Next morning, I was awake, early and groggy. My mom was screaming my name down from the living room for me to wake up and get myself ready for the day ahead of us. My body felt so run down and I hadn't even done anything yet.

I took my time getting dressed and getting myself ready to delay the journey as much as possible. I was dreading it and had reason to. I didn't really want to see Rhyse again so soon, not after yesterday, and me being the awkward person I was, had no idea what I'd even say to him:

'Hey, you tricked anyone that you're going to murder them recently? Got any more sick jokes up your sleeves?'

He'd probably just smile and brush it off until he really tried to murder me.

To be fair, it wasn't that complex to find our neighbours' house. If we had ventured a little further past the other side of the lake we presumably would've found them, but it was so large that we really had no need to. We had plenty of land surrounding our own cabin, and venturing off in the blistering heat was never my idea of fun.

You'd think being black I'd possess some kind of heat tolerance. I wished I did.

Eventually, we came across an opening in the woods where a grand wooden house was visible. There were piles of local wood in front of the house, and in front of those piles of wood were two dogs: a german shepherd and a beagle who was snoozing peacefully until they saw us approaching. The beagle raced indoors and the German shepherd began to snarl menacingly.

The front door opened slowly and Rhyse came out, to see what was up with his dog. His eyes glossed over us as he went straight over to his enraged looking canine, not taking in the four visitors outside of his home until my dad cleared his throat.

"Oh hey. You're Sophia's family, right? Nice to meet you, I'm Rhyse Amstell. This is my dog, Link and the scaredy cat-dog who ran inside is Ida." He rubbed Link's fur, who instantly stopped snarling. Rhyse offered each of us a dazzling smile that perfectly masked his insane behaviour the afternoon before.

"Nice to meet you too, Rhyse. I'm Eleanora. This is my husband Charlie, my son Andrew and of course, you've encountered Sophia." My mom said with a friendly smile on her face, one reserved when she met new people or people she wanted to impress, but they were synonymous to her.

Rhyse nodded slowly, and his eyes shone with elation, "nice to meet you all. Come in, my mom is inside and my dad is out fishing."

I could practically see my dad light up from within when Rhyse mentioned that his dad also fished. Finally, he'd have someone to go with, so we didn't have to join him for an agony filled afternoon in the sun while we were slowly scorched alive readily available for ticks and gnats.

He led us into his house which was way larger than ours was. It was clear that it was self-built, but it looked amazing, like some kind of fortress. Almost all of the furniture was made out of wood, and the windows were huge to allow plenty of light in the house. It was amazing and I was definitely jealous.

We were escorted into the living room where Rhyse's mom was sat petting the beagle, muttering things to it. She turned around to the sound of approaching footsteps and didn't look too impressed when she saw she had guests. "Hello?" She sounded perplexed. She most certainly wouldn't be expecting guests.

Her curly auburn hair seemed to be progressively losing the fight against the greys as they intertwined with one another. She looked older than 50, that, I was certain of.

"Hi there Mrs Amstell. We're your... long-distance neighbours, the Hesters." My mom always had to be the one to speak first. "My daughter, Sophia notified us yesterday we had neighbours, and I thought it'd only be courteous to bake you a delicious Victoria Sponge cake." My mom graciously extended her arms to show the cake tin a little clearer.

"How nice," Mrs Amstell's tone still sounded a little bitter, but her face looked less sour at the sound of cake. What was her problem anyway? She stood up and took the cake from my mom. "I'll go cut this and I'll be right back. Rhyse, you take the kids out front to play with the dogs. Teach 'em a few things."

Her accent was much more distinct than Rhyse's; definitely American and sounded like the stereotypical New York accent. She wanted us gone pretty quickly, maybe because it was still so early in the day.

I didn't want to play with that grumpy looking dog and I didn't want to sit outside with the grumpy looking dog and Rhyse. That wasn't fun, and what could he possibly 'teach me'?

"I don't like dogs. Can't I just stay in here?" Andrew frowned. He loved dogs. What the heck was he playing at? Was he trying to find a way to get some of the cake? I peered at him suspiciously, trying to figure out his game.

My mom shot Andrew a look, she knew exactly what he was up to. "Okay, sweetie. Sophia, you head on outside OK? It's a nice day." She didn't even put up a fight with him. Probably just trying to look good in front of our new neighbours.

Pfft! Of course, I'd have to go out. I was the oldest. I could take care of myself. I had a knife and that made me 'responsible' while I was out here. Not.

I left against my will, not before shooting a glare at Andrew who offered me a cheeky grin in return. That sly brat.

I planted myself outside on a small pile of logs, and Rhyse soon joined me. He sat on the floor beside his dog and began to pet him. I glanced at him momentarily before returning my gaze to the car, praying for the moment we could leave and I could go back to bed.

The sun burned down on me as the house was located in an opening, and unlike our cabin, there was no shelter from the direct light of the sun.

"My mom isn't a big fan of city people... or guests in general," Rhyse stated out of the blue. He'd most likely been racking his brain for a solid few minutes trying to conjure up some kind of conversation to break the heavy tension.

"Well, she had a tonne of 'city people' gear in her house. Why?"

"My parents are- no," he sighed and thought for a moment, "my parents just wanted to move a long way out of the city. So they built a peaceful house here, before I was born, where no one could find us."

How civil of them...

I didn't answer him. I didn't feel like needed to, and I had nothing else to say. It was partially because I was still bothered about yesterday's events and still half asleep.

"I see you've still got that handy knife of yours," he gestured to my knife."Were you actually trying to hit me yesterday, or was it a threat?"

"A threat," I hissed.

"For a city girl, you're pretty hostile. Loosen up. I said I was not a murderer and I said I'm sorry."

I promptly raised my eyebrow, "what's your point?"

"My point is: I want us to be friends. This will sound lame, but I don't have any friends. No one comes here! Apart from you and your family." His rosy lips slowly formed in to a pout the more he spoke about his desolate life in the forest.

"Well, we've been coming here for the past twelve years. Why didn't you decide you needed a friend then?"

"I first saw you guys a few years ago and I wasn't supposed to talk to you. The last thing my parents want is for me to talk and interact with city kids such as yourself. I'm not allowed to use social networking sites either."

I laughed, "that's what you get for being a forest boy. And if you want to be my friend, you better make it up to me before I go back to the city."

Why did I call him a forest boy? What put that stupid title into my head? Maybe I could utilize it like some annoying nickname to bug him as revenge, or when I wanted something. It could become his blackmail name... but literally, any variation of his name could also do the job.

It was a shame, a face like that in a school in the city would get you so popular. Instead, it was being wasted off in some forest, with his anti-social parents. To say he never had any friends, he seemed pretty sociable to me. If I never had any friends, I wouldn't be able to talk to other children. I wouldn't know what to do. I didn't even know what to do with Rhyse and I had friends!

Rhyse came up with an idea that, if he taught me how to climb trees and hunt properly, I'd forgive him, and over time come to be his friend. Which seemed okay with me, it didn't bother me too much. Just as long as he wasn't a douche, I'd probably be fine with him. I was still annoyed about yesterday's events, but that'd soon wear off... provided I didn't end up dead before the end of summer.