For the next couple of hours, we drove in silence. I think it was because we were both still in awe at what had just happened. The air was continuously foggy, but it was humid outside, and our windows were rolled down a bit, letting in the billowing sound of the air of the highway to our ears. The rain had calmed down to a slight drizzle, the raindrops came into the car, decorating the leather of the armrest on the door and my arm.
I rested my chin on my palm and looked out the window at the blurry countryside. We had a while to go, but I really wanted to know what in the world that thing was that I battled with. I had never seen anything like that before in my life. Okay, well, maybe something like it in a movie. I sighed; Adam and I had to do a little research before we could continue on our journey. Even though we were driving, we still had no idea where we were driving to. I looked at Adam, after finishing my bag of Sour Patch Kids of course, the leftover sugar tinkled in the bag as I put it in my backpack.
"Hey, Adam?" I asked and looked at him.
"Hmm?" His eyes were focused on the road, the windshield wipers scraping across the windshield.
"Do you think we could stop at a library or something?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Why would we need to do that?" His eyes quickly met mine but darted back to the road.
"We need to figure out what in the world we're going to do. Ya' know, plan." He opened his mouth to argue but then shut it, sighing.
"You're right, I guess," He turned the steering wheel, easily curving down the highway but I could tell what he just said wasn't easily settling with his pride. "I don't really have a clue where we are actually going." I smirked, that was one time Adam told me I was right. This is a record for the books, kids.
"That's exactly why we need to stop somewhere," I stated. "We need to find more information, maybe about who would try to kidnap me? I know I'm not some wanted criminal or convict or anything like that." Adam shook my head, agreeing with me.
"Right," He said and kept on looking out the window. "You can go on my iPhone to find out where the closest local library is. I'm sure you'll find something." I nodded and dug through his bag which was in the back seat. My body curved around the leather seat and I saw his bag which was a dark green backpack. I opened it and looked through it, instantly finding the phone. I sat back in my seat and turned it on, making it come to life and shed light on my face, along with the window. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something dart away from the side of the car. My eyes widened and my fingers trembled a bit as they clumsily typed away on the phone's cold, glass surface.
We entered the library and the waft of books instantly hit our noses. We both took a big breath in and smiled at each other; the smell reminded me of a book shop in town that we used to go to every other Sunday and read books there all day, maybe even to go do our homework there sometimes. You would think that after going to a book shop for a while would allow you to navigate through a library easily, but, boy, you were wrong. Adam and I searched the shelves for almost a half an hour but this library was big.
We sat down at a wooden table next to a small coffee shop and Adam ran a hand through his hair, his leg twitching in aggravated agitation. I just rested my palm on my chin, a disappointed frown balanced on my lips. We didn't talk to each other for a couple of minutes, only because it would lead to a fight. One negative aspect in our friendship is that when we're both frustrated, we'll clash against each other, like a cat and a dog, to put it in the words of my mother. I'm awfully impatient and he's terribly stubborn, those two characteristics don't mix very well.
I learned this the hard way. In second grade, I was making a diagram of the solar system for a project that was due in a week, when Adam asked me if I wanted to play basketball with him at the time. I declined and he asked me why I couldn't come - of course- and I told him that I was working on this project. He said that he remembered doing that project and I told him that I needed help with it since my mother was busy teaching flute lessons and my dad wasn't back from work yet.
So, he came over and attempted to help me. I was using a variety of different sized Styrofoam balls for the planets, and let's just say after he attempted to help me with it, my kitchen looked like it had just threw up paint and snowed, all at the same time. My mother came down, flute in hand, to find that the planets were completely destroyed, our faces multicolored with paint and that I was crying.
What had happened was Adam was trying to somehow attach Pluto to the wire that would make it look like it was suspended in mid-air. After about ten minutes of my complaining and Adam's attitude towards this whole project, he threw Pluto hard against the wall and it exploded into blue, plastic dust. My eyes widened at the sight but then they went into angry slits.
"I worked REALLY hard on that!" I cried and grabbed Jupiter, throwing it at him, making the light blue paint, which wasn't fully dry yet, and smear on his white uniform shirt. He grimaced as he looked at his shirt and then looked up back at me.
"And my mom worked REALLY hard on cleaning this shirt!" He grabbed a paintbrush which was dipped in yellow paint and smeared it across my face and, smirking the entire time. My face flushed with anger, my seven-year-old fists balling at my sides.
"I. Am. Going. To. Kill. You." I said all those words with pronunciation and Adam scurried from the table with some of my planets and a cup of paint and the paint brush. He stood in front of the counter which ran in the middle of the kitchen, grinning mischievously and looking directly at me.
"Oh yeah? You'll have to just come and get me," He taunted and ran to the other side of the counter. I pursed my lips and grabbed the rest of the plastic balls, along with two bowls of paint and a paintbrush. I walked towards the other end of the counter and we had that staring contest at each other, sort of like the ones which the cowboy and the evil cowboy have, except there was no tumbleweed that rolled in between us, it was just my family's dog, Schnitzel that ran away in fright. As if reading each other's minds, both of our hands went towards the paint brushes and we flicked paint at each other, globs of green and blue flying through the air and coldly splashing against our faces. I flinched.
But that didn't faze me, I grabbed Venus and threw it at him but sadly he ducked behind the counter and it poofed into dust against the wall. He threw Neptune at me and I caught it, some of it deteriorating away due to the grasp of my hand. I threw some more paint at him and this time, the paint speckled the side of his jaw and down his neck. I smiled in triumph but then his shot of paint and it streaked against my lips. I wiped the paint away with the back of my hand and furiously frowned, the paint already leaking into my mouth. We stared at each other again, both of us deciding what to do next but I did something that surprised both of us. I sprinted towards Adam and tackled him, smearing my paint all over his face and clothes. Sadly, he did the same. I couldn't get that paint out of my hair for a good week.
A tap on my arm made me fade back to reality. I shook my head and met Adam's expectant gaze.
"Oh, good, welcome back to earth, Althy." He snickered, but I rolled my eyes and pursed my lips.
"Maybe I didn't want to come back," I murmured and Adam shook his head.
"We can diss each other later, but look," He pointed to a girl who was putting books back on a shelf; a cart was at her side. She was about my age, and she was really pretty, she had short blonde hair in a bob, with bangs that had a streak of blue in it. She was pale and the tips of her hair were blue too. She pushed up her glasses as she bent over to the cart to get more books to feed the shelf. I looked back at him.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I raised an eyebrow also.
"Aren't I always?"