New Kid Chap 6

Axel looked at the cars parked in the driveway and groaned. He didn't want to have to deal with those bastards today. He turned to the side of the house and started to expertly climb up the side of the house to his bedroom window that hung above. He used to do this all the time when he was a kid. When he would sneak back in after staying out late, going on late night rides through the forest that was half a mile from the stables, he had stopped taking part of those when the incident happened.

His fingers gripped onto the lip of his windowsill and he moved to a better position before opening the glass and quietly jumping into his room and closing his unusual entry with a soft thud. Wincing slightly at the noise he quickly turned to his door expecting for at any second to fling open with an angry Reno at the frame. But nothing. He sighed in relief and walked to the closet opening it with care as not to raise alert from downstairs where he could hear his brother talking about the money agreement being set up. Axel glared down at the wooden door as though it where his brother. "Bastard," he hissed venomously.

Turning back to the closet he pulled out a small metal box with etchings of flames on the side, and walked to his bed gingerly placing the small box on top of his sheets before lying down on his stomach looking at it, like a young boy looking with interest at an ant hill. He ran his long fingers across the lines that decorated the smooth and cool black metal. With a long sigh he opened it up for the first time since getting it. His green eyes were met with pictures and random objects that for anyone else would mean nothing, but for him meant more than words could ever describe.

He pulled out one of the pictures and smiled sadly at it. A smiling blonde boy was raising his hand to try and block the camera to avoid the embarrassing picture of him getting ready in the bathroom for a competition. He placed the photo down on the bed and picked up a small monopoly car.

"You said you wanted a car right?"
"Yeah but I thought it was obvious that I wanted a real one, you know one that I can actually drive around."
"Be more clear next time."

Axel's ears rang with the laughter that had followed from the young man after that. He placed the board game piece down beside the picture and pulled out a clipping from a newspaper titled, Teen Dead Due to Riding Accident.

Tears burned his eyes but he didn't move to remove them. He just lay there reading the title over and over and forcing himself not to look at the picture that was neatly set off to the right side of the article next to the story that they had uncovered about his friend.

He relieved that night, remembering what had happened…all that time ago.





Axel stood by the stall door to his friend's horse's stall. "Come on it'll be fun. You haven't gone on one yet this fall and soon it'll too cold to go on a ride.

"I told you Ax, I'm busy tonight. Unlike some people I care what my grades are."

"I care as well."

Clear blue eyes swiveled to look at him. "Is that so? Tell me then, how is your paper coming along," he waited for a response but Axel simply turned his gaze away from him with embarrassment. "Yeah," he said turning back to his work of tying the hay onto the wall, "that's what I thought."

"You're almost done with the paper, why don't we just go once you finished."

The boy bit his bottom lip, "I dunno, it'll be pretty late. I'm not sure about this."

"Trust me, it'll be great! A night that we'll never forget."

Hooves crunched the loose gravel as the friends turned from the road and into the forest preserve. "So who do you think is faster, Kix or Oblivion?" Axel smirked looking over at the blonde beside him on a light chestnut with long white stockings and a thick white blaze down the face.

"Definitely Oblivion," he said knowingly taking Axel's bait.

"Well let's see shall we?"


Things were a blur after that for Axel; he remembered the two of them racing through the small deer track. The horses' hooves thundering as they galloped at great speeds, and the whoops and shouts of excitement they made, they were having the time of their life. Cold air whipped their face, the smell of forest filled their nostrils, and adrenaline pumping through their veins. Then everything went terribly wrong.

The leaves were wet from a rainstorm that had happened two nights ago. Normally the moisture would have been gone long before now but with it being late fall and all the leaves being on the ground the moisture was held in the ground.

The blonde saw an opening to get the lead and took it eagerly kicking Oblivion to run faster. The chestnut did, but with the sudden change in speed his hooves slipped out from under his body and fell to his side. Rolling widely to get up he moved out of the way as Kix came hurtling toward the tangled mass. Axel tried to pull the reins, but they were moving too stop, thick tress pressed against them at both sides giving him no room to maneuver the horse over. The last thing he saw was the look of fear on his friends face, recognizing death was on its way and being unable to do anything about it.



Tears rolled down Axel's eyes as he looked at the bloody picture of his trampled friend, trampled because of Axel. "Ventus," Axel whispered so softly he wasn't sure it was even audible.