Ian Abernathy's POV
We had just graduated two weeks ago, and I had wondered since graduation night why Ivy kept acting so... off. But now, lucky me, I knew. Apparently, she was being stalked by a middle school girl in her dreams, and now she said that the girl has sent us a letter, giving us her location as if she was expecting us to drop everything, drive cross country to go pick her up and take us all to the mysterious 'safe haven' from her letter. The scariest thing about the whole thing was that my sister actually wanted us to do it.Before I could even process what was happening, Ivy had left a letter for dad telling him we were going on a celebratory graduation road trip together, saying we were sorry that we couldn't give him more notice, and within ten minutes she had both are bags packed. My sister was seriously ADHD, I was too of course, but I was still in shock that she wanted to go through with this horrible plan because both of us never made horrible plans, it was against our very nature!
As soon as she handed me my suitcase, I snapped out of it, tossing the dufflebag right back at her. She gave me a confused and innocent look, but I didn't care, I was steamed,"What do you think your doing? You must be out of your mind if you're actually believing a single word from that letter!" I announced, probably harsher than I planned to be. Ivy just simply met my eyes, and I could tell by her conflicted expression that she already knew this plan was crazy, all she needed was my support. So, since I am the best brother in the world, I took the dufflebag and went and started the car. What would she do without me.She slided in next to me, hopefully our old white 2007 Ford Taurus was still in good enough shape to get us across America, dad took the 2014 Chevy Malibu to work with him, while all we had was the get-you-through-highschool-mobile that may or may not break down on us by the time we reach Missouri.
Oh well, car troubles aside, that only seemed to worry me, we hit the road. It would take around fifty hours to reach Spring Valley, California from Cambridge, Massachusetts. We were on the road for literally five minutes before Ivy slapped me. I swerved slightly before sighing in frustration, "What now?"She pointed at the letter, where in the P.S. section it told us to take a pit-stop in Boston. Well that is just great... Boston was twenty minutes away... in the opposite direction. Without even questioning my sister, I took my first chance to turn around and headed straight to Boston. Once we got there, we drove and drove without a specific destination until my sister shouted, "HERE!"
What the heck? I pulled where she directed me to and it was right in front of this old mansion, there was a sign out front that said,The Chase HouseWhy were we supposed to come to a house for homeless teens, it didn't seem right. But Ivy had already exited the car and was approaching the house with serious determination, I reluctantly followed her. She knocked on the door and it immediately opened to reveal a 5'4" African-American man with a crooked nose and a very handsome suit.
He gave us a suspicious look, but didn't say anything as he let us inside, once we were in the mansion, he shut the door hard behind him, turned to us and asked darkly, "Are you the ones?" Ivy nodded. He continued quietly, "We've been expecting you. My name is Blitz, follow me."He led us to room with four other people, a blonde boy who seemed to radiate a warm summertime feeling, a green-haired girl dressed in an array of pink and green clothing, another girl, who looked Middle-Eastern, wearing a green hijab, and a tall pale man with stark white hair and a candy cane striped scarf. It was definitely a... diverse group of individuals.
The girl wearing the hijab approached us and introduced herself, "Hello, my name is Samirah al-Abbas, but you can call me Sam. Welcome to the Chase House..."
"What are you doing here." The green-haired girl interrupted."Smooth, Alex. Real smooth." The blonde, summertime boy muttered to himself.
The pale man with the candy cane accessories did some hand motions in their direction and Sam responded with different hand motions in return. Great. So they didn't even have to talk behind our backs to talk about us. Suddenly, I really wish I had taken that offered sign-language course, and what's worse, Ivy hadn't taken the class either.
Slowly, I raised my hand with great caution. They all looked at me with piercing eyes. Hoping that I didn't sound like a scared school boy when I spoke, I asked, "Why are we here?" I honestly didn't know who I was even asking at this point because my sister was no help at all.Sam looked over at the blonde haired boy with a confused expression, turned back to me, saying, "You don't know?" Ivy jabbed me in the side and quickly responded,"Of course we know why we're here. Right, Ian?" She looked at me desperately, but I through with her ridiculous plan.
"No! I don't what we're doing here! I don't know why we're going on this idiotic mission to meet a girl that's been literally stalking your dreams! I mean, how messed up is that?"
I took a breath, I almost continued my rant, but the green haired girl, Alex, started clapping slow and dramatically.
"Wow! And I thought Magnus was emotional. You two are going to get along splendidly," She exclaimed smugly gesturing between the blondie and me. Both of us were unamused.Ivy was steaming, she leaned and whispered harshly, "We'll talk about this later, Ian."
"We'll talk about it now!" I proclaimed, with just as much severity in my voice."Do you two need a moment alone?" Alex asked sarcastically.
If I was in a better mood, I would've enjoyed her sarcasm, but right now I did not find it very helpful. But, I began to cool down. I looked over once at my sister and decided now really wasn't the time, but when it was the time, she would not escape my wrath.Taking a deep breath, I calmly looked at Sam and asked, "So, why do you think we're here?"Sam just simply put her hand inside her coat and pulled out a blue envelope and handed it to me.
Opening it, I read the contents:
Dear Chase House,My dear friends on the Norse side, although we've never met officially, I need your help. I saw that you have a new mode of transportation. I'll be having two close friends of mine stopping by who are in desperate need of a more stable mode of travel. If you could be gracious enough to lend it to us, I give you my solemn that it will be returned to you unharmed.
Wishing you good fortune in times ahead,
Marie
How rude of her to assume we're friends. The nerve of some people! How is Ivy remaining so calm? I mean, this is some creepy stuff. But, she's acting like it's totally okay for a fourteen year old psychic to know everything about you and at the same time know everything you're going to do next. Like I said, it's creepy. Then, I heard Ivy speak up,"So, what's this mode of transportation?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alex smirking, then she did the most unexpecting thing imaginable, she pulled out a gold kazoo and blew into it. It sounded like a cat choking on a harmonica. Then, a gush of wind nearly blew me off my feet, Ivy, on the other hand, had been blown completely to the ground, which caused her to look quite dazed and confused. It made my day slightly better.Standing before me was a boar. Not just any boar, this boar was the size of a tractor and pure gold. Ivy looked absolutely terrified, there was a reason why she never liked Pumba off the Lion King. Although, I was not a big fan of the boar myself, just to show up my sister, I slowly approached it, patted its snout, and said in my most friendly manner,"Well aren't you a tough guy," I turned to Magnus, "What's its name?"
"Gullinbursti, but we like to call him Gary for short." Magnus informed us while trying to hold back a smile, "Don't worry about his speed and strength, he'll be able to handle both you two... and your car."
I could tell he wanted me to ooh and aah, but looking at this massive creature, honestly, I wasn't surprised.The candy cane dude walked up to Gary the Golden Boar and began attaching a saddle and two extremely thick gold chains on either side of the saddle, then began to lead Gary over, to my great horror, our car. I did not know what they were about to do next. Blitz followed Candy-Cane over to the car and attached the chains to the front fender. With how fast I'd seen that boar enter, I had a sinking feeling that the front half of my car would be ripped off and dragged off with us to California before I even got the chance to say, "Let's go!"
Listen, maybe I should be freaking that giant gold boars exist, but my sister and I have seen some crazy stuff over the years. I just tried to put it in the back of my mind. Because if I thought about it too much, let's just say people would begin to think that I was a tad bit crazy. And, I didn't want the words possibly insane written on my resume to West Point. I'm pretty sure Ivy felt the same way.
When they were finished getting Gary ready for riding, I quickly jumped on the saddle, just wanting to get this whole trip over with. But there was one problem. Ivy was still petrified on the side walk. Something truly sad about Ivy is that she's allergic to bacon. No, it was not a life choice. She had just simply inherited our dad's pork allergy. I, thankfully, was spared from this terrible curse. The painful part is living in a house where no bacon is allowed. It's like asking a kindergartner not to color, that is how dependent I am on the rare and sacred meat. Ivy, although she was only allergic to eating a pig, she was still quite capable of riding one.
Who knows? Maybe golden pigs are hyper-allergenic.
Quickly jumping back off Gary, I kindly thanked our strange new friends for their hospitality and the free bacon, sorry last bacon joke... for now, and threw Ivy over my shoulder, planted her on Gary, mounted Gary so I was sitting in front of her, and gently asked her, "Are you going to be okay?""Fine!" She quickly responded, her voice sounded rather high pitched. I would've maybe believed she was actually fine, but as I kicked Gary in the side and announced, trying to sound confident,"Giddy up, Gary!" My sister nearly crushed my internal organs, and throughout the whole trip, which was blurred and contained a lot of whip lash, as we sped to California at the speed of sound, my sister continually kept muttering, "Fine!" To herself over and over and over again. THE. WHOLE. WAY. THERE!Finally, when we saw palm trees and beaches, Gary began to slow down and Ivy began to loosen her death hold. Kindly, putting my hand on hers, while she continued her, "Fine!" monologue, I announced,"Welcome to California! Thank you for riding Air Boar! Now let's go find your creepy stalker! Apparently, she's awaiting us. So, let's not keep her waiting!"