Summary:
Typical Drake & Josh storyline. Drake and Josh plan to go to a concert where a famous singer will be, but get sidetracked when a mysterious box addressed to Walter shows up and Meghan's pranks take over. Drake also must deal with an annoying girl (who says everything with a "w") from his class, that also shows signs she has a crush on him. When he & Josh go to the concert, something terrible happens.
Disclaimer:
If you think I own anything, go to the nearest psychiatrist. Please. As a service to all humanity.
Note to Readers:
ROFL, I CAN'T BELIEVE THE RESPONSE TO THE LAST THREE CHAPTERS! LOL! For those of you who haven't read that last chapter, read it. Believe, me it is a very er… relieving chapter. But anyway, as to this chapter, drum roll please! The moment that you have all been waiting for has arrived—the opening of the dreaded CRATE! BWHAHAHA! Who's ready fo' dis, foshizzle? I have no idea if this chapter even makes ANY sense what so ever, so keep in mind that for the most part this was compiled between three to six am during the course of a few nights. I probably would have had this up a little sooner, but guess what? My sucky Bellsouth "Fast Access" DSL modem quit working yesterday for some freaking reason and it took me a zillion years to get it to work. By the way, Bellsouth's Help and Support call station completely sucks, too. I finally gave up on talking to the woman on there yesterday and fixed it myself. "Unplug the DSL router cable and plug in the USB cable from the modem's light port… blah blah… type in a thousand numbers for no reason… blah, blah." I mean, come ON! I've been using the computer for 3+ years and I didn't even know what she was talking about, so how would a less computer-ized person have any idea! Gimme a friggin break! LOL! Annnnnyway, here's chapter number seventeen comin' your way!
Story: "Party in a Box"
Chapter: "Within the Box"; Seventeen
Written By: Ginger
Extras:
Italics in "quotation marks" symbolize thoughts of
Drake's.
Italic Bold paragraphs are flashbacks.
Italic, Bold, and Underlined "he's refer to the mysterious man.
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All three of the teenagers had rested for a little while after Drake hung up with his mother, but sitting on the couches and chairs in the living room. Josh and Anita both knew that Drake was alright from his bump on the head, but they in turn, also knew that he had had quiet a frightening experience in the dream he had dreamt, too, so they wanted to make sure he was emotionally as well as psychically feeling fully re-strengthened before even attempting to open the surprise-filled box.
"Brr… I'm kind of cold! Am I catching a fever or is it really freezing in here?" Drake asked, raising a hand to his brow. "I'm cold too!" Anita agreed, scooting over to him and reaching up to feel his brow: "I don't think you have a fever… though if I have one too, I could be mistaken." "No, both of you are right-- it's pretty darn cold in this house!" Josh stopped them, crossing his arms in an attempt to warm himself.
Standing up and walking across the room, Drake crossed his arms as well and shuddered, glaring back toward Josh: "If that Meghan has screwed with the thermostat for the heater again, I'm going to drag her out of that cozy bed of her's by the hair and then I'm going to--holy snot!" he stopped when he reached the heating and air conditioning controls located on the wall. "What?" Josh and Anita asked simultaneously as they turned around on the couch to look at him. "It's sixty two degrees in here!" "What the--!" Josh managed, jumping up and hurrying over to his brother's side: "How did THAT happen?" "I have no idea!" his brother replied, shrugging with an annoyed, cold look on his face: "But the heat won't come on and it must be forty outside!" "I know! On all the nights for the heat to go out, fate happens to choose the coldest night of September!" Josh exclaimed with a roll of the eyes.
"Why don't we go in to the laundry room and check the heating unit? Maybe something's the matter with the box itself." Anita asked, standing, too, and heading toward the garage hall. "Best idea I've heard so far." Josh nodded, pulling his brother with him across the width of the floor, through the hall way and in to the laundry room, as Nita tagged along not far behind them.
Once Drake looked around, he finally found the unit's box on the wall behind the door and he pulled the metal latch to release the small steel cover, so he could look in to the mass of wires and electrical lines. After a minute of nothing but the sound of his hand digging about carefully in the box, Anita leaned in and stood of her tip toes, trying to peer above his head: "…Well?" "Yeah, Drake-- what's the matter with it?" Josh prodded his step brother on. With a deeply agitated sigh, Drake pulled himself back from the box and looked around from the edge of the metal flap and holding up a screw driver: "Does this answer your question?" "Wha--!" both of them managed to utter, under their breaths. "Meghan?" Anita proposed, widening her eyes and looking at the two brothers with one bent brow. In turn they look at each other and narrowed their eyes in hatred, turning back to the girl: "Meghan!" "Good grief, she is a little demon child, isn't she?" Anita replied with a shake of the head. "Word." nodded Josh, with big eyes. This excited a giggle from the girl and then she sighed, turning to the other boy: "Oh, Drake, what'll we do now? We can't just freeze to death in here!" "Well, I don't know what else to do except light a fire in the fireplace. Either that or living with blistering cold all night." he answered, looking up wearily at the ceiling as if he were glaring at Meghan.
Anita, at the request of her two hosts, waited in the living room on the couch while they returned to the chilly garage to get firewood from a plentiful stack they'd built up last spring. It wasn't long before they both returned with wood stacked high in their arms and as soon as they had it in the grate of the hearth, they turned on the gas and set it a flame. The flames themselves were rather hypnotizing to the slightly tired and rather cold trio, as the gas turned hotter and the logs exploded in to blue and gold tongues of fire. "Wow. It's been so long since I've seen a nice fire like that. A whole year! It's beautiful, really, to watch." the girl remarked, gazing at it in a slight trance-ish way. "I know. And it's nice and warm, too." Drake smiled back at her, with a sweet grin. "So HA! to crazy Megs' schemes because since we are resourceful, we are now toasty warm." Josh laughed toward the stairs in a haughty cackle. "Well, Josh, not exactly… toasty… more like almost warm… barely?" Drake commented, shivering and hurrying toward the couch where Anita sat.
"Well, yeah… I guess you're right." his brother nodded, walking over to the chair beside the sofa and sitting down: "But, hey-- when we all get warmed up a little, shall we go back out and open the crate? I'll watch out for any flying garage door opener face plates!" "Yes, we'll definitely do that as soon as we warm up well enough." Drake sighed, with a twinge of a soft chuckle in his voice.
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So that's exactly what they did. They warmed up in front of the glowing hearth and after maybe thirty minutes of trying to get "toasty" and talking about what a day they'd had, Anita shrugged on her sweater and the trio headed once again to the garage, their mission being to finally open the mysterious box that had had been bothering the two boys for a near three weeks.
Josh went carefully through the door first, making sure for his step brother that there were no more real dangers in store for him. And-- of course, when their came no flying objects, Drake and Anita sighed a deeply relieved sigh and stepped in side the door way.
"I'm so excited that I'm almost scared." Josh remarked with an evident look of glowing anticipation on his face, as Drake walked slowly around to the back of the crate and began to nudge the very heavy package in to the center of the room. Seeing that his brother certainly couldn't handle the large box by himself, Josh leaned in to the side and helped pull it across the floor. Once it was in the middle of the concrete, the two boys stood back and crossed their arms, looking at it for a moment, in silence.
"Well…" Drake's matter of factly voice finally broke the dead quietness, as he reached up and grabbed and long, silvery steel crow bar from the top shelf on the wall: "I guess this is the end of the line. No more wondering and worrying after such a long time." With this comment, he stepped forward, Anita and Josh stepped back a bit and he gripped the metal bar between his hands.
Raising it up to the edge of the wooden object, he slid the pointed end in to a crack and motioned with a nod of the head toward Josh, to come and help him a bit. Josh stepped over to him, leaving the teen girl watching in marvel by herself in the corner of the room, as he and Drake both grabbed the end of the crow bar that was up in the air and began to jam it with all of their body's force in to the small crack, making it bigger and bigger, until the crate began to split apart at the edges.
Both of the boys wanted to stop and stare in dramatic awe before ripping the wooden box open by it's corners, but neither were willing to quit so easily. Instead of staring at it with their mouths open in a gape, they continued throwing themselves in to the shiny gray bar, until the walls of the package crumbled in toward the middle and the wood groaned with a distinctive splitting noise.
Standing back for a moment, they tried to catch their breath before finally lifting the broken pieces of timber to reveal the long awaited secret of what the box held. "Boy… who ever it was who sent it, they sure bought strong plywood." Drake joked a little, trying to relieve the severe tension and suspense that everyone could feel in the air, as he whisked his slightly damp hair from his eyes.
With a bit of another silent spell of apprehension beginning to fall over the three teens, the handsome boy reached out toward Anita, talking her hand with a kind smile and leading her beside him, toward his brother and the box, a few steps away.
Drake bent down on his knees and with only a split second of hesitation, his finger darted out and quickly gripped the largest cracked piece of wood, flipping it out of the way. They all stared in amazement and shock and finally he spoke: "…I can't believe this." He swiftly started to push other smaller splinters of wood away, revealing a whole load of strange items. "Drake… what-- what is all of that?" Anita murmured, at last, as she bent to lean a little over his shoulder to watch. "It's… all sorts of stuff from when I was a little kid! Look! My first baseball bat, my trophy from the music contest I won at the fair when I was eight, my old notebooks. It's all here!" "But," Josh began slowly, gazing down at the pile of items spilling from the beaten crate: "I don't understand!" "Me neither. Drake, where did this all come from? What does it mean?" Anita nodded, wanting very badly an explanation. "Well, I really don't know either!" he shrugged, looking up for a moment at the two sitting near him: "The last I've ever seen of any of these things, was when--" suddenly he stopped. Josh didn't know exactly why, but he did know that his brother had the same expression on his face as he did the day in the hospital when they had been discussing the first mention of him.
"Where?" Anita replied, not yet understanding that what Drake had began to say must remain unsaid. "It's--just been a long time since I've seen it all. It was very nice of who ever sent this to return this junk to me." he said, becoming noticeably quieter and looking down, toward the box. His friends didn't really further the subject and certainly knew better than to harass him for answers, so they left it at that. But Anita couldn't help but feel the sudden distance and coldness he showed toward her. She wondered why he had begun acting so aloof, but this too; she said nothing about.
After a little while longer of rummaging through the over-crowded remains of the crate, the three became cold and they started back inside, returning eagerly to their places in front of the now cozily warm fire place.
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As four and five o' clock slowly passed, the teenage girl felt the inaccessibleness between herself and the brown eyed boy grow manifest even more so. To the point where he began to wonder if she had angered him or hurt his feelings in some way that she hadn't noticed. He hardly seemed the same guy that had hugged her so sweetly only hours ago. But she tried to brush this feeling aside and become cheerful anyway, hiding her truly worried interior.
Drake, whom had been mostly quiet for the remnant of those two hours, spoke up after a silent period and asked if any one happened to be as hungry as he was. To that, Josh replied that no one could be as hungry as he is, but yes, he too was a bit hungry, himself. Anita grinned at his joke and then turned to look at Drake as he stood up and walked a step across the floor, toward the kitchen: "I'm hungry too." He looked at her for a moment with a deep stare, obviously not about what she had just said, but then caught himself and looked away, beginning to walk again: "I'm gonn'a go make some popcorn."
These actions left the teenage girl with a sinking feeling in her middle and a head nearly spinning out of wonder about why he was acting so.
After managing to sweep back her emotions from her face, she turned the slightest bit to look at his brother, who was sitting on the warm hearth, stroking the bright fire with a metal rod. "…Hey, Josh?" "Hum?" she murmured, glancing up with the first smile Nita had seen in almost two hours. "Am I just going crazy… or is--does Drake seem a little--" The black haired teenage boy grinned back, interrupting her and finishing her sentence as well: "Freaked out?" "Exactly!" she nodded, her brows knitting together. "Yep, he does. I guess it's just the stress of the day finally working its own way through his mind, but he does. And he seems even more so in the past maybe… two hours?" "Yes! That's what I was thinking. Well, actually, I was rather a little worried I might have made him upset in some way about something when we were in the garage. Truthfully, Josh, from your perspective, did I?" she asked back, in all honesty. "In my opinion, not at all. But then again, I'm not Drake so I don't know. He has so many secrets lately that it's getting hard not to step through a mental 'hole' of his with out meaning to." the boy sighed, poking the flaming logs in the grate, forcefully, trying to let out a bit of his frustration over the matter.
Anita sighed too, and was about to add another opinion of her's to the conversation, but caught herself before speaking as she spotted Drake pushing the swinging door open with his elbow as he hurried back to the table and chairs in the middle of the room, with a large bowl of pop corn and assorted sodas.
Josh, Nita and Drake sat, passing the popcorn and eating until they could eat no more, and Anita was glad when she could start to overcome her guilt of making Drake 'upset', though he still had the distant demeanor. Oh, but of course he wasn't being overly rude or even mean at all! But it was his very un-affectionate, un-boyfriend/girlfriend signal that he was sending out that made Anita shrink back from him in a bit of anxiety. She'd never really experienced this side of Drake before and she hardly even knew that it existed. For he was usually so laughing and loud, but now he was so nonchalant and quiet, that she barely knew how to handle herself around him.
Drake and Josh had started up an argument about the remote and although it was somewhat humorous, Anita didn't feel at all like laughing or even smiling, for that matter. It was now when she started to think, that she realized how literally worn out she was. Her Lyn-wounded shoulder was stinging a little now and she was really a little cold. Not to mention her extreme tiredness. It in itself was almost to the point where she could have fallen asleep on the couch even through the semi-loud fight between the two step brothers.
Finally, the fight ended by Anita's suggestion that the tv remain off and neither of them having the remote, and they both sat down once again to the comfy chairs and the blazing flames in the hearth.
"Hey, guys," Josh began, staring at the ceiling. "…Wha?" both of the other teens muttered wearily in reply to him. "Do either of you know what time it is? 'Cause I feel so… freaking sleepy." he continued, with a paused and a deep yawn. Anita sighed and looked down at her watch, waiting a moment for her sleepy eyes to clear so she could see where the hands of the clock were. "It's, um… six oh five right now." she replied, with a yawn of her own. "Well, that does it. I guess we really made it through the night with out being murdered by 'psycho'." Drake mumbled in a tired voice, almost making fun of himself. "Well, I'm pretty glad of that." Josh nodded, leaning back in to the chair and closing his eyes.
Suddenly something hit him in the face and he snapped his head up, looking around to see his brother standing up beside his chair with a sly but tired grin across his face as a pillow feel to the floor. "What!" Josh exclaimed, looking irritatedly up at Drake. "Get up and look out the window with me before you fall asleep down here." he replied, pulling Josh up from the chair. "Why can't I fall asleep down here? What's that matter with that?" he retorted. "Remember when Meghan tied you to the couch with the garden hose when you fell asleep there last time?" "And that is the mattah with that!" Josh nodded, suddenly seeming awake as he stood up and walked toward the bay window with his teen brother, behind the couch.
When Drake and Josh reached the window and pulled back the crimson colored curtains, they were surprised to see light blue - amethyst light pour in from behind them. Once they looked out toward the skyline, they sighed in tired awe. The sky was hazed over with almost paper thin, transparent peach and plum shaded clouds and the sun was rising up in the very midst of them, in a blood red, fiery ball, much darker than the flames in the grate of the fire place.
"What a sunrise, huh?" Josh grinned, looking at his brother and then back up at the wondrous view. "Maybe it's a sign." Drake murmured almost under his breath. It took Josh a moment to comprehend what his brother was saying, but finally he understood that perhaps such a beautiful sunrise meant the end of the dark situation they'd been through lately.
After a few minutes more of watching the intensely stunning dawn twist in to many other pretty colors, they both sighed and reluctantly left the window to return to where Nita sat. But strangely enough, the room behind them had become totally silent. They turned with a bit of uneasiness at the unnatural quiet and stepped a few steps before coming to the edge of the couch.
But within an instant, the slightly fearful faces of the brothers changed to grinning smiles. Looking down at the couch, both of them took in the sight of Anita curled up gently, on her side, peacefully asleep. "Well, at least somebody isn't tired anymore." Josh chuckled as his brother walked over to the chair to pick up a warm, heavy throw blanket and returned to lay it over to sleeping girl. Looking at her for a minute with a troubled look, it eventually melted away in to a little smile and Drake bent down a little to give her a soft peck on the forehead before turning to stand. Josh grinned and patted his step brother on the back after feeling a weight lift from his heart: "That's more like yourself."
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Anita had woken around eight and found the two boys in the kitchen, slurping up cups of coffee and trying with their best efforts to keep themselves awake. She laughed with them about herself and her little nap and then apologized for making them wait up for her. They insisted that it was really no problem until she seemed convinced enough and then they offered her a cup of coffee. She took it gladly, explaining that though she had gotten some sleep, that she was still sleepy and that she needed as much help as she could come by on getting home safely. Josh offered to drive her home after Drake stayed awkwardly silent, but Nita declined the offer and replied that Josh wasn't in any condition to drive, himself. With a smile and a few 'thank you's for the protection last night, she bid them goodbye and left after a little while. Still, though, as she got in to her cold automobile, she couldn't shake off the feeling of coldness between her and Drake.
Drake and Josh cleaned up the popcorn and the empty soda cans from the table downstairs and managed to return to the freezing cold garage and push the demolished box over in the corner and replace the blue tarp over it, before weakly turning off all the few lights downstairs and heading up the staircase to their room, where they hoped they could rest for a few hours before having to tend to Meghan again.
"I'm sooooo tired…" Drake moaned, falling in to the pillows on his bed and only bothering to kick off his shoes before twirling in to the warm comforter. "Dude, we're gonn'a be so, so dead tomorrow when Mom and Dad come back home." Josh muttered, throwing his jacket and shoes in to a folding chair in the corner of their room. "Mmmmhmmm…" Drake answered, being much too lazy and tired to speak real words.
The room became quiet as Josh climbed in to his own bed and didn't hesitate to fall immediately to sleep. But though Drake was utterly psychically demolished, his mind wouldn't seem to go to sleep. He just tossed mercilessly in the tangled bed covers as thoughts flooded his tired mind. There were all kind of things flying through his head-- the contents of the crate, the disturbing dream of his own death that he'd dreamt earlier, the strange and unsettling peace of the previous night after such threatening calls and his own great uncle's murder. But one thing seemed to come back over and over. Anita. Drake hadn't really realized how infatuated he'd become with her until last night. But unfortunately, he hadn't seemed to realize what he was doing by letting himself feel this way about her.
He'd been over it and over it in his mind-- how he would never get too serious about one girl. And especially not after the now possible danger of his threats. But what if he had let himself slip? Had he? He wasn't sure. Or was he? Such a mess he'd caused! How did he manage to muck everything up so bad? These questions where all he could think about, and sleeping wasn't one of them.
"Drake… if you let her slip in to your affections, even for a moment, she's going to end up getting hurt bad. And all because of you! You can't let that happen. He's crazy enough to even kill her-- think of Gavin! And anyway, remember what happened the last time you let somebody in to that heart of yours? It got broken. No-- it got blown in to oblivion, not even broken. Why are you bent on causing destruction in you're and every one else's lives?"
Something in his young head kept repeating those types of things over and over. He was fighting it hard-- after all, he wanted to love her very much. She was beautiful, smart and everything! But second after second, the words whispering through his brain seemed to make more sense… they seemed to yield even deeper, truer meaning all the time. What a battle it was. Moaning in to his pillow out of tired dread and turning over on to his stomach in his bed, he took a hand full of his brunette hair in to his hand and laid his head down in to the soft bedding.
"Listen, Drake, don't fight this. By letting yourself get attached to her, you're just hurting everybody. She'll hate you if you show affection to her and then you suddenly become preoccupied with this. This mess is taking over your life and if you don't let her go, she'll be miserable. She's a hot girl; she'll be able to find somebody who can really take care of her, easily. You think you took care of her tonight and 'protected' her, but all you did was sit around eating chips and popcorn and staring in to space. If any body was 'saving' her, it had been Josh. He is the only one with a kind heart, Drake Parker, not you. You're just a selfish, lazy, stupid teenage boy. With or without her, you have nothing. You're not cute, you're not smart, and you don't even really have any musical talent. Who even knows why on earth crazy Lyn wants you so bad, maybe it's because you're crazy too."
Drake didn't know what to believe, but he knew one thing—that he was going to have to go through a lot more before this was all over. This thought made him cringe inside and snap his eyes tightly shut, out of tired desperation. "Life isn't completely over, yet… I may be confused now, but when I wake up next, surely it will be different. My mind will be clear and I won't be feeling so rotten." So trying to blank out his thoughts completely, he finally surrendered control of his consciousness and fell not so peacefully to sleep, hoping against hope that when he awoke he wouldn't feel quite so dark and hopeless.
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Alas, it was not different when his burning eyes blinked open and he saw Josh hunching over him. With a shake of his head, he tried to find out what was going on. Josh was on all fours, leaning directly over him on his bed, shaking him and bouncing the mattress up and down, frantically. Drake raised an eyebrow and leaned back as far as he could in to his pillow, away from his brother's face: "…What the--!" "Wake up!" Josh shrieked, almost making his step brother's ear drums explode. "I—AM AWAKE!" Drake exclaimed, with a dramatic pop of his eyes. "But—" "Josh," Drake began, blinking his eyes slowly, in sarcasm and interrupting his brother: "…Just get off of me." "But Drake, Megha—" "Off, Josh." He growled, glaring fiercely and raising a hand in a claw shape behind him. "Okay! Okay!" Josh squealed, crawling over Drake's knees and jumping from the ledge of the bed, to the floor below.
"Now… what the heck are you yappin' about?" Drake muttered, running a hand through his tousled brunette locks and squinting his deep brown, stinging eyes as he sat up, causing the soft comforter to draw around his waist in a heap. "I was 'yhappern' about Meghan! SHE'S GONE! …GONE!" Josh yelled in a deeply disturbed voice. "Ha, ha, man—very funny. It is to laugh…" Drake groaned, rolling his eyes and massaging his temples as he began to wake up. "Drake, I swear, she's gone! She's just not in the house anywhere!" Josh replied in a serious but frenzied tone, looking up at his brother in desperate earnestness. "Wait… you mean, seriously?" he asked, looking over and frowning a little as he blinked those chocolate pupils and stood up on the ledge, leaning down to grab a bottle of soda from shelf. "Yeah! Seriously she's gone!" Josh exclaimed, in a frazzled manner. "Dude, don't spaz about it so bad!" Drake said, climbing down two rungs of bed's ladder and then jumping down the rest of the way down: "She is probably just hiding to freak you out. Did you even look around?" "Of course I did! Um, duh, Drake! I mean… come on!" Josh said quickly, with a weak laugh before he turned around to walk toward their door. "Goin' to look for her?" Drake asked in a monotone yell. "…Maybe." Josh exclaimed, disappearing down the stairs.
With a sigh, Drake walked sleepily to he and his brother's closet. He was still dressed in the clothes he had worn all day yesterday and now that he had slept in them, they were wrinkled and a bit too warm. Reaching in to the neat closet, he grabbed out one of his favorite tee shirts and another pair of dark, distressed blue jeans. He decided that he ought to hurry and jump in the shower, now, because for the rest of the day he might be busy chasing down Meghan. After all, if he hurried, it would only take maybe five minutes.
He hurried to the door of their bathroom and opened it up, walking inside and after turning on the water and ridding himself of the slightly itchy clothes, he stepped under the warm water and closed the curtain as the steam rose from the fiberglass floor of the bath tub.
A few minutes later when he was massaging the soapy lather of shampoo through his brown hair, he heard Josh clunk up the stairs and through their door. All was quiet for a moment except for the sounds of the water running and Josh's panting breath. But then Drake heard his brother step through the bathroom door and exclaim toward the shower curtain: "You're TAKING A SHOWER?" "…Yes?" Drake said with a raise of his eyebrow as he spoke toward the ceiling and began to rinse out all of the thick shampoo. "But I can't find Meghan, Drake! You're supposed to be helping me take care of her and yet you're not even lifting a single finger to help me!" the other boy said in a heavy breath filled voice. Drake rolled his eyes and reached out, holding his pointer finger out side of the shower curtain. "There--I lifted a finger, happy!" "No!" Josh exclaimed, frowning and shoving Drake's finger back inside the shower.
"Look, if you would just get out of my bath room, I could get out and get dressed, and then help you!" the paranoid boy's brother said loudly. "It's 'our' bathroom." "Okay, fine! If you want me to get out while you're still in the room, I will!" Drake exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing the shower curtain as if to rip it open. "NOO! AH!" Josh yelped, and Drake heard him scurry out of the room and close the door behind him. With a sly smile, Drake chuckled at his own brilliance and shook his head as he got out of the shower and quickly dressed in his fresh clothes.
He shook most of the water from his damp mane of brunette locks and then combed it, deciding that he had better let it dry partially by itself, because Josh more than likely would run out of patience before he could have time to finish blow drying it. As he leaned down and grabbed his dirty clothes that he had taken off, he could hear Josh's voice screaming loudly downstairs. He quickly opened the door and stuck his head out, listening. "MEGHAN, I swear if you jump out and attack me with something, you will feel the wrath of JOSH!" Drake chuckled and rushed out of the bathroom and threw his clothes in to the laundry hamper before running downstairs to meet up with the apparently very worried brother, downstairs.
"Josh--" Drake started, but knew his brother couldn't hear him over his own screaming. "JOSH." Still the dark haired boy didn't turn around and continued to shout out to his invisible sister. "YO, BOOB!" the shout came from behind him. Josh turned around to stare in disturbed silence at his brother. "…Did you just say that?" Josh asked, raising his brows slowly. Drake stared in though for a minute and then exclaimed: "…Yeah!" with childish amusement written on his face. Josh shuddered visibly and shook his head in a bothered grimace. The other brother shrugged and walked past him, out toward the garage hall: "I'm looking in the garage." "Wait!" Josh gasped, running and standing in front of him, grabbing his shoulders with a frightened face: "Do you think the car is still there!" "…Josh." "No! Really! What if she got the car and drove it off and she's gonn'a come back later and lock us up in the closet in the garage with all the spiders and ants and then she--" "JOSH!" "AND THEN… THEN what if she like lets us fall asleep and stabs--" "Josh!" Drake yelled, but his brother continued to shriek on. "SHE'S COMING BACK! SHE'S COMING BACK FOR OUR PATHETIC, DEFENSELESS SOULS! SAVE ME! HIDE ME! DRAKE, SHE'S COMI--"
Suddenly with a loud "POP", something smacked Josh's face and it began to sting. Opening his eyes and widening them, he looked at Drake, who still had his hand in mid air. "…Thank you." he murmured, beginning to take in deep breaths.
"Come on and lets see if she's in the garage." Drake said, grabbing his brother's wrist with a roll of the eyes and dragging his down the hall. "But hopefully this time she'll be alone… no more sheep…" Josh shuddered again, closing his eyes for a minute before his brother yanked the door open, calling out: "Meghan?"
But when they both stepped inside and looked around, there was no one in sight and no one answered his call. "Man… not even a sheep!" Josh whined in an upset voice. "Did you look in the laundry room?" asked Drake, biting his lip and turning to the other boy. "Yeah! Laundry, living room, kitchen, her room, our room, Mom and Dad's room and bathroom, and even the office upstairs." Josh said, in a defeated tone. "Man… either she's found an amazing hiding spot or she's not in the house. I'm going to check over the house again really quick instead you missed something-- you go out and check in the back yard, okay?" Drake said, stepping toward the door, again. "Sure. Dude, I hope we find her!" Josh exclaimed, pressing the 'open' button on the garage door and stooping to slide under it when it got high enough.
Drake hurried alone through the hall and through the living room. After checking in the hall closet and running in to the kitchen, he scanned it, but left almost as quickly as he'd come, realizing that there was no place to hide in this room. He rushed from room to room and then headed up the flight of stairs to check the second level of the house. Yet, still she wasn't anywhere to be found. Reaching his own room, he strode to the window and opened it, leaning out and looking around below for Josh.
He must have been looking only in the side yard, because within mere seconds he appeared below Drake. "Josh!" Drake shouted. He looked up and replied with a: "Did you find her?" "No, but I guess that means she's not with you, either, huh?" came the answer. "Yeah." Josh returned, wearing a highly angsty face. "Meet me in the living room okay?" Drake yelled down. "Of course!" Josh nodded, watching his slim brother slide back through the opening and shut the window tight.
Within only about twenty or thirty seconds, the two were together again, in the living room.
"Drake, what the heck are we gonn'a do? Meghan is lost! …LOST!" Josh gasped, pacing back and forth. "I can't understand it! We were only asleep like three and a half hours! What could have happened to her in three freaking hours!" Drake replied loudly, motioning with his hand as he too began to pace the floor, but in the opposite direction. "I don't understand either!" Josh sighed nervously. "Wait… oh no… what if--" Drake didn't ever finish his scary sentence because when he looked up at his brother (who had stopped pacing as well), he knew that he knew also what he had begun to say.
"Oh--no! Drake if he has her, he'll--" "He can't! Can he? I mean, he couldn't have kidnapped her or anything! We were right in the next room!" Drake said, frantically trying to get the horrific idea out of both of their heads. "And not to sound dreadful, but if he had happened to be able to find his way in to the house, why would he bother with Meghan? Wouldn't he have just gone after you, instead?" Josh replied, also trying to strike this terrible possibility off of the list. "Maybe, but Josh-- he's crazier than even I understand. And I knew him… I mean, well, he could do anything-- I would hardly put anything past him." Drake said in a slow, dead serious voice, stumbling over only a few words in the middle of his sentence.
"What'll we do! Should we call the police?" the other boy said in a frightened way. "No, not yet! I mean-- if they find out about him, then we'll ALL be in trouble. Serious trouble. He might even kill her… and all of us, including Nita. And Mom and Dad wouldn't even be home to save us. Even if he left us alive, there would be nobody to call the police." Drake gasped, grabbing Josh before he could walk toward the telephone sitting on the table. "Then what now?" Josh pleaded. "…Mom. I hate to have to call her. And… and I don't have any idea what I'm going to tell her. It's all so complicated… it's become a tangled mass of events over a number of years." "Pray, brother. And tell her. You have to. This is our sister's life we're talking about here." Josh said, deep meaning and truth laced through out his words. "Okay, man." the other boy sighed, picking up the phone and slowly dialing the well known number in dread.
Every ring made his middle knot tighter, and tighter, and tighter. Finally a voice answered, but he had no time to answer back after his Mother had said "Hello?" The things that occurred in the next few seconds left the brothers almost dizzy and shocked at the same time.
A door slammed behind them and at their turning to see what had caused it, they both gasped in their deepest breaths and Drake slammed down the phone in surprise, as both of the two had been so caught off guard.
"Hiya, boobs!" Meghan grinned a slithery smile, tossing a handful of popcorn in to her mouth from a large bag she held in her hand and walking across the room with three over-sized shopping bags labeled 'Macy's'. "WHAT THE-- MEGS? You were g--and th--then you are right back here with… and… Macy's!" Josh stuttered in complete shock and unbelief. "That's enough, Porky," Drake murmured in his brother's direction, as walked toward his previously missing little sister: "Where in the snot where YOU?" "The Premiere, with Mackenzie and Charlise. Oh! And Macy's." she dimpled with a defiant twinkle in her eyes. "WHY!" both of the two boys exclaimed loudly, barely holding back a barbaric scream. "Because I was bored. And Macy's had a sale on jeans. You're point is?" she said in an annoyed voice, crossing her arms after putting her bags down and then raising her eyebrow disapprovingly.
"Our point IS we almost just called the police because we couldn't find you!" Josh nearly yelled in disgust. "Pfft, spazzes! Have you ever heard of a cell phone? I had mine on! You could have just called me!" she rolled her eyes. "Liar! Last time I tried to call you, it said you had blocked my number!" Josh shouted back in defense. "…You actually called her?" Drake asked, trying to suppress a giggle. Josh turned his head and glared at his brother until he straightened up and stopped his mild laughter. "Anyway, where the heck did you get money to shop at Macy's with?" Josh asked. "Drake's wallet, where else?" she exclaimed, shrugging with an irritated look.
Drake's eyes narrowed in hatred and he slowly started to move toward the girl. Josh gasped and grabbed his brother, yelling: "DRAKE, DON'T!" Drake struggled to break free from within Josh's arms and all the time continued to yell: "Let me GO! Let me go!" "Think of being grounded! GROUNDED!" Josh screamed back, keeping a tight grip on Drake and trying to talk sense in to him at the same time. Then suddenly the magic words slipped from his lips: "Can't date Nita when you're groundeeeed!" Drake stood still for moment and then stopped struggling, as Josh let go of him. But he still glared at the eleven year old in loathefulness as he backed a few steps away.
"Wait a minute… the money that was in Drake's wallet?" Josh asked. "Yeah?" she said. "Good! Because our emergency money that Mom and Dad gave us was in my wallet." he sighed, thankfully. "Um… oops…" Meghan said, smiling a bit of a scared grin. "…What!" Drake growled. "I kind of spent that too…" she explained. "HOW COULD YOU SPEND OVER THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS IN THREE HOURS!" both of the brothers yelled simultaneously, their voices full of anger. The little girl just stared back in annoyance. "I'm… sorry!" "You should be! MAN, Meghan, that money was for important emergencies!" "I know! But it was an emergency!" she said. "What do you mean?" Drake asked in reply. "I mean, The Chronicles of Epona just came out yesterday at the Premiere, that Macy's had all Candies sweaters and aged jeans on fifteen percent off and this cute talking cookie jar was only nineteen ninety five! Hello?" she shrugged, her eyes darting side to side in exasperation as she picked up a cow-shaped plastic cookie jar.
Josh looked in a glare at Drake: "I wonder where she gets this stuff." Drake sighed and held out his hands in helplessness. "I'm so out of here." she said, rolling her eyes and picking up her packages, heading to the kitchen and disappearing through the swinging door.
Drake and Josh stood staring after her, still in heart-racing shock and then they closed their eyes, both shaking their heads at the thought of all she had put them through during the past twenty five hours. Josh had just gotten the will back to speak and was about to say something to his silent brother, but the phone began to ring loudly.
"Great. All we need." Josh muttered, passing Drake by and going to answer the phone himself.
"What 'you want?" he said in to the phone, so frazzled, he had absolutely no desire at all to even ask who it was, nor say the mandatory "Hello".
"Josh? What's the matter? Give me Drake!" Audrey's worried voice exclaimed over the line.
Josh's eyes got large and he quickly shoved the phone toward his brother: "Fa' you!" Drake bit his lip and closed his eyes for a minute, then replacing his decrepit frown with a fake grin: "Hiya, Momma! How's it goin'?"
"Drake, why did you hang up! What's the matter?" she said, skipping straight to the point of her call. "Um, what do ya' mean? The… the signal konked out for a minute!" he giggled, unnaturally.
"You're not on a cell, …are you?" her confused voice spoke in to his ear.
"Umm, no! Actually, I am not! …On a cell! Heh! Um, see, there's this dude outside working on the phone lines. Because there was a really, really big err-- lightning storm. And--and wind! Totally knocked out the phone line for a while." Drake nodded feeling a hot flush rush over his brow.
"Wow, really? How weird! The forecast said it was supposed to be clear over there!" she said.
"Oh, wow! Um, yeah, they were completely wrong. …Nice talkin' to you, love you, merry funeral, bye bye!" he exclaimed extremely fast, hanging up the phone.
When he looked up, Josh was leaning on the table, close in front of his and he shook his head in slight amusement: "Now that ain't gonn'a make her a bit suspicious." Drake began to reply in antagonism, but they both turned to look as they heard the kitchen door "whoosh" and watched as Meghan went toward the stairs with her Macy's bags, glaring back at them.
After she was gone, Drake and his brother sighed and rolled their eyes, walking tiredly to the kitchen to talk and get a snack. Once in the cozy room, Josh picked up and apple from a basket on the counter and sat on a stool, to eat it, beside the marble island in the center of the room. Drake leaned up against the counter and the cabinets above it, letting out a deep breath and saying: "How are we going to survive until tomorrow night?" "Good question. I guess as long as we've got each other, we'll make it. But then again, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of worried about Anita's safety. I see now that if he knows his own good, he'll stay away from your demon possessed little sister." "I am too. But I can't… can't do another all-nighter. It's just over load. I mean, after the soccer game, Chucky Cheddar's, Lyn incident, lost Meghan AND my terrible dream when I got knocked out by that blasted metal face plate, I can't TAKE much more!" "Exactly." Josh nodded, taking a hungry bite from his apple.
Drake turned and leaned over to open the refrigerator, but jumped back and grabbed his heart when suddenly an ear-shattering "MOO!" was heard from inside. "WHAT THE--!" he exclaimed, unintentionally dropping the soda he had grabbed. Looking on the shelf, inside the refrigerator, both Drake & Josh saw the speaking cow cookie jar sitting there. "Stupid cow…" Drake muttered, slamming the door and hearing another muffled 'moo' from inside. "Well," Josh replied optimistically as he reached down to pick up the cola can: "At least this wasn't open to spill everywhere." Drake sighed and nodded: "Yeah." and then reached out, taking the can from his brother, starting to pop it open. "Wait, Drake!--" Josh began, but was interrupted. With a loud hiss, the can shuddered and then an explosion of mocha cola fell from the ceiling on to them as lava would from an erupting volcano. "…The… can might… explode." the dark haired brother said, closing his eyes and finishing his sentence.
"I hate that freaking idiot cow." Drake muttered, trying to shake the mocha cola off of his hand. "Actually, it's not an idiot… because for that to be true, it'd have to have a brain, but it's just plastic, so technically--" "Be quiet." Drake interrupted. "Will do." Josh sighed, looking down with a frown. "Oh, crap! What time is it anyway? I have to be at school at two thirty to take that test I missed when I was recovering from my ribs!" Drake exclaimed, searching his wrist for a watch and finding none. The two boys looked over at the clock on the oven and read that it was two o four. "I have to be at work in like twenty minutes! CURSE, YOU, MEGHAN DEMON CHILD!" Josh said, shaking a mocha-ed fist toward the ceiling.
"To save time, you go get a shower in Mom and Dad's room and I'll take mine in our room, okay? Just remember to hurry, 'cause I'm so out of here in twelve minutes!" Drake said, barely finishing his sentence before he was gone from the room. "Wait for me!" Josh exclaimed after him, running out to the stairs.
It was rushed, but by some miracle, both of the boys were dressed and groomed within the appointed time. They both grabbed one of Meghan's elbows and dragged her downstairs and out to the car, dropping her in the backseat and planting themselves quickly in the front of Drake's shiny red convertible. "Where. Are. You. Guys. TAKING ME!" Meghan yelled from the back seat. "To Charlise's house, now shut up!" Drake exclaimed in to the back, as he squealed out from the drive way and turned out of their neighborhood. "Well, fine!" she glared, crossing her arms and speaking no more.
Drake sped to Meghan's friend's house, barely even leaving time for her to get out of the car before he sped off toward the highway and the Premiere theatre. "Drake… that was kind of rude to just drop Megs off at someone's house with out calling them first--" "Not interested." Drake cut off Josh's sentence. "Well, I'm not surprised at that fact, but really, if you had just taken like thirty seconds to call them and make sure--" "Fine, you want to call them, call them and tell them that she's there!" the boy who was driving exclaimed, tossing his own cell phone at his step brother. "No… it's really fine." Josh said, rolling his eyes.
Within about five minutes, Drake had pulled up to the front door of the movie theatre and pushed Josh out of the car: "If Anita comes, tell her she can find me at the school." he spoke to the brother who was standing outside of the car. "Okay, sure! And I will--" Josh couldn't finish his sentence because Drake pulled back on the gears, shifting quickly to 'drive' and pulling off, leaving the boy standing by himself on the pavement in front of the building. "And now I'm alone…" Josh whimpered, pouting and turning around to walk in to the theatre through the door.
