Because this story takes place before the 4th 'Innocence Of A Child' and the 3rd one, I'm gonna take my time writing it so I don't spoil anything in the other stories. This story will be done before the 4th story though because some important shit happens lol

#_#_#_#_#

I stomped my way up the broken steps (almost fell through the 3rd one) and banged on the door.

No answer.

"Are you fucking serious!?"

I slammed the door open, kicked my shoe off, and stomped through the kitchen, stopping to pet the cat who was once again sitting on the counter.

"Orth!"

A grumble answered me from the living room. I walked in and there he was in his wheelchair like before, looking out the window. A soon as I entered the room he glared at me.

"Do I have to kick you out every single day?"

I glared at him "I'm here to help you you self centered ass!"

He laughed darkly "Get out before I call the cops on your ass."

I smiled "Call them. Hell, I'll call Chief Stork right now!"

"You'll get yourself arrested boy!"

"Why the hell would they arrest the poor boy trying to help an old man out?"

Horton glared at me, then started wheeling himself towards the kitchen, something that surprised me because I'd never seen him move before.

"Come here!"

I followed him, slowly, as he brought me to the dining room. The table was piled to the ceiling with books.

"This is the kind of mess you get to deal with if you want to stay here."

I glared at him "Did you do this shit on purpose?"

He chuckled "Nope, it'd be a good way to keep everyone away though wouldn't it."

I sighed and started towards the front door "You know. If you go into a situation thinking it won't turn out right then all you'll do is fail."

"The hell are you kid? A shaman?"

"No. My mom pays a therapist a lot of money to spout stuff like that at me."

#_#_#_#_#

I walked in the house and immediately heard a yelp. I bolted to the back room where the basement stairs were and saw my dog Chuckie laying by the top of the stairs. I sighed and sat down next to him.

"Your legs hurt boy? You shouldn't go into the basement, those steps are hard on you."

I patted his head and he licked my hand. Chuckie was 14 and even though he'd been very healthy before, when Rachel's dog Ruby died a year ago at age 16, his health started to fail. His hips had become really weak and it took him a while to catch his great after a walk or climbing the stairs. He still liked snow though, he was a husky after all.

I helped him stand up and he liked me again before nudging my hip with his head.

"You know I'm upset, as always." I sat down in the chair by the basement steps and Chuckie laid down by my feet, he used to sit at attention when I'd talk to him. "Horton is an ass Chucksters...he doesn't want help when he obviously needs it...he obviously had a huge personality change from whenever the hell mom knew him...he's actively *trying* to piss me off..." I looked down at Chuckie's black face "I know I should be willing to volunteer to help the old or whatever but I don't wanna! I need to get into school and I need volunteer hours for that but not this kind of volunteer work!" I sighed and climbed out of the chair to lay on the floor beside Chuckie "I'll power through though...Harvey McKenzie doesn't give up, that's an 'Uno with the citizombies' type of thing."

The front door opened and shut and I heard bags rustling on the counter.

"Should I assume you're home Harvey?"

"No I'm a burgler." I said casually, petting Chuckie's head "I'm here to rob you of all your money."

Mom laughed from the kitchen "If you find any let me know."

I stood up and walked into the kitchen where mom was scrambling around. "You in a hurry? Got to to work a double today or something?"

She froze and turned red "Uh...no."

I sat at the counter and raised an eyebrow "Then what up?"

She looked away as Chuckie came padding slowly into the room and sat by the food box.

"I have a...date tonight..."

I snorted "Hope your taste in men has improved."

She turned red again "No...my taste in men is still shit..."

I stared at her for a second before waving my hands frantically in front of me "You know what? I don't wanna know, don't tell me."

I jumped off the stool and headed for the living room. "Have a nice date. I'm going to make a video about a movie where a chick dates a dog who's actually a human but he turns into a dog and...whatever it's weird but hey, YouTube dough right?"

Mom stopped me as I walked out of the kitchen "You went to see Horton today?"

I nodded while avoiding her eyes.

"How did it go? Better than last time?"

I shook my head.

"Harvey..."

"I know mom...I'm coming up with a plan...I swear..."

#_#_#_#_#

"So what insane plan did you come up with that will no doubt get us killed?"

The Polish girl glared at the redhead then back through the binoculars. "We'll live, the dude's in a wheelchair Paddy."

"Uh...yeah but the cops aren't and if we go busting into Hermit Horton's house we'll be arrested."

"We're not busting in anywhere...yet...first we need a van and if Shaunie is lucid for five seconds he'll know where to get us one."

"Make sure the Wi-Fi name is 'FBI Surveillance Van' for affect."

The redhead and black haired girl whipped around and fell out of the tree they were in. Natalie stood up and glared at Harvey.

"What the fuck!?"

"That's my question! Why are you spying on Horton?!"

Paddy sighed "Natalie's idea. I'm just the Fulbright along for the Drilovsky ride."

Harvey rolled his eyes "And I'm just the McKenzie cleaning up the mess at the end of the day. Listen, go away. I have a plan to make Horton tolerate me."

"Not like you? Just 'tolerate' you?" Natalie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He doesn't have to like me. I sure as hell don't like him. He has to put up with me long enough for me to get the credits I need for school."

"And your brilliant plan is?" Paddy asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

"I'm gonna be so nice, it'll make Sonia look like a bully."

The two stared at him before bursting out in laughter.

"That's your master plan!?" Natalie asked, hunched over and laughing.

Harvey rolled his eyes "Hopefully it'll sweeten him up...or plan B it'll give the old ass a heart attack from the amount of pure sweetness."

Paddy leaned against the tree and took a deep breath to stop laughing "Well good luck Harvey, you're not the meanest person I know."

Harvey smiled "Awww, I love you too Paddy!" He turned to Natalie and glared "That's how you sweet talk someone Natalie!" He turned and stomped across the street towards the old house.

Paddy and Natalie watched him go.

"He's dead."

"You wanna live together in college?"

#_#_#_#_#

Kinda short but this story is trudging along at a slow pace lol.