" Now its sunny with a high of 75 since you took my heavy heart, and made it light." Payne sang as we all continued playing our instruments.
"That was great practice, huh?" Dirk asked
"Well, I sang better than Seerate, right, Wes?" Payne bragged to me
"Hey, you sang like worse than Wes." Seerate joked. Its known to all of us that I can't sing at all other than songs that sound like the singer is talking rather than singing. Also known as "rapping"
"Well, I can't say or else Payne will kill me. Still, Seerate sang better..." I judged and laughed as Payne gave me a friendly punch.
It was the holidays and we were hanging out in our alley. We only hung out with each other more often than our other friends.
Welcome to our town. Its real name is unknown so everyone calls it orphan's town.
You see, in this town, we have no adults older than 25. This is the so-called curse of the orphan's town. So adults over 25 cannot live here even if they are not born in this town. Sadly, our "mayor" is the only adult here is the only adult around here because he is 65 years old and somehow doesn't die from the curse.
Even if he's the only adult, he's a miser. The only thing he built is tourist attractions that charges extortive prices for tickets and builds alley for us kids. The only reason he builds school is so he can make us earn cash for him. Everyone in town hates him.
Let me introduce the group. I'm Wesley Alexander Meg, the 14½ year old. I'm a bookworm. I play the drums and the acoustic guitar. My name came from three different names my mom gave me before she died. Meg was a name I'd be given if I were a girl.
Max Payne is my first best friend. We met when the social worker was looking for orphans to take them to safety. The lady brought us to this corner to stay, went off safely and came back once a year. Until she became 25.
Seerate Has came to our place when the lady came back and told us she will be staying with us. At that time Max and I were 7 and she was 6.
Dirk Fots came 2 years later and he was the same age as Seerate. His mother had ask the worker to bring him to a safe place before she died in front of him. Dirk says he had nightmares about this.
"Man, if we could earn enough for a house in the outside countries, we would move out of this junkyard and scram." Payne screamed.
"Well, if you could pay for the exit fare the mayor charges, then we probably could leave. Then again, the price cost as much as a house" Seerate reminded Payne
"No wonder everyone hates the mayor..." Payne grumbled.
Just then, a flash came from Dirk. Dirk just took a photo of us and put in his diary. He once told us he wanted to be a photographer.
I tried "I guess we should sleep now or the Mayor will fine us for curfew breaking."
While we were all half-asleep, Payne suggested "Why don't we go to the beach tomorrow?"
"Depends on whether the train is arriving tomorrow. But I'm in"
"I'm ok with it"
"What about our holiday assignment?"
"The day after tomorrow me and Wes will get the rock sample, all right?"
"Ok then..."
The sun shone brightly as we woke up the next day. Payne packed our stuff needed for our trip while Seerate, Dirk and I went to get the cash from our job-owners. Some teens worked and gave others work because they don't want to waste their time studying. I worked as a cashier, Dirk as a camera dealing cashier, Seerate worked as the earnings counter or something and Payne... well, didn't have a job. He got himself fired for his hotheadedness and screwing up he did.
"Ok, lets check what we have. We have our swimming gear, suntan lotion, volleyball, soccer ball, food and drinks, a few barbecue grills and finally, 10,000 cynes (that's the currency of our town.500 cynes is 1 dollar in reality)" Seerate recapped
"Hard to pack so much into our bags. Took me an hour to fit it all in." Payne complained
"At least you got it in?" Dirk said
"Uh huh..." Payne replied
We reached the train station and asked the guy at the counter
"Well, next train comes in 11am and its now 10:30am so you kids might want to go somewhere before coming back." the guy suggested
"Nah, we'll wait"
"I think I'll go take a walk," I said
Seerate looked up from her book and said "be back in 20 minutes then"
As I was walking, I saw this shop that looked as if it gone through a storm, a hurricane and a tornado because the walls were Grey. Not painting, but as in the colour looked like it was yellow before. It looked tattered and worn out. Conclusion, it was old. Naturally, I would go in to check it out but since I had a limit, I decided to go back instead.
"Trains here!!!!!!!!"
The hot whistle of the train blew our hair up and was so loud we had to cover our ears just so we won't become deaf.
"We're here!" Seerate looked out the window and screamed
We met at the beach after changing to our swimming stuff. They were just some cheap stuff we had bought in a annual bazaar in town.
"So what should we do first?" Payne asked
"How bout going for some water polo? The water seems fine?" I suggested
"Sounds good" Seerate
"Lets go then" Dirk
I always thought Seerate was beautiful. But seeing her in a swimsuit just suddenly makes me feel a bit weird. Like I'm sweating faster than before.
"She looks hot, huh?" Dirk asked
"Yeah...wait, what!!??" I snapped
"Ha-ha" Dirk laughed
As the sun set with a bright orange gleam, we set-up the barbecue grills and fired up the charcoal.
The other got the food ready and I got some water from the shops.
"So how much do we have left?" Max asked as my friends came back
"Well, the tickets cost 1,000 each, the food and the water cost about 50,000 cynes in total so we have 1,000 left then " I recapped
"Man, the mayor charges too much for food." Max complained
"Not really. The water cost 30,000." I told Max
"Screw the mayor"
When we reached our alley, Seerate entered our corner first and screamed loudly.
"We've been robbed!" Seerate announced as she stepped outside the door.
"What!" Payne ran inside and Dirk and I followed in.
We went in and saw that everything in MY area was thrown and tossed everywhere.
"How did my stuff get thrown around like that?" I said
"Someone really likes you, huh?"
"You're not helping, Payne."
We took awhile to my stuff packed in and took sat to discuss how our corner was broken into.
"Let see, the door was working fine and the roof had no holes. The only window is shut tight and the only way in is through our sink, our air vent, which is still intact, and finally our electrical wiring." Seerate checked
"The thief was electricity?" Payne joked. We ignored him
"Did you lose anything?" Dirk asked
"Only books from the library. But I think I asked some guy to return them to the library."
"Call him then" Payne suggested
I said "Tomorrow. I'm sleepy right now."
"Aren't we going to discuss the project?" Seerate reminded us
Max sheepishly commented "We can do it tomorrow."
As I slept, I couldn't help think about the thief. Even if he did steal those library books, why does he want them? I kept thinking as a slapping sound hit the windows. I stood up to check. There was nothing there. I shrugged and lied down.
"You can't sleep too?" Seerate whispered to me
"Yeah, troubled about the thief." I replied
"Want to go for a walk?"
"Yeah, ok"
"Hey, Wes. Did you ever... think I'm cute?" Seerate asked
I coughed when she asked me that and stammered "Err... can I not answer that?"
She giggled softly and I said that" well..." The sentence was cut short as someone yelled "Hey, who's there? You broke the curfew and have to pay for it!"
"Screw, its the mayor. Run!" I shouted out loud.
We tore through the alley and got to our alley, which was partially hidden (luckily) and went in. We went to our beds and lied down there. We heard the Mayor passed our alley and left the other way.
Next morning, I woke up as Payne and Dirk came back from the public baths. He told me that they both went before rush hour came. I went to the baths alone and it was crowded that I couldn't get anything done until they all left.
When I came back, the rest were discussing about the project and had no idea what to examine.
"I know where to get a rock, Payne and I will go to that shop I saw near the train station."
"after a lot of work, Lets get the rock" Payne said
"when I worked and you sat there waiting?" I replied
"doesn't make a difference, right?"
We walked up to the train station and took a left turn. That's when I saw something weird.
"The shop's new again" I said in shock
"Maybe they repainted it." Payne suggested
"Overnight?" I said
Payne had a look in his face which implied apathy and said "who cares lets just get the rock."
I thought about the shop and walked in slowly. How could someone repaint the shop overnight and make it look like it was built yesterday?
The sayings 'do not judge a book by its cover'. That's true. Because right now the 'newly-made' shop is filled with dust that covered the shop in every nook and cranny in the shop.
"Dust is filled at every crook and nanny in here." Payne
"You mean nook and cranny?" I told him
The thing that shocked us was that the shopkeeper had a beard and look 100+ of age. And this is the orphan's town
"How may I help you?" the man spoke in a kindly voice
"We are looking for a rock to do for our project." I said to the old man
The old man looked in the dusty shelves and pointed to a rock
"That one" the old man said
Payne took it and went to pay for it. Meanwhile I was looking at a book that had no name on it. Somehow I was drawn to it and sensed I was being absorbed by it.
The man looked at me with a questioning look which changed into an offering look.
"I'll throw in that book for free." The man offered too soon and sounded desperate.
Payne looked at me and gave me a "Quick!" look.
"I'll take it!" The man smiled a kindly old man smile and gave us the rock.
"be back soon" The man waved
