Chapter Four

"But if she was changing a lightbulb, why didn't she have the old one in her hand?" I protested again as Phoebe and Prue rolled their eyes at me. "And that bottle that fell out of her pocket..."

"She said it was perfume," Prue reminded.

"Since when have you ever seen green perfume?" I asked.

Prue sighed, knowing by now that she wasn't going to get me to change my mind on this. Instead she picked up her pom-poms again, and started waving them in the air for the fiftieth time.

"Are you gonna do that all day?" I asked her.

"Of course I am, cheerleading tryouts are on Monday," she answered.

"Yeah, but it's Saturday," Phoebe informed her. "Nobody does work on Saturday."

"Well, I do," Prue continued, spinning around in front of the solarium windows.

Phoebe and I sat in total boredom as we watched her. We certainly weren't crazy enough to do any work on a Saturday, but we didn't really have anything else to do instead, either. We'd already ridden our bikes around the neighborhood, and nothing good was on TV anymore. Grams had promised me that later that day I could help her cook, but she had to come home from the grocery store first.

We sat and listened to the swish, swish of Prue's pom-poms for a few minutes, the sound almost numbing our brains against doing anything but sitting there. Finally, Phoebe got up and stood behind Prue. As I gave her a confused look, she started copying Prue's moves behind her back. I covered my mouth so I wouldn't laugh. Phoebe started making her dances more exaggerated than Prue's - when Prue lifted her arms, Phoebe would practically punch the air, and when Prue moved from side to side, Phoebe would wiggle her butt back and forth, too. Finally I couldn't keep quiet anymore, and burst out laughing, ruining the whole game.

"Phoebe," Prue complained when she turned around, "Stop copying me!" She waved a pom pom at her.

"Stop copying me!" Phoebe repeated with a grin, grabbing the pom-pom out of her hand and waving it right back in Prue's face.

The two of them kept pretending to hit each other, filling the room with the swish-swish sound. After a few seconds, however, it seemed like there was another noise mixed in. I slowly got up from my seat and walked a little closer to the stairs.

"Shhhh, guys," I whispered. "Do you hear that?" The pom-pom war continued, however. "Guys, seriously!" I tried again, a little louder. "Prue, Phoebe!" They still didn't seem to care. Finally I remembered how Andy had taught me to whistle a few weeks ago. I put two fingers in my mouth and made a sound loud enough to finally get their attention. "Listen!" I said when they quieted down.

Prue gave me an annoyed look. I knew she was about to tell me I was being ridiculous again, when all of sudden a loud BANG came from above us. We all jumped.

"...Is Grams back yet?" I asked, scared.

"No..." Prue answered. She had always been the most fearless of the three of us, but I could swear her voice sounded scared, too.

"Then what's that noise?" Phoebe said, asking the question I was too afraid to. No one answered.

We heard the noise again. This time it was accompanied by something else - almost like the sound effect they use in cartoons when someone gets electrocuted.

"We should go up there," Prue said suddenly.

"No!" I argued. "What if it's a robber?"

"What if the house is falling down?" Phoebe suggested.

Prue seemed unsure. "Um..." she started, her eyes racing between us and the ceiling. "Maybe we should go outside," she said when we heard another thump. It was weird seeing my big sister, who was always in control of everything, so nervous.

Quickly we ran to the solarium doors and opened them, rushing out into the yard.

"If we see something coming down the stairs, we run," Prue instructed as she shut the doors behind us. My stomach felt sick.

We stood with our eyes fixed on the inside of our house for what seemed like forever. There had been no noises since we'd run outside, which was starting to make me wonder if I'd overreacted again. At least this time I wouldn't be the only one to. All of a sudden, we heard that zapping sound again, this time louder than normal. And it was followed by something else. Something that Grams could never convince me was the house settling. It sounded like a scream. Phoebe and I grabbed onto each other in fear.

"I'm gonna find out what's up there," Prue decided, looking up at the top of the house.

"Prue, you can't go back inside!" Phoebe protested.

"I'm not," Prue answered. I followed her eyes from the high-up attic window, to the branches of the tall tree in our yard. I realized that they were almost the same height.

"Prue..." I said, still scared, but she had already grabbed onto the lowest branch.

"I'm the only one tall enough to climb it," she said, in order to shut us up. She moved up a few more branches. "If I say run, you guys run, okay?"

"...Okay," I said. I felt like I could barely breathe. Phoebe squeezed my hand.

We watched Prue grab onto each branch and plant her feet into various knots as she climbed higher and higher. My heart was beating out of my chest when she got up to our bedroom window. Only a little higher now.

That's when we heard the crack.

"Prue!" I screamed. The branch underneath her splintered, and she screamed as she came sailing down to the ground. It felt like it happened in slow motion, even though it was actually very fast.

"Are you okay?" I asked as Phoebe and I ran up to her. Prue moaned. She rolled over onto her back, cradling her arm against her. My stomach flipped when I noticed how weirdly it was bent.

"Phoebe, don't look," I said, turning her away. Phoebe had never been quite as squeamish as me, but she'd never seen a broken bone, either. "HELP!" I called out. "Grams?"

"She's not here..." Prue groaned, tears running down her cheeks. I gulped as I realized I would have to call 911. That meant going back inside the house.

"What happened?" a voice called out. Phoebe and I looked over to see a man with a tool belt running over to us.

"She fell out of the tree," I explained. The man knelt down next to Prue.

"It's okay," he said. "We're gonna get you to a hospital."

"I'm gonna miss cheerleading..." Prue said faintly. She almost sounded like she was falling asleep.

Just then, Grams came running from the driveway. She dropped her bag of groceries when she saw us.

"What's going on here?" she asked. She held her hand to her mouth in shock as she looked at Prue.

"Her arm's broken," the man explained. He picked Prue up in his arms. "I'll carry her to your car."

Speechless, the three of us ran after him. I paused for a second to look back through the windows of the house, but I didn't see anything. I just hoped nothing would be waiting for us when we got back.

A/N: Prue breaking her arm is an allusion to Thank You For Not Morphing, where she tells Andy about all the things her dad missed when they were growing up. And I'm sure all of you can guess who the man with the tool belt is...