I looked around my new home with distaste. Maryland was nothing like Denver- there are no mountains looming in the distance, no long stretches of plains, no nearby shopping center, no clusters of houses, nobody to hang out with, no Celia. We had moved here, to rural Maryland, with trees and twisted roads and no friends in over a thousand miles.

“Todd, help me move this, please,” my mother called, and I slouched towards her, lifted the box she was struggling with, and began to carry it inside silently. Some movement in the trees caught my eye, and I turned to look- but by the time I had turned, there was nothing there. It had almost looked like there was-

“Todd, hurry up!” Dad shouted teasingly. “What are you doing, watching the trees grow?” I rolled my eyes and carried the box inside.

Our new house was small, smaller than our house had been in Denver. Dad said it was because houses cost more in Maryland, since there’s a higher demand for housing; Mom said we didn’t need a big house anyway, seeing how it was only the three of us. I said I liked our old house better, and then I went up to my new room. My room was the same size as my old room, but with more windows. I didn’t like it. The windows looked out onto a jumbled mess of trees; the first thing I thought of was how easy it would be for somebody to watch me from those trees, and I shuddered, turned my back on them, and began to put my bed frame together by myself.

School began the next day. Everyone in the junior class seemed to know I was new, and they either came up and introduced themselves or stood at a distance and whispered excitedly, as though they thought I didn’t notice. During lunch, I sat with a group of guys joined by some girls- mostly, their girlfriends, although a few girls appeared to simply be friends. They seem to be the smart athletes, the ones too intelligent to be labeled as jocks, yet too athletic to be called nerds or geeks. They asked me questions about Denver, which I answered politely. Eventually, they stopped asking questions and went back to flirting with the girls.

When I returned to the new house- I still refused to think of it as home- Mom asked how school was. I grunted in return. She sighed, then perked up as she noticed me lacing on my running shoes- I had figured that I could clear my head by going for a run down the road. “There are some great footpaths I noticed in the woods- why don’t you check them out?” she asked. I would rather not, but the natural instinct to please my mother forced me to nod and walk towards the trees, heading down the path she pointed.

The woods were silent, save for the occasional scuffling of leaves as squirrels and other woodland creatures ran about. The air smelled strange back there- it felt heavy with moisture. Even the air is different than Denver’s, I thought to myself, shaking my head. What were Mom and Dad thinking?

I stopped short at the sight of a girl about my age sitting cross-legged on a fallen tree, picking at the threads on the bottom of her ragged jeans and humming to herself. “Hey!” I called, and she started violently, nearly falling off the tree she was sitting on. “You’re trespassing!” I said indignantly.

“Are you talking to me?” she asked, sounding slightly incredulous, and I nodded, feeling as though the answer were rather obvious. “You just moved into that house over there, right?” she asked, pointing, seeming to ignore my accusation of trespassing. I nodded again. “Well, in that case, you’re trespassing too,” she replied playfully, picking herself up from the tree. “This is the Milligan’s property- those trails are his horse trails.”

“Oh,” I said, surprised, turning to leave and feeling rather embarrassed. “Sorry- I thought it was our- I’ll just-”

“Wait,” she interrupted quickly, and I turn towards her. “You don’t have to leave,” she added, smiling at me. “The Milligans don’t care if we come back here- well, if they do, it doesn’t really matter, because they never come back here,” she explained.

“But trespassing is illegal,” I reminded her, wondering how naïve this girl was, and she laughed a little.

“You’ve never lived in the country, have you?” she said- it wasn’t a question. “Well, in the city it may be illegal, but out here it doesn’t really matter. People trust each other. The only time anyone would have a problem with trespassing is if something got stolen, or…well, if some other crime’s been committed. Besides, what they don’t know won’t hurt them.” I frowned slightly, and she laughed again, moving towards me. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it after a while,” she assured me good-humoredly. “I’m Abigail, by the way,” she added, after a moment.

“Todd,” I say shortly.

“Nice to meet you. Where did you move from, Todd?” Abigail asked me, and I replied with Denver. “Ew, Colorado,” she said, pretending to shudder. “I’ve been there- didn’t like it very much, personally. It was ridiculously flat- not enough trees, either.”

“Well, I think Maryland has too many trees,” I shot back, and she rose an eyebrow as I immediately regretted the harshness behind my words.

“You’ll get used to it,” Abigail replied simply, picking a purple flower from the ground and tucking it behind her ear. “Maybe you’ll even start to prefer trees to flat, empty, yellow plains, as impossible as it may seem,” she added, grinning teasingly, and I couldn’t help but return her smile, albeit skeptically. “So, do you go to Marnier High School, then?” she asked, sitting down by a tree and looking at me inquiringly.

“Yeah,” I replied, deciding to sit down as well. “Don’t you?”

“I did,” she explained, “But now I go to the local private school. Public school and I didn’t exactly get along that well.” I waited for Abigail to explain, but she suddenly fell silent, spinning the purple flower between her fingers. “I bet you miss all your friends in Denver,” she said after a few moments, and I nodded. “I miss my friends too,” she says, her eyes looking down desolately. “My public school friends, that is,” Abigail added quickly, looking up. “I never see them anymore…but anyway, what grade are you in?”

“I’m a junior,” I replied, and she smiled.

“That’s pretty cool,” she replies. “I’m a sophomore.” She began to hum again, leaning back and playing with the flower in her hand. I realized that Mom was probably wondering what was taking me so long, and that I should start to head back towards the house, but instead I asked Abigail where she lived. “My house is over that way,” she replied, pointing towards the other side of the woods. “But I’m here in the woods all the time-it’s practically my second home,” she joked.

“Todd! Where are you?” Faint echoes of Mom calling my name reverberated throughout the forest.

“Well, I’d better get going,” I said, standing. “Nice meeting you, Abigail.”

“Nice meeting you too, Todd,” she replied, beaming at me as she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

“Todd!” Mom shrieked, and I Abigail a small wave goodbye before jogging off towards the house, yelling “Coming!”

“Well, took you long enough,” Mom says teasingly, though I can see she had been slightly worried. “I was afraid you’d gotten lost! What were you doing out there?”

“Doing what you said, Mom,” I replied, pulling off my shoes and heading upstairs. “Checking out the footpaths!” I didn’t really feel it necessary, at the time, to mention Abigail to her.