Tri-Olitz

Chapter 2

The First Rescue

"What's wrong crybaby? Wheh, wheh, wheh. Look everybody I think All-lip's lips are getting bigger the more she cries. She must be related to Pinocchio." All the kids encircling Olivia laugh at the comparison. "And what's with the pompoms on your head? Is that hair or steel wool? Looks like the stuff our maid uses to clean the crud out of our dirty pots and pans, Henry spouts."

Olivia sits in the sand, her knees drawn to her chest, crying uncontrollably. She is helpless, surrounded by a gang of taunting demon spawn from some of the Hampton's finest families with no means of escape. She rocks forward and backward praying her torture will end soon.

"Leave her alone", a voice commands from behind the pack of grade school tormentors. The young man owning the voice knocks a couple of the co-signing teasers out of the way so he can acquaint the jeering ringleader's face with some wet sand. He slams the mocking mouthpiece head first into the ruins of what used to be a sandcastle.

The angry blonde-haired leader scrambles to his feet spitting sand out of his mouth and wiping it from eyes. "Hey, this is none of your business. That girl punched my sister in the face!"

"Knowing your family Henry I'm sure Piper deserved it. My dad says your family is nothing but a bunch of inbred yahoos who are only able to vacation here because of six numbers and a few lucky spins of a Powerball wheel."

"Shut up! We are not inbred; whatever that means. We're from Minnesota and my family is just as rich as yours."

Olivia's knight in red OP trunks starts laughing. "God you're an idiot Henry. Get lost before I have Jake here kick your butt."

Henry turns to a smiling Olivia. "This isn't over All-lip. "He won't be around to protect you all the time" Henry spews menacingly.

Jake moves next to Henry. "Are you seriously threatening a little girl you pathetic piece of crap." Jake is so pissed that Henry for bullying a little girl of maybe six or seven, he hauls off and punches Henry in the face just on general principle.

"Ow, my nose! You hit me."

"No shit Sherlock. What was your first clue?"

The hangers-on with Henry start laughing at him. Henry and Piper, feeling humiliated, run off down the beach to their family's summer home.

"Any of you chicken butts up for some of the same?" The other kids take a step back shaking their heads. They quickly disperse, leaving Olivia alone with her two rescuers.

The two heroes sit on both sides of a sniffling, hiccupping Olivia. "You okay?" Olivia nods her head.

"What's your name?"

"Olivia"

"Well Olivia you have a beautiful name. I'm Fitz and this tough guy is my best friend Jake." Fitz extends his for Olivia to shake. "It's an honor to meet you. Anyone who punches that spoiled brat Piper in face is very cool in my book."

"That's for sure," Jake underscores.

"Why are you out here by yourself?"

"My cousin Deana went down to the snack stand with some boy to buy soda. She said she would be right back but that was a long time ago." Olivia's sniffles have stopped but the hiccups continue.

"Why did you punch Piper?"

"I was building a sandcastle and she walked by. She said my castle looked stupid because it didn't have a tower for a princess. She kept saying it's not a castle if it does not have a tower. I told her I didn't want my castle to have a tower. She said my castle was dumb then she kicked it down and started calling me names, so I punched her in the face. She ran home and came back with her brother and his friends. All of those mean kids teased me until you showed up and saved me. Thank you both."

"Are your parents at home?"

"Yes, my mother isn't feeling well."

"I am sorry to hear that but I think we should see you home."

"My cousin said to stay here until she gets back."

"You shouldn't be out here all alone. Come on, your cousin won't mind." Fitz and Jake each take one of Olivia's hands and swing her onto her feet.

"How old are you Livvie?

"Seven", she beams with two teeth missing from the top row of her mouth.

"How old are you guys?

"Nine", Jake toots proudly.

"Okay let's get you home."

Fitz asks, "where is your house?"

Olivia points up the beach. "Over there by that big black rock."

"Where do you live Fitz?"

"My family has a house down a little ways from here. You see that big white and blue house the flagpole in the front yard."

"Wow you must be really rich." Fitz shrugs his shoulders.

Fitz and Jake walk Olivia to the house her parents are renting for the summer. They walk her to the porch and she gives each of them a hug. She notices something on Fitz's arm.

"Is that a tattoo?"

"No, it's a birthmark."

"That's cool, it looks like a bolt of lightening." She gives Fitz and Jake one more hug before she opens the screen door and goes in the house.

The next day Fitz and Jake stop by to check on Olivia. Bounding up the front steps two at a time, the inseparable buddies literally see red when they reach the top of stairs. Sprawled across the front of the house written in red paint are the words "go home All-lips if you know what's good for you." Turning immediately to face each other they say in unison, "Henry".

Fitz rings the doorbell. The housekeeper Lucila, a buxom Honduran with a lazy eye, opens the door. She stares at the two young boys with an angry judgmental glare. "What do you want", she asks in a tone far from civil.

"Hi, is Olivia home, Fitz asks with all the verve typical of a nine year old?"

Lucila steps unto the porch. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

"No ma'am."

"What do you want with Olivia?

"We're her friends."

"Olivia has no friends around here. I'm going to ask you one more time what you want then I'm going to call the police and have you arrested for trespassing and vandalism."

"Really ma'am we are her friends. We met her yesterday when some local kids were bothering her."

"Oh sweeties, you must be Fitz and Jacob, her heroes. Olivia told me all about what happened yesterday." She proceeded to hug the two boys. "Hold on a minute, I'll get her." Lucila's whole demeanor changed in a flash.

Olivia comes to the door. Her eyes are red, her hair is in loose braids and her flower print sundress is slightly wrinkled.

"Hi"

"Hi", they respond with big smiles.

"Are you okay? Can you come out and play?"

Olivia looks back at Lucila for permission. "Why don't you go sit out front baby girl. I'll call you if your mother wakes up." Olivia nods and steps out onto the porch. She takes a seat on the steps on the side of the porch. Fitz and Jake sit on either side of her.

Fitz takes Olivia's hand. For some reason he feels like he has known her for a long time; even though he is only nine and it has been less than 24 hours since they met. He feels comfortable and at ease around her. He wants to be her friend and protector. "What happened here?" He softly asks.

"I think that mean boy Henry and his friends did this. My dad found it when he came out to set up the porch so my mom could lie down and look out at the ocean. She likes to do that, Olivia mumbles. They had a dead cat hanging from the planter too. My dad is really mad and my mom is upset because he's so angry."

"Did you dad call the police?"

"Yeah, they said it was some kind of silly prank. They told him it happens sometimes to renters."

"That's not true. Did he tell the police you think Henry did it?"

"Yes, that's when they told us to just let it go. That Henry is a real stinker."

"I am so sorry Olivia. You have had the worst vacation ever." Fitz and Jacob both give her a side hug.

"My mom is going to die." She looks down at their clasped hands and squeezes. "She caught the cancer and she had my dad bring us here so she could die by the ocean." Olivia's voice is void of emotion as she stares out at the sea letting the waves drown out the wailing cries of her family inside the house. She looks over to the front door. "I better go back in. My mom should be waking up soon. Thank you for stopping by." Olivia takes her hands backs and rushes back inside the house without saying another word.

Fitz and Jacob walk down the beach to the Davenport home. They can hear Henry and his friends playing in the backyard. They unlock the gate on the side of the house and walk to source of the voices. Fitz sees Henry joking around with one his "at the moment" friends and goes over to confront him about Olivia. The others seeing Fitz and Jake coming quickly part making a path for the two. Henry is unaware of Fitz's presence until Fitz speaks.

"Did you do it? Henry turns sharply to face Fitz.

"What are you doing here? How did you get on my property?"

Fitz undeterred repeats the question. "Did you do it?"

"Do what?" Henry snaps back.

Jake moves closer to Henry. "Don't play stupid dweeb!"

Henry backs up. He nods his head to his friends to grab Jake. Fitz sees the gesture and warns the other boys to back off; which they do.

Henry feeling full of himself because he is at home puffs out his chest and spits, "yeah I did it; so what, she deserves it. Her family doesn't belong here and she needs to be taught a lesson. She has no business hitting my sister. I hope her family is scared shitless."

Henry Davenport is a bully, a bully of the worst kind, an indulged one. He comes from a wealthy emotionally detached family with enough idiosyncrasies to keep an army of Manhattan's priciest shrinks in million dollar penthouses and expensive sports cars well into the next decade. The boy is mean and on his way to downright vicious. Margo and Walter Davenport, his absentee parents, pander to his manic tantrums with ostentatious material bribes and overlook his malicious tendencies through a prescription induced mental haze. The narcissistic co-dependent couple had children for purposes of carrying on the family name and for that purpose only. They have no bond or familial feeling toward their offspring and their kids know it. Henry is unloved, mad at the world and probably incubating some congenital form of psychosis.

"You eff'in douche bag coward! She's a little girl with a sick mother! Are you really standing here actually proud of what you did?"

"Bet she won't ever hit my sister again. Her stupid family probably won't ever come back here either."

"That does it." Fitz reached back and punched Henry in the eye. Henry doubles over in pain and drops to his knees.

"Hey leave my brother alone", Piper yells. She rushes to Henry's side to see if he is okay. He straightens up keeping one hand over his soon to be black eye.

"What is wrong with you Grant? Why do you care about that dumb girl?"

"What is wrong with you is the better question. She is an innocent human being who defended herself against your brat of a sister and you, with the help of your lickspittle crew, are terrorizing her. Seriously, dude? How low are you? You are a fake bully Henry. You are not even brave enough do your own dirty work. You are such a pathetic coward it's almost funny. How many of you went with him to scare a seven-year old girl?" Haden and Josh look away. "You're all a bunch of eff'in scumbags," Fitz says pointing a condemning finger at the crowd.

"Not cool Henry, not cool at all. Watch your back," Jake adds before he and Fitz leave the stunned gathering.

Later that afternoon, Olivia goes to answer the doorbell. When she opens the door, no one is standing there. She steps onto the porch and gasps. The red paint is gone and the porch table is covered with fresh flowers and a bowl of fruit. She runs down the front steps to see who the mystery clean-up crew might be. She looks down the beach in time to see Fitz and Jake running to the Grant compound. "My heroes", she whispers as tears roll down her cheeks.

"Good thing he's stupid or we would have never gotten all that paint off. What kind of idiot uses washable paint to send a threatening message?" They both laugh.

"He probably got the paint out of Piper's art supply box."

"Probably; he's too lazy to go to the caretaker's shed to look for real paint."

"I hope this helps her mother feel better."

"Me too."

"Are his parents at home?"

"Yep, grandma too."

"This is going to be epic."

"Totally; it's time for this jerk to get a taste of his own medicine."

"Tell your cousin he is the best man."

"I will. Who knew having an exterminator in the family would come in so handy."

"How many did he bring?"

"Four mean ones he said. They should wake up in a couple of hours. He threw in bat and a couple of rats for free."

"Perfect!"

Two hours later, screams and expletives can be heard coming from the Davenport home.

"Mommy, make it go away", Piper screams. She's standing on her pink silk duvet covered princess canopy bed ducking and covering her head to avoid the baby fruit bat flying in circles around her room. "I don't want to be a vampire! Mommy help me!" Margot sits at the vanity in her bathroom sipping from a half chilled bottle of vodka trying to drown out the screeching cries of her daughter.

"Walter will you please go check on the children. All their yelling is giving me a headache?"

Walter opens the bedroom door, walks down the hall and is greeted by absolute bedlam. The upstairs maid is standing on a step stool screaming rats in Spanish. The downstairs maid is using the vacuum cleaner like a shield to keep another rat at bay.

"What the hell is going on, Walter bellows.

"How did they get in? Damn it Henry did you leave the screen door open again?"

"No", Henry yells. "Dad help me, they're in my room and I can't get out."

Walter storms over to his son's room, angrily swings open the white six-panel door and barrels his way in shouting at the top of his lungs. "Henry what the hell are you screaming about? You're giving your mother a headache! Pipe down or you can kiss that new X-Box you want goodbye."

Walter doesn't have to wait long for an answer. His aggressive moves frighten the furry visitors cornering Henry at the other end of the room. The black and white skunk quartet breaks formation, raise their tails and start spraying Henry, his room and his father with their offensive garlic-sulfur scented spritz. A red-faced Walter grabs Henry's field hockey stick from its resting place against the wall. He boots the hissing four into Henry's bathroom like hockey balls and closes the door.

No sooner had Walter closed the bathroom door did he turn to see his 70-year old mother run past Henry's door screaming with her hands flailing about her head and Piper hot on her tail hollering some nonsense about vampires. Walter races out of Henry's room to find his mother. He finds her standing in front of the antique hall mirror trying to remove something from her overly expensive dyed-to-order human hair wig.

"Mother, what's wrong? What are you doing", he shouts.

"Get it out! Help me get it out of my hair! Rabies! I could get rabies son! Hurry Walt, do something!" Dorothy Davenport is a vain woman. No one in her family has seen her natural hair in the last 46 years. Her vanity runs so deep that she would rather stand there struggling to detangle the fruit bat from her head with the wig on rather than run the risk anyone seeing the state of her scalp.

By now, the entire household is awake and working furiously to counter the vermin invasion. The rats are captured, the skunks corralled and the fruit bat restrained by the strawberry-blonde strands of Grandma Davenport's custom wig. Walter completely unconcerned about his mother's modesty pulls the wig off her head and tosses it in the direction of one of the household staff who promptly dodges the flying bat nest preferring to let it hit the wall instead of catching it. Fortunately, for Dorothy the quick removal of the wig did not displace her skullcap. No one can see the evidence of her battle with alopecia. Not even her inconsiderate son. Dorothy looks at her son with teary-eyed exasperation. She slaps his chest, then realizes he's covered in something foul. She raises her hand to her nose and gags.

Piper, standing nearby, ready to add insult to injury, tells her father, "daddy you smell bad."

Outside Fitz and Jake are rolling on the ground below Henry's open window laughing hysterically. The smell of skunk escapes out the window along with Henry's whimpers. They know tomorrow they will catch hell but it will be worth it.

"Well, Olivia said it herself", Jake says.

"Yes she did, Henry is a real stinker", Fitz finishes the sentence with a grin.

A/N – As promised, I said they are going to be badass from beginning to end.

Hope you got to shed a tear, smile and have a chuckle with this chapter.