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Cole and Rachel Parker walked into the only place in Crystal Lake that seem to be alive at six in the evening. Their three kids followed behind. What they walked into looked like a bar,
restaurant, and arcade area all in the same huge space. The bar ran along the far wall, with the kitchen behind that. To the left were pool tables, and behind them lining the wall were arcade games. There seemed to be two groups of teens hanging around each pool table. The one table had only three teens around, while the other had twenty or so. Cole and Rachel picked a booth, beside the exit. Cole and his eldest son Jayce took one bench and his wife Rachel, and their youngests Jennie and Nathan took the other bench. An older teenage girl came over and took their orders, then disappeared behind the bar and into the kitchen.
Cole watched as Jayce looked over at the pool tables. Cole grinned to himself, before nudging Jayce and nodding over to the pool table. "Gotta make friends sooner or later. We are going to be living here for a few months." Cole told him. He had gotten a temperary transfer, to teach the volunteer firefighters of Crystal Lake all he knew. They had traded houses with another family who lived in Crystal Lake, and wanted to see how the big city life was. So they got their house for the next four to five months, and they lived in the Parkers for the same amount of time. They got their meals and started eating. Cole wasn't surprised when Jayce finished first,
and walked over to stand near the pool table with only three teens hanging around it, talking to one another.
OMALLEY
Callie Johnson stood off to the side of the pool table waiting for James Hilton to make his shot. She leaned against her pool cue, as Ryan Dixon took his shot, she wasn't surprised when both shots made it in to the right pocket. She was sitting this one out, waiting for her dad to make an appearance at the Chatterbox. Where just about the entire town came at some point in the day or evening. She needed to borrow a few bucks from her dad to settle her tab. Though she could have hustled any one of the suckers around the other pool for more then enough to cover her tab,
but she promised the judge and her father that she'd quit gambling and a few other things, if she could get community service hours. Well she was still working off her hours and trying her hardest to keep out of trouble, which was a little hard if your last name was Johnson and your first name was Callie.
"Mags!" Ryan called, lifting his empty pop glass up and then indicated that they all wanted a refill. Maggie McGrath nodded and started pouring. "I'm telling you Cal, them brakes on my car just ain't working right."
"I put those brakes in myself Dixon. There AIN'T nothing wrong with them." Callie told him. "Maybe it's the driver." She told him grinning.
"It's not the driver." Ryan told her. "and if it's not the brakes either then what is it?" He asked, making sure not to step on her pride. When it came to cars there were three people that knew there stuff. There was the Hilton garage, where James and his dad Ben could fix anything with wheels and even some thing that don't. Then there was Callie Johnson who spend just as much time under a car as she did racing them, which was a lot, since almost every big celebration in Crystal Lake had a race of some sort to kick it off, or to end it.
"I'll check it out tomorrow morning, bring it over after you're done chores." Callie told him, as she took the glass Mags was offering. "Thanks Mags." She told the elderly woman who she and her husband owned the Chatterbox. Ryan sunk the eight ball. "Looks like James is covering my tab tonight." She told him, as Ryan collected his winnings. Mags laughed at the face James was making at Ryan.
"You three stay out of trouble." Mags told them. "Especailly you." Mags said, looking over at Callie.
"Yeah yeah." Callie told her. Mags and her husband Peter were like everyones grandparents. They liked to keep an eye on all the teens who came into the Chatterbox. Specailly Callie, since she was still on probation.
OMALLEY
Jayce Parker watched one of the teenage boys pay the other one, while the boy who won simply gave the money to the only teenage girl around the pool table. He smirked as the boy who lost tried to talk the other one into another game. He was caught by surprise as the girl turned around quickly and tripped over him. Jayce quickly reached out and grabbed her around the waist, steadying her. "Sorry about that." He told her. She spilled her pop all over him. He noticed that she was wearing old faded jeans, which were torn at the knees, and had a grease hand print,
over the left pocket. She wore a white tank top, and her long light brown hair fell around her face.
"Why you apologizing? I'm the clumsy one." She asked him grinning. "I am sorry."
Jayce grinned back. "It was an accident, and I shouldn't have been standing so close behind you." Jayce told her.
"Well it's kinda hard to find a lot of personal space in Crystal Lake." One of the boys she was with spoke up. The other one laughed. While they both came up to him. "Hi. I'm Ryan Dixon and this here pool fool is James Hilton." Ryan introduced himself and James. James glared at him.
"And the clumsy one is Callie." Ryan told him.
Jayce shook Ryan and James hands, then Callies' "Nice to meet you all." Jayce told him.
"I'm Jayce Parker." Jayce told them.
"Nice to meet ya too." Callie told him. "Do you play pool at all?" She asked him.
"I don't have no money." Jayce told her.
Callie laughed. "That is okay, we don't always play for money." She told him, handing him a pool cue.
"Besides Callie can't gamble." Ryan stated, laughing as he quickly hopped off the pool table, before Callie could poke him with her cue. "Come on James I'll buy ya another drink, since I took all your allowance." He told him laughing.
Callie let Jayce take the first shot. He sunk two solids. "None to shabby." Callie said.
"Thanks. I've practiced." Jayce told her grinning.
Callie smiled. "You'll fit right in here then. This is all there is to do, if you're not into cars." Callie told him, taking a shot and sinking a stripe, then took another sinking a stripe and a solid. She took another shot and missed.
Jayce sunk a solid then a stripe by accident, he looked up at her. "Now we are even." He stated smiling. As Ryan and James came back over.
"I guess we are." Callie told him, sinking three more before missing.
"You're good." Jayce told her, taking a shot and missing. Callie took a shot, and missed on propose. "Not to good at hiding a miss though."
Callie just smiled at him. "So how come ya moved to a hicktown?" Callie asked.
"My dad got transfered here for a few months to help out at the new fire station." Jayce told her.
"Your dads' a firefighter?" Ryan asked, sitting down in front of where Callie had to go to take a shot. She ignored him and took her shot around him, sinking her last two. She ended the game by placing the eight ball in the corner pocket. "Looks like ya lost." Ryan told Jayce. "I tried to help."
A tall man walked over and looked at them a moment, nodding in greetings. "Jayce you ready to get out of here?" He asked.
"Sure dad." Jayce told him, placing the cue on the table. "Thanks for the game. Hope to see you around." Jayce told them.
Ryan and James laughed. "Don't worry you will, you couldn't avoid us even if y'all wanted to." Ryan told him. Jayces' father laughed at Ryans' comment.
"Bye." Jayce said, following his family out.
"Bye." They all called after him.
"Guess I should vanish aswell." Callie told her two best friends going to the door. She walked outside into the night, the only light coming from the street lights. She went to her midnight blue stockcar and crawled in behind the steering wheel, since she couldn't open the doors, cause they were welded shut. She sped off out of town. She pulled into her laneway and parked her car in the barn her father and her turned into a workshop. She locked the shop door behind her and ran into across the backyard, into the screened porch. She sat down and pulled off her cowboy boots and walked into the one level house.
OMALLEY
Luke Johnson walked into his house at eleven thirty. He had gotten called into work, by old man Stevenson who swore up and down that he seen a bunch of kids playing around his shed at ten at night. He walked in to see his seventeen year old daughter cleaning up the kitchen. She just finished washing dishes, and had set a steaming cup of coffee on the table for him. He took it and sat down quietly, taking a sip. "Who called this time?" He asked.
Callie looked over her shoulder and grinned. "Hanna." She told him. She finished cleaning the sink and putting the dish rag in the sink. She sat down across from him, putting her feet up on the chair beside her. She reached behind her and grabbed the jar full of chocolate chip cookies. She took two and nudged the jar over to her dad.
Luke smiled and took a couple. He looked at the clock. "What time are you starting your day?" He asked, covering up a yawn.
Callie yawned aswell. "Stop it!" She told him. He laughed. "Early." Callie told him. "I hope to have all the chores down and have Ryans car fixed before lunch." She told him.
"And after that?" Luke asked. He always wanted to know where she was, even though for a time she wouldn't answer him. She had gotten into a lot of trouble, that she got herself out of since her father wanted to be Sheriff.
"I should probably make an appearance at school." She told him. In Crystal Lake county,
more then eighty percent of the high school students were part homeschooled, and spend part of their education in a classroom. Since more then half the people around the area where farmers, they needed their older kids to help out around the house. So you only had go to school when you got the chance, and to turn in assignments, and take tests.
"Make an appearance?" Luke asked, grinning.
"Yeah." Callie told him, standing up. "I'm going to bed." She told him, wrapping her arms around him, and kissing his cheek. "Good night dad."
"Good night sweetheart." Luke told her, as she walked upstairs. A few minutes later he followed her example and went to bed also.
OMALLEY
Callie skidded to a halt as she rounded the corner and in to her English class. Mrs. Riley was a nice elderly teacher, and if you turned in your assignments in on time, she didn't care much what you did in her classroom, aslong as she got to grade your papers she was happy. Mrs. Riley looked up over her glasses at the sound of Callies' cowboy boots on the tiled floor. "Looks like you run like you drive." She simply stated, going back to her book. The assignment was written on the board.
"YEE WHO!" Callie hollered, as she went and took her seat in the back, beside James. He was leaning over his desk writing down the assignment, like always. The only way James' dad lets him be homeschooled, and allows him to work in the garage is to keep up his grades, not like it was hard for him. He was in the top five smartest people in Crystal Lake High school. Which had two buildings on the same property. The other building was bigger and that was where grades six and under got their education, and then the building they were in now, was the high school, which on a good day only had about a hundred kids in it, unless it was exams.
James looked up at her when she took a seat. She was surprised to see Jayce Parker sitting in front of him. "Still causing trouble?" James asked, going back to his note.
Callie laughed fakely. "Me trouble?" She asked surprised that she and trouble would be in the same sentence.
James looked at her before grinning. "Yeah who would have thought." He teased. "Hey Jayce if you need to borrow my notes ya can." He told him.
Jayce turned around. "Thanks." He said, taking James binder from him, since he was finished with the note. "Hi." Jayce said to Callie, before turning around.
"Hey." Callie replied, before turning to James again. "I got Ryans car fixed, and was wondering what you was doing after school?" She asked him. James shrugged. "Well ya want go, and drive around for a bit?"
"Why not. I'll swing by my house and grab my car, and meet you and Ryan out there." He told her.
"Excellent." Callie said, copying the note. The bell rang and she headed off to talk to the rest of her teachers. She got all her assignment just as the bell to end school rang. She walked out of the school, seeing the younger kids running towards the parking lot, to their moms and dads. Two of them ran into her and looked up at her with big eyes as if they were scared of her. Their moms came and told them not to go near her again. Callie shook her head. Guess not everyone forgave her for the things she done. She shrugged as she seen Jayce standing beside the parking lot, looking up and down the road. He had two kids with him.
"Lost are we?" She asked him. She caught him by surprise, and he jumped. The two kids laughed at him. Callie smiled.
"Kinda." The girl beside said to her.
"Kinda?" Callie asked. "How can y'all be 'kinda' lost in Crystal Lake? It's either you are, or you ain't." Callie stated.
"Okay we are then." The girl told her, fiestily.
Callie smiled at her. "I like you, you got spunk. Now where are ya looking for?" She asked looking at Jayce.
"Ashland Ave." The girl told her.
"Well no wonder you're lost, you are on the wrong side of the school." Callie told them,
grinning. "I can give you a ride if y'all want." Callie told them.
The two kids looked up at their older brother. "Thanks." He said, as they followed her to her midnight blue stockcar.
"Spunk come on over here." She said to the girl.
"My name is not spunk. It's Jennie." She told her. "and that there is Nathan."
"Well Jennie come over here." She told him, watching as Nathan tried the door handle. She grinned and scooped Jennie into her arms. "See my car is not normal, and you have to crawl into it." She told them, letting Jennie slid down into the car and into the backseat. Jayce lifted Nathan into the car, and he joined his sister. Callie sat where the window was suppose to be and then pulled her legs over and slide down and into the driver seat. Jayce followed her example.
"You're cars cool." Jennie said, leanind forward. "But there is no seat belts." Jennie pointed out.
"Thanks Spunk, like I said my car is not normal, now you two sit back okay." She told him , turning on the engine, and for once did the speed limit out of the school parking lot. "Now what house are you at?" She asked,them as she turned on to Ashland Ave.
"135." Jayce told her.
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