x-x-x-x-x
Todd wasn't waiting for them when Kevin, Joey, Gage, and Rome walked into the cafeteria at lunch. Todd tended to beat everyone to lunch so it was odd that he wasn't there and Rome wondered for a split second if he hasn't been faking sick the previous day and really wasn't feeling good.
They had just gotten their lunches and were sitting down at their usual table when Todd came running in, a huge grin on his face.
He usually brought lunch so he threw his lunchbox on the table huffing and puffing from his apparent jog through the school.
"Where the heck have you been?" Joey asked around his peanut butter sandwich. "never thought I'd see the day you'd be late for lunch."
Todd held up his hand and piled up his meal, organizing it and debating what to eat first, eventually settling on his gogurt. He slurped the yogurt from the plastic pouch and grinned at his friends who all exchanged a confused look.
"Todd," Kevin said loudly dropping his chicken nuggets so that he could sign for Rome. "Will you stop slurping and talk to us?"
"Fine, fine. I was down in the high school wing talking to my brother." He looked right at Rome and finished off the gogurt in one final slurp. "I asked him about camp Chumash"
Gage, Kevin, and Joey exchanged a look of pure confusion and Rome winced, he had forgotten to clue them in on what was going on.
He quickly gave it to them in cliff notes style or as his dad always said 'the Castle notes' style
Like Rome, his friends were protective of Alexis, seeing her as their own big sister, well except for Kevin who'd had a huge crush on Alexis since he was six. But all of them were equally protective of her, the added bonus was being able to act as detectives or spies trying to solve a case, just like Rome's dad was doing with the NYPD.
So after Rome had clued his friends in on the Owen Thalia situation they looked at Todd to hear details.
He signed as he went because his mouth was now full of tuna fish and while Kevin, Gage, and Joey could hear and understand him, Rome couldn't, so between Todd's random signs and Gage interpreting Rome was able to follow along.
"So Bryce said he remembers Camp Chumash," Todd explained Gage started to finger spell the name, but paused clearly unsure exactly how to spell the camp name correctly.
"Chu?" he started to say "how the heck do you spell that?"
"Don't worry about it," Rome spoke up "I've got that much."
"Anyways he said that when they were at camp there was no one named Thalia and he's very sure about that, he said there was a girl named Trisha, but there was no Thalia."
"No Thalia," Rome repeated unable to keep the shock of his face.
"No Thalia,"
"Is he sure though, I mean how small is this camp?" Kevin asked "is it like Cheers where everybody knows your name?"
"What's Cheers?" Todd asked
"Some TV show about this bar, the theme song has strong emphasis on the fact that everyone knows your name." Kevin explained. Everyone looked at him and started chuckling, he shrugged "give me a break my parents are fans of it and they watch at least one episode from their box set every night, I had the theme song stuck in my head for a week once and when we went up to Boston to visit my grandparents? My parents dragged us to the actual restaurant from the show."
"Anyways," Rome spoke up, for once being the member of the group wrangling everyone back to the topic at hand. He took a bite of his own chicken nuggets and signed 'Kevin does have a point, how is Bryce sure that there wasn't a Thalia at the camp?'
"Dude, you've met my brother, he talks to everyone, he knows everyone. He was even more like that when he was a kid. He knew everyone at that camp, especially the girls, if there was a Thalia there, Bryce would be the first one to welcome her."
"So the moral of this story children is the fact that Rome…your sister's boyfriend has some creepy stalker chick." Joey said
"So it would appear," Rome replied sighing
Todd's grin got bigger
"But wait there's more." He exclaimed
"Is it just me or is he like one of those late night infomercial guys right now?" Rome asked, grinning.
Gage, Joey, and Kevin all returned the grin and held up their hands giving the sign for a little bit.
"Funny," Todd replied "do you want to hear it or not?"
"Are you going to throw in a second bit of information for free if we call in the next two minutes?" Joey asked "And use our 'enter random credit card company here', to get our maximum amount of the deal?" Kevin asked
"Clearly we all watch way too much TV" Rome spoke up "but come on Todd spill,"
"Anyways Bryce spoke to his buddy Jim, he went to camp too and said that his girlfriend now, her best friend name is named Thalia." Todd's face went serious for second
"I sense a but coming" Gage spoke up
Todd nodded
"But, this Thalia girl never went to Camp Chumash with them."
"No way," Gage, Kevin, and Joey breathed. Rome didn't say anything, he thought this over for a few seconds.
"So if she didn't go to camp with them, how the heck does she know Owen?" Rome said softly "And more importantly, why would she say she knew him?"
All four of his friends exchanged a look and shrugged, none had an explanation that wasn't stalker creepy like.
"Rome do you remember what Lexis said Thalia's last name was?" Todd asked looking at his phone, while still managing to eat his sandwich and sign all at the same time.
Rome shook his head, both in regards to the question and to Todd's multitasking ability.
"She didn't say, I don't think she knew. Anyways the only description I have of her is she has big teeth apparently."
Now everyone looked at each other confused, before Kevin burst out laughing loudly.
"Big teeth? Like what we talking about here, Jaws or Killer Bunny?" He asked and Rome shrugged
"Maybe she's got a huge overbite like Pugsley," Joey pointed out referring to his grandmother's pug, who was the sweetest dog and very friendly, and would take turns sleeping on top of each of the boys when they slept over Joey's. Problem was he had a really obvious overbite so much so that his two large canine teeth jetted out of his mouth ridiculously, making him look like a vampire pug.
Two Halloween previous they had even dressed him up as Dracula Dog, much to Joey's grandmother's displeasure.
"I don't think anyone can have an overbite worse than Pugsley, but who knows maybe this Thalia girl does." Kevin pointed out, curled his upper lip and tried to imitate Pugsley. "I vant to lick your face!"
"Doesn't Bryce's friend Jim know Thalia's last name?" Gage forever the voice of reason and forever keeping his friends on track and focused spoken up.
"Well yeah but I thought it would be cooler if we did the detective work." Todd admitted and everyone nodded laughing a bit. "I was going to google her during study period." Todd added "see exactly what we're dealing with here."
When lunch ended, the boys parted ways heading for their fifth period classes. It wasn't until last period, homeroom that they were able to meet back up and hear what Todd had managed to dig up during his google search.
He was grinning wide when Rome and Gage walked in from their lockers, but wouldn't say anything until Kevin and Joey joined them.
"Well?" Rome asked
"I googled her, then I checked Facebook."
"You have a Facebook account? Since when?" Joey asked
"I used Byrce's, he thinks he's some kind of genius with his password, it's not that hard to erm, infiltrate his account." Todd explained "'sides, my dad said I can sign up if I get at least two A's on my report card and I get a computer for Hanukkah and mom's been really hinting that that's a possibility."
"So what did you find out?" Rome asked
"I found Thalia, she doesn't go here, but she does go to Devonshire Prep over in midtown."
Rome thought this over
"So she doesn't go to our school, but she just happens to be at the same restaurant at the same time that Owen, the focus of her obsession is out for a birthday dinner with my sister?" he muttered "coincidence, I think not."
"So it would seem," Todd replied "sorry bro."
"What are you going to do?" Gage asked Rome as they checked their homework and wrote it in their agendas, waiting for the afternoon announcements to come on.
"Tell Alexis the truth," Rome said with a sigh
"Do you think that's a good idea?" Kevin asked "I mean, she's either going to be angry or hurt."
"She's my sister, I have to tell her at least what we figured out and let her draw her own conclusions." Rome paused "I'm tired of keeping stuff from everyone." He looked at his friends "it's not worth the stress and the hurt it causes everyone, trust me."
Todd tapped his pencil against his forehead for a second thinking this over.
"Well, there is something we could try, if you guys are up for it." He said thoughtfully. Rome, Gage, Kevin, and Joey exchanged a look
"I'm a little afraid," Gage admitted and the others nodded
"Hey, have I ever steered you guys wrong?" Todd asked, pretending to be offended by his friends' doubt.
"Lately?" Joey asked "or in the past few months?"
"Funny,"
"Ignore them," Rome spoke up "what's your plan Todd?"
"I looked it up online, Devonshire gets out a full twenty minutes after us." Todd explained
"So?" Rome asked
"So, how about we go be real undercover agents and spy on her."
Rome looked over at Gage who was clearly preparing his 'I don't think that's a good idea' speech. Joey and Kevin however spoke up before he could
"That'll be so totally cool! We can be real spies! Go undercover, like James Bond here!" they exclaimed at the same time
Rome grinned a little as the announcements came on, remembering his dad's adventure into Chinatown and looking for the Russian mobster, then he remembered he hadn't told his friends about that adventure, how his dad had gone undercover and played poker with real Russian mobsters, figuring out who was the real killer and bringing him to justice.
"Rome?" Kevin called poking him in the arm "dude, you're spacing out, everything okay?"
Rome's grin got wider and he nodded, before launching into the story about his dad and the Russian mob.
"That is so awesome!" Todd exclaimed "did he get to wear a wire and everything?" Rome nodded "what about a disguise?"
"Uh," Rome thought that over "I don't think he wore a disguise, but he did get to wear a wire and got the bad guy to reveal himself, gave himself away by talking too much." Rome explained
"That is so sweet," Kevin exclaimed "seriously, I thought your dad working with the police was cool and all, but now he's going undercover to take down mobsters? I didn't think it was possible Rome, but your dad just sky rocketed even further up the cool ladder."
Rome nodded, then looked back at Todd
"So is that what you're thinking?" he asked and Todd nodded
"In a matter of speaking, look Bryce is going to hook us up with his buddy Dylan who knows Thalia, he goes to Devonshire too and can point her out."
Rome thought that over and shook his head
"I've got a better idea." He glanced at their homeroom teacher Mr. Tucker walked over to him. "Mr. Tucker, could Todd and I use the computer to look something up?"
"Sure kiddo," Mr. Tucker replied as he went back to grading papers, Rome grinned at his friends and nodded for Todd to follow him, but not before he ran back to his seat and grabbed his sketch book out of his backpack.
They walked over to the row of computers and with Rome keeping watch, he nodded to the computer and gestured for Todd to resign into his brother's Facebook account. Once there, Todd pulled up Thalia's page and opened her profile picture.
"Is this what you were looking for?" Todd asked Rome didn't hear him though, he was still standing guard, but his hearing was fading fast and his hearing aids weren't doing the trick. So Todd reached over and flicked his arm to get his attention
"What?" Rome asked turning to his friend, Todd nodded at the computer screen
"Is this what you were looking for?" he repeated. Rome glanced at Mr. Tucker, before turning back to Todd and nodding, quickly, he pulled a pencil out of his pocket and quickly sketched Thalia's face. He nodded when he was done and Todd quickly logged out of the account, cleared the browser history, and shut the computer down, just as the announcements started.
The two boys headed back over to their friends as Mrs. Ray, the school secretary reminded the students of upcoming mid-term report cards for the middle school kids, the home coming dance for the high schoolers, and other school related announcements.
The five friends barely paid any attention to the loudspeaker (especially since one of them could barely hear it), instead they looked at Rome's sketch of the target.
"Okay, so why was this necessary?" Joey asked "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's an awesome drawing Rome, very lifelike, but wouldn't it have been easier to just print her picture? Or other point, isn't Bryce's friend going to point her out to us? Why do we need a sketch?"
Gage looked like he agreed with Joey's legitimate question, but Kevin, Rome and Todd all grinned
"Dude, this is what real detectives do, they don't have a printed photo of their suspect, they've got a police sketch artist that comes in and listens to the witnesses and draws what they describe." Rome explained
"Yeah, haven't you guys watched any cop shows?" Kevin asked
"I have," Gage replied still looking confused "but seriously I think you guys are getting way too into this," his friends exchanged another look
"Is there a such thing as too much into this?" Rome asked
"Right, dumb question," Gage admitted grinning.
Once the announcements were over the secretary began dismissing the classes by grade, starting with the preschool and kindergartens. They were always first, followed quickly by the first, second, and third graders.
Rome pulled out his phone and while being blocked by Kevin, texted his dad asking if it was okay he went with Todd, Todd's older brother Bryce, and the rest of his friends to get some ice cream. He promised he would go straight home after and promised no detours.
Of course Castle got back quick, happy that his son was not only hanging with his friends again, but that things were getting back to normal, he gave Rome full permission, as long as he clued his sister into his plan.
As soon as the sixth and seventh graders were released, the boys ran for the exit, of course getting stopped halfway by Mr. Haney, the seventh grade algebra teacher for running in the halls.
After a quick apology and a promise to slow down in the future, the boys were back running towards the exit, after they were around the corner and out of sight of course.
They waited out on the steps for the high school kids to be released. Bryce was taking them to Devonshire prep and Rome wanted to let Alexis know he was going for "ice cream".
Ice cream was in the whole plan, since there was a great little ice cream shop around the corner from Devonshire, but that was only if they got to the school in time, before dismissal. Unlike Marlowe, Devonshire didn't cater to all grades and was only for high school kids, so the dismissal time wouldn't take as long as it did for them.
The boys watched the front doors as the high school kids began to pour out. Alexis walked out of the building holding Owen's hand, Rome frowned and glared at the couple, in the last twenty-four hours he had gone from admiring and even liking Alexis' boyfriend to being very suspicious of him and ready to protect his older sister at all cost, no one messed with his sister.
"Look at that," he muttered "holding my sister's hand acting like everything is all good and in the meanwhile he might be reconsidering a lost love from third grade."
"Dude," Todd spoke up nudging Rome's shoulder. "Don't forget what Bryce told me, Thalia never went to camp Chumash. She made that up,"
Rome nodded, he hadn't forgotten that part.
"But still," he said thoughtfully "what if he's falling for it, just because we know she didn't go and Bryce knows, doesn't mean that Owen is smart enough or even cares enough to question it." Rome argued he made a fist, "if that jerk does anything to hurt my sister he'll be sorry."
"Who will be sorry?" Bryce asked joining the group, Todd nodded at Owen and Alexis as she leaned up to kiss him and he returned the gesture, completely unaware of the group of sixth graders that were glaring at him and the one junior who looked just confused. "Okay, why is Owen going to be sorry?" Bryce whispered "is this all about that Thalia girl?"
"That and so much more," Todd explained "short version is you know how you said that girl didn't go to camp with you guys and you were sure of that?"
"Uh, yeah, very sure there was no one named Thalia there, why all the sudden interest in a camp I went to in third grade? First Ding Bat's text this morning, now all these questions." He added nudging Todd in the shoulder "what are you guys involved in here?"
"She ambushed Alexis and Owen while they were at Serendipity last night for Owen's birthday, claiming she had a huge crush on him while they were at camp and how amazing it was to run into him after all these years."
Now Bryce understood the groups' annoyance, he glanced at Alexis who was walking their way after bidding Owen goodbye.
"I'm going to regret getting involved in this aren't I?' he asked and Todd grinned
"No way,"
"Yeah, that's not helping your case little brother." Bryce replied, he looked over at Alexis "Hey Lex,"
"Hi Bryce, did you get ambushed by these guys?"
"Naw, I offered to walk them to 16 Handles for ice cream."
Alexis raised her eyebrow and Rome winced, he knew that look, now she was going to be suspicious…James Bond or Sherlock Holmes Bryce was not.
"16 Handles?" she repeated looking at Rome "that's all the way up in midtown, that's a thirty-five minute walk."
"Seventeen with the subway," Joey spoke up as Kevin elbowed him in the ribs.
"Why are you guys going all the way there for ice cream?" Alexis asked Rome and he shrugged at first "Rome." She repeated
Rome looked at his friends who winced and then at Bryce who looked even more confused than before. He couldn't do it…he couldn't lie to Alexis.
"Fine…good ice cream is only part of it." Rome finally said, he reached into his backpack and pulled out the sketch, handing it to his sister.
"Tha-That's that Thalia girl!" she exclaimed "where'd you get this Rome?"
"Todd found her…we…we're going to spy on her," Rome admitted
"Spy on her?" Alexis repeated "why are you guys going to spy on her?"
"Uh, that might be partially my fault Alexis," Bryce spoke up, raising his hand. Alexis rolled her eyes at him,
"Bryce, my brother has a crazy enough imagination without help, our dad has taught him well, what did you do?"
"Thalia lied to you and Owen, Lex," Rome explained "she never went to camp with him, Bryce was there too, he said there was no Thalia at Camp Chu…Cah…" Rome frowned with frustration, he really didn't like this camp, the name being one main reason.
"Chumash," Bryce said, helping him out.
"Yeah, that place, thanks." He paused "so we're going to follow her and see what she's really up too."
Alexis had the same confused look on her face that had been steadily staying on Bryce's for the past few minutes
"She didn't know Owen?"
"If she did, it wasn't from camp," Bryce admitted "not to brag or anything, but there wasn't anyone at that camp I didn't know." He paused "the rugrats here are blowing it way out of proportion when they say we're going to go spy on her, my buddy Dylan goes to the same school as her and he's going to meet us at 16 Handles and give us the low down on her. It's Sherlock Holmes and company here that are taking it to the 'we're going to spy and be detectives' level." Bryce finished, hoping that explained everything.
"Dr. Watson and company," Rome corrected and Bryce looked even more confused now. Todd chuckled and rolled his eyes at his brother
"Bry man, that's what Mr. Castle calls Rome, he's Dr. Watson,"
Bryce raised an eyebrow and looked at Alexis who nodded, confirming Todd's explanation.
"Right, okay, anyways, look Alexis sorry about going behind your back and doing this. Todd texted me this morning grilling me for information," Bryce paused "seriously how the heck did you not get in trouble? Don't you have Tucker for homeroom and science? How did he not catch you on your phone?"
"It helps to have a friend playing lookout," Todd explained "'sides that's not the point, the point is this Thalia girl is up to something and we need to find out what!" Todd finished with a shout
Alexis looked at Rome who gave her a pleading look, before sighing
"You know what, Bryce I think I'm going with you guys, if anything to keep my brother from doing something too much like our dad."
"I'll take that as a full on compler…compla…" Rome frowned and gave the sign for compliment, a hand clapping motion. Bryce's confused face grew even more so as he looked to his brother and Alexis for translation. Despite the fact that Rome and Todd had been friends for going on eight years, Bryce hadn't picked up much sign language, just some basics that Todd had taught him and that he had looked up online.
"Compliment," Gage explained "that was sign for compliment,"
"I thought so," Bryce replied "but I wasn't sure, isn't the sign for school," he did a similar motion with his hands and Rome nodded.
"Similar," he replied "but not the same,"
"Come on, enough with the sign language lesson! We're going to be cutting it close guys!" Todd spoke up holding up his cell phone "let's go, let's go!" he added darting down the street, the rest of the group after exchanging a look, sighed and followed him.
As they neared the subway station that would take them to midtown, Rome slowed down a bit to walk with his sister.
"I'm sorry," he said signing as he went, Alexis looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Why are you apologizing?"
"We kinda did this behind your back," he admitted "and we probably should've clued you."
"You did all of this because you were looking out for me?"
Rome nodded
"Yeah, I mean the whole spy/detective thing was definitely part of it, seriously a big part of it, but the main thing was I didn't want some stranger messing with your happiness."
"Oh Rome," Alexis cooed and hugged him close
"Leeeex!" Rome grumbled, pulling away from her to catch up with his friends.
x-x-x-x-x
"I can't believe that," Alexis repeated for the fourth time since leaving midtown, she was fuming and it was completely understandable. Rome had seen her mad and he'd seen her ready to kill someone, but this was a different mad, this was a mad that Rome was actually afraid his sister was going to turn around and head back to midtown to slug Thalia. In all honesty Rome was surprised that his sister hadn't confronted Thalia, he was glad she hadn't, but was surprised. Then again, it wasn't like she didn't have a group of bodyguards there to protect her, but that was probably why she didn't.
"It's creepy is what it is," Rome spoke up, as they turned towards their building, he took a final lick of his mint chocolate chip ice cream and finished off the cone. "Like super creepy stalker worthy creepy."
"But why would she lie? That's what I don't understand, okay so she didn't know Owen from camp, big deal, but why lie and say you knew him from camp when you didn't even go."
Rome shrugged
"Is this rhet…retro…" he groaned "is this a question you want an answer to or is this another one that you really don't want an answer for?"
"Rhetorical Rome,"
"Ah, got it."
"I need to look into this more…" Alexis paused
"Lex, you know how you're always telling dad and I not to do something we're probably going to regret?"
"I do not always tell you guys that," Rome grinned and looked at her expectantly "not always," his grin widened "fine once in a while you guys decide something is a good idea and after a lot of thought and deliberation you guys figure out it's probably a bad idea." She paused "like the whole blow torch incident."
"Hey that would've worked."
"And burned down the loft while you were at it," Alexis replied nudging him. They headed up to the loft, Rome pulled out his keys and they headed inside.
"Minor detail, I know we would've found a way to prevent a fire."
"Right," Alexis paused as Rome threw his backpack onto the couch
"Anyways my point is, we dug into this whole thing because we wanted to know who she was and what she was up too, and it gave us the opportunity to be detectives or spies. But I really think you should let us keep digging." Alexis narrowed her eyes at him and sighed
"I can't promise anything Rome, I love that you're always trying to protect me and look out for me, but this falls under the category of something I need to do on my own."
"Right, we'll see how that goes," he replied
"Anyways," Alexis continued, "speaking of details, want to hear something that will make you laugh?"
"Of course, I'm always game for crazy stuff you know that. Even if I know you're changing the subject."
"I am not,"
Rome grinned
"You are too,"
Alexis returned the grin
"I am not," she paused "we're not getting into this kind of argument, I've played this part, I know how it ends,"
Rome's grin got wider
"Do not,"
"I do t-" she started to say and realized he was pulling her back into to the never ending 'am not, are to, did not, did to,' type argument "Anyways. I ran home during study period today, I though Paige and Lauren wanted to meet up after school to study for that French test, but I found out they couldn't. Anyways, when I got home dad was here."
"Okay?" Rome asked, not sure why that would make him laugh. "last time I checked it's his loft too." He grinned a little
"He was in his office,"
"So?" Rome waved his hand gesturing for Alexis to continue, wondering where his sister was going with this. She smiled and was clearly trying not to laugh
"He had grams' dress and was holding it up to himself as if he was modeling it, to see if it would fit at a later date."
Now Rome looked at his sister in confusion as he laughed
"Why?" he asked and Alexis shrugged
"I have no idea, I decided I didn't want to know."
Rome thought it over, he chewed on his lip as he thought long and hard, trying to come up with a scenario that made sense, then slowly he began to grin
"I may have a hy…hyp…hyper…" he frowned at the word, but continued anyways "an educated guess,"
"Er, do I want to know?"
"Do you remember when dad got into that argument with Mr. Patterson over who was more popular, Derrick Storm or Alex Cross?"
Alexis nodded
"Of course, the argument got so bad Mr. Patterson wouldn't come to the poker games for like three months."
"And remember how they settled it?"
"Uncle Stephen and Mr. Connelly, they came up with an idea."
"Right to hold a vote, ask readers to vote for who they felt was the better character, they could do it either online or at their local bookstore."
"Right, then dad came up with a bet to go along with it." Alexis paused "I think I blocked out the details of the bet," she admitted "I don't remember anything about it, do you?"
Rome shrugged
"Nope, none at all, but the point is, I think that bet that dad has going with Ryan and Esposito may be reaching the all-out war stage and what you witnessed, was dad starting to worry."
"Oh brother," Alexis sighed
"Anyways, I've got a lot of homework...I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I'm going to head up to my room to work on it."
Alexis raised an eyebrow, looking at her brother suspiciously. He grinned and shrugged.
"You actually want to go do your homework?" she asked "usually I have to practically push you up the stairs." She looked at him "what are you up to now?"
"Nothing, I swear, we have to do an illustration for ELA and it's just easier to do it on my art desk."
"I'm just kidding Rome," she leaned over and kissed the top of his head
"Alexis!" he exclaimed "no kissing!"
"You are such a little brat."
"I am not, it's just the kissing thing has got to stop." He paused "are you making dinner?"
"I don't know, gram should be home any minute, I'll see what she feels like. I bet dad's going to be at the precinct a little longer."
"Especially if the bet now involves a dress, he's going to be at this a long time." Rome added with a grin "I am curious to hear what the rest of the bet is, I'm willing to make my own bet that it's hilarious."
"Considering it's dad, guaranteed you're right."
Rome nodded and headed towards his room. He wasn't lying that he preferred to do his homework in his room. His ELA class had been reading the Westing Game and their assignment was to do an illustration for the first three chapters of the book.
The minute the teacher told them that was what their homework was for the night, Rome's mind was buzzing with ideas on what to draw. He was literally drawing the illustrations in his mind, coloring them in, everything, then his mind started drifting to other chapters, he had nearly finished the book so he was drawing those in his mind, so he was excited to get up to his room and start doing homework that was actually relevant to something he loved.
He was at it an hour, pausing only for a few seconds to change out of his school uniform and into some much more comfortable jeans and a tee shirt. Rome had two of the three chapters completed and was anxious to start the third, though he was pretty proud of how the first set came out, he had drawn the actual tower and the landscape surrounding it. He was just about to put pencil to paper when he felt footsteps coming up the stairs, heels…gram. He looked up as she opened his door slightly and poked her head in.
"Darling how are you? How was school today?" she asked
"It was good gram," he replied, he held up his first illustration "what do you think?" he asked and she smiled
"That is beautiful, Romey are you moving into architecture now?"
Rome grinned and shook his head
"No, homework for school, we have to illustrate the chapters we're reading."
"Oh, Rome, it is beautiful." She paused "what is the book sweetie?"
"Westing Game," Martha looked slightly confused "it's a murder mystery and its really good I'm really liking it."
"Was there any surprise, I am very sure that in your entire reading life you have only found one book you didn't like."
"Good point gram," Rome replied "you'd probably like it too gram."
"Well I will have to look into." Martha paused "sweetheart do you know where your father keeps the camcorder?"
Rome thought that over for a second, he hadn't seen the video camera since Alexis' dance back in the spring, but he was pretty sure he knew where it was.
"I think so," he said "why?"
"Oh Rome it's wonderful news, I had a call back for that play I audtioned for." Martha swooned and Rome grinned
"Way to go gram!" he exclaimed
"Your sister is going to read some lines with me and I was hoping I could employee you to be our resident videographer."
"Of course!" Rome exclaimed, he put his pencil down and darted past gram towards his dad's office to get the camera.
It was fun watching his sister and grandmother rehearse the play, even though Rome still had no idea what the play was about. He was doing his part diligently though, filming every part with care.
The play moved into a dramatic part where Grams' character accuses her daughter of stealing from her. Alexis who was reading the lines for the daughter, played the part perfectly and both of them were struggling not to laugh when gram improvised the scene by wailing on Alexis with a throw pillow.
"How dare you! How dare you take my dress! You're as thoughtless as your father!" she shouted
I'm sorry, I just... Stop! Ow! No! I didn't... I didn't take anything! I didn't!" Alexis cried, biting back her laughter, Rome was purposely not looking at his sister fearing that he would set her off or she would set him off into fits of laughter.
"I ought to break your little wrists!" Martha shouted, whapping Alexis one last time with the pillow, just as the door to the loft swung open and Castle stumbled in looking frantic.
"Mother," he called "have you finally..."
Martha looked at Rome, then at Castle confused
"Have I finally what, dear?" she asked, Alexis sat up from the couch to look at their dad, after exchanging a look with Rome who shrugged and grinned a little.
"Hey, Dad." Alexis said grinning at Rome who waved at his dad.
"You're rehearsing." Castle said with a sigh, even Rome, whose hearing was pretty much gone, didn't miss the relief that seemed to wash off of Castle.
Martha still seemed confused regarding her son's entrance, but quickly she understood and beamed happily.
"Yes, I have a call back. Oh, and you believed us? Oh, my God. That's marvelous!" she exclaimed "Roman did you get all of that?"
Rome grinned and held up the video camera
"All of it gram, including dad's grand entrance!" he exclaimed turning off the camera and setting it down on the table, before sitting on the floor in front of the couch where he could see his dad better.
"You know, I am a better actress than I think I am." Martha said, more to herself than to the rest of the family.
Castle sighed again and sat down across from his kids, Rome and Alexis exchanged a look, something was wrong.
"You okay, Dad? You look upset." Alexis spoke up first
"Yeah dad, what's wrong?"
"Turns out something I was so sure of was just a coincidence." Castle explained, Martha sat down next to Alexis on the couch.
"Oh, is this about the murder?" she asked
"Exactly." Castle replied "It so happens that our two victims were connected. It just had nothing to do with their deaths."
"You know, I bet if you looked hard enough you'd find a connection between everybody in this city. I mean, it's the great thing about New York."
Rome nodded quickly
"Yeah I mean my math teacher Mr. Tucker? His daughter has this friend who went to Lexington and graduated with Rosie, remember her? So see, small world, connections everywhere.
"Yeah Rome's" Alexis spoke up right besides and if there wasn't a connection, you could always pretend there's one."
Martha cleared her throat bringing everyone's attention to her, she patted Alexis' hand before continuing.
"Besides the rehearsal, we have another drama going on here this evening." She explained
Castle seemed to know exactly where, make that who, the drama was geared around. So he didn't seem all that surprised.
"Oh. Owen?" he guessed
"Big time Owen…" Rome replied, frowning
"You know how Thalia said she had a crush on Owen at Camp Chumash?" Alexis explained
"Serendipity at Serendipity. Yeah." Castle repeated
"No. More like subterfuge at Serendipity." Alexis paused and looked over at Rome "Rome and his friends did a little detective work of their own and got Todd's brother Bryce involved since he went to camp with Owen. He informed us that she never even went to Camp Chumash, and Bryce's friend Dylan who knows Thalia and goes to school with her, explained to us that Thalia may not have gone to camp, but her friend did, and Thalia wanted to meet Owen, so she staged the whole thing."
"Creepy huh?" Rome added
"That's beyond creepy Doc, that…Oh, that is so budding-sociopath."
"I knew it couldn't be a coincidence and even Rome knew something wasn't right and this was just hearing it from my side. I mean, really? What are the odds?"
"Yeah, what are the odds?" Castle repeated, he paused and took a deep breath "have you guys eaten dinner yet?" Rome's stomach let out a growl and Castle chuckled "guess that answers that question," he paused again "I always think better on a full stomach and I think this calls for some Chinese food, anyone else game?"
Alexis and Rome quickly raised their hands and Martha after chuckling at her son and grandchildren did the same.