Breaking Ground (A Shifting Sands Fanfic) Chapter 5

[Alutheria]

5 hours ago, Andyman3 said:

Wooo busy holidays. Now we can see more chapters from you. 😊

Yeah, fun times but busy times for me. 

 

I've got chapter 5 roughly outlined and I know what's going to happen and what its going to look like. Just need to sit down and write it up properly now. 

Sorry for keeping everyone waiting so long between chapters. I want to try and be more consistent and regular with chapter posts this coming year.

[Andyman3]

Can't wait to see how George and the moms friend interact and I know the girl he met will be fun😄

[Alutheria]

On 1/17/2024 at 9:18 PM, Andyman3 said:

Can't wait to see how George and the moms friend interact and I know the girl he met will be fun😄

First draft of chapter 5 is 90% done now. Sorry this has been taking so long.

[Emmi]

1 hour ago, Alutheria said:

First draft of chapter 5 is 90% done now. Sorry this has been taking so long.

Things happen. Glad to see the story will continue soon though. I've really been enjoying it so far.

[Alutheria]

Chapter 5: Skip 

 

Jane had changed out of her mud caked soccer uniform, George noticed. In its place she had donned a pair of full-length dark green cargo shorts and a Denim jacket over a simple white top. 

“Uh, hi.” George mumbled awkwardly at Alice and Jane, both of whom were smiling at him. He didn’t know if Alice was just in the habit of inviting the girl next door over for drinks or if this was some spur of the moment invitation, but either way it was an unwelcome surprise for him. At least now the nappies were out of sight. He noticed a third glass sitting untouched on the countertop filled with what looked like orange juice and realised that it must be for him. 

“Hi again!” Jane replied as she sipped her own drink. “I was just wondering if you wanted to come out and play this afternoon? I know you’ve probably got vacation plans already, but your mom invited me in and said you had some free time today.” George thought about clarifying that Alice was just his godmother but stayed quiet as he sipped his drink. Yup. Orange juice. 

Alice nodded. “We’re going into the city tomorrow to pick up some new clothes, but I thought we’d do that in the afternoon, given his jetlag issues. But he should be perfectly free come the evening if you two wanted to do something. I don't really want you out after dark, and I’m sure your dad would agree with me there Jane. If you wanted to play some games indoors or watch a movie or something, I’m sure I can arrange something.”  

“Sounds great! I'll let my dad know tonight.” Jane turned back to George. “You want to go out now then? We could go down to the creek and throw rocks or something.” She suggested. 

They both went quiet waiting for George to reply. He was still playing catchup on the conversation as he took gulps of his orange juice. Grateful that he had an excuse not to speak right away. 

“Uh, yeah, sure. Sounds good.” He muttered.  

Alice nodded towards the front door and smiled at George again. “Well, you’re wasting sunlight! Go on and play! I’m not letting you waste away your days playing Pokémon!”  

George blushed at this slightly.  

“After you then, I guess.” He left his mostly empty glass back on the counter and looked to Jane as she started moving out into the hallway where she’d left her shoes on the shoe rack and started pulling them on. A set of worn white sneakers that she quickly laced up. 

George followed suit and pulled his own white and grey trainers on, working on doing the laces up in a double bow as his mind raced. He didn’t mind going outside to play. Far from it, he enjoyed time outside. It was just a matter of finding someone to do it with. Now he had exactly that. He just wished it was someone who didn’t know about his bedtime issues. 

Jane moved to get the door as George finished with the last of the laces, and Alice called through from the kitchen as she heard the clunk of the handle being pulled.  

“Don’t go too far alright? You’ve got my number on your phones if you need me!” 

“We won’t Mrs Warding!” Jane replied as they opened the door. “I’m only going to take him to the creek, I promise!”  

George followed her outside and shut the door behind him, his eyes squinting as the blazing summer sun assaulted his corneas. He double checked that he had his phone in his pocket. His Nintendo, which was usually in his other pocket, was upstairs in his room charging. 

Jane had walked ahead and was waiting for him at the end of the driveway. As he caught up, she set of down the pavement in the opposite direction from where his godmother had driven him in. He had assumed that there wouldn’t be anything else back here but more rows of expensive looking houses, but if Jane was walking them this way there must be a way down to a creek somewhere. 

“There’s a big, wooded area behind the last houses here.” Jane told him as if reading his mind. “The whole place is part of a national park, I think. Its only twenty minutes from there to the creek.” 

“What do you wanna do there? Hide a body?” 

Jane laughed at his joke, and he felt his own tension ease slightly. “Depends, you got a body to hide? I was thinking we could throw pebbles and stuff. Do you know how to skip them? I can show you how.”  

“Yeah, that sounds cool.” He nodded, as the two of them kept up a quick pace and found themselves passing the last set of houses. The road ended in an abrupt cul-de-sac, and just beyond that was a small worn wooden fence separating the end of the suburb from the edge of the woods. A small dirt path led off the pavement up to a bolted wooden gate. Jane went ahead to open it and he walked through behind her. 

“We could just go exploring and stuff if you’d rather do that. The woods here are huge. I’ve lived here since I was in diapers and there’s still loads of it I’ve never been in.” She spoke casually as she closed the gate behind them.  

George didn’t react to her mention of diapers, but the word abruptly pulled his predicament back into the forefront of his mind, and he tried to force it back out by focusing on where he was. The dirt path winded into the forest before them. A sea of brown trunks smothered in green foliage spread before them and quickly cut them off from view of the homes that backed onto it. The sun still pierced through the canopy of leaves but was far less harsh than it had been under open sky, and he was thankful for that. He kicked himself as he realised, he’d left his sunglasses back in his room. Oh well, he’d have to manage without. 

“Well, we can do both, I guess. My god-mum didn’t say when she wanted me back, so I think we have until it gets dark? When is that, by the way?” 

“A couple of hours at least. We’ve got plenty of time, don't worry.” Jane replied as she continued forward, clearly knowing where she was going as they went deeper into the woods. “You ever skip stones before?” She asked, “I can show you how.” 

“Does seeing how far you can throw a rock out to sea count?” George asked. “Um, no, never skipped stones before. There was a kid in my class back home who could do it really well, he was always so smug about it.” He blinked. “Not saying you’re smug or anything.” he spoke sheepishly.  

“Oh, I can be smug alright, but let me show you why first.” Jane teased back, as the winding path they were following started to slope downwards, and Jane picked up the pace. George did his best to keep up, but the terrain wasn’t in his favour. The plants and trees grew tighter and narrowed more, whilst the dirt path itself seemed lodged with uneven stones and exposed roots pushing to the surface. He could feel the larger stones pushing uncomfortably through the thin soles of his shoes, and realised that stiff jeans and trainers weren’t the best clothes to be out exploring in. 

At last, the path suddenly widened, and he followed Jane out into an open rocky area where the sound of rushing water could be heard. They were on an outcropping that jutted into the bend of a moderately large river. Water that was so clear it was practically transparent flowed past them at a steady pace, and George could easily see the bed of rocks and occasional scrap of wood and other debris that made up the river floor. Treelines flanked either side of the river, a dozen or so feet back from the edge of the water. He could follow the path of the river down for what seemed like miles and miles as it carved and wound its way through the woods. A planked bridge crossed the water about thirty feet away or so at ground level, and in the distance, he could see another bridge, this one elevated about 20 feet above the river and looking substantially larger. 

“Wow, this is cool.” George said. He’d not been expecting the place to be this big. There were a few other people out here as well, further down the path at the side of the river they were on he could see a couple of grownups moving to cross the wooden bridge, their backs turned to him. It reminded him that they really weren’t that far from civilisation, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell from where they were.  

“Yeah, it's pretty good, huh?” Jane nodded, a slight smirk on her face. “Come on, let me show you how to skip!” She sounded excited as she did some skipping of her own towards the bank of the river, before squatting down and retrieving a handful of small, smooth, flat black stones. She discarded a few, then came back over to George. 

“Take these ones.” She held out her right hand. “Don’t worry, I gave you a few good ones.” She joked. George wasn’t sure how you even knew which stones were good for skipping, but he smiled at her joke all the same. 

He held them in his hand, still wet and cold from being in the river. Tiny grains of dirt and debris clung to them and onto his palm as he thumbed through them. Ultimately picking one at random and holding it in his right hand, the remainder held in his left. 

“Alright, watch this!” He snapped his eyes up as Jane called to him and he watched her get ready to throw. A black oval glinted in her palm as she pulled her arm back and turned her body in a way that reminded him a bit of the shotput events he’d watched when the Olympics were on TV. Was stone skipping an Olympic sport? Even if it wasn’t, Jane made it look like it should be. 

With practiced movement she spun suddenly and loosed the stone at a perfect angle out downstream towards the bridges. George watched as it shot out over the water, a grin of amazement growing on his face as he watched it bounce once, twice, thrice against the surface of the river. It made a grand total of six skips before finally succumbing to gravity and sinking out of sight to the depths. 

“That was cool!” He exclaimed, as Jane looked confident and did a mock bow. “Show me!” He demanded in excitement, and Jane agreed, as he took up position close to her. 

“Hold it between your thumb and middle finger, like this.” She began explaining to him as he adjusted his grip. “Stand like I did and flick your wrist at the last second. Try and throw it out and down at the same time.” She kept giving him pointers as he adjusted his hold and his stance until she seemed satisfied, then did his best to mimic the moves she had done. 

The stone flew out into the water, but only managed a single tired skip before it drowned. It looked a rather paltry effort compared to what Jane had managed just before. He moved another stone from his left hand to his right and tried again. Once more only managing a single skip. He looked at Jane. 

“Just keep trying!” She told him. I’ve been doing it for years, and that was a good throw!” The words of encouragement stopped his spirits from deflating any further, and then he moved to try a third time, but was stopped just as he started to swing his arm. 

“Wait, why don’t you try the other hand, maybe that will help.” She suggested.  

“Does that really matter?” George asked. 

“I mean, it might.” She shrugged. “Are you right or left-handed?” 

“I’m left-handed.” 

“Try that then.” 

He nodded, switching hands before lining himself up to try again. He mentally went over the tips she’d told him, then took aim, remembering to flick his wrist just in time as the stone shot forward. Right away he could tell this one had a lot more energy behind it that the last two attempts. It bounced once, twice, three times in long flat arks, water rippling away with each impact on the water. 

“Yeah!” He laughed, and grinned.  

George had always sucked at sports. He was always last – or near enough to last – to get picked for teams, and Tuesdays were the worst day of the week because that was the day he had a double lesson of P.E. in the morning. This was different though. Away from school and mocking peers, from expectations and crowds, he was doing something because he wanted to and because it was fun. Not because the adults in his life told him he had to.  

He picked another stone and aimed for a repeat performance. It didn’t go quite as far as this time, but still managed three skips before sinking. For the first time since getting off the plane, he felt properly happy and excited about his summer holiday. Like his troubles and worries were being washed away in the current of the river. 

“That was great! Told you it would help.” Jane cheered him on and skipped one of her own now. Four skips. A target for him to match. They locked eyes, and wordlessly agreed to the contest as they began to take turns. The sun starting to sink in the sky as the evening hours whittled away, interrupted only by the wildlife of the woods and the splashing of stones in the water.

[CDfm]

Great to see this was continued.  I am happy that George finally got to relax a little bit and actually have some fun.  
I don’t know for sure but I have a feeling George is going to have too much fun and forget the restroom.  Hopefully the accident isn’t that bad and will mostly go unnoticed.  
I am looking forward to reading more. 

[A_Pale_Spirit]

Happy to see a new chapter! This story and the other two in the "Shifting Sands" universe are the only new stories here I've been interested in lately.

Well-written chapter, looking forward to more.

[Andyman3]

Nice chapter. It was so peaceful and focused on the basic details, I really loved that. It's really easy to follow and can't wait for more. 😊

[Andyman3]

Awww it was such a good story. Don't stop 😊

[Alutheria]

On 2/24/2024 at 9:06 PM, Andyman3 said:

Awww it was such a good story. Don't stop 😊

I've no plans to stop, don't worry. I'm writing chapter 6 as we speak. 

[Andyman3]

The suspense 😊

[Alutheria]

On 3/26/2024 at 9:25 PM, Andyman3 said:

The suspense 😊

Chapter 6 is about 50% written at this point. 

I'm sorry for the long delay. I'd love nothing more than to spend my days writing this story and others, but unfortunately my work has been taking a lot of my energy as of late. 

I've got a lot if ideas and scenes I want to get to with this story and I hope you can bear with me a little longer until the next instalment. 

[Andyman3]

7 hours ago, Alutheria said:

Chapter 6 is about 50% written at this point. 

I'm sorry for the long delay. I'd love nothing more than to spend my days writing this story and others, but unfortunately my work has been taking a lot of my energy as of late. 

I've got a lot if ideas and scenes I want to get to with this story and I hope you can bear with me a little longer until the next instalment. 

Woooo. Just as long as you don't give up 😊, it breaks my heart when artist give up. I can't wait to see what you do. 

[Little Sherri]

22 hours ago, Alutheria said:

I'd love nothing more than to spend my days writing this story and others, but unfortunately my work has been taking a lot of my energy as of late. 

I know your pain! 

[Alutheria]

5 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

I know your pain! 

Glad to hear I'm not alone!

[Alutheria]

Ugh,  A month later and the first draft of chapter 6 is done, finally! Should have it polished and edited in the next few days for posting. Thanks for all the patience, I know its been too long since I updated this story.