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-Sienna :)

Chapter Four: Freddy in the Morning

I wake up at about five thirty in the morning, just like I knew I would. It's still dark, but the sky is a little lighter in the east, and the snow has stopped. My jeans are a little wet on the sides but other than that I'm pretty comfortable.

Katie looks completely asleep. I feel bad about waking her up, so I let her snooze while I think things out in my mind.

We got here around two, so two to five thirty, that's three and a half hours of sleep. Not nearly enough. But this is the best time to move, because in a few hours our parents will wake up and realize we're not there, and in a few more hours Katie's parents will be going insane and calling everyone to see if they know where she is…should she have left a note? I'm sure they'll figure it out…besides, can't go back now.

My stomach grumbles. Damn, I forgot about breakfast. Okay, so add a trip to a 24-hour convenience store to this morning's agenda.

How many miles is it into town? Half a mile from here to school, maybe just one mile into town…still, we need to get moving. Soon the road will be busy and the cars will have people in them to see us, soon we'll be forced into the snow and leaving tracks.

Wow, I've never thought anything out like this before. Maybe I should become a con artist or something, someone who's sneaky for a living. It could work.

I wriggle out of my tire and stand up, my back cracking. Definitely need a place to stretch out tonight.

"Kaaaatie," I say, shaking her shoulder. "Katie Brown…Posh Spice…world's most incredible bassist…wake up, Katie."

"Ummph," she mumbles.

"I know it's early—come on, up."

She opens her eyes, squinting at first, then wider as she realizes there's hardly any light to squint at. "What time is it?"

"About five thirty. In the morning."

"Too damn early," she says, groaning. "Can't we sleep until noon or something?"

I shake my head. "No, we have to get moving…now…." Seeing this isn't going anywhere, I throw her backpack aside, then reach under her arms and heave her out. Stumbling, rubbing her eyes, she stands up.

"Okay…(yawn) I'm up…."

"Ick," I say, still standing close to her in between the two tires. "Morning breath."

She closes her mouth quickly. "Sorry."

"S'okay, mine's probably worse. I didn't brush my teeth last night."

"Ew. Dirtball."

"I know, I know."

We walk across the field again. I look for traces of our footprints, but they're completely gone. That's good, maybe that means the ones leading away from our houses are gone too. It would really suck if we got caught on the first day of this. I tell Katie so.

"Who's going to catch us?" she asks.

"Parents. Police. Concerned citizens," I say.

"Oh."

"What time do your parents wake up?"

"Around seven," Katie says. "Meredith can't sleep later than that."

I nod. "Okay, so we've got an hour and a half until your little sister wakes up your parents. Think they'll notice you're gone right away?"

"Not right away…depends on how soon they need me. Probably not until seven-thirty or eightish."

"That gives us about two hours," I say.

"Two hours to get to a better hiding place?"

"Exactly. We have to get far enough away, so when they start looking they won't find us."

"Sounds good, Freddy," she says, hiking up her backpack. We're walking on the road now, extra careful about cars, but it is the day after Christmas—not like anyone's going to work or anything. "What about food?"

"You hungry? I've got chips."

"No, I mean real food. Like hamburgers and stuff."

"We'll have to buy it, I guess."

"We've got a hundred and ninety dollars," says Katie. "It's December 26th, school starts again January 6th, so that's ten days to be runaways."

"Wait," I say, "I only brought enough underwear for a week."

She wrinkles her nose. "I'm just figuring it out, okay? If we spend twenty dollars a day on food, we'll have fifty dollars left for…whatever. Laundromat money."

I whistle. "Sounds like a lot."

"I hope so…. Hello, Horace Green."

We walk past the turn for our school. I glare at it.

"And on our left, ladies and gentlemen, we have the actual hell on earth, established in 1938," I say in my best tour-guide voice.

"It's not that bad," Katie says, "not the best place in the world, but I mean, it's not like they beat us or something."

"If we were British, we could be the kids in The Wall," I say. She looks at me.

"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?" we both screech, laughing hard and scaring a couple of crows.

"I should trick Ms. Mullins into saying that," I say. "It would be priceless."

"It would," she agrees. "Car!"

Scrambling over the plow bank. we lie on our bellies on the other side until the headlights pass us by. It's getting lighter, but still pretty dim.

"We don't need no education…" Katie whispers.

"We don't need no thought control…" I hum back. We get up and start back on the road.

"No dark sarcasm in the classrooms…."

"Hey, I like sarcasm."

"Shut up, you're messing up the song."

"Sorry. Teacher leave them kids alone…"

"Hey!"

"Teacher!"

"Leave them kids alone!"

I draw in breath for the dramatic, famous last line. "All and all you're just another brick in the wall."

"Beautiful."

"I know I am."

Katie laughs and I grin. "This is more fun than my X-box."

"I'm flattered that you find me more entertaining than video games, Fredward."

You're more entertaining than anything, I think, but all I say is, "Yep."

The road seems to widen, but really it's just the trees on either side thinning out and fading away. I check my watch—six o'clock—and we're almost inside the town. Where are we going to hide the day?

"Where are we going to hide?" I ask, hoping it doesn't make me seem like I don't know what I'm doing.

"You don't have somewhere in mind?"

"I've never gone this far. I know I've been in charge ("hah," breathes Katie), but now I, uh, need your help."

"You always have my help," she says. "Maybe we can crawl under someone's deck or something."

I almost laugh, but I'm not sure if she's serious or not. Then again, was sleeping on an old playground that much better? And under a deck would be near a house, which might mean warm—jeez, I've got to stop thinking like this. I'm getting too logical.

"Hey, is that a building up there?" Katie says, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I think so."

Her eyes light up. "It's a 7-Eleven! We're saved!"

"Were we starving?"

She doesn't answer. You would think she hadn't eaten in days.