Day after day, RJ and the others began bringing in lots of new things like lunchboxes, glasses, CD players, skateboards, not to mention all of the video games they got.
I remember the first day RJ got the video game. The triplets loved it and RJ seemed to enjoy showing them how to play it.
They also got yo-yos, TVs, headphones, car seats, towels, cards, hats, lawn ornaments, cameras and printers, not to mention the food! Oh the food! The log was full, food bulging out the sides. The last few missions or so I could help out with because my leg had healed.
All it took was a couple of days or so and it already felt like RJ was a part of our little family.
I was currently sitting on the log, munching on a cookie when RJ jumped down from his tree. He grinned, "It's show time."
I nod and jump up, looking over at the others, "Come on guys."
We all ran over to the hedge and out the other side, into a yard. We all ran up to the road and stopped, hiding in a bush while RJ jumps into an open mailbox.
RJ looks down at Ozzie, "It's your time to shine, my friend. Time to play possum."
Ozzie nodded and looked up at the van as it approached us. Then he bolted out into the middle of the road and the van's breaks squealed as it tried to come to a stop. Ozzie smashed his hands on the front of the van and then jumped back and lay down, grunting as if he had actually been hit.
The driver of the van climbed out and soon did all the passengers which consisted of three boys and their mother.
"Whoa, Mom, you hit a possum!" One of the little boys said as the three of them gather around Ozzie.
"Oh my goodness…" Their mother says, gasping.
"Do you think it's dead?" One of the other boys ask.
"Wow…" The other says.
"Touch it." One taunts.
"Can I poke him?" The blond asks.
"No!" His mother snaps before her eyes ease, "That poor little creature…"
RJ pops his head out of the mailbox and nodded toward to van. We all swarmed from the bush and bolted toward the van, climbing up the back so we could get the bungee cords off of the cooler so we could take it.
"Debbie. I don't remember you signing a permit for a gathering. Group of people of more than one who wish to get-Ah!"
I jump and look up to see Gladys staring down at Ozzie in disgust.
"Timmy, uh…get the shovel from the car." The mother says and the smallest boy turns to the van.
I see Ozzie twitch because he knows he has to do something.
RJ looks at him anxiously and mouths the word, 'Stall!' repeatedly.
"Uh, lights fading!" Ozzie cries, rolling over, "Limbs growing cold…"
I manage to get one of the bungee cords up.
"Faster!" RJ says in a hushed whisper.
"I would be a lot faster if I had opposable thumbs!" I snap back.
"I see a tunnel! Mother is that you, beckoning me into the light?" Ozzie says as he gets on his knees, "Must move towards the light…"
Penny gets another one undone.
"I'm telling you, you went too far this time." Verne says, running over to the van, "Let's just get out of here and leave this."
I undo the last bungee cord, "Got it."
The others push it off the side of the van's roof and it lands on top of Verne.
"Nice catch Verne." RJ says with a smile as he jumps off the roof. He turns and holds out his arms. I jump down and he catches me, placing me on the ground before we turn to the cooler.
"Yes, yes, sweet music! I'm going home!" I hear Ozzie call from the front of the van, "Goodbye cruel world!" He pauses for a moment and then he speaks, "Oh! Oooh! Rosebud…" Then he collapses with a grunt.
"Now can I poke him?" A kid asks.
"No!" His mother snaps again.
"See? This I exactly why I called the exterminator. To kill them before they get hurt like this." Gladys says.
My eyes widen in horror as I turn to face them, "Exterminator…?"
"Everybody get out of here right now!" Verne says, his voice muffled from under the cooler.
"Right! Kids, grab those handles." RJ says, picking up one end of the cooler before turning to me, "C'mon, Dollface, we need all the help we can get."
"Yeah Rebekah, grab that corner, there." Lou says, nodding to his left.
I look over at Gladys before turning back to RJ and the others. I run over to help them and pick up a corner, "Let's get this on the other side of the hedge."
As we run with it the end of the cooler hits the pavement and we trip, the cooler's contents going everywhere.
I groan and get up, looking around as a van begins to pull up with the word 'Verminator' on the side. It comes to a stop as we huddle behind the cooler for safety. RJ puts an arm over my shoulders and ushers me down, "Get low and stay quiet..."
A man in an orange jumpsuit comes out of the van with a briefcase.
"I believe someone phoned about an animal problem." The man says, "The solution is standing before you."
I blinked at the man that posed to be a possible threat.
"Dwayne Lafondon," He says, pulling up his belt, "is here."
"Where have you been?" Gladys says, clearly annoyed, "I am holding a welcome to the neighborhood party tomorrow and so far Debbie's car has killed more animals than you have!"
"Stand down, sister." Dwayne says, putting a hand up in Gladys's face before walking over and bending down next to Ozzie, "I personally guarantee that there will not be a living thing at this party. The verminator is on the job."
I glance over to see RJ and the others shoving the various food back inside of the blue cooler.
"Leave it! Leave it!" Verne whispers harshly at us.
"Well what do we have here?" Dwayne says, drawing my attention back to him as he looks down at Ozzie. He inhales deeply before letting out a sigh, "Didelphis marsupialis virginiananis, approximately ten pounds…" Dwayne pulls on a black rubber glove and snaps the rim of it against his skin, "Male."
Ozzie's eyes shoot open at the loud snapping sound.
"I think he's dead." Gladys says.
"Really? Do you in fact have an associate's degree from Verm-Tech?" Dwayne asks her before he shakes his head and points at Ozzie, "I think he just wants you to think he's dead!"
RJ's paw grabs my arm and I turn to him as he pulls me back towards the hedge as the others carry the cooler, "Come on, move it, move it, move it…" Just before we go into the hedge RJ stops, making me bump into him. Then he turns and looks at Ozzie, touching his forearm, his shoulder, both of his eyes, his nose, his eye and then his nose. That was the signal to tell Ozzie he could give up the act.
Ozzie gave a wink to show that he saw.
"Oh…I hope it's not in any pain…" Gladys says.
Then just as Dwayne was about to grab him, Ozzie jumped up on his hind legs and made a break for it towards the hedge.
"Kill it! Kill it!" Gladys screams.
"Thank you all for coming! You've been a great audience!" Ozzie calls as he runs, Dwayne chasing after him.
We all take off inside the hedge and Ozzie is soon at our side, panting like crazy.
Everyone immediately swarms around Ozzie and begin congratulating him on a wonderful performance.
"That was just super!" Penny grins.
"It was beyond super!" RJ gushes, "It was riveting, man! You were awesome!"
Everyone cheers in agreement.
"Dad, I uh…I just gotta say that uh…" Heather starts, "…that was pretty good."
"Props for the Oz-man!" Spike says, raising his arm and making the 'rock on' hand motion.
"Oz-man!" The others cheer.
"But let's not forget our brilliant leadership, RJ." Ozzie says.
My eyes trail back to the hedge where I see a very sad Verne as he watches from afar. My attention goes from him back to everyone else.
Hammy hugs RJ around the stomach making RJ look slightly uncomfortable.
"Hey, RJ, come this way." Heather starts, pointing towards the trees, "We wanna show you something."
I smile when I remember what a few of us had done while the others were off doing the food heists. I shrug, "Yeah, c'mon dude. You gotta check this out."
"Yeah, sure." RJ says, following us as we lead him into the woods.
As we walk my hands go behind my back, locking my fingers together.
"Can you give me a hint as to what it is?" RJ asks, nudging me with his elbow.
"No." I respond.
"Not even a little one?" RJ pleads.
"Nope. It's like right here, I swear you have the shortest amount of patience in the world." I chuckle.
"Over here, this way." Heather says, running up ahead.
"This is gonna be sweet!" Quillo says as the triplets run up next to Heather.
RJ's gaze goes from me to our surroundings, his face drops as he looks around in awe.
"Check it out." Stella says, "Your new home."
It was a variety of things that we had collected during the raids over the hedge. It was all put together to look like a living room, complete with a working TV and a couple of seats.
"And look!" Hammy says, grabbing RJ's attention as he pats a car seat, "We got a seat for you right here."
"That's for me…?" RJ asks, his eyes easing.
"It's all yours." I say, gesturing around us.
"Yeah, is this…anything like what you had, RJ?" Lou asks.
"This isn't anything like what I had, Lou." RJ says, and for once I hear a ring of truth in his voice.
"Here," Hammy says, opening a can of soda and passing it to RJ, "I'm not supposed to have this."
RJ takes it from him with a smile, "Thanks."
RJ clears his throat before he points at his blue golf bag, "Is that my bag?"
"Yeah, Rebekah brought it in here so you wouldn't have to sleep up in that old tree." Heather smiles brightly.
"Really?" RJ asks, a look of shock on his face as he looks over at me.
I give a small smile and nod.
"Wow…" RJ says, leaning back in his chair as he looks around at everyone.
"Hey RJ! Check this out!" Bucky says, "We totally hooked up the TV."
"I hotwired the HD converter." Quillo smiles.
"We get like a thousand channels!" Spike adds.
"Here, can you take the remote before my dad does?" Heather asks, passing RJ a remote.
"Wow…a universal remote." RJ says in a quiet voice before looking around at everyone, "This is nice guys. Really nice."
RJ switches on the TV and I take a seat on the arm of RJ's chair, arms crossed over my chest.
"We now return to 'A Scoundrel Among Us'!" The announcer says on the TV.
A woman is looking over at a man on the screen, "You should be ashamed of yourself! We let you into our family and you decived us!"
RJ reaches his arm out and changes the channel immediately.
"I gave you my heart and you ripped it into a million pieces!" A man yells on the screen.
The channel changes again.
"Get real, Kevin, cause when you feel like a dirt bag, it's because you're a dirt bag, right? So, so, just own it. Just say it out loud." Dr. Phil says, "I am a dirt bag."
I see RJ mouth the words along with Dr. Phil 'I am a dirt bag' out of the corner of my eye, a frown on his face. My brow furrows.
"Dirt bag?" Lou says, "I don't think that guy's a real doctor. What do you think, there, RJ?"
There is no response.
"RJ?" Lou asks, looking over. But to everyone's surprise he was gone.
They look around and I stand up, "I'll go see where he went."
I scamper off into the bushes and look around as I run.
"RJ?" I call, "You out here, dude?"
I hear a bag crinkling and look ahead on the path to see RJ hypervenalating into a bag before jumping up and mumbling to himself as he begins to walk away, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, RJ, you're getting in this way too deep!"
My brow furrows at I hear the words 'bear' and 'food' as his voice gets quieter.
Then suddenly I hear a scream, "Where's the food, where's the food, where's the food!?"
I run ahead immediately, "What's going….on." I trail off when I stand at RJ's side, looking straight through the empty log, not a trace of our food in sight.
(A/N: Sorry for the long wait but I was all wrapped up with exams but now I'm back! I should be getting back into the swing of things soon so there should be an update soon.
Rebekah: And don't forget to review!
Me: How did you even get in here?
Rebekah: I dunno...Where am I exactly?
Me: My bedroom.
Rebekah: Why is it so pink in here?
Me: *Picks up Rebekah and tosses her outside* It's not pink! It's salmon!