001Leoo:Welcome To Paradise001

Chapter One
Ask almost anyone in the world and they’ll tell you the same thing.
‘Breathing is simple,’ They’d say, giving you an odd look for asking the question in the first place. ‘It’s automatic.’
And yet, put the exact same person in the situation I was in and you’ll hear them complaining, saying how excruciatingly painful it is to inhale shakily and then exhale into the wind, how they felt as if they just wanted to give up and take a nap.
My hair whipped wildly around me, stinging my face, and I cringed.
I had no idea how long I could keep this up.
Conner was running a bit ahead of me, arms pumping as he tried to propel himself forward. He was my best friend and at that moment the only familiar thing I saw. Our surroundings never changed.
We were somewhere warm and tropical, where the water was a miraculously light shade of blue, the sand warm and perfect. We weren’t running on an island but rather over thousands. Not one was wider than 20 feet or longer than 30, and they were only placed about three yards from each other. The water between them wasn’t deep-a foot at the most-so we kept running in a straight line, moving forward, always moving forward…
I didn’t know why I was there, honestly. I lived in northern Minnesota; why would I all of a sudden be somewhere warm and beautiful? I also didn’t know why I was running. I seriously wanted to stop, but at the same time running felt so right.
All of a sudden my legs went numb and I fell face-forward, my head hitting the cool water. I didn’t want to get up but all of a sudden I felt arms around my shoulders bringing me to my feet. As quick as I went down I was up again, dazed, my body confused why I had stopped all of a sudden.
“Conner, where are we?” I murmured to my best friend, who was holding me up.
“I don’t know.” He admitted.
“Are we even awake?”
“I think so…”
He bit down on his index finger and screamed, causing me to laugh in spite of myself and try it too. It hurt.
“I have a headache.” I moaned, wobbling slightly and causing Con to tighten his hold on me.
“We can stop for a minute if you want.”
“Why are we running in the first place?”
“I don’t know.” He repeated. His face was calm enough but his eyes were scared, bigger than their usual large size.
Conner had always reminded me of a green-eyed lemur; always jumping from place to place, seemingly restless, easily bored but also easily entertained. He had a grin that seemed to light up the world, a somewhat reckless glow that made everyone happy.
But now he looked genuinely petrified, and god only knows what I looked like; most likely like a worn-out bum that was starting to develop severe sunburn.
“Maybe we’re convicts.” I suggested, motioning to the navy blue jumpsuits we were wearing-again, for reason unknown.
“Maybe we skinned people alive, sold their outwards to a sewing factory, used their blood as fruit juice, made their bones into a necklace and used their nerves as the string.”
Conner was grinning so crazily I had to laugh weakly, though what he said had made me feel weak. My knees buckled and I felt myself losing a grip on consciousness. Before I knew it I was laying, limp, in Conner’s arms. I could hear his voice from somewhere in the distance, desperately pleading for me to wake up, but I couldn’t get myself to answer. Along with his voice I also heard others, yelling at us to state our names, asking if we knew where we were, if we knew who we were dealing with…
It didn’t really matter, though.
We were probably already dead.

I spent the next couple hours sleeping lightly, waking up every once in a while to voices and faces I didn’t know and drifting back off again. Over this time I also had those odd light-sleep dreams where nothing really makes sense and when you wake up you’re kind of frustrated because you can’t remember what your dream was about. I woke up for about the fourth time and decided to sit up, only to find I already was…
“Hey, sleepyhead!” A guy’s voice chirped when I had opened my eyes. At first my mind was muddy and I thought the boy was Conner, but this one had dark hair, not blonde.
I blinked.
He didn’t go away.
I was on a fairly small boat, leaned up against the side, with three boys. They all looked to be about 17, and-as I was glad to see-Conner was there too, leaned up next to me. The site of the three boys staring at me got me a little freaked out, even though the one that had talked to me was pretty cute, so I hugged Con, who did the same after a moment of hesitation.
“So you actually passed out?” The dark-haired boy asked, cocking an eyebrow. Something about him made me instantly like him, but I wasn’t sure why. A blue hat mostly covered his hair, his dark brown eyes wide.
Another boy, sitting next to the first one, gave a sigh of exasperation.
“She was running like a mad man, Oc; it’s not like she’s going to be in perfect condition.” He pointed out.
“Oc’ looked mildly disappointed.
“You’re saying she fainted because she was running?” He asked.
“Well yeah; what did you think? Oh no, wait…let me guess: ‘Their she was, running with all her might, not fatigued in the least, when all of a sudden she saw a shadow. Her heart sped up. Could it be? The wondrous, perfect Asian boy she’d always dreamt of?’ ”
Oc beamed, and for the first time I noticed he did look a little oriental.
“ ‘My god, it was!’ ” The other boy went on, the corners of his mouth turned up in a small smirk. “ ‘She stopped dead in her tracks, not knowing what to do. As her dream man came into perspective she swooned, his handsome good looks to much for her to handle.’ Gimmie a break, man.”
I had to laugh, and that’s when I realized I liked the other boy too. He had dark blue eyes; brown hair cut short, and was a little chubby.
The other boy remained silent, looking extremely annoyed. He had a mess of curly brown hair and emotionless eyes hidden under thick-rimmed glasses. I found myself staring at him, unable to look away.
He arched an eyebrow.
I blushed.
“And ya know what Eck; maybe she does find me attractive! Why do you care?” Oc yelled, the little joke turned into a full-blown argument in the short time my attention was turned away from them.
Eck snorted.
“You? Yeah right.”
“What’s wrong with me? I think I’m pretty darned-adorable, don’t you?” Oc protested. He turned to face me. “Which one of us is better? Me or fatty over there?”
“Real mature.” Eck scoffed.
I remained silent, not knowing what to say.
“Will you two stop it?” The other guy muttered. “It’s like you’re eight or something; Jesus Christ…”
“Oooh!” Oc exclaimed dramatically. “Det’ll be so mad at you when he hears that! You shouldn’t bash his age, Mel.”
“Ase’ll eat you.” Eck warned, and he and Oc laughed loudly.
‘Mel’ smiled.
“Who’re Det and Ase?” I asked, confused.
“You’ll meet ‘em later.” Oc assured me. “When we get home.”
“Home?” I repeated, starting to feel panicky. I had no idea where I was, and no idea how to get back to Minnesota. I looked out of the boat and saw nothing but water and a large, unclear shape ahead of us. The sun was setting, and even though the sky looked absolutely phenomenal, the shape sort of scared me.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“That, my friend, is the island. AKA our home.” Eck explained. “We’ll get there in a couple of minutes.”
This island looked ironically different than the ones Con and I had been running across. It was mostly built up of rocky ledges and cliffs with some vegetation sticking up from it.
Totally dangerous looking.
Eck must’ve noticed my semi-stunned face, because he shrugged and said,
“It looks pretty gnarly right now, but that’s only one side of it. We’re by the beach and it’s a lot nicer there.”
I nodded, but the shape didn’t look any less creepy.
“Why’re you wearing those?” Mel asked, sounding suspicious and motioning to our jumpsuits.
I opened my mouth to answer, but Oc cut me off.
“It’s not like there major thieves or anything.” He pointed out. “They’re just kids.”
Actually we were fourteen, but anything that made us seem more innocent was all right with me.
Mel just shrugged.
All of a sudden I remembered those voices from when I was almost passed out, shouting at us.
Come to think of it, those voices seemed awfully familiar.
“Well you certainly thought we were dangerous before, the way you were yelling and all.” I said.
Eck smiled sheepishly.
“Yeah…we thought you could’ve been dangerous or something, but then your boyfriend here explained yourselves so we eased off. He doesn’t talk much, does he?”
I was about to point out the fact that Con was, in fact, totally NOT my boyfriend but rather my best buddy, when I realized what Eck had said made sense; Conner hadn’t said a word since I had been awake. This probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal to anyone else, but for Con it was almost insane.
The dude usually never shuts up.
But now he was looking out the side of the boat, dead silent with this frightened look in his eyes. The last time I had seen him like that was when they came to take his mom away, when he was four. I was so young when it happened, the same age as he was, but I still remembered that day at preschool; when those men came to talk to Con privately. When he came back into the playroom, his eyes looked exactly like they did then, on the boat.
I remembered that day perfectly.
I bet he did too.
“Hey buddy, you ok?” I asked softly.
He didn’t answer, didn’t even turn around.
I was going to have to talk to him about it later.
“So this island…” I started when we got closer to it. “What’s it called?”
Oc gave me a funny look.
“It’s called the island, I guess.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Or home.”
I knew I wasn’t going to get a better answer than that, so I dropped it. But still, I thought it should have a name; something awesome and tropical, not to mention almost impossible to pronounce.
I thought up names until the water became shallow and we had to get out of the boat and push it to shore. Eck had been right; on this side of the island it looked a lot less threatening, with light-colored sand and lush green grass lieing on a hill in the distance. Everything looked so preserved and uh…nature-like besides a little shack thingie up on the hill.
“I’m guessing that’s where you guys sleep?” I asked, looking at it uncertainly.
Oc-who had just finished pulling the boat onto the solid ground-grinned at my face.
“I doesn’t look like much, I know, but the inside’s pretty nice.”
Somehow, I doubted it.
Mel was giving Oc a slightly angry look, so he turned back to the boat and helped hoist a huge tub of water out of it.
“What’s that for?” Conner asked.
“There’s a place where two of those real small islands touch.” Eck explained. “The water between them’s fresh, so every once in a while we have to go and collect some of it.”
The tub was huge, and I imagined it could last the three for weeks. But then again he did mention two other people, Det and someone-or-other.
“How many of you are there?”
“500.”
My jaw dropped open. 500 people, and that’s all the water they got? Where did they all sleep; in that one little shack?
Mel smirked.
“This water’s only for us, though.” He explained. “Us and the boys. The adults live on the other side, same with the old people, and they can get their own stupid supplies.”
“So how many of ‘the boys’ are there?”
“Eight, counting us.” Oc said.
“So the other 400 people are girls?” I asked.
The boys found this pretty funny and they all laughed, while I just stood there, confused.
I followed behind the others as they walked up the hill to the shack, the thought that this place didn’t have a name bugging me. Conner wasn’t that far in front of me but the sun had long set and the sky was dark. So dark, in fact, I had to squint just to make out the lettering on his jumpsuit.
L-E-O-O.
Welcome to Leoo Island, I thought to myself, the voice in my mind like a man’s introducing a new theme park. Take a trip from dang ol’ Minnesota and put up you feet! Leoo: The greatest place on Earth!
I pronounced ‘Leoo’ like ‘lee-ooh’, and as I started thinking how great it was, I started to believe it. I mean with its light blue waters, beautiful sunsets, and perfect sand, it was hard not too.
And then I saw where I’d be sleeping.