While walking back home I went into a very deep train of thought, well more like an ocean. It usually feels like I mainly had one thing on my mind but it keeps getting pushed around by other conjuring thoughts until they take over the entire body of water, leaving that main thought to be dried up in the sand. Today was different though,it felt more like a river. Switching from thought to thought until I'm back to what I was thinking about from the beginning. 

Today I was thinking about this girl at my school, Dores Lovat. Dores had these calm bright green eyes, so calm in fact it looked like the color of her eyes had just finished hibernation. Ironically though, she is by far the most annoying person I have ever met. I sometimes wondered how she could be so irritating but so liked by others, even if she was mean.

I take a turn to Earl's house down the block of the old ababend barbershop down the street. Earl was tall and lengthy for a fourteen-year-old. The softball coaches have been trying to recruit him for two years now, but it doesn't seem like he's budging any time soon. Earl had always had an interesting look to him as well. Earl had a big poofy afro that was light brown with a few blonde spots and had always had a colored hair pick in his hair. Earl's eyes were by far his most prominent feature. They were pointed downward in the outer corners which gave him a very relaxed look almost as relaxed as Dores. Earl never smiled much but when he did it was always odd. He had a one-sided smile like a grin with half of his pointy teeth showing, but his expression always remained the same.

I went to knock on Earl’s door wondering if he was even home but to my surprise, the door was open before I could even press my knuckles on the hardwood of Earl’s door. The person who opened the door was Earl's older brother Rock but before I could even say anything before Rock muttered the words “Move, man” then walked off. Earl and Rock were pretty similar looking than most people would expect. They both have very tired looking eyes and had the same awkward grin as Earl, but they were different in a lot of ways as well. Rock was much taller than Earl and wasn't as lengthy as him as well. He wasn't as calm as him either and was always a hot-head person. He was like a tiking time bomb, you would never know when but you knew when it was coming, and he didnt seem so calm based on the tone of his voice. 

Right, when Rock passed me I walked inside. Earl’s apartment looked different from when I last visited. The paintings around his room were arranged differently with some of the paintings and photos missing from the living room walls. The paintings were bought from Earl’s father, Howard Longmore. I remember Earl not wanting me to call his father Mr. Longmore because he “doesn't deserve the respect of just being called his last name”. Earl's dad didn't exactly see eye to eye with his family, especially Earl's brothers and him. Earl's father had left the family shortly after Earl was born. Coming back occasionally for a day or two just to have a place to stay, as well as sending cards on holidays just so he wouldn't feel like an absent parental figure. He was never for his family though, not even his kids, and most definitely not Earl.

“Hey bro” I said, his room had changed as well. “Hey, why didn't you tell me you're coming?” Earl asked confused as I usually told him I was coming over before showing up at his house. “Didn't you like, asked me to come over?” I said, with a confused look on my face. “I did?” Earl asks, more confused than before, then a look of remembrance washes of his face. “Oh yeah, I did!” Earl says grinning. “My bad Lee, I've been really forgetful lately,” Earl says. “Your good bro,” I say, sitting on the dark green bean bag in the corner of his room.

Me and Earl catch up a bit about the usual stuff we talked about, like the basketball game last week that the lakers won, how our history teacher Mr. Jackson assigns too much and needs to lay off, where we want to go for spring break, just joking around.

“You know what we should do though?” Earl said grinning oddly. “We should go to Beeshill lake next week”. I was a bit taken aback by his offer, normally it was me making these types of statements, never Earl. “Isn’t that place, like, dangerous though?” I said folding my hands over each other. “Didn’t you just suggest we run away like a minute ago?” Earl said, tilting his head. “I was mostly joking, we would kill each other, but I don’t really want to skate on a lake that is barely frozen,” I say. “It has been fully frozen recently though, so it should be fine,” Earl says in a convincing voice. I had taken a minute to think about what I should say, contemplating on if I should go or not as I look at the clock. “Look, I'll think about it but I should probably head home, it’s getting late,” I say pointing at the clock. Earl nods and goes on his phone, as I head downstairs. As I’m heading down the stairs about to reach the door it swings open revealing Rock with a worried expression on his face. “Why you here?” Rock says, raising one of his eyebrows. “I was hanging out with Earl, why?” I was confused. “Nothin’ stay safe kid”. Before I could respond Rock disappeared into the hallway of his house, leaving me stumped.

I woke up the next morning with a heavy feeling in my stomach, like a fifty-pound dumbbell was placed there not wanting me to move. I toss over to my side to look at my alarm clock. 9:58.I forced myself to get up and go to the bathroom as I got ready.I get my skates out the garage and head out the door with my bike.

I get to the lake and set my bike against the tree across from it. I continue walking until I see a wooden sign that reads “Beeshill’s Lake” in big bold letters colored yellow & pink. Under the sign, there was a wooden plank that had been propped up ruff stone. The plank read “Warning: This lake has been known to have numerous amounts of bees, and is very dangerous, this lake is also unfit for ice skating and swimming into, you have been warned” in even bigger bolder letters colored in red. I had already known about the bee infestation due .