And we're back! Never expected us to do a second story did you?
Enjoy the beginning of our second misadventure! Oh… almost forgot something really important…
DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN THE MUSKETEERS OR ANY CHARACTERS ASSOCIATED WITH THEM (NADA, ZIP, ZILCH, ZERO!) THEY ARE PROPERTY OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS. NOR DO WE OWN THE SCHOOL WHERE ALL OF OUR MISADVENTURES TAKE PLACE! WE ALSO DO NOT OWN THE VERSIONS OF THE MUSKETEERS USED (WHICH IS FROM THE MOVIE "THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK").
What that said and done, now let's get to the story
October 28, 1665
It was another simple autumn day in the city of Paris. There was a slight bite to the air that day but nothing out of the ordinary. A gray stallion trotted through the streets, its rider dressed in the uniform of the guards of the King; that of the musketeers. The rider reigned in his horse to stop outside of one of the many similar looking homes and dismounted, tying his horse to the window shutter before he entered the building and climbed the stairs to the second apartment. Voices flitted out from under the door and they quickly silenced when the rider knocked upon the thick wood. The door was opened to reveal a modest apartment and three people within, all older men. The man who had opened the door gave the new arrival a warm smile and ushered him in.
"Welcome D'Artagnan." Athos said warmly, embracing the musketeer heartily. D'Artagnan responded just as warmly and gave nods of greeting to Porthos and Aramis who were the other two guests that were there. They had gathered there for a weekly meeting they had fallen into the habit of doing over the past two years.
Athos poured them all some wine and they simply sat and talked about what had happened from day to day since the week they had last met up. Although the conversation was very animated, all of them in their turn kept sneaking what they thought to be a sly glance at the sword upon the mantle. It had been returned to its position there after the teens from the future had used it to return to their home two years prior. However, the conversation soon died as their attention became focused on the blade.
"I wonder how those children are doing…" D'Artagnan muttered in thought. Athos gave him a sharp look.
"Wherever they are, I am sure that they are well. There is no need to think about them as much as we do." Although this may seem a callous thing to say, it has been said many times over. It was simply a way to get the subject changed and to get conversation flowing again. However, there were still some sneaky glances to the blade throughout.
When it began to grow dark outside the window, Athos' guests stood to leave. He talked with them still in the doorway when D'Artagnan realized his had left his gloves on the table within the apartment and squeezed past Athos to retrieve them. The three remaining friends waited for a minute or two before becoming slightly suspicious and returning to the room they had just left. D'Artagnan had certainly retrieved his gloves and was putting one of them to good use in removing the sword from its settled spot on the mantle. Athos took a couple steps (for that was how close he was to him) and gripped his shoulder warningly. The musketeer captain froze; a slight expression of embarrassment upon his face.
"What are you doing?" D'Artagnan looked at Athos with a blank look, not having an answer to his question.
"I think it's time for all of you to return home." He turned him towards the door but D'Artagnan tripped over Athos' feet and he began to fall forward, throwing out his ungloved hand to catch his fall but instead of grabbing upon the mantle, his bare hand clasped the sword. The other three men rushed forward to help steady him and as they grabbed a hold of his coat, a light blinded them and they felt their feet leave the ground.
The air rushed by them at a howl, colours blended together to create a whirlwind mess around them until the four of them found themselves slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of them. Except for Porthos who had had an unfortunate landing in a nearby tree and was now full out cursing in the loudest voice possible as every branch he was dropped on broke underneath him and deposited him on the one below until he reached the bottom where the other three lay trying to regain their breath.
"Where in God's name… are we?" Aramis panted as he sat up slowly so as to make sure that no important bones had been damaged. Their landing had placed them on the front lawns of a large building made of brown coloured stone with double set of rows of windows along the facet of the building. Three of them slowly stood to their feet, still a little disoriented from the rough landing while Porthos remained crouched on the ground a bit longer as he was still in a fair degree of pain.
"You simply had to touch the sword!" Athos said, slapping D'Artagnan upside the head which resulted in a dirty look from him.
When Porthos had recovered enough of his senses to be able to get to his feet, the four of them headed for the set of four doors nearby, all made of grayish-yellow metal and they all had glass windows, and they entered through to doors to come upon a large, chilly stairway. They continued on through another quartet of doors (these ones royal blue with a long thin rectangle of glass going down the door) after taking a quick glance at the mural painted on the wall to the left of the doors. There was no one in the area they entered which was a large open area with three different directions they could take.
"Which way?" Porthos asked, his voice's pitch still a little high. The four of them stood there staring around, trying to decide which way to go when a loud clanging screech rang throughout the building and swarms of kids began pouring out through the three paths, chattering and oblivious to the four strangers standing in their midst.
October 28, 2009
The shrieking ring of a bell sounded through the building and crowds of children poured out of rooms with blue doors, packing the hallways like sardines in a can, all in a hurry to reach their lockers and head off to either buy their lunch from the cafeteria or to eat a home brought lunch.
The good thing about a high school is when it has a second floor. Hardly any students stay up there unless that is where all their friends and their own locker are. And this makes it the perfect meeting place for those that are considered among the high school society to be a little odd or imaginative or simply plain crazy. The room that was chosen for such a meeting place was one of the two French rooms.
"Please tell me you're kidding!" A voice rang out from within the room.
"No I'm not." Another voice replied sounding rather dejected and annoyed. There was a blast of laughter that lasted for several minutes.
"Chris, how can you mess up something so easy? I'm sure your sister showed you how to feed your niece without making such a mess!" Chris pouted as Shawnee continued to laugh at him from her perch onto top of a desk. Brenna sat in the chair beside her, trying hard not to laugh and choke on her lunch and Jordan walked the length of the room working his way through his sandwich and ignoring the rest of the group.
"It's not that easy to feed an 8 month old baby! I'd like to see you try it!" Chris protested.
"I have, remember? My family was a foster family for nine years and we had almost nothing but small children. It is not that difficult to feed a baby." Shawnee countered with a smirk. Chris huffed and folded his arms. He opened his mouth to protest when the PA system gave a loud BEEP noise. All four of them frowned and stared at the metal speaker mounted on the wall with great annoyance.
"Would a group of students with the names Shawnee, Brenna, Chris, and Jordan please report to the main office? I repeat, Shawnee, Brenna, Chris, and Jordan: report to the main office." The four of them looked at each other with confused expressions.
"Did they just call us down to the office?" Jordan asked, taking another glance at the speaker.
"Yeah I think they did." Shawnee said, her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the speaker as well. Chris shrugged and headed for the door.
"Might as well go see what they want right?" Brenna nodded and stood to follow him. Jordan trailed out after them and Shawnee followed last, still giving the speaker a suspicious glance as if it would hop off the wall, hunt them down and eat them. The four of them chatted about anything that came to mind as they walked to the office. When they reached the glass door to the main office, Brenna gave Shawnee a small push in the back.
"What was that for?!" She demanded.
"You're the one going first." Brenna answered with a smile. Shawnee growled at her then shoved open the door, entering the office, with the other three close behind.
"Hi." She chirped to the secretary.
"You called us down a few moments ago?" The secretary nodded and smiled.
"Yes. Do you know these men? They say that they know you." All four of them looked to their left in one movement and no one spoke for a few minutes as they examined each other.
"Oh great…" Shawnee said with a sarcastic smile.
"Look who it is. Some of France's greatest." This comment earned her a slap upside the head from Brenna.
"Do you ever think before letting words out of your mouth?"
"I'm supposed to?"
"Oh shut up."
"But where's the fun in that?"
"Shawnee…"
"Yes Brenna?"
"Whenever you're finished…" Shawnee shrugged and didn't say another word about the topic but turned to the secretary.
"Yes we do know them. Very well actually." The secretary nodded and returned her attention to her work. Shawnee turned to the four men in question to see them looking each one of them up and down to see how they've changed.
"My… How you four have changed!" Aramis said with slight shock. He had every reason to be shocked. Two years can change a lot about people. Brenna, Chris, and Jordan had grown a bit taller (Chris and Jordan having recently gone through a growth spurt) and had become more defined in shape.
Brenna now sported a pair of glasses that was three quarters covered with black frame and then the bottom of the lenses had no frame and Shawnee had traded in her old wire frames for a pair of thicker, square, brown ones. Her hair was also no longer in its once longer, messier style but came up to a little below her shoulders and she now had a vague hourglass shape to her frame. But she was the only one whose height had not changed or had not changed a lot, making her the shortest person there. Brenna smiled.
"Well you couldn't have expected us to look the exact same forever!"
"Now who's being the smart ass?" Shawnee muttered. Brenna stuck her tongue out at her childishly to which Shawnee simply swiped two fingers against her temple in a salute.
"Excuse me…" Shawnee turned to see the secretary watching them curiously.
"I am wondering if could tell what these men are doing here. Are they related to you?" All eight of them froze, looking at each other in shock. Shawnee frowned for a second, bowing her head in thought then swinging it back up with a bright smile.
"Actually yes. They're our uncles… from France who are here to… study Canada's education system!" The musketeers stared at her in utter shock at the blatant lie. The other three also gave her looks of great disbelief before forcing it down and faking smiles so as to agree with her statement. The secretary raised an eyebrow but said nothing more. Instead she stood and walked over to the principal's office and came back out followed by Mrs. Mills.
"These children say that these gentlemen are here from France to study the educational system here." Mrs. Mills gave them a confused look.
"I knew nothing about this."
"It was all very sudden Madame." Athos consoled.
"We simply chose which school we would be visiting this morning upon arrival." She nodded and borrowed some paper from the secretary to quickly scribble a few notes which she then handed to the four teens.
"These are passes out of your classes for the rest of the afternoon so you may show our guests around the school. Give these to the attendance office." Shawnee nodded and led the crowd out of the office and into the hall just as the bell gave its screeching ring once more to signal that class was soon to start. They waited against a wall as crowds of kids pushed pass them to get to hallways and classes for the afternoon. When everyone was gone and the area was silent, Brenna smacked Shawnee upside the head once more.
"What the hell kind of excuse was that? 'They're our uncles here to study the education system.' That was pathetic!"
"I couldn't think of anything else to say! It just came to me!" The two girls glared at each other until D'Artagnan gave a slight cough to catch their attention. They chuckled, embarrassed for a moment, before regaining their composure.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Jordan asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Well why not show us around this place?" Porthos said, gesturing grandly to the hallways leading off of the foyer they stood in. They went through a set of royal blue double doors and walked down a hallway until they came to a smaller open space with a long wooden cabinet along the wall across from them.
"Milady!" A voice cried out as they moved through the open space and into another hall. At this, Shawnee froze and pressed her hand against her face with a groan. The musketeers whipped around so fast, it was a wonder they didn't give themselves whiplash.
Behind them was a short girl with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing jeans, a patterned t-shirt, and blue fingerless gloves. She had a bright happy smile on her face and Shawnee turned around and walked up to her with a halfhearted glare on her face.
"Planchet, I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. You do NOT call me that name. Ever." Brenna coughed and pointed at D'Artagnan whose face was a picture of shock.
"Allow me to introduce Alexiss, our group's version of Planchet. Alexiss, meet the musketeers." Shawnee said, waving to them with a sigh of boredom. Alexiss' jaw dropped.
"NO WAY!" She squealed, clapping her hands.
"This is so awesome!!"
"Keep it down Alexiss! We don't want everyone to know who they are. The story we have is that they're our uncles from France here to study the Canadian education systems. Now, can you stick to that story?" Alexiss nodded, still smiling brightly.
"Good. Now shouldn't you be in class?"
"I was just going to the washroom. See you later!" She waved as she walked away. Shawnee sighed and returned to her place at the front of the group.
"Where are you leading us?" Aramis asked. Chris shrugged.
"Who knows? There's no where to go in this school. Shouldn't we just go home?"
"Hmm…. Maybe we should take these four to Masonville mall. They… need some clothes if they're going to blend in." Shawnee muttered.
"What about band practice?" Brenna asked worriedly. "We can't miss that."
"Nerd." Chris fake coughed, rolling his eyes afterwards.
"We'll just tell her that we can't make it for practice today because of our visiting uncles. I'm sure she won't mind." Shawnee said with a shrug.
"Shawnee! We can't do that!" Brenna exclaimed. Shawnee winced and gave a defeated sigh.
"Very well… We'll go to band practice. So this means that you two Chris and Jordan have to stick together after school. You can come with us to practice or go to the library or something until we're done." Chris scrunched up his face in distaste.
"Pass. How about we take these two…" He gestured to Aramis and Porthos. "Up to that thrift store down the street and look around there while you guys go be band geeks."
"That just may work. But they are not allowed to touch ANYTHING understand? We don't need them causing trouble."
"Do we not get a say in this?!" Aramis asked, not enjoying these plans being made involving them but not getting consulted on it at all. Shawnee just looked at him blankly.
"No. Welcome to the 21st century boys. You go by our rules now."
Wow… That was a long beginning chapter. Not too exciting of a start for the story but hey, we can't give you excitement all at once can we?
Hope you enjoy our second misadventure and we'll see you all in chapter 2!