The Shade Of Poison Trees

A/N: This is the first original story I've written. One that's not for school, at least. I'm putting it on FictionPress just for the hell of it, so please let me know if it sucks or not! =D

I deleted the story and re-entered it so I could fix some pretty dumb grammar mistakes I made.
It's up again, and if you catch a mistake please don't hesitate to say so.

Chapter 1
Connor: Free Fallin

"Yeah I'm free. Free fallin."
-Tom Petty

I was creeping through the forest, quietly stepping over rocks, plants and other obstacles as I tried to find my way out. I stopped in front of the river, looking for a way around it when I heard footsteps coming up behind me. It was "the" footsteps.

I took off, running along the riverside. I leapt over rocks, and fallen trees. As the footsteps got closer, I ran faster and the still river had turned into rushing rapids. I felt the beads of sweat pouring down my face as I concentrated only on escaping the creature who was chasing me. I wouldn't let it catch me, not again.

The creature following me got faster so I sped up to my limit. I was running so fast that everything around me was a blur, and the air whacked me in the face every second. I soon couldn't see where I was going. The result was me stumbling over a stray log. As I tripped I felt myself tumble sideways, almost falling in the river.

I reached out and sunk my finger nails into the dirt in an attempt to pull myself up, but I ended up flat on my face, looking at a pair of old boots belonging to someone. I rolled sideways, away from them, and then I stood myself up, holding onto a nearby tree for support.

I took a step forward, ready to run again when a hand gripped my shoulder. I was wearing a jacket, but I felt the heat all the way to my bones. I was spun around, and suddenly I was looking into the eyes of another human being. Another boy. He looked my age.

I looked into his eyes, and I saw my fear mirrored there. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it as if decided not to after all. Changing his mind again, he opened his mouth.

"Bye, Connor," he said, before taking a step backward. Before I could wonder how he knew my name, he stepped backward again. Into the river. I screamed.

I woke up tangled in my blankets and drenched in sweat. An extra glance around the room made me see that I was on the floor and no longer in my bed. I groaned and rubbed the place on my head where I felt a dull ache growing. Carefully, I untangled myself from my blankets and stood myself up.

Feeling lightheaded, I headed towards my desk and pulled a notebook out from the left drawer, while outlining the details of my dream in my head. I blew the dust off of the book before opening it to the next blank page, and I scribbled in today's date. November 18th, 2008. On the lines, I filled in all the details of the dream that I remembered, every emotion that I felt. I was interrupted by a sudden rapping at my door.

"Connor? Get up!" A high pitch voice sounded at the other side of my bedroom door. I shut my dream journal back into my left drawer before I replied.

"What is it, Mom?" I called to the door, and waited for her reply.

"There's someone at the door for you!" she gave a final knock before I heard her footsteps thud back down the stairs. I sighed. I hurried down the stairs to see my best friend, Ian at the door. My brows furrowed with confusion. Ian had never came to my house in the morning on a school day before.

"What do you want?" I asked, confusion evident in my tone. Ian loudly cleared his throat with a cough. I narrowed my eyes at him. Ian looked oddly guilty about something. I tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for him to talk. He finally just came out with it.

"Can you give me the answers to yesterday's chemistry assignment?" Ian pleaded.

"Piss off," I growled.

"Please, Connor. Please!" he cried. I turned my back and headed up the stairs, leaving Ian at the door. I know that was super rude of me, but I couldn't help it. I wasn't exactly in the best mood because of my latest dream, never mind the fact that I hated the fact that people wanted to copy off me all of the time.

It really pisses me off. I stopped once I reached the top of the stairs to see if Ian had already left. He had, so I went to my room, put on some fresh clothes and headed downstairs to see my family seated at the table eating scrambled eggs.

"Yours is on the counter," Mom told me cheerfully. I nodded, grabbed my plate and joined them at the table.

"So, Connor…" Mom started. "Did you have any good dreams last night?" I shook my head, stuffing my mouth with egg. Every morning, my mom insists that my brother, sister and I sit and eat together and talk. Dinners are very similar in nature. Knowing that I keep a dream journal, my mom tries to get me to talk about what I dream about. I usually do, but today I felt I should keep silent. I wanted to keep the dream to myself.

"Where's Mia?" Eric asked me, slamming his locker shut."How would I know?" I replied. "It's not like I keep track."

"She's your girlfriend," Ian put in.

"That doesn't mean I know where she is every minute," I argued.

"You know…" Eric said in a teasing tone. "If you're not happy, I'll be more than happy to take her off your hands."

"Forget it," I grumbled as an arm snaked itself around my waist.

"Hey," Mia smiled gently at me. I smiled back and put my arm around her shoulders. My attention was then averted back to Ian and Eric who had started to make gagging noises. Despite how good I felt to have Mia, I shot them a glare. I mean, I am really lucky to have a girlfriend, let alone someone as great as Mia. However, what's sad is I didn't get her on my own. It was a set up by my mom. Mia's mom is someone who's good friends with my mom, so she thought it was a good idea to set us up. We hit it off, and what do you know, six months later, here we are.

"Hey," Ian nudged me. "Did you see the new kid?" he pointed down the hall towards the home economic labs. There was indeed a new kid walking down the hallway. I felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity when I saw him. I tried to shake it off. There's no way I could have seen him before, though I swear I have.

I once again brought my attention back to Eric, Ian, and Mia right before the bell rang. Mia pecked me on the cheek before leaving for her first period class. I shot a glare at Ian and Eric who were making gagging noises again before turning around to head to Chemistry. Ian and Eric are mighty alike for brothers.

I often compare them to the relationship I have with my brother. Even though he's younger, we're still not much like at all. I headed into my Chemistry class and took my usual seat by the window.

I love to gaze out it during class. I know I should be paying attention but sometimes I can't help it. Mr. Winchester, the Chemistry teacher is incredibly boring. Despite my lack of attention in class, I still always seem to manage to get good grades. As Mr. Winchester began to drone on and on about Chemistry, I let myself sink into my thoughts.

The first thought that came to my mind was my dream from last night. What does it mean? Who was the strange boy who fell into the river? I know I shouldn't read much into it, but I'm big on the whole dream analyzer thing. I've had dreams before that were very similar to the one I had last night, although when the creature caught me, it wasn't human. I couldn't help but wonder what changed. I was suddenly snapped from my thoughts when a meter stick slapped my desk. I looked up at Mr. Winchester, startled.

"I asked you a question, Mr. Douglas," he said sternly.

"I-I'm sorry sir, can you please repeat it?"

"Name the compound on the board. Number three."

"Magnesium sulfide," I replied. Strangely enough, Mr. Winchester looked almost disappointed.

"Correct," he stated before heading again to the front of the classroom, and once again, I sunk into my thoughts.

Period two flew by. Math is by far my best subject. One of them, anyway. I walked into my period three class in a rush and was greeted by my biology teacher.

"Hello, sweetie," she grinned at me. I gaped, appalled.

"Don't call me that here!" I hissed.

"There's no one here yet," she chirped. On cue, my classmates slowly started filing into the classroom.

"Good morning Connor's mom," one boy I knew said to the teacher as he entered the room.

"Oh, please call me Mrs. Douglas," my mom told the boy sternly. Even though my parents are divorced, my mom still keeps her teaching name the same.

"Sure," the boy, Ted snickered before finding his seat and sending me a teasing glance. Why does it never get old for some people? I silently fumed as my mom oh pardon me, Mrs. Douglas started teaching. It wasn't long before we were interrupted by a knock on the classroom door.

My mom answered it. It was the principal, Mr. Fisher and the new kid from earlier. I watched closely as my mom and the principal exchanged words that I couldn't hear, and soon the principal left. My mom guided the new student to the front of the room and then turned to him.

"Welcome. Would you please introduce yourself to the class?" she asked. He mumbled something inaudible.

"Again," my mom pressured.

"Gavin," he said again, loud enough for the class to hear.

"And where are you from, Gavin?" she asked.

"Phoenix," he said. That got my attention. I used to live in Phoenix. When I was a kid, but still.

"Welcome Gavin," my mom said motioning towards the classroom.

"Please take an empty seat beside…" she looked over the room of desks.

"Beside Connor," she said finally. "Connor, please raise your hand." I slowly raised my hand. Immediately, Gavin flashed his gaze toward me. I got a good look at him while he slowly made his way to his desk. He looked about average height, similar to me.

His eyes were startling blue, and his hair was dark brown, falling in his eyes. He was wearing a jacket over his plain shirt, and I tried very hard to push the feeling of familiarity that starting gnawing away at me again. I couldn't possibly have seen the guy before unless of course in Phoenix. I quickly axed that idea. It was very impossible. I finally decided to let it drop.

It wasn't important. While oddly aware of Gavin's presence in the seat next to mine. I turned to the front of the room, and tuned out everything except for my own thoughts.

It was about ten minutes since the lunch bell rung, and I was eating my lunch alone in a vacant hallway, my earphones blaring in my ears. My favourite song was playing, "Free Fallin" by Tom Petty. I resisted the strong urge to sing along. I didn't want to draw attention to myself.

I wanted to be alone right now. Upon seeing someone walk by, I put up my hood, making sure it went over my face. As the person walked by, I kept my eyes glued to my MP3 player, pretending to fiddle with the buttons on it. I untensed as the person turned the corner at the end of the hall.

I managed to stand myself up, and I put my lunchbox in my locker before slamming it shut. I hurried out of the hallway while stuffing my MP3 in my pocket and putting a piece of gum into my mouth when I ran into Ian.

"Hey! Where the hell were you, man?" Ian asked me, raising his voice.

"Eating my lunch, man," I put emphasis on the word 'man'.

"Whatever." Ian grunted before walking off. I followed him. He stopped and turned to me.

"Mia's been missing you," he told me.

"We just saw each other before period one," I retorted. Ian frowned.

"So?"

"So nothing. If she can't live without seeing me for a whole morning than she's got serious problems," I said, immediately regretting it. I walked away. Ian didn't follow me and I was glad. Sometimes he could really piss me off. Like I sometimes get the feeling or maybe a suspicion that Ian has a thing for Mia. I often tell myself that it's not true, but I think I know I'm right.

I turn around to make sure Ian's gone before I reached into my pocket and grabbed out my MP3 again when I heard a muffled cry and some banging noises. Listening closely I finally figured out that the sound must be coming from one of the lockers.

"Anyone there?" I called out. The echo of my voice in the empty hall creeped me out."Where are you?" I asked again when the banging continued. This time I got a response.

"In here!" a male voice answered. I turned around following the voice. Sure enough, I was able to track down the locker. Unfortunately, it had a lock on it."Do you know the combination?" I asked.

"It has a lock on it?" was the answer.

"Hold on," I took the gum I was chewing and stuck it on the locker. I left and returned with the janitor. He chopped the lock off with his tool before leaving. I thanked him, and pulled the locker open. I gasped. It was the new kid… Gavin. I reached out to help him.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Thanks."

"Who did this to you?" I demanded. Picking on new students is inexcusable.

"I don't know… a couple of older guys," he said. "They called me names and shoved me into a locker. I had no idea they put a lock on it."

"What kind of names?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing important," Gavin replied, glancing at me. It was right then when I realized why Gavin looked so familiar. He was the boy from my dream last night. The one who fell in the river. I gasped out loud and took a step back in shock.

"What is it?" Gavin asked, surprised.

"N-nothing," I replied. "You should tell a teacher about this. These people have no right picking on a new student."

"No…" Gavin argued. "I'm sure it was just a one time thing."

"I don't think so," I replied. "I remember my first day here. I was never left alone. Older kids were doing worse to me. Lucky me though, my mom's a teacher here." I said, sounding a bit sarcastic.

"That's cool," is eyes widened. "Which teacher?"

"Mrs. Douglas, third period biology," I answered hesitantly.

"Oh." Gavin said. "She seems nice." I nodded.

"Too nice sometimes," I shrugged and then extended a hand.

"I'm Connor."

"Gavin Carter," he shook my hand. I smiled. There was definitely a warmth there. I could tell that we would become friends.

"Come with me, I'll introduce you to some people," I said and Gavin nodded. I finally found Ian and company sitting around a table in the lunch hall. I walked up to it, motioning for Gavin to follow.

"Hey," I said. Ian looked up at me.

"Hey," he said back. When he noticed Gavin his eyes grew wary.

"This is Gavin," I said, pointing to Gavin. I turned to Gavin."That's my best friend, Ian."

"Nice to meet you," Gavin stuck out his hand. Ian ignored it.

"Hey," he said again. Gavin and I exchanged a glance. Gavin looked nervous.

"He's not always like that," I told Gavin quietly. He nodded understandingly. Just then, the bell rang. I turned to Ian and Gavin.

"See you around," I said to Gavin before turning around, I was stopped however when Gavin caught up to me.

"Can you tell me where my next class is?" he asked me, showing me his timetable.

"Oh… social. That's my next class too," I said. "Let's go." Gavin nodded.

"Nice teachers in this school," he commented.

"Yeah, I suppose," I replied. We turned the corner and in the process, ran into some older students.

"Watch where you're goin'!" the biggest one growled. I grabbed Gavin's arm and starting backing up.

"That's the guy who pushed me in the locker," he said to me quietly.

"Run," I hissed to him under my breath. To my dismay, he didn't go anywhere.

"Go!" I hissed louder, loud enough for the older students to here. One of them eyed me angrily and took a step forward while Gavin did the same. I grabbed his arm and started pulling on it.

"Let's go, quick!" However, he didn't budge.

"What the hell is your problem?" I snapped at Gavin. The older kids thought I was talking to them, turned around with a glare. The biggest one faced me, raised his fist and…

To be continued….

A/N: If you liked it, please review. Review even if you didn't like it. Review and tell me if it sucks or not. I can take it all. Thanks. =D