Chapter 1. Journey with consequences

I woke up because of a terrible crashing noise. Immediately after that I heard Brian's furious shouts.

'It's becoming impossible to live in this house,' he roared.

'Calm down, dear,' I heard mum's anxious voice. 'What happened?'

'What happened?' Brian roared even louder than before. 'Look what fell onto my head. I could have been seriously injured! That's what happened.'

'All the same, there's no need to shout,' mum went on in a mild voice. 'You'll scare the boys.'

'I just wanted to sort out my old things in this storeroom,' Brian went on roaring. 'And this stupid stuff falls on my head.'

At first I was in no hurry to find out what was going on downstairs, but on hearing about the storeroom, I jumped to my feet, rushed out of my room and ran downstairs. The scene I saw there was really impressive. Storeroom's door was wide open. A stepladder, a few cans of meat and fish, three plastic cups, forks, knives, combs, towels and other camping stuff were scattering about on the floor in picturesque disorder. Brian sat on the floor among these things. His shirt was strewed with rice. A sooty billy sat on his head like a helmet. Mum was standing next to him, looking at him anxiously.

'Brian, please, calm down,' she said and gingerly started brushing the rice off his shoulders.

'Can anyone tell me?' Brian shouted. 'How did all these things get in my storeroom?'

'It's…' I babbled. 'The guys left their stuff here.'

'What guys?' Brian yelled.

'Friends,' I whispered.

'Why?' he immediately asked a new question.

'They needed to leave it here,' I mumbled, trying hard to think of a good excuse.

'What for?' Brian was glaring at me.

'They…Um…they went for a hike,' I forced myself to say.

'Around my house?' Brian stamped his foot. 'Do you think I'm an idiot?'

'Brian,' Mum desperately looked from Brian to me.' Please, calm down.'

'Hang on,' Brian left his hand. 'I'm asking you,' he turned to me, 'why did your stupid friends fill my storeroom with their stupid stuff?'

'For camping,' I decided to follow the first version.

Brian made a careless gesture. The billy fell off his head, crashed onto the floor and rattled aside. For some reason it had a good effect upon him.

'Okay,' he said more quietly.' Okay, Tom, tell me please, why did you put these things into this storeroom?'

'You talk,' Mum smiled with relief. 'You talk. I, meanwhile, will prepare breakfast.'

'Good idea,' Brian approved it. 'So,' he turned to me again. 'I'm listening to you. Which of your friends left these things here?'

'Nick, Elmo and Zane Quistok,' I said the truth.

'Why?' Brian asked.

'Our house is the nearest to the school,' I said. 'They were to go hiking straight after classes.'

'What the hell classes?' Briand was starting to get angry again. 'Today is Saturday!'

'They were to go yesterday…' I broke off, but it was too late.

'Yesterday?' Brian looked steadily at me. 'Are you saying that they have already gone?'

'Yes…That is no,' I mumbled. 'I mean they will go hiking next week on the same day as it was yesterday.'

'Breakfast is ready,' I heard Mum's saving voice from the kitchen. 'Adam! Jonathon! Get up!'

'No, wait, darling,' Brian protested. 'At first I want to figure out what's going on.'

'What's wrong again?' Mum immediately came running up to us.

'I work in school, I teach these loafers how to live a decent life,' Brian's voice carried all over the house. I noticed that Adam and Jonathon crouched down on the top of the staircase, gingerly peering through balusters at their father. 'I have only two days-off to have a rest. And when I decided to calm my nerves and sort out my things in the storeroom, this junk fell down on me. And the more, absolutely outside kids filled this storeroom, where I keep my old papers and private things, with stupid camping junk, which they prepared for a day that is the same as it was yesterday, but the next week.'

'Brian, what are you saying?' Mum stared at him with horror in her eyes.

'That's not me! He is saying this,' he pointed at me. 'And I want to receive a clear answer, when these three idiots will go for a hike and why do I have to keep their junk among my business papers?'

'You don't have to,' I replied. 'They just asked me and…'

'They asked!' Brian yelled. 'They asked and now I have to poke around in this grain like a hen,' he shook some rice off his shirt-collar. 'Call them! Tell them to take this stuff away immediately.'

'I can't,' I spread my arms. 'They are not in Raven Hill now.' If this drama had started a little bit later, I would have thought how to explain it. But now my sleepy head didn't work at all.

'What do you mean they are not in Raven Hill?' Brian kicked at the billy. It rolled with a clang down the hallway. 'Where are they then?'

'They went on a hike,' I replied and closed my eyes, expecting a storm.

'Uugh! I can't stand this!' Brian groaned, his head in his hands. 'What the hell hike?' he roared, turning to me. 'You've just told me that these three idiots are going to go hiking next week on the same day as it was yesterday!'

'He probably means next Friday,' Mum put in doubtfully.

'Right,' Brian exclaimed. 'So, Tom, answer me. Why did they leave their junk here and go for a hike yesterday?'

'Um…' I faltered. 'They went for another hike yesterday.'

'I'll better speak with their parents,' Brian grabbed the phone. 'Maybe they'll tell me more.'

'No, Brian, please,' I pleaded.

'Breakfast is getting cold,' Mum put in gingerly. 'Brian, leave it now.'

'Okay,' Brian suddenly calmed down. 'In the end why should I care about three loafers, who go hiking all the time? But after breakfast you, Tom, will have to take this junk away from here into your room. You should be responsible for your decisions. If you decided to keep their stuff here, keep it in your room.'

'Sure, I will,' I nodded vigorously.

'Very well,' Mum also sighed with relief. 'Let's have breakfast then.'

'Come on,' Brian shook some rice off his shoulders and went towards the kitchen.

'Ugh,' I felt an incredible relief. I didn't want to make him angry today. Sunny and I had arranged to go to the city. So I was going to keep myself as quiet as possible lest give Brian an excuse to make me stay at home. And luckily this storm was over.

I shouldn't have thought like that, because, of course, the next moment a can of stewed meat fell out of the storeroom and crashed onto the floor with a loud clatter.

'I can't stand this!' Brian yelled. 'How can I live in a house where cans and grain fall down on my head?!'

'It didn't fall on your head,' I said. I didn't want to say that, I just couldn't help myself. Of course I immediately regretted that I'd said this.

Brian furiously pushed the kitchen door open and sat down at the table. During breakfast he kept talking about my behavior, and irresponsibility, and my bad marks at school and everything. I tried to remain calm, but all the same he decided that I would stay at home and help him to sort out things in the storeroom.

I didn't say anything. Just chewed my piece of cake and sipped hot chocolate, cursing my bad luck and Zane Quistok. We never should have listened to him. His ideas always got us into troubles. So why the hell did we listen to him again?

###

This story began on Monday. After first lesson I found Elmo, who had promised to give me our maths assignment, because I didn't get on with maths at all. Elmo was explaining how he'd solved those equations, when Zane ran up to us. His eyes were sparkling with excitement.

'We need to speak,' he said meaningfully.

'What for?' Elmo asked suspiciously. As I'd already said, Zane's ideas always caused troubles for anyone who'd been so incautious as to tangle with him.

'Not now,' Zane replied. 'Let's meet after classes.'

'We're going to Liz's place after school,' I said. 'You can go with us.'

'Very good,' he nodded importantly. 'See you after school then.' He turned round and rushed away. Elmo and I looked at one another in bewilderment.

'He seems to have an interesting idea,' I said.

'We'd better keep away from his ideas,' Elmo muttered. 'Otherwise we'll be very sorry.'

Afterwards I thought of his words. It looked as if he knew what was going to happen.

###

Finally school was finished for the day. We met Quistok at the school gate and headed for Liz's house. Actually we were going to discuss the lack of jobs for Teen Power Inc, but I couldn't help inviting Quistok to go with us. I was dying to know what his ingenious brains had invented.

'So?' I demanded as soon as we settled down in Liz's lounge room. 'We're listening to you.'

'I've got really great plans for this weekend,' Zane smiled all over his face.

'We perfectly know your great plans,' Elmo glanced at him from under his brows.

'This time everything will be okay,' Zane assured him. 'I estimated every little detail. This weekend is going to be very interesting and unforgettable.'

'Come on! Speak!' I demanded. The others also seemed to be interested.

'So,' Zane began with an air of importance. 'One of my friends, Sailor, is going to root for…'

'What has it to do with us?' I interrupted impatiently. 'Get closer to the point.'

'A sailor?' Liz repeated at the same time. 'But where did you get acquainted with a sailor?'

'Sailors usually are so strong and handsome,' Richelle drawled dreamily. 'Does your sailor have his own ship or work for someone?'

'You're nutty,' Zane shook his head. 'He's never even been on a ship.'

'What kind of sailor is he if he's never been on a ship?' Liz glanced interrogatively at him.

'Are you mad?' Zane exclaimed. 'It's Kevin Seaman. He's a friend of mine. He graduated Raven Hill High last year. We call him Sailor. So,' Zane said quickly, before someone interrupted him again. 'There will be a football match in Melbourne this weekend. Sailor is going to root for our football team.

'So?' Elmo stared at him in puzzlement. He wasn't keen on football and sport.

Nick, Liz, Richelle and I also took this news indifferently. Even Sunny, who was mad on sport, didn't cheer up. None of us could understand what it had to do with us. Okay, if this match was in Raven Hill or in the city, we might go. But in Melbourne… So we all looked at Zane expectantly.

'Don't you understand?' he asked.

'No,' I shook my head.

'We'll all go!' Zane shouted joyfully. 'Except for the girls, of course.'

'Not all then,' Nick snorted.

'Don't interrupt him,' I jumped excitedly around Quistok. I didn't know yet what he was going to suggest, but I felt that it would be very interesting.

'There will be only guys…' Zane started to explain.

'Don't bother to apologize,' Liz grinned. 'We have no desire to go.'

'Good,' Quistok approved girls' position. 'We'll have fewer problems without you.'

'I wonder how you will go to Melbourne,' Nick glanced grimly at Zane. 'We'll have to spend a lot of money.'

'No, we won't have to,' Zane grinned. 'I've got a plan.'

'Oh, I see,' Nick drawled. 'Zane's suggesting walking to Melbourne. Let's name this experiment "how to survive in the wilderness".

'I won't walk,' Elmo said firmly. 'Can you imagine how many days it will take for us to reach Melbourne? I'm not Leo Tolstoy to do such tricks.'

'Who?' I stared at him.

'Leo Tolstoy, a Russian writer,' Elmo grumbled. 'He left his house in his old age and walked away to somewhere. And ended up dying at a train station. I don't feel like repeating his destiny.'

'Oh, come on,' Nick sneered. 'Just say that you're afraid to go.'

'I'm not afraid,' Elmo grumbled.

'So you're not afraid to walk like Leo Tolstoy?' Nick went on in the same sly tone.

Elmo looked gloomy and ran his hands through his curly red hair in a worried sort of way. He didn't want to repeat this feat of the old master of classical literature. But knowing Nick's nasty nature, he knew that if he refused to go, Nick wouldn't let him get away with it so easily.

'Okay, Zane, I agree,' Elmo said in a tone of a prisoner, who was going to accept his capital punishment. 'When will we walk?'

'No, you dope, we won't walk,' Zane grinned. 'We'll go by train.'

'By train?' Elmo repeated in surprise.

'Yes, by train,' Zane nodded. 'We'll go on Friday just after classes.

'What train? What are you talking about?' Elmo cried in horror. 'I don't have so much money!'

'Forget about money,' Quistok said stoutly. 'I'm telling you! I've got a plan. Sailor and I spent a lot of hours working it out. We estimated everything, every little detail. Actually when Sailor saw my plan, he said that I was a genius!'

'Poor naive Sailor,' Nick drawled. 'It seems to me,' he glanced sideways at Elmo, 'you'll never reach Melbourne.'

'Don't listen to him,' Zane waved Nick off impatiently. 'Just the other way around, it will be an interesting and useful journey. We'll cheer for our football team, see Melbourne and then return to Raven Hill. By the way, Nick, what about you? Are you with us? Or you're afraid?'

Nick didn't answer. You could see that he was struggling with himself. On the one hand he wanted to go, but on the other hand, he wasn't sure that this crazy idea would end well.

Sunny rubbed her chin thoughtfully. 'I wonder how you're going to go to Melbourne and back without money?' she said.

'Well, actually we'll have to spend some money,' Zane replied.

'Typical promotional trick,' Nick muttered. 'At first you say that we don't have to spend money at all, but then we find out that we'll need a lot of money after all.'

'Stop talking about money,' Quistok exclaimed. 'Honestly, Nick, you're just a walking accounting office, not a man. I mean we need money for food. Surely you don't want to starve for two days. And also we need some money for local train tickets. But not many. We'll buy only economy class tickets, and besides, Sailor knows how to communicate with ticket inspectors. I can assure you that we won't even have to pay for most of trains.'

Zane opened his bag and pulled out a paper roll. He unrolled it on the floor. We all crowded around to see. Lines, arrows and icons were accurately drawn all over the paper.

'It looks like a general plan of a battle,' Liz said admiringly.

'It's better than a plan of a battle,' Zane glanced at his work with love. 'Because it was calculated accurate to the second, like the best commanders did, but for peaceful purposes.'

'We perfectly know how your peaceful purposes end,' Nick sneered. But you could see that he also was captivated by Zane's plan. Somehow Zane can inspire people by his ideas.

'So listen,' Zane went on explaining. 'The experiment of the Century! Journey from Raven Hill to Melbourne and back to Raven Hill on local trains and busses. Minimum risk and maximum profit. Look, we change trains here, here and here,' he pointed at dots on the plan. 'Then we have to take a bus to reach this town. From here we take a train again and ride to this station. It will be night when we reach this station, so we'll have to wait there for about four hours. Don't worry, Sailor's team consists of big, strong guys. There's no need to be afraid when you're with them. So, at five in the morning we take the last train that will carry us to Melbourne. After that we'll go straightaway to the stadium…'

'I personally usually wash and brush my teeth in the mornings,' Nick put in.

'What's a big deal,' I waved both my hands at him. 'You're hopeless, Kontellis! It's the Experiment of the Century, and all what he thinks about is washing and brushing teeth.'

'Do you think I should be like you?' Nick snapped, hinting at my tangled, sticky-up hair.

'I think you'll endure it if you don't brush your teeth once,' Zane went on. 'Okay. After the game we'll have four hours for walking about Melbourne. Then we'll set off back to Raven Hill.'

It was a crazy plan, but as I'd said above, Quistok could captivate everyone by his ideas. And this time was no exception. Nick, Elmo and I were drawn into it without our will. I really wanted to go. This idea seemed so tempting.

'I don't understand one thing,' Nick jerked me out of my thoughts. 'If we leave Raven Hill on Friday after classes and return only on Saturday night…'

'Not on Saturday night, we'll return on Sunday morning,' Quistok corrected him.

'Cool!' I admired. More and more I wanted to go.

'This all the more. So we're going to spend two nights in the voyage,' Nick droned. 'I don't know about your parents, but mine will start panicking already on Friday evening.'

'I think my father won't be worrying too much,' Elmo said doubtfully.

His father, Zim, as we all called him, was very busy working in the Pen and trusted his son to make his own decisions very long time ago. But I guess two nights was too much even for Zim. Let alone Nick's parents, who always overprotected him.

'Do you think I'm a fool?' Quistok resented. 'I told you that I'd thought of every little detail, didn't I? We'll tell our parents that we'll go for a three-day hike.'

'Great!' I exclaimed admiringly. It was impossible to think another simple and at the same time brilliant excuse. Our parents would easily let us go on a hike with school.

At this point the discussion was over. Quistok really thought of everything. Nick, who didn't take this plan seriously at first, had been drawn into it by the end of discussion, and after a short conversation with Richelle in the next room, he said what he would go. Elmo also agreed to go. He wasn't keen on it, and it crossed my mind that he decided to go just because he'd already agreed to go, and didn't want to take back his words. But anyway he was in.

As for me, I really wanted to go, but that evening Brian said that he wouldn't let me go for a hike or anywhere else before I cleaned my room. I did it. I spent two days cleaning my room, but all the same Brian said that I was grown up and should be responsible for my behaviour, so I couldn't go on a hike until I learnt to keep my room tidy.

That drove me mad. I ran to my room and slammed the door. But anyway the journey was out for me. The rest of that week I heard Elmo, Nick and Zane discuss the journey and envied. But then Sunny suggested going to the city. It immediately made me feel better. I liked to spend my time with Sunny. We have so much in common and she's probably the only person who understands me so well.

On Thursday there were some problems. The caring parents prepared a lot of camping things for their kids. Nick's mother put so much food in Nick's backpack, that he could eat it for a whole month if he wanted to. So did Zane's parents.

After classes on Friday they brought their backpacks to my place and asked to leave this junk here. Grudgingly I agreed to hide it in the storeroom, where Mum and Brian kept their old things. They hardly ever looked into it. So the guys left only necessary things and some food in their backpacks, and put the rest of the camping stuff, like warm clothes, blankets, spare socks, canned food and other touching signs of parents' care into the storeroom. How was I to know that Brian would decide to sort out his things in this storeroom this weekend?

###

The whole Saturday I spent working with Brian in that storeroom until late evening. Brian was pleased, what I couldn't say about myself.

'See?' he said, looking at things, which were neatly ordered in little piles. 'We had a good time together. Now you can call Sunny and go for a walk with her.'

'I can't,' I grumbled. 'It's almost eleven o'clock.'

'Well, you can go tomorrow,' Brian looked a little bit confused.

I went to my room and closed the door. My mood was completely ruined. I hadn't gone with the guys to Melbourne, and I hadn't go to the city with Sunny. I spent the whole day with Brian among dusty things instead. And I had to spend the rest of the night in my room, full of camping junk.

I called Sunny and we spoke for a while. Then I went to bed.