Chapter 2.
"Who was that girl you were talking to?" Emily was asking Rocky while they walked into the famous Sun Set park. He shrugged an answer to her and shook his head looking for the words. "I'd never seen her before up until then, so I really couldn't tell you." 'What I'd like to know is how she knew my ninja name when I didn't even tell it to her?' He thought casually tossing the soccer ball he had in his hands into the air and catches it.
"Well I think you should stay away from her, she seems.....strange." She took the ball from him and held it out of his reach off to the side of her. "Come on Em', you know I need to practice with that." The blonde boy said trying to get the ball back from her but she moved away from all his advances and laughed. "You're no good at this you know? You can't even stop me what if this girl is crazy and something happens to you?" She asked him with a raised eye brow.
"Yeah right, lets look at the chart here...big cosmic Rocky, itty bitty little Maria, I'll be fine." He assured her snatching the ball away why she registered what he said. "I'll trust that I guess,"
"Thank you." He said, "On one condition?" She added and he looked at her in wonder. "You stay away from her? Promise me this Rocky..." She gave him her widest bluest eyes and he couldn't resist that face and he gave in. "Alright,....I won't see her, I don't know why not, but I won't."
"Good. Now, lets help you with that practice." They charged out to the field and started kicking the ball back and fourth to each other.
* * *
At the Douglas house, Tum tum and Colt are spring cleaning as their mother had suggested they help her with since they were so bored today and so far it was going along.....interestingly.
"What in the world is this?" Colt asked Tum while pulling a molding sock out of his brothers drawer that was attached to a devil dog, Little Debbie. "I wondered where that went to." Tum tum said pulling the cake away from the sock and bringing it to his mouth. "Tum if you eat that-..." but his words were cut off by the young boy doing just that. "Eeuww! Don't you have any scruples?" Tum tum shrugged finishing the snack and smiled to him. "I wouldn't know, what are scruples?"
Colt put a hand to his forehead shaking his head back and fourth. "Of all the family's to be born into I have to have the one with the garbage disposal and the white knight." He said that part referring to Rocky.
"Yeah and just my luck to be born into a family with a loud mouth, bug eyed, mop haired-.." Colt broke his chatter with laughter to that one. "Oh no I'm not finished yet then there's the fact that-..." Colt covered his mouth by stuffing the sock in it. "Later weed. We gotta clean up now, come on."
"Boys?" Mrs. Douglas shouted up the stairs to them, they put an ear to her voice, "Can you hear me?" "Yeah mom." Colt replied and she continued checking her purse to make sure she had enough money in it. "I'm going to the grocery store would you like anything?"
"Nothing for me." Colt said and Tum took a moment to really think about it. "Can you get me some brownies?!" "Sure baby, see you in a bit and lock the door behind me okay?" "Okay."
Jessica walked out of the house closing the door, and got into the car starting it up then pulled out of the drive way. Colt and Tum were looking out of the window and they smiled to each other when they saw the car disappear into the distance. "Let's get out of here."
"Yeah." Tum said agreeing with his second older brother.
As they left the house Colt locked the door behind them, then stuffed the key in his pocket. "Tum wait up!" He called to his back as he made a break for the park; Colt hadn't noticed when his key slid down his leg from the hole in his pocket and hit the ground as he ran to catch up to Tum.
'A key....' Maria thought stepping out of the bushes in front of the Douglas house. She walked over to it and bent down to pick it up. "I'll only be in for a minute they won't even notice." She said allowed to herself as she unlocked the door to their house. 'Just one divine minute.'
The door opened and she walked inside after scanning the living room with her eyes. 'Oh it's so clean!' The girl said to herself whirling around with her arms extended. 'Ha ha ha, this place is wonderful!'
She walked into the kitchen and touched the table wondering which chair was the one Rocky sat in the most, then she walked upstairs in awe at the sight of the room that said keep out and caution on the door with a sign. 'This must be it.' As she turned the knob on the door she heard voices outside downstairs. "I think I might have dropped my key, hold on okay?"
'His brother's, oh no, they're back.' She thought and walked into the closet to hide. "Huh....?" Colt said as he walked into the house. "What?" Tum asked twirling little circles to amuse himself while he waited for Colt to find his key. "Didn't I lock the door when we left?" He asked his little brother while he stared at the lock and Tum shrugged an answer. 'I'm pretty sure I did, how did it get open?' He wondered looking around for his mom's or dad's car but they weren't there.
"Tum come here....." He whispered to him and he walked over with a face that asked, 'What's going on?' "I think someone might be in our house, we're gonna go in and look around be ready." "Got it." Tum said with a thumbs up as they slouched over and crept inside their house.
It was as though a wind were blowing through there as they made quick movements to check the rooms and closets. It wasn't until they were in their bedroom that Tum huffed out in exasperation slapping his hands down at his side. "This is stupid nobodies here, maybe you never had the key in the first place and you just locked the door as you closed it."
He said trying to make some sense of why the door was open. "It's possible that the door blew open too because you didn't shut it all the wa-...." He was cut off by the sound of something falling in the closet and they both turned and looked at the sudden noise.
Maria slid herself down the wall to try to hide but she saw them approaching through the vent like slits in the wooden door. When Colt's hand reached the knob she closed her eyes and began concentrate. "Got' cha!"
An hour later Rocky came back inside from his practice and Emily waved good bye to him as she went into her own house. "Bye Emily." He said to her wave and walked in completely spinning the ball on his finger.
"And now for a snack," He said to himself going into the kitchen letting the ball roll from his hands to the floor as he got up to the sink to wash them.
He took a breath and let it out slowly while he waited for himself to finish washing up, then he dried his hands on a paper napkin and strolled to the fridge for a slice of cheese cake his Grandma made for them when she visited last week- her and their Grandpa had split up a long time ago so she never seen them over the summers but she did get her time during the Spring on their breaks from school, and she loved her grandson's very much.
"Ahh my favorite," He took out a fork from the drawer and placed a slice on a paper plate then returned it back to the fridge and walked out into the living room placing his snack down and he strolled upstairs to their room.
"Hey you guys-.....?" He stopped himself because they were both lying down on their beds sleeping, but what Rocky found as strange is that they were lying in the same fashion- on their backs with their hands resting over their chests.
Rocky didn't wanna wake them up but he had to ask them if they were all right, even if they'd be a little ticked at him later on. He walked over to Colt's bed and shook him lightly. "Hey Colt?" He said as half a whisper. "Tum tum wake up." He looked at them and than a little worry hit his face as he put a hand to their noses and mouths to check for breathing. 'At least they're alive.' "Guys wake up!" He said a bit louder, still nothing.
"What in the world is going on?" He turned to get a cup of water from the bathroom and Colt began to stir just as he came back and threw it on him. "Rocky!?" He shouted shaking the water from his hair. "Ugh! What did you do that for?"
"You're all right!" He said with a smile throwing his arms around him as Tum started to wake up too. "What's going on? And who's eating my cheese cake?" He said rubbing his eyes sitting up.
"You guys were sleeping like the dead I had to make sure you were ok. What happened to you?" He asked them looking at their faces hard so they wouldn't lie. "We were cleaning and just got tired so we took a nap that's all." Tum said still a little drowsy.
"Yeah, thanks for saving me the trouble of going all the way to the bathroom for a shower." Colt said in mock anger. "Sorry Rocky replied with a lame smile. 'Swoo, glad they're ok, it's still pretty strange though how they'd fall asleep like that, but if they say they're ok than who am I to complain.'
Rocky looked down at the floor as he turned to leave and he noticed a shimmer catch his eye. "Hey who's key is this?" "I told you you locked the door from the inside while we were lea-....ving........" Tum said letting his words drag as he finished them. 'When did we go outside? We were cleaning the whole time?' He thought to himself scratching his head.
"What is it?" Rocky asked looking at him funny. "Nothing. Except, I'm hungry and I want some cheese cake, lets go." He got up from the bed and ran to the door. "You sure you're all right?" Rocky asked before going to rescue the food that he had sitting out downstairs. "Yeah," Colt responded while staring at his key that Rocky handed him. "........Everything's fine."