Soar, Part 10 - Word

"This sucks."

The other girls lifted their heads from their hands to look at Alex. She looked at them back, like what she said didn't need any more explanation.

"This sucks," she repeated. And she was right. It didn't need any further explanation. In two hours they were supposed to be at the second tryouts. Except there had been no word of Annalise or any of the other people getting any better. So they had decided, through a long conversation, that there wasn't much point going just the four of them. The choreography they had was good, and they knew it. But it wasn't good, if one of them was missing. It simply wouldn't work. If they'd had more time, they could've adjusted it to work for the four of them, but there wasn't enough time, not nearly enough. This way they wouldn't stand a chance.

Alex had argued that they should go anyway, because they wouldn't forgive themselves if they missed a chance like this. And Annalise wouldn't forgive them, if she stopped being a statue and found out they'd simply quit. Especially if they had passed again, and they could've been in the championships in time for Annalise to join them again. But the others finally convinced her. They wouldn't get anywhere missing a person, and there would always be next year. And the year after that. They would train for another year, and then they would go and win the whole thing, because if they were let in this year, they'd be even better the next.

"You girls know what," Alex said and stood up, "Even if we're not going to the competition, I don't want to just sit at home and do nothing. It's making me nervous and uncomfortable."

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Roxie asked. "We could look into the petrified-people-thing, but there's less than nothing to go on. Unless Anka lied to us. Though I don't think he did. Or we could to train, without Annalise. We'll get lazy if we don't do anything. We don't know how long it will be before she'll be able to do anything again. If ever."

"Don't say that," Alex snapped.

"Already did," Roxie said, "Of course I want her to be okay as much as you, but we don't know. There is no way for us to know."

"We could go see the street where the statue people were," Olivia said. Everyone turned to look at her.

"Why?" Roxie asked.

"Because maybe there's something there," Olivia answered, like it was obvious.

"We looked around pretty thoroughly the last time we were there," Skye said, "And I'm sure the police looked it over even more thoroughly."

"There might still be something," Alex said, lifting her head.

"You really think so?" Skye said. Olivia smiled.

"I think it doesn't actually matter, because it's the only thing we've got and I won't spend this afternoon sitting around doing nothing," Alex said.

And so they went.

~x~

The afternoon was cold. The sun had set already, and the puddles from the previous night's rain were frozen. Olivia broke the thin ice over one of the puddles next to the side walk, grinning like a little child, as the others rounded the last corner and came to a stop at more or less the same spot as last time, when the street was filled with frozen people.

"Wow," Roxie said.

"I know," Skye said.

"This is almost as creepy as the frozen people," Alex said, and the others turned to look at her.

"What?" she demanded. "I said almost."

The whole street was deserted. On the way here the girls didn't notice anything weird. There were people walking around, normally, going home or grocery store or where ever people usually go. But there was no one on this road. There weren't even any lights in the windows of the buildings along the road. At first it seemed like the police had closed the street for investigation, but there was no sign of that. It seemed people simply avoided the place, avoided walking along it even if it was on their way, and had to gone to live with family and friends until their street was declared safe again by some authority or another. Or at least that how it seemed.

"Do we dare to go there if there's no one else here?" Skye asked, almost whispering. No one said anything for a moment.

"We went there already once," Alex said then, stepping forwards. She didn't sound as sure as her words implied. But they had gone there already once, when it was filled with the people stuck in place, and nothing bad had happened to them then. So nothing bad could happen now either, right? People were just being superstitious. Alex took another step and turned to look at her friends over her shoulder.

"Come on," she said, and the others followed carefully.

They walked along the street, looking for a sign of anything weird. Other than the whole place being abandoned by people. There was nothing. They walked in more or less a row, searching the middle of the road, and both sides. Looking carefully around. But by the end of the part of the road where the frozen people had been, they had found nothing. They looped back, looking again. They checked the corner where they had seen the huge bird take off. There was nothing there either.

So they gave up, sitting on some grass by the road, exhausted.

"So that was another colossal waste of time," Alex said and, laying down on the cold grass.

"Yeah," Skye said.

"At least we didn't sit inside all afternoon feeling sorry for ourselves for not going for the competition," Roxie said.

"Speaking of which," Skye said, checking her watch, "It started an hour ago. So no, officially, there's no going back."

They all fell into a sulking silence. No one had anything left to say, not today at least. Not right now. Eventually Alex began shivering and sat up, seemingly a little too fast. She leaned her hand back down, and lifted her other hand to her head to steady herself. Then she stopped, and just stared in front of her.

"Alex?" Skye asked.

"Uh," Alex said, "Was the street painted when we were last here?"

They all thought for a moment.

"I think so," Skye eventually said.

"But it isn't usually. It's never been before," Roxie said.

"I can't believe we missed that," Alex said.

"You think there's something to it?" Skye asked.

"I don't know," Alex said. She got up and began jogging along the street. The others glanced at each other and followed her.

"I think you're right," Skye said once they reached the other end of the street. "I think the painted parts make some kind of a pattern. But we're too close up. There's no way to see what it is from the ground."

"That's why we have to go up," Roxie said and her wings flapped open behind her. Skye nodded, and followed her lead.

So up they went, looking back down every now and then to see if they were far enough yet. It was high, but not nearly too high for either of them, when they could finally figure out what the pattern on the road was. The paint on the road spelled out one word:

Soar.
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Your topic for Monday is Lie(s).

~matu