A/N:First of all: Thanks to all my readers and reviewers! I love you guys!
Second: Ooookayyy... uhm, please don't throw any rotten tomatoes or stuff, but here's chappy four, finally complete! I'm sooooo extremely sorry for not updating in more than one week, but i have got three good excuses for it! Nr. 1) Biggest writer's block EVER! Nr. 2) I'm having theoretical driving lessons a the moment, means, I'm not even at home most of the time. Nr. 3) Because of that, I have to get up at 6 a.m. (yeah, you may pity me!) and in the evening I'm too bloody tired to even think straight...
I hope you can forgive me, and I promise that writing the next chapter won't last that long!
Disclaimer: Still, Louis Sachar owns Holes and the characters from the book.
Chapter four - The arrival of the mob
I looked out of the window, from where I could see a part of the driveway and the mini bus. But what I coudn't see was the door of the vehicle, so there was no chance I'd have a look at the kids before facing them. I turned away from the window, and turned on the light to check my reflection in the mirror. A long black skirt and another one of my black tank tops, combined with my long, dark purple hair and some dark eye make up I had put on right after dressing up, actually made me look a bit gothic. 'Good' I thought, giving my reflection an approving nod, 'Maybe that'll keep them at distance, so I can spend my holiday in peace.'
It was that very moment, when I heard the guys come stomping up the chairs, chatting and laughing loudly. I switched off the light and walked towards the door. I recognised Ricky's voice as he said "Hey Caveman, You can sleep over here!", and then an unknown male voice coming from right in front of my door answered "Hector? What about sharing that room with me?".
I opened the door extremely silently, to find a rather tall, white boy with brown curls standing in front of it, turning his back towards me. I didn't say anything, waiting for the moment when he'd notice that I was standing there.
"Hey man, where's that sister of yours?" he yelled into the direction that Ricky's voice had come from earlier, and I just couldn't resist.
"Right behind you." I said in my darkest, creepiest voice. The guy jerked around screaming and fell straight down at his butt, making the other guys in the corridor whirl around see what happened. They all burst out laughing as I stuck out a hand at the brown-haired boy to help him up. But he just continued to stare at me in horror, hyperventilating. It seemed like I had really looked quite scary, sneaking out of a dark room, all dressed up in black.
"This..." Ricky said inbetween two waves of laughter, "...is Ean.". And he staggered over to the brown-haired boy (who was still sitting on the floor), and pulled him up onto his feet. "Don't pee yourself, Caveman, she doesn't bite. Very often." he said, giving 'Caveman' (what sort of name was that?) a reassuring pat on the back. The boy gulped and then managed to smile at me.
"Hi. I'm Caveman-... I mean, Stanley, but you can call me Caveman, of course. Everyone does." he said rather sheepishly, finally sticking out a hand at me. I took it and shook it very shortly before saying "I'm Ean. But you can call me Ean, of course. Everyone does.". He blinked at me nervously, but was rescued by his friends who were now gathering around us.
The first one of them to introduce himself was a skinny black boy with the thickest glasses I had ever seen. They looked like a couple of ashtray bottoms. When he came towards me I noticed that he was actually about three inches smaller than me, but still made the impression of a very confident person. 'Small guys always feel like they have to compensate something' I thought as he stopped in front of me.
"Hi, Ean. My name's X-ray." he said, looking up at me through his glasses and smiling. Then he turned around and pointed at his friends, starting with a tall, fat, black boy who looked like some sort of a pseudo-gangster rapper. "That's Armpit. And that is Squid." he continued, pointing at a tall, skinny boy who was chewing at toothpick and smirking at me in a way that made me want to slap him. "The one you scared outta his pants is Caveman, and the lil' guy over there's Zero.". My weakly interested gaze fell on an extremely small, serious looking boy with cappucino coloured skin. Suddenly, a hispanic looking guy sqeezed himself past Ricky, grabbed my hand, and beamed at me while saying "Hi! I'm Magnet!" with a thick, spanish accent. I sent him an icy glare that made his smile freeze dead in its' tracks. "How nice. Finally someone who is able to introduce himself." I said sarcastically, withdrawing my hand from his grip.
Then, I turned toward Ricky. "So, these are the kids?" I said quietly, giving the hispanic guy named 'Magnet' another sidelong glance. Ricky nodded. "Uh huh.".
I wasn't particularly thrilled about living in this house for one week with people called X-ray, Armpit, Squid, Zero, Magnet and Caveman, and so I just nodded back and rushed down the stairs, past the boys who were still staring after me as if I were a creature from outer space. "Godamnit Zig, you never told us your sister looks like the hot twin of the blair witch!" I heard one of the guys (I guess it was Squid) say, and all of them laughed like only teenage boys could. I groaned, and my thoughts drifted to what he might possibly say if I spiked his eyes with that stupid toothpick.
The boys started unpacking their things, making far more noise than necessary, and yelling comments at each other through the corridor of the upper floor. Ricky obviously helped them and so I enjoyed the luxury of being alone in the livingroom. I even managed to find a TV channel that broadcasted news at this time of the day, and so I sat down on the sofa to finally, after four days, watch the news.
I hadn't seen two minutes of the first report, when a long arm reached over me from behind the couch, grabbed the remote and switched the TV off. I didn't even make efforts to throw my head in my neck in order to look at who had come to get on my nerves."The government, right?" I said, trying to make the possibility of my brain being taken over by such morons as our government officials sound impossible.
"You got that damn right, sis'. I won't let them get you.". Saying so, Ricky threw the remote back onto the sofa, turned around, and went back upstairs, from where I could hear him yell "I wouldn't go into that bathroom, Caveman!" as if nothing had happened. I sat on the sofa for one more minute, staring onto the black screen and wondering if I should just turn the TV on again. But, somehow, grabbing my book and fleeing from the noise the boys were making was a far more attracting thought than arguing with Ricky about the stupid remote again. Honestly, what was wrong with that kid?
I got up and was about to walk through the door, when Squid came rushing down the stairs at full speed, directly towards me. I jumped out of his way and yelled "Watch it, shithead!" after him. He managed to slow down, turned around and stared at me in surprise."Whoa, calm down! And no cursing, girlie!" he said, lifting his hands to make a consiliatory gesture.
"My name is Ean, not 'girlie'. And in my house I can curse as much as I want." I hissed, turning around and leaving the room without wasting one more glance on the dumbstruck boy. I staggered into my room, grabbed the book and went outside. Gazing up at the sky, I noticed that some clouds were showing, but the sun was still shining at full power. Maybe there would be a heat thunderstorm later that day, but I didn't expect it to start before evening. I trotted down the beaten path over the lawn, down to the landing stage, ignoring the midges that were swarming around my ears. I was used to the bugs, for usually I spent all summer at the lake, and so they didn't bother me all too much anymore.
The bench on the landing stage was still in a relatively good state. Although the white color needed to be refreshed, there were no slivers or rotting spots on it, and so I sat down and started reading.
About an hour later, the first raindrop hit page 97 of my book, and I threw a bad-tempered look at the sky. Within the time I had been sitting outside, the sky hard darkened and thick, dark gray clouds were hanging in it, the first single, fat raindrops falling out of them. I knew from experience that in five or ten minutes, outside there would be sheer pandemonium, and so I ran back to the house, the book wrapped into my skirt to protect it from the rain which was intensifying extremely fast. Although I really speeded and the distance was quite short, my clothes and hair were sopping wet when I reached the front door and hurried into the house. "Goddamn, fucking thunderstorms..." I cursed under my breath and slipped out of my wet flipflops. Zero was coming down the stairs when I locked the door behind me, and he gave me a short and amused smile, before saying "Got surprised by the thunderstorm?". I just scowled at him.
"Actually, no, it didn't surprise me. It just started earlier than I expected it to." I said, but he just shrugged.
"Whatever. You should put on some dry clothes."
"Oh, what you don't say..." I rolled my eyes, and swished up the stairs, towards my room. Inside, I locked the door, threw my (thanks to heaven dry) book onto the nightstand, and put on a pair of black, comfy trousers and a light blue t-shirt. It was one of my favourite t-shirts, showing the picture of a cute squirrel brandishing a cudgel, and under the picture the words "NICE? That was yesterday...". I shuffled into my bathroom and was just blow-drying my hair, when my stomach gave a loud rumble. I quickly threw a look onto the clock that was hanging on the wall: half past twelve, time for lunch. I switched off the hairdryer, put my hair into a bun, and went down into the kitchen. The closer I got to the kitchen door, the more intensively I could sense a very suspicious smell. I flung the kitchen door open and froze in the movement. Six of the boys (Zero was standing in the other kitchen door and watching the scenery with interest, chewing on an apple) were running around in the kitchen like headless hens, the rests of chopped vegetables were spread all over the floor, a reddish-bron mash was boiling over from a huge pot, and from a pan on the stove small flames and thick, black smoke were rising. X-ray was screeching like a Banshee at Magnet ("I told you this was not going to work, Mag!") and Magnet screeched like a Banshee at X-ray ("How should I know the pan would catch fire?"), Ricky was filling a bowl with cold water, obviously to put out the fire in the pan, Squid was pressing a towel against his mouth, coughing from the smoke, and Armpit and Caveman were trying to shovel the overboiling mash back into the pot. For short: It was hell on earth.
"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING HERE!" I roared over the mess, my furious voice drowning out all the noise. At once they all fell silent and turned to stare at me. I rushed to the stove, pushed Caveman and Armpit aside, and turned it off, pulling the overboiling pot onto a cold part of the stove's surface. Ricky came hasting towards me with the cold water, but I stopped him "Stay away with that water! Or do you want the pan to explode?" and he froze on the spot. I quickly grabbed the cover of the pot and placed it on the pan, smothering the flames. Then I pointed at Squid whose eyes widened at the sight of the nasty expression on my face, and commanded "You! Open the windows. The rest of you: get outta here now."
They stared at me for half a second, and then all turned around to hurry into the livingroom, closing the door behind them. Ricky even took the bowl of water with him, being so shocked about my outburst that he had simply forgotten about its' existence. Squid opened the windows, and together we went into the livingroom, using the way through the corridor and closing the second kitchen door behind us.
In the livingroom, the boys were sitting on the sofas, looking like the picture of misery itself. Squid fell onto a place next to X-ray, and they all stared at me as if they were waiting for an excruciatingly painful punishment. A loud thunder crashed outside and they all jumped, Ricky spilling cold water onto his trousers, realising for the first time that he still held the bowl. Zero was standing next to the door, staring at me intentedly. I took a very deep breath and turned toward the boys.
"Okay, I am not a person to shout at people, and this is why I'll ask you calmly... What. Was. That? Huh? Were you trying to blow up the house, or what?" I knew that my voice wasn't really calm, but just sounded pressed, but nothing could have bothered me less at that moment. They all hung their heads in shame and embarassement, but none of them answered. Then, Zero's quiet voice came from the door. "They wanted to make some Chili con Carne. For lunch. But the pan caught fire, and the chili boiled over, as you already saw. And then you came."
I stared at him blankly for one moment, then turned my head back to the boys on the sofas. They still stared up at me, fear rising in their eyes. They looked like a bunch of students who had been caught spraying graffitti on the school house, and were now standing in front of the headmaster, praying to the Lord for forgiveness.
"Don't look at me like that! I'm not someone's mother who just found a party going on in her house or something." I snorted angrily, and they all gave me the most puzzled look I had ever seen on someone. "You'll tidy up that bloody kitchen, and then we'll make some proper lunch.". Zero gave me a weak smile, but I looked away, at the boys who were now all beaming at me as if I was Mother Teresa. I wasn't used to people looking at me like that, not at all, and so I went back into the kitchen to get an overview of the mess they had left behind. "You'll better get your cursed asses moving today."
It didn't take long to tidy up the kitchen, for there were six people helping (Zero and I refused to do something, for none of us had caused the mess), and so after twenty minutes the room looked like a kitchen again. Then I started cooking. I wanted to make a zuccini - tomatoe - meatball dish with rice, someting that didn't need much preparation and filled the stomach quite well. Caveman tapped me on the shoulder. "Uhm... can we somehow help you?" he asked cautiously. I quirked my eyebrows at him, thinking of the scenery that had taken place here only twentyfive minutes ago. Ricky interpreted my expression right, and took some plates out of a wall cupboard.
"Come on guys, we'll set the table." he said, giving me a grin that told me how he could read my thoughts. I rolled my eyes and started chopping the zucchini at high speed. The boys left for the dining room, packed with plates, glasses and cutlery, leaving me alone in the kitchen. I worked quickly and with routine, for I had been used to preparing my meals all by myself for years. I heard the boys in the corridor, it sounded like they were finished with setting the table, and now played dart. There was a dart board hanging in the corridor of the first floor. My father had bought it once and placed it there himself, "Just in case there is a party and the guests would like to play a game..." had been his cheap-excuse-of-an-explanation. But now the dart board at least kept the mob away from me (and the kitchen)...
The thunderstorm still went on during lunch. We were all sitting around the table in the dining room, even me. The thought of tomatoe- sauce on my bedclothes had kept me from eating in my room. Now I sat there, trying to fade out the pointless and dumb discussions of the boys, occasionally rolling my eyes, when somone made an extremely silly comment and they all burst out laughing. Zero and Caveman, however, seemed to keep for themselves most of the time. While the others were chatting loudly, the two of them would talk quietly, only occasionally joining in the 'conversation' with short comments or laughter. As the discussion grew extremely dimwitted, I started eating much quicker, and finished even before Armpit. I got up silently and carried my empty plate into the kitchen, then I went up into my room and sunk down onto the bed, staring at the rain and the movement of the trees outside, lost in my own thoughts.
I must have fallen asleep, for the weather had changed when I looked out of the window for the next time. The rain had stopped and most of the clouds were gone, so now the warm summer sunlight was heating up the air, making the water driplets on my window glitter. Then I noticed why I had woken up. Somebody was slamming his fists against my door! "What? I'm trying to enjoy my holidays here!" I railed, tearing the door open. Ricky stared down at me, his hands still in the air.
"Ean! Oh, thanks God you're awake!" he gasped, and I quirked one eyebrow at him, crossing my arms.
"What did you do, huh? Finally burned down the kitchen?"
"Uhm, no ... it's not us... well, not directly you know..." Why was the fool stammering around?
"Okay, while you are trying to come to the point, I'll go down and have a cup of tea." I said, trying to squeeze myself past him, but he grabbed my arm, making me turn around at him.
"No! Please, Ean, we need your help." he said, looking at me with his pleading puppy eyes. I took a deep breath and counted up to ten in my mind.
"What is it?"
"The Caveman's gone." Oh, that explained everything, of course! The Caveman's gone! Good Lord where was I? In the kindergarten? I didn't say anything, but just stared at Ricky blankly, waiting for further explanation, but none came.
"And that should bother me for what reason?" I finally said, breaking the short silence.
"Well, he's been gone for over three hours now, and Zero already tryed to find him, but that was one and a half hours ago, and he came back and said he couldn't find him and... please help us to find him! I know you don't like it but - ... well, we're really beginning to worry!" The puppy eyes again, now with a shimmer of fear in them.
"Why me? You've got five boys here who can help you to find him."
"They already tryed, but you are the only one here who knows the forest."
"So you know that he's in the forest?" I said. The house was situated inbetween the lake and a forest, very much like our regular home. A narrow path led into the forest from the front door.
"Yeah, Zero saw him go there after..." he suddenly stopped, and I became suspicious.
"What happened? Why did he go there in the middle of a thunderstorm?" I asked, and for the first time Ricky looked embarassed.
"Well, the guys were making fun of how he... uhm, well, how he was shocked by you so much... and..."
"And he became very angry and stomped off into the forest?" I finished the sentence for him. "A nice bunch of friends you got there.". I shook his hand off my arm and went to the stairs. "You comin' ?"
He stared at me questioningly, and I sighed. Those guys were too stupid.
"If you want me to look for your friend, you should at least get your ass moving to help me or at least come with me." I said, and his face lit up as if someone had lit a lamp behind it.
"Means you're helping us?" he said, beaming at my back as he hurried down the stairs after me.
"What does it look like? Plus, there's no chance you'll stop annoying me before I at least tryed to find your lost dumbass of a Caveman, right?"
In the the lower corridor, I was nearly run over by Squid. Again. "Is that some hobby of yours?" I exclaimed furiously, jumping out of the way to avoid a collision. He just gave me a short, puzzled look before turning toward Ricky again. "Zig, we've looked everywhere in that bloody forest! He's just gone!" he exclaimed, gesturing around, and I gave an angry snort.
"People don't just disappear. Not in my forest!" I said, storming out of the door. I was going to find that doofus! Maybe then they would give me some time off... The thought of having one or two days all for myself only encouraged me more, made me walk even faster. How had that jerk of a Caveman even managed to get lost in the forest? There was only one path for several miles, and that was the one that started at our door. 'He must have left it somewhere.' I thought, and decided to concentrate on the sides of the path, rather than on the path itself. Maybe some footsteps, or a broken branch would give me a hint. The two boys caught up with me when I reached the edge of the forest, and stepped into the cool shade of the trees. We went on quickly for about five minutes, then I cut down the speed so we'd be able to notice if there was anything unusual. I briefly explained the boys what we were looking for, and they started observing the other side of the path and its closer surroundings, for once not chatting, but just concentrating on their task.
We had been walking for about ten minutes when we met the other boys who had regathered into a group again after looking for Caveman individually. Luckily there was no discussion about whether or not my searching-method was the right one to find him. They all just followed my order to look for unusual things like thrown up earth, broken branches, footsteps, etc.. Like this, the group went on for another twenty minutes, until Armpit suddenly shouted "Hey guys! Come over here! Quick!". We all hurried towards him. He stood there, pointing at the right side of the path, where there were some big footsteps in the wet ground. "Looks like he went up that hill." Armpit said, gazing into the direction the footsteps were leading to. I didn't say anything, but just followed them up to the top of hill.
A/N: Mwahahaha... I like that cliffy... What will she see from the top of the hill? Will she actually see anything? Or are the footsteps leading to nowhere? Read it in chapter five! But before you can read it, I'd like to recieve some reviews ...