3.
The next morning Jason woke up in the Atwood's guest bedroom to find Lisa standing there, by the bed, looking down at him. It was the mid-semester break so there wasn't any school that day. But he could tell by the look in her eyes that Lisa was chomping at the bit to get back on the case.
"Lise," he said rubbing sleep out of his eyes, "I know you're anxious to get back on the case and so am I, but what about your mother?!"
"Gone to work," replied Lisa
"And Melanie, your tattletale sister?" asked Jason
"Mom's dropping her off at Jess's place." answered Lisa, "She left some breakfast for us."
"Okay," said Jason, "now do you mind?"
"Huh," said Lisa confused
"I have to get dressed," said Jason
"Right, sorry!" said Lisa her cheeks turning a little pink. She turned and hurried out the door.
After the door closed, Jason got up and changed out of his pajamas and into a pair of jeans a blue t-shirt and a silver hoodie. then grabbing his back-pack he headed downstairs.
When he got downstairs Lisa was turning the breakfast of fried Eggs, bacon and toast into a couple of breakfast sandwiches they could eat on the way.
With a quick blessing for the food, they headed out the door.
When they got to Pine Hollow, the others were already there. they decided to tack up and go for a short hack it would give them a chance to plan what to do away from prying ears.
Max was nice enough to let Jason ride Comanche while he was there. As the group rode up the trail toward the quarry you could practically hear the wheels turning in their minds.
"I think we need to divide and conquer," said Jason breaking the silence, "We have three bases to cover in this investigation."
"Yeah, I agree," said Lisa, "We need to investigate the Bottlecap in Arlington, Morton Snacks here in Willow Creek, and we need to talk to the other people who have tried Blue Ice soda."
Jason nodded.
"Now I can get you to Arlington," he said, "But I can't help investigate the Bottlecap because I was there when Ashley passed out in front of the place, so most likely they would know me on sight."
"Don't worry," said Carole, "You just get me and Stevie there, and we'll do the rest."
"Yeah," said Stevie, "I need to check in on Ashley anyway."
When they got back from there hack, they took care of their horses then turned them out into the paddock.
Slipping up into the hayloft and out of sight, Jason teleported Carole, Lisa and Stevie to Ashely's house in Arlington.
When they got there, they were very happy to find out that Ashley was back to normal. She was just finishing her homework when they arrived in a flash of silver light that was rippled with electricity.
After she finished her last math problem, Jason and the Saddle Club explained their plans to her. she nodded in agreement.
"Sounds good to me," she said, "While Carole and Stevie are checking out the Bottlecap, I'll go back to Willow Creek with Lisa and Jason and we'll check out Morton Snacks."
"Good," said Jason, "if at all possible, we need to get a bottle of that blue ice and have it analyzed!"
"Yeah," said Lisa that's a good idea, "Carole and Stevie can try to get one at the Bottlecap and we'll try to get one at Morton Snacks."
"We'd better hurry too, the bottle Ashley had shattered too bad for me to get the batch code off of the bottom," said Jason, "if word got back to Morton Snacks, they might be trying to get rid of the rest of that batch!"
"Then let's move!" said Lisa jumping up
"One more thing," said Ashley, she grabbed a notepad and scribbled down three phone numbers, "These are the numbers for, Tina Wells, Joanna Tate, and Joyce "Jo" Whittaker three friends of mine that I know have had Blue Ice sodas in the past. One of you should talk to them and find out if they had anything weird happen to them after drinking the stuff."
Stevie nodded
"I'll take care of it." she said
After Ashley handed Stevie the paper with the numbers she stood up and Jason was about to teleport them when suddenly Ashely's bedroom door burst open and Grant came rushing into the room.
"Hey, babe…," he started excitedly only to stop short when she saw Jason and the others standing there.
"What's he doing here?!" Grant snapped
Stevie cleared her throat.
"We're here too you know." she snapped
"Yeah," said Lisa, "and we're here to help Jason investigate Blue Ice soda on Ashley's behalf."
"Come on Babycakes," said Grant, trying to be charming, "You don't need them."
Jason saw Ashley grimace. Stevie saw it too.
"She hates that nickname!" said Stevie quietly in a sing-song voice.
"Grant," snapped Ashley getting irritated, "Jason is a professional detective and Stevie and her friends are just as good as he is. And that is the only reason he's here!"
Grant just snorted,
"Yeah sure," he grumbled sarcastically
"Listen, Grant," snapped Ashley her irritation level maxing out, "If you really expect to stay my boyfriend, you'd had better start trusting me. If you can't do that, you can leave!"
To the Saddle Club and Jason Grant now looked about three inches tall.
"Okay, Okay, I'm sorry, Babycakes! I'm so crazy about you that I'm being a jealous idiot, it won't happen again I swear!" Grant pleaded kissing her hand.
"Don't call me, Babycakes," replied Ashley, before hugging him.
An annoyed scowl flickered across Stevie's face. It was no secret to her friends that she didn't like her cousin's boyfriend and her annoyance level with him went up every time this sort of thing happened.
"Ashe has got to stop letting him wiggle his way of the hook like that!" she whispered to Jason and the Saddle club
Carol, Lisa, and Jason nodded
"Who she dates is her own decision, though." Sighed Lisa
Ashley convinced Grant to head off to a football game with some of his friends. After he left, she turned to her friends.
"Guys let's go."
Jason turned and started toward the door. Ashley and the others were right behind him. Ashley was looking down putting her something in her handbag when she tripped over a footstool. The clatter caused Jason to turn around just in time for a falling Ashley to slam into him and knock them both to the floor.
Jason landed on his back with Ashley on top of him, their noses touching. They both turned bright red and Ashley scrambled to her feet along with Jason, both still blushing and apologizing profusely.
"Oooh," grinned Stevie as Lisa giggled, "Such chemistry!"
TO BE CONTINUED…Please Review
