Holding His Heart
~insanity and co~
Chapter Three; "That Poor, Poor Girl."
They found the house.
Of course they found the house, it was Ullr on her trail, after all.
It was small, light blue and cozy with a light on in one of the windows upstairs. Anders groaned when he saw the Hello Kitty umbrella leaning up near the front door and if it wasn't for Mike covering his mouth and dragging him off the front porch, he would have woken up the whole neighborhood.
The thick line of bushes around the sides of the house make for perfect hiding and stalking material, as noticed by all four boys when the porch light across the street flickers on.
It takes several circles around the house (hiding in the thickets and hushing each other for every broken branch and shuffle) before they're certain that nobody is awake downstairs, and while they found the house, Anders' hopes of seeing his One are dashed.
After a good half an hour of Anders trying to peak into windows and even attempting to break into the back porch door via a broken twig, Olaf and Mike have the decency to pull him away and stuff him back into the car before the cops are called; Axl playing lookout and making sure the neighbors didn't notice four suspicious people sneaking around.
"You will not break into someone's house on my watch," Mike scolds, roughly slamming the car door and causing everyone to freeze until they're sure no one in the house had heard them.
The boys each get back into the car and they pull away from the curb.
"Well at least you know where she lives," Axl says with a shrug, straightening up in the seat once they were a few blocks away.
"Yes, now Anders has an address to help him stalk this poor girl," Olaf says sarcastically, crossing his arms.
"Poor girl? Really, grandpa? Poor girl? No, poor me!" Anders says, twisting in his seat. "I'm the only one here left with half of their powers and out of everyone in the world mine were given to this geeky little girl. Now there's some wonky prophecy about having to get with the Brag-ster-"
"You did not just refer to yourself as the Brag-ster," Axl groans.
"-so I would say it's a win for her. Hmm?" Anders finished, eyebrows raised and challenging his grandfather to disprove his logic.
"Ohhh, that poor girl!" Olaf moans, throwing his arm over his eyes and ignoring the scowl from his grandson.
"Would you stop with that?" Anders yells, turning again only to be pushed back into his seat by Mike.
"Well he's got a point!" Axl butts in.
"That poor, poor girl-"
"If everyone will just shut up." Surprisingly, everyone does as they're told and Mike takes a slow, calming breath as they come to a stop sign. "You will go home tonight and sleep," he says, pointing a finger to Anders who thinks for a moment before nodding. "No stalking, no breaking into people's houses and I don't care if they're the One," he adds when Anders' mouth flies open to protest. "No breaking into people's houses."
"I've got classes tomorrow, can we hurry this up?" Axl asks and though Mike rounds on him, he seems to agree after a moment of thought.
"Yeah, sure."
"Drop me off first?" Olaf asks, tilting his head forward and giving his grandson his best 'you know you want to' look.
"You're living with me and we're all the way across town, why would I drop you off first?" Mike asks slowly, his irritation bubbling up to the surface.
"Because I'm tired."
"The order goes Axl, Anders, and then we can go home."
"But I'm really tired-"
"That wasn't a question!"
"You sure they're gone?" Penny asks, peaking her head up from beneath the mountain of blankets that had been dumped on her. She pushed the dark hair from her eyes and straightened her pajama top.
"Yeah, their car's gone," Lee says, peaking through the curtains and pulling them back when he was satisfied that the stalkers were gone. "You should probably carry a gun from now on, though."
"A gun? That's a little excessive, isn't it?" Penny asks, throwing the blankets onto the ground in a heap and grabbing the controller from the coffee table.
"Says the girl that enjoys shooting off heads-"
"Of Nazi's! They deserve it." She grins and Lee kicks her feet off the coffee table to pass by and sits next to her, fishing the other controller out from between the cushions.
"Let the competition resume!" Lee yells with a gleeful laugh and turns the TV back on.
"Shhh! It's a secret competition!" Penny hisses, grinning when loud footsteps echoed through the house from the second story.
"SOME OF US HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW!" The voice screams in irritation and a door is slammed shut. Penny and Lee sit frozen on the couch for a few moments, waiting until the footsteps stomped back across the room.
"Let the competition resume!" Lee whispers, pressing start and their thumbs flew into a frenzy on the controllers.
A loud, shrill ring fills the house and in a flash the game is paused, Penny's controller is thrown onto the cushion and the girl flies across the room to grab the phone before the third ring begins.
"Hello?" she asks quietly, stepping around the dining room table and peaking through the curtains to the empty street below.
"Penny, this is Ruth McAnthony from across the street," an old woman's voice fills the air, just a little too loud and causing the two to cringe.
"Oh, yes. Hello Ruth, what can I-"
"Are you aware that there were four odd fellows sneaking around your house just a moment ago?" Her voice cuts Penny off crisply, but she had grown used to the older woman's sharper tongue and brushed off the irritation.
Penny notices the light on Ruth's porch is on and a curtain is nudged to the side, no doubt where the older woman had been spying on the stalkers.
"Yes, Lee and myself took care of it, there's no need to worry-"
"I nearly called the police when they came crawling up in that beaten up car. I told myself, 'Those young men look like they're up to no good', and boy was I right. Immediately they went over to your house and went around the sides and back multiple times. I had the police on-"
"Thank you very much for your concern, but my roommate and I have the situation under-"
Penny let the curtains fall back and she sighed.
"I had the number for the police right on the tip of my fingers and was ready to go and grab my telephone-"
"They're gone now, and there's really no reason to-"
"A young woman like yourself should always worry when the likes of them are sneaking around-"
"A young woman like myself has a young man like Mr. Gusse here to protect her," Penny says sharply, cutting off Ruth in the same manner as the old woman does, effectively quieting the older woman and sending a wide grin across Lee's face.
"Mr. Gusse, young-woman-protector," he whispers with a snicker.
"And it's quite late," Penny says quickly when Ruth takes a deep breath, ready to go off onto another tangent. "I really have to be getting to bed."
"Well, yes, I suppose it is very late," she says slowly and sighs. "Please be careful, dear. I only worry because-"
"And thank you so much for your concern, but I am very well taken care of here and do have work in the morning. I'll see you tomorrow at the mailboxes." Penny clicks the phone off and sets it back on the receiver, sighing and tiptoeing back to the couch where Lee has her controller in his hand.
She takes it and sinks into the couch.
"Any more distractions coming our way?" Lee asks, finger on the button that would restart their competition.
"You're going down."
Author's Note: A very special thanks to all the reviewers so far! :) Your words are so encouraging.