STILL DON'T OWN PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. STILL DON'T OWN JACK SPARROW. GODDAMMIT.
Pirate: Thank you SO much for all the help! I decided to go with it being the same day as they left though. . .it's just a little easier on my brain if I do that.
Jacqui10: Okay, first of all, it wasn't as weird back then, and she's almost 18. And yes, Johnny is 40, but if I want to make 28, I can. It's my fanfic. And I HATE Mary-Sues, I'm not trying to do that at all. If I am, then I'll slap myself, kay? Kay. And I know about Anamaria, but they never seemed to have that kind of relationship. And I might go back later on and change Ariana's age anyway.
Chapter Eighteen
"I don't know. . ." Julie trailed off, gazing at Jack with a bewildered look on her face. He was staring around at the theater, which Ariana just noticed was empty. Why? They had been in the movie for six days. There should have been people here watching the movie. But, she speculated, time goes faster in movies, so it would make sense that it's still the same day here as it was when we left. At least I think it is. . . She hoped she was correct, for the realization just now hit her that Jack, in this world, was Johnny Depp, and if there were people at the theater, they would spot him and total chaos would break out.
Kelsey now became aware of the empty theater as well. "Hold on. Why is the theater empty?"
"I think it's because time passes quicker in movies, so it must be the same day here as it was when we left," Ariana explained her own reasoning.
"That would make sense." She nodded.
"Which is a good thing, because if there were people here, they'd attack Jack or something 'cause they'd think he was Johnny."
"Who's Johnny?" Jack asked, finally looking back at the girls.
"No one," Ariana quickly answered. She glanced back at the screen. It was blank. The movie was over. It sort of made sense. . .the movie spanned a time period of four or five days, and they had been there six. . .so the movie had ended. Yeah. I guess that kind of makes sense. "How the hell are we going to get back in there?"
"What?" Julie asked, seeming utterly surprised. "We just finally got back to our own world, and you immediately just want to go back into the movie?!" She couldn't believe her friend. How could she actually want to go back into that movie, where there was so much danger? It wasn't even her time period; it wasn't even real!
"Well. . ." At first she was at a loss for words. She wanted to say, Yes, I want to go back into the movie, but she knew that she could not, and she knew that Julie would go berserk. So instead she said, "We need to get Jack back in there."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Kelsey asked skeptically.
"I don't know. . .somehow we will. . ." She could come up with no solution.
"If I may ask, what is this place?" Jack said, now eyeing the huge screen behind him curiously.
"This. . ." Ariana wasn't entirely certain it was a good idea to tell him. She did not know if there would be consequences to that or not. But then again, what harm could it do? It was Jack, after all. . .and she couldn't just lie to him. "This is a movie theater."
"Why did you tell him that?" Julie asked.
"What? What's the big deal? So I told him where he was. Now it's the end of the world, for sure." Sarcasm dripped from her voice. "Besides, it's not as if we can bring him outside and not tell him anything."
"Why? What's outside?" Jack asked, suddenly intrigued. Before any of them could stop him, he had begun walking up the aisle between the rows of seats, seeming almost to forget all about the fact that there was this gigantic screen behind him that he had never before seen in all his life.
"No! Jack! Wait!" Ariana called loudly, running after him. She could hear her friends hurrying behind her. She caught up with him at the doors leading to the main room where they served the snacks, popcorn, and drinks. She grabbed his arm.
"What?" he inquired, turning to look at her.
"Um. . ." She searched her head for any reason why he could not go outside. "You can't go out there because. . .there are things out there that you. . .don't know about. . .that might confuse you or something. . ." She was having an enormously difficult time finding the right words to come out of her mouth.
"Oh really? Well then that just makes my curiosity grow, now doesn't it?" he said, grinning and easily pulling him arm out of her grasp. She tried to take hold of it again, but he was already through the doors. The three girls followed him.
He had stopped abruptly once he had gone through. He didn't know what it was that he saw. There were different-colored boxes in a big glass counter, and next to them was a large amount of some sort of yellow food. Behind that counter was another, which had an odd-looking machine on it that had six box-shaped things hanging from it, and each one had a different word on it. (A/N: The soda things they have at the fast food places and such). Then there was a large glass container that held bottles of water – though the bottles were made of a material he did not recognize.
He tore his gaze away from that to look out the glass doors. Beyond them there was something he had never seen before. It looked large, red and shiny. There were black circles at the bottom of it. Were those wheels? They didn't look like any he had ever seen. He turned around and saw the three teenagers approaching him. "What is that?" he asked them, pointing to the big object outside as if he was a 5-year-old.
"That's a car," Ariana told him, without any hesitation this time.
"A – car?" He had never heard of a car. What was it for?
"Yes, a car," Julie said.
"What does it do?" He sounded so curious it was almost funny.
"It helps you travel," Ariana answered.
"Is it like a carriage?"
"No, not really. It's not pulled by horses, it can go by itself."
"It can move by itself without horses?" Now he was perplexed. How could something travel without even being pulled? It simply was not possible; the only thing that could do that was a ship, and even then, it was pushed along by the wind. . .
"Yes."
"How can it do that, exactly?"
"You'll see." She gave a small grin.
"You mean I get to ride in it?" All of a sudden he seemed rather excited. His reaction reminded Ariana of a young child who had just been told he was getting a surprise present.
"Yes, you do. So do we."
"How does it move?" He was interested to know. It seemed impossible.
"That's a little too complicated for you. You wouldn't understand."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Trust me, I'm sure." She would have to explain to him all about what an engine was and how it helped move the car, and the wheels, and the steering wheel. . .too much to deal with.
He seemed to accept her answer. "Well, what are we waiting for?" With that, he pushed the door open and began heading towards the car at a fast pace. The three girls quickly followed him.
He noticed that the ground was also something he was not familiar with. . .it was not cobblestones, or dirt, or just plain rocks and pebbles. . .it was something else that he could not identify, something harder and sturdier and darker. Odd, he thought. Extremely odd. He jumped up and down, and heard a peculiar sound whenever he came back in contact with the ground. He could hear Ariana, Kelsey, and Julie laughing behind him. He ignored it and commenced walking again.
He stopped when he reached the car and just stood there, eyeing it and studying it. The three came up behind him and Ariana took out her keys from her pocket, going around to the driver's side and unlocking the doors. She opened hers and looked at Jack, waiting for him to do the same.
He didn't. He just remained standing, staring at the car as if it were an alien, a very interesting alien. After a few moments, Julie reached out and said, "Watch." Then she slipped her hand onto the handle and pulled the door open. Then she shut it. "Got it? Now you do it."
He looked at the handle for a few seconds before grabbing it and pulling. The door opened and his eyebrows shot up in surprise as he stared at the inside of the car. He had not seen the inside of many carriages, but he did know that this was undeniably different.
"Get in," Ariana told him, trying hard to keep her laughter in.
"Uh – do I sit on this seat here?" he questioned, pointing to the seat on the passenger's side.
"Yes," she told him, drawing out the word and nodding while working even harder to suppress the giggles.
He ducked and climbed in, sitting down on the seat and pulling the door closed. Then he looked around him as he had done in the theater while Kelsey and Julie clambered into the back. "This is the strangest thing I've eva' seen," he stated.
"I'm sure it is." Ariana couldn't help but grin.
"How does it move? Can we use it to go somewhere?" Again he asked that "moving" question.
She wasn't sure about that. What if she needed to stay in the theater in case they somehow got pulled back in? Or Jack was pulled back in? But what if she didn't? After all, it would certainly be fun to see Jack's reaction to everything else. . .a little fun never hurt anyone. . . "Sure, why not?" she replied, sticking the key into the ignition and turning the car on. Jack's brow furrowed and his eyes widened as he heard the engine come to life and felt the vehicle slightly vibrate. He whipped his head all about, moving so fast that the beads in his hair nearly smacked him in the face. The girls couldn't keep their laughter to themselves any longer. "What? What's so funny? What in the hell is that noise?" he asked, sounding almost frantic.
"That's the car, Jack. Don't worry," Ariana assured him between giggles.
"The CAR is making that noise? What is it, the car from HELL?"
"No!" She burst into another fit of laugher. "All cars make that noise when you first turn them on! And even after they're on, they make a bit of noise, not much though."
"Well I don't like it."
"Too bad." She was still slightly giggling as she put the car in reverse and drove it backwards. Once it began moving, Jack gripped his seat and shot nervous glances in all directions. Ariana noticed this and grinned. "It's fine, Jack, the car's just moving. It's how we get from place to place. It's fine. Here. Put this on." She pressed down on the brake, then reached over and grabbed the seatbelt hanging next to him.
He relished the feel of her body pressed against his as she leaned over, and was disappointed when she sat back, some sort of strap in her hand.
"What's that?" he asked, eyeing it with an air of suspicion and curiosity.
"It's called a seatbelt. It's what we use so that if we get in a car crash, we don't go flying through this glass here." She pointed to the windshield with one hand, while the other hand buckled him in. Then she turned and faced front, putting the car in drive and turning it to the right, driving out of the parking lot. Jack was staring out the window in amazement at the buildings and what he assumed were other cars. There were so many of them – blue, green, black, white, almost every color he could think of, and they were all shaped differently. But he could see some that were the same shape; many that were the same color. Some were still, but most were moving. He felt rather odd watching everything go by him as the car moved – he felt odd just sitting there and still moving at the same time. It was such a weird sensation, with no horses. How did they become accustomed to it?
He spent the entire car ride staring out the window, wondering what everything was, numerous questioned swirling about in his head. None of it looked at all familiar to him – everything was big and moving, and there were so many colors and strange things that he had never seen before. But he did see people walking, dressed in the same type of clothing the girls had, and a few were riding weird, large objects that had two big circles and handles that the riders grasped, with a seat where they were situated. It looked as if pumping their legs up and down caused the contraptions to move. He was too interested in all of it to ask what it actually was.
They turned down a small, quieter street that had no cars. There were large houses that had cars at them which were not moving, and they drove down to the third house, which was surrounded by many great trees. The house itself was rather large as well. She must be rich, if this is where she lives, he thought as they went up the rocky driveway that curved around the house. But in this time, rich had a whole different meaning than what he knew. When they reached the back, the car stopped.
Ariana undid her seatbelt, then his, and once again reached over. She opened the door.
"How did you do that?" he asked her.
"Don't worry about how I did it. Just step out."
He complied and shut the door behind him, seeing that all the other doors were shut. What a peculiar thing, he mused. But very interesting. He followed the three of them to the door and inside. Ariana headed to a big white box that was up against the wall and opened the door. He could see ice inside of it, and felt the cold rushing out at him.
"What is that?" he asked, wrapping his arms around himself for warmth.
"It's called a freezer," Ariana explained, pulling a key from the inside of the door and walking over to another, the one that led into the house. (A/N: They were on a porch). Once she had it open, she put the key back and shut the freezer door, then moved through the doorway, Kelsey, Julie, and Jack coming in after her. Jack shut the door once they were all in, and turned, taking in his surroundings.
"Where are your parents?" Julie asked Ariana.
"They went away for a few days, some romantic vacation or something like that. They left this morning, after dad told the people at the move theater they had the day off. I told you already, don't you remember?"
"Oh yeah. . ."
"Yeah."
There was another big white box in this room. He approached it and saw that it was divided in two, the bottom half much larger. He opened the top first, and was met with a blast of icy cold air. He quickly shut it and spun around, his long hair flying out around him, his beads once again nearly whipping him in the face, and said, "What in the hell is that?"
Ariana gave a small laugh and answered, "That's another freezer. It's where we put things that we want to freeze."
"You freeze things?" What did she mean? How could she freeze something just by putting it in a box? He decided not to ask and pulled open the bottom door rather hesitantly. This time it was not freezing cold air that he felt, just mildly cool. This half was filled with all kinds of different foods and drinks. He looked at the shelves and spotted an apple. He grabbed it and closed the door. Taking a bite, he asked, "And what's that?"
"That's the fridge. We put things we want to keep fresh in there, so they don't spoil or rot."
"You can keep things fresher just by putting them in there?" He had stopped chewing and the hand that held his apple flung out towards the fridge. Ariana struggled to keep herself from laughing.
"Yes, we can. Again, a little complicated to explain."
He slowly began chewing again as he thought and looked around the room.
There was a large blue counter that stretched across nearly half the wall, and there was some sort of shiny basin that seemed to be made of silver that was attached to it. He walked over and saw that there were two handles on either side of a long, thing something that stretched out over the basin. He pulled one of the handles forward and water instantly gushed out of the thing silver thing. His eyes widened in surprise and he whirled and said, "You can get water just by pulling a handle?!" He sounded utterly shocked.
"Yup," Ariana replied, grinning along with her friends. "Pretty nifty, huh?"
He pushed the handle back and the water flow ceased. He pulled it forward – water – pushed it backward – no water. He grinned and kept turning the water on and off, amusing himself for a few minutes before finally stopping and looking around once more.
There was a silver box on the counter that had four slits in it (A/N: toaster), but it did not look incredibly interesting. He turned to his left. There was an oven, which he recognized. At least there's something familiar here. Above it was something else that had four black circles on it, and there was also a white box (A/N: microwave) near it. Farther to his left was another room, but this one contained objects he was acquainted with. There was a large, polished wooden table, surrounded by about six wooden chairs with some sort of cushioning on them.
He turned again to see a doorway leading to the rest of the house and walked through, not even noticing that the floor he was walking on was not wooden nor anything else he had ever tread on before.
He caught sight of a room to his right and decided to take a look. He strode in and saw another small basin, but this one was white. There were two mirrors – he knew those – and there were two large types of white machines against the wall he did not recognize. They looked rather strange, and so he came up to them. He saw a lid on one and opened it – empty. He shut it and opened the lid on the other on, which was on the front, not on top. Again, empty. He shut it. What could those be for?
He spun and saw another white object. This was certainly something he had never seen before, not even anything remotely like it. Even the shape was unfamiliar. He cautiously approached it and lifted the lid, revealing a hollow inside that was also white, with water in it and a hole at the bottom. What the hell? He noticed a silver handle near the top of the back of the object. Now what does this do? He reached out and pressed it down.
"WHOA!" he shouted loudly, jumping back in fright and landing on his bottom as the device generated a startling, daunting noise almost as loud as his scream that he had never heard before and the water began swirling down into the hole. He heard laughter and looked over to see the girls standing a few feet from him, very amused. Ariana was doubled over from her mirth. He rose to his feet and gave the noisy contraption a hateful look before walking towards them. "What in the HELL is THAT?!" he asked loudly, practically shouting and pointing at the piece of equipment.
Ariana couldn't answer him; her laughter overrode any words she could've said. So Kelsey told him, "That's a toilet!" She was still chuckling as well.
"A TOILET? What in the hell is a TOILET?" Bewilderment and resentment for the stupid thing were plastered on his face.
"Obviously something you don't like very much," Julie said, attempting to stop her out-of-control giggles but was unsuccessful.
Jack rolled his eyes and walked past them into the room he had occupied before. He hadn't gotten a good look at it; now he did.
There was a table in front of him covered with different kinds of beads, necklaces, and bracelets. He resisted the urge to grab as many as he could – after all, this was Ariana's house, and there was no way he would ever steal from her. He turned and saw a large table with a chair and a big box on top of the table. It was a little longer than a foot all around, and it had some odd board below it that had a bunch of tiny squares with letters printed on them. He raised a questioning eyebrow, but decided not to try to figure out how it worked.
He strode into the next room, which by far was the largest. It included two oversized, long brown couches with a wooden table between them. There were two tall bookcases at the end of them, holding books, perfumes, and other things he did not recognize. After the bookcase nearest to him he could see a large box, much bigger and blacker than the one in the previous room. It was in an even larger wooden box that was connected to a small cabinet beneath it. He stepped closer to the black box, and he could see his reflection in it, though it was dark. He noticed some sort of buttons at the bottom, and he reached out and pressed one.
The box flashed and suddenly he could see people moving inside the box. He let out a shout and fell backwards, landing on his butt once more. He heard the laughing again, and when he turned his head, sure enough, they were standing next to the couch. He stood and shot the box and angry glare, but then the anger dissolved into confusion at the sight of the people in it. Wait. . .there were people in it? And they were moving? They were tiny! How could they have gotten in there? "What the hell is this thing?" he asked not moving his gaze. "How do these people get in there?"
More uproar. Obviously he had said something stupid.
"That's – that's – a – TV," Ariana told him, gasping for breath while still hooting wildly. "Those – people – in there – aren't – living, they're – they're – " She didn't know how to explain it to him. At least not in any way he would understand. He would never be able to comprehend how a television operated.
Kelsey managed to cease her laughter and told him, "It's a little too complicated for you. We'll just tell you that those people aren't in the TV."
I'm still confused as hell. He watched the mini-people moving on the screen. He now realized that they were talking as well, talking to each other. How could they not be in the TV when they were? They were right in front of him, moving around inside the thing. He just didn't get it.
That was when the knocking came at the door.
A/N: Okay! I finally have it up! Yay me! And it's really long too! Woohoo! Is it funny? I tried to make it as funny as I could!
Pirate: Thank you SO much for all the help! I decided to go with it being the same day as they left though. . .it's just a little easier on my brain if I do that.
Jacqui10: Okay, first of all, it wasn't as weird back then, and she's almost 18. And yes, Johnny is 40, but if I want to make 28, I can. It's my fanfic. And I HATE Mary-Sues, I'm not trying to do that at all. If I am, then I'll slap myself, kay? Kay. And I know about Anamaria, but they never seemed to have that kind of relationship. And I might go back later on and change Ariana's age anyway.
Chapter Eighteen
"I don't know. . ." Julie trailed off, gazing at Jack with a bewildered look on her face. He was staring around at the theater, which Ariana just noticed was empty. Why? They had been in the movie for six days. There should have been people here watching the movie. But, she speculated, time goes faster in movies, so it would make sense that it's still the same day here as it was when we left. At least I think it is. . . She hoped she was correct, for the realization just now hit her that Jack, in this world, was Johnny Depp, and if there were people at the theater, they would spot him and total chaos would break out.
Kelsey now became aware of the empty theater as well. "Hold on. Why is the theater empty?"
"I think it's because time passes quicker in movies, so it must be the same day here as it was when we left," Ariana explained her own reasoning.
"That would make sense." She nodded.
"Which is a good thing, because if there were people here, they'd attack Jack or something 'cause they'd think he was Johnny."
"Who's Johnny?" Jack asked, finally looking back at the girls.
"No one," Ariana quickly answered. She glanced back at the screen. It was blank. The movie was over. It sort of made sense. . .the movie spanned a time period of four or five days, and they had been there six. . .so the movie had ended. Yeah. I guess that kind of makes sense. "How the hell are we going to get back in there?"
"What?" Julie asked, seeming utterly surprised. "We just finally got back to our own world, and you immediately just want to go back into the movie?!" She couldn't believe her friend. How could she actually want to go back into that movie, where there was so much danger? It wasn't even her time period; it wasn't even real!
"Well. . ." At first she was at a loss for words. She wanted to say, Yes, I want to go back into the movie, but she knew that she could not, and she knew that Julie would go berserk. So instead she said, "We need to get Jack back in there."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Kelsey asked skeptically.
"I don't know. . .somehow we will. . ." She could come up with no solution.
"If I may ask, what is this place?" Jack said, now eyeing the huge screen behind him curiously.
"This. . ." Ariana wasn't entirely certain it was a good idea to tell him. She did not know if there would be consequences to that or not. But then again, what harm could it do? It was Jack, after all. . .and she couldn't just lie to him. "This is a movie theater."
"Why did you tell him that?" Julie asked.
"What? What's the big deal? So I told him where he was. Now it's the end of the world, for sure." Sarcasm dripped from her voice. "Besides, it's not as if we can bring him outside and not tell him anything."
"Why? What's outside?" Jack asked, suddenly intrigued. Before any of them could stop him, he had begun walking up the aisle between the rows of seats, seeming almost to forget all about the fact that there was this gigantic screen behind him that he had never before seen in all his life.
"No! Jack! Wait!" Ariana called loudly, running after him. She could hear her friends hurrying behind her. She caught up with him at the doors leading to the main room where they served the snacks, popcorn, and drinks. She grabbed his arm.
"What?" he inquired, turning to look at her.
"Um. . ." She searched her head for any reason why he could not go outside. "You can't go out there because. . .there are things out there that you. . .don't know about. . .that might confuse you or something. . ." She was having an enormously difficult time finding the right words to come out of her mouth.
"Oh really? Well then that just makes my curiosity grow, now doesn't it?" he said, grinning and easily pulling him arm out of her grasp. She tried to take hold of it again, but he was already through the doors. The three girls followed him.
He had stopped abruptly once he had gone through. He didn't know what it was that he saw. There were different-colored boxes in a big glass counter, and next to them was a large amount of some sort of yellow food. Behind that counter was another, which had an odd-looking machine on it that had six box-shaped things hanging from it, and each one had a different word on it. (A/N: The soda things they have at the fast food places and such). Then there was a large glass container that held bottles of water – though the bottles were made of a material he did not recognize.
He tore his gaze away from that to look out the glass doors. Beyond them there was something he had never seen before. It looked large, red and shiny. There were black circles at the bottom of it. Were those wheels? They didn't look like any he had ever seen. He turned around and saw the three teenagers approaching him. "What is that?" he asked them, pointing to the big object outside as if he was a 5-year-old.
"That's a car," Ariana told him, without any hesitation this time.
"A – car?" He had never heard of a car. What was it for?
"Yes, a car," Julie said.
"What does it do?" He sounded so curious it was almost funny.
"It helps you travel," Ariana answered.
"Is it like a carriage?"
"No, not really. It's not pulled by horses, it can go by itself."
"It can move by itself without horses?" Now he was perplexed. How could something travel without even being pulled? It simply was not possible; the only thing that could do that was a ship, and even then, it was pushed along by the wind. . .
"Yes."
"How can it do that, exactly?"
"You'll see." She gave a small grin.
"You mean I get to ride in it?" All of a sudden he seemed rather excited. His reaction reminded Ariana of a young child who had just been told he was getting a surprise present.
"Yes, you do. So do we."
"How does it move?" He was interested to know. It seemed impossible.
"That's a little too complicated for you. You wouldn't understand."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Trust me, I'm sure." She would have to explain to him all about what an engine was and how it helped move the car, and the wheels, and the steering wheel. . .too much to deal with.
He seemed to accept her answer. "Well, what are we waiting for?" With that, he pushed the door open and began heading towards the car at a fast pace. The three girls quickly followed him.
He noticed that the ground was also something he was not familiar with. . .it was not cobblestones, or dirt, or just plain rocks and pebbles. . .it was something else that he could not identify, something harder and sturdier and darker. Odd, he thought. Extremely odd. He jumped up and down, and heard a peculiar sound whenever he came back in contact with the ground. He could hear Ariana, Kelsey, and Julie laughing behind him. He ignored it and commenced walking again.
He stopped when he reached the car and just stood there, eyeing it and studying it. The three came up behind him and Ariana took out her keys from her pocket, going around to the driver's side and unlocking the doors. She opened hers and looked at Jack, waiting for him to do the same.
He didn't. He just remained standing, staring at the car as if it were an alien, a very interesting alien. After a few moments, Julie reached out and said, "Watch." Then she slipped her hand onto the handle and pulled the door open. Then she shut it. "Got it? Now you do it."
He looked at the handle for a few seconds before grabbing it and pulling. The door opened and his eyebrows shot up in surprise as he stared at the inside of the car. He had not seen the inside of many carriages, but he did know that this was undeniably different.
"Get in," Ariana told him, trying hard to keep her laughter in.
"Uh – do I sit on this seat here?" he questioned, pointing to the seat on the passenger's side.
"Yes," she told him, drawing out the word and nodding while working even harder to suppress the giggles.
He ducked and climbed in, sitting down on the seat and pulling the door closed. Then he looked around him as he had done in the theater while Kelsey and Julie clambered into the back. "This is the strangest thing I've eva' seen," he stated.
"I'm sure it is." Ariana couldn't help but grin.
"How does it move? Can we use it to go somewhere?" Again he asked that "moving" question.
She wasn't sure about that. What if she needed to stay in the theater in case they somehow got pulled back in? Or Jack was pulled back in? But what if she didn't? After all, it would certainly be fun to see Jack's reaction to everything else. . .a little fun never hurt anyone. . . "Sure, why not?" she replied, sticking the key into the ignition and turning the car on. Jack's brow furrowed and his eyes widened as he heard the engine come to life and felt the vehicle slightly vibrate. He whipped his head all about, moving so fast that the beads in his hair nearly smacked him in the face. The girls couldn't keep their laughter to themselves any longer. "What? What's so funny? What in the hell is that noise?" he asked, sounding almost frantic.
"That's the car, Jack. Don't worry," Ariana assured him between giggles.
"The CAR is making that noise? What is it, the car from HELL?"
"No!" She burst into another fit of laugher. "All cars make that noise when you first turn them on! And even after they're on, they make a bit of noise, not much though."
"Well I don't like it."
"Too bad." She was still slightly giggling as she put the car in reverse and drove it backwards. Once it began moving, Jack gripped his seat and shot nervous glances in all directions. Ariana noticed this and grinned. "It's fine, Jack, the car's just moving. It's how we get from place to place. It's fine. Here. Put this on." She pressed down on the brake, then reached over and grabbed the seatbelt hanging next to him.
He relished the feel of her body pressed against his as she leaned over, and was disappointed when she sat back, some sort of strap in her hand.
"What's that?" he asked, eyeing it with an air of suspicion and curiosity.
"It's called a seatbelt. It's what we use so that if we get in a car crash, we don't go flying through this glass here." She pointed to the windshield with one hand, while the other hand buckled him in. Then she turned and faced front, putting the car in drive and turning it to the right, driving out of the parking lot. Jack was staring out the window in amazement at the buildings and what he assumed were other cars. There were so many of them – blue, green, black, white, almost every color he could think of, and they were all shaped differently. But he could see some that were the same shape; many that were the same color. Some were still, but most were moving. He felt rather odd watching everything go by him as the car moved – he felt odd just sitting there and still moving at the same time. It was such a weird sensation, with no horses. How did they become accustomed to it?
He spent the entire car ride staring out the window, wondering what everything was, numerous questioned swirling about in his head. None of it looked at all familiar to him – everything was big and moving, and there were so many colors and strange things that he had never seen before. But he did see people walking, dressed in the same type of clothing the girls had, and a few were riding weird, large objects that had two big circles and handles that the riders grasped, with a seat where they were situated. It looked as if pumping their legs up and down caused the contraptions to move. He was too interested in all of it to ask what it actually was.
They turned down a small, quieter street that had no cars. There were large houses that had cars at them which were not moving, and they drove down to the third house, which was surrounded by many great trees. The house itself was rather large as well. She must be rich, if this is where she lives, he thought as they went up the rocky driveway that curved around the house. But in this time, rich had a whole different meaning than what he knew. When they reached the back, the car stopped.
Ariana undid her seatbelt, then his, and once again reached over. She opened the door.
"How did you do that?" he asked her.
"Don't worry about how I did it. Just step out."
He complied and shut the door behind him, seeing that all the other doors were shut. What a peculiar thing, he mused. But very interesting. He followed the three of them to the door and inside. Ariana headed to a big white box that was up against the wall and opened the door. He could see ice inside of it, and felt the cold rushing out at him.
"What is that?" he asked, wrapping his arms around himself for warmth.
"It's called a freezer," Ariana explained, pulling a key from the inside of the door and walking over to another, the one that led into the house. (A/N: They were on a porch). Once she had it open, she put the key back and shut the freezer door, then moved through the doorway, Kelsey, Julie, and Jack coming in after her. Jack shut the door once they were all in, and turned, taking in his surroundings.
"Where are your parents?" Julie asked Ariana.
"They went away for a few days, some romantic vacation or something like that. They left this morning, after dad told the people at the move theater they had the day off. I told you already, don't you remember?"
"Oh yeah. . ."
"Yeah."
There was another big white box in this room. He approached it and saw that it was divided in two, the bottom half much larger. He opened the top first, and was met with a blast of icy cold air. He quickly shut it and spun around, his long hair flying out around him, his beads once again nearly whipping him in the face, and said, "What in the hell is that?"
Ariana gave a small laugh and answered, "That's another freezer. It's where we put things that we want to freeze."
"You freeze things?" What did she mean? How could she freeze something just by putting it in a box? He decided not to ask and pulled open the bottom door rather hesitantly. This time it was not freezing cold air that he felt, just mildly cool. This half was filled with all kinds of different foods and drinks. He looked at the shelves and spotted an apple. He grabbed it and closed the door. Taking a bite, he asked, "And what's that?"
"That's the fridge. We put things we want to keep fresh in there, so they don't spoil or rot."
"You can keep things fresher just by putting them in there?" He had stopped chewing and the hand that held his apple flung out towards the fridge. Ariana struggled to keep herself from laughing.
"Yes, we can. Again, a little complicated to explain."
He slowly began chewing again as he thought and looked around the room.
There was a large blue counter that stretched across nearly half the wall, and there was some sort of shiny basin that seemed to be made of silver that was attached to it. He walked over and saw that there were two handles on either side of a long, thing something that stretched out over the basin. He pulled one of the handles forward and water instantly gushed out of the thing silver thing. His eyes widened in surprise and he whirled and said, "You can get water just by pulling a handle?!" He sounded utterly shocked.
"Yup," Ariana replied, grinning along with her friends. "Pretty nifty, huh?"
He pushed the handle back and the water flow ceased. He pulled it forward – water – pushed it backward – no water. He grinned and kept turning the water on and off, amusing himself for a few minutes before finally stopping and looking around once more.
There was a silver box on the counter that had four slits in it (A/N: toaster), but it did not look incredibly interesting. He turned to his left. There was an oven, which he recognized. At least there's something familiar here. Above it was something else that had four black circles on it, and there was also a white box (A/N: microwave) near it. Farther to his left was another room, but this one contained objects he was acquainted with. There was a large, polished wooden table, surrounded by about six wooden chairs with some sort of cushioning on them.
He turned again to see a doorway leading to the rest of the house and walked through, not even noticing that the floor he was walking on was not wooden nor anything else he had ever tread on before.
He caught sight of a room to his right and decided to take a look. He strode in and saw another small basin, but this one was white. There were two mirrors – he knew those – and there were two large types of white machines against the wall he did not recognize. They looked rather strange, and so he came up to them. He saw a lid on one and opened it – empty. He shut it and opened the lid on the other on, which was on the front, not on top. Again, empty. He shut it. What could those be for?
He spun and saw another white object. This was certainly something he had never seen before, not even anything remotely like it. Even the shape was unfamiliar. He cautiously approached it and lifted the lid, revealing a hollow inside that was also white, with water in it and a hole at the bottom. What the hell? He noticed a silver handle near the top of the back of the object. Now what does this do? He reached out and pressed it down.
"WHOA!" he shouted loudly, jumping back in fright and landing on his bottom as the device generated a startling, daunting noise almost as loud as his scream that he had never heard before and the water began swirling down into the hole. He heard laughter and looked over to see the girls standing a few feet from him, very amused. Ariana was doubled over from her mirth. He rose to his feet and gave the noisy contraption a hateful look before walking towards them. "What in the HELL is THAT?!" he asked loudly, practically shouting and pointing at the piece of equipment.
Ariana couldn't answer him; her laughter overrode any words she could've said. So Kelsey told him, "That's a toilet!" She was still chuckling as well.
"A TOILET? What in the hell is a TOILET?" Bewilderment and resentment for the stupid thing were plastered on his face.
"Obviously something you don't like very much," Julie said, attempting to stop her out-of-control giggles but was unsuccessful.
Jack rolled his eyes and walked past them into the room he had occupied before. He hadn't gotten a good look at it; now he did.
There was a table in front of him covered with different kinds of beads, necklaces, and bracelets. He resisted the urge to grab as many as he could – after all, this was Ariana's house, and there was no way he would ever steal from her. He turned and saw a large table with a chair and a big box on top of the table. It was a little longer than a foot all around, and it had some odd board below it that had a bunch of tiny squares with letters printed on them. He raised a questioning eyebrow, but decided not to try to figure out how it worked.
He strode into the next room, which by far was the largest. It included two oversized, long brown couches with a wooden table between them. There were two tall bookcases at the end of them, holding books, perfumes, and other things he did not recognize. After the bookcase nearest to him he could see a large box, much bigger and blacker than the one in the previous room. It was in an even larger wooden box that was connected to a small cabinet beneath it. He stepped closer to the black box, and he could see his reflection in it, though it was dark. He noticed some sort of buttons at the bottom, and he reached out and pressed one.
The box flashed and suddenly he could see people moving inside the box. He let out a shout and fell backwards, landing on his butt once more. He heard the laughing again, and when he turned his head, sure enough, they were standing next to the couch. He stood and shot the box and angry glare, but then the anger dissolved into confusion at the sight of the people in it. Wait. . .there were people in it? And they were moving? They were tiny! How could they have gotten in there? "What the hell is this thing?" he asked not moving his gaze. "How do these people get in there?"
More uproar. Obviously he had said something stupid.
"That's – that's – a – TV," Ariana told him, gasping for breath while still hooting wildly. "Those – people – in there – aren't – living, they're – they're – " She didn't know how to explain it to him. At least not in any way he would understand. He would never be able to comprehend how a television operated.
Kelsey managed to cease her laughter and told him, "It's a little too complicated for you. We'll just tell you that those people aren't in the TV."
I'm still confused as hell. He watched the mini-people moving on the screen. He now realized that they were talking as well, talking to each other. How could they not be in the TV when they were? They were right in front of him, moving around inside the thing. He just didn't get it.
That was when the knocking came at the door.
A/N: Okay! I finally have it up! Yay me! And it's really long too! Woohoo! Is it funny? I tried to make it as funny as I could!
