The object could be almost any little thing Nolan had; a hair, a coin, a keychain, it really didn’t matter except that it be fairly small. Nolan wasn’t supposed to know or notice but as it turned out he couldn’t no know. He didn’t know what a hex bag was yet but he knew the witches wanted something of his. The end of this trip couldn’t come soon enough, Nolan felt like he might never make it back onto the bus. Then the man from the front counter came over to ‘check on’ his table. His anxiety was through the roof and it was hard to even form a sentence.
David, on the other hand, didn’t have a problem talking. That was never an issue for him, so he just took over the conversation for the whole table. He pointed out everyone that needed a new drink, he thought the burgers were a little too greasy and needed more pickles, they needed more ketchup and the building seemed too old. David tried to send the man on fifteen different errands including a full remodel. He also thought they should get to play on the old farming equipment, it was so old it probably didn’t work anyway.
The man bowed out of that conversation quickly and went to get them refills. That was the opportunity he needed and soon he would slip Nolan’s straw to one of the witches but he gave him a new one so that Nolan wouldn’t know. The witches had what they needed and it was time for the kids to head back outside. Nolan was the first one out of the front door and as he looked at the sunshine he felt safe. It was almost like he was running from vampires, like when he stepped off the porch and into the sunlight they couldn’t follow him. Of course, that wasn’t the case but they didn’t need to follow him anymore. They’d already given away enough by coming here.
The farmers in the front porch rockers were used to seeing bus loads of kids stroll past. Naturally, they had to mess with them. About the time Nolan stepped off of the porch one of the old farmers said, hey kid come here. He was just gonna make a little joke with him, it was all harmless but Nolan was frightened. He wasn’t coming to anyone, so he took off running to the bus. The other kids were running around, playing and enjoying the sunshine but Nolan was almost hugging the bus door waiting for the driver to come open it up. It didn’t take long before the driver and the teacher came and let Nolan on the bus. David would talk his ears off all the way back to school about what was fun and what sucked about the day, but Nolan was just glad to be away from that place. None of it made sense to him and it scared him. But who could he tell? People would think he was crazy.
Practice Outlaw 