Chapter Two
Night Time Swim
We walked back to my room and Shannon and Holly sat down on my bed, while I grabbed a box of electronic devices.
"So when should the device be done?" Holly asked after three minutes of silence.
"If you guys keep asking that every three it will be in an hour. Now stay quiet and it'll be done in five okay?!" I said exasperated. After five minutes of silence finally I was done.
"Finally!" Shannon exclaimed as she jumped off the bed.
"Yes, but there's a hitch." I told them as they looked cross. "There's only one so…" I lifted my glasses up onto the bridge of my nose. "We can only track one at a time."
"So who do you think we should track first?" Holly looked around at Shannon and me.
"I say we track Kris. I mean he obviously like Alice" My mouth dropped open at that comment. "so since she built it I say we track him first." Holly shook her head in agreement.
"Fine." I sighed. "So how do we it?"
We talked for about another half an hour and finally came up with a plan. Shannon would go down to dinner and Holly and I would come down stairs, after Shannon got Kris, Tray, and James to come to dinner with us. I would ask to see Kris's bracelet and while I looked at it I would place the tiny receiver on the inside of the bracelet. Then after dinner we listen to what they say when girls aren't around.
At exactly 6:30 Shannon ran out of my room and down stair. Holly and I looked out the window in time to see her running down the path to where the three guys stayed. Five minutes later she came back up the path with Tray, James, and Kris right behind her with his bracelet on. At that Holly and I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Holly, Alice it's nice to see again." Andriea said as she passed by. "Can I help you with something?"
"Oh no we're fine we're just waiting for Shannon to come back in." Holly said as the door knob turned and Shannon walked back in.
"So shall we go then?" She asked as she walked out the kitchen door. I gave the sign of after you to Holly, and we waved good-bye to Andriea, and left.
"So where are we going to dinner?" Holly asked as we headed into the garage.
"I think we should go to the mall." I said as everyone looked at me funny. "What? Just because my family is rich, doesn't mean that I'm a snob. Plus they have restaurants if want to go one of those, and if we go to the food court we can all get something we like." I told them as I walked over to something that was covered in a cloth.
"I say we go with Alice's plan." Holly said as we both pulled the cloth off the lumps. We then stood in front two motorcycles, Holly's in Blue and mine in purple with a gold tint. Shannon pulled the cover off of her motorcycle. Hers was the exact same model as Holly's and mine, a Suzuki Katana in red. The guy's mouth had fallen open at the sight of motorcycles.
"Sorry guys you'll have to wear our parent's helmets. We never expected that we would have to give rides to guys." Shannon told them as we all climbed on our bikes and pulled a helmet over our heads.
"Come on, get on. We don't bite…normally." I said as they pulled helmets over their head. "So who wants to ride with whom?"
"I guess I'll ride with you." Tray said as he climbed on the back of my bike. Kris climbed on with Shannon and James climbed on with Holly. I opened the garage door in time to see a car pull up in front of the castle. A man stepped out of the car with a woman. The man was about 6 feet tall with white hair styled with a buzz cut. The woman was about five foot four and had short red hair. I climbed off the bike, throw off the helmet and ran at the couple.
"Mom and dad!" I yelled as I jumped into my dads arms.
"Honey! How have you been?" He asked as he held me at arms length and looked me over.
"I'm fine, how are you?" I asked as I hugged my mom. It was a little odd because I'm five foot eight and still growing.
"We're both fine. It's good to see you instead of grandma." I laughed at that. "Don't get me wrong I love her, but she got a little annoying. So where are you guys going? And who are you three?"
I turned around to see that Kris, James, Tray, Holly, and Shannon had come up behind me. My dad wrapped his arms around me and I pressed my back into him and my mom. "These three are Tray, Kris, and James. And we're going to dinner. Sorry I thought you guys were coming tomorrow." I told my parents.
"That's okay besides we're going to crash when we get to our room from the flight. You guys have fun." My mom said as she kissed the top of my head and my dad let go of me. "We'll see you tomorrow then."
They walked into the castle and we walked back to the motorcycles.
"So those are your parents? They seem nice." Tray said as he climbed on the back of my bike. I took of at a high speed, zooming out of the garage.
"Yeah my parents are awesome they always do what's best for me and my best friends." I said through the speaker in the helmet.
"How can I hear you?" Kris asked as I stopped at the end of the street.
"Oh I made a speaker so that we can all hear and talk to each other." I told him as I sped off again.
"So question, how are you guys related?" James asked from my left.
"Well Holly and I are cousins, and Shannon and I have been best friends since I moved back to America." I started to explain.
"And we've been best friends ever since." Shannon finshed for me.
"And it doesn't even feel like we're cousins. More like sisters, because my family lives over here in Wales while I lived over in America with Alice. And Holly would stay with us at least once a week and then we would stay with her once every week." Holly said finishing explaining.
"Wow. If you guys moved over there to America, then that means you guys were born here in Wales." Kris said as Shannon almost laid her bike on the ground to scare Kris.
"Actually Alice was born in America from what she said." James corrected Kris as Holly lined up in the middle of Shannon and me.
"Nice, a smart one. I was born in Kansas, and Holly was born in Wales, while Shannon was born in Washington." I said as I cut the engine short as we stopped in front of a five story building. "So guys you've have been here before, where's the food court?" I asked as I took off my helmet and shook my hair out.
"Helmet hair stinks." James said as he also shook his shaggy dark blonde hair.
"Hi, welcome to the Llandyssil mall can I help you with anything?" A lady in a red sweater vest asked as we walked into the mall.
"No thank you." I said as we walked passed. "You never answered my question. Where is the food court?"
"It's on the fifth floor." Tray said as we entered an elevator with three people in it. There was an African American girl, a Chinese/Japanese boy, and an older African American mom holding the girl.
"So what does every one want?" James asked as he stood in the middle leaning against the railing.
"Well do you guys have a Chinese joint in the food court?" I asked as I leaned against the railing in the corner.
"Yeah. We have a place to get food from every country, except Brazil." Kris said with a puzzled look. We stepped out of the elevator and I saw a room crowded with people sitting at tables, bars, and standing. "Hey look a new food place. It looks like it's from Africa."
"Brazil." James and I said together. I looked sideways at him and he did the same.
"Wowwwwwwwww." I said as my eyes widened in disbelief. "Okay odd. So what does everyone want?"
"Well I want Welsh food." Shannon said as she walked off.
"Australian." Tray said as he and Kris walked off in the other direction.
"African." Holly said as she walked off.
"I'll go grab a table." I said as I walked off in the direction of the tables.
"Thanks." James said as he walked off towards the Brazilian restaurant.
I walked around the food court and found a table by the Brazilian/Chinese place. James was the first to return to the tables.
"Hey why don't you go get your food I'll wait here." James said as he sat down.
"Okay thanks." I said as I stood up and went to the Chinese place. There was no line so I went straight to the counter. "Hi. I would like the chow mane and the beef and broccoli." I told the woman as she scooped it onto my plate.
"Five forty." The woman told me as I handed her the money. I took the plate back to the table where James was still the only one there.
"One more thing." I said as I held up a finger and ran off towards the Brazilian restaurant. "Hi. I would like the green steamed vegetable and a large coke." I told the man at the counter. He plopped a big pile of a green vegetable in the center of a bowl, and filled up a big thing of coke.
"One thirty." He said. You could tell he was British because of his heavy accent. I gave him two ones and told him to keep the change. I walked back to where James was sitting. No one else had returned yet. You could see across the food court and see that every one was still in line.
"Looks like we made good choices for food." I told James as I sat down across from him. He shook his head in agreement, while he finished chewing.
"Yeah. Man look at those lines, they won't be back for at least another five minutes.' He examined as he turned in his seat.
"So how do you know Kris and Tray?" I asked as I took a sip of my drink.
"We're brothers." He said as I sprayed my drink onto the table and him, and started to cough.
"Wha…How? I mean you…and them…you look nothing alike." I said in confusion while I started to wipe up the table. "Sorry." I said as I handed him a napkin.
"Don't worry about it." He said as I wiped off my drink. "We're fraternal triplets." He told me as I finished wiping off the table.
"Wow, your mom must have been in pain." I said out of the blue. He started to laugh.
"I guess." He said as started to eat some kind of meat. "So out of all of you who's the oldest?"
"Holly is in October, and then it me in December, then Shannon's in January." I told him as he nodded.
"I'm in the middle as well. You see it's Kris, then me, and then it Tray." He told me as he set down his drink. "Our birthday is in November."
"November what?" I asked as I set down my drink. I was curious because one of my other cousin's birthday in November.
"November 16. You?" he asked as he looked curious.
"December 4. My parents have field days for shopping when it comes to December." I told him as stuffed a bunch of the green stuff in my mouth.
"Why?" he asked as he put a churro in his mouth.
"Because there three birthdays in December, an anniversary, Christmas, and New Years." I told him.
"Wow. And I thought my mom had it tough." He said as he set down his fork. "So how…"
"Hey guys. What's ya talking about?" Holly asked as everyone sat down at the table.
"Not much." I told them as the guys sat down on one side and the other two girls sat down on the other side. "Hey, Kris, nice bracelet, can I see it?" I asked as I put the plan into action.
"Sure." He said as he handed me the bracelet. I turned it over and placed the small device on the inside. I handed it back to him and he placed it back on his wrist.
"It nice." I said to Kris as I started to eat my main course.
For the rest of the night I really didn't say anything until we got home. The three of us walked the halls in silence. I was noticing that there was a lot of stuff I didn't notice before. Almost every picture of a king or a person who stayed in the castle had a bust in front of it. And there were still a lot of spider webs and dust. I had a lot of time to think though because our rooms were on the far end of the castle.
What do guys really have to say when girls aren't around? And do we really want to know? And does Kris like me…or is it that no one likes me?
Question revolved around my head so fast that I ended up with a head ache. In the end I figured out that I didn't want to know if no one liked me.
Something out side the window flashed and I found my self stopped and staring at the sky, watching a thunder/lightning storm roll in. I always watched lightning and thunder storms. I walked over to the window and leaned against the wall. I couldn't hear foot steps any more so I looked around and saw that I was alone in the hall. I looked back up into the sky and saw the lightning flash again. I saw something almost transparent move out side and go into the castle. I thought that it was just my mind playing a trick on me. I moved away from the window and ran down the hall and back to my room.
"Hey where have you been? Never mind it's time to see what boys really talk about." Shannon said as she handed me the device remote.
"Okay, but I don't want to listen. I'm going for a swim." I told them as I pulled on my swim suit. "Here." I said as I switched the device on and walked out the door.
I walked back down the halls and came out in the kitchen where there was no one. I opened the door on the other side of the room and walked out. The path outside was completely dark and I ended up hitting my toe on the rock. I clapped my hands together twice and about twenty lights came on. I could suddenly see and was of course blinded for about a minute from the sudden brightness. For a moment I thought I saw something in the distance, but shook it off. I dipped my toes into the pool and gradually put the rest of my body in.
I dove under the water and swam to the bottom and sat there. I, out of every one I every one knew, could hold my breath the longest. So I sat there thinking about every thing that happened in the past couple days. Something brushed along my back. It was slimy and what felt like scales. I turned around and saw what I came to know was not real, but there she was sitting right in front of me…a mermaid.
