Chapter five: A Different Side.
We walked back inside and back up the stairs to the top floor. I saw that Hannah and Jake had set up a baracade with the couch that had been against the wall. Jake was holding a crow bar and Hannah was clinging to her sock monkey. Jake turned around when he heard us coming.
"Where's Ricky?" He asked, he turned his attention back to the room, his grip on the crowbar tightening.
"Taken prisoner by the aliens?" He continued. I laughed. He could be so dramatic.
"Nope, worse." I said. He looked at me confused.
"Bethany." I clarified. He nodded in understanding. I'm pretty sure we could all agree that being with Bethany and her relationship drama was 10 times worse than being stuck with aliens. And by technicality, Ricky already was a prisoner to the aliens.
"Any action up here?" Tom asked as we all observed the room. I kneeled down next to Lee, but then Art sat down and the two nudged me until I was in front of Jake. He leaned over me closely, I was tense. I didn't trust Jake, not one little bit.
"It's been quiet… Too quiet." Jake replied. A loud crash from above made me jump out of my skin. They were in the vents! We all got up and looked at the open vent above us.
"What are they doing in the vents?" I asked Tom and Jake, looking up at them. Jake shrugged and we both looked at Tom.
"Their map. That's how their getting to the basement!" He claimed.
"What do we do?" Jake asked. Tom looked back at the vents in thought. I could almost see the little wheel turning in his head. Then I thought of something.
"The heater!" I exclaimed. They all looked at me, extremely confused, either at the fact I had an idea or... No it was probably that...
"How's that gonna help?" Lee asked.
"The heat will flush them out of the vent!" Tom exclaimed, catching onto what I was getting at, I nodded. We all made a mad dash for the stairs. We found the thermostat and cranked it all the way up. Steam rose from the vents above us and the change in temperature was almost immediately noticeable.
"Hope this works Einstein." Jake told Tom as we began walking up the stairs again. Art, Lee and Hannah were standing on the landing outside of the room.
"Sounds like they're mad." Lee said as we walked up. We all looked at the vents, their terrified shrieks were a good sign. We had them running.
"Nice job. I think it's working." Jake smiled at me. I smiled back.
"Kids! Get down here! Right now!" Mr. P shouted from downstairs. We exchanged nervous looks before walking downstairs. Tom stopped at the foot of th stairs and we all stood behind him.
"Yeah?" Tom asked.
"Who turned the heat on?" He asked us. I looked to see he had turned it back to cool. Tom reached over and put it all the way back to heat.
"I did…. We need that." He said. Mr. P glared at him.
"Are you crazy? It's the middle of July!" He exclaimed, turning it back.
"Yeah, b-but i-it's freezing in here." I thought on my feet. The others, aside from Tom, chimed in with agreements and acting like they were cold. Maybe that's taking it a bit too far...
"And I think Hannah's coming down with something." Tom added. Queue Hannah's fake cough. Mr. P didn't buy it.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"We're fighting aliens! I'm pretending it's pretend!" Hannah piped up. We all looked at her with looks of 'what the hell are you thinking?'
"I mean! It is pretend!" She corrected herself.
"Okay. But I'm not pretending… So don't touch the thermostat." He replied in his fatherly tone, switching back on the cold. Tom switched it back.
"Tom. I'm not playing around." Mr. P said, switching it back. Damn…. He was one persistent parental unit…
"Neither am I." Tom said, switching it again. Oh no… I don't see this ending well…
"Tom! I'm not kidding. Do you wanna spend the rest of the summer up in your room?" Mr. P threatened. Dude… He's so harsh on Tom… But at least he cares.
"Why can't you just believe there's a reason I'm doing this?" Tom demanded.
"A reason you're blasting the furnace on summer vacation?" Mr. P asked.
"Yes!" Tom exclaimed.
"A reason why you shot your sister's boyfriend?" He asked.
"Yes!" Tom snapped. He was getting angrier by the second.
"A reason why you're talking back? Giving me attitude? Failing your classes?" He asked again. Ouch… Low blow Mr. P… Low blow.
"So that's what this is about?" Tom's voice came out softer than before. Mr. P shrugged, waiting for an answer. I held my breath, waiting for the explanation.
"I failed them on purpose! Yeah! I tanked my grades! I'm tired of getting picked on because I'm a brainiac! Heck, even Rory get's picked on! I'm sick of it!" Tom exclaimed. Everyone's eyes grew wide, save for me since I already knew that. The tension was getting worse...
"I was a brainiac. It worked for me." Mr. P said.
"Well I don't wanna be like you! I want to be cool!" Tom exclaimed. We were stunned into silence. The tension was thick in the air now, you could totally feel the awkward as we waited for Mr. P to respond. After a few seconds he did:
"Don't touch the thermostat." He muttered before walking away. Tom sighed and we all began to walk upstairs.
"Is it true? Did you really fail on purpose?" Jake asked Tom. Tom looked back at his cousin,
"No one likes a mathlete." He sighed. For some reason, that little comment made me snap. I rounded on Tom and Jake having been in front of them before that.
"I liked the smart Tom! The Tom who didn't care what other people thought. The Tom who helped me with my grades. The Tom who appreciated what he had! God, Tom I don't even know who you are anymore and I'm your best friend!" I exclaimed. I wasn't entirely sure what had come over me, but I felt better after I said all that… I spun around and stalked the rest of the way up the stairs. I grabbed a wooden baseball bat from the floor and sat down between Art and Lee. They both gave me a scared look and inched away subtly.
Jake's POV.
(Written by my best friend and twin brother Tyler.)
Rory stormed away from us up the stairs. I couldn't help the fact my eyes fell on her butt. She really had gotten a lot hotter since we were 13... She still wore glasses... But unlike most people, she looked even cuter in them. She was still short, but thinner. She was just hot okay? I looked at my cousin. He had really effed up this time.
"I had no idea she felt that way." He muttered thoughtlfully.
"Yeah…." I murmured. I could tell she still kind of hated me. But I'm not sure why… We were great friends when we were younger, at least according to Aunt Nina and Uncle Stu and Nate and Nana… I don't know what happened. All of a sudden, when were 7, she just stopped talking to me. Then our war of pranks and insults begin.
"Listen, we can't fight these things with our parents still around…. Or with Rory and I fighting." Tom said to me.
"It's not like you can just send them away." I replied, starting up the stairs.
"Maybe we can." He said. I looked at him. Here comes the genius.
"Here's what I want you to do. Get Hannah's electric Barbie car, tape a camcorder on it, and send it to the aliens… Then can you talk to Rory? I'm going to work on getting rid of our parents." He said. I shook my head and looked at him. Did I hear him right?
"Dude. She hates me!" I exclaimed.
"No. She doesn't… She's just a big grudge holder…" He replied.
"What did I do for her to hold a grudge on me?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Well… You were pretty mean to her when we were kids… Almost killed her a few times…" He trailed off in thought.
"BECAUSE I LIKE HER!" I exclaimed loudly, then my hand flew over my mouth. Did I really just say that out loud?
"And I never meant for her to almost get killed. Not ever!" I added as an after thought.
"I KNEW IT!" Tom shouted happily, smirking at me. I gave him a confused look.
"It's been obvious since we were kids." He explained, I sighed.
"I guess I really blew it though, huh?" I asked. He shook his head.
"Nah… She likes you too… Just give her time. You should have seen her when you went scaling the house. She's never that concerned about anyone." He chuckled. I smiled a bit.
"She was worried?" I asked. I thought I heard her shout my name, but I assumed it was my imagination acting up.
"Yep." He said, I smiled even wider.
"Okay." I said. He nodded and separated. I decided to talk to Rory first, like Tom said, we'd be in deep shit if we didn't have her help.
"Hey." I greeted softly, walking up and kneeling next to her. She had a baseball bat in her hand. She looked at me suspiciously before responding.
"Hi." I held my hands up as if I was being arrested, I wasn't here to do any harm, just talk.
"I'm sorry about Tom…" I started. She looked at me, extreme confusion on her face.
"Why are you sorry?" She asked.
"Because you were right… He doesn't seem to appreciate his parents." I replied. I know she didn't say that exactly, but I knew that's what she meant. It was kind of obvious.
"I just… I wish I could help him see how lucky he is to have parents that care about him… Ones that care how he's doing in school... Hell, how he's doing in general..." She sighed, eyes focusing on the wall in front of her. My brow furrowed.
"I'm sure your parents notice." I said. She let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Yeah… They only notice a two things. My Dad notices when there's no more liquor at the house and my Mom notices when my Dad's drunk." She replied, holding up 2 fingers.
"That's all they notice?" I asked. Wow… Didn't expect that…
"Well it depends if my mom's home, but I don't blame her for wanting to get away most of the time though. My Dad's mean." She said. I felt the anger bubble up inside me.
"What do you mean?" I asked, keeping my anger in check. I controlled my breathing and looked at her, waiting for her to respond
"I mean when he drinks too much…he gets mean. Like not physically mean, just nasty and rude." She replied. I looked at the floor.
"I didn't know that he was like that." I muttered. She chuckled.
"Why do you think I spend so much time with Tom and his family?" She asked.
"I just assumed you really liked Tom." I replied. She laughed.
"Nah, Tom's too much like my brother." She said. I let out a breath I hadn't even noticed I was holding. She didn't like him like that… Whew.
"Oh okay." I said. We sat in silence for a few minutes, it wasn't awkward or anything. It was comfortable. I was debating on how to explain to her about the plan when she looked at me. I looked at her curiously.
"Thanks Jake." She said, taking me by great surprise.
"For what?" I asked extremely confused.
"Listening." She ressponded. I smiled at her.
"Anytime." I said. She smiled back and I began to explain to her the plan.
Rory's POV.
I was more than shocked when Jake apologized for Tom's actions. I would have eventually forgave Tom… When he begged for it on his hands and knees… And when he announced to our entire school that I was the most amazing person to ever grace the Earth, like he was supposed to when we were Freshman and he lost a bet. I was even more shocked when I told Jake so much about my family. This is my enemy! He isn't supposed to care. God! This world is going mad... I walked from the room and into my own. I grabbed my laptop from my suitcase and walked back out. I walked back up and handed it away to Lee. While he set up the camera and synced it so we could monitor it, Jake taped it to the Barbie car. Hannah was off to the side watching, I was guarding us. Jake walked over and placed it in the vents.
"Send it!" He instructed, I crawled over to the computer and Hannah followed, Lee stood a little bit behind us, steering the car, Jake joined my other side.
"Still no sign of them." Lee said. I sighed, it was so boring watching the screen of blankness.
"Where are they?" Hannah asked, looking up at me. I looked at Jake for an answer, he looked down at us
"Two options." He began. Oh here we go...
"We're either dealing with a retreat..." He started, then looked back at the screen,
"Or a surprise attack." He said. Just then the camera jerked and was lifted from the ground. It twisted to reveal one of the aliens. I jumped away.
"AH!" We all jumped again as 'NO SIGNAL!' flashed onto the screen.
"I-i-i-it's a s-s-s-surprise a-a-a-attack!" I stuttered out. All of a sudden the car flew down from the vent and landed with a thud on the ground. I looked down to see it torn to peices. I looked at the others and we were all thinking the same thing,
"RUN!" We yelled in unison, we all got up and ran from the room, we ran into Art and Tom.
"We need your help." Tom said. Okay… Time to be mature… I'll put aside my anger and focus on saving the planet from possible invasion.
"The aliens ate your camera…" I said.
"I thought of a way to get rid of our parents." He said. We looked at him. Lee went with them, while Jake and I stayed with Hannah. I made Art take my camera and video tape what they were going to make Ricky do becaused according to Tom, I would die laughing.
"Fireworks!" Jake exclaimed suddenly after about 3 minutes of silence. I looked at him confused. It was daylight out... Too early for those.
"What?" I asked.
"We need fireworks." He said, and with that he ran down the stairs and returned seconds later with smoking fireworks and matches. Oh yay… Fireworks in the house…
"I'm not gonna lie, this was a good idea." I said,
"I'm full of 'em." He said. He handed me the matches and started opening the packet, I lit a match and handed it to him. He lit the explosive and tossed it into the vent. Within in seconds, it was filled with smoke.
"Happy 4th of July! Space maggots!" He exclaimed, tossing another one in. Tom, Art, and Lee came running up the stairs.
"Guys! There's smoke in the vents." Tom announced.
"It's us." Jake said.
"We have unfriendly-s on the move." I said.
"We tracked them down and held them off." Jake finished the explanation.
"Nice." Tom smiled.
"Parents?" I asked.
"Gone." He smirked, handing me my camera. I would watch the video later.
"Nice." He said. He held up a bigger firework. Yay! This one goes boom!
"Now we can take it up a notch!" He said. I lit the match and stuck it to the wick and he tossed it inside. The loud explosion made everyone jump, I laughed. The aliens terrified shrieks filled the air. Ah… Music to my ears.
"This could get ugly." Tom said. He turned to Hannah.
"Hannah go hide." He instructed. She nodded and ran off. The twins tried to follow her.
"Yeah!" Art agreed, shoving Lee forward.
"Seek safety!" Lee shouted, I grabbed the back of his shirt as he ran past me.
"Not you." I saidn yanking him back. He shrugged out of my grip and walked back to his brother's side. Jake sent about 5 or 6 more fireworks into the vents. I bent down and grabbed the largest one we had. I lit it and looked into the small space..
"Sayonara suckers!" I exclaimed, tossing it into the vent. It went off and their shrieks filled the air.
"Phase one: Complete.." I smiled at the boys. They smirked back.
Chapter five, done!(: Tell me what you think, I tried to fit in more Rory and Jake, but I think I did badly. Sorry if I did. Hope you enjoyed it though.(: Reviews are love. (:
Much Love,
Rhey
