Chapter 2
Almost an hour later Duo came looking for them and found them near the gym behind the house. But to his complete astonishment, they were playing around like little children and jumping rope. He walked closer to them and asked,
"What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Savannah retorted, turning one end of the rope while Lucy turned the other. Shiane was currently jumping and she sang out in time with the rope,
"Is Duo good enough to double-dutch with me? If he can, he needs the other rope." Shiane was grinning as she twisted with another jump.
Duo took the challenge and found another rope lying a few feet away from the girls. Shiane stopped as the rope she had been jumping went slack.
"Do you actually know how to double-dutch?" Shiane asked the older teen.
"A little." Duo replied honestly. "But how good are you?" he asked.
"Not amazing, but I can double-dutch pretty well. It's fun, even when we're this old." Shiane replied and then giggled. "Still wanna give it a try?" she asked Duo.
"You bet." He replied, handing the rope to Lucy and Savannah. He stepped back as they got the rope going and watched as Shiane waited for the right moment to jump in.
"Is Duo good enough to double-dutch with me?" Shiane began chanting. She twisted again with another jump as she waited for Duo to join her.
Duo was studying how the rope moved and then after a couple of minutes he joined in. Shiane giggled and jumped out gracefully. She watched as he took over in her place, but he didn't have the concentration to talk and jump at the same time yet.
But the four didn't notice that they were gathering an audience of the other teenagers while they continued their game.
Shiane jumped in again a few minutes later, beginning her chant, "Is Duo good enough to double-dutch with me?" then with an evil smile she added, "If so then let's beat up the speed."
Savannah and Lucy complied and sped up the ropes a tad. Duo compensated and jumped faster while Shiane still had enough breath to continue her chant. But five minutes later Duo lost it and missed, ending up tangling himself in the ropes along with Shiane.
Shiane sank to the ground laughing so hard there were tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Baka, what reduced you to join Shiane in her games?" Heero said with a touch of amusement in his voice.
The four ropers looked up and found the other teenagers walking towards them.
"She challenged me." Duo replied simply.
"Do you call asking if you were good enough to jump rope with me a challenge?" Shiane said with a mock-disgusted tone.
"Actually he would take almost anything as a challenge if you word it right." Quatre said with a smile.
Shiane untangled herself from the ropes, rose and then dumped them on Duo, further tangling him in them. Hilde walked over to him and helped him from the ropes then Savannah and Lucy gathered them and put them on the ground a few feet away.
Shiane turned to Duo and said, "Well it looks as if you couldn't keep up with me. But then I never really thought you could." She grinned at him evilly.
Duo gave her a mock-glare and replied, "Just give me time Mini-Une, just give me time."
"Mini-Une? What am I collecting nicknames?" Shiane said with a smile.
"Well, it fits." Duo said.
"That's true." Shiane agreed. "Well I can answer to it, if that's what you want." She grinned at him.
"Sure, whatever you want." Duo said coolly.
Shiane giggled and grinned at him.
Just then one of the numerous people on Shiane's grandma's staff popped out of the back door and yelled, "Dinner is about ready!"
"We'll be right there!" Savannah yelled back. Then she turned to the others. "I guess we better go in. Besides I bet your parents are about to call." She added to her best friend.
"You're probably right. Which means I better be there to answer it before they get even more angry than they already are." Shiane replied.
"How angry can they get?" Duo asked.
Shiane looked over at him and answered, "Well if I work on it, they can get angry enough to force the authorities to bring me home. That's only happened once, but I don't remember what it was all about. I think I had been drinking that night." She added as an afterthought.
Savannah raised an eyebrow and just stared at her friend. She smirked while the majority of the others also stared at the girl.
Shiane looked around at them and said, "So I have always been a bit too much rebellious with my family. Weren't any of you?" she asked, but then added, "No, don't answer that. It wasn't meant to be answered." She shook her head and pointedly looked at Savannah.
Lucy then suddenly spoke up, "I think I remember that time. It was what, two years ago? You and your parents had another fight so you went to the park. You stayed all day and then when it was nightfall your mom came looking for you. But you wouldn't go and openly rebelled about that." She flushed ever so slightly. She wasn't used to talking so much in front of a group of people, even with her best friends being there.
Shiane continued, "Yeah, I think I had also taken a bottle of their home made wine coolers, and drank the whole thing. It had more alcohol in it than a wine cooler usually does and the fact I was 14 helped it along. The next day I had one hell of a hangover. Since then I haven't had a drink of any kind. But anyway, since I still wouldn't come home and refused to even talk reasonably with my mom or my dad for that matter, I remember some of the local cops coming to the park. I ran away from them but in the end they caught me and dragged me home." She finished.
"She was also not a happy camper for about two weeks after that either." Savannah added.
"The good thing is that they didn't put that little incident on my record." Shiane added with a grin.
"Come on. The girl came out again." Duo said as he started walking towards the house.
"What? Are you hungry or something Duo?" Shiane teased.
During the month she had been back home, she recalled just about all the stories from her childhood. One of the details she remembered really well was that Duo Maxwell would do just about anything for food.
"You bet I am. I haven't had anything since lunch." He replied.
"Then I guess we better eat." Shiane smirked evilly at him.
TBC
Notes: I know this was short, but the next part needs to be all together.
