Emma got herself a bike. It wasn’t the motorcycle that she wanted but it was something and because no one ever wanted to let her take their car, she had to deal with this form of transportation. Not that she minded it. She loved riding her bike back in Huntsville. Where she and her mother lived, Emma would be able to jump on her bike and ride through the streets for hours, just watching the cars pass her by or better yet try racing some of the old people who swore on going below the speed limit. It was Emma’s form of entertainment when everyone else was busy and it seemed fitting that she had one now.

With Jonathan at his job and Cambria doing whatever Cambria did, Emma found herself alone in her apartment. She would wake up in the morning and feel the emptiness of the mess she lived in and wanted to go right back asleep in hopes that when she woke up again, her friends might be there to surprise her. Eventually that grew boring and she settled for the bike instead.

She found a trail to ride it in the national park that they had there which had a lot of hills and off road tracks—enough to get Emma excited about it. Although it wasn’t nearly as much fun as it could have been, she found herself enjoying the feeling of going down a particularly steep hill. As she continued she ride her bike through the small forest, she heard someone laughing up ahead. She would have ignored it if it weren’t for the signature “Ooo” that generally meant that someone got hurt and if someone got hurt, then they must have been doing something fun.

She rode her bike to the sound and noticed that there was a group of three boys varying in ages, riding their bikes and a small and very steep path up the side of the hill. One of the boys was on the floor as he moved his arm around to make sure nothing was broken. She watched them with mild amusement as they continued to attempt to go up this hill and when they couldn’t do it, they did their best to not crash into a tree.

“There something you want?” one of the boys with an arrow on his helmet asked. He had just got off his bike after coming down the hill and was successful in not hitting anything. Emma glanced at him and smiled. “I want to try.” He raised an eyebrow at her and looked her up and down. “This isn’t one of the normal trails, miss. You can get seriously injured.” Her grin grew. That’s what I’m counting on.

“Thanks for letting me know. I’m still going to try.” She went toward where the other bikers started at the bottom of the hill. As the adrenaline rushed through her body, she made her way up the same way they did. It was a lot harder than it looked and she had to remind herself the stay balanced otherwise she would fall over the edge. She moved up slowly but surely and she started to smile as she could feel herself getting a hold of it. Now it was time to go faster.

She started to push herself a little harder and one of the boys said, “Watch your speed!” She couldn’t hear him correctly and glanced in their direction, “What was that?”

“No! Don’t look—“ It was too late. She felt herself leaning toward the hill and her bike tire did as well as it started leading her down the hill. Caught off guard, she forgot what to do and immediately tried to brake, which did not help the situation. She narrowly made it past a tree and the thought of hitting it made her blood race. With a small laugh, she focused on dodging the trees instead of slowing down. But even that didn’t help her as she hit a stump and felt herself flying out of her seat.

She covered her head on instinct as she hit the ground, groaning softly when she hit the spot where the stitches from her bullet wound was. She slid on the forest floor, further bruising her arms and side until finally she stopped. She took a minute to catch her breath as the boys started running to her.

“Oh fuck, is she okay?”

“You think we’ll get in trouble if she dies?”

“She better not be fuckin’ dead.”

As the boys near her, she begins to laugh. “Ah fuck! She got a fuckin’ concussion or some shit!” one of the boys says, but Emma shakes her head and starts to get up.