I walked around the house to the front door where the porch lights were lit. I hesitated to knock but brought myself to give a gentle knock anyway. With great rage the door flew open. My uncle stood there, his face flushed with anger.
"Where the hell have you been?!" He screamed at me.
I calmly strolled past him and he slammed the door shut behind me. "I was out for a walk." I simply stated.
"I thought I told you, you were not to go outside period, dot, end of story!!" He yelled again, apparently unable to control himself.
I didn't reply and began up the stairs toward my room.
"Get your ass down here right now young lady!" He ordered, but I ignored him and kept going.
I heard him continue to shout at me but I wasn't hearing it. I went to my room, shut the door and tried to lock it, but found the lock had been removed. I scowled and left the room to find one that had a lock on it. I wasn't about to give my privacy away under any circumstance. I ended up in one of the sitting rooms, sleeping on the couch. I was worn out, but escaping had been well worth it.
The next day I woke up with a major cramp in my neck. Perhaps sleeping on the
couch had been a big mistake but I had no other choice. I looked at the
grandfather clock that nearly completely awoke me every hour of the night. It
was 5:30, everybody would still be asleep. I ran down the hall into my room and
quickly showered off, brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, got a new change of
clothes out--which were to my disappointment, all excessively girly. I had
wished I'd brought my own but since I had nothing else, I decided they had to do
and that I needed to get out of the house quickly. I got dressed into my rather
tight, flared jeans and even tighter peasant top. I tried to adjust the top to
be less exposing of my front side but it didn't seem to do any good, so I gave
up and ran off.
I quietly slid down the stair banister and silently opened the door, tiptoed out
and shut it behind me. After that I ran as fast as I possibly could until I'd
reached the place where Kai had battled yesterday. I dropped to the concrete
there and lay there, looking up at the sky. Trees surrounded the little spot
there and I was laying in the middle of the clearing. A few clouds passed by in
the sky. I thought of how amazing it was that such light puffs could be so
essential to our very lives. How smoothly and gracefully they glided, not a care
in the world. My thoughts were interrupted by shouts from a familiar someplace.
I sat up and looked in the direction of the noise, then got up and followed it,
my curiosity getting the best of me.
I wandered down the trail I had yesterday and saw Johnny and Enrique at it
again. Except this time it was ping-pong. It's true, there was a ping-pong table
outside and they were going back and forth like there was no tomorrow. I rolled
my eyes but decided to go and watch.
"You're up early." I said as I trudged over to them.
"I had to show Enrique up first thing." Johnny grinned, hitting the
ball twice in between his sentence.
"Not that he'll be successful by any means." Enrique growled.
It went back and forth non-stop. It made me dizzy trying to keep up with the
ball. I thought I might want to take a seat, but realized I wouldn't be able to
see from down there. It was far too interesting to let it escape my view. It
must've gone on for 5 minutes before Oliver came out.
"What the heck??" Was the first thing he said.
I looked at him, "Yeah I said the same thing." I walked around the
ping-pong table, keeping my eye on the two and making sure not to get in the way
or get hit with anything, until I reached Oliver.
"Can you believe these two?" He shook his head.
"I know... Isn't it hilarious?" I laughed.
"I don't know how they keep going at it." Oliver crossed his arms.
"Yeah me either. I wouldn't have the energy to go non-stop day in and day
out." I confessed.
"That makes two of us." Oliver agreed, then looked down at me,
"You wanna sit down?"
I nodded and followed him to the same seats we sat in yesterday. I let myself
sink in the chair, "Hmm. I'm becoming quite fond of this place. I think I
like it better here than at home." I said.
Oliver looked at me, "Really? Why's that?"
"The atmosphere isn't as tense ... well unless you're standing between
Johnny and Enrique over there." I said, glimpsing back at the two and their
intense ping-pong match.
"Never get between them and the golden trophy..." Oliver warned.
"That would kill.." I said as I put my chin in my hand to continue
watching the two.
It was silent, except for the sound of the ping-pong ball. I was surprised
Johnny and Enrique were quiet, they must've been using all their energy in the
actual game rather than insulting each other. Suddenly, a loud crackle was heard
and the ping-pong ball darted off of Johnny's ping-pong paddle in an
unpredictable fashion and landed in the grass.
"HEY!! What the heck was that?!" Enrique shouted.
"What the hell?" Johnny growled, annoyed. He walked over to where the
ping-pong ball lay and picked it up, studying it, "Holy mother fuck."
"What happened?" Oliver asked, standing up.
"The ball fuckin' broke!" Johnny shouted, somewhat irritated.
I laughed with disbelief, "It broke?!" I jumped up and ran over past
Enrique to see, "Oh my gosh!" I cracked up, "It's completely
destroyed!"
Enrique walked over and grabbed it from Johnny, "What the hell'd you
do?"
"Me?! You're the one who hit it to me!" Johnny defended.
"Yeah you probably broke it with you hit it because it wasn't broken when I
hit it!" Enrique accused again.
"What?! That's bull! Cause it was broken when it hit my paddle!"
Johnny shouted, impatiently.
"Hey now guys, calm down, I don't think it really matters who broke it
cause, face it, it's broken. Just get a new one and start over again." I
compromised.
"That point is definitely mine though." Enrique said as he wandered
off.
"What?! Bull shit! I hit it last!" Johnny replied, still fuming.
"But it didn't hit my side!" Enrique yelled back as he went to get a
new ball.
I stopped Johnny from yelling again, "How about nobody gets the point? It's
not fair since it broke anyway." I suggested.
"That's not fair." Johnny glared at me.
"How is it not?" I asked.
"It should be my score!" Johnny objected again.
"No it shouldn't, you jackass!" Enrique growled as he walked back over
with a new ball.
"You guys, would you give it a rest?" I sighed.
"She's right you know, if it was an official match nobody would get the
point." Oliver intervened.
"See?" I looked back at Johnny who was glaring intently at Enrique.
Johnny snarled, "Peh, fine!" He walked back to his spot as I went
along back to my own. "Get ready for an ass-whoop Enrique, and be lucky
Juri plays fair even though we all know she likes me better." He grinned.
"Yeah right, just cause you took her out yesterday doesn't mean she liked
it!" Enrique defended.
"Can you just start the match already?" Oliver complained from the
sidelines.
"Yeah Enrique, hurry up!" Johnny irked him.
Enrique served extra-fiercely just for Johnny's irritating comments. And so it
began again, back and forth. There was no sign of it stopping any time soon
either.
I took Oliver's wrist and looked at his watch, "Ok, it's been 15 minutes
now ... Think somebody will score soon?"
"Ah who knows, at this rate we'll be sitting here all day." Oliver
sighed.
"What's the score anyway?" I looked at him.
"Who knows..." He called over to them, "Hey, what's the
score?"
"Nine to seven." Johnny called back, still concentrating on hitting
the ball.
"It's eight, moron!" Enrique growled as he hit the ball back.
"No it's not cause one more point for me is game!" Johnny quickly
corrected.
"You need two more points, stupid! Can't you do basic math?!" Enrique
began losing his cool, though it seemed he'd lost it a long time ago.
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