iWant My Dad
Chapter 1: The News
It was a sunny, cheery day in Seattle. The sky was blue, the laughter of children filled the air, and the sweet smell of nature engulfed the atmosphere in a hazy mist of peace. In other words, it was a beautiful day, but... -
"I'm bored," Sam moaned, as she and her two best friends walked through the park across the street from Carly and Freddie's apartment complex, Bushwell Plaza.
"Come on, Sam, we've only been walking for ten minutes," Carly replied. "It's a beautiful day, why waste it indoors?"
"And why waste it out here when the Groovy Smoothie is less than ten minutes away?" Sam responded, irritated by the nature surrounding her from all sides. It made her feel like a prissy nature-loving freak. She didn't like it - it made her skin itch. She was relieved when she saw a beehive in the distance, and picked up a rock instinctively.
"Sam!" Carly said, warningly, but Sam had already chucked the stone as hard as she could toward the hive. It hit its mark dead-on. In a matter of seconds, an angry buzzing resounded through the air. A swarm of bees rose from the hive's entrance and immediately went after the threesome as fast as their wings could carry them.
"Run!" Freddie shouted, his two friends way ahead of him. They ran and ran, farther and farther away from the park, through roads and through bushes, not noticing people's curious glances cast after them. The bees seemed to like the chase and speeded toward them, like hundreds of tiny darts hurtling toward a dartboard. Finally, at last, the three almost out of energy, the bees stopped mid air. They had reached their limit. They turned back, and Carly could swear she could hear them cursing underneath their breath.
"Phew, now that's what I call a good exercise, baby!" Sam said, punching the air, the adrenaline still coursing through her veins. Carly gave her a dirty look, heaving, trying to get precious oxygen back into her lungs. Freddie looked like he'd died, collapsed on the pavement, gasping for breath.
"That was really dangerous, Sam!" Carly scolded, after catching her breath, scowling at her careless best friend who looked like she always did after doing something completely reckless and stupid - like someone who'd just won a million dollars from the lottery.
"Relax, Shay, live a little!" Sam said, grinning. "You can't tell me you didn't find that even a little fun!"
Carly sighed and rolled her eyes. Sam would never learn.
"Where are we, anyway?" she asked, grumpy that her attempt to bring the gang outside for a change ended up in disaster. She helped Freddie back onto his feet and looked around. She'd never been in this part of town before. They were on a bridge high above a glistening river. Few shops were scattered around the area, and lamp posts and benches were dotted around the sidewalks. It looked old and rustic and pretty, but Carly was in too much of a huff to notice. Freddie took his Pear phone out of his pocket and checked his GPS.
"We're in Old-town Seattle," he informed the two girls. He looked around for a moment. "It's nice here," he acknowledged. "I've never been here before."
"Me neither," Carly told him.
"Well, while we're here, let's check around for a place to eat!" Sam commented. "I'm starving."
"Surprise, surprise," Freddie said, putting his phone back into his pocket. Sam punched him in his arm, not appreciating his humor, which prompted an, "Ow!" from the brown haired teen.
"Guys, don't fight here!" Carly put herself between her feuding friends. "We'll find a place to eat, okay, Sam? Let's just go." She seemed down.
"Hey, I know you wanted a nice afternoon with us in the park, but did you really expect it to turn out normal?" Freddie asked, his eyes soft and caring. Carly couldn't help but smile. "Now, let's get Princess Puckett something in her stomach. God only knows what happens when she's lost and hungry at the same time."
"If you don't want to find out, let's go now!" Sam said, almost whining, anxious to find a new place that sold ham. She really was hungry, and she always got grumpy when she was hungry. The thrill of the beehive was over, and she now seemed bored and restless.
"Okay, okay," a respirited Carly said, laughing. "Don't get your panties in a knot."
"Agh! You know I hate that word!" Sam screeched, covering her ears with her hands, walking toward the shops down the street.
Carly and Freddie laughed. Sam stopped in her tracks.
"What's wrong?" Carly asked. Sam's face broke into a grin.
"Mama smells me some ham!" she exclaimed, rubbing her empty stomach happily. "By the way, you two are paying," she added.
"What else would we expect?" Freddie said, him and Carly rushing after their curly haired friend who was running toward the shop that sold the delicious ham she was smelling.
~R~R~R~R~R~
After filling up on fried ham and pink lemonade at a lonely cafe a block from the bridge, the three decided to return to it so they could retrace their steps back home. Carly and Freddie had already called their legal guardians, and after a ten minute long phone conversation with his mother that consisted of his mother frantically asking if she should get off work to come and pick them up and Freddie firmly refusing, telling her to keep working, they were ready to find their way back to Bushwell Plaza. Spencer had sounded distracted on the phone since he was working on his newest sculpture (it was a surprise) so he couldn't come pick them up either. Sam's mom was out of the question, so the three were on their own.
"Look at this bridge," Freddie told Carly and Sam, awestruck, after examining it closely for the first time. "Why'd they build it so high up?"
"Yeah, if someone jumped from this big baby they definitely would not live to tell the tale," Sam added.
"Always the positive one," Carly joked. Sam shrugged.
"Mama tells the facts," she said.
"Okay, let's see," Freddie murmured, his phone out, checking his GPS again. "I'll tell us when to turn when we need to, okay?"
Carly and Sam agreed, but just then Carly's cell phone rang.
"It's Spencer," she told her friends. "Probably wanting to give us a ride now. One sec," she added, holding up a finger and answering the call.
"Yeah, Spence?" she said into the receiver.
"Carls..." His voice was heavy and strained. "I...I'm..."
"What's wrong, Spencer? Did something happen?" Carly was worried now. Freddie and Sam stared at her curiously.
There was a moment's silence on the other end. Finally he answered, and it was reluctant, like he was trying to protect her from something.
"It's dad," he said, and the tone of his voice made her blood run cold.
Carly didn't know what to say. She eventually found her voice, and even then it was strangled. "What about dad?" Carly whispered, afraid to speak any louder. She was scared if she did the world around her would break like a glass screen. Blood was pounding in her ears. This was it, her dad was dead. He was dead. Something had happened in his sub, maybe a gas explosion or maybe he'd been captured by the enemy and was being tortured for answers this very second. Her heart was beating fast, so fast, and she felt like vomiting up the ham she'd eaten only thirty minutes back, when life seemed so much more peaceful than the present.
This time the silence on the other end was excruciating. She hadn't realized that Freddie and Sam had their arms wrapped around her and that tears were spilling from her eyes.
Spencer finally uttered the words Carly was dreading: "His...his sub's been bombed, Carls."