cha-tah-hoo- W H A T?, OPEN

[Bradley Sullivan]

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012


Bradley loved the river. It was a nice, mostly quiet place. Great for just relaxing and sitting down and trying not to think about too many things. Not to mention he found its name absolutely fantastic. Even after nearly two years of living in Riverwood, he still wasn't quite sure how it was pronounced. Cha-tah-hoo-key? Ca-tah-hoo-chee? A combination of both? Sitting on a rock, he played with the different ways the river's name could be pronounced. He knew that the answer could be easily found via the internet, but what was the fun in that? He just hoped he wasn't insulting the people who named the river. That would have been horrible and mean and he definitely didn't want to offend some old soul.

After a while, though, he found a rock that seemed perfect for skipping. Picking it up and turning it over in his hand, he found that it was indeed perfect. With a wide smile, he palmed the rock before throwing it into the water, his wrist flicking perfectly. He watched as it skipped once, twice, three times, four times over. "YES!!" he cheered loudly in excitement, rustling up some birds from the trees surrounding the river. An apologetic look on his face, he quietly said sorry to the birds as they all flew away. With a sigh, he sat back down and looked about him. It was empty today. No one swimming in the water, no one going for hikes or walks. It was sort of odd, he thought. The day was warm enough for such activities and yet no one was around. Odd, he thought.

Usually, there were at least a few people about the river. Those who wanted to be in the water but didn't want to be around the crowd that surrounded the lake. That was why Bradley went to the River today, to enjoy the day without such a huge crowd. He hadn't expected it to be so empty, though. He had spent the past hour waiting for another soul to appear but none had yet to make an entrance. Laying down on the towel he had brought with him, Bradley closed his eyes. If no one was around, might as well take a nice and quiet nap, he thought. At least that way, no one would disturb his rest; at least, that was the theory.

[Rowan Carmichael]

September 16th, 2012

She needed to get out. Needed to escape. She couldn’t stand being in that house any longer, not just her mother and herself. It was like her mother’s sickness was seeping through the walls, reaching out to choke her. The apathy was strangling, consuming. It was too much. As much as Roe hated to admit it, she couldn’t take it. Not today, not when her father wasn’t around to try and coax her mother into eating, and all the burdens of it fell to her. She wasn’t strong enough, not for this. No one could be strong enough for this.

Her hands shook as she opened the door to her car, throwing a rucksack of her things onto the floor by passenger seat. Her car had become her haven of late, and it showed. Her guitar case was in the backseat, a battered book of poetry lying open and marked on the passenger seat, her various mixed tapes scattered around the seats and dash board. It felt more like home than the house the Carmichaels had bought, and probably would for the rest of her life. The house was full of ghosts – her sister’s, her mother. The silence in the house, the deadness of it – it felt like the morgue, like the cemetery. It felt dead. How was she meant to stay in it? She felt like she was intruding into it, someone living obviously out of place in something so dead. She didn’t belong there, in fact, no one did. Nothing belonged. This wasn’t how the world was supposed to be. The world was supposed to have Amity.

The rock music pounded away inside of her car, beating against the worry and fear that nibbled at the edges of Roe’s mind. What if her mother never recovered, just stayed bedridden for the rest of her life? What if this was what the rest of her life was going to be, dressing up to be someone she wasn’t just so she could see a spark of life within her mother’s eyes? Wasn’t the mother meant to soothe the child, rather than the other way around? She slammed a hand into the steering wheel, letting out a string of muttered expletives as she continued to aimlessly drive around the town. This couldn’t be all that was left for her – she couldn’t stand it if it was. Part of her wanted to run away from all of this, from her family, from her dead sister, but she couldn’t. This was blood, family – people didn’t run away from that when they needed them. What kind of daughter would she be if she was? The music continued to blare inside the car, beat pulsing through the floor, the rage of it a comforting change from the lethargy that surrounded her when she went home. She was glad that she’d pulled the top up on her car a few days before so that she didn’t need to see the confusing glances people would send her way – the peppy cheerleader at school shouldn’t listen to rock and metal that swore and contained angry riffs and vicious drum beats. It wouldn’t make sense, but they knew nothing. And that was how it had to stay. Grief was private, not something to be ogled at.

She didn’t know exactly how she ended up by the river, having taken the roads more on instinct than any plan. But somehow she was there, parking her car by the banks and killing the engine, the music dying down, leaving her in silence. Energy made her restless, muscles itching to be in motion as she opened the car door. She wasn’t used to having so much time on her hands. Her life has used to be gymnastics, then school, trying to keep up or stay ahead, and then trying to relax, before starting the cycle before. But now she had just had cheerleading and school, and all this time to dwell in a house that she’d rather never see again. Roe sighed, kicking at the dirt with a sneaker clad foot. She didn’t like it, being so unoccupied. She felt like she ought to have a million things to do, but instead, she had none. What normal teenager complained about that? Out of sheer will to do something, she leaned forward and into a handstand, legs vertical into the air as the world turned upside down. Dirt and small stones pressed into her palms as her weight rested on her hands, the strain of it in her arms welcome. This was what she knew – the pain and the ache. It was familiar as anything else. Letting her legs fall back down to the ground, Roe rose, world righting itself as she pretended to present herself to the judges. “Thank you, thank you,” she muttered sarcastically, wondering if she’d ever have a chance to do this in a competition again, as she turned ninety degrees to present herself, and catching sight of another figure. “Oh, I didn’t see you. Sorry.”

Hope you don’t mind me throwing Roe in!

[Bradley Sullivan]

The quiet of the River was quite calming but sleep was refusing to come to him fast enough. Brad smirked at the thought, knowing his best mate Owen would have found and construed it into something dirty. Owen always did that and, sadly, some of it had rubbed off on Brad. But Owen was nowhere around and Brad knew he was going to forget about it until some random time in the future so, for now, he tried to focus on sleep. With Owen at his house and his sister constantly as energetic as Brad himself, he had to admit he was tired and lacking in sleep and all he wanted wast a bit of it, away from Owen and yes, even away from Evey. But only for a little bit.

Brad had heard the crunch of the tires as soon as it came within hearing distance, though he ignored it at first, thinking it to be the start of a dream as he fell asleep. But as the car door slammed, he opened one eye to see a girl get out. He recognized her as someone from school, but he wasn't sure what her name was. She was new, he knew that much. Everything else about her was a mystery, including even her name. He watched as she sprang forward, going into upside-down mode, as his little sister Evey called it. An eyebrow raised at the strength of her arms, keeping her well and up for quite a bit. When she finally let herself down and bowed, Brad quietly clapped, hoping not to startle her. When she looked up at him, though, he smiled.

"Hello, there," he said with a wide grin. "It's ok. Sorry I didn't make myself known." He stood up, clapping the dirt and small rocks in his hands on his shorts and ambling towards her. When he reached her, another sweet smile was plastered on his face as he reached a hand forward. "I'm Brad! You're new, right? I've seen you about school," he added quickly, not wanting to seem like such a creep on their first meeting. That was Owen's job, not his. Looking about a tad awkwardly, he bit his lip before continuing. "Erm... Did you want me to leave so you can practice... Being upside down?" he asked. Even though he wanted to take his nap in the peace and quiet, he was willing to move his arse so she could have privacy, if she wanted it. Though, truth be told, he was intrigued and would have liked to stay and see what else she could do. His sister was interested in everything, being six year olds, and gymnastics and ballerinas were part of that. He would have loved to come home and tell her things about being one and the things they could possibly, maybe, be able to do.


[[That's totally fine! Sorry this took awhile.. And that it's short and crap o.o]]