The following day, I had gotten myself ready nice and early just like Rhyse had asked me to. I was going to meet him at the third opening on the western side of the lake. I left my family a note notifying them where I'd be and headed out. Not being a morning person, I was dying on the inside. 

My nose itched both from my mild allergies and because it demanded me to rub it; I was nervous. This boy was still a stranger to me and I was just meeting him in the forest. If he killed me, it would be too late for my parents to do anything about it. I'd be dead-

-I really had to stop with the negative thoughts.

"Finally made it. Are city people always late?" Rhyse climbed down from a branch in one of the smaller trees and began to approach me with his hands stuffed in his pockets, casually dressed in grey gym shorts and a white t-shirt.

I rolled my eyes at him, "shut up. What are we doing first?"

"We should climb first. If it's warm now, it'll be warmer at midday. If we get this out of the way, there's no backbreaking work when it's the hottest." He said, shrugging his broad shoulders. It made sense, I should've thought of that. "You gonna put your knives down? You don't want to fall and be impaled."

I stared long and hard at Rhyse. I never really felt protected without my trusty blade. I didn't know what could happen. However, just like he said, I didn't want to be impaled. I gently rested the two blades against a neighbouring tree and covered them up slightly with some leaves, just in case some crazy person ran out from somewhere.

"To start with, would you rather climb with or without shoes?"

"With my shoes?" I answered as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "Why would I want to make my feet all tough and stuff?"

He shrugged. "Alright, I'm not going to make this easy since that'll be pointless. This thick tree is one you'll start with. I want you to get a firm grasp on the tree, jump up so your feet are also on it, and then I want you to stay in that position for at least twenty seconds. OK?" He squatted beside it, his hands on his knees and his eyes locked on me, waiting for my agreement.

Easier said than done. Within ten seconds of me being up, I landed on my bum. My burning hands felt like they were on fire from the friction and roughness of the tree. I rubbed my sore palms together and stood up while cursing at the tree.

"That's not gonna help," Rhyse smiled sincerely. "Thinking positively will get you farther up the tree, which is what you desperately want."

Think positively? Did I come across as some kind of hippie to him? What a stupid idea. As if just thinking positive emotions would help me climb a tree. I shouldn't have agreed to this.

"Hey," He clicked his fingers in front of me, snapping me out of my negative thoughts. "I said think positively. I can see that sour look on your face. Take it off."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "who are you, my dad?"

Rhyse sighed and rested his head on the tree trunk. He didn't move for a few moments before looking back to me, tight-lipped. He was silent as he stared directly through me. Was he trying some weird forest thing to try and read my mind? I narrowed my eyes at him, cautiously.

"What?" I finally snapped.

He grinned cheesily at me suddenly. "I was thinking... about you."

"Me?" I pointed towards myself in confusion. This guy was up to something either really creepy or really suspicious. I didn't like it.

He nodded, "you have really nice eyes."

As I found quite frequent with him, his expression was unreadable. He looked somewhere between the lines of genuine interest and perverted thoughts that I didn't want to know. My ears heated up furiously in embarrassment, nonetheless. I turned away from him, in the direction of my knives. I rubbed my fingers up and down my nose- anything to stop the situation having an awkward allure about it.

Rhyse laughed, "I was joking! But that changed your manner quickly. Ready for some climbing now?"

Him and his damn jokes.

"No," I snapped. I strapped my knife back to my waist and tossed the one Rhyse was going to use at his feet.

"Aw, look at little Sophia, she can't help but smile!" He was going to grab one of my cheeks, but I swatted his hand away. It could've been filthy, for all I know he could've touched crap in one of the trees as he climbed.

"Shut up. We're doing knives first. If you even think to piss me off I'll hurt you. Do you understand, Rice?" I pointed my blade right between his eyes, they crossed over towards to blade and then focused on me.

"First of all, it's Rhyse, not Rice," he smirked. "Secondarily, your threats don't scare me." He pushed the blade away from his face with his index finger.

I scowled and moved away from Rhyse, flinging my knife aimlessly into one of the tree trunks. It stayed there, lodged in place. I was going to end up being provoked into murdering that idiot! I wouldn't even be sorry or regretful.

Rhyse casually picked up his blade and inspected it, "mind if I try throwing it?"

I languidly gestured my arm out to the tree, giving him the OK.

He stared down the blade for a few seconds, then over at the tree. He aligned it slightly to the left. I wasn't sure why since there was no target. I didn't say anything and let him carry on with it.

He launched the knife into the tree at speeds I had never witnessed, however, it was a useless shot. An awful shot in fact. The blade didn't even come into contact with the bark. It was just the handle, then it rebounded slightly and then fell.

"Well, Rise, I hope you were thinking positive thoughts when you threw that," I mocked and snickered.

"You didn't give me any tips or anything," he exclaimed. "And it's Rhyse. Not rise. Not rice."

I shrugged dismissing what he said. I strolled over to the tree and collected both of our blades. I swung mine around a little, just to annoy Rhyse that little bit more. This was going to be an entertaining morning for me.

"Whatever you say, Brice. Take your blade," I thrust it in his direction and waited until he finally managed to hold it properly. "The way you're throwing it at the moment is absolutely awful. It's fast but it's..."

"Not as good as yours." He looked somewhat dejected at the realisation that he would probably never get to my level.

I nodded. "You're learning!" I sniggered at the memory of his shot earlier. Then a thought came into my mind: how did he throw the blade and manage to lodge it into the shed beside me when we first met? "Can you already use blades? Back at the generator-"

He itched the back of his head and flashed me a sheepish smile. "That was beginners luck. It went way closer than I anticipated, I actually didn't mean to-"

"You could've hit me!" I cried in shock, resting my hand on my forehead and the thought of there being a knife wound in it. "You could've blinded me or killed me! What do you learn out here? What are your parents teaching you?"

"You threw the first blade at me," he merely shrugged, "anyway it definitely wouldn't have hit you. I do have a little bit of an aim. I occasionally have to hunt for rabbit."

That didn't at all console me.

Rhyse carefully analysed the blade once more and sighed. He should have considered instilling those positive thoughts into his throwing and then maybe it would go better for him.