well, you never know, what if you decide to go away to college and end up in New York or LA? You can't just be so unaware of your surroundings and assume that everyone is out to do only good."

"Ok mom, I get it."

"Do you?"

"Listen, I want to upload my pictures that I took today in the woods, is this conversation over?"

"Almost. I needed to talk to you about Mike and Becka too."

"I thought you said they were ok? That it was a minor rear ending?"

"Yes, they are ok and it was a minor rear ending but I over heard some things at the hospital today. I heard them talking to their parents in the E.R waiting room and apparently they saw something in the woods that freaked them out and whatever it was ran across the street in front of them.  They slammed on their brakes and the car behind them had also seen this strange animal. Since the driver behind them wasn't paying attention to the road they ended up rear ending Becka's car"

"What was it? We don't have a lot of strange animals here"

"That's just it...they don't know. They said it just looked like a blur. That whatever it was ran so fast they couldn't make out what it was."

"Wow, that's crazy. I'm gonna have to give them both a call tonight"

"Shelby, that's why I want you to be careful in the woods. It could be some crazy bear or a wolf or who knows what. You just fell asleep and some dangerous animal could have come across you."

"Ok mom. I promise I'll be more careful now. I'm gonna go call my friends and upload my pics now."