Authors Note: This is the second installment of Cherí's Angels. I hope ya'll like it! Thanks for all the encouraging reviews! I didn't come up with the two riddles. Credit for those go to the brilliant J.R.R. Tolkien.
Cherí's Angels: Phase Two
Caitlyn and I immediately found Jason's bed. My head snapped up when I heard Nate moan and toss around. Mitchie took up post by Nate's bed. She gave a thumbs up. I dared to give a small sigh of relief. Nate was still asleep. Are we good or what?
"Ready, Charlie?" I whispered. Caitlyn nodded. "Let's get this party started!" Caitlyn, Mitchie and I left Jason's bed side and began our 'borrowing'.
"You know, if I didn't know who's bathroom it is, I would think it was a girl's!" Caitlyn said quietly. Mitchie and I chuckled.
"Are ya getting this, Mike?" I asked. Mitchie nodded.
"Okay, I think we've got 'em all." Caitlyn said. Excellent.
"'K. Why don't you hide them and I'll do the planting." I replied. Caitlyn nodded.
"Got it." She slipped quietly out the bathroom door. I pulled out the two slips of paper from my pocket and unfolded them. I stuck one in the metal rim of the bathroom mirror.
I placed the remaining slip on Jason's nightstand. Mitchie and Caitlyn came up behind me. "Are we good?" Mitchie asked. I nodded.
"Let's go." Caitlyn murmured. I took one last parting glance at Jason's sleeping form before following Caitlyn and Mitchie out the door. Miraculously, Nate remained asleep.
When we were out of ear shot of the guys cabin, we burst out laughing and high fived each other. "You know, I think that qualified as ninja work!" I exclaimed. Oh yeah, the Mountain Dew was getting to me. This caused Mitchie and Caitlyn to laugh even harder.
"Definitely!" Mitchie said.
"Did you get all of it, Mitchie?" Caitlyn asked. Mitchie nodded and smiled.
"Every second!"
"So, how long do you think it'll take the guys to figure out where we hid their stuff?" I asked when we got back to our cabin.
"Hmmm.....I don't know. That's a toughie." Caitlyn said.
"I'd give them an hour and a half." Mitchie began. "'Cause you know how much Shane loves riddles, Nate does okay with them, but I don't really know about Jason."
"What about you, Cherí?" Caitlyn queried.
"I give 'em two hours."
I tried my best not to make the two riddles hard, but you never know. Besides, I wrote it at ten thirty at night. My brain tends to make weird, and I mean weird, connections when it's that late. I smiled. It was times like these when I was reminded of something Jason often told me. "I'll always love you, no matter how weird you are." I don't think he's ever realized how wrong that sounds. But I know what he means. I've learned to just roll with the punches.
"You know, we should probably keep a closer eye on our stuff, after this is over." I said. Caitlyn's eyes widened.
"They wouldn't dare!" Caitlyn exclaimed, rolling over on her stomach to face me, her chin in her hands.
"We did." Mitchie reminded.
"True, true." Caitlyn said. She frowned. "But what's to hide?"
"The reason of our existences: our chocolate!" I announced dramatically. Caitlyn giggled.
"I think they have enough sense to know not to get between us and our chocolate." Mitchie said, laughing.
"One would think." Caitlyn replied. "I'd love to continue this conversation, but it's now 11:30 and I'm tired. G'night!" Shortly after that, Mitchie and I followed suit. Tomorrow would certainly be interesting.
OOOO
I got up earlier than usual the next morning, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I had just finished fighting with my hair when Mitchie and Caitlyn got up. Mitchie, being the pro-active person she is, took her shower last night, so Caitlyn was the only one in need of our bathroom. After we had all gotten ready, we went down to take up our posts outside the guys cabin.
The three of us, and Mitchie's video camera of course, sat on a couple of boulders near the scene of our prank talking about anything and everything. "So, we've decided that Lidnt Truffles are better than Hershey chocolate, but is Lindt better that Ghiradelli?" Mitchie said. Yep, you got it. We were talking about chocolate. What can I say? We're chocoholics!
"Hmm...that's a tough one." Caitlyn said.
"I'd say that they're equally good, but it depends on my mood." I replied.
Our conversation was cut short by a loud "Cherí!" By the sound of it, Shane was the first to get up.
"They're up!" Caitlyn said brightly.
"I've got the camera up and running." Mitchie whispered. Most excellent! The three of us moved closer. Hmm. I was wrong, Nate was all ready up. But I wasn't surprised that he hadn't made such a fuss; he always a 'go with the flow' kind of person. We dared to peak our heads above the window sill. Shane was in the process of shaking Jason awake. Who needs TV when you have a grumpy Shane Gray?
"Wake up! Wake up, Jason! Our girlfriends stole our stuff!" Shane exclaimed. Jason moaned.
"Go. Away. I'm trying to sle..." Jason blinked. "Did you just say the girls stole our stuff?"
"Yes!"
"Don't worry, Jason. They didn't take anything of real importance. Oh, and they're going to give it all back." Nate put in. Jason sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looks so cute when he's waking up!
"What'd they borrow?" Jason asked.
"Our hair stuff! And your straightener!" Shane exclaimed. Nate laughed, noticing us. He winked. Oh boy. Nate had better not spoil our fun. "Why in the world would they steal our stuff!"
"Cherí wants to see my hair curly." Jason said as he yawned. And..... what's the other reason? Come on, honey. You know what it is. "And she might also want to annoy you, Shane." Bingo! Everyone has to have a hobby, after all!
"Me! What'd I ever to do her!"
"Would you like me to list the reasons, or was that a rhetorical question?" Nate asked with an innocent smile. Shane growled. Obviously, Shane's more upset than Jason. Not than I'm surprised. Shane's never been a morning person.
"It was rhetorical! I mean, I haven't even taken any of her chocolate!" Shane ranted. "Lately." I'm definitely going to have to get a lock and key now, just in case. Jason stretched and got out of bed.
"I wouldn't try to either, if you have any sense of self-preservation." Jason advised. Nate laughed.
"Cherí wouldn't hurt me! She dating you!" Shane scoffed. Caitlyn rolled her eyes. Tsk, tsk. And I thought Shane knew me.
"I wouldn't be so sure, Shane." Jason replied. "Well, feel free to continue ranting. I'm goin' to take my shower." Shane stared at Jason.
"Bu...." Shane started. Nate shook his head.
"Oh, come on, Shane! They're going to give us back our stuff. We just have to solve this riddle." Nate said.
"A riddle! She left us a riddle!" I think Shane's hearing is going. It's like Mom always said, to much loud music isn't good for your ears. Then again, Shane might have been hit on the head too many times as a child.....
"Well, actually two riddles."
"Two riddles!" Shane whined. Oh, come on. They aren't that hard. Their conversation continued along the same lines until Jason emerged from the bathroom. I grinned. His hair was a curly mess.
"Come on, Jason!" Shane exclaimed, immediately pouncing on his brother. "We've got riddles to solve!" Jason blinked.
"Riddles?" Nate explained that Mitchie, Caitlyn and I had left two riddles as their only clue to where their hair products are hidden. Jason groaned.
"At least let me eat breakfast!"Jason requested.
"No way! I want my stuff" was the quick reply. And Mitchie was getting all this.
"You gotta let me get coffee, at least." Jason begged. One look from Shane settled the debate. Hmmm....I should've left caffeine for Jason. "All right, fine." Jason sighed.
"Okay, here are the riddles:
'What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than trees,
Up, up it goes
And yet never grows?'
That's the first one." Nate began. I'm rather proud of that one. "Here's the second:
'It can not be seen, can not be felt,
Can not be heard, can not be smelt,
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty hills it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.'"
"I thought you said you went easy on them?" Caitlyn murmured. I frowned.
"They make sense to me! The first one's 'mountain' and the second is 'dark'." I answered. Mitchie glanced over at me.
"How in the world is that supposed to lead them to the spot?" Mitchie asked. I shrugged. Technically, there are two riddles, but there are really three, 'cause you have to put the two answers together to come up with the answer. Once they correctly answered the first two riddles, it should make perfect sense to Jason.
"Wow." Nate began. "Cherí sure doesn't make them easy." I groaned. Come on, Nate! Think!
"How do 'ya know Cherí wrote them?" Shane asked.
"Do you really think Mitchie or Caitlyn would make 'em this hard? I mean, come on. Cherí's an English major. She does this for school all the time." Not really, actually. I just write a lot of essay about literary criticism and the like.
"Whatever. Let's just get these answered." Jason said. This was definitely going to be interesting, not to mention amusing.
OOOO
Two hours later....... Well, what d'ya know? They've been goin' at it for two hours and have managed to get the first one. I think Nate's forgotten Mitchie, Caitlyn and I are out side the window.
"Okay, so it can't be seen, felt, heard or smelt. Light, maybe?" Jason ventured. Close, but not in the gold.
"It can't be, 'cause it's 'behind stars' and it fills holes." Shane replied, frowning. Jason threw his hands up in the air.
"I don't know then. I'm completely in the dark on this one." Nate face suddenly lit up.
"That's it! Dark! The answer's dark!" Nate exclaimed. Finally! It only took them two hours!
"'Mountain' and 'dark'?" Shane asked. "I don't get it. How's that supposed to help us?" Think, Jason, think. Save Shane from hair disaster!
A slow smile spread across Jason's face. "The laundry basket." Jason said. Shane and Nate blinked. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
"What?" Nate asked.
"The laundry basket!" Jason jumped out and rushed over to his laundry bag, and proceeded to dump out it's contents. Low and behold, there sat the hair products and straightener. Shane whooped for joy. Mitchie grinned.
"Can you say 'blackmail'?" Mitchie murmured.
"Yeah, we should definitely send a copy to Mrs. Gray." Caitlyn replied. Definitely.
"Okay, can someone please connect the dots for me?" Shane demanded. Jason laughed.
"Cherí and I were talking one day, and she commented that she bet that we had a 'mountain of laundry'. And then she made some comment about how she felt bad for all the bugs in there 'cause of all the 'guy sweat', but that at least it was dark." Shane looked indignant.
"We do not have bugs in our clothes!" Shane exclaimed. Should Connect 3 stop producing music anytime soon, they would make really good comedians.
"Well, no, but Cherí had about four Dr. Pepper's that day within two hours." I grinned. Basically, I was hyper. Really, really, hyper. Nate shuddered.
"That explains a lot." Nate shuddered. "Cherí on caffeine."
"Excuse me, I have to go fix my hair." Shane announced.
"'Primp' your hair is more like it." Caitlyn muttered. Mitchie and I giggled.
"Very true, very true." I replied. Mitchie lowered the camera and switched it off.
Caitlyn, Mitchie and I sat down under the sill. Should either of the guys come out, we would still be hidden, thanks to the massive bushes. My phone vibrated. Good thing I hadn't put it on sound. It was Jason. Well, this was going to be interesting.
"Hey, babe!" I greeted cheerfully, trying to keep my voice down.
"Hey, honey. Nice job with the riddles."
"Riddles?" I asked innocently. "Whatever do you mean?" Caitlyn sniggered.
"You and the girls stole our hair products." Jason replied.
"I'm not sure you could really call it stealing since the stuff didn't leave the cabin. But thank you! We're rather proud of our ninja work." I could just picture Jason's eyebrows rise.
"Ninja work?"
"Nate's a light sleeper." I said.
"True. You know, Cherí you could've just asked me not to straighten my hair. You guys didn't have to go through all that trouble." Jason responded. Again, everyone needs a hobby.
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Besides, I bet Shane's face was priceless. You have to admit, it was a great way to annoy Shane." I replied. Jason laughed.
"That is is, that it is. I wish I had a camera so I could've taken a picture for you. Jason said. Mitchie, Caitlyn and I exchanged knowing glances.
"Me too. Why don't we finish this conversation in the Mess Hall? The girls and I are leaving now." I suggested.
"'k! See 'ya there! Oh, and I would watch out for Shane."
"Will do! Love you!"
"Love you too! Bye!" Jason and I hung up.
"We gotta go." I whispered. The other two nodded.
We rose silently and walked back down the path to our cabin so Mitchie could import the footage. That done, we really did walk to the Mess Hall. It will definitely be interesting to see what kind of revenge Shane has in mind, 'cause I'm sure he won't let this go unpunished. Silly Shane. He should remember that I'm the queen at 'Find the Button', which means I'm also excellent at finding ingenious hiding places. Not to mention the fact that Caitlyn has two brothers of her own. Silly Shane.