Ashley smiled brightly, the outcome of this well-plotted scheme almost perfect. Her heart raced, imagining the soft sheets on her skin, the heavy sleep that would soon consume her body and mind.

“…Yah, Spencer’s right, Ash. Just a break, okay? You know, until we all get situated at school and stuff. Then we can hang out like we always have.”

Madison smiled brightly, as if responding to Ashley’s, secretly applauding herself on such a brilliant performance. She squeezed Ashley’s arm and headed to her bike and began to push it up the hill. At the hands of Zeus, Madison would soon create her own hell, existing in a prison where every day she pushed the boulder to the top of the hill, only to awaken the next day at the bottom, forced to repeat this act for all eternity.

Without a word, Ashley went to her bike and hopped on, her strong legs peddling forward, passing Madison who was on foot, eventually reaching the top and disappearing.

Spencer remained standing. The bird was almost consumed, the colony of ants having devoured the bird’s entrails, carrying the pieces back to their lair. Spencer almost envied them. Each ant had a purpose. There were no options, no choices, no second guesses. Their minds were programmed for survival, each day a testament to that fact. They would finish with the bird and move on to the next project, filled with eternal drive and lacking any thought of insubordination.

Madison’s yelled her name from up the path. Spencer shuffled to her bike and glanced up, memorizing her surroundings. She breathed in deeply, taking in the sweet smell of hibiscus and the early evening moisture. She was stationary, yet felt as though she was a car careening out of control and she couldn’t straighten out the wheel before Dead Man’s Curve.

She new it was easy to blame Ashley…Ashley was the scapegoat, the inevitable loser of the race, no matter how hard she tried. When all was said and done, it would be Ashley who was the last picked, forced to wait on the sidelines, her shoulders shifting awkwardly, trying to feign indifference and failing miserably.

The tears started to come like a faucet handle turned all the way to the right. She and Madison knew they could never be what Ashley had become, this strong rock that just kept going. She and Madison could never compete with that. Therefore, Ashley was the enemy. There was no real reason for this fact, just a human reaction, one that filled Spencer’s soul with cement, weighing it down until she drowned. She could never hide from it; the guilt, and the knowledge that she helped cause this event for no apparent reason other than it was easy.