Title: I've Seen You Before
Author: TWBasketcase
Rated: T for language, possible violence, and mischief
Chapter Summary: Chapter 4; our two unsung heroes get themselves into some trouble in the nicer end of town; appearances from a familiar character or two.
A/N: Thanks to people who are still interested and those who reviewed. Please feel free to drop me a line…because for every review you don't leave a John Bender dies.

Chapter 4 – The Boy's A Time Bomb

Allison followed closely behind Bender as they inched their way up the red bricked driveway. There were small – about waist high – black lamp posts that lined the driveway, attached by a thin black chain that looped them all together. The lamps proceeded to mask the lawn with a yellow shade, making the late January snow sparkle in the middle of the night.

It was probably the biggest house she had seen in Shermer – or pretty damn close to it anyways – everything from the front patio, to the garage, the lawn…even the fence that surrounded the premises was just surreal to Allison. Her parents lived in a one storey bungalow with three kids…they had long since stopped supporting all three of them, not having the money to buy clothes, pay for sports or music lessons…everything that the Reynolds kids did they supported themselves. Her sister Heather had a job at the local pet store feeding snakes, while her little brother Ricky had a paper route.

Allison preferred to steal.

The music of Duran Duran had been bellowing through the open front door for some time now and she could hear the hooting and hollering, and roaring laughs of the bodies inside. She wondered vaguely if they were the laughs of the pretty popular kids at school. To her, it almost seemed as if they flocked in herds together down the hallways and that they all had the exact same laugh. It was like this fake, throaty sound that they all made when one of their 'members' said something funny. She didn't exactly ever pick up what is was they were laughing at, but usually all that she did pick up was who was fucking who, what new thing was cool, and what lame person was not cool. Their conversations always seemed so one dimensional.

Of course she judged them all to be one dimensional. Hell, all they did was pick on people like her; throw food at her in the cafeteria, spill pop on her drawings, and bump into her when she was walking down the hall. She didn't like them very much for their arrogance and the way that they treated themselves like royalty, but at the same time these people scared the shit out of her because they had the heart and the courage to have fun and have friends, to laugh loud and to look nice. Allison wasn't sure if it was envy or intrigue, but either way these people were from a completely different planet then she was.

She always wondered what it would be like to switch spots with them for one day; to be the girl who always flipped her hair behind her shoulder when she laughed, and the girl who sashayed her hips when all the boys were looking…just for one day to see what it was like…what all the fuss was about.

They reached the door to the house and Bender kind of looked inside first before he made a move. The front door was open, with only the screen door protecting the occupants inside from the cold wind outside. The glass was pretty fogged up for the most part, but the two dark haired teens could easily see a lavish foyer with a glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling. A large winding staircase sat to the right side of their view, with a doorway leading to what looked to be a living room on the left. A small hallway lay straight ahead leading to what looked to be another room – maybe a kitchen – with a small wall standing in the very middle of the foyer with an oak table in the center of it. On the oak table looking to be a very expensive statue of a baby angel with its wings spread out hanging on to what look to be a bird…but she wasn't quite sure. All in all, the house looked very rich, and very lavish; it both astonished her and frightened her.

"Well crazy, are ya ready to go in?" Bender asked casually, holding onto the door handle.

"Um," Allison hesitated, listening to the voices coming from within the house, "Are you sure we should…"

Bender rolled his eyes and pressed in the handle, opening the door a crack, "Yes we should…I told you its late, they're gonna be smashed and they won't even notice a thing. Trust me on this."

She looked into his eyes and gathered some assurance from them; he may be an asshole but she doubted very much that he was a liar, "So you break into these high society get togethers often?"

He smirked and pulled the door open quietly and placed one foot inside while looking back at her, "You don't wanna know."

"Fair enough," Allison muttered and quickly stepped inside right behind him before he let the door slam shut on her. No one had seemed to notice that someone had came in the door, but from what she gathered from looking around that there were so many people there already that it probably wasn't a rare occasion for the door to open and close.

Bender seemed to be looking around a lot, and touching almost everything that was near him. He let out a low whistle, "There is a lot of shit in here we could hawk off tomorrow you know…"

She had been thinking the same thing. Everything was made out of glass, and silver, and other nice materials.

"So whaddya wanna drink some more…look around a bit…or piss some people off?" Bender asked casually, as if they were decided on something to buy in mall, or something.

Allison just shrugged, "Just lead the way."

Bender nodded his head in confirmation and took a look into the living room where there was a huge group of jocks, cheerleaders, and other pretty people dancing around to some new lame song…some of them were even missing their clothes. Bender arched his eyebrows and shook his head and turned around to walk up the stair case, "I bet we find some interestin' shit up here."

Allison swallowed, "Okay."

Bender began creeping up the stairs; Allison stared at his feet the whole time, noticing that his shoes were wet and that he was leaving brown puddles of the nice white carpet with every step he took upward. She wondered momentarily if the house keeper would be able to get that out.

"Damn," He murmured once he reached the top. He looked around, "What way do you wanna go? I say we split up, grab some shit, and bail…"

Allison nodded and looked around. She noticed another small staircase in the back corner of the landing and nodded towards it, "I think I will go up."

"Alright then meet me back down here when you're down," He raked a hand through his hair and shoved a hand in his pocket, "If anything happens and you need to bail…just meet me down the street, okay?"

Allison nodded and turned towards the stairs and began ascending.


Bender cracked his knuckles and began looking at all the doors that awaited him. "And if you choose the correct door, your prize awaits…"

He took the door to his left first and opened it a crack. The walls were painted a dark burgundy and once he saw the activities going on inside his suspicions were proved correct that this was the master bedroom.

He opened the door a little wider and looked at the – okay not two – but three people inside. Two bigger guys – probably football players or wrestlers – were getting busy with one girl who he recognized to be on the head cheerleading squad. She had long blonde hair and a huge rack…Bender couldn't help but look at her when she was around school. He raised his eyebrows and rubbed his chin, "Always figured she could take it well on both ends. Oh well." He closed the door and was about to step forward when he heard voices coming up the stairs.

"So yeah I ended up winning state championships…it was cool and all, but for some reason my dad was still on my ass about it. I swear he never lays off…"

Bender looked around quickly and jumped into a small towel closet and closed the door as much as he could.

"…Andrew that's great in all…but I really just came up here with you to have some fun…you know do what everyone else is doing."

Bender looked through the crack in the door at the couple standing in the hallway. The guy – Andrew – was much shorter than he was probably around 5'7" or so, with blond hair and a blue letterman's jacket. Bender recognized him as a wrestler from school. The brunette at the boy's side looked drunk as hell with her arm slung around the boy's shoulder. She was wearing a baby blue miniskirt with a white blouse unbuttoned enough to see a good amount of cleavage. Bender thought she was pretty good looking.

"Ashley that's all you ever want…"

The girl straightened considerably, "Andrew that's all that you need okay? Like, seriously, who really just needs to, like, spend all their time talking? Boys and girls aren't supposed to do that."

"I know I just…"

"Just shut up Clark and get in that room," The girl ordered. She had her hand on her hip and was standing rather clumsily as she pointed to the door directly across from Bender's closet. Bender couldn't help but be totally annoyed by the girl because he knew her kind…he had classes with about 50 of them. All clones of one another.

"But Ashley that's a bathroom," Andrew started. Bender silently felt sorry for the kid, but at the same time just willed him to get his pecker up and get in there so he could get out of the closet. It was beginning to get stuffy in there.

"Just go!" The girl screeched/slurred at a pitch abnormal to the normal human ear. The boy must have let up his protesting because after a few moments Bender heard soft footsteps and then a soft 'click' noise, indicating that the door was locked. He opened the door and poked his head out, finally relishing that he was once again alone.

He put his hand under his chin and looked at his now limited options, "Okay…so door number one and door number four are out." He looked at his three remaining options and stopped at the door with pink and purple flowers tacked up all over it, "Hm…door number three looks good." He put his hand on the knob and read the sign on the door:

'Claire's Room. Keep out!'

Bender cocked an eyebrow and turned the knob, "Well all the more reason to go in, eh?"


Allison reached the top of the more hidden staircase momentarily. She figured it was one of those hidden things to make the house more interesting. She noticed that the staircase had also gone downwards towards the main floor…maybe even more towards the basement. It was very narrow and dark, but once she had reached her destination a smile crept across her face.

The room looked like an old playroom; possibly a place where children used to play. There were a ton of old dolls, and dollhouses, a little girls make up desk, a closet filled with little pink, purple, and yellow dress up clothes, as well as a ton of teddy bears.

The carpet was a dark purple color with lavender painted walls. There were great big stickers on the wall of Snow White and her seven dwarfs. There was one small window in the room on the far end wall with a small bench in front of it. Even though the toys had looked like they haven't been used for years, she could tell that whoever lived there still used the small bench in front of the window…perhaps as a place to get away.

A red blanket lay on the bench with a large mug perched right beside it. The curtains were drawn over to the side as if the person had been looking out the window. Allison took a seat on the bench and peered out the window. Outside there was a large backyard with a pool and a trampoline, a large shed, and a beautifully landscaped garden. In the centre of the garden was a large pond with a rock waterfall. It was beautiful.

The room was quiet and quite sophisticated for a young person. But for some reason standing in the room made her feel sad for the girl that lived there. She just felt this pang of loneliness and heart break standing in the room. It made her wonder why a girl – who had quite obviously grown up and no longer used the room's toys – still needed to come up here for a sense of security.

She wondered vaguely if the girl was here in the house right now.

She looked down out the window again and noticed some kids from the party outside in the snow. They had no winter clothes on; there appeared to be three boys carrying a girl – who was probably drunk and passed out. The girl only looked to be wearing a small, strapless dress. And unsurprisingly to her, they dropped her in a deep snow bank and laughed, leaving her there. Allison watched closely as the girl came to and wiped the wet substance from her face; her perfectly sculpted hair ruined, and her nice – and what looked to be expensive – dress wrecked. She stumbled up on her feet and bent over to remove her flimsy high heeled shoes and began walking towards the house. Allison could have sworn she saw the girl wiping tears from her face.

She wondered momentarily why girls like her put themselves in positions like that; knowing how the guys acted, yet still left themselves in a vulnerable position. Better yet, Allison wondered why the girl's friends hadn't done anything to keep the girl from getting all wet. Did they think it was funny too? What if the girl hadn't of woken up and just froze to death? What would have they done then?

Allison was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the door open.

"Um…who are you?"

The voice broke her out of her thoughts so suddenly that she almost fell off the small bench perched on the window sill. Her heart pounded against her chest and she rose to her feet. They boy who spoke stood in the doorway with a curious expression on his face. He looked unsure of what to say.

Allison didn't know what to say either, all she knew is she wanted the blonde haired, blue eyed jock out of her way so she could get the hell out of there and find Bender.


Bender looked around the huge bedroom in awe. The room must have been as big as his kitchen and living room put together. There was a massive walk in closet to the right of him, and a huge white, canopy bed with four or five pillows and a feather duvet across it.

Posters were plastered all over the walls of the likes of Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler, and John Fogerty. There were all sorts of stickers and doodles all over the dresser and the large mirror perched on top of it. But mostly it was clothes. Everywhere. He had never seen so many clothes in his entire life.

It was a room made for a fuckin' princess.

Bender didn't know if it was a nice thing or I he just wanted to hurl. Either way, he began walking further into the room and took a look into the closet. And low and behold it was just jam packed with clothes. All designer ties, and everything looked so damn expensive. He wondered momentarily how big of a bon fire he could make with all of the fabric.

He walked past the closet and looked at the shelves perched on the walls lined with tons and tons of picture frames. In almost every picture was a red headed girl with a big smile plastered across her face. She was in pictures with all different people, guys and girls her age, and two older people – probably her parents, he thought.

He picked up one picture of the girl on the beach – which looked as though it was at some tropical island – in a bikini with a large brown purse slung over her shoulders. He skimmed his eyes down her body and smiled, "Not bad." He ripped the picture out of the frame and tucked it in his pocket for future reference.

He placed the frame back on the shelf and continued walking around the room until he made his way over to the dresser. He pushed over a couple thousand tubes of lipstick and mascara until he found a small black box. He flipped the lid up and almost cheered.

He had found the stash.

Earrings, bracelets, necklaces, lockets and the whole nine yards; loads of jewellery that he could punk from this spoiled little bitch. He picked at a few gold chains and necklaces and plopped them into his pocket. He picked up a set of diamond earrings and examined them under the light.

"Damn they're real and everythin'" He scrunched up his face, "Probably a fuckin' Christmas present or somethin'." He tossed the earrings back down on the desk and took another look around until he noticed a small piece of pink fabric sticking out from the top dresser drawer.

He huge grinned cracked across his face from ear to ear.

He opened the drawer slowly to what looked like the royal bank of underwear. If he thought the clothes were bad, he wasn't sure if this much underwear even existed. He rummaged through the drawer with a devilish grin on his face and picked up a flimsy piece of silk material.

He looked around slowly and was about to pocket them as well when the door burst open and a very upset and very wet looking red head stormed in.

"Well looks like I've been caught red handed, huh princess?"

TBC