Chapter Two

Arrival to Earth

The next morning, Skye, Jane and Jeffrey were in the car by nine-thirty, and Aunt Claire was leaning out of the window to assure that yes, they would be fine and yes, they had the keys to the rental and yes, they had all of the phone numbers and they would see the others in a couple of hours.

The drive was long, but Jeffrey told the three women all about boarding school and even produced a CD from the front of his backpack that was written by him, and there was a song for each of them, the song he'd written for Jane when Skye had gone to visit him, a song he wrote for Skye when he was lonely and missed her, and songs for all the others.

Aunt Claire drove steadily until noon, where they stopped at a local Pizzeria on Long Island. She called the others to find they were only a couple minutes behind and had already eaten, so they hopped back onto the road and drove the last hour to Montauk in high spirits.

Skye was so happy when they started onto the familiar road that she rolled down the passenger window and stuck her shoulders out to breathe in the salt scent.

Grinning, she looked back to see that Jeffrey and Jane had both followed her lead. They smiled at each other as the car pulled up to a large house sitting nestled on the little slip of land between the lake and the ocean. Skye pulled her head back into the car and opened the door a moment later to gaze up at a large house crouched near the dirt road.

Grabbing her bag, she rushed up the front steps, then waited for Aunt Claire as she was tossed the key. The front door was unlocked with a series of clicks and she pushed inside. The main room was large and she settled down into a comfortable chair on the side with Jane to wait for the rest of the family. They didn't have to wait long, and soon the entire Penderwick family and Jeffrey were sitting on the floor, in chairs and standing in the main room, which didn't look as large anymore.

Mr. Penderwick cleared his throat and all were silent.

"Hound draws for order on rooms, ladies. You know the drill. Jeffrey, your name will be added."

Preparations were set, and Hound pushed his way through the crumbs, touching first Jeffrey, then Jane, then Batty and Ben (a set), then Rosalind, and finally Skye.

"I don't understand what he has against me." Skye laughed, and waited at the bottom of the stairs as the other children ran about and shrieked.

Finally, Jeffrey hurtled down the stairs to grab her hand and lead her past the other rooms.

Rosalind was unpacking in a big green room with a curling staircase up to a small nook from which you could see the sparkling blue ocean. Jane had collapsed on an enormous bed in a purple room with white lacy curtains facing the bay, her stuff already scattered around. Batty and Ben were playing with Hound in the center of the biggest brown room in the front of the house, with three enormous mirrors facing out the window so that Skye could see the ocean. Jeffrey showed her his room, the second largest, next to Skye's smaller one, with dark blue walls and a piano in the corner (though only an keyboard).

"An actual piano," he trilled, and then brought her to the last room on the second floor.

It wasn't as bad as she had thought it might be. There was one bed, and shining wooden floors, with grey walls and a small window that lead out to where she could spot the ocean, glittering and impassive. She turned to Jeffrey, who was still basking in the light of his piano.

"It's nice." She smiled.

"Good," he laughed at the look on her face (half happy, half scared of his zeal), and dragged her to his room. "I want to show you something."

He showed her onto the bed, then dug through his backpack, leaving things everywhere.

"Jeffrey," she said, exasperated. "Couldn't you…"

"No." He grinned at her over his shoulder, and pulled out another stack of CD's. "Jane!"

Jane appeared a moment later at the door, sticking barrettes in her hair, "yes?"

"Come and sit."

Jeffrey started sorting through CD's until he found a blank one and stuck it in the boxy player at the opposite end of the room.

"You won't hear the full beauty of it with this thing, but at least you'll hear a crappy version."

Music started streaming from the speaker, dramatic and rough, as if it was from an action movie. Jane closed her eyes, and started breathing deeply.

"Arrival to Earth, from Transformers. Steve Jablonsky. It's a masterpiece." Jeffrey stood and walked over to where they were. They listened to the full extent of the piece (a couple of minutes), and then Jeffrey turned it off.

"Well?"

"Oh Jeffrey, it was wonderful. So dramatic, majestic, tremendously wonderfully grandly fantastical." Jane was practically singing.

"Skye?" Jeffrey glanced up at her.

"Well…" Skye tried to think of a way to compliment it without a word that Jane had just used. "I guess, it made me want to watch the movie."

"Exactly!" Jeffrey started pacing. "The whole point of music in a movie is to reduce people to feel the emotions that the people are feeling in the movie, so that you can understand the actions, cry at the deaths, rejoice at the victories, laugh at the comical characters, everything. Everything relies on the music. If the music is wrong, it feels off… Something isn't right. Skye!" Skye jumped. "Did you feel victorious, happy for what had happened, in awe of something?"

Skye nodded.

"Jane?"

"Yes, Jeffrey. It was wonderful. Will you write the music if I ever make a movie?"

Jeffrey nodded, "Of course I haven't chosen between writing music for movies and classically making music. Though I am learning from the gods. Steve Jablonsky wrote most of the music for the Transformers, and was victorious in matching the music to the film. At least, in my opinion."

Jane nodded enthusiastically, and Skye thought about what he said for a moment.

"Jeffrey."

He looked at Jane, so did Skye.

"Do- do you think that you could write music for something specific, like… this summer? These weeks? Could you, do that?"

Jeffrey nodded, then paled slightly. "I, well..." He rubbed his eyes, "I could try."

Jane actually clapped. "Hurrah! now… I call first into the ocean."

"Oh no you don't." Jeffrey grinned.

Skye pushed them both out of the way. "That's right." She called down the hall. "I'll be first in."

The three tore down and across the road to where the ocean was still waiting for them. Batty and Ben soon begged Rosalind to bring them until it was only the adult in the house.

Mr. Penderwick smiled over a glass of champagne at Iantha and Claire, "we have arrived all in one piece, so we deserve a drink."


Skye and Jeffrey were amidst a game of water tag when they heard a shout from up the beach and spotted Hound tugging on something. Glancing at Jane, who was face-up in the water, eyes closed, soaking up the sun, they took off towards him.

Hound appeared to have grabbed a leg of someone who was sitting behind a bush. Skye grabbed Hound by the collar and Jeffrey ran through the intense brush to get to where the person was sitting. Rosalind, Ben and Batty showed up behind Skye, and Batty immediately grabbed Hound and started whispering to him.

Jeffrey emerged a moment later, guiding a girl about Skye's age through the brush.

"...was just trying to read when that rude dog was grabbing my foot and-"

"He's not rude!" Batty said forcefully.

The girl was pretty and dark haired, with olive skin and green eyes. She was wearing very short shorts with a bikini top and her hair was pulled away from her face with many clips. In her hand she clutched a teen romance novel. Skye didn't like her immediately, for the way she showed off her butt for Jeffrey and how much makeup lined her eyes.

Batty seemed to share Skye's opinion, for she stalked back up the beach, still whispering to Hound. Ben hopped out of Rosalind's arms stalked off after her. Much as Skye would have liked to follow them, she stood her ground as Jeffrey apologized for Batty and held out his hand.

"I'm Jeffrey Tifton, and these are my friends the Penderwicks, Rosalind and Skye."

The girl stuck out her hand and shook it, narrowing her eyes at Skye. Rosalind stuck out her hand as well.

"And who are you?"

"Melody. Melody Adragna. I'm Italian, related to the princess." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, which still stared at Skye.

It was like Melissa times seventeen. Skye groaned and turned off to walk up the beach. A moment later Jeffrey caught up to her.

"That was a rudeness that deserves an explanation, she's perfectly harmless."

Skye snorted, "harmless, did you see the way she looked at me? She's so full of herself… Just, Yuck."

Jeffrey aimed a punch at her, and she let him hit her shoulder.

"We don't have to see her again, anyway."