리틀팍스

 "Wait a second," I said, realizing something. "What about school? We can't go to school if we're running away right now." 

 "Avni, you didn't think we'd still be going to school if we ran away, did you?" said Wynter. Cecily nodded. "Look, first we have to get away from here, 'kay? We're dead if the headmistress catches us."

 "Oh, okay. Are we going to take the bus?" I asked.

 "Oh, for crying out loud, no! The bus would cost us tons of money, and we're already tight on that. We walk," said Wynter. "Hurry up. Let's go. We don't have much time."

 We started walking down the road. I had no idea where we were going, but Wynter and Cecily seemed to know.

 After a few hours of walking, Emme Brown, who was a year younger than me, started to complain. "My legs hurt, and I think I have arthritis now from all that walking," she moaned.

 "Shut up," said Cecily. "If you wanted to come with us, you should have expected we would walk."

 "Where are we even going?" Emme said with a groan.

 "You'll see," replied Wynter.

 We walked for another hour, then Wynter stopped. "Here," she finally said. "This place looks good enough to stay for a few days or so." I couldn't help but gasp after looking at what Wynter was telling us about. 

 "We're staying at a barn? You can't be serious!" cried Emme. Apparently she was thinking what I was thinking. "With all that animals and hay? No way!" Emme stepped inside the barn to look around, then scrunched her nose. "Eww! It stinks in there!"

 "Well, what other choice do we have?" said Cecily. "I'm not exactly crazy about the idea of staying in a barn, but Wynter's right. This barn's not very noticable, and I think the hay would be okay to sleep on, especially because we hadn't packed any blankets or bedding." Wynter nodded. "Right." She started stacking the hay to make some sort of bed for the night.

 Suddenly, a sharp, loud shiek came from deeper inside the barn. "OWW!"

 "That's Emme's voice!" cried Cecily. She looked around, and her face went pale after she realized her younger sister was gone. "Where could Emme be?" she muttered worriedly. "She couldn't have left the barn."

 "Don't worry, Cecily," said Wynter, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "This barn is not very big. Avni and I can look for her. I'm sure we'll find her anytime soon." Wynter and I started calling Emme's name and looking around.

 Eventually, I found Emme crouched in the corner, bawling hard. Her knee was scraped and bleeding. "Oh my god, Emme! How did you hurt yourself?" cried Cecily as she ran towards her younger sister. Emme looked as if she was trying to say something, but her words got burried in her tears. 

 "What? Just say it, Emmeline Brown!" Cecily finally erupted.

 "Ow... that damn horse.. it kicked me!" said Emme, panicking and looking at her scraped knee. 

 "What? How on Earth could you let the horse kick you?" asked Cecily. Emme bit her lower lip, then said, "I wanted to pet the horse over there, so I stepped closer, and at that time that insane horse kicked me on the knee!"

 "Emmeline Brown!" Cecily looked mad. "That was a very imbecile conduct. The horse wouldn't have kicked you if you hadn't stepped closer to it." She sighed. "Luckily, I have a small first aid kit with me that I nicked from the nurse's office back in the orphanage." Cecily rummaged in her backpack to find the first aid kit. She took out a band-aid and some ointment, and took care of Emme's scraped knee. "There," Cecily said, swiping the sweat off her brow. "Please don't mess with a horse next time."

 "I won't. I'll be careful," promised Emme. Tears were smudged on her cheeks, from crying.

 "Good. Now, let's have lunch. I packed some corn bread." 

 "And I packed the bread that was rationed out yesterday. It's a bit hard, but it'll do." I was just about to rip off the package of the bread when Wynter stopped me. "Avni, we're tight on money, remember? This means we shouldn't run out of food soon. We'll have to save as much as we can for the future. So, for today's lunch, we'll have to divide Cecily's corn bread into four pieces."
 "Oh," I said as Cecily handed me one-fourth of the bread. We munched silently.