The boys try to light up a lantern they found along the way. "Yeah" They began cheering once they finally did it.
The room lit up and revealed an intricate layout of pipes. Stef squints and brushes her hair back. She mumbles something to herself before speaking. "Hey Mouth, your dad is a plumber. What do all of these pipes mean?"
"These look like water pipes… gas pipes… drainage, maybe." He stops. "Hey wait a minute guys shut up for a second!" He hangs on to one of them. "These probably lead to a building or something, a foundation. If we make enough noise, maybe someone will hear us!"
They all go to one section and start banging on them. After a few minutes, the pipes start to make a strange noise and everyone stops what they're doing. Everyone's eyes turn to Mouth slowly as he yells. "REVERSE PRESSURE!"
"Let's get outta here!" Everyone yells as they run away. Kelly suddenly stops when she can't feel the magnifying glass against her neck. "Mikey! My magnifying glass!"
Mikey turns around and grabs her hand. "Where is it!" He yells.
"I don't know, it must have fallen off when I fell or something! I have to go get it!"
The pipes are about to burst when Mouth grabs them both. "We need to go!"
When they do, everyone is splattered with water. Mouth tries to use his jacket to cover it but instead the water pushes them all back. They all retreat down a small passage.
Using the lantern, Mouth leads the way this time as everyone else follows behind.
Mikey yells out. "A lantern, guys! Someone must have been here before us!" He runs off with Mouth in tow.
Kelly and Data walk with each other slowly. "Mikey is loving this." Data says.
"Yeah, he really is…" She reached for her neck, trying to feel around for the magnifying glass. She wanted to believe she hadn't lost it.
"What happened?" Data asks when he notices her frown.
"I lost something special to me…"
"You could always buy another one!"
"No, Data. It's much more complicated than that…" Her voice drifts off. She sighs as he raises an eyebrow. "I, well, I stole it from my uncle a really long time ago."
"I'm sure it wasn't a big deal…"
"That's what I thought originally. But I guess that's all he had left of my aunt. She died that year. I didn't know her that much." She sighed again. "I took it because it was pretty, and when my uncle found out it was gone he took it out on my mom. He thought she took it because they were related and well, my mom never liked my aunt anyway. They always argued. It caused a big rift in communication between our two families and it hasn't ever felt the same. We moved here because he finally made an attempt to get closer to my mom again…"
"You could just give it back now then!" Data smiles.
"Well, I planned on it, but now it's lost…"
"Who is your uncle?"
"…Mr. Perkins." She bit her lip. Data's mouth drops and he stutters.
"You. Mr. Perkins. Troy." He starts to say something else but Kelly shushes him.
"Please keep this a secret between you and me. If anyone else found out, they'd hate me and turn me away…"
Data sighs and nods. "Fine. I'll keep it a secret."
They finally caught up with the rest of them and heard Andi's panicked voice.
"What's wrong with her?" Data asks.
She kept going on and on about how she should've stayed with Troy. How she has a great body, and Brand agreed (which Kelly overheard and rolled her eyes at).
"…how many years do I have before I get old and fat, before I lose my hair, before I look like him?" She says as she points to a skeleton. She screams at it and retreats into Brand's arms.
-ooOoo-
Meanwhile, Scott Snyder slouches in his seat as he tunes out Troy's friend's annoying conversation.
He was "invited" by Troy to go with him and his friends to his country club, where all they do is either flirt with girls on the green, sleep with girls in a custodial closet, or talk about them. That, and comparing them to Andi.
"I bet Andi would be a lot better than Bianca." One of them said.
"Who even is Andi anyway?"
Troy looks at Scott and smirks. "Typical. Only a loser wouldn't know her."
"I mean, I just moved in a couple days ago, so…" Scott rolls his eyes.
"She's the hottest girl in town. She's the captain of the cheer squad, too. She looks so fine in that tiny skirt…" He licks his lips.
Scott looks off in the distance. Yeah sure, that thing was attractive and all and Scott wasn't denying that maybe he would have liked it too, but the way that they talked about it disgusted him. He needed to escape. I mean, he'd jump down a well if he had to.
