The mentality of, when you have friends you cherish them, was the only thing Javier, Alex, and I have in common. If we didn't have to be friends, we wouldn't. We were all at my house before school finishing up a game of Scrabble when it started to rain outside. We all grown, but of course, Javier tries to lighten up the mood.
“Hey at least it’s not pouring,” he said.
And, as if right on cue it started to dump buckets outside. We jumped up from our game and made our way to the massive front door that guarded our house. It was massive, not in height, but and how heavy and thick it was. It had to be decades-old and was made of solid oak. We took our raincoats off the hook and walked to the back door to retrieve our bikes. From there we entered the rain and walked our bikes to the main gate that matched our front door.
We hopped on our bikes and rode to school through the muddy streets and got splashed in the face by a puddle every now and then. When we finally got to our destination we were soaked through and through. We trudged up to the gate while our wet shoes and socks squeaked. Walking down the main hall we split of to each of our different classes. I entered my first class: English.  Our class loves to joke around about how many essays we had to write, but truly, on the inside we despised it. Another day, another essay. I walked to my desk, sat down, then realized to my chagrin, that there was now a giant wad of gum stuck to my backside. Everyone laughed. It was a rough reminder of how much respect my two friends and I got.
The rest of the day went by quickly and Alex and I were outside, in front of the school waiting on Javier. Apparently, his mouth had gotten him in trouble again. The rain had stopped but the overcast sky continued the down mood. Javier finally walked out the front doors of our school, but he did so lacking the usual mischievous grin on his face.He came over to us and right away we could tell something was wrong. There was no glimmer in his eyes that usually accompanied him anytime he talked.
“I got suspended,” he blurted out seemingly random.
“For what,” I question.
“I got into a fight with Jake today.”
Jake has and always will be the big kid in the school. Just as Javier he had a big mouth so did Jake and they often competed. Of course, Jake was bigger and had the support of many friends so he was the one who always won. Apparently this time it wasn’t just a battle of words.
We started on the way home when one of Alec’s wheels started to screech. I disregarded it at first but after a while, it came to the level that it was hard to talk to her. Despite the noise, we continued on.
“Race you home,” Javier challenged though it was still a few miles away from home.
He took off with Alex and I trailing behind him. We gunned it through the mud with it flying everywhere around us. Suddenly, Alex yelped as her wheel gave out. She plummeted to the ground and it was almost like it was in slow motion as she fell into the mud.Javier and I both stopped and turned around to see Alex covered from head to toe in mud. I got off my bike and tried to walk it over to Alex but there was an ear-splitting grind and my bike stopped and didn’t move. There were grains of dirt caught in my chain and the wheels. We tried to wave down a car for help but nobody would stop. It was like we were ghosts in our small town. We decided to walk the rest of the two and a half miles.
When we finally got home we were exhausted. I regretted not working hard enough in gym class. My arms felt like noodles from carrying the bike. We were determined to do something about our situation.
“Why don’t we just run away? It works in movies. Everyone realizes how much you do for them and they want you to come back,” Javier suggested.
“We don’t have anything better than it,” I added.
“No way. I’m not running away. Think about our parents,” Alex denied.
“If they were worried about us they would have already done something about it.”
I never thought that I would run away but in end, we agreed that we would. We figured out a plan: we would steal pieces from the numerous hardware stores from around the town until we had enough to build the railcar. From there we would set up a shop in Alex’s shed to construct it. Then, finally, we would take it to the abandoned tracks leading from our town.
At the end of the first week, we had most of the parts stockpiled in Alex’s shed. The only thing we needed left is the massive planks of plywood that would be the bottom and sides of our railcar. This part of the job would have to be a team effort.
We were all in front of the hardware store. We walked in and immediately went to the back where the plywood was.Since Alex was the fastest she grabbed a pipe and ran out the front hoping the owners would follow her while we ran out the back. Javier and I each grabbed two pieces of the plywood and headed out the back. Knock! Knock! It was too big to fit through the door.We would have to go through the front. Sprinting down the aisles, as fast as the plywood would let us, we came to the big open area at the front of the store. There was one worker still there. Javier and I put our planks together at an angle and ran at the worker. He ducked under us and tripped Javier who immediately cried out in pain. He landed on his ankle wrong. I rammed the guy and brought Javier up to balance on one foot. Surprisingly the guy didn’t pursue us until we had rounded the corner of the block. By then we had slipped into one of the back alleys that crossed our town like spiderwebs.
It took a while to get back but we still made it. We would need to get to the tracks by the end of the day otherwise we’d have the whole town on our tails.
Alex had made it home and she was hiding in the shed, “Where were you guys?”
“Javier twisted his ankle,” I replied.
“Well, we need to get to work.”
After an hour it was complete and we wheeled in through the back alleys to the abandoned tracks. They were overgrown and had a layer of rust on them. Javier and Alex were already in the car and I pushed it with all my might and gave it a running start.
After two full hours of riding, we came to an odd fog bank that seemed to blanket everything with an opaque cloud. Under normal circumstances, it would be creepy and depressing, but not to us, for there was a new life on the other side of it.