3

Hayden and Jenny parked their car outside the Oodie brothers' house. "This is weird." Hayden stated as they got out of the car.

"Why?"

She laughed. "Why is it weird that we're crashing at their house, while they're not there, without them knowing?" She clarified.

"Even you, miss logic, said it'd be smart." Jenny walked up to the front door of their shack like house. Hayden stuttered to think of a response to verify her hesitance and rubbed her temple. "It's in the middle of nowhere." Jenny began to list as she examined the area for a key. "We don't have anywhere else. Free food and bed, hopefully. Air conditioning."

"Well I doubt it's not just going to be open. How do you suggest…"

Jenny took a leap of faith and tried to turn the knob and open the door. It swung open with ease.

"They left it open?" Hayden said in shock. Jenny shrugged indifferently and walked in.

Hayden sighed and followed. True, this was the best place to hide from Carlos, because god knows, if the Oodie brothers make just one mistake, he will know who to come after and about where to go to find them. Sure, the old place could have worked, but it was too out in the open and too obvious. Oddly enough, this was the safest place for them to be staying. She was sure they wouldn't be too happy about the two of them staying in their private space, especially without permission, but she figured their safety was a bit more important. Besides if they really didn't want anyone there, they would have at least locked the door.

The inside of the house couldn't be more obvious that men inhabited it. The rooms were bare of decoration and messy with trash, clothes, and other random items. It bothered Hayden, but she resisted the urge to clean and tidy.

Once into the living room where they had all met, both women set the little things they had by the edge of the couch and sat down across from each other. They sat there in silence, waiting for the awkwardness of the whole situation to pass. Hayden pulled one of her books out of her bag and contently started reading, while Jenny began to twirl her thumbs around each other. She tapped her foot and looked around the room. The walls and furniture were colored with dark browns, oranges, and yellows. It was an old house with old furniture. She looked back to the hallway they walked through. To the right was the kitchen and one more room. To her direct left was at room with a dark tarp hanging down for a door. Jenny was curious.

She eyed the room and let out a definite sigh. Quickly, she got up to explore. The tarp was too tempting to not find out what was behind it.

"What are you doing?" Hayden asked, suspicious.

"Nothing." She responded, already in the room and struggling to untangle herself from the tarp. The room was pitch black aside from the little rays of light that bled through the cracks of the tarp and doorframe. She rubbed her hand against the wall until she found a light switch. The dim bulb that turned on didn't do much for lighting. To her surprise, this room was actually fairly tidy. A few magazines on the desk beside the bed and a few items of clothing on the floor. It's not what she expected to say the least; and quite frankly not what she was hoping for. There didn't appear to be any hidden secrets in this room. Never the less, she strolled over to the bed in attempts to be nonchalant, and tested the softness and pressure of the mattress with her hand. It was almost as hard as wood. She reflexively took her hand away, displeased. It was time to move on to a different room.

"You shouldn't be snooping." Hayden said without looking away from her book as Jenny came out of the room.

"I'm not." She said, royally in pretense and continued on idly into the kitchen and to the room that was almost hidden around the corner.

"Oh yeah, then what do you call exactly what you're doing right now?" She said with an eyebrow raise and followed her sister. She had a feeling she should be keeping an eye on her. She watched as Jenny causally rummaged through this room.

"It's exploring, so I don't get lost looking for something."

"I don't think you can get lost in a house this size."

Jenny ignored her. This room was a lot messier than the last. There were papers spread out all over the desks and more clothes on the ground. There was a pile of guns leaned against the wall in the corner. Once again, Jenny gently tested the bed. She pressed harder a second time. It was definitely much softer than the other bed. She sat down as a final test.

"What are you doing?" Hayden asked again.

"Figuring out where I'm going to sleep."

Hayden rolled her eyes and pleaded. "Don't sleep in their beds."

"I'm not going to sleep in all of their beds. I'm only going to sleep in one of their beds."

"You know what I mean." She scolded.

"Where do you suppose we sleep then?"

"I'm going to sleep on the couch." She clarified.

"Suit yourself." Jenny said, getting off of the bed and the top drawer of the dresser. "I'm going to guess this is Brick's room." She said pulling out a box of cigarettes.

"Snoop."

Jenny stuck her tongue out and went to the last room in the hallway. This room was exponentially messier than both of the others put together. She had to step on clothes and mainly food trash to walk through the room. Things were piled on top of other things covering any hard surface. There were posters hanging from the wall and magazines randomly sprawled around the room; gun magazines, car magazines, porn magazines, etc. This was definitely McQueen's room. She guessed that no one else would blatantly leave those kinds of magazines out in the open; which meant that the first room must have been Lincoln's.

Eagerly she went to his bed and put both hands down. She let out a big sigh and jumped on top of the bed to lie down. It felt like a cloud. She quickly kicked off her shoes and bundled herself under the covers for just a moment. She decided. This was where she was sleeping, but without blankets. The heat made her begin to sweat and she pushed and kicked the covers off of her as fast as she could and sat up. She looked around the room for a few more seconds. Really nothing in there came as a surprise.

While Jenny continued to invade the brothers' privacy, Hayden resisted the urge to do the same herself. She stood by Brick's door, glancing in every few seconds and finally sighing as she gave in and went into his room. To her surprise, she found a book on his bedside desk. She didn't peg any of them to be readers, so a book was a very pleasant surprise. It was even a good book. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She was curious what prompted him to own that. Carefully, she put the book back where it was and gently brushed her fingers over the splayed out papers and adjusted one specifically to get a better look. It was a newspaper clipping of an article. The picture was of three little boys and the Sheriff walking out of an empty house with the article title: "Officer Henry Millard escorts Oodie children from crime scene after raid on Klan leader". They were orphans, she assumed. Just like them.

She suddenly heard Jenny clearing her throat, startling her. Hayden jumped and took her hand away from the paper quicker than touching a hot stove. Jenny lowered her head and raised an eyebrow at her. "Snoop." She teased, taking a long judgmental step back to the kitchen, where she was headed in the first place. Hayden awkwardly moved the paper back to the position it was originally in, embarrassed that her sister caught her giving in to her curiosity.

Jenny opened the fridge in search of food to find an alarming smell wafting out from inside. "Oh god!" She chocked, covering her nose with her arm.

"Should I be scared?" Hayden asked, coming out of Brick's room.

"Ugh, I don't know yet." She released her nose from her arm and held her breath, searching through the piles of half-wrapped, half-eaten food to find the source of the stench. As she opened a lower drawer the smell flooded out much stronger than a few seconds ago. "You wanna get some gloves or something? Just to be on the safe side. I wouldn't surprise me if there's something alive in here." She laughed slightly.

Hayden scrambled to find anything. The counters were cluttered and of course they didn't have actual gloves anywhere. She grabbed the dish towel that was hanging by the sink and prepared herself.

"Found it." Jenny grunted in disgust. She pulled out a paper plate with a half-eaten sandwich.

"God, what is that?"

"I think it used to be chicken." She cringed, giving it to Hayden. "I saw a trash can outside."

The two girls spent the rest of the day and night exploring the house and secretly snooping around the boys' things, trying to find some way to entertain themselves. It didn't take them much longer to find the alcohol supply, which ended up occupying quite a bit of their time afterwards. Hayden respectfully chose to sleep on the couch, just as she had planned, while Jenny crashed on McQueen's mass of sheets and pillows and clothes.