Soon the horsemen arrived at the house. Though the ride was approximately ten minutes long, the last five Jack had serenaded the others with choruses of "are we there yet? Are we there yet? Is that it? Ooh, that one's nice. Are ya sure we aren't there yet?" Henley especially got tired of this fast. She kicked the door open, leapt out and slammed it with a thud.
"That's what ya get for annoying the life out of me!" She shouted at the car. Then she turned to look at the house. She'd seen better, definitely. The windows were grimy, the shingles needed a good scrub, heck, and even the white paint looked the color of a napkin after dipped in tea. The eye really liked putting the four of them in places that could use a little TLC, as far as she could tell. Hey, though, if they worked together as a team, plus the mysterious #5 they were supposed to get, they could fix it up. Looking at it through this new angle, she surveyed the house again. It was two stories, sat at the end of a half a mile gravel driveway in the suburbs of some town in a rural area of New York. About as out of the way as the eye could get the famous magicians without pulling a Jack and faking their own deaths. The house may've seemed a little squat, but in no time, they could get it in working condition.
Her gaze drifted down to a man in front of the black door. He was in all black, leather jacket, cotton shirt, baseball hat, dress pants, and Italian leather shoes. This must be their mystery man. He was ageless, maybe late thirties to maybe late fifties. His only light features were his skin and his eyes and he seemed heavily engrossed in a cellphone conversation. "Well, this must be him."
"Looks like it." Danny's voice. Henley spun around to face the other three horsemen and Dylan. She'd been so lost in her thoughts she didn't even know the four had climbed out of the car, grabbed their bags from the trunk, and dumped her things in a senseless heap behind her.
"Ugh, you three... don't you all know how to handle a lady's bags? No? Well you don't throw them on the floor!" She had already begun picking up the pile, dusting off each bag, and stacking them all in size order. That was when the man in black noticed them. He walked down the sidewalk that led from the front door to the driveway, standing behind Henley.
"uhhh, Henley..." Dylan stood to her left as she spun on one heel to face him, seeing the man so close. She started and stepped in line with the others, who had been behind her until then. The man finally spoke.
"Are you the four horsemen?" when they all nodded, the man continued. "Good. Your new member should be here any second."
"Oh, so you're not him?" questioned Merritt. He must've given up mentalism for the day because so far, that had gotten him nowhere. He resorted to asking questions like the rest of them.
"Taylor? Nah. I'm just the guy the eye sent to make sure you all got here in time. I'm no Taylor." he walked back to the door grinning to himself and shaking his head.
"Taylor, huh" Danny mused, trying to extract pieces about this mysterious boy through his name.
"I hope he's my age." Jack said. "All you people are too old."
"I wonder what his magic specialty is. Taylor the Mentalist does sound pretty great" Merritt decided.
"We won't need to wait much longer, here's the car now!" Dylan announced, and five heads looked down the path.
First the navy door opened. Then a surprisingly small foot stepped out, followed by a leg. Soon there was a whole person in front of the car, shutting the door with a soft thud. Four people stood silently until Jack opened his mouth "you're not a mystery man at all!"
Luckily the girl, yes girl, seemed not to have heard. She had blonde hair in a loose side ponytail over one shoulder in ringlets just loose enough to suggest they were natural. Her skin was tanned, but not too deeply. She couldn't have been more than seventeen, generously, but she was just plain short. Her hands were in the pockets of a gray sweatshirt and her mouth was slightly agape. Her grey eyes were fixed on Henley, head slightly cocked.
"No way." Taylor, this had to be Taylor, said, "a girl in the eye? I thought I was the only one! I...I'm Taylor" She bridged the gap to Henley, hand outstretched, although she let it fall before the older girl could shake it.
"Henley." the girls smiled, revealing Taylor's braces, then noticed the other four's staring and backed up to her original position and eyed them cautiously, not holding a single person's gaze for more than three seconds.
The man in black walked up to the girl and said "Taylor, I see you've met the four horsemen. They'll be living with you for the next few months." The newcomer glanced at the five, and the and in black spoke again. "Dylan, you may leave."
"K. Guys, listen to this guy and stay safe. Bye!" he walked back to the five-seater, threw Henley's purse at her, and left after waving out the window to the remaining four.
"Ok, so I'm giving you all free reign, but The Eye has some rules. First, no leaving the house without another horsemen. You also have to make sure all five of you know where everyone is at all times. Keep your phones on you, have each other's number. Finally, please try to get along. We'll send you your next instructions soon."
The man obviously had nothing else to say to the group, so the five walked into the house and he drove away. It was even worse on the inside. There were spider webs in every corner, the walls were even darker, and after some inspection, they found it only had three bedrooms and a couch. At least the electricity and plumbing worked, although Taylor was fairly certain no one wanted to drink that water.
Danny, taking charge said to the four "Alright. So, we need to clean this place up, agreed?" all heads nodded "great. Girls, you two clean the deck and yard. We'll do the inside. Merritt, can you take bedrooms, bathrooms, and hallways? I'll take the other rooms. Jack can you go to the grocery store? Buy some food and definitely a water purifier. No one wants to drink this water" he flicked the faucet on in the sink and everyone recoiled. "Four on three?" they all put their hands in the middle. He counted "one, two, three,"
"FOUR!" shouted all but Taylor, who just stood there confused. Then they went their separate ways, Henley motioning for Taylor to follow her. The back deck was, surprise, surprise, filthy. The white metal fence was grimy and the lawn was overgrown. Should be fun.
"Alright, I'll get a bucket and a scrubber to clean the deck with" Taylor spoke up, but quickly backtracked as soon backtracked as the redhead turned around. "I, I mean, if that's OK with you…"
"Sure. Get two. We can work together on the fence and chairs. Then I'll do the lawn while you sweep the deck." The small blonde nodded, turned and walked inside. After finding two scrubbers, a bucket, and filling the bucket with some of the sink water she returned to see the other girl had set up all the chairs and a table. "Let's get started then." The two started scrubbing. After about half an hour, the two started talking. The conversation started haltingly, as Henley was beginning to realize this girl had no social skills.
"What's your favorite color?"
"Blue" at this one, she didn't even look up.
"That's cool. Mine's red." The redhead went back to scrubbing, but also kept trying to strike up a conversation. Favorite animal (chipmunk), favorite hobby (magic), favorite subject in school (homeschooled). All one word answers. But Henley kept pressing, and soon one word turned to two, two to three, and slowly, Taylor came out of her shell. Henley still wasn't sure she trusted this kid, but the two were on speaking terms, at least. She was beginning to like Taylor though, and she was pretty sure Taylor liked her.
AN-another chapter! Pls. r+r, but no flames. I can't wait to see what yall think!
Missblondee- Glad you like it. Keep an eye out for Lula later. I do love girl power. I also enjoy seeing Henley tease Jack, so yeah. But I do think that Taylor would join in the fun.
Questions- seriously, what should I call these? Also, what should the horsemen have for dinner tonight?
Now I'll see you soon,
-Rain
