Out Of The Woods

The next four weeks go by slowly, and I occasionally get a glance of the glowing I saw on Reed's face. Sometimes small animals will just walk up to him and he'll calmly pick them up, letting them and whispering to them. Mike laughs when this happens but I watch in awe. Alice and Olivia take pictures of him with the animals and send them to me.
Something is up with him and I'm going to find out. I lay on my bed in Alice's room staring up at the ceiling. Summer break started yesterday and we go back to school in two months. Alice sits beside me and we sit in silence.
I hear yelling from downstairs and sit up quickly. Alice looks shocked, and my face probably mirrors hers. I don't think I've ever heard her parents yell before and I'm over here at least once a week. I get up off the bed and Alice follows me to her bedroom door.
I slowly open it, making sure it doesn't make any noise. We slip out into the hallway and stand at the beginning of the stairs, looking through the railing into the living room. I stare in shock and Alice pats my hand that's gripping the railing like a lifeline. 
My grandmother and Mr. Weath sit on the couch arguing with Alice's parents. They shove some papers into her parent's hands and storm out of the house, one of them slamming the front door loudly. Her parents look at each other and smile widely.
Alice and I share a look and start walking downstairs, trying not to seem like we just saw what went on in the living room. I walk into the kitchen and grab a bowl of cut fruit from the fridge, setting it on the table. I sit down next to Alice and we eat fruit while trying not to seem suspicious.
I go on my phone and scroll through Tumblr, replying to questions and posting a new round of tips. Alice's parents walk in with the papers in their hands. They set them down on the table and sit down. I look at my phone, pretending not to notice that they had sat down, or the huge like of papers they have.
"Can you two please get out of the house for the rest of today? Me and Lilac need to talk," her dad says. I nod and get up from the table, putting the fruit bowl back in the fridge. Me and Alice walk out and I text out group chat that me and Alice are going to the paint place and it would be cool if they came.
Alice parks in front of the paint place and I spot Reed, Olivia, and Mike standing in front of the doors waiting. We get out and walk over to them, Reed immediately engulfing me in a hug. I get dysphoric when his chest presses against mine but he pulls away pretty quickly.
We walk inside and pay for a day pass, the people that work there putting glow in the dark wristbands on us. I frown at them, wondering how in the world we aren't going to be spotted with these things in in the dark.
We go to the room with lockers and put our stuff in ours so they don't get covered in paint. The we walk into the starting room and listen to the person giving the instructions.
The goal is not to get paint on you, while trying to get the other teams covered in it. At the end of the round they'll scan the team's and whoever has the least amount of paint wins. They make sure to remind us that there's no fighting and all the regular stuff that comes with it before we are out into teams.
Me, Alice, and Olivia are on the same team while the boys are on a different one. They hand us buckets of pink paint and gloves and the boys get orange paint and their gloves. You are supposed to wear clothes that you don't care about because they have nothing to put over your clothes. I wear an old pair of jeans and a white hoodie that I haven't liked for a while.
We are all let in and given a minute to run around and get in place before the game starts. I get behind a wall where anyone passing by can't see me. The speakers start counting down and I hear people rushing around, trying to find a good spot to hide.
The game starts and I stick my gloves hand into the paint. A little kid walks by and I splash some paint over them. They look around but they don't see me behind the wall. They walk off looking very confused. I smile and stick my hand back into the bucket of paint. This is going to be fun.
I splash a few more people with paint and in the middle of the game the paint dispensers go off. I run and get some into my bucket before sprinting back to my spot. I get covered in paint as I get there and I see Reed standing there grinning.
I walk towards him and he backs into the wall. He looks around for a way to escape but he sees none. I dip my hand into e bucket and smear paint on his face. I start putting it in his hair and we're both laughing out butts off. The blue streaks show up on his face and I stop.
"What are those?" I ask him quietly. He shrugs and turns away. I pour more paint on him and take his hand in mind before staring up at him. He looks down at me and I cross my arms. He puts a hand through his hair, succeeding in getting even more paint in it.
"You're telling after this match," I say to him and he nods silently. I let him by and he walks off, splashing paint on another person who walks beside him. The speakers start to announce the end of the round and we all start walking to the final room.
Tarp lies on the floor and we get into our groups of three. There are ten groups in total. I look at Alice and Olivia and realize that they did a lot better than me, being barely covered in paint at all. They scan out group and take the pictures to the judge.
The judge hands the announcer a piece of paper and then walks away. The announcer looks at the piece of paper before starting. He says all the formalities like, I hope you had fun and it was great to have you here. I sigh and wait for him to get to who's the winner already.
"The winner is... The pink team! Congratulations!" He announces. We squeal and start jumping up and down. A mom glares at us from where she stands with her daughter. Reed and Mike walk over before joining in on the hugging, and a tiny but if the squealing but they'll never admit that.
"You guys go do another round, me and Austin have to go talk," Reed says. I frown at my name and Alice sends me a sympathetic look. Olivia and Mike walk off and Alice hurried to catch up to them. I follow Reed outside the building and we walk behind it.
"I'm not human," he says leaning against the wall of the paint place.