Down End Road

I shuttled into my dorm my suitcases trailing behind me, Ally’s bag swinging at my wrist. I looked up and around the room. There was a dark oak, single bed against the left wall with a seventeenth-century French vanity table and a blush pink and white dressing screen in the corner and a fairly large closet with a full length mirror in the corner.

The Persian rug was soft and fluffy. I kicked off my shoes and placed them under the chair at the vanity. I was in awe. I had only been to summer cam once when I was in the second grade, however this was a far cry from the four person cabin with rotten wooden doors that I had stayed in.

I heaved my suitcases on the bed and placed Ally’s bag around the pole of my bed. I stepped out of the dorm kicking my shoes on as I walked. The doors to each room were open and had girls with feather boas and sweets coming in and out of each one.

The hall was extremely long and had doors on either side of the hall all the way through. The hall was wide enough to fit a line of eight people side-by-side, comfortably. “Oh hey, Myra over here.” I heard Ally’s Texan drawl on the other end of the hall. I walked towards her, weaving through the bunches of girls.

Ally had a sparkly cowboy hat on with a feather boa strung around her neck. I raised a questionable eyebrow at her. “What... oh I forgot your totally new here, right, well we do this thing, us senior years... It’s basically this huge welcome party out back in the forest. We get mad crazy and right now you my dear are seeing the before effects.” She said. My mouth dropped then slowly curved into a mischievous smile. “When does it start?” I asked.

“At seven but we pack it in by ten because that’s when the Whiztails come out.” She explained. My confusion was displayed plainly on my face. “What’s a Whiztail?” I asked.

“Oh, they are these super nasty wolves only there from the Jefferson portal but were relocated here because of this gross plague-type thing anyways, they can’t step in the daylight otherwise they get all burned and stuff. They live in this little patch of forest, we call them Whiztails because they have their tails separated and they propel themselves forward with them and it makes a little whizzing noise.” She stated.

I grimaced, remembering my run-in with the Whiztails. There shaggy fur still gave caused a small sense of dread to bloom in the it of my stomach. A shiver bolted up my spine making my whole body instantaneously tense.

“Oh, don’t worry hun, they only attack and bother intruders,” She soothed. I nodded not wanting to tell her about my encounter with the wolves. “Anyway, after the first night or two they’ll pick up our scents again and leave us alone, but for now we just stick with the curfew.” She said. “Any who y’all gotta’ hurry up lay out your clothes for the party, we only have a limited amount of time before we have to be there after dinner so we all lay out our clothes make up and accessories early!” She exclaimed.

I pointed to my dorm and we started walking back towards it. Ally draped the boa around my neck and started dancing through the dorm. “Now this is gonna be fun.” She hooted.