~ C H A P T E R  O N E ~

J E R O M E ' S  P O V

I sighed heavily and turned from the spot that the beautiful girl had just been. Was I imagining things? Maybe. I tend to do that sort of thing quite a bit. But this... This was different somehow. She seemed too real. Yet, she was so amazing that she couldn't possibly be real. I just... I just don't know anymore. I followed Mitch up a very sloppily made ladder that I'm guessing he had created to make travel easier. I reached my hand up and he grabbed it, pulling me up the rest of the way. He grinned and turned around without a word, disappearing into the shrubbery. I laughed and followed him.

"Arrrggghhhh!!!" I yelled unnecessarily as I charged. I heard Mitch's hardy laughter ahead of me, so I sped up to attempt to reach the other side before him. This was, obviously, a failed attempt, and I made it out seconds before he did. When I emerged, however, he didn't turn to me as I thought he would. Instead, he kept looking straight forward, a huge smile playing along his entire face. I was confused as to why he was suddenly filled with so much joy, but all the confusion was diminished when I turned forward too. A gasp escaped my lips and suddenly, he was right. I no longer cared about the cold.

In front of us was a large lake, full of clear water. The rising sun cast a dark orange glow across the shimmering water, the rays bouncing back up to illuminate the trees. Speaking of the trees, they stood all around the water, everywhere except one place. That one place was where the water was supplied from, which was a narrow river leading into the forest. All was silent except for the sounds of Mitch and I breathing and the muffled crashing of a nearby waterfall.

I looked up and saw a small white bird flying overhead, singing happily. It glided easily over to a rock that sat perfectly centered in the middle of the lake, and landed on it. I watched as it smoothened out it's feathers, then looked up. It's eyes locked with mine and I cracked a smile as it let out a magnificent series of whistles and tweets. It gave one last whistle before flying back into the forest.

"Are you glad you got up this early now?" Mitch asked in a hushed tone from beside me. I turned and grinned at him.

"Sure am buddy." He returned my lopsided grin and shoved me lightly.

"I'm gonna go back. I've got some stuff to do. Like sleep! I was up all night editing videos. You coming?" He asked after a few minutes of goofing around. I skipped one last rock then stood up, cracking my back with a grunt.

"Yeah. Get this snow off of me, get into some nice dry clothes." I turned back to the lake, then it hit me. Why wasn't the lake frozen? Why was it still perfectly thaw? In my confusion, I stepped forward and bent down, placing my hand in the water. It immediately made me so much warmer, and I closed my eyes to enjoy it. Why was it so warm on such a cold day? So may questions... I don't like questions. Whatever... I thought to myself shaking my head. I stood up fully and hiked all the way back to the parking lot with Mitch. The whole time, he was rambling about something. What was that he was talking about? Some cool game he heard about? I don't know. Something like that. I never really listen to Mitch's rambles, because whenever I do, he confuses me. He talks so fast and uses his hands a lot, which wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't for the fact that he would get distracted and do something else before finishing his story.

"Jerome? JEROME?!" I snapped back to reality when a hand collided lightly with my face. I shook my head and rubbed the bridge of my nose.

"Ouch..." I muttered, shooting Mitch a glare. He just chuckled and shrugged.

"You just wouldn't listen!" He sang before running away.

"I'll get you!" I yelled with a laugh, running after him. The forest went by in a blur and I almost rammed into a tree. Luckily, a pushed off of it and spun just out of the way of it. Mitch ducked into a nearby bush that bordered a stream, obviously trying to hide. I decided to play stupid and look around, calling for him. I heard his faint chuckle as I walked right past him, making me crack a grin. I spun and tackled him as he tried to run out of the cover, and we ended up in the frozen river. We laughed a bit, but that was before the ice cracked. My eyes went wide and I looked at him. He blinked at me.

"JEROME, RUN!" he yelled, pushing me ahead of him. Even with the boost, I didn't make it out before him, and instead ended up waist deep in ice cold water. Mitch took one look at me and burst out into a laughing fit, clutching his gut as he kneeled down in the snow. His face was red, but that may have been the cold.

"I-it's n-n-not f-funny...." I stuttered. my teeth clacked together with my violent shaking. I rubbed my arms and waded through the water to the shore. Mitch finally got over his giggle fit and gave me a look of sympathy, leaning down to help me out of the water. I gladly took his hand, pulling myself out of the vicious current that was tugging at me feet. Mitch stood me up and we walked the rest of the way back.

"You look cold-" Mitch began, but I interrupted him.

"Nah Mitch, I'm perfectly fine. It's not like I just plunged into an ice cold river or anything." I muttered, rolling my eyes. He returned the gesture, rolling his eyes at me also.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, you look cold. Want my jacket?" He held up the big fluffy coat, and I nodded vigorously. Mitch laughed and draped it over my shoulders.

"Thanks bud."

"No problem." We walked the rest of the way in silence, simply listening to the sounds of the woods. It didn't take long for us too reach the parking lot, but Mitch was still immediately on the phone. He spoke way too quickly for me to catch what the conversation was about, but he soon put his phone away and waved for me to follow him. I reluctantly left my car at the park and climbed in his, which he had already prepared the front seat with towels. I rolled my eyes at his stunt.

"What, you can eat and drink all you want, but god forbid if I sit on the seat when I'm all wet!" I joked, poking his shoulder lightly. He grinned and rolled his eyes, putting the key in the ignition. The car roared to life, the low rumble of the engine filling the silent air. He pulled out of the parking lot, eyes steadily watching the road.

"The other guys are already at my house, by the way. They weren't here yesterday because their flight was delayed." Mitch explained.

"They all took the same flight? From where?"

"Everyone went to Adam's house in Washington for a week then they were supposed to come up here." I nodded in understanding. He was talking about our best friends, Adam, Jason, Quentin, Ian, and Ty. We all recorded videos for YouTube together as 'Team Crafted'. We play this game called MineCraft and post videos of us playing it. We all get a lot of views, it's pretty cool. Anyway, we all live all scattered around the US, then Mitch is up here in Canada. We meet up like this pretty often, just at different peoples' houses. We switch off, and this time it was Mitch's turn.

"Oh yeah, and Ashley and maybe a couple of other people are coming too. They just keep inviting people like it's a party." Mitch says, rolling his eyes dramatically. I laughed. Mitch loves parties, but never at his own house. He always goes out to parties. You'd think it was because he was a very clean person, but he's really not. You can make a mess of his house all you want, and he'll even help, but he just can't stand to have parties at his house.

"Don't worry Mitch, they know about your little phobia of parties at your house!" I teased. He shot me a playful glare and was about to answer when his phone went off. He started to reach for it, but I slapped his hand away and grabbed it first. "Eyes on the road bud! I'll answer it." He chuckled, and turned back to the road. I pressed answer and put the phone to my ear. "Hello yellow?" Mitch laughed at my greeting and I smacked his arm.

"Hello this is your captain speaking." a voice answered. I grinned.

"Hey Jordan! What's up?" You might be confused as to why I knew who it was. You see, Jordan is another friend of ours, his YouTube name is CaptainSparklez. Manly right? I guess he had been invited up here too or something.

"I just landed. You guys anywhere where you might be able to pick me up?" He asked sheepishly.  I looked over to Mitch.

"What?" he whispered.

"Jordan's at the airport. Could we go swing by and pick him up?" I whispered back. Mitch nodded and turned on his turn signal, getting into the correct lane to go to the airport. "We're heading on over!"

"Alright thanks. Tell Mitch I said thanks, too."

"Will do! See you soon!" With that, I hung up. I put Mitch's phone back on the car charger and turned up the heat, pulling his jacket around me all the way.

"Are you still that cold?" Mitch asked in disbelief. I gave him a 'did-you-seriously-just-say-that?' face and he laughed. We rode the rest of the way to the airport in silence-something we rarely ever do. 

When we got there, I handed Mitch his phone again. He took it. "You can have that back now. Text Jordan and we'll see where he is." I said. He nodded and clicked away at his phone, sending the text before I could even read what he wrote. "Jeez, you type fast!"

"That's what happens when you're typing 24/7. You get pretty good." He answered, stretching his neck to look over the crowds of people. Our friend was, sadly, quite short, and would be hard to find without knowing what area he was in. Luckily, Mitch's phone buzzed and he checked it. "He says he's heading for the front now. Let's just wait for him." We sat down on a bench up against the wall and waited. Both of us were intent on the things on our phone. He was checking his social media while I, on the other hand, was playing Flappy Bird.

"GOD DANG YOU! YOU STUPID BIRD JUST FLY THROUGH THERE ARE GAPS IN THE PIPES FOR A REASON!" I raged. Everyone turned to look at me, so I showed them my phone. Many laughed and walked on, while others muttered things like, "Weirdo.." or, "Idiot..." I shrugged and continued playing this stupid game that I loved so much.

"You know there's some logic to that game, right?"  a voice asked above me. I gasped in fright and looked up, only to be met by two amused brown eyes.

"Jordan you scared the crap outta me!" I smacked his arm pretty hard, but he just laughed and readjusted his grey beanie onto his brown hair. "Plus, doesn't every game have logic to you?"

"What? I just play them how they're meant to be played: the logical way." he retorts with a smirk. I roll my eyes.

"Mhm. Yeah. C'mon Mitch, let's go before he starts talking about the logic of Scribblenauts." I grabbed Mitch's arm and led both of the boys out of the airport. All the while, Jordan talked about the logic of Scribblenauts just to annoy me.

"Scribblenauts is supposed to get the creative part of your brain working by letting you choose anything to solve different problems. The answers to the puzzles are a variety of choices, including some that you wouldn't see in real life. Such as, if it says to make something to help Jimmy fly, its possible to make a tame dragon or a Pegasus and allow Jimmy to ride it-"

"Alright Jordan, we get it! Scribblenauts is very educational, Jimmy likes dragons and Pegasi, blah blah blah!" I finally raged. Jordan chuckled, amused.

"Who all is going to be here?" he asked.

"Well, we don't know for sure seeing as we didn't invite everyone, but the ones we know are us three, Ty, Adam, Jason, Ian, Quentin, and Ashley." Mitch blurted out before I could. Jordan nodded.

"Alright. I feel bad for Ashley, around a bunch of crazy guys." Jordan commented. I nodded.

"Yeah, but she can be just as crazy. She can be a total nutball if she wants to." Mitch informed.

"Really? That's surprising. I wouldn't see her as a crazy type of person."

"You've been seeing her wrong Cap'n." Jordan chuckled at the nickname. We stopped at a red light, now stuck in terrible traffic. There had been an accident up ahead. I knew that we'd be here a while because of Mitch's raging and slamming of his hands onto his steering wheel, so I turned and looked out the window. My eyes swept over the scenery, knowing I'd only see trees. But I was wrong. Instead, I saw something that surprised me.

The girl was back, and she was sitting on a bench on the side of the road, crying. The tears streamed down her face and her body was racking with her sobs, but I noticed something that puzzled me. The tears that left her face never hit the ground. The snow should have been affected, but it wasn't. It sat in the same state, top flat and smooth. I tapped my chin as I watched her, wanting so bad to run out of the car and put her in a warm embrace, but I knew I couldn't. This traffic was too dangerous to walk around the streets in. There was already an accident, and we don't need another. So, I sat and watched her instead, wondering what was wrong. Had that been her family in that wreck? Was it totally unrelated? Had her boyfriend broken up with her?

By the time I came back to my senses, we were able to move again. I watched sadly as the car rolled slowly away from the girl, the girl that I just wanted to know her name. I sighed and sunk into my seat, closing my eyes. But when I did, I saw her again. I crinkled my eyebrows together and tried to think of something else, but she was all I could think about. Was I... In love? With someone I didn't even know?

I sat up and shook my head to clear my thoughts, but all that did was give me a headache. I groaned and both Jordan and Mitch looked at me funny. "What?"

"You're acting weird, Jerome. You were just staring out the window at absolutely nothing, then you closed your eyes and thought really hard it seemed like. To make things worse, you just shook your head around then groaned. What's up?" Mitch recited everything I had just done. I sighed. Wait, he didn't see her again?

"Wait, you guys didn't see her?" I asked. pointing out the window, which no longer showed the girl, but instead showed the forest flashing by.

"Nope," Jordan said, popping the 'p'.

"No- wait. You asked me this on the hike. Are you feeling alright?" Mitch gave me a concerned look as he slowed down. I huffed and nodded.

"I'm fine."

Jordan looked at Mitch and raised an eyebrow, which made something in me snap.

"I'm fine! I'm not crazy! I'm not nuts! I swear! I know she was there! She was on the bench, crying! She was in the forest laughing and singing earlier! She's real! And I'm not crazy!" I yelled, and put the hood of Mitch's jacket over my head. I turned back towards the window and closed my eyes, thinking about what I just said. Yet, the more I thought, the more I denied it, I began to wonder. Was I crazy? Was this girl just in my imagination? Either way, I'd find out. And if my friends were just going to criticize me, I'll do it without them. I don't need them. I was fine doing this alone.

I think.

AN: YAY FIRST REAL CHAPTER! Sorry about the fact that the prologue was basically the first chapter. Nothing makes sense without it. So if you didn't read it, I suggest you go do that now because this chapter probably made no sense!

Anyway, I'm kinda proud of this book just a bit, and it's super fun to write! But I noticed some of you were worried that I'd forget MITM... As if that was possible! So don't worry about me forgetting Minecraft In The Morning, I won't! No worries there. It's just that MITM is getting really hard to write and stuff, so really slow updates. :( Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! If you did, be sure to slaaappp dat vote button witchya forehead! And... Bye!