Author's Note: I finally own three, count 'em, three characters! I am so happy!
Ricky's grammatical errors are deliberate. Axi is pronounced acks-EE.
Disclaimer: I do not own Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, Loren, Elfangor, Aximili, Arbron, Tom, or either of the Esplins.
Claimer: I own Ricky! I own Amy! I own Eftlak 457! (Attempts to declare international holiday. Is heartlessly refused.)
Chapter Sixteen: Loren's POV"So where are we going to stay for the next week?" I asked. "We have to decide quickly."
"How about... where ever it is you're staying?" suggested Jake.
"No dice. I'm in and out of there constantly, I'd find us." I smiled inwardly at how ridiculous that sounded.
"We don't have the money to stay at a motel, either," Jake added. "And I don't think most of us could stay in the woods that long—at least, not safely."
Tom and Esp were discussing something privately. "Esp knows a place," Tom said suddenly. "The neighborhood's a bit nasty, but we've got a friend there—he'll let us stay at his place, and he doesn't ask questions." He smiled at our skeptical looks. "Seriously, he doesn't."
[Sounds ideal,] Elfangor commented. [How do know him?]
"He got recruited for The Sharing about a year ago—the Yeerk's one of my friends, his name is Eftlak 457. Ricky's a nice guy. He used to be a drug-obsessed alcoholic, but he quit after a few months. We can trust them both."
"Are you absolutely sure about that?" Jake asked. "I mean... like Elfangor said, it sounds ideal... almost a bit TO ideal."
"Chill, midget. If I say we can trust him, I'm sure. If I wasn't sure, I would say that we could PROBABLY trust him."
We followed Tom/Esp out the door, pausing so that Elfangor, Aximili and Tobias could go into their human morphs. We were led to the slums. Tom/Esp briefed us as we went. Ricky was fifteen and a decent guy, but he had a reputation. He often had at least one of his friends at his place, but they wouldn't care about us as long as we didn't steal their stuff. As most of said 'stuff' was either drugs or beer, there wasn't much danger of that.
"Ah, here we are," Tom announced. "The only house on the block to still have numbers." He pointed at the shack before of us. Barely visible were the numbers 4, 5, and 7. "A bit of a joke on Eftlak's part," Tom/Esp continued. "It doesn't matter, none of the other houses have numbers, no one cares."
"How come we haven't been mugged yet?" I asked.
"You, Alan and I are the only ones dressed well enough to look like we've got anything worth mugging. Alan's got muscles enough not to be bothered, I've been here before, so they know I'm dangerous, and you aren't exactly being subtle about that Dracon beam." Tom/Esp was right, as usual. I noticed suddenly that I'd had the Dracon beam part way out of my pocket, and my hand was going for it now and then.
Tom/Esp casually crossed the lawn and knocked politely on the door. It open almost immediately.
"I've told you three billion times, dude, the door is open," grumbled a guy I assumed was Ricky.
"I prefer to knock. So sue me."
"'F I had that kind o' money I'd blow this dump. Still, better than the streets... Come in, all o' you."
"What did we do, Rick Van Winkle, wake you up while you were sleeping something off?" Ricky gave Tom a death look, and gestured to us to come in.
He had not been exaggerating when he called it a dump. Everything looked ready to fall apart. The couch was collapsing, the coffee table, scarred and covered with cigarette burns, had chunks gouged out of it, and there were beer bottles everywhere. Tom/Esp frowned.
"I thought you quit," he said, gesturing towards the bottles.
"I did. Pete came by yesterday, these're his. I cleared up all the broken glass, though. Couldn't believe how much got crushed. Watch your step, I might've missed a bit."
I stared at him. "You have impeccably bad grammar," I couldn't help commenting. He grinned at me.
"Least I don't go for double negatives. Triple, sometimes, but not double."
"Hey, Rick, who're these people?" asked a childish voice. We all turned simultaneously towards a door. What was a little kid doing here?
She looked like a tiny, female version of Ricky. She was wearing clothes to big for her, obviously hand-me-downs. It was hard to tell, because her clothing was way to big for her, but she looked thin. Far too thin. Ricky was pretty thin, too, but his clothes fit a little bit better than hers did, so it wasn't as obvious. She looked to be about five years old.
Ricky sighed, moving to block something from view. "Amy, I told you not to come in this room 'till I'd got rid o' the broken glass."
"You did, you told them. And I'm NOT in that room. Hi, Tom."
"Hello, Amy." Tom's voice had hints of exasperation and affection in it. He evidently knew the girl. "This is my brother, Jake, or midget, his best friend, Marco, my cousin, Rachel, her best friend, Cassie, Rachel's boyfriend, Tobias, Tobias' mom, Loren, his dad, Elfangor, and Elfangor's brother, Aximili."
Amy giggled. "That's a funny name. Axi... Axi..." she frowned. "I can't say it."
"Call him Ax, then."
"I like Axi better."
"Then call me Axi," said Aximili indulgently. He seemed to be the only one unaware of how WRONG this was. No child should have to grow up in a place like this.
Tobias was, my consience reminded me. Amy seems happy enough.
She probably doesn't know any better, I argued.
"Thanks, Axi! I like you," Amy decided. The second comment seemed to be directed at all of us, at least partially. Ricky smiled.
"Okay, sis, you've said hi. Now go back to your room."
"WHY?" she whined.
"'Cause I've got a surprise for you and you aren't supposed to see it yet."
"Okay," she muttered sulkily. She left the doorway.
"It's Amy's birthday," Ricky explained quietly, once we heard a door shut. "I got her this." He turned to the box he had been hiding from her and extracted a white plush unicorn. "We always have a little celebration first. Not much, but some cake, and she chooses what we eat. Always burgers. This year's no different."
"That's probably a good thing," said Tom/Esp. "It's predictable, and otherwise you'd live off of pizza, Kraft Dinner and peanut butter sandwiches."
Ricky laughed. "True. You can join us, if you want."
"Actually, Ricky," said Tom/Esp, finally cutting to the chase, "we were hoping we could stay here for a week."
"No prob," said Ricky easily. "I'll go start the burgers. Let's see... that makes it... twelve. 'F anyone's a vegetarian, tell me now." Silence. "Oh, and Ax, Elfangor, 'f you two need to demorph..." he gestured around. "No windows, 'cept in Amy's room. Neither of us'll tell."
He went off to the room we later found out was both kitchen and dining room. We were all shocked. Marco broke the silence.
"When you said he wouldn't ask questions, I thought that you were exaggerating."
Tom/Esp appeared as shocked as the rest of us. "So did I."
Author's Note: What do you all think? I've got some ideas on what happens next—see if you can guess. Ideas would be appreciated, too.
(Hint: I 'named' Pete, but he's a minor character in the Animorphs stories. He becomes involved. Guess what role he plays in the books!)