Disclaimer: I do not own Wuthering Heights, believe me, cuz I totally look that old...haha
"This is the most ingenious thing I've ever thought up." Said HC as he spray painted curses all over a valuable-looking Superman comic.
"You've ever thought up?" Caty raised her eyebrows and aimed a can of green paint at him.
"Fine, fine, you found out about the comics."
"And don't you forget it."
"Great, I'll be sure to bring it up when I get caught"
"Oh come on, you, get caught? Yeah, right!" She snorted and tossed another ruined comic onto the stack, "Oh, crap!" the wet paint had rubbed off onto her hands, "Gotta go get this stuff off!" and with that, she climbed back into the school building and raced off towards the nearest bathroom.
HC made a few "final touches" to the car and then went in after her, waiting in the first floor hallway where they usually hung out.
Something was wrong. HC had been waiting twenty minutes for Caty. She was just washing her hands, right? Maybe she had just gone home...he would catch up with her and walk with her back to the Heights, like he always did.
On his way out the door, he heard a vaguely familiar voice coming from the principal's office. It wasn't...could it be? Caty's snotfaced Brother Harry? What was he doing in school? HC crept closer to the door, listening in.
"I am so sorry principal Addams. I had absolutely no idea that my sister was capable of this much! I assure you that she will be aptly punished!"
Principal Addams' scolding voice rang out clearly, "Well, Mr. Earnshaw, thank you for your assurances. However, there is one more thing. Catherine, can you tell me where your friend Heath-erm...HC is right now?"
"What's it to you?"
Harry cut in over the principal, "That is quite enough of your attitude, Catherine. Sir, my sister is strictly forbidden to see that delinquent boy! I doubt that she knows where he is."
HC laughed bitterly behind the doorway as Harry unknowingly saved him from another month of detention. Not that it would matter, he was booked every day.
Caty and Harry were silent for most of the walk home. She walked ten feet ahead of him, anxious to get to her room and call HC to ask if he'd been busted. Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough. On her way up the winding staircase, Harry caught up to her and dragged her back down to the living room.
Seated on the worn-down leather couch, Caty glared up at her brother, and he glared back down at her, twice as intimidating. They weren't so different, brother and sister. Harry just pretended to be better. At home, he was just as unruly as Caty, no pretenses.
"This has to be one of the stupidest things you've ever tried to do!" he snickered, "Did you seriously think that no one would find out? I mean, come on, Caty, you just can't be that stupid!"
"Well, Harry, what did you expect? I am your sister."
"You know what, Caty? I'm so sick of trying to reason with you and keep you away from that...friend...of yours. I'm done!" He threw something down on her lap. It was a manila envelope with a fancy logo stamped onto it. Caty could vaguely make out the letters T and G in the entangled vines, "Whatever Harry, can I go or are you gonna put me to sleep some more?" she didn't wait for an answer. She just ran upstairs, envelope in hand.
HC waited anxiously by the old cord phone in the impossibly small apartment he shared with his crazy mother. She was out, as usual, with her equally crazy friends, doing god-knows-what. The last time he had seen her was two days ago. This wasn't odd for them. Sometimes she just didn't feel like coming home. He'd known how to order pizza and defrost food since he was seven.
Caty didn't usually call his house, but this was an emergency. He needed to know what had happened. Had she been suspended? Expelled?
The phone rang loudly and shrilly. He picked it up before the end of the first ring, "Hey" said Caty
"Hey, heard you got busted. Sucks, what's the punishment?"
"It's not a punishment; it's worse."
"Worse?" what could be worse than the school's boring detentions? "Were you expelled or something? I thought they couldn't do that. There aren't any other schools around here."
"Well, apparently the school was gonna suspend me..."
"Was?"
"But Harry thought up something worse."
"Ha! Didn't know he could think." He heard a muffled giggle over the line.
"HC, he's transferring me to Thrushcross Grange!" her voice sounded panicked
"What, you mean that snobby all-girls school in Gimmerton?"
"Yeah, he just gave me a bunch of forms and stuff. He said I had no choice. He wouldn't let me spend another day here."
"Oh" that was all he could say.
"I know, it's no big deal. We'll still hang out after school. It's not like they're gonna turn me into another ditzy snob. I'm way too cool for that."
"Yeah, sure, listen Caty, I gotta call you back, um, see you after school next week I guess." He hung up, not sure how to react. It wasn't as if he actually cared, he was HC, the loner, Caty was just another loner who happened to hang out with him. No, that wasn't true. It might have been true at first, but now Caty was a fixture in his life. Things would be quiet without her, but hey, he could deal with quiet. He dealt with it all the time. Besides, like she said, Caty wasn't stupid enough to become one of them. They would always be the same, always.
