"Did you guys hear? There's supposedly a new kid on the island." Shelton sounded quiet disinterested.
"On Morris? Why would anyone want to live here?" Hiram asked.
"Don't think they're here cuz they wanna be, Hi." He replied, pushing his thick glasses back onto the bridge of his nose.
"True, very true. I wanna go meet him." Hi said, almost bouncing up and down.
"What makes you so sure it's a guy?" Shelton replied, tugging at the chocolatey brown skin of his ear lobe.
"Girl's'd never survive out here. It's a man's country." Hi said, making a strange, tough guy pose, made rather amusing by the fact that Hiram Stolowitski wasn't exactly... tiny.
"If you wanna go meet the new kid, just go." Ben spoke up from where he was tinkering with his boats engine, tightening bolts and oiling parts and such. The Boston Whaler runabout hadn't been running as smoothly as he liked it to.
"Dude, there's no way we're leaving you here!" Hi cried dramatically, throwing an arm over Ben's shoulder. "Come on Blue."
"I'll come if you shut up." He replied. "Now get your arm offa me."
Hiram said nothing but removed his pudgy arm from Ben's bare shoulders. Ben glared at them.
"Man, I didn't even do anything!" Shelton shouted and ducked behind some bushes a short distance from where he was sitting. Hi just sat on the edge of the dock, silent. Ben Tied up his boat and left it at the pier, shoving Hi off the dock as he walked by.
"We going or not?" He asked, ear tucking his thick black hair. With a silent apology to Sewee Ben let the dorks lead him back towards to compound where they lived to meet the new kid on the island.
The hot afternoon sun was beating down heavily on the small troop of boys. Sweat was pouring of of Hiram's brow, and Shelton had compained more than once about the heat and all of it's risks. Hi and Shelton looked at Ben with jealousy, the heat seemingly had little effect on the youngest Blue on Morris, while the other two were almost literally drowning in sweat.
"I'm gonna go change my shirt." Hiram stated, making a face.
"Ugh. Me too. This is gross." Shelton mirrored Hi's facial expression.
"Meet at my place then." Ben commanded and stalked off to his home. Within ten minutes the small group was gathered in Ben's garage.
"Who's this kid even live with?" Shelton asked, pushing his glasses a little bit farther up his nose. His chocolate skin was still slicked with sweat but the air conditioned garage was quickly drying it into a sticky, unpleasant feeling against his skin.
"He lives with Kit Howard. The guy with the Barbie girl." Hiram replied, not missing a beat. He was examining his dirt coated fingernails with little interest.
"Again, it could be a girl." Ben said in annoyance, staring at the heavy engine just above Hiram's head.
"Comon man. Women can't-"
"Your mom."
Hi became very quiet after that.
"Well what are we waiting for? You idiots dragged me back here to meet this kid, now lets go and meat them!" Ben almost literally threw them out of his garage.
The short walk from Ben's home to that of Kit Howard was short, but still quite hot.
The man himself was sitting on a chair just in front of his home. He probably had a week off to 'bond' with the new arrival to his household.
"Yo, Mr. Howard!" Hi cried out. Kit looked up in surprise and fixed his tired eyes on the trio of boys.
"Kit is fine, kids." He manages a small smile but it's obviously not a very true smile. They could all see the effort it took to plaster that one, tiny, fake smile on his face.
"We heard there's a kid livin' with ya." Shelton said, an easy smile on his lips.
"A daughter I never knew I had." Kit replied, rubbing at his eyes.
"Told ya." Ben muttered quietly.
"Can we meet her?" Shelton asked, ignoring Ben's quiet words.
"If she wants to meet you." The scientist sighed. He forced himself to his feet and opened the front door.
"Tory!" He called into the quiet house. He closed the door again and less than five minutes latter it was reopened by a girl. She was pale, her face tear stained and her green eyes dull with sadness. Her bright red hair was messy and it cascaded around her shoulders like a fiery waterfall. She was of average height with a slim build, a small waist, willowy limbs. She was very pretty, in all of the boys minds, but she looked so miserable it was heart breaking.
"What do you want Kit?" Her voice was soft, hollow, devoid of emotion. She sounded so defeated.
"There's a couple of other occupants around your age who would like to meet your acquaintance." He spoke gently, like a harsh word could kill her.
"Why?" It wasn't really a question, they was she said it.
"We just heard there was a new kid on the island. Figured we'd make you feel welcome." Shelton said to her, offering her a small smile that she didn't return.
"Well good luck with that." She snorted miserably and walked barefoot to where they were gathered and just stole Kit's drink. The man didn't complain, but they could see the pity and sympathy in his eyes.
"Tory-"
"Don't you 'Tory' me! I don't even want to be here, I just want to go home!" She screamed and ran, still barefoot, into the forest surrounding the complex. Kit stared after her at a loss for words.
"Girl drama or...?" Not even Hiram could come up with a witty response after that little display.
"No. She just lost her mother and was uprooted from her home and friends and forced to come here." Kit sighed, cradling his face in both of his hands.
"I'm going after her." Ben announced and before any of them could say they'd come, or say she'd come back on her own, he was off. It was easy enough to follow her, as she'd left a trail of damaged undergrowth and eventually bloody foot prints behind her. Despite all of the broken foliage and the bloody foot prints claiming probably painful cuts and such, she must have been very quick. As the forest became thicker Ben had to slow to a fast walk, then a normal pace. He was relieved the forest offered shade at the very least, to block the suns hot, harmful rays.
Soft, choked sound began to reach his ears. The girl, Tory, was probably crying, he realized. He kept walking, ducking under branches and stepping easily over rocks and slightly raised tree roots. He found her laying sprawled across the forest floor, one of her ankles swelling painfully, the bottoms of her feet dirty and covered in lacerations. Her narrow frame was shaking with the force of her quiet sobs.
"Tory?" He tested her name against his lips. She didn't answer him, she just curled up into a little ball on the ground, her body quaking with tremors caused by her pain. Awkwardly he moved to sit beside her, running his hand uneasily across her shoulder. When she didn't move away from him Ben pulled her into his arms and let her cry into his shoulder. Her narrow fingers gripped the front of his black tee shirt tightly, and he let made no effort to uncurl the digits, even though her nails were digging into his skin.
Ben stood up carefully, the crying girl still clutched in his arms.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her quietly as he started walking back. She shook her head against his chest and they fell into an uncomfortable silence. After a few minutes she took a deep shuddering breath and began talking.
"I just miss her so m-much. She's been a-all I've h-had for so l-long and now she's g-gone." Tory managed to get out between her heavy sobs.
"This person meant a lot to you then." He knew she was talking about her mom, so he didn't ask who she was. The sobbing girl in his arms just nodded. She stopped speaking, and eventually her body stopped shaking. Her shaky breaths evened out and he realized she'd fallen asleep. He was walking for almost an hour when he finally returned to the small collection of concrete homes with Tory still passed out in his arms.
And there we go. I think that was OK. This is long overdue so I hope all you wonderful viewers and reviewers, mostly the reviewers, have enjoyed this. If not, too bad. Just so ya know, Tory's gonna stop acting like cry baby so if you're gonna get mad at me about that. No hatin, I'm just a writer. You can hate and I shall hate right back 10 fold. You are welcome. Good night, and may you dream of skittles!