Balance
 

     It was her only interest to lock herself away and study. Even if she had spent countless nights before sitting at her white desk that appeared blue under the light of her lamp. Grades came first, aside from family that is. She felt her heart squeeze the closer to an “A-” she came, even that wasn’t good enough for her.
    This was the life of a 16 year old.

    So, as usual, she came home and went straight to her desk as if it had been calling for her all day. All of her homework for the day was spread in front of her. Organized by class hour, assignment, and due date she had a total of 10 brooding piles. She began with her math and furiously scribbled down her work, occasionally leaving behind mounds of eraser shavings around her answer. It was only after she had completed 5 problems that her mom’s footsteps were heard echoing throughout the hall.
    “I think it’s time we put the books away for once” her mom said in a calm tone, trying to hide the sympathetic look in her eyes. “When is the last time you hung out with your friends when it wasn’t a school break?” Although she heard her mother she didn’t understand the problem with only seeing them once in a while. She talked to them at school and even occasionally went to a football game with them. Her mom sensed that she wasn’t going to get a reply so she continued herself, “This isn’t a choice anymore, you are getting out of this house and you’ll thank me later.” Making her way over to her daughter, it was clear she already had a plan in mind.
   As soon as they reached the cold tile floor that belonged to the foyer she was greeted by her two best friends sitting on the couch, looking as if they were ready to endure some extensive group therapy. Kaitlyn sat to the right of the TV; perched right next to her was Coy.
   Kaitlyn could hardly sit still, as usual. She held a certain quality that made her jealous. The fire in her eyes always illuminated her personality, making her the most approachable person her school had to offer. The two of them had been friends ever since Kaitlyn first moved into the neighborhood. Since the summer of first grade they had been inseparable. No matter how opposite their personalities seemed they had the type of friendship that came natural even if they went some days without talking.
   It was as if Coy could have been programmed in the same factory as Kaitlyn, he was the town's infamous bull rider. Yes, in the barren town of Garden City, Kansas, there was a star, or so they called him in the local newspaper and the occasional TV channel that came out to interview him. It was easy to see how he could be so successful based off of his stout muscular build and famous father. They had met through Kaitlyn in 3rd grade and became better friends than they thought possible. Their small school, that was seemingly in the middle of nowhere only had 30 people per grade, which made it easy to  try and connect with everyone, and made it easier to be in everyone’s business. Still, she  wondered how she felt so connected to people that were such opposites from herself.
   Coming out of her previous reluctance she realized how much she had actually missed spending time with them. Expecting them to stay for a while she took a seat on the couch. Just as quickly as she had sat down though she realized she was out of her seated position and was in fact being carried out the door by an energetic Coy.
     Kaitlyn was left behind to yell from the door to her best friends mother, “we will have her back unharmed and a little after dark.”
     Curiosity began to flood through her brain. Where would they be going tonight? None of them had a car so they couldn’t go anywhere far.
   She suspected the reason Coy kept her perched on his back was so she wouldn’t try and escape back to the comfort of her room. Although she had thought about numerous ways to leave, she found that as his heavy steps traveled throughout her own body her nerves began to settle.The shining sun soothed her, warmed her skin, and eased the tension in her muscles. The smell of freshly harvested corn was fresh in the air, making her wonder if she would be given dinner on this wild goose chase she was brought on. The small worry set aside, she broke the silence, “Where are we going exactly? And why are we going there? I’ve got homework to do.” Knowing her all too well, her kidnappers continued walking as they thought of the best way to answer the question.
     Kaitlyn piped up in a surprisingly serious tone, “We are just going up the road a bit. There will be a few other people there and maybe even a few animals.”
     Still not believing she replied, “You mean like a party animal type of thing? If you do then you can count me out.” Her friends reaction was unexpected, they didn’t reply to what she had asked but instead broke out into a full on sprint to the farm ahead. Thankful she didn’t have to do any running, but still too jostled by all the bouncing, she began to squirm on Coy’s back to signal that she wanted down.
     “Stay still!” he told her.
     “Never!” she replied in a playful tone and continued to move as much as humanly possible. Beginning to sense his defeat she gave one final jerk before Coy -without warning- released her from his grasp.
     Now she ran on her own, and had given up any thought on getting out of this, partially due to the fact that she didn’t want to take the mile long walk back home by herself. As they ran through the corn she knew exactly where they were at. She had passed this farm countless times in her life. The Jenkins farm. 35,000 acres spread out that was owned by one man but farmed by many. She guessed that the stretch they were in was his personal small section of about 100 acres.
     As her best friends came to a halt in the middle of the field she couldn't help but feel puzzled why they were here. Then a faint rustling was heard from the row of corn adjacent to her. Just as she waited for a suspicious animal to pop out as they had talked about earlier she was surprised to see three boys she recognized from the grade above her own.
     “I’m Evan. This is Peter, and that’s Taylor.” One of them spoke up.    
     She couldn’t help but think about how all of them resembled Coy in the sense that they looked like the stereotypical cowboy. Adorned with pointed cowboy boots, flashy belt buckles that reflected the little light left in the sky, and brimmed western hats atop their heads.
     Enthusiastically they began to talk about “the game” that was going to take place. Not realizing what they were talking about, she tuned them out. Not long after, she heard her name being called by a sprinting Kaitlyn. At first alarmed, she thought that the Jenkins had some how found them and ran as quick as lightning in Kaitlyn’s direction.
    “You act like you’ve never played tag before” Kaitlyn yelled from in front of her.
    “Tag?” she yelled back slightly breathless. “How are we supposed to play tag when it’s almost dark? Besides, there are far more mature things to be doing.”
     As if expecting that question, a flashlight was chucked in her direction followed by the instructions, “It’s better to go without a flashlight, it’s easier to get found.”
     Now having run far away from the original meeting place she cleared her throat “If we are running this way where did the others go?”
     “No way to tell, really, but we will run into them eventually.”
   
    It had been about 5 minutes since her and Kaitlyn split up. Much to her dismay, she was left by herself. She decided that she would be less noticeable on the ground so she promptly dropped to all fours and decided if someone were to come it would be easier to push herself into the nearest corn row. As she crawled along she quietly hummed whatever country song she had heard on the radio earlier that day. Due to her humming she must not have heard the slight rustle coming from a nearby corn stalk. Soon enough there was a flashlight pointing straight at her face and a short lived scream escaped her mouth. Evan leaped in her direction to tag his easy target muttering to himself something along the lines of “Why would she be crawling.” Realizing she had been tagged, she sprung up to tag him back and flee the area.
    Grabbing her wrist in the process, he said, “I knew you weren’t listening when I explained the rules.”
    She yanked her hand back, puzzled, as he continued, “once you get tagged you have to count to 100 before you can try and tag anyone else.”
    Understanding the new rule but a little bit upset that she was “it” she nodded and added jokingly, “then you better start running because I’m already at 20.” Without responding, he jogged in the opposite direction that he came in, while she tried listening to his steps to track him down once she finished counting. The echoing made it hard to trace them however, and she was left with 20 more seconds of counting and a cool breeze in the air.
    97, 98, 99, 100. Finally she thought, lazily standing up from her seated position where she had been counting. In the distance, she heard the farms peacocks squawking away at whatever animal was trying to disrupt them. Or maybe, she thought, one of the other tag members had been over there. Unsure of where she was going, she tried to follow the continuous squawking.
     It was always windy in Garden City, but tonight the wind was blowing even more than usual. The corn around her began to rustle as the wind picked up even more. It was a cold wind, unlike usual, which made her ears turn a bright red color as it whipped around her head. The wind also had the ability to scatter the sound waves she was desperately trying to listen for, only making her more determined to find the peacocks.
    By lucky guess she wound up bumping right into the peacock pen, just in time to see a figure fleeting into the surrounding corn. Cautiously, she followed the black shadow with the hopes of not losing them in the maze of corn. The focus of her flashlight drifted from the brightly feathered birds making calls in her direction, to the seemingly endless rows of browning corn stalks in front of her. Where could they have gone, she thought, it’s only a matter of time before they appear, right?
    “Boo!” she heard echo all around her as if 20 people had screamed all at once. Ears still ringing, and still screaming herself, she whipped around to see where the noise had come from. It had sounded so close to her ear she couldn’t imagine that the source was more than 3 feet away. Sure enough, Kaitlyn’s fiery hazel eyes shone back at her even with the dark light surrounding them, swimming with the playful energy they always held.
    “You were easy to spot,” she said in between fits of laughter, “it was that dang flashlight that gave you away.”
    Out of no where, Kaitlyn started making chirping noises similar to those of the peacocks. Used to this kind of behavior, she just stared at Kaitlyn waiting for her strange actions to stop. As Kaitlyn’s chirping noises continued she began to wonder why she was making them. Getting annoyed she blurted out, “why are you-” She was cut off mid sentence by all the air leaving her lungs, but it wasn’t until the cold thud of the ground that she realized something or particularly someone had tackled her. She was even more surprised to find it was Taylor who gave her that great push. As she rolled over onto her back she was greeted by all 5 pairs of eyes staring back at her. Confused, she simply sat up. Everyone seemed to be included in a joke that she just didn’t understand, because they all busted out in laughter for no apparent reason.
    For the first time that night Taylor piped up. “Come on, live a little! We all just came to have fun, a little dirt isn’t going to kill you.” Suddenly she realized. Without another thought she sprung up from her position below them to be at eye level.
    “Start running.” she said in a playful voice, stepping closer in the process. In an instant, they all took off in various directions laughing away, but hoping they wouldn’t be followed. Unfortunately for them, her observant eyes followed the cluster of them that headed for the same corn row. Her only worry right then was how quickly she could tackle them into the surrounding dirt.
     “I’m gonna get you!” she called, watching in front of her as they would occasionally turn back to check their lead. That lead, however, was quickly diminishing. Her foot was firmly planted in the ground, prepared to push off. It gave her the ability to throw herself and Peter into the very dirt that the surrounding corn was planted into. It was Peter’s unexpected scream that boomed through the air, followed by the loud thud of their bodies colliding with the ground. As all of that happened, Peter had still managed to reach out and grab Coy’s weathered plaid shirt, and unintentionally yank him down as well. Shortly after, Kaitlyn also joined the mass of bodies sprawled out on the dry brown dirt.
    The sweet sound of laughter was heard as the 4 of them rolled around, limbs tangled with limbs, all in good fun.
    They were left to wonder where the other two had gone off to, but ultimately decided this was more fun. She wasn’t bothered by the pile of homework that laid undone where she had left it atop her blue lit desk. She was thankful her mom pulled her away from the dungeon she had created for herself. Her little adventure allowed her to experience the freedom from reality… the pleasure of youth… the joy of laughter...