A/N: I apologize first off if some of the characters don't quite match up. To be perfectly honest, this was one of my first stories - before Escape from Hell Fire was really in the works.
I hope you enjoy it, also I apologize in advance if the story is bad, I just figured that since it was done - finally after almost a year of writing on it that it should be posted.
"Hey dad, would it be okay if Tin-Tin, Fermat and I went camping down on the beach later tonight? You said we could the other day…so can we?" Alan poked his head into his dad's office when he knew his dad was taking a break from work.
Jeff raised his head from poring over the Tracy Enterprises spreadsheets and affixed his gaze on his eleven year old son. It wasn't unusual for Alan to ask these kinds of questions. He was a kid who was trying to reap the benefits of summer vacation with his two friends. The group of three was most generally seen lounging around on the beach or near the pool. Jeff smiled warmly at Alan before responding to his youngest son's inquiry.
"If Kyrano, Onaha and Brains don't have a problem with it…then it should be fine. You three will be planning on staying down in your cove where we can find you if necessary?" Jeff wanted to find out the general location of the proposed camping spot. The three kids had been begging to go for the last week and they were all actively tracking a meteor shower that they wanted to watch.
"Yeah, we would set up our tent in the mouth of the cave in the event that the weather changes course, but otherwise we will stay on the beach." Alan gave his dad a very hopeful smile. He was looking forward to watching the meteor shower, it was cool to try to count how many meteors fell out of orbit and Alan, Tin-Tin and Fermat were hoping to track the trajectory of the meteors.
"All right, I give my permission…but I want you to clear it with Fermat and Tin-Tin's parents before you make any plans. We will go over a checklist this evening if all works out well." Jeff smiled warmly at the look of excitement on Alan's face. The boy didn't ever ask for much, so to grant him this small opportunity was a real treat. Alan couldn't help himself and in a moment of childlike joy, ran forward and gave his dad a big hug.
"Thank you, dad! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You're the greatest!" Jeff caught himself when his young blonde haired son launched himself into his arms. It made Jeff laugh to see his youngest son so excited over a little backyard camping.
"You're very welcome Al. Now before you get too excited, go with Fermat and Tin-Tin and clear it with their parents. I would rather you not be down there by yourself, and if they can't go…I will have Gordon accompany you this evening." Jeff patted Alan on the back, urging him to go on. The blonde haired tyke turned and looked at his dad before giving him a large grin.
"Sure thing, dad. Thanks again!" Alan ran out of the office, yelling for Fermat and Tin-Tin as he went. Jeff had to hide a smile when two of his older sons came walking in after Alan ran out.
"Hey dad, what was Alan so smiley happy about? He left your office in a hurry with the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face." Scott tilted his head in question as he gazed at his dad, confusion clear on his features.
"I just gave him permission to go camping with Fermat and Tin-Tin on the beach this evening if their parents agree." Jeff smiled again at Scott and John. The twenty-one and nineteen year old both exchanged knowing smiles before looking mischievously at their dad.
"So, they wouldn't by any chance be staying down there by themselves would they?" John saw the playful sparkle in Scott's eye before looking at his dad.
"Well, if Fermat and Tin-Tin's parents agree then yes, it will be just them down on the beach this evening. If they disagree, then I was planning on asking Gordon to stay on the beach this evening with Alan. Why do you ask?" Jeff noticed the mischievous smirks on John and Scott's faces. The two elder brothers both loved to prank their younger brothers and if the opportunity presented itself, they most assuredly took it.
"No reason. We were just curious. See you later dad, I wanted to go show Scott something. Bye!" John physically drug Scott from their dad's office…shutting the door in the process. Jeff shook his head chuckling to himself.
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Alan walked with Tin-Tin and Fermat flanking his left and right side. The three of them were animatedly discussing their plans for the evening. Kyrano and Onaha as well as Brains agreed that the kids could go camping that evening. The parents were aware of the kids' plans to track the meteor shower and didn't want to see disappointment on their children's faces.
"So, do we want to go ahead and take our tent down now and get it set up, or do we want to wait until later this evening?" Alan looked between his two friends as they walked.
"I think we should wait until a little later. One of your brothers could fill it with a bunch of crabs or sand, and I for one don't feel like trying to shoo those little critters out of our sleeping space. The sand I wouldn't mind." Tin-Tin peered over her shoulder as if expecting one of Alan's older brothers to come materializing out of thin air. That seemed to happen a lot.
"I a-agree with T-Tin-Tin." Fermat murmured softly. He had a feeling that one of Alan's brothers was listening in to their conversation, but the only question was…from where? They were out in the open…near the pool. The only spot any of Alan's brothers could be hiding would be on the balcony in either Alan or Virgil's room.
"Okay, so later this evening we can set up the tent, and I'll ask dad to show me how to build a fire. We can go get our sleeping bags out of the hangar and then all we need to do then is get the hot dogs, stuff for s'mores and our canteens. That and our cameras, I want to try to film the meteor shower from the bluff." Alan held up a finger as he listed each thing they still had to do before their backyard camping trip. All three of them were so excited.
"Well, let's get going. We can go gather the sticks and wood for the fire now so then we don't have to do it later." Tin-Tin suggested. Alan and Fermat nodded excitedly.
"Oh, we can't forget our music. You know this would be the perfect time to sing out loud like nobody is watching." Alan looked at Tin-Tin with an impish grin. Tin-Tin glared at Alan with a fiery blush present on her face. Of course he couldn't forget that time he caught Tin-Tin dancing around in her bedroom singing into her hairbrush.
"Uh-huh. We all know you can't sing worth a hill of beans Al." Tin-Tin smirked at Alan. Two could play at this game.
"I can to sing, I just choose not to around my family." Alan blushed himself. He could sing and he knew that Tin-Tin knew of his ability to sing, but she also knew that he never sang because he didn't want to steal Virgil's thunder. After all, the seventeen year old boy knew not only how to sing, but how to play the piano and various other musical instruments.
"I'm just teasing Al. Of course we'll bring our music. After all, like you said…tonight would be the perfect time to sing like nobody is watching." Tin-Tin winked at Alan. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"I-I knew you c-could sing Alan." Fermat mumbled out, his stutter only slightly present. The nine year old really only felt comfortable around Alan alone…but he was slowly getting used to his newly established friendship with Tin-Tin. They had after all been hanging out for the past year.
"How did you know I could sing? I don't ever recall seeing you around when I was singing." Alan was stumped. He usually sang when he was by himself down in his cove or in the shower.
"Y-You left t-the bathroom d-door slightly o-open and y-you were s-singing in t-the shower o-one morning a-after you s-spent the n-night in m-mine and m-my dad's a-apartment. It s-sounded really n-nice." Fermat looked up at his best friend. He knew Alan was shy about singing in front of others, but then it was just like how he was shy speaking in front of others.
"You can't ever breathe a word of that to any of my family!" Alan's blush at being caught singing increased.
"I w-would never s-say anything A-Alan…you c-can trust m-me." Fermat held up his hands in mock surrender.
"Good. Now let's go." Alan thought he'd heard a snicker, but he couldn't be sure. He wanted to get down closer to the jungle so they could gather wood for the campfire. Tonight was going to be so much fun.
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John and Scott were hiding in Virgil's bedroom just around the corner from the open window. The seventeen year old boy was glaring at John and Scott with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't approve of them eavesdropping on their baby brother's conversations. Virgil blinked owlishly though when he overheard what Alan, Fermat and Tin-Tin were talking about. He didn't know Alan could sing. But still he elbowed Scott in the ribs when he snickered at how Fermat discovered Alan's singing.
"Shut up Scott. It's not that funny." Virgil watched as Alan looked around, he was absolutely positive that Alan heard Scott's snicker.
"Yeah it is. Maybe we can catch him singing later this evening. What say you John?" Scott shot John a conniving smirk. If the blonde agreed, they could use Alan's singing ability for potential blackmail material.
"I would like to hear Alan sing myself, so yeah…I am in." John nodded enthusiastically. He turned to his immediate little brother and raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you in Virge?"
"I don't want to, just because if we are caught by Alan…the chances of him trusting us with a secret are zilch…but I want to hear Alan sing." Virgil was torn about respecting his baby brother's closely guarded secret and his interest in how well Alan could sing. "Fine…count me in. But I don't want to hurt Alan. You know how easily his feelings can be hurt."
"Yeah, Virge we know. We won't do anything to hurt Alan…I just plan on getting a recording for my records." Scott slapped John on the shoulder before copying the same action with Virgil. The eldest son left Virgil's bedroom shortly thereafter. John quickly followed, leaving Virgil to wonder if he'd made the right decision.
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The sun had already gone down, Alan perched on his knees in front of a slowly smoldering pile of wood; holding a flashlight to see by. His dad had showed him how to build a fire using a flint and had left Alan to practice. He had been at it for the past hour. He couldn't seem to correctly operate the flint, and his arms were getting tired. Close to giving up, Alan tried one last time. His smile grew when a spark from the flint caught, igniting the pile of wood.
Alan fanned the flame; to be sure it caught and tossed a couple small pieces of kindling in it to feed the fire. As the fire grew in proportions, Alan rocked back on his heels to get away from the heat. After he was sure that the fire was good, he stood up and walked up to the cave where Fermat and Tin-Tin were working on setting up the tent.
"Hey guys, how's it going?" Alan discreetly hid his amused smile at the mess that had been made. The tent itself was lying in a heap and both Fermat and Tin-Tin were unable to make heads or tails of the sticks and hooks.
"It would be going better if I actually knew how to set up a tent. I thought this would be easy." Tin-Tin put her hands on her hips and stared with disdain at the tent's materials. The way she looked at the tent, it was like she was trying to make it magically set itself up, saving her and Fermat the trouble. "Do you want to help? I mean…surely you have put a tent together before."
"Don't look at me. I've never put a tent together before, Scotty or dad always did it. I am sure I would just make a mess of things." Alan held up his hands to ward of the suggestion. Tin-Tin groaned in defeat at Alan's response. "Relax; we don't absolutely have to have a tent. That was the whole reason we were setting it up in the cave after all. Besides, it will make watching the meteor shower that much easier."
"I suppose you're right Al." Tin-Tin began gathering the tent and all the materials to put them away. There was no point in leaving them to lay around. "Come on, I am getting hungry and I want a hotdog."
"All right! Roasting hot dogs over an open flame. Come on Fermat, let's go!" Alan quickly helped Fermat and Tin-Tin put the tent and its unused materials away before grabbing the basket that Tin-Tin's mom made for them. It had hotdogs, graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate bars for s'mores, water, hotdog buns and the condiments that go well on hotdogs all packed in it.
"C-Coming Alan!" Fermat hurriedly put down what he'd been working on and walked out of the cave down to where Tin-Tin and Alan were busily preparing the sticks to roast hotdogs on.
"So, I think this calls for a campfire song…how about you Tin? Want to start us off?" Alan sat back on the sand, supporting his weight with his hands. Fermat was sitting on the other side of the fire, looking at both Tin-Tin and Alan.
"Fine. But you…get to sing the next one all by yourself." Tin-Tin pointed at Alan as she put extra emphasis on the 'you'.
"So give us what you got then Tin-Tin. Fermat and I will join in. I promise." Alan smiled innocently at Tin-Tin. He hoped she sang a song that he recognized.
"Well, here goes." Tin-Tin took a deep breath before beginning to sing.
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
Scott, John and Virgil snuck down to the beach slowly. They told their dad they were going to their rooms, but somehow their dad suspected they had something planned. He had warned them not to bother the three kids, reminding them how this was their chance to have fun…with no adult supervision. Granted, you could see the beach they were on from the observatory near the attic, if anyone wanted to know what they were up to…all you had to do was go peer out the window in their direction and you could see them.
The three brothers stopped when they heard loud raucous laughter nearer to the beach. They could see in the distance what appeared to be Alan and Tin-Tin marching around the fire…cutting up while they sang loudly to some goofy song. The boy and girl were laughing and Fermat appeared to be clutching at his stomach laughing loudly.
Scott, John and Virgil stopped where they stood when Alan and Tin-Tin turned to haul Fermat up to his feet. Slowly the group of three continued to sing, the melody becoming recognizable. Using the shrubbery as cover, the three older brothers slowly made their way closer to the group.
"The ants go marching huh? I wonder whose idea it was to sing that song." Scott whispered as he bit his lip while trying to keep a straight face.
"No clue, but look they are sitting down. Hopefully that's not all they are singing…I couldn't really hear it too well." John sounded mildly disappointed. He couldn't really hear his little brother singing, he mostly heard lots of laughing.
"Listen! Ssh!" Virgil halted their progress and made them sit in silence. Slowly they recognized the next song to be John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.
"Who's that singing?" Scott asked. He raised his head over the shrubs to see that neither Fermat nor Tin-Tin's mouth was moving. "That's Alan!" Scott whispered. He nudged John's shoulder to get him to look.
"Well, I'll be." John murmured quietly. He shook his head in disbelief but had to cover his mouth to stifle a chuckle when Alan, Tin-Tin and Fermat shouted loudly before lowering their voices again. The group of three kids began clapping to keep a rhythm and got quieter as they sang.
"They are such characters sometimes." The three older brothers watched on in amusement as Alan pulled out his music player and set up a little portable speaker to it, before selecting a song that all three kids knew and joined in singing.
"Get your recorder out John. I want to get a copy of this." Scott again nudged John and the older blonde handed his older brother the voice recorder he used to tape his college lectures with.
"Hurry up. I don't want Al to catch us." Virgil tried prodding his two older brothers along. He was afraid of being caught. They were bound to stand out; they didn't really have much in the way of cover unless you counted the shrubs.
"Just a sec. Ssh." Scott held the voice recorder out just a little beyond the shrubs to pick up Alan singing along with Tin-Tin and Fermat. They were singing along to some new band the kids were going crazy over in the states. One…something. "Got it, let's go." Scott ushered his two brothers out of the immediate area and back up to the house.