You Never Know Essay, Research Paper

Chapter 1

I awoke. There was a crash on the main deck. I heard a loud crack from above. I ran up the stairs and what I saw shocked me. The small wooden boat was completely in flames!

“Help, help, somebody please!”

I slowly moved toward the sound being careful not to get caught in the flames. The smoke was choking me. I could see an outline of a face across from me. It was Jaden, my best friend. He was completely surrounded by the bright orange flames.

“Jaden are you all right?”

“Yeah, but the fire has me surrounded!”

“Jaden just jump overboard!”

“But…but….”

“Just do it quick!”

I hit the water with a crash. I swam through the water around the boat that was covered in flames to find Jaden.

“Jaden you ok buddy?”

“Yeah the flames were everywhere and I wasn’t sure what to do. I was so scared.”

“I would have been to. You did a smart thing by jumping though.”

Finally we were beside each other jumping the waves like we were walking on the moon. We seen a large board that would support our weight, so we swam over to it. When we got onto the board we started to circle the destroyed boat that was covered in flames. I began to feel my stomach move in circles because of all the smoke I was breathing in. Everything started going dark and before I knew it I could not hold onto the board any longer.

I do not know when I woke up. All I could feel was rugged sand all over my body and in my mouth. I seen land. We had washed ashore! Then I remembered what had happened last night. Startled, I began to look for Jaden.

“Jaden, Jaden, where are you?!”

There was no sign of him anywhere. Then I saw foot prints in the sand. I knew they were Jaden’s because I had never in my life seen a guy with as small feet than Jaden’s. The foot prints were going toward the trees ahead of me that lined the boundary of the seashore. I followed them to see him lying against a big old fat tree that looked as if it had been there for at least a thousand years. I went around to confront him and ask him why he left me where I was. But then I discovered he was passed out. Blood ran across his face and down his sandy covered chest. I thought to my self maybe he hit a rock?

Chapter 3

A growl…was it a fresh hungry growl I herd? Yes it was a growl! I quickly turned around to see a black panther staring into my baby blue eyes. I could tell he was ready to tear Jaden and I apart from piece to piece. I backed up slowly to Jaden’s side.

I whispered “Jaden, what should we do?”

“Ahhh….ummm…I dunno but he sure looks hungry.”

“Okay, when I say go, lets run as fast as we possibly can.”

“Man..I dunno…I really don’t think I can out run him.”

“Jaden you can! On three….one, two, three…GOOO!!!!”

We hurried but, it was like a kind of death run where you know your doomed. The panther was right behind us, it’s claws tearing up our foot prints as we ran. One wrong move and we’d be lunch.

The hungry panther ran us onto a cliff, we turned to face him while he slowly walked up to us. I looked into his eyes and I could see victory. He knew he had won and he wanted us to know it. He moved his paws getting ready to pounce. Suddenly there was a great blast, that shook with tremendous force! I grabbed onto a small tree limb and Jaden grabbed my leg. I looked up expecting to see the panthers evil eyes but, I saw nothing. Where was he? The shaking had pretty much stopped and I looked over the edge. The panther had fallen, he lay motionless on the rocky ground below. Jaden quickly averted my attention to the sky. Smoke rose above the trees nearby and a thick smell of acid was in the air. The ground was breaking open and lava spilled from the insides of the island. It was burning with great speed, worst of all it was headed straight for Jaden and I!

“Run, Jaden run!”

I ran as fast as I possibly could toward the beach. Jaden was ahead of me. I ran as fast as I could but the pain was to intense, my hand was nothing more then than a bloody limb. I was slowing down as Jaden ran faster. Suddenly I found myself on the ground. A sharp pain ran across my side and down my leg. I tired to move but I couldn’t. I began to choke, I felt blood run down my face and onto the hot shaking ground.

Jaden. Jaden, help me..help!!!!!”

“Oh my god what the heck happened to you? Don’t worry man I’ll get ya outta here.”

He ran up and grabbed me, threw me over his shoulder and carried me toward the shore. I almost passed out as the throbbing pain ran threw my body. I forced myself to stay alert. He kept running as the wind blew hot heat across our bodies. It was getting hotter and the smoke of burning rain forest began to cover the island.

Finally we reached the beach and Jaden placed me under a palm tree while he began to make a raft. He gathered driftwood, vines and branches together. The heat was getting worse and the lava was getting closer. The crackling of fire could be herd, the same evil, laughing crackling of the flames that burned our boat. He finished using all the supplies from around us and the raft he had made had to do. He carried it to the water and then carried me to it. He balanced it against the thundering waves as I dragged myself on it. I got on and then waited until the next wave passed before he jumped on. Without warning I was under water. Salt filled my throat as pain ripped through my body as I was tossed by the waves like a piece of seaweed. I felt a tug on my neck as Jaden drug me to toward the shore. I coughed and spit trying to trying to clear my throat of slat and sand. Jaden placed me on the raft and again he tired to get on. Once again I was thrown into the water as soon as the waves hit. I had no way to hold on, or to swim. With one arm and one leg I was in danger. We returned to the shore and I knew we were running out of time.

“This is not gonna work, what can we do?” I asked

Chapter 4

Lacey Byron per. 3

I saw the panic in Jaden’s eyes and I knew what I had to do. With tear filled eyes I said, “Jaden leave without me.”

“I can’t leave you here, there’s no way I will do that” he stated.

“Jaden just go!!”

There was no way I would be able to stay on the raft and even if I did I knew I was close to dying. I asked him to put me under a tree so I was in the shade. As he put the raft in the water he didn’t look back at me once. I said goodbye to him but he didn’t say it back. I was thinking to myself how could I let him leave me? But then I figured why should the both of us die.

After Jaden left me I began to feel tears run down my cheeks. I really thought he would stay with me after all we had been through but, I guess I was wrong. It sure does tell me how great of a friend he really is. All of sudden it got really hot. When I looked up I saw lava coming straight toward me. I had about five minutes to get out of the way of the lava. I struggled to stand up the pain was fierce but I got up. I felt like a baby trying to learn how to walk.

“Hey you, get out of there, your gonna get burned by that lava heading toward ya.” Screamed a beautiful girl. I must have been in a daze by her looks because the next thing I knew she was right in front of me. She looked at me with a confused look.

“What happened to you?” She asked.

“What dose it look like?”

“Well aren’t you the sweet one…”

“Yes I am” After I said that she gave me a really mean look.

“What’s you name?” she questioned.

“It’s ahh…..ummmmm.” I couldn’t answer, I was speechless, she was so hot! About 5′4 beautiful brown hair to her shoulders. She looked a lot like the actress Katie Holmes. I think what inspired me the most was her eyes and her smile.

“Hey you…are you okay??”

“Ahh yeah, Mitchell”

“Mitchell is your name I’m taking it?”

“Yeah Mitchell I’m sure.” She smiled and said “Hi Mitchell I’m Katie, mind if I call ya Mitch?”

“No no not at all.”

“Ok Mitch think you can run cause that lava is getting just a little to close to me. I was in so much pain but looking at her made it all go away. So I took a step forward and fell flat on my face. I heard her laugh. She knelt down beside me and took my hand. “Looks like you can’t run.” I didn’t respond I just laid there. She squeezed my hand “come on I’ll help ya, I can’t let ya burn to death your already way to hot” “Oh really?” I said. She just smiled and helped me up a large hill. It felt like I was climbing Mount Everest. I leaned on her all the way up and that took the pain away. I was thinking to myself am I dead? Jaden and I had looked all over for some kind of sign of life and found nothing. I didn’t care about any of that I just wanted to know who she was and if she had a boyfriend.

Chapter 5

“Thanks you saved my life.” “Your welcome, but what are you doing on this island?” she asked. “Long story, what are you doing here?” “I’m on vacation here, what else would I be doing here?” I gave her a confused look. “Mitch you are in the Caribbeans just on the wrong side of the island.” “I’m what…. Jaden and I looked all over this island and we did not see any people.” “Ok Mitch you are confusing me.” “My friend Jaden and I got washed ashore here. Our boat caught on fire and blew up and then we ended up here. We looked around this whole island and we did not see any signs of life.” “Well it’s a big island, if you like I’ll take you back to where I’m staying and we can get those burns looked at.” “Um yeah, sure, whatever.”

We walked for it must have been something like two hours. I was in so much pain being able to lean on her helped but it still hurt. We reached the other side of the island. She was right, there were at least five hundred people. I could not understand how Jaden and I did not see this part of the island. “I’m staying there,” she pointed to a large hotel. “Whoa your staying there alone?” I questioned. “Mmm no I’m here with ten of my friends.” “Oh that’s cool”

We went inside her room and I meet five of the girls she was staying with. They all seemed pretty nice. “You can take a shower if you want and then we can go downstairs and get those burns looked at.” “All right that sounds good.” I took at least a half an hour shower the cool water felt so good. It had been at least six days since I’d had one. When I got out we went downstairs and got my burns looked at. The lady was really nice she said it was nothing to worry about. She did wrap them up in ace bandage though and said to leave it on for a few days. As we were walking upstairs she asked “is your friend Jaden a girl or guy?” “He’s a guy” “Oh that’s cool, how come he left you alone on that island when the volcano was spitting out lava?” “He just did I don’t wanna go into it.” “Ok..” I could tell by the look on her face that I was not making a good impression on her.

“Mitch do you have a place to stay tonight?” she asked. “No I don’t” “Your welcome to stay with me and my friends tonight if you want.” She had the look on her face were she was like asking herself why am I doing this. “That would be great if you don’t mind. Well I’m gonna walk around and find something to do. I’ll be back tonight room number 574 right?” “Yeah,” she answered. “Thanks for everything Katie.” I walked out into the hall way. I stood there for a few minutes then knocked on the door. She opened the door with a confused look. “Ahh hi” “Hey wanna show me around?” She smiled “sure” “You know your really cute.” I smiled “ya think so?” “Well let me think about it again….”

We walked around for hours that night she showed me everything. We ended up sitting on a dock talking for hours into the night. I found out so much about her. She had just gotten out of a two year relationship and her parents had died three weeks ago. We went back to the room were we meet up with the ten other girls. We sat around and talked about stupid things for a few hours and then we all went to bed. I couldn’t sleep that night all I could think about was Katie. The way she smiled the way she looked. I must have dozed off sometime during the night cause she woke me at 8:00 am. “Good morning!”

Chapter 6

“How did you sleep last night” Katie whispered? “Really good.” “That’s good, wanna go get something to eat downstairs?” “Yeah that sounds good.” I got up and we went down into the lobby and ate. While we were eating Katie asked me, “so what do you think happened to Jaden?” I told her I had no idea and she left it at that. “I’m gonna go hang out by the docks so I’ll catch you later Mitch.” When she said that I was confused. I asked my self is she sick of me? Dose she not like me anymore? “I’d invite you along but I wanna be alone for awhile,” she stated. “Suit yourself.” I watched her walk out the main door. Then I got up from the table and went outside and went down to the beach. “Mitch! Is that you?” I herd my name and the voice sounded familiar I turned around and saw Jaden.

“Hey Jaden! Didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” “Same here” “How did you get here?” he asked. “After you left this girl came and got me out of there.” “I was so worried something happened to you.” “Nothing happened thanks to Katie.” “Well Mitch I’m gonna go hit the waves glad to see your ok I’ll catch ya later.” “Bye.”

I walked around the beach for a few hours. I spotted Katie on a dock about 50 feet ahead of me. I started to walk toward her. She seen me and got up and started walking and met me half way. “Was that guy you were talking to Jaden?” she questioned. “Yeah it was.” “Why didn’t you introduce him to me?” “I dunno he was in hurry to get on the waves so I just figured I’d do it later.” “He left you alone, he finds out your still alive and he just takes off like that…what kinda friend is he?” I gave her a look to tell her to just drop it but she didn’t get it because she said “Mitch I’m not trying to be mean or anything but that was just low of him” “Yeah maybe it was but you gotta know him to understand him. I’m going for a swim, I’ll catch ya later.” I started to walk away I stopped when she grabbed my hand. She moved in front of me. “Mitch please don’t go, just stay with me.” She looked into my eyes for a few minutes. I really thought she was going to kiss me but I was wrong she just stood there. I couldn’t stand just standing there it was to much. “Do you wanna kiss me?” I asked. I didn’t get an answer all I got was a smile. “I’ll take that as a yes.” “No Mitch, I want you to kiss me.” “All right I think I can do that.” I said. In all my life I had never been so scared to kiss a girl. I wasn’t sure why I was scared at the time. I leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

“Mitch do you have any plans tonight?” “Mmm no, I don’t why?” “I was thinking since it’s the 4th of July and all that we could go see some fireworks.” “That sounds great Katie I’d love to. Mind if Jaden comes along?” I didn’t get an answer right away and when I did it was not the answer I was looking for. “I guess I don’t mind” “What do you mean by that?” I questioned. “I don’t know I just wanted to be alone with you I’m leaving tomorrow and I just wanted to spend my last night with you alone.” “Your leaving?” I asked in shaky voice. “Yeah I am, I’ve been here two weeks.” “Ok we will spend it alone but do you think you could get Jaden a date with one of your friends?” “Yeah I think I can.” “Ok great.” “Can you surf?” I asked. “No I can’t why?” “Cause I wanna go and I thought maybe you would like to go with me.” “I’ll pass I’ll stay on the beach and watch you though.” “Ok do what ya want I’ll see ya tonight.” I kissed her once again softly on the lips and headed toward the water.

Chapter 7

After I got done surfing Jaden and I met up. I told him all about Katie. I told him how I felt about her and every other detail I could think of. He didn’t say much he just listened. All he said was not to let her “slip away.” I kept thinking about what he said. I knew what I had to do and that was to tell Katie how I felt.

I went to room 574 and knocked on the door. “Wow! I blared. When Katie opened the door she looked so pretty. “Is that a good wow?” she asked. “Oh yeah, it’s a really good wow. You look beautiful.” “Thank you Mitch you look nice yourself. “Ready to go?” “Yes I am.” “All right let’s go.” I reached and took her hand. We walked side by side down the hall. I kept turning my head and looking at her. I couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked. “I was thinking we could go to a club until it gets dark and then when it does we could go catch the fireworks.” “That sounds good to me. But can you dance?” she asked. I let out a little laugh “can I dance, yeah I can dance and I can sing too.” “Oh really, you never told me that.” “Theres a lot you don’t know.”

As we approached the club I stopped. “Why did you stop.” she asked. I knew I had to tell her how I felt I just couldn’t find the words. “No reason, let’s go.” We went into the club and the music was blaring. The club looked just like a disco but without the disco music. “Let’s dance!” She grabbed my hand and drug me onto the floor. “You said you could dance so let’s see it.” I smiled. “All right but I hope you can keep up with me.” We started to dance and she did keep up with me. I ended up being the one trying to keep up with her. “Hey I’m gonna go to the bathroom be right back.” “All right.”

I walked to the bathroom but then cut across to where the DJ was. “Hey can you play something for me?” I asked. “Yep, what you wanna hear?” ” ?All my life’ by Kc&Jo Jo.” “Sending that out to anyone?” “Yeah, say its from Mitch to Katie.” “Will do.” “Thanks.” I walked back over to where Katie was standing. “Listen up people I’ve got a dedication to Katie from Mitch he says he’s very much in love with you Katie. Here’s your song.” I looked up and saw Jaden smiling at me. I just smiled back. “Mitch your such a sweetie!” “Thanks, may I have this dance?” “You sure can.” I took her hand and led her to the middle of the dance floor. I gently put my hands around her tiny waist. She wrapped her arms around my neck and after a few minutes laid her head on my shoulder. I wanted that moment to last forever but it only lasted about three minutes but it was the best three minutes of my life. “We better go if we wanna see those fireworks.” I said.

We walked out of the club side by side. We found a place to sit down on the dock. She sat beside me and I placed my arm around her and she leaned into me. “Mitch what you said to that DJ did you really mean it?” “Yeah I meant every word of it. Why do you ask?” “Because I feel the same way.” I looked into her eyes and saw that she was crying. “Sweetie why are you crying?” I asked. “Mitch I’m leaving tomorrow morning, don’t you get it?” “Get what?!” “Mitch you live in New York and I live in Oregon how can we start a relationship with that much distance between us?” I didn’t know what to say she was right it was far. Before I could come up with something the fireworks started. Saved ,I said to myself. I held her tightly as the fireworks started. As the fireworks began their last explosion, I leaned and kissed her.

“Those were some great fireworks.” I said. “Yes they were.” I took Katie’s hand and we walked side by side back to the hotel. We got to the main door and I stopped. “Why did you stop? Aren’t you coming up?” “I was going to go stay with Jaden tonight…” “Mitch please stay with me tonight please.” “All right” We walked up to her room and no one was there, all ten girls were gone. “Just you and I.” “Yep just you and I.” she said. “What time do you have to be up.” I asked. “Five o’clock a.m.,” “Well we better get to bed then.” I kissed her goodnight and tucked her in. I pulled up a chair beside the bed. I sat there all night watching her sleep. I looked up at the clock and it was 4:59.

Chapter 8

“Katie it’s 5:00.” I said as I tapped her on the shoulder. She didn’t wake up so I kissed her and she woke right up. “Good morning Katie” “Morning, give me five more minutes to sleep please.” “Sorry I wanna spend as much time together as we can before you leave so get up.” I teased. “Ok, ok I’m up.” She got up and got dressed. I helped her pack her things. “Since everything’s ready wanna go for a quick walk?” I asked. “Yeah that would be good.” We walked out the door and went straight downstairs and out on to the beach. “Mitch come home with me,” she pleaded. I was not expecting that. “Umm I dunno Katie…” “Come on Mitch it would be fun please come with me,” she begged. “Ok I’ll come but let me run it by Jaden.” She smiled “alright meet me on the docks when your through.”

I caught up with Jaden at the shore, he was surfing. “Jaden!” I yelled. He came into shore. “Hey what’s up? Did you have a goodnight you never came back to the hotel.” “Yes a great time, I stayed with Katie. Jaden she wants me to go home with her.” “That’s cool what did you say?” he asked. “I said yes. Do you think it’s a good idea?” “Mitch you gotta figure that out for yourself I can’t give you the answer. But if you really love this girl then I would go for it. Follow your heart.” We did our handshake and he went back into the water.

I thought about what Jaden said for about twenty minutes. I thought to myself, I must have met her for a reason. So I decided to go. I went to the dock where she was. I snuck up behind her and put my arms around her waist, she let out a little scream. “Ready to go” I asked. “Yes I am, that’s if your still going with me.” “Yes I am still going.”

We talked until 6:30 then we went back up the hotel and got our things. We got on a bus and we were on are way to the airport. “What’s it like in Oregon I asked?” “It’s nice” she said. “Nice that’s all your gonna say is nice?” She smiled “Ok its umm great! You will just have to wait and see. I love it hopefully you will to.” “I’m with you I think I will.

I’d like to tell you that we lived happily ever after but I can’t we are still living but we are happy.