Chapter 9

He let out a little strangled yelp as we crashed in to his back. Emmett's force pushed him to the floor and as the two figures had gone down I was no longer leaning my weight on anything and fell crashing down too.

"It's been seven minutes" Emmett whispered threateningly in Joe's ear and that was it for me, I burst out laughing hysterically. Joe rolled over a little, surprisingly managing to shift Emmett's weight and smiled

"Well hello there Mr Murderer and accomplice"

"Mr Murderer…. I like it!" Emmett's face lit up with yet another grin and I started laughing even harder.

Joe and I both stood up eventually and looked at the insanely grinning Emmett on the floor who was now mumbling about how he would so get his students to call him Mr Murderer.

"Does this mean that Emmett is going to be a teacher here?" I nodded and he smiled. "What subject?"

"Chemistry and Biology… on Mondays and Thursdays or Wednesdays and Fridays"

"Oh my god, that is freaking awesome! He's gonna be my teacher!" Emmett had by now stood up and was looking at Joe with amusement

"It'll be Mr Murderer to you" I burst out laughing at this and the others started seconds later.

We eventually calmed down and started walking back. There was a slightly uncomfortable silence for a minute or two and I listened to the sounds of the forest then Joe started laughing uncontrollably. Emmett then looked around before starting laughing too. I looked at them confused and they just laughed harder. After a few seconds of feeling left out I had to ask.

"What's so funny?"

"Yo... (laugh)… You… (laugh)… Your… (laugh)… hair (laugh)" Joe replied. I put my hand on my head and felt twigs and leaves in it.

"Hey, that's not funny guys" I replied, pulling leaves out. Joe and Emmett gradually started to recover.

"I beg to differ" Joe eventually said having fully recovered his composure. I glared at him and he chuckled again. "Come on, lets get back" he said leading off in to the woods again. We left Emmett on the floor while he continued laughing. I swear, for someone who's about twenty years old he sure acts like a five year old.

We had been walking along for a bit through the dark when Joe decided to start whistling. It took me a second but then I realised the tune. He was whistling the funeral march so I pushed his arm gently but he didn't move in the slightest.

"Morbid much?" He just grinned and once he got to the end of the first section he said

"You'll learn to love me for it" and then started to whistle again. As I listened to him improvising bits to the tune I started whistling too. As I whistled the tune he harmonised below me and it actually sounded really good… apart from the fact that it was the funeral march but we won't dwell on that. Fairly soon the tune came to the end and we had to stop but once the tune was over he immediately started to whistle 'Don't Worry Be happy' and I laughed then joined in too. As we came to the chorus the school came in to view and he finally gave up. We both laughed a little then carried on walking.

"What room are you in?"

"31, it's the opposite of the room I was in last year"

"That's quite cool" I then thought for a second as to what room I was in "Hang on, I'm in room 32, we're neighbours!" I exclaimed and he smiled.

"Awesome" We walked for a little while and I tripped on a loose tile but Joe caught me. "Careful, we can't have you breaking something before school even starts"

"What and it'll be fine once it has?" He just shrugged and smiled so I pushed him, trying to make him fall over but my push did absolutely nothing to him and it felt like I was just pushing a brick wall.

"Anyway, Ms Accomplice, what do you say to a game of twenty questions to get to know your new friend better?"

"Well Mr Morbid, I say it sounds like a jolly good idea" I said copying his accent; very badly might I add. He smiled at me as we went through the main entrance of the housing building.
"Right, hurry up; I want to get to my room so we can get started!" He said and ran down the hallway, coming to an abrupt halt outside his room.

"Okay… why do we have to be in your room to ask questions?" He just shrugged and opened the door.

"Welcome to my wonderful rooms" He announced opening the door to an immaculately kept living room where a very smug looking Emmett was sat.

Chapter 10

"Hey Emmett" Joe said completely nonchalantly, like he was expecting him to have been there.

"Hey guys, what took you so long? And why did you leave me alone?"

"We did tell you that we were heading back… I think. Besides, you were rolling on the floor laughing and didn't really feel like waiting for you to recover. We took so long because your accomplice walks at a snails pace." At this I whacked his arm again

"I don't walk that slowly!" I complained and he laughed again. "Oh and Emmett, you're covered in leaves and twigs" Joe continued to laugh as Emmett attempted to brush himself clean, effectively pushing everything in to a little lump on the side of his head so he looked like he was wearing a birds nest on his head.

"You know, you have some on you still too" Joe said leaning over to brush off the remaining leaves for me. It felt completely natural, like a brotherly gesture and I felt a little pang of guilt that I couldn't explain to myself.

"How did you manage to avoid any leaves" I moaned at him, his clothes still looked completely perfect and he didn't have a hair out of place. He just shrugged and as I looked over his shoulder I saw Emmett grinning evilly yet again. He had collected all of the leaves from himself and was now holding them above Joe's head. As he went to drop them Joe sat down on the sofa and the leaves just landed on the floor.

"That is so unfair!" Emmett whined before continuing on with a rant that I didn't listen to; instead choosing to look around the room. There were three black leather couches around a dark wood coffee table. On the wall there was a very large wide-screen TV on either side of which were two shelves completely filled with DVDs. On one wall there was an overflowing bookcase that stretched the whole length of the wall. Most of the books looked like they were in different languages but I could recognize a few obscure science-fiction books and some old war journals. The door to the kitchen was left open and I could see a large pine island with a grey granite top and the floors were black marble. The room next to the kitchen also had its door open and I could see a four poster bed with large pink cushions on it.

"Joe, do you have a roommate?" I asked, hoping that the answer was yes and that he didn't actually have a large collection of handbags and high heeled shoes.

"Yeah but I haven't met her yet, I only got here yesterday and she hasn't been here at all"

"Ah, okay then" She sounds a little odd, she's obviously been here a while but hasn't even met her new roommate. I looked up and Emmett was looking at me with an odd expression. When I met his gaze he spoke,

"Were you not listening to anything I said" I just smiled and shook my head which made him pout but he couldn't hold it for long and started smiling again after about a minute.

"So, what about that game of twenty questions then Joe" I said sitting down on one of the couches.

"Oooh, twenty questions, I am so in!" Emmett shouted jumping over the back of another couch and sitting down too. Joe sat down on the remaining couch and nodded at Emmett. "Okay, I'm going to start" His eyebrows pulled together in concentration and then cleared. "How many relationships have you been in? Joe go first"

"Ummm, I think five, Bella?"

"To be honest, none"

"Really, wow, so you've never met anyone you wanted or anything?"

"Nope" I answered, popping the 'p' again. "Go on Emmett"

"Umm, I think six but that includes Rose who I'm still dating" I guess that's fair, he is older than us, not that I really have any idea what a normal amount is though.

"Well that leads nicely on to my question, are you in a relationship at the moment?"

"Nope" I answered; my automatic response.

"Well yeah, duh!" Emmett said

"Not at the moment" As he finished his sentence the door swung open and a girl came in to the room

"Oh hi, one of you must be my new roommate" Her voice was relatively low and mellow, it was quite relaxing really.

"Yeah, that's me" Joe said and the girl came in to the room properly, I was a little surprised by her appearance. She was about 5"10 and had blonde hair scraped back in to a bunch. She had oil stained mechanic's overalls unzipped to the waist and tied around her body and underneath there was a slightly dirty black and white checked shirt. I looked down to her feet and saw black converse and instantly knew that I would like her. There was also a streak of oil across her left cheek which kind of suited her in an odd way.

"Sorry I wasn't here to meet you but I've been out working on my baby and I fell asleep in a friend's room last night"

"It's okay, don't worry about it. So what's your baby?"
"My car, it's a 1964 Chevrolet Step-Side Shortbed Pickup, my dad was building it but failed so I took over and so yeah, it's built entirely from parts. I'm now officially really annoyed that I can't drive it over here."

"That's awesome; I have got to see it!" Emmett shouted, interrupting her and she covered her ears mockingly.

"So, what are everyone's names?"

"Oh right, well I'm Joe and these are my friends Bella and Emmett"

"Cool, I'm Abi. So what are you guys doing?"

"Playing twenty questions, do you wanna join?" Emmett practically shouted and then started bouncing up and down a little on his seat.

"Is that like truth or dare without the dare?"

"Indeed, but we can play with the dares as well, I was going to suggest it later but we could do so now" Oh dear, dares? That can't be good.