The Shadows Among Us (Destiny's Path)

“It’s too late she’s lost to much blood.” A Woman said her voice full of grief. “You have to save her….” A man said breaking off and started to sob loudly. “She’s dead!” The little room was silent. Then the man broke the silence” I will miss you very much, Marie.” Suddenly a loud snapping of a branch sounded outside the little house. “We have to get out of here while we have the chance.” The woman with a raspy voice whispered to Arlow. Together they lifted Marie and hurried out the back door of the house.
Once in the woods and far away the house the women said. “Arlow you must protect Marie’s descendant, the one who is destined to lead us to victory, with your life.”
“Laney, who will it be?”
“No one knows.”


Chapter one


“Evelyne Barrens you’re late again!” Mr. Dickens yelled as Evelyne stumbled into her Social studies room. Evelyne glared defiantly up at him. “I got in here before the bell!” she said through gritted teeth. Even though she got in the classroom on time Mr. Dickens was determined to get her into trouble. Evelyne took her spot by Nick; Nick snickered at her as Mr. Dickens said glaring at her. “Go and get another tardy pass Evelyne.”

Evelyne walked slowly to the main office and by passed a couple other sixth graders digging in their lockers with their planners lying unattended on the tile floor. One of them was her sister, Isabella or what she likes to be called, Bella. Bella and Evelyne have a brother named Aaron and they are all triplets. Evelyne took a right and continued down the brightly lit hall.  She grabbed the handle of a big wooden door and stepped into the room silently.
“Good morning, do you need another tardy pass, Evelyne?” Mrs. Lynol greeted her.
Evelyne nodded. “Mr. Dickens hates me!” She exclaimed,” He made get a tardy pass when I got in his class room just before the bell rang.”
“Is your locker broken?”
“Might be, because that’s the exact reason I’m late for almost all of my classes.”
“Alright then I will have someone look at it today.”
“Okay, thanks again!” Evelyne said smiling as Mrs. Lynol handed her a tardy pass.

Evelyne hurried out of the office and down the hall to Social Studies. Mr. Dickens was in the middle of another history lecture when Evelyne sat down in her chair in the front of the room. S.S was considered a core class along with science, math, and language arts; and all the core classes last 90 minutes and exploratories last 45 minutes. Mr. Dickens seemed like the oldest and meanest teacher in all of Mapleton Middle School. Even the wrinkles on his face made his look like a bulldog.

As she sat in her desk between Nick and Claire; Claire gave her a sympathetic smile while Nick ignored her completely.  S.S. dragged on and on forever as Mr. Dickens lectured the class about the Aztecs. When the finally bell rang, everyone dashed out of the classroom like a herd of cattle. Evelyne hurried over to her to her locker and opened it. She dropped the thick blue and gray book she was carrying in her locker and ran over her friends so they could walk the Study Hall together.
As soon as she walked in the door a boy named Mikael ran into her knocking her right to the floor. As she fell, Evelyne dropped her book and yelped in surprise. Mikael looked like he had tried to tackle her so he landed on her with his elbow in her stomach.
“Oomph,” Evelyne grunted, “Can you please get off of me?!”
Mikael scrambled to his feet sputtering, “I’m so sorry Eva!” he said with his face blushing. Evelyne blushed also, “Its okay…”she said trailing off as she glanced around the classroom.

Mikael bent down to pick up her book and handed it to her. Everyone in the classroom laughed at the two of them. “Leave it to Mikael to brighten the day!” exclaimed a boy with dark brown hair and tan skin. Mikael’s face turned even redder. “Are you two okay?” Mrs. Watson asked.
“I’m okay….” Evelyne mumbled.”
Yeah, I’m okay, too.” Mikael said glancing at the floor. Evelyne quickly sat down by her friend Claire and pretended to study. “That must have been embarrassing!” Claire said looking Mikael. Evelyne nodded still in shock she glanced at him too. Mikael was being teased by the other boys and he looked her way and their eyes locked. Evelyne smiled slightly and looked away biting her lip.

*********

It was lunch time and Evelyne was ravenously eating a grilled chicken sandwich.
“Looks like you got tackled by a boy in Study Hall.” Joel said laughing.
Ella glared at him then said sincerely. “It looked like it hurt!”
“It wasn’t exactly great,” Evelyne said and took a bite out of her sandwich, “His elbow got me in the stomach.”
“Boys!” Bella exclaimed glancing at her brother Aaron, “No offence.”
Aaron shrugged. “I know Mikael; he would never try to hurt someone, especially a girl.”

Finally it was 7th period or gym class and Evelyne couldn’t wait to get home. “Okay class let’s get into groups of two, now remember this must be boy, girl for this warm up to work.” Mr. Bellings said smiling at the disappointed looks on his class’ face. All the kids scrambled to get a good partner. Of course Evelyne looked for Aaron; thankfully he didn’t have a partner yet. “Aaron, over here!” she called as soon as he heard her voice he hurried over to her. “Thank goodness!” He gasped, “Melanie was trying to be my partner so as soon I heard you I ran away!” He said grinning. Melanie thinks she is the most athletic girl in all of Mapleton Middle School but she’s not. She also thinks she’s so strong that she makes people touch her arms just because she plays volleyball.

Evelyne and her brother barely survived the warm up with only a few bumps and bruises. “Well this concludes our warm up,” Mr. Bellings announced after making them do 150 sit ups. “So now let us cool down with a nice walk around the school and some stretches.” The class walked outside on the hot summer day and started the cool down. Once outside Aaron’s best friend Jack walked over to him.
“Sup Aaron, Eva,” Jack said nodding to them, “What you dong tonight, are you busy?”
“We all have swim practice, sorry.” Evelyne replied, Jack looked disappointed for a second then smiled. “Okay well see guys around!” Then he ran off towards one of his other friends. Evelyne and Aaron walked in silence for a while then Aaron broke the silence. “I hear you got another tardy pass today from Mr. Dickens.”
“Yeah he’s determined to give me all the tardy passes in the world.”
“I wonder why.”
“Huh?”
“Well maybe he’s still mad about the surprise birthday party that he almost got a heart attack from.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
“Obviously, and you were the one who planned it.”
“Well he wouldn’t have known that if Melanie hadn’t told him.”
“Yeah right.”
Evelyne playfully shoved Aaron, he shoved her back and before they knew it they were having a shove a war.
“Class dismissed.” Mr. Bellings declared. Evelyne said good bye to Aaron over her shoulder while she chased after a tall blonde headed girl with tan skin.
“Hey, Eva!” said the girl as Evelyne caught up with her.
“Hello, Russa!” Evelyne answered, “Who was your partner?”
Russa didn’t answer right away. “My partner was Chris…” she trailed off in embarrassment, “Who was yours?”
“I was Aaron’s partner, of course!”
Russa rolled her eyes, “Come on, we’re the last ones in here!” she said and hurried down the stairs with Evelyne hard on her heels.



“What a day!” Bella exclaimed as Aaron hurried over to his best friend, Joel. “I know right?” Evelyne said glancing over her shoulder. “Today as I walked into Study Hall I got tackled by Mikael, I don’t know what I ever did to him, either.”
“You probably did nothing; he might have wanted your attention.” Bella said playfully punching Evelyne’s arm.
“I think he just tripped.” Evelyne trailed off as they boarded the bus.


CHAPTER 2

“That’s a best time!” coach Lindsey exclaimed excitedly. Evelyne pulled herself out of the cold water.  She had just finished her 50 free and took  off .60 seconds off her best time; 26:85 so her new time is 26:25.

Evelyne weaved through the other swimmers that were waiting for their event and over to Coach Lindsey. “You’ve got yourself a Zone Time, missy!” Coach Lindsey said; rushing over to her with her curly blonde hair bouncing all over. “Great! Now I can compete in State Finals!” Evelyne panted; she had never been so tired in her life.
“Come on you need to rest, Eva.” Her coach said and gently led her back to her seat.
“Nice job, Eva!” called her friend Russa.
“Thanks…” Evelyne trailed off. She didn’t want her team to make a huge deal about her zone time.
“A Zone Time is nothing to be embarrassed about.” Russa said slapping her on the back.
“That was your last event, right?” a soft voice asked making Evelyne jump.
“Bella, you startled me!” Evelyne said getting to her feet, “and yes that was my last event.” As she stood her legs weakened and she collapsed. Strong arms caught her before she hit the ground.
“Careful Evelyne,” someone said, “We don’t want our first Zone Timer to get hurt!” Evelyne looked over her shoulder and saw Aaron standing right behind her.
She grinned at him. “Come on let’s get going, dad’s waiting.” He went on more briskly.
“Did he see my race?” Evelyne asked hopefully.
“Not sure,” Bella answered her hazel green eyes darkened, “He’s seemed to have gotten sicker…” Sadness engulfed Evelyne; ever since she had gotten faster times her dad stared to get sicker even faster. Evelyne shook herself, her dad was going to get better, and she had to believe that!
“Are you leaving already?” Coach Lindsey said when the triplets started to leave the pool deck.
“Yep, we got to get home,” Aaron replied, “Can you pick up our ribbons?”
“Sure,” Coach Lindsey answered, “Besides I have to stay for the 500s and the mile.”
“Okay thank you so much!” Bella said thankfully.
“Anytime,” Lindsey smiled, “See you three at practice!” Evelyne waved good bye then lead the way to the boys and girls locker rooms.

Wow, that sounds great!!! The introduction is very mysterious and cool!

Thanks!! Did you feel like you were at a swim meet?

Yeah, good description! I kind of felt her pain after her race! One thing though, maybe subtract a little from the time she dropped, once you get as fast as us then dropping a second would be worthy of a big celebration. Maybe like .5 or something.

Okay, she's supposed to have a big talent for sports, while Bella is talented in music and art...

Oh I don't know.....................................................................   

Haha, Keep he best time the same, but if shes always been this good, she should have started with a crazy fast time, too.

I already changed it, oh well.  

CHAPTER 1

“Evelyne Barrens you’re late again!” Mr. Dickens yelled as Evelyne stumbled into her Social studies room. Evelyne glared defiantly up at him. “I got in here before the bell!” she said through gritted teeth. Even though she got in the classroom on time Mr. Dickens was determined to get her into trouble. Evelyne took her spot by Nick; Nick snickered at her as Mr. Dickens said glaring at her. “Go and get another tardy pass Evelyne.”

Evelyne walked slowly to the main office and by passed a couple other sixth graders digging in their lockers with their planners lying unattended on the tile floor. One of them was her sister, Isabella or what she likes to be called, Bella. Bella and Evelyne have a brother named Aaron and they are all triplets. Evelyne took a right and continued down the brightly lit hall.  She grabbed the handle of a big wooden door and stepped into the room silently.
“Good morning, do you need another tardy pass, Evelyne?” Mrs. Lynol greeted her.
Evelyne nodded. “Mr. Dickens hates me!” She exclaimed,” He made get a tardy pass when I got in his class room just before the bell rang.”
“Is your locker broken?”
“Might be, because that’s the exact reason I’m late for almost all of my classes.”
“Alright then I will have someone look at it today.”
“Okay, thanks again!” Evelyne said smiling as Mrs. Lynol handed her a tardy pass.

Evelyne hurried out of the office and down the hall to Social Studies. Mr. Dickens was in the middle of another history lecture when Evelyne sat down in her chair in the front of the room. S.S was considered a core class along with science, math, and language arts; and all the core classes last 90 minutes and exploratories last 45 minutes. Mr. Dickens seemed like the oldest and meanest teacher in all of Mapleton Middle School. Even the wrinkles on his face made his look like a bulldog.

As she sat in her desk between Nick and Claire; Claire gave her a sympathetic smile while Nick ignored her completely.  S.S. dragged on and on forever as Mr. Dickens lectured the class about the Aztecs. When the finally bell rang, everyone dashed out of the classroom like a herd of cattle. Evelyne hurried over to her to her locker and opened it. She dropped the thick blue and gray book she was carrying in her locker and ran over her friends so they could walk the Study Hall together.
As soon as she walked in the door a boy named Mikael ran into her knocking her right to the floor. As she fell, Evelyne dropped her book and yelped in surprise. Mikael looked like he had tried to tackle her so he landed on her with his elbow in her stomach.
“Oomph,” Evelyne grunted, “Can you please get off of me?!”
Mikael scrambled to his feet sputtering, “I’m so sorry Eva!” he said with his face blushing. Evelyne blushed also, “Its okay…”she said trailing off as she glanced around the classroom.

Mikael bent down to pick up her book and handed it to her. Everyone in the classroom laughed at the two of them. “Leave it to Mikael to brighten the day!” exclaimed a boy with dark brown hair and tan skin. Mikael’s face turned even redder. “Are you two okay?” Mrs. Watson asked.
“I’m okay….” Evelyne mumbled.”
Yeah, I’m okay, too.” Mikael said glancing at the floor. Evelyne quickly sat down by her friend Claire and pretended to study. “That must have been embarrassing!” Claire said looking Mikael. Evelyne nodded still in shock she glanced at him too. Mikael was being teased by the other boys and he looked her way and their eyes locked. Evelyne smiled slightly and looked away biting her lip.

*********

It was lunch time and Evelyne was ravenously eating a grilled chicken sandwich.
“Looks like you got tackled by a boy in Study Hall.” Joel said laughing.
Ella glared at him then said sincerely. “It looked like it hurt!”
“It wasn’t exactly great,” Evelyne said and took a bite out of her sandwich, “His elbow got me in the stomach.”
“Boys!” Bella exclaimed glancing at her brother Aaron, “No offence.”
Aaron shrugged. “I know Mikael; he would never try to hurt someone, especially a girl.”

Finally it was 7th period or gym class and Evelyne couldn’t wait to get home. “Okay class let’s get into groups of two, now remember this must be boy, girl for this warm up to work.” Mr. Bellings said smiling at the disappointed looks on his class’ face. All the kids scrambled to get a good partner. Of course Evelyne looked for Aaron; thankfully he didn’t have a partner yet. “Aaron, over here!” she called as soon as he heard her voice he hurried over to her. “Thank goodness!” He gasped, “Melanie was trying to be my partner so as soon I heard you I ran away!” He said grinning. Melanie thinks she is the most athletic girl in all of Mapleton Middle School but she’s not. She also thinks she’s so strong that she makes people touch her arms just because she plays volleyball.

Evelyne and her brother barely survived the warm up with only a few bumps and bruises.
“Well this concludes our warm up,” Mr. Bellings announced after making them do 150 sit ups, “So now let us cool down with a nice walk around the school and some stretches.” The class walked outside on the hot summer day and started the cool down. Once outside Aaron’s best friend Jack walked over to him.
“Sup Aaron, Eva,” Jack said nodding to them, “What you dong tonight, are you busy?”
“We all have swim practice, sorry.” Evelyne replied, Jack looked disappointed for a second then smiled. “Okay well see guys around!” Then he ran off towards one of his other friends. Evelyne and Aaron walked in silence for a while then Aaron broke the silence. “I hear you got another tardy pass today from Mr. Dickens.”
“Yeah he’s determined to give me all the tardy passes in the world.”
“I wonder why.”
“Huh?”
“Well maybe he’s still mad about the surprise birthday party that he almost got a heart attack from.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
“Obviously, and you were the one who planned it.”
“Well he wouldn’t have known that if Melanie hadn’t told him.”
“Yeah right.”
Evelyne playfully shoved Aaron, he shoved her back and before they knew it they were having a shove a war.
“Class dismissed.” Mr. Bellings declared. Evelyne said good bye to Aaron over her shoulder while she chased after a tall blonde headed girl with tan skin.
“Hey, Eva!” said the girl as Evelyne caught up with her.
“Hello, Russa!” Evelyne answered, “Who was your partner?”
Russa didn’t answer right away. “My partner was Chris…” she trailed off in embarrassment, “Who was yours?”
“I was Aaron’s partner, of course!”
Russa rolled her eyes, “Come on, we’re the last ones in here!” she said and hurried down the stairs with Evelyne hard on her heels.



“What a day!” Bella exclaimed as Aaron hurried over to his best friend, Joel. “I know right?” Evelyne said glancing over her shoulder. “Today as I walked into Study Hall I got tackled by Mikael, I don’t know what I ever did to him, either.”
“You probably did nothing; he might have wanted your attention.” Bella said playfully punching Evelyne’s arm.
“I think he just tripped.” Evelyne trailed off as they boarded the bus.


CHAPTER 2

“That’s a best time!” coach Lindsey exclaimed excitedly. Evelyne pulled herself out of the cold water.  She had just finished her 50 free and took .60 seconds off of her best time; 26:85 so her new time is 26:25.

Evelyne weaved through the other swimmers that were waiting for their event and over to Coach Lindsey. “You’ve got yourself a Zone Time, missy!” Coach Lindsey said; rushing over to her with her curly blonde hair bouncing all over. “Great! Now I can compete in State Finals!” Evelyne panted; she had never been so tired in her life.
“Come on you need to rest, Eva.” Her coach said and gently led her back to her seat.
“Nice job, Eva!” called her friend Russa.
“Thanks…” Evelyne trailed off. She didn’t want her team to make a huge deal about her zone time.
“A Zone Time is nothing to be embarrassed about.” Russa said slapping her on the back.
“That was your last event, right?” a soft voice asked making Evelyne jump.
“Bella, you startled me!” Evelyne said getting to her feet, “and yes that was my last event.” As she stood her legs weakened and she collapsed. Strong arms caught her before she hit the ground.
“Careful Evelyne,” someone said, “We don’t want our first Zone Timer to get hurt!” Evelyne looked over her shoulder and saw Aaron standing right behind her.
She grinned at him. “Come on let’s get going, dad’s waiting.” He went on more briskly.
“Did he see my race?” Evelyne asked hopefully.
“Not sure,” Bella answered her hazel green eyes darkened, “He’s seemed to have gotten sicker…” Sadness engulfed Evelyne; ever since she had gotten faster times her dad stared to get sicker even faster. Evelyne shook herself, her dad was going to get better, and she had to believe that!
“Are you leaving already?” Coach Lindsey said when the triplets started to leave the pool deck.
“Yep, we got to get home,” Aaron replied, “Can you pick up our ribbons?”
“Sure,” Coach Lindsey answered, “Besides I have to stay for the 500s and the mile.”
“Okay thank you so much!” Bella said thankfully.
“Anytime,” Lindsey smiled, “See you three at practice!” Evelyne waved good bye then lead the way to the boys and girls locker rooms. Evelyne and Bella quickly got changed and headed out of the locker room with their Speedo swim bags on their backs. Aaron was already out there, impatiently tapping his foot.

“About time!” he exclaimed good naturedly when they got closer.
“Come on let’s get out to the car,” Bella said quietly and gently pushed her sibling out the door, “I don’t like have dad out of sight.”
“Same.” Evelyne trailed off as she lost herself in thought and followed her brother and sister. She had never met her mother; she had died as soon as the three were born. So her dad meant a lot to her, now he’s gotten very sick so Evelyne and her siblings never want him out of their sight.
“Evelyne, are you going to stand there and get hit by a car or get in the car?” her dad Arlow asked from behind the wheel.
Evelyne jumped. “Sorry…” she mumbled as she climbed into their lime green impala.
Her dad glanced at her again. “How was the…” he broke off as he started to cough uncontrollably, making the car rock slightly. “The meet?” he rasped.
Evelyne opened her mouth to respond but Aaron answered before her. “It went great, I got a champ time for 500 fly and Bella…”
Bella shoved Aaron. “Let me say how I did!” she exclaimed. “I’m down to a 32.01 for my 50 breaststroke and I broke 1 minute for my 100 free!”
“And I,” Evelyne began, “Got a Zone Time for my 50 free.”
“Wait to go!” her dad exclaimed, “The three of you did great!”
*****

The trip home was long and boring, mostly because the meet was two hours from their home town, Mapleton.

“It’s too late she’s lost to much blood.” A Woman said her voice full of grief.
“You have to save her….” A man said breaking off as he started to sob loudly.
“She’s dead!” The women cried.
The little room went silent.
Then the man broke the silence. “I will miss you very much, Marie.”
Suddenly a loud snapping of a branch sounded outside the little house.
“We have to get out of here while we have the chance.” The woman with a raspy voice whispered to Arlow. Together they lifted Marie and hurried out the back door of the house.
Once in the woods and far away the house the women said.
“Arlow you must protect Marie’s descendant, the one who is destined to lead us to victory, with your life.”
“Laney, who will it be?”
“No one knows.”


Chapter one


“Evelyne Barrens you’re late again!” Mr. Dickens yelled as Evelyne stumbled into her Social studies room.
Evelyne glared defiantly up at him.
“I got in here before the bell!” she said through gritted teeth. Even though she got in the classroom on time Mr. Dickens was determined to get her into trouble. Evelyne took her spot by Nick; Nick snickered at her as Mr. Dickens said glaring at her.
“Go and get another tardy pass Evelyne.”

Evelyne walked slowly to the main office and by passed a couple other sixth graders digging in their lockers with their planners lying unattended on the tile floor. One of them was her sister, Isabella or what she likes to be called, Bella. Bella and Evelyne have a brother named Aaron and they are all triplets. Evelyne took a right and continued down the brightly lit hall.  She grabbed the handle of a big wooden door and stepped into the room silently.
“Good morning, do you need another tardy pass, Evelyne?” Mrs. Lynol greeted her.
Evelyne nodded. “Mr. Dickens hates me!” She exclaimed,” He made get a tardy pass when I got in his class room just before the bell rang.”
“Is your locker broken?”
“Might be, because that’s the exact reason I’m late for almost all of my classes.”
“Alright then I will have someone look at it today.”
“Okay, thanks again!” Evelyne said smiling as Mrs. Lynol handed her a tardy pass.

Evelyne hurried out of the office and down the hall to Social Studies. Mr. Dickens was in the middle of another history lecture when Evelyne sat down in her chair in the front of the room. S.S was considered a core class along with science, math, and language arts; and all the core classes last 90 minutes and exploratories last 45 minutes. Mr. Dickens seemed like the oldest and meanest teacher in all of Mapleton Middle School. Even the wrinkles on his face made his look like a bulldog.

As she sat in her desk between Nick and Claire; Claire gave her a sympathetic smile while Nick ignored her completely.  S.S. dragged on and on forever as Mr. Dickens lectured the class about the Aztecs. When the bell finally rang, everyone dashed out of the classroom like a herd of cattle. Evelyne hurried over to her to her locker and opened it. She dropped the thick blue and gray book she was carrying in her locker and ran over her friends so they could walk the Study Hall together.
As soon as she walked in the door a boy named Mikael ran into her knocking her right to the floor. As she fell, Evelyne dropped her other book and yelped in surprise. Mikael looked like he had tried to tackle her so he landed on her with his elbow in her stomach.
“Oomph,” Evelyne grunted, “Can you please get off of me?!”
Mikael scrambled to his feet sputtering, “I’m so sorry Eva!” he said with his face blushing. Evelyne blushed also, “Its okay…”she said trailing off as she glanced around the classroom.
Mikael bent down to pick up her book and handed it to her. Everyone in the classroom laughed at the two of them. “Leave it to Mikael to brighten the day!” exclaimed a boy with dark brown hair and tan skin. Mikael’s face turned even redder. “Are you two okay?” Mrs. Watson asked.
“I’m okay….” Evelyne mumbled.”
Yeah, I’m okay, too.” Mikael said glancing at the floor. Evelyne quickly sat down by her friend Claire and pretended to study. “That must have been embarrassing!” Claire said looking at Mikael. Evelyne nodded and she glanced at him too. Mikael was being teased by the other boys and he looked her way and their eyes locked. Evelyne smiled slightly and looked away biting her lip.

*********

It was lunch time and Evelyne was ravenously eating a grilled chicken sandwich.
“Looks like you got tackled by a boy in Study Hall.” Joel said laughing.
Ella glared at him then said sincerely. “It looked like it hurt!”
“It wasn’t exactly pleasant,” Evelyne said and took a bite out of her sandwich, “His elbow got me in the stomach.”
“Boys!” Bella exclaimed glancing at her brother Aaron, “No offence.”
Aaron shrugged. “I know Mikael; he would never try to hurt someone, especially a girl.”


Finally it was 7th period or gym class and Evelyne couldn’t wait to get home.
“Okay class let’s get into groups of two, now remember this must be boy, girl for this warm up to work.” Mr. Bellings said smiling at the disappointed looks on his class’ face. All the kids scrambled to get a good partner. Of course Evelyne looked for Aaron; thankfully he didn’t have a partner yet. “Aaron, over here!” she called, as soon as he heard her voice he hurried over to her.
“Thank goodness!” He gasped, “Melanie was trying to be my partner so as soon I heard you I ran for my life!”
Melanie thinks she is the most athletic girl in all of Mapleton Middle School, but she’s not. She also thinks she’s so strong that she makes people touch her arms just because she plays volleyball.

Evelyne and her brother barely survived the warm up with only a few bumps and bruises.
“Well this concludes our warm up,” Mr. Bellings announced after making them do 150 sit ups, “So now let us cool down with a nice walk around the school and some stretches.” The class walked outside on the hot summer day and started the cool down. Once outside Aaron’s best friend Jack walked over to him.
“Sup Aaron, Eva,” Jack said nodding to them, “What you dong tonight, are you busy?”
“We all have swim practice, sorry.” Evelyne replied, Jack looked disappointed for a second then smiled. “Okay well see guys around!” Then he ran off towards one of his other friends. Evelyne and Aaron walked in silence for a while then Aaron broke the silence. “I hear you got another tardy pass today from Mr. Dickens.”
“Yeah he’s determined to give me all the tardy passes in the world.”
“I wonder why.”
“Huh?”
“Well maybe he’s still mad about the surprise birthday party that he almost got a heart attack from.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
“Obviously, and you were the one who planned it.”
“Well he wouldn’t have known that if Melanie hadn’t told him.”
“Yeah right.”
Evelyne playfully shoved Aaron, he shoved her back and before they knew it they were having a shove a war.
“Class dismissed.” Mr. Bellings declared. Evelyne said good bye to Aaron over her shoulder while she chased after a tall blonde headed girl with tan skin.
“Hey, Eva!” said the girl as Evelyne caught up with her.
“Hello, Russa!” Evelyne answered, “Who was your partner?”
Russa didn’t answer right away. “My partner was Chris…” she trailed off in embarrassment, “Who was yours?”
“I was Aaron’s partner, of course!”
Russa rolled her eyes, “Come on, we’re the last ones in here!” she said and hurried down the stairs with Evelyne hard on her heels.



“What a day!” Bella exclaimed as Aaron hurried over to his best friend, Joel.
“I know right?” Evelyne said glancing over her shoulder. “Today as I walked into Study Hall I got tackled by Mikael, I don’t know what I ever did to him, either.”
“You probably did nothing; he might have wanted your attention.” Bella said playfully punching Evelyne’s arm.
“I think he just tripped.” Evelyne trailed off as they boarded the bus.


CHAPTER 2

“That’s a best time!” coach Lindsey exclaimed excitedly. Evelyne pulled herself out of the cold water.  She had just finished her 50 free and took .60 seconds off of her best time; 26:85 so her new time is 26:25.

Evelyne weaved through the other swimmers that were waiting for their own event and over to Coach Lindsey. “You’ve got yourself a Zone Time, missy!” Coach Lindsey said; rushing over to her with her curly blonde hair bouncing all over.
“Great! Now I can compete at Zones!” Evelyne panted; she had never been so tired in her life.
“Come on you need to rest, Eva.” Her coach said and gently led her back to her seat.
“Nice job, Eva!” called her friend Russa.
“Thanks…” Evelyne trailed off. She didn’t want her team to make a huge deal about her zone time.
“A Zone Time is nothing to be embarrassed about.” Russa said slapping her on the back.
“That was your last event, right?” a soft voice asked making Evelyne jump.
“Bella, you startled me!” Evelyne said getting to her feet, “and yes that was my last event.” As she stood her legs weakened and she collapsed. Strong arms caught her before she hit the ground.
“Careful Evelyne,” someone said, “We don’t want our first Zone Timer to get hurt!” Evelyne looked over her shoulder and saw Aaron standing right behind her.
She grinned at him. “Come on let’s get going, dad’s waiting.” He went on more briskly.
“Did he see my race?” Evelyne asked hopefully.
“Not sure,” Bella answered her hazel green eyes darkened, “He’s seemed to have gotten sicker…” Sadness engulfed Evelyne; ever since she had gotten faster times her dad stared to get sicker even faster. Evelyne shook herself, her dad was going to get better, and she had to believe that!
“Are you leaving already?” Coach Lindsey said when the triplets started to leave the pool deck.
“Yep, we got to get home,” Aaron replied, “Can you pick up our ribbons?”
“Sure,” Coach Lindsey answered, “Besides I have to stay for the 500s and the mile.”
“Okay thank you so much!” Bella said thankfully.
“Anytime,” Lindsey smiled, “See you three at practice!” Evelyne waved good bye then lead the way to the boys and girls locker rooms. Evelyne and Bella quickly got changed and headed out of the locker room with their Speedo swim bags on their backs. Aaron was already out there, impatiently tapping his foot.

“About time!” he exclaimed good naturedly when they got closer.
“Come on let’s get out to the car,” Bella said quietly and gently pushed her sibling out the door, “I don’t like have dad out of sight.”
“Same.” Evelyne trailed off as she lost herself in thought and followed her brother and sister. She had never met her mother; she had died as soon as the three were born. So her dad meant a lot to her, now he’s gotten very sick so Evelyne and her siblings never want him out of their sight.
“Evelyne, are you going to stand there and get hit by a car or get in the car?” her dad Arlow asked from behind the wheel.
Evelyne jumped. “Sorry…” she mumbled as she climbed into their lime green impala.
Her dad glanced at her again. “How was the…” he broke off as he started to cough uncontrollably, making the car rock slightly. “The meet?” he rasped.
Evelyne opened her mouth to respond but Aaron answered before her. “It went great, I got a champ time for 500 fly and Bella…”
Bella shoved Aaron. “Let me say how I did!” she exclaimed. “I’m down to a 32.01 for my 50 breaststroke and I broke 1 minute for my 100 free!”
“And I,” Evelyne began, “Got a Zone Time for my 50 free and nearly broke 2 minutes for my 200 free.”
“Wait to go!” her dad exclaimed, “The three of you did great!”


The trip home was long and boring, mostly because the meet was two hours from their home town, Mapleton. As soon as they got home, Evelyne jumped out of the car and unlocked the front door.
“Meow!” her cat Hawkee greeted her. Hawkee is a dilute calico tom cat with pale green eyes.
Evelyne reached down and stroked his silky back as he wound around her ankles.
“Coming through!” Aaron exclaimed as he pushed past her.
“Sorry!” she said and dodged out of his way. She dropped her swim bag and hung up her wet swim suit and towel.

Evelyne sat on the floor with her legs crisscrossed under a coffee table with Aaron sitting a crossed from her.
“Let’s arm wrestle.” Evelyne suggested determinedly. The last time she versed Aaron, she had lost so she was determined to beat him this time.
“Sure.” Aaron answered automatically.
Evelyne grasped his hand tightly.
“Ready… Set…GO!” Aaron shouted and started to try to press her arm to the table.
Evelyne fought back; squeezing his hand, she tried to push his arm down.
Aaron’s face was turning red with effort as Evelyne got his arm down.
“Ha,” Evelyne gloated, “Not so high and mighty now!”
Aaron shoved her; anger sparked his gaze for a second then was gone; it happened so fast that Evelyne wasn’t sure she saw right.
“Time to eat, we’re going to be having pasta!” Bella called from the kitchen.
Evelyne followed Aaron to the dining room.
As everyone sat around the table; Hawkee took a flying leap and landed on the table. As he landed; Hawkee knocked a plate off the table and meowed.
“Dumb cat, it’s lucky it didn’t break any plates.” Aaron muttered as he placed the cat on the floor.
“Let’s pray.” Arlow said when Aaron sat down next to Bella.

******
Evelyne silently got out her soft and cushy bed. She had heard a low moaning coming from somewhere in the house. As she quietly slipped out of her room something soft and fuzzy rammed into her leg.
Evelyne jumped back in surprise; her heart racing.
Then she realized it was her cat, Hawkee.
She reached down and stroked his dilute calico pelt.
Then the bone chilling moaning started again; Hawkee flinched at the sound.
“Come on, Hawkee,” Evelyne whispered to the cat, “Let’s see what’s making that sound.”
Evelyne’s lean shadow silently slipped down the hall with Hawkee following close by.
The sound was getting louder, Evelyne felt her heart pounding, giving away just how scared she was.
She was rounding a corner in the hall when the moaning stopped.
“It’s coming from dad’s room.” She murmured to herself.
Her hand was shaking so bad that it was almost impossible to open the door. As she stepped into the room it was very stuffy and reeked of sickness.
“D... Dad, are you okay?” she called nervously into the darkness.

It's looking great, but if you get a zone time you compete in zones, not state finals!! I really really like it!!!

Oh okay thanks!!!!!

This is Destiny's Path I just changed the title.

Try putting it in parenthesis in the title for a little while. It's really good!!
Is her dad about to die?

Maybe... 

Grrrr

I really like it! I am wondering whats going to happen to her dad though.... the suspense!

Thanks!! Your story is really good too!!

Question should her nickname be Eva, Eve or Evy, or should her name always be Evelyne?

Or lynn? I like lynn or Eva or Ava.

Avery?

Sure, but I don't think Avery suits her.

Okay I'll keep it the same.