Hey guys! It me Tytonic back with chapter 3! I know that I don't have an upload schedule, but I honestly don't want to have no choice but to post on certain dates, I just wanna sit down and write when I feel like it! So I'm sorry I left you guys with a cliffhanger last chapter, but expect more, cause every good writer needs cliffhanger, what else is gonna keep you guys here? Just to tell you guys, the cliffhanger isn't being continued right now, it should be continued on chapter 4. So basically the thing I've been doing, and might keep doing is switching POV every chapter, from Gregor to Luxa, and once they meet up (I don't think I really need to keep the fact they will see each other again a secret, why else would I have both of them in the story?) I will keep it at Gregor's POV, but that may change at different points in the chapter. By the way, if anybody is wondering, meg is boots, she started going by her real name Margaret, and they just call her meg. Also, thanks to The Toast Ninja, ManCatLover, Goddess of Soccer 11, Regina, and ScrumtousToast for reviewing, favoriting, and supporting me as a writer! Thanks to everybody else that has read my story, as of right now I have 110 views! 110 views and it has only even been a week! I got almost half of them Thursday to, so I can tell my story is starting to get around more. Ok so here is the chapter, and as usual, all responses are encouraged and appreciated!
See you guys later
-Tytonic
Disclaimer: I do not own any of The Underland Chronicles, only the characters that I added (Alex, Zoey, Max(so far)).
Gregor and the War of the Myriapods
Chapter 3: Punishment
"Are you sure? Are you ok?" asked Zoey, still very concerned.
"Just leave me be" said Gregor as he walked out the school doors as the bell began to ring.
Gregor knew what was going to happen, he knew how much trouble he would get into, and he even ignored the teacher yelling at him from the school.
"Gregor you get back here this instant! You don't know how much trouble you getting yourself into!" yelled the teacher after Gregor.
Gregor was going home, he needed to be alone, he just needed time to think.
2 days later. . .
After Gregor's little "incident" at school 2 days ago, he had gone home and went to bed, or at least tried to go to bed, he had just laid there for hours on end. This is the kind of thing that Gregor did a lot, and just about the only thing he really enjoyed, just sitting, and thinking.
There was one main issue with this, aside form the fact that he was skipping school, is that even though Gregor wanted to to last longer, life didn't care, and his parents got home from work.
His parents both had jobs, and with their combined efforts, they had managed to pull the family out of debt, and up to the point were they could sustain the family much better. Gregor's dad still had relapses from his sickness about 1-2 times a year, and it only lasted about a week each time, so it hadn't effected his new job an 9th grade science teacher to much. Gregor's mom had gotten a new job as a banker in Virginia, and was making decent amount of money an hour.
Gregor's mom always got home around 6-7 pm, and Gregor's dad always got home around 3pm, so Gregor hadn't been bothered by his dad for the entire time, due to the tests he was grading.
Once Gregor's mom got home, she checked the message machine, which Gregor's dad hadn't bothered to check. When Gregor heard the messages starting to play, he knew what he had coming, and he knew he was in huge trouble.
Gregor had gotten Suspended for 3 weeks from school when all 5 of the boys that attacked him had claimed that he had attacked them, I mean how else would 1 kid take out 5 boys? Basically every kid in the school knew didn't happen. Gregor would have tried to claim his innocents, but the fact that he was grounded to his room for the entire 4 weeks didn't help, and since the school didn't tell the kids what happened to Gregor, his friends hadn't know, and couldn't talk to the school about what really happened.
Gregor didn't really care anyway, it was just more time to think. "Well I guess mom is still trying to act like this family is normal, like she thinks that keeping me out of the world is really a punishment, I mean it might be for other kids, but never for me, how long will it take for here to finally give up on trying to fix this family? We are all permanently scarred, I mean meg still talks to cockroaches with weird clicking noises, and not only that but the cockroaches actually listen to her" thought Gregor.
Honestly, how long would his mom keep this up, acting like it never even happened? If you so much as say the word under in this house, there would be awkward silence, and then his mom would change the subject to something that didn't have anything to do with that place. She cant keep it out of the family forever, and she has recently started to show serious sign of stress from it to.
Now back to the present and here Gregor is, laying on his bed, doing absolutely nothing, at 5:27 pm. He had been wondering when dinner would be, its usually around 5, even though his mom was only ever there on weekends since she got home around 6:00 pm, so she would get food on her way home usually.
"Gregor, Lizzie, Meg! Come to the table, dinner is ready!" Yelled Gregor's dad from the kitchen.
Gregor slowly and groggily slid himself out of the bed, since he was grounded he didn't get out of bed very often, so when he did his legs were always stiff. Gregor shook each leg a bit to loosen them each up, and them went of to the kitchen. When he got in the kitchen he could see Lizzie and Meg at the table while his dad was serving the food. Gregor sat down and realized that his dad had made Chicken pot pie, he had to admit his dad was getting better and better at cooking.
Once Gregor had finished eating he quietly thanked his dad, and went back to his room, were he assumed he would be for the rest of the day.
As quickly as it seemed, Gregor snapped awake, and realized he had dozed off. He looked at the clock, 8:00 pm, so his mom would be home by now. Once Gregor was fully awake again, he resumed what he was doing, absolutely nothing. You would think that Gregor would have gone insane doing nothing for so long, but surprisingly he didn't, he only became very very patient. So patient in fact that he could wait hours and hours on end before getting bored.
"Kids come to the living room, we need to talk, as a family" yelled Gregor's mom from the living room. He really hoped that this wasn't another lecture on how they had to try to be a happier family, he had gotten sick of those lectures after the 4th one.
Gregor slid out of bed, and slowly made his way to the living room, and preparing for the worst he walked into the living room and sat down on the couch across form his parents. Lizzie and Meg were already seated, though Meg was sitting crisscross on the floor, even though there were open seats.
"So, I have been talking to your father. We don't want to tell you this, but my sister has been killed in a car crash 2weeks ago, and we are going up to maine for here funeral soon" said Gregor's mom, with the look of pain in her eyes.
Gregor felt a small amount of pain over this, but he never really like this aunt anyways, she was very weird, and always seemed to be mean to him. Still, he knew he had to be polite and go to her funeral.
"The funeral is in about 2 weeks, we will be leaving in around 5 days, so we just wanted to let you guys know ahead of time, so that we didn't have to take you out of any plans you may have made" Said Gregor's dad, picking up were his mom had left off.
"Gregor, were going to be gone for about a month, so we give you permission to see your friends, and say goodbye to them, we know you don't want to leave without them knowing were you are." said Gregor's mom, and she clearly didn't like the idea of it, but Gregor's dad had probably convinced her of it.
Gregor knew what this meant, he would have to see his friends before he left, whether he wanted to or not, and frankly, its not that he didn't want to, its just that he preferred staying in his room. He would call Alex and see if he wanted to get together, oh and he would probably have to call Zoey to so she didn't think he hated her. He would call them in the morning, right now he just wanted to go to bed, it was now 9:00 pm, and he was very tired. He didn't even know why he was tired, he had only laid in bed all day anyway.
That night Gregor had the same nightmare, and woke up in a cold sweat, just like he does almost every night. It was 8:46 am, the nightmare had lasted almost 12 hours, just like it usually does, usually a bit less then 12 hours, and more then 11 hours and 30 minutes. Oh, he would have to call Alex and Zoey up to see if they wanted to do something today, though he had no clue what to do with them. Gregor got up, got dressed, Grabbed Ares claw, which was sitting on top of the picture.
Gregor was just as protective over the claw as he was over the picture, many people had asked what type of animal it came from, and he had always simply replayed that it was from a Lion, and he had gotten it as a gift from his aunt who visited Africa sometimes. This was all a lie, and even though it wasn't a lion claw and his aunt (who is now dead) visited Africa, everybody seemed doubtful about it, but what else would it be, a giant bat claw, not likely, so they simply went with it. The one time someone had seen it he was out at the museum of Natural History in New york, before they left for Virginia. A guard had seen it and confronted Gregor cause he though that he stole it from one the the fossil exhibits, but after about 10 minutes of arguing he let Gregor go.
Once Gregor was ready for the day, he opened the door to his room, went and grabbed a phone, and called Alex.
"Hey Gregor what's up?" asked Alex once he picked up the phone.
"Hey Alex, I was wondering, I have to talk to you and Zoey about some things, wanna do something today?" Asked Gregor, in his normal raspy voice.
"Sure, how about we see that new movie, Avatar? It looks awesome with the blue people and stuff" suggested Alex, exited about seeing this new movie.(I seriously suggest you get it on DVD if you haven't seen it, its my favorite movie ever)
"Ok works for me, I'll come by and we can get Zoey to, in say, half an hour?" said Gregor, trying to work out the plans.
"No try an hour an half, it doesn't start till then, I'm on Fandango, and we can get lunch once its over" said Alex
"Ok, I'll call Zoey now dude, see ya in and hour and a half" said Gregor
"Ok see ya later" said Alex.
Gregor hung up the phone, relived that it didn't become anymore difficult then that. He then proceeded to call Zoey.
"Hello?" asked Zoey as she picked up the phone.
"Hey Zoey it's Gregor" said Gregor, still in his usual raspy voice.
"Oh hi Gregor!" Said Zoey, her voice instantly showing signs of her cheering up a bit.
"So I was wondering-" Said Gregor getting cut off by Zoey.
"Yes?" Said Zoey, cutting off Gregor, it seemed she though he was asking her out on a date.
"Well me and Alex are going to see that new movie Avatar, I was wondering if you wanted to come with us, were getting lunch afterwards" Asked Gregor
"Sure, that would be great, whens it start?" Asked Zoey, clearly less exited then a moment before, when she though Gregor was asking her out.
"In an hour and a half, I'll come by and get you ok?" said Gregor.
"Ok see you then" said Zoey
"Ok bye" said Gregor as he hung up the phone.
Well that was easier then expected, now he just has to ask his parents, even though he knows they will say yes. He set the phone down, and went over into the kitchen were his family was having breakfast. They never made Breakfast for Gregor, because they knew he never eat Breakfast anymore.
"Hey mom, dad, can I go see a movie with Alex and Zoey? Its in an hour and an half" asked Gregor, his voice a bit clearer but still raspy, he'd done more talking today then he usually does in an entire day.
"Sure honey, you need me to drive you and your friends?" asked Gregor's mom.
"No were just gonna walk" said Gregor.
"Ok honey" said Gregor's mom.
Gregor went over to the bathroom. He turned on the shower, and took a 20 minute shower. Once he was finished he dried off and went to his room. He looked at the clock. It was about 9:12 am, he still had about an hour left. Gregor went to his dresser, opened the top drawer and reached to the very back. He pulled out a small wooden box. He opened it up and there lay around $4,100. Gregor did a lot of work like shoveling snow and stuff like that, since he had nothing better to do. He never really wanted anything either, so he never really bought much. He took out around $120 from the box, and closed it, then put it back were he had gotten it from.
He went over to his bed and laid down, he knew he still had about an hour left, so he did what he does best, he went deep into though. By the time he came back to his senses he looked over at the clock. It was now 10:02 am, and with the amount of time it took to walk to his friends houses, he had to leave right now. Gregor grabbed his coat and went to the front door.
"Be careful honey!" said his mom
"You know me" said Gregor as he looked at his mom, and he ran his fingers over the giant scars on his chest, the ones the bane had given him.
Gregor didn't try to hide the fact that he touched his scares, in fact he made sure his mom saw him touch them. The last thing he saw before walking out the door was his moms face fill up with anger, and before she could yell at him, he closed the door.
Gregor looked at his watch, and it read 9:18 am. He had to get going now, so he started to jog down the street at a pace he knew he could maintain for over half an hour.
By the time he came to Alex's house Alex was sitting on his steps waiting.
"Hey Gregor!" shouted Alex as he ran up to Gregor.
"Hey, were going to get Zoey then were going to the movie" said Gregor, with a very raspy voice, as usual.
"Ok well lets get going, don't wanna miss the start of the movie" Said Alex.
Gregor and Alex started to walk down the road, going to Zoey's house. Then Alex suddenly started jogging, he then shouted back to Gregor "Race you to Zoey's house!"
Oh it's on, Gregor always loved running, and he loved racing more. He never lost a race, never. So he broke out into a sprint, and so did Alex. Gregor was about 20 feet behind Alex by the time he was into a sprint. After a good 45 seconds he was neck and neck with Alex. Gregor was one of the fastest kids in his school, and has done track every year.
By the time Gregor reached Zoey's house she walked out the door to greet him.
"Hi Gregor, were is Alex?" asked Zoey noticing Alex's absence.
As Zoey asked her question, Alex almost crashed into the two, he hardly missed them by only about 2 inches.
"Oh god Gregor, how do you run so fast?" Gasped out Alex in quick and deep Breaths.
"Wait did you guys race here?" giggled Zoey.
"Ya and I had about a 20 foot start on Gregor to, and he still beat me by a long shot" Said Alex, his breath starting to even out.
Zoey just smiled at Gregor, and all 3 of them started to walk down the street in the direction of the movie theater. By the time they had gotten there, the movie had started 5 minutes ago, but it probably still had 10 minutes of advertisements left before it really started.
The 3 of them bought tickets, a large popcorn, and then a small water each, which was still enormous. They all went into room 8 and took seats at the very back, by Zoey's insistence.
They sat through around 5 more minutes of ads before the movie started. About half way through the movie Zoey yawned, and laid her head down on Gregor's shoulder. Gregor was a bit surprised by this, but he knew how she felt about him and he just let it go. Gregor just hadn't noticed the small rat about 20 feet to his left, staring at him.
Once the was over, Gregor had to wake Zoey, who was gently sleeping with her head on his shoulder. She mumbled something Gregor didn't catch before she finally woke. She clearly didn't realize that she had been sleeping on Gregor shoulder, but it only saved her the embarrassment. Once they were out of the theater they started walking over to the nearest restaurant, which happened to be a Dominick's.
"So what did you think of the movie?" asked Alex, breaking the awkward silence.
"It was great!" Said Zoey.
"It was great, a new favorite for sure" said Gregor, with a raspy but mildly happy voice, though he was never truly happy.
Once the 3 of them got to the restaurant, they ordered a medium pepperoni pizza. while they were eating Gregor had told them about him going up to Maine soon. All 3 of them ate about 2 slices, and with full stomachs paid for the pizza and left. Gregor and Alex dropped Zoey off at her house were she said goodbye to the 2 boys.
"I had a great time guys thanks!" said Zoey as she kissed Gregor on the cheek and ran into her house giving them no time to respond.
Alex seemed a tad angered by this but said nothing, he had always like Zoey, just like over half the other boys in there school, this group excluding Gregor. The 2 boys raced back to Alex's house, but Gregor let Alex have around a 60 foot head start. Gregor still beat him by around 20 feet.
"Awww god man I don't think ill ever beat you" gasped out Alex, attempting to laugh, but couldn't since he was out of breath completely.
Gregor and Alex said bye to each other and Gregor started back to his house. Using echolocation, Gregor could have sword he saw a small rat across the street, behind a tree looking at him, but perhaps it was just him imagination.
And that would bee the end of chapter 3! I know not as good of a cliffhanger as last chapter, but its plays a role later in the story. I have a question for you guys, and it has to do with part of the story, I'm thinking of bringing Zoey, and maybe Alex down to the underland with Gregor, Problem is I don't know how well that would work out, you guys think I should do it? I don't need an answer immediately, but I'm gonna be bored tomorrow and might post chapter 4 then. Also thanks for all the support I've been getting! I've gotten more in a week then I expected in a month! It great, and I'm starting to get more and more confident in my writing abilities! Though the F I got on my writing essay on Friday didn't help with that. As usual all responses are encouraged and appreciated! Thank you all and see you next time!
R&R people,
-Tytonic
*CLICKCLICKCLICK*
*POOF*
Tytonic- hi Gregor, hi Zoey! Gregor explain this to Zoey please.
*Gregor explains this all to Zoey*
Zoey- Umm, ok this is weird but I'll go with it.
Tytonic- Ok so now that were on the same page I have something to do.
*Tytonic sprays Gregor with a entire bottle of silly-string*
Gregor- what the crap what that for?!
Tytonic- For trying to hit me last time, I suggest you don't do that again, I still, and always will have full power over this story.
Gregor- Uhhh, as long as you didn't hurt Luxa.
Tytonic- Don't worry, she's fine, for now.
Zoey- Wait who's Luxa?
Tytonic- Not important, at least not to you, and perhaps it will be later, but that part isn't final yet, so all I'll say is you wont like her at first
Gregor- Don't tell her
Tytonic- Don't worry I wont I wont.
Zoey- Wait I wanna know!
Gregor- No
Tytonic- well this is getting boring, see ya guys later, I'm starving.
Gregor and Zoey- Bye
*CLICKCLICKCLICK*
*POOF*
Zoey- wait, why am I still here?
Tytonic- all I'll say is that Luxa, was the girl in that picture.
*CLICKCLICKCLICK*
Zoey- wait wha-
*POOF*
Tytonic- I'm gonna regret telling her that aren't I?
Hope you all like it,
-Tytonic