I must have fallen asleep at some point after pulling that prank on Anthony, because the next thing I knew, I was jolting out of a peaceful sleep with a snort. A yawn escaped my lips and I stretched, wondering when I’d passed out. I squinted as I opened my eyes, trying to get used to the light. For some reason my face felt stiff, but I shrugged it off. Maybe it was due to the frowning I’d been doing. Usually I didn’t frown so much.

            When my vision had settled, I turned my head to check on Anthony. My gaze fell on something I was not expecting. Instead of the handsome young man meeting my gaze, a monster with a brown, dried face stared back at me. A startled scream escaped my lips and I shoved my hand out, trying to push the monster away. Instead of the brute moving, my hand collided with something that wasn’t budging, causing me to cry out in pain. When I looked again, I noticed the monster now had a hand. A white hand. I blinked, confused. Why did the monster look so much like me…?

            Then it hit me. I moved my hand in a circulation motion. My reflection followed it. It was a mirror! That meant… My eyes dropped to the ground, where an empty jar of Nutella was lying. “Anthony!” I shouted, sitting up. “Ugh! Gross!” I cried, wiping some of the hazelnut spread off my face. It was covered in it!

            I pushed the mirror aside, looking at the empty bench swing. Anthony wasn’t there. As I sat up, I realized my back felt a little stiff. Baffled, I looked down and realized I wasn’t wearing the shirt I fell asleep in. Now  I was wearing a brown long-sleeved shirt. Lifting up the hem of it, I realized there were bandages wrapped around my mid section, covering the part of my back that’d been injured. Instantly I felt my face heat up. Anthony was the only one who could’ve done that for me. He’d definitely seen my naked torso.

            “It was for a good deed,” I told myself, pushing myself off the lawn chair. Before I went searching for the little Walmart worker, I had to wash the Nutella off my face and use the bathroom.

            It took about ten minutes in order for me to wash all of the spread off my face. While I was cleaning myself, I realized how much easier it would’ve been just to wash our hair in the sinks. I had to remember to mention that to Anthony next time we washed ourselves. Tomorrow… or maybe later today. I had no clue what the time was.

            I dried my face and stumbled out of the bathroom, running a hand through my hair. Not to my surprise, the thunder was still rumbling outside. It really never ended. It made me wonder what the lightning looked like. Shaking my head, I went off to hunt down Anthony. After about ten minutes of searching, I finally found him on the ground near the art supplies. In front of him was something yellow and round. Upon closer inspection, I realized he was making a filled in circle of Twinkies and stacking more and more on top of each other, making them so each level became more narrow.

            “Anthony… what are you doing?” I questioned, taking a few, slow steps toward him. He seemed like he was really concentrating.

            “Building a Twinkie tower,” he responded casually, taking a Twinkie out the carton and placing it on the base of the tower.

            I lifted an eyebrow. “Isn’t that in the stalker’s manual somewhere?”

            His eyes snapped to mine and he grinned knowingly. “I take it you’ve seen that movie too.”

            “Isn’t there where you got the idea?”

            “You bet. I’ve always wanted to try it, but didn’t want to waste the money on the Twinkies. You want to help?”

            Laughing, I took a seat on the floor next to him, crossing my legs Indian style. “I’d love to. To be honest, I’ve wanted to do it too. Twinkies are expensive though.”

            He nodded. “Exactly.”

            “Your little prank scared me this morning,” I informed him, snatching a Twinkie from the box and placing it on the base like Anthony was doing.

            He gave me a smug look. “I thought the mirror would freak you out.”

            “Yeah, jerk. I nearly peed myself.”

            “Hey, you’re the one who put it on my face first.”

            “Actually, you did that yourself. I used that old tickle prank.”

            After a moment of silence, understanding dawned on his face. “Ahh, I see now. That was clever.”

            “Yes,” I agreed in a murmur. “Anthony?”

            “Hmm?”

            “Do you remember anything that happened last night?”

            He gave me a crazy look. “I remember everything, Ellie.”

            My heart skipped a beat. “E-everything?”

            “Yeah. There was an earthquake, right? And then a clock fell on me and I passed out. Oh, thanks for the bandages, by the way,” he added, pointing to his head. “I really appreciate it. It doesn’t even hurt.”

            “You don’t remember taking any pain killers?”

            He furrowed his eyebrows. “Not that you mention it, I kind of do. It’s hazy though. I must have only been awake for a few moments.”

            My shoulders sagged in relief. That meant he didn’t remember the kiss. Luck was on my side. “Yeah, you were. Thanks for doing my bandages too.”

            “No problem.” He frowned a little bit. “I don’t know why you didn’t dress it yourself. I know it’s on your back, but that was a pretty nasty cut.”

            I gasped. “Cut?”

            “Well I guess it was more like a gash. It was pretty deep.”

            “Gash?”

            “You didn’t notice all the blood on your back?”

            My eyes widened. “Blood?”

            “Should I call you Parrot Ellie from now on?”

            I ignored his jibe. “No! I didn’t notice! I thought maybe my back had been skinned a little bit. Wow, I didn’t realize it was more serious than that.”

            “Didn’t it hurt? It looked really painful.”

            “It kind of hurt,” I admitted, cupping my elbow with my hand. “I guess I was too preoccupied by worrying about you to really notice it.”

            He gave me a dissatisfied look. “Worry about yourself a little more please, Ellie.”

            “You were hit in the head with a clock! I thought you were going to die!”

            “I won’t die so easily,” he promised me, rolling his eyes. “If I died, who would protect you from all the bad ghosts here?”

            I let my head fall back, letting out a long sigh. “Let’s call it even and say we won’t get hurt again while we’re here.”

            He chuckled, placing his hand over mine. “Sounds good to me, Ellie.”

            I jerked my hand away in surprise. He blinked at me, slowly pulling his hand back. Flushing, I dropped my gaze. “S-sorry. You just surprised it.”

            “No, don’t worry about it,” he told me, grabbing another Twinkie. “I wasn’t thinking. Of course you’d be jumpy after earlier.”

            “What time is it?” I questioned. If he said earlier, that probably meant it was still Tuesday.

            “It’s about eight o’clock,” he informed me. “What? Is it your bed time, Ellie?”

            I gave him a sarcastic smile. “Funny. Actually, no. I don’t know when I’m going to be tired tonight. I’ve been sleeping on and off all day.”

            He frowned. “Same here. It’s totally breaking my sleeping habits. I hate sleeping. It’s such a waste of time.”

            “I don’t mind it,” I disagreed. “It makes the time were trapped here go quicker.”

            “You want to be out of my company that much?”

            “No!” I said quickly. Too quickly.

            He smirked at me. “You can’t get much more honest than that.”

            I glowered at him. He was too sneaky. “It’s not you I want to be rid of. It’s this place. I’m tired of being trapped here. Being waist-deep in Walmart isn’t exactly my favorite thing to do.”

            “It’s an experience, Ellie,” Anthony responded, resuming his work on his Twinkie tower. It was close to being finished. “I am so taking this thing home…”

            “Julius will love it,” I told him. “Although he might want to eat it. I don’t understand how, but he loves Twinkies.”

            Anthony wrinkled his nose. “Oh, I know. I watched him scarf down a whole box in under two minutes. We should really enter him in like, a pie-eating contest. He could win us the grand prize.”

            “I miss him,” I said with a sigh.

            “You really like him, huh?”

            “You should know that by now,” I replied, sticking my tongue out. “He’s one of my heroes. I’m worried about him. I told you how difficult he likes to be. At least my family is smart, so hopefully they’re safe. But Julius…”

            Anthony sighed, turning his body so that he was completely facing me. “Ellie, I told you. Julius will be fine. He might be stupid, but he’s not that stupid. He’s probably sitting at home with his family in the basement, waiting out the storm.”

            “The basement?” I repeated with a gasp. “What if the hurricane brings a tidal wave? Then everyone will drown and— mmph!”

            Anthony held his hand over my mouth tighter as I tried to move it away. “No, Ellie. I told you no negative thinking. Besides, geographically, it’d be really hard for a tidal wave to hit Massachusetts. Don’t even think about this hurricane as a hurricane. It’s more like a tropical storm.”

            I finally managed to pull his hand away. “But you saw the damage at Barnstable!”

            “Ellie…”

            “I wasn’t saying anything bad! I was just pointing out a fact.”

            “Honestly, it’s not that bad. Trust me when I say it could be worst, Ellie. Remember Katrina a few yeas ago? A little more than a decade ago? In Louisiana?”

            I nodded. Of course I remembered that. If there were an award you could win for fundraising for hurricane victims, I would’ve won it. I’d done so much fund raising for that hurricane.

            “This isn’t even a quarter as bad as that was. Not even close. So don’t worry about it.”

            “You keep saying that, but I can’t help but to worry,” I muttered, puffing out my cheeks.

            Anthony slapped his hands to them, making the burst with a pop! as the air rushed out of them. “It’s okay to worry, but don’t let it put a damper on you mood. Remember, we have to stay positive in here.”

            I massaged my cheeks. “Right, right. I gotcha. Let’s finish this tower.”

            “It’s almost done!” he responded excitedly, turning back to me. “I just need to glue this layer on before we start the next. Grab a bottle of glue. It’s right there,” he ordered, pointing to the shelf behind me.

            I obeyed him, moving to my knees so I could grab the bottle. As I grabbed it, I saw the price tag. Five bucks for a bottle of glue? That sounded outrageous to me. Where was Elmer’s when you needed it? At this point, I was beyond caring about paying Walmart back for everything we used. We were stuck in here. We had a perfectly good reason for using their products without paying.

            For about another half an hour, we worked on the Twinkie tower together. By the time it was finished, we had used just about twenty boxes of Twinkies. Anthony stared at his masterpiece like a father would stare at his newborn child. “We have to move this somewhere safe. I don’t want it getting destroyed.”

            “It’s just us two in here, Anthony,” I pointed out. “We both know it’s here. It won’t be damaged if we just keep it here. When we get out of here you can just bring it with us, or something.”

            He frowned it for a moment. “But…”

            I smiled, rolling my eyes at him. “Come on, Anthony. If you’re really that worried about it, I’ll help you bring it back to the campsite.”

            “Really?” he responded, his eyes lighting up. “Thanks Ellie!”

            I didn’t have time to prepare myself as he threw his toned body at me, knocking me flat off my feet. We both groaned in pain as I hit the floor. My back arched as the ground came in contact with my wound. “Stupid move,” I moaned, trying to shove Anthony off me.

            “I agree,” he said, quickly moving to his feet. He offered me his hand, which I took gratefully, allowing him to swiftly pull me to my feet. “There you go.”

            “Thanks,” I muttered, brushing off my butt. “You take one side, I’ll take the other.”

            Working with each other, we both lifted the towering Twinkie art piece and slowly began moving it back to camp. Anthony was grinning happily to himself, admiring his work. I smiled too, but because of how cute he looked, not because of the stalker product. He was pretty amazing. It took quite a personality to be happy, and keep other people happy, in times like this. I was lucky to be trapped in here with him.

            “What are you grinning about, Ellie?” he inquired, smirking at me. “Admiring my good looks?”

            “Kind of. I was comparing you to Julius,” I lied, trying to be as casual as possible. I kept my face completely emotionless so he wouldn’t figure out my charade. The shock on his face almost gave me away. I struggled to keep myself from laughing.

            “Why are you comparing him to me? We’re nothing alike!”

            I raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you though? You both play lacrosse, don’t you? I think that makes you guys alike.”

            “Absolutely not! He can’t live up to me.”

            “Confident, are we?”

            “Duh,” he responded, shaking his head at me. “I mean, come on, with these looks?” Throwing a dashing smile on his face, he flipped his hair in a very overdramatic way.

            This time I couldn’t help but to laugh. “Wow, Anthony.”

            “I know. I’m that stunning.”

            “You’re really girly.”

            He wrinkled up his nose. “Oh, ew.”

            “Hey!”

            “That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly. “Girls aren’t ew… Well, some of them are, I guess. But what I meant is that I don’t like being called girly.”

            I rolled my eyes at him. “Maybe you’re more like Julius than you realize.”

            He scowled. “I’m not.”

            “Yes you are.”

            “I’m not!”

            “Why are you so defensive about it?”

            He dropped his gaze. “I don’t want you comparing us,” he muttered. “I don’t like to think… Never mind.”

            Curiosity bit at me, but I tried to retain it. I had a guess about what he wanted to say, but I had to ignore it for now. Just until we got out of this place— and after I told him I was actually still a senior in high school. Then we could advance our relationship. For now though, we had to just be friends.

            We finally arrived at our makeshift campsite and set down the tower by Anthony’s lawn chair, in a spot where it’d be incredibly difficult to knock it over. After that, Anthony grabbed my hand and started dragging me to the back of the store. I stumbled to keep up. “Where are we going?”

            “To the storage area.”

            “Why?”

            He threw an evil glance over his shoulder. “To kill you, of course.”

            I pursed my lips at him. “Seriously, Anthony.”

            “We’re going to play a little basketball.”

            “Huh?”

            “There’s a hoop set up back there,” he informed me. “Julius and I set it up awhile ago and we were never told to take it down. We play sometimes on break. Or when they store isn’t too busy.”

            I tried to pull myself free from his grasp. “I told you, Anthony, I suck at basketball.”

            “Yeah, I remember, but the only way to get better is to practice!”

            “I don’t want to get better.”

            He ignored me. I sighed.

            True to his words, there actually was a basketball hoop in the back storage room. It was regulation size with two Wilsons in the indents at its base. Anthony hummed happily to himself as he sauntered toward it while I looked on moodily. Basketball really wasn’t an appealing sport to me. The first time I’d ever played it, Julius had somehow managed to jam my finger pretty badly. That memory would never leave me.

            “Ellie!”

            “Yes?” I called, straightening up and becoming alert.

            Anthony had a basketball to his chest, grinning at me. “Catch this ball. I’ll bounce pass it.”

            I nodded. A bounce pass I could handle.

            “Oh my god!” I cried in surprise as he forcefully bounced the ball off the ground toward me. It flew like a rocket! Scared, I pulled myself out of the way of its Path of Terror.

            Anthony laughed at me. “You’re such a chicken shit!”

            “I told you I don’t like basketball!”

            “No, actually, you told me you weren’t good at it. You never mentioned you had an irrational fear of basketballs.”

            I glowered at him. “I don’t have a fear!”

            “Catch!”

            “No!” I cried, covering my head in a panic.

            His raucous guffawing filled the open room, echoing off the walls. “You are scared of them!” he cried, sounding far too amused for my liking. “Oh, this is grand!”

            “I’m not afraid!” I denied, my body feeling hot. “Anyone would get scared if you whipped a ball at them!”

            “… Pfft!”

            I squinted my eyes. “Let’s try to be a little more mature, shall we?”

            Shaking his head, he jogged over to me, still chuckling softly. “Sorry, sorry. Come on, I’ll teach you how to shoot. That way maybe you won’t be so scared of balls anymore— oof!”

            “Shut up,” I muttered, removing my elbow from his gut.

            “R-right,” he wheezed, moving his hands to his stomach. “You pack a real good elbow hit, Ellie.”

            Ignoring him, I trudged over toward the back of the area where both Wilsons had rolled. Somehow they’d both managed to come to a halt at the same spot. Obviously Anthony wasn’t going to let me out of this, so it was best to just try and enjoy it as much as I could. Wasn’t being with him enough? Who cares what we did? Besides, he’d gone along with my Nerf idea. It wouldn’t be fair of me to decline his request.

            Holding in a sigh, I bent down and retrieved the two balls. Maybe I’d suddenly become a white Michael Jordan. Anthony smirked at me as I approached him with the balls in hand. “Ah,” he started, eyeing my hands. “It seems like you’ve come back with the balls to do this with. Two of them,” he added, snickering at his own joke.

            “Yeah, that’s more than you have.”

            He stopped laughing. “Ha.”

            I smiled innocently, clumsily throwing a ball at him. “So are we going to do this? A one-on-one game, or what?”

            “You need to be able to shoot before you can play a game,” he pointed out. “Come here, I’ll teach you.”

            Rolling my eyes, I followed him back to the hoop. “I know how to shoot.”

            He cocked an eyebrow. “Impress me then.”

            “Sure,” I responded, holding the Wilson in my hands firmly. Spreading my legs, I bent down a little bit, swung the ball down under them, and then swung it back up with as much force as I could muster, letting the ball go. Not going according to plan, the ball went pretty much straight up before heading straight back down to earth. I covered my head, jumping out of its way.

            Once again laughter from Anthony filled the room. “Hahaha! Who shoots like that? How old are you again? Five?”

            “I’m eigh— a-a twenty year old girl,” I corrected myself, my heart skipping a beat. That was close.

            “Hahaha! That’s too precious! Haha!”

            “You don’t have to laugh so much!”

            “Sorry,” he gasped, putting his hand to his side. “You’re too adorable, Ellie. Come here, I’ll teach you.”

            Feeling the familiar warmth on my cheeks, I ducked my head, and headed toward him. “I never really paid attention in gym class,” I admitted honestly.

            He snorted. “Apparently not.”

            “Julius never taught me the correct way either.”

            “Forget about Julius,” Antony ordered, “I’ll teach you. Here, take the ball.”

            Doing as he commanded, I grasped the ball between my palms. “How should I hold it?”

            “However you feel most comfortable,” he responded, moving so he was standing directly behind me. “Now take your arms like this.” Suddenly his hands gripped my forearms, causing me to jump. He moved them so that my left one was slightly higher than my right one. “You’re left handed, right?”

            “Yeah,” I breathed, much too aware of his hands on my body.

            “As I thought. You’re a little different than most people,” he teased, his breath blowing on my neck. “Now when you’re shooting, make sure you…”

            His words became a garble of background noise. Did he seriously think I could pay attention to his explanation while he was so close to me? Even I wasn’t that good. Warmth was radiating from his palms on my skin. It felt nice. Was the rest of his body that warm? I wanted to find out…

            “You understand, Ellie?” he asked, abruptly moving away from me, his hands leaving my arms.

            Disappointment washed through me. “I get it,” I lied half-heartedly.

            He grinned. “Okay, then shoot.”

            “Er… Yeah.” I glanced at the ball in my hand, then at the hoop. It seemed further away this time. I hadn’t been listening at all, so I had no idea what Anthony was expecting. Smiling sheepishly, I brought my arms over my head, and threw the ball toward the basket in an overheard throw. I turned back to him, scratching the back of my head. “Ta-da?”

            Expressionless, he just walked over to where the ball had rolled and picked it up. “It seems like we have a lot of work to do,” he told me in a robotic tone, gazing down at the floor.

            “Y-you don’t have to act like you’re pitying me,” I told him with a grimace. “It just makes me feel worse.”

            “Ellie!”

            “What?” I cried, scared by his abrupt shout.

            He gave me a determined look. “In the next hour, you will become a basketball pro. Now move!”

            “What am I supposed to be doing?” I asked in confusion.

            “Two laps around the storage area!”

            “What?”

            “Move, move, move!”

            Absolutely bewildered, I blindly obeyed his orders, flat out sprinting around the room. Was this what it was like in boot camp? I could feel my muscles straining already. Exercise was never my thing. Anthony watched me with narrowed eyes. For once I was scared of him. He really intended on making me a better basketball player.

            This was going to be the end of my life.

            I smiled wryly. Death by exercise while trapped in Walmart. Perfect.

___________________________________________________

Kind of boring chapter, but it's the best I can do right now. I'm kinda at a writer's... standstill. You know? Where you have no motivation to write? It sucks. And it's not only for this story either so it's like blahh. It's thanks to school. I've been so tired lately. Oh well. I redid my schedule so now I get out of school early next semester! And I have my favorite teacher c:

Today's song is umm Oh Well, Oh Well by Mayday Parade.

And today's story is Behind My Sister's Back by Squiggle! Here's the description!

When Summer's marriage ends in disaster, her sister, Ali, is there to pick up the pieces. What Summer didn't expect was for Ali to meet Dennis, Summer's ex-husband, and fall under his charm...