1 Chinook Winds

Alberta Canada, not much to do for fun around this town. Victor had already seen countless summers of boredom, at 14 he was unremarkably average in height and weight. He hasn't been in this town long and he already isn't liking it.

He had just moved again finishing last year's school at home and came into Greensburg at the beginning of summer break, leaving him no time to make friends and find something to do. With a measly population of 785 people Greensburg had to be one of the most boring towns for a kid, it had one park and one mall, that's basically it... See boring.

"Honey, why don't you try the park again, I'm sure someone's there this time." His mother Harriet called to him, he sighed and slid off the porch, grabbing his bike before he left. He never argues with his mother, this is the fifth time they've moved in his young life and he had already done all the arguing he could muster the first few times, eventually he just got beaten and learned it's easier not to complain.

Victor had already been at the park earlier this day, it seems like nobody even uses it besides a few mothers and their children when going for walks. After two weeks in their new home Victor hasn't even seen another kid his age, maybe he'd have to settle for someone older, but he couldn't be seen playing with bratty kids though, no way that's out of the question. Arriving at the park and seeing the eerily vacant swings he had a shiver run down his spine. He'd read books about these kinds of scary stories, and with his overactive imagination jumping to the worst conclusions he decided to look elsewhere for friends.

It takes 6 minutes on bike to get to the park from his house and another 8 minutes to get to the mall, he'd try one last time then call it a day. Victor couldn't believe it, the mall was the busiest he'd seen it in... Well ever. Instead of a handful of cars parking in the front spots, he could see at least two rows spottily filled up. This was it, he could feel something good was going to happen. As he sped closer to the entrance he began getting nervous, he hadn't even talked to someone his age in a couple months, nevermind trying to make a friend on the first day.

Looking at the inside of the mall it definitely seems bigger on the outside, with two floors of shops and one food court it isn't much to look at, which should make his friend hunt go much easier. The first thing he looked at was the food court, with this many people there had to be someone his age there, there was, three burly looking boys around his age maybe a little bit older. That was fine, he made up his mind, no matter what happens he's going to try at least.

Approaching the kids seemed a lot easier when he was further away, he kept his hands in his pocket just so they wouldn't see them shake. As he approached one of them spotted him and when he kept walking they notified his friends of his approach. It was the most grueling 30 seconds of his life, so many things could go wrong here and his imagination wasn't helping in the least. Three sets of eyes stared at him, appraising him, he couldn't speak, his mouth was just clenched tight, the silence was beyond awkward now, thankfully the biggest boy spoke up, ending this ridiculous silence.

"You got a problem?"

That took Victor a bit off guard, this wasn't going well, he needed to diffuse it somehow before he lost his chance.

"No...."

Ugh why was he doing this, this whole thing is going down in flames.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

The boy replied with a grin.