Chapter 3
She was toast.
Eleni Murray eyed the rusty silver doorknob twisting and turning on the door. It was old and the person was struggling to unlock it. Eleni looked at the door, it was white but turned beige over the years. Soon after there was a sharp click noise and Eleni ducked down, slowly removing her fingers off the border and placing them back on the cement lines of the building.
"When did I leave the window open?" Said a cranky voice of an old man. He was walking towards the window holding a filled up garbage bag.
Eleni was breathing heavily, and started to sweat. She closed her eyes, and tried to think of the solution to this problem. The border wasn't big enough to be hidden under and there wasn't anytime to climb down or climb above the window. She felt like she was failing the Tomas branch. Then it hit her,
"What else do they teach?"
"Um, you know. Parkour…But I'm still a trainee."
She opened her eyes, and then she pushed herself off the wall, falling backwards, her right foot still on the red bricks. When she was close to finishing the half circle, her arms stretched above her head, and her right hand landing on the wall first. Soon after her other hand touched the wall, just like a cartwheel.
Meanwhile, Dan was amazed by the parkour. Examining every detail, it was like a laser art show wrapped up in one.
When Eleni finished the cartwheel, she squatted and pushed off the wall, (she didn't go very far) making her hands touch the ground and finish with a handstand. Right after she collapsed on her back.
"That's going to leave a mark." Said Eleni sitting up and rubbing her back.
Dan ran up to her a big smile on his face. "Dude! That was awesome!"
"No it wasn't." She sighed, "That probably doesn't count as parkour. Who finishes with a handstand and then collapses on her back."
"Who cares?" Dan blurted out, "That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life!"
"Hey kids!" Said the cranky old man from above, "Get out of here and stop doing gymnastics on the wall!"
The old man then threw the plastic garbage bag from his window towards the huge metal garbage bin. The heavy bag made a big crash sound when it landed in the garbage bin and the old man shut his window, causing Dan and Eleni to feel the vibrations of both the crash and the window.
Eleni looked at Dan, "I can't believe I had to climb the wrong window!"
"Sorry, I'll try to find the right one this time!" Dan apologized, and then helped her up. She wiped the dirt of her white shorts and then paused at the irony.
"Hey look, I did mess this up, but it's all on you!" She laughed.
Dan was stunned; he lost to a girl again. He knocked the thought out of his bed and looked at some windows. He saw an Egyptian Mau at one window, which looked very similar to Grace's cat. He smiled at it and continued searching the other windows. After a few seconds, he looked back at the cat, and finally realized it was Grace's cat. Dan totally forgot Saladin was staying at their house while Grace went on vacation.
"That's the one!" Dan yelled. This caused Eleni to look at him, and then at the direction he was pointing at. "Are you sure this time?"
"I'm positive!" Dan exclaimed, "No one has an Egyptian Mau as big as that!"
Eleni sighed and walked over to the wall. She paused for a moment and turned to face Dan, "Do you remember the plan?"
Dan had a confused look on her face, "What plan?"
Eleni's jaw dropped, "How could you not have remembered? You looked like you were listening!"
In Dan's Random Flashback Sequence
"Okay, we have to keep our hands down if we don't want anybody to recognize us when we walk towards the sidewalk." The girl said.
Dan nodded, and put his hood on. They both started walking towards the sidewalk.
"Okay so here's the plan,"
Man, I can't wait to get a hold of that beautiful Muramasa Katana sword! Dan thought. I could fight off evil ninjas and bad people! I could even use it to train and I'll have that next level ninja sense. I hope my Au Pair would let me use it. She wouldn't let me use the kitchen cutlery; she told me she uses it to make food. She made me a sandwich for me once. Good sandwich.
"Did you get that?" The girl asked.
Dan mentally panicked, she said something? Dan thought. He cleared his throat, "Um, yeah…that was good plan."
End of Dan's Random Flashback Sequence
Dan smiled sheepishly, "Heh heh, Um… Actually, I didn't listen to the plan."
Eleni slapped her forehead, and walked over to Dan. She sighed, "Listen carefully."
Eleni was in Amy's room now. She got really annoyed by Saladin and his constant hissing. She looked around; it was a really plain and normal room. The walls were white and she had a twin sized bed with a green blanket. There were books, homework papers, and Dan's laptop on her work desk and a small mirror near her closet. She walked towards her window and looked down. There was Dan waiting for her to give the signal, she gave him thumbs up, and he ran to the front of his apartment.
She quietly closed the window walked towards the door. The cat was watching her every move, hissing every once in a while. She pressed her ear against the door and listened carefully. Nothing. That was odd. She pressed her ear against the door again and this time she heard something. It was his Aunt Beatrice's snoring. That would mean she was asleep, just as planned. She took Dan's laptop and carefully opened the door. She stepped outside closing the door behind her.
Eleni took a deep breath and then started walking towards the door. It took longer than usual because of the squeaky floorboards, which causes her stop when it disturbs Aunt Beatrice's nap. When she reached the living room, she placed Dan's laptop on the couch and opened the door. It revealed an annoyed 11-year-old boy waiting for someone to reward him with his laptop.
"What took you so long?" Dan whispered furiously.
"Well I didn't now the squeaky floor boards didn't like my company." She replied.
"Never mind, do you have my laptop?" He questioned.
Eleni pointed at the white laptop sitting quietly at the couch. Suddenly, A very excited Dan ran to his laptop and turned it on.
"What are you doing we have to go?" Eleni added.
"Hold on, I'm trying to look at my bargains on Crazee Collectors." Dan smiled.
"What?" Eleni sat next to Dan and examined the page, soon after her eyes widened and she grabbed the laptop from his lap.
"Hey!" Dan protested.
Eleni scrolled all the way to the top and read the description. Dan Cahill, Eleni muttered under her breath and then looked at Dan.
"You're the guy I bargained with?" Eleni asked, surprise evident in her voice, though she was also very calm. Dan looked at her, obviously very confused.
"You wanted a Muramasa Katana sword and was offering rare baseball cards." She said slowly.
Dan nodded.
"I was the person who had that sword, but didn't want baseball cards." She added.
He took the laptop back from her lap and scrolled down. Dan stopped at the first four bargains and mumbled, "Do you have it now?"
Eleni nodded, and then dug through her bag.
Dan lifted an eyebrow; "You keep a sword in your bag?"
Eleni took the sword out of her bag and placed it on his lap, "Hey you asked."
"I didn't think you actually had it now." Dan lifted the sword with the protection cap guarding the designs of the blade, "No wonder your bag was pretty big."
Eleni shrugged and then put a hand in front of his face, "What do I get in return?"
Dan thought for a while and then ran upstairs to his room, still holding the sword in his hands. He searched around his room messing up his clothes, homework, and collection. Finally, he came down stairs with nun-chucks and a sandwich, which he graciously stuffed in his mouth. When he handed them to her, she had a satisfied look on her face. She placed them in her bag, and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Dan asked between mouthfuls.
"School." Eleni said. She looked at the floor in disgust, revealing a lot of bread chunks with peanut butter and jelly smeared on to it.
Dan swallowed the chunks of bread in his mouth, "I need to get my key so I could lock the door."
Just as Eleni was about to reply, a cranky old woman yelled, "Hey! Who's there?"
When they both looked at each other, Dan had nothing to say but "Run."
They ran out the door, Dan closing it behind himself. Just as it closed, Aunt Beatrice opened the door and walked downstairs. She was walking towards the door, until she stopped as she stepped on chunks of bread. She knelled on the floor, (which took pretty long due to old age) grabbed a piece of bread and started sniffing it.
She gritted and clenched every part of her body that could be gritted or clenched, causing the piece of bread in her hand dissolve into crumbs.
Aunt Beatrice then walked over to the door and noticed the fingerprints imprinted on the lock and the doorknob. She squinted at both the lock and the doorknob, and muttered some words under her breath. Last, she noticed a message on the answering machine. When she pressed the button, a calm young voice filled the message.
"Hello, I would just like to know why Daniel Cahill was absent today at Adams Middle School, if you have the time may you please contact us? Thank you."
When the message was finished, Aunt Beatrice turned read, her arms flew above her head, and she yelled, "DANIEL CAHILL!"
I think most of you recognized, She was toast and She gritted and clenched every part of her body that could be gritted or clenched. I just thought I could use them.
Sorry if the parkour was extremely off, I don't know anything about it so I just guessed. Yes, I know it wasn't a good thing.
I might start writing the next chapter today or tomorrow. Most likely today, I want it to be finished right away. I literally thought this was going to be the last chapter, but no, it just had to be the next.
Thanks for reading.