Chapter 2: FIRST

May wakes up cold and slightly damp, with light rain sprinkling down from an overcast sky in greys. The grass is tall and thick in pastel purple, even when she stands up she can't see over it. She was lying on some bent pieces crushed under her so she's not too muddy, and she can't have been here too long because the sweater isn't soaked through yet.

Something rustles through the grass just to the left and she tenses.

"Role call," Marcus says from inside the grass a few metres away. "Ian?"

"Here, sweetheart," Ian groans and makes a sound like he's spitting. "Fuck, I ate some dirt."

"Vinny?"

"Leave me alone," Vincenzo complains and rustles around some more near May.

"Kisung?" Marcus calls and waits a moment when there's no reply.

"Kisung!" Vincenzo yells. "You gelatinous fuck, where are you?!"

"Here!" Kisung snaps. "I'm checking my phone, calm down. There's no signal."

"May?"

"Yeah," May says quietly.

Vincenzo shoves through the grass into her patch. "C'mere."

"No," May tries, backing away, but gets grabbed under the arms and hefted up.

She sees a massive ocean of purple grass moving with the light wind. Through the blanket of spitting rain there are vague mountains piercing through the clouds far off in the distance while trees border the grass field on the opposite side, much closer.

She can't see roads or buildings and the trees themselves are oddly like giant mushrooms with bright blue caps flattened out at the top and wide, white bulbous trunks. She also sees the other three on their phones and waves a little until they spot her and start moving over. She gets dropped as they stomp through the grass.

"So?" Vincenzo asks. "Which direction is civilisation?"

"Weird forest that way." May points. "Then mountains that way." May points again. "No civilisation that I could see."

Marcus looks around with consideration, shoving his phone into his pocket. "Vin, let me get on your shoulders."

Vincenzo crouches down and Marcus climbs up the tallest one here, grabbing Vincenzo's head for balance once the other teen straightens up. Marcus looks around for a while, taking things in.

"This might be hell," Marcus concludes. "Which is personally very upsetting for me because that would mean I was wrong about atheism."

"Can't be," Ian dismisses, tapping on his phone in frustration. "If it was hell I wouldn't have all your beautiful faces to look at for the rest of eternity."

"This is definitely hell," Marcus corrects. "Alright, we should head for the forest and climb a weird tree to see further away. Watch out for snakes and aliens making crop circles."

Marcus climbs down from Vincenzo's shoulders and they start forcing their way through the grass. Marcus leads with Vincenzo, Ian, Kisung and May following in a line so they don't need to wrestle as much with the grass.

Marcus gives up after a while and Kisung is pushed to the front so his weight stomps the grass flat. Occasionally Ian will push himself up on someone else to see if they're going the right way and everyone periodically checks their phones to try and call triple zero.

The walk is silent except for some half-hearted bitching that rises up on occasion. They're not close so they don't want to keep a conversation going when there's nothing to talk about.

They've all shared classes before, heard gossip on each other, and have shared friends - but stay pretty separated regardless. Ian plays soccer on the far oval, Kisung sits in the main quad gambling, Marcus is either at robotics club or with his girlfriend and Vincenzo is normally at the basketball court behind the canteen. May just travels in a pack with her nomadic friends.

You are reading story Take This Seriously (QT) at novel35.com

May and Vincenzo went to the same primary while the other three came from different schools, but they've all been together since year seven. Technically, they know far more about each other than they really should, but that doesn't make them friends.

May definitely could have been stuck with worse people though.

Ian once cheated off her geography test in year eight and found her the day after to pass on a Mars bar as thank you. Next term, he got her stolen test answers in advance to properly repay her.

May got sent into the girl's toilets by Mr Dale in year nine to find the culprit who ran inside after setting a bag on fire. Kisung stared with wide eyes, stuffed into a corner, so May lied and said no one was there. Kisung gave her a cute pencil case a week later.

Marcus lives just down the road from May. He doesn't have the best home life so sometimes he comes over to sleep for the night. When May's parents stay at work late Marcus always arrives early to cook dinner for her since she's a disaster in the kitchen.

In year nine she saw Vincenzo stealing from the empty canteen during class time and distracted the lone lunch lady who walked up until he could sneak out. He ended up sharing the nachos with her before they both had to run back to class so no one got suspicious.

Although…perhaps May is the strange one for thinking the boys are nice despite the drugs and damaged property and fighting.

They walk for at least an hour, progressively getting soaked to the bone. May turns her phone off to save the battery and makes a game of stepping in Ian's footprints. No one is going very fast so she's still not tired.

At least it stops raining after a while despite the sky still being filled with dark clouds, except she's already soaked through and shivering slightly from the mild cold. Ian is the only one who escaped that fate thanks to his rain jacket.

"I spy," Kisung begins. "Something beginning with P."

"Penis," Ian states.

"Penis," Vincenzo replies, slightly louder.

"Penis!" Ian shouts.

Vincenzo takes a deep breath. "PENIS!" he roars as loud as possible.

"Is it purple grass?" Marcus deadpans at Kisung.

"Correct."

Marcus looks around. "I spy something beginning with d."

"Is it dick?" Vincenzo asks.

"Dick," Ian says slightly louder.

"Stop, you fuckers," Kisung complains. "Christ. God, if you're listening, I don't deserve this. I'm hungry, I have to do exercise, and I'm stuck with these dipshits."

"Mr Satan," Marcus begins pleasantly. "Or is that your first name? Lucifer - can I call you Lucifer? I want to cut a deal. I'll give you these four and in return you make me a torturer instead. I'm creative, I've got skills."

Ian claps his hands together. "Buddha, my dear. I don't know what you do but I'm pretty sure you're better than a God who declares eternal damnation for his subjects."

"Jupiter, Zeus, whatever," Vincenzo says lazily. "I want to see you beat the shit out of the other religions. WWE style."

Ian sighs and rolls his shoulders. "I need to take a piss."

There's a bright flash from behind them, the ground shakes and something roars, flattening the grass with the shockwave.

You can find story with these keywords: Take This Seriously (QT), Read Take This Seriously (QT), Take This Seriously (QT) novel, Take This Seriously (QT) book, Take This Seriously (QT) story, Take This Seriously (QT) full, Take This Seriously (QT) Latest Chapter