Chapter 2
Sara and Diogee sped down the sidewalk following Milo while also keeping their distance; they didn't know what Milo was going to do next-he had already trapped his dog inside his room and left his backpack behind on purpose. "Where is he going?" Sara pondered. She listed the possible locations he could be headed to: Jefferson County Middle School, Danville High (even though it's a bit too far for a walk), Danville Park, Zack's house, anywhere downtown really, but none of the businesses would be open now since it was 7:46 a.m. on a school morning; he must be headed to school. Sara had gotten pretty close without noticing while her deductive reasoning was telling her where her brother was going. She ducked behind the streetlamp and watched silently as Milo pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket.
He hit the speed dial button for Zack, then held the phone up to his ear. Sara stepped out and quietly followed close enough to hear her brother's conversation. The phone must have rung a few times because it took a while before Milo had said anything.
"Yeah, Zack it's Milo," he said curtly, "I'm getting my bike out today, make sure it's not blocked in," and he hung up, just like that. No pleasantries, no "How is your day so far?" no "Good morning." Nothing.
His bike. Sara remembered her brother took every safety course available in the city on a dare from the crossing guard at his former middle school; Motorcycle safety was the one class that resulted in a motorcycle driving license. After that, Milo got a motorcycle by helping out the owner of the Danville Scrap yard. He hardly ever drove it because Murphy's Law was always trouble.
He kept walking down the sidewalk, not stopping or giving any notice to the objects falling behind him: a stop sign leaned over, on the verge of falling completely, and a mailbox had snapped off its post. Sara continued to follow, making a mental list of things that needed to be fixed later. She looked down expecting Diogee but he had stopped to sniff the mailbox.
"Come on, Diogee, he's getting away " she whispered. He wasn't really, he was still walking at a moderate, if not stomp-y, rate but she didn't want to lose sight of her target. Diogee kept sniffing until he heard an odd, deep growl from the mailbox! It had also managed to acquire a face, a set of angry eyes and a mouth. "Yawrp!" He scurried up to Sara's feet and kept pace.
A few more blocks down the street and they would reach Jefferson County Middle School, where only a few years ago Milo had attended regularly. The clouds had parted to reveal the sun and its brilliant shine across the tri-state area. "Ugh." Milo was disgusted by how bright the city looked. He rummaged through his pants pockets and pulled a pair of dark purple sunglasses and quickly shoved them onto his face, like he was hiding from paparazzi.
Sara maintained a distance between her brother and noticed Elliot, the middle school crossing guard, already on duty, before any students would be crossing the street. She cautiously ducked behind some bushes that were near the bus stop; she was apprehensive for the encounter that was unavoidable. Elliot Decker was taping up the sharp ends of fence posts again, even though the respective homeowners would discard the wads of duct tape everyday. He finished off the strip of tape with a tear and like the observant "safety czar" he was, Elliot turned around at the change in atmosphere that came with the town jinx. ."Well, well-"
"Listen up, 'Smelliot'!" Milo cut off the older man, who only responded with a sharp, hushed gasp.
He had heard that nickname before, from every generation of eighth graders to come through during his years of service as a volunteer, but he would never expect it from Milo Murphy, the only student who would make him sick with optimism and kindness. He also never pictured Milo as the kind of kid who could really pull off the "hard core biker" look either and now both the implausible circumstances stood before him, uncomfortably close.
Elliot raised his left hand to point to Milo with the roll of tape, "No, you listen Murphy, I-" Milo smacked the roll of tape out of his hand. "Hey! You can't do that! Pick it up right now!"
"Your duct tape is stupid and so are you, everyday people take down everything you put up. You can try all you want, but there is nothing you can do to justify your place in the world."
'Justify your place in the world' the words echoed in Elliot's head; it had reminded him of that crazy dream he had years ago. Where he lived in a world of talking squirrels, the concept of time travel, and where Milo had never existed. He stared off into the distance as he focused on the words of a talking squirrel, "-justify your place in the world."
"And another thing! That caution sign over on the other side of the street? Don't act like that's not me on the sign, cause everyone knows it's not Terry!"
"HEY!" a yell came from the park bench off in the distance.
"I've been really tired of all the-" he noticed that Elliot hadn't reacted to anything he yelled. He waved his hand in front of the sunglasses that only reflected the image back. Still he stood there. Milo narrowed his eyebrows, and resumed his course towards Zack's house, shoving Elliot with his shoulder as he passed by, which inevitably snapped him out of his thoughts.
Elliot shook his head a moment, turned to say something, but was stopped by Milo's sister. "Shh. Don't provoke him, he's not himself today, and I don't know what he's gonna do." She knelt on the ground to pick up his roll of tape. "Sorry about that, but-" she cut herself short when she saw that Diogee had ran past her and was following Milo, who managed to gain some distance. "-ugh, gotta go!" and she shoved the roll into his torso and ran to catch up to the dog.
The crossing guard scratched his head as he wondered where they were off to next, and hoped he wouldn't run into this "Anti-Milo" again.
Sara caught up to the path that Milo left behind, she retrieved a book that was slapped out of Terry's hands, picked up a trash can that had been knocked over and used the spare stuffed animal elephant to pacify a baby in a stoller who had started to cry. It was like cleaning up a house after a toddler tornado before the parents come home; She could keep fixing things, but she probably wouldn't catch up and fix everything. She realized she couldn't fix the bus stop sign that was knocked over, so she just left it for the 'professionals'.
Milo stomped his way through a few more blocks before approaching Zack's house. Sara got her phone out to text Zack a quick warning, "WATCH OUT 4 MILO! I'll explain, TTYL." It seemed pretty vague, but it was all she could get out before Milo reached the walkway leading up to the front door.
BANG, BANG BANG! On the front door Milo slammed his fist. Surely if Zack wasn't up yet, that would wake him. He looked down to his right side and saw a single sunflower starting to sprout out of the flower box. He grabbed it with his right hand and used his thumb to pop the top off of the 'head', so to speak.
He turned his head to the squeal of the automatic garage door opener. The door lifted up slowly and revealed the shoeless feet of Zack Underwood, who was currently clearing out various small items that obstructed the path between the motorcycle and the door. As the door reached a clearance of 4 feet, Milo ducked under and made his way into the garage. He crossed his arms impatiently.
"Hey, Milo. What was with the call this morning? Usually you talk for-" bzzt bzzt. His cell phone buzzed, relaying a message from Milo's older sister. He mouthed out the words trying to gain better meaning from the ambiguous note. "..what?" he had whispered to himself, and then he finally looked up and got his first glimpse of Milo. It looked like Milo had an evil twin, who had decided to leave the basement he's been hiding in for the last 5 years or so. Zack's jaw had dropped a little while he stared, trying to find his best friend, beneath the dark sunglasses, ripped jeans and leather jacket; even Milo's signature smile was gone. The only thing he could recognise was the unmistakable cowlick that adorned his head, but even that was different, more unkempt.
"Whatcha looking at?!" Milo grouched. Clearly, he wasn't looking to waste more time than he needed to.
"Ugh, nothing, uh, I just, I.., I..-"
"I.., I.., I..,I.." He mocked.
Zack was taken by surprise. Milo would never make fun of his stammering. Did he know he was insecure about that kind of thing? He hadn't stammered over his words since he was a little kid..
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Milo put on the helmet that he kept on the handlebars of the cycle, tightened the chin strap, turned the key into the 'on' position, and opened the choke lever until he heard the engine roar to life.
"Good, It still runs."
He used his left foot to kick a red plastic milk crate out of the way before exiting the garage, leaving a black streak where the tires were.
"Nice" Zack thought, "He left a burnout on the cement". He grabbed a push broom that was propped up against the wall, and started to sweep up any dirt or dust that came into the garage; his dad liked it to be clean. Sara popped her head in.
"Zack, we have a bit of a problem."
"Yeah, no kidding. What was that?" He stopped his chore. "He left this huge mark on the ground! My dad will not be happy about this."
"Your dad's not the only one. He already bumped into Elliot, and a few other kids, and that's just on his way over here!" She raised her voice near the end. "We need to fix what's wrong with him or at least keep him away from anyone else. Put on your sneakers and meet me at the corner. I'll keep an eye on him as long as I can."
Zack ran inside, grabbed his backpack and laced up his shoes before running down the street to catch up with Sara and Diogee.
"I think he's heading towards school, Do you have a car?" If Sara were to run all the way back home to retrieve her vehicle Milo would most likely get into more trouble.
"Yeah, I've been driving my dad's car since I got my license." He ran back to his house to tell his mom he was taking the car, grabbed the keys and hopped in the appropriate car. He pulled out of the driveway, a little faster than usual, squealing the tires in the process. He stopped on the corner and unlocked the doors. "Which way did he go?"
"He turned left down Beck Street, then turned right to get to Main Street. That's as far as I could hear it." Sara opened the door and let Diogee hop in first before taking her spot in the front passenger seat.
"Well, we better catch up then." With that, Zack clicked on the left turning signal.
Author's Notes
Wow, this is exciting! Me, actually writing something that people want to read! Also, sorry about the long wait, I've been doing drawings everyday over on Tumblr, especially during this whole MMLNewYear countdown and whatnot.
All the characters belong to Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh.