Chapter Eleven

The school day came to an end for Alex as it always did; with dozens of students filling the hallways in crowded clusters just as they had been in the morning. Alex walked out of his last class of the day and pulled his cellphone from his pocket as soon as he entered the hall. With school hours over, Alex planned to meet up with his friend Seth in front of the school building, where ordinarily he and Nickole would be picked up by their mother. He flipped open his phone and typed a text message to Seth, “Hey Seth, I’ll meet you out front.”

He made his way quickly to the nearest staircase where he would descend to the lower floor. The doors to the stairwell were being held open by the groups of students all heading down. Alex pushed his way through the hordes and down the stairs. Once at the bottom, he felt his phone vibrate. He opened it up to see a response text from Seth which read, “Alright. Already there.” 

As he finally passed through the front doors of the school, the sunlight was bright and the grounds were once again packed with students boarding school buses. Alex looked around for his friend. What caught his eye was what sat on the side of the road near the end of the school ground; a large, black Ford F-250. He recognized it as the truck belonging to his friend Danny’s brother. Hetrick had been working on it for the past several months, fixing what needed to be repaired and adding a few new features to it. Standing by the truck, Alex saw Seth there talking to Danny. Seth looked out and waved for Alex to come over. He quickly headed over to join them. The low roar of the truck’s engine filled his ears as he approached it.

“Hey, there you are,” Seth called out as Alex walked over to stand beside him. 

Alex looked over at Danny, who was leaning against the passenger side door of the F-250. He was wearing a Mossy Oak camo hat and a black tank top. Perhaps a bit too light for April, but he never cared. In fact, it was the sort of outfit he seemed to wear all year round. 

“Where’ve you been today?” Alex asked Danny.

Danny just rested himself against the truck door casually with his hands hanging in his pockets. There was no way he had been sick earlier. “Oh you know,” he began with a grin. “Couldn’t afford to come to school today.”

Alex just glanced over at Seth, who was not sure what to say. “Couldn’t afford to come to school?” Alex laughed as he repeated his words. “Never heard that one before. What were you doing this time?”

“I had to help Hetrick.” Danny replied. “He had a tow job to take care of out near Wilmington and his friend had to cancel on him. So I went along with him this morning. Had to help my brother so we could make time to take the truck back out on the paths today. That’s important, isn’t it?”

Just then, the driver’s side door opened and Danny’s brother, Hetrick, got out and walked around the front of the truck. He looked like a bigger, older version of Danny. He wore a similar camo hat and a red “America” shirt with the sleeves cut off. He leaned against the hood of the truck and took a can of Copenhagen chewing tobacco from his pocket. He twisted the cap off and placed a pinch of it into his mouth. “What do you kids think?” he said with a deeper voice than his brother’s, gesturing to his F-250. “Got the last of the leaks fixed up this week so we can take her back out right now.”

Seth nodded in approval. “You said you wanted to go out near Roger Brook, right?”

“Yeah. Danny told you, I guess?” Hetrick responded. “I wanna see if I can find where that rocky road goes. The one that we found last year.”

Alex was about to say something, but suddenly another voice spoke up behind him. “Alex, Mom’s waiting for us.” He turned around to see Nickole stop in front of him. He was sort of hoping to slip away without her seeing him.

“Just tell her I’m going over to Danny’s for a while,” he instructed her. “I’ll be back later.”

Nickole just stared back at him with a serious look. “Well that would be fine with her, Alex,” she said back, “but then that means I have to go home with her, and I know where you guys are really planning on going. So do I tell her the truth, or do I tell her your truth?”

Alex raised his eyebrows. Was it him or did Nickole just give him an ultimatum? It was certainly a tactic he had never seen her use before. Regardless, Alex knew what it was she wanted. He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Do you wanna come with, Nickole?” he asked reluctantly.

“I’d love to! Thanks for asking,” she smiled.

Alex ignored her sarcasm. “Just tell Mom-”

“I got it,” Nickole interrupted him. She turned and quickly headed back over to their mother’s car.

He turned toward his friends and shook his head. Danny looked a little confused. “What is it?” he asked curiously. “Your mom doesn’t let you drive around with us?”

“She’s too strict,” Alex answered. “I’d never be able to go out with you guys again if she knew what we do or how far we’ve gone. So you don’t mind if she tags along with us, do you?” he asked, looking at Danny’s brother.

Hetrick shook his head. “Not at all,” he replied. “I don’t recommend it, though. It gets pretty rough out there and I can’t keep my eye on her.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Alex said. “She’ll be fine. I don’t need her telling her mom where we’re going.”

Just then, Nickole came back to Alex’s side. Alex noticed she no longer had her backpack with her. She didn’t say a word, rather she looked eager to leave with them.

Alex waited for her to speak. “Well?” he asked. “What’s the word? What did you tell her?”

“She’s fine with me going with you,” Nickole replied.

“Wait, she’s letting you come mudding with us?” Seth asked, surprised.

“No,” Nickole said back. “I told her you were gonna drop me off at a friend’s house and then you guys were going back to Danny and Hetrick’s place. I also told her you guys would pick me up later and drop Alex and I off at home.”

There was an awkward silence among the small group as they seemed to be impressed with how fluently Nickole lied to her mother, Alex most of all because she was never one to lie about anything. He did not think she had it in her.

Hetrick just shrugged it off. “Ok,” he began, breaking the silence. “Let’s go then, everybody in.” He turned and headed back to the driver’s seat. Danny jumped into the passenger side and the other three all piled into the back row of the truck. Watching out for the dozens of other students crossing the street, Hetrick put the truck in gear and slowly pulled out onto the main road.