Chapter 3 - Wednesday

D&C



XXXXX



WEDNESDAY



Outside Starlight Jr. High, there was a large ruckus going on next to the new gymnasium. All over the sports field and black top, kids were playing soccer, baseball, and various hodgepodge games composed of combination. This was due to Mr. Clark's assignment, which was encouraging many to stand up and create their own variant on the school's popular sports. It was encouraging creativity, and it seemed to be a good thing.



Inside Starlight Jr. High was another story.



"No one's gonna even see us comin'," a muffled voice whispered through the hallway, snickering with uncontrollable mirth. "Man, this is gonna be so sweet."



"Shut up," a second voice hissed back, "Your voice carries."



Justin and Slick had managed to give the P.E. teacher the slip, and had entered unannounced into the gymnasium without anyone missing them. Keeping away from the basketball team on the courts, they slipped and skulked through the complex's small hallways, and no one was the wiser. Soon, they had arrived at the girls' locker room, a relatively new addition built to accommodate the girl's basketball team. And the place where actual girls were going to be showering off very soon.



Moving in a pair, the two slipped next to the locker room door, and put their ears next to the wall. Upon hearing female voices, they moved a step back from the door, and leaned up against the wall. "Think this is gonna work, dude?" Slick said, folding his arms and peering at the boy through the part in his hair.



"We took care of everything beforehand, remember," Justin admonished his friend, "All we have to do now is wait."



Thanks to Justin's rich family, the duo had been granted access to the school after dark. Within a few hours time, they had rigged one of the shower knobs to instead trigger the sprinkler system within the locker room. Another hour's work resulted in the hot water heater supplying heat to the sprinkler system. It was the longest, and most ambitious project the boys had ever undertaken.



And when that fateful girl turned on that knob...



"All wet, all hot!" Slick practically sang, meshing himself against the wall like a streamer of slime dripping down. He sighed, thinking about all those lovely beauties pouring from the locker room, screaming their lungs out. "Think they'll be wearing something other than sports bras?" he asked.



"Could be," Justin smiled to himself, already starting to fantasize. "I know those two exchange student haven't gotten theirs in yet."



"Oooh, yeah!" the blond boy cheered, pumping his fist in the imagined victory. "Lacy, white goodness!"



"Yup," Justin smiled again, letting the peak on one canine tooth slip beyond his lip.



The two made themselves a bit more comfortable on the wall, arranging their backs so that the painted brick didn't dig into their skin. "I can't wait to see all those wet, slippery girls," Slick practically moaned. "Mari..."



"Janey..." Justin joined in lustily, a bit more distinguished than his friend.



"Carol..." Slick continued, a streamer of drool falling off his lip. Then, a strange, twitching expression formed on his face. "Hey, isn't Tarah going to be there, too?" he asked, raising his one visible eyebrow in question.



After letting the image form into their heads, the two turned to each other and made a face. "Eeewww!!!"



Once they had gotten that out of their system, the two boys resumed waiting for the plan to be unleashed. Nervous and anticipant, they began to grow impatient as well, tapping their fingers against themselves in a repetitive motion. The sound of the basketball team practicing became like white noise on a psychologist's office, subtle yet more noticeable than the manufacturer gave it credit for. The wall was hard against their backs, grating against their spines enough to make one wonder if some permanent back injury would emerge from the ordeal.



It was Slick who first broke the silence. "Um, isn't this taking too long?" he said, gritting his teeth and quickly looking back to the locker room door.



Justin remained focused on the door for a little longer, before turning to Slick. "Yeah, a little bit," he responded, his face starting to lose the patience it held before.



They both stood waiting a moment more, twin expressions of screwed malcontent on their faces. A sterile silence took over the hall, cold and frosty like a hospital waiting room.



"Ya know," Slick started, a disappointed scowl coming to his face. "I bet they're not even in there at all."



"They couldn't have left, dolt," Justin snapped, feeling antsy with his impending failure. "We were at the door the entire time." He put his ear up to the wall once again. Not a sound emanated from the girl's locker room, save the biting hiss of vacancy.



Slick pulled away from the wall, having also put his ear up to it. "Let's go in," he whispered, stretching his hand towards the handle of the door. "I gotta see this for myself."



"Idiot, wait!" Justin hissed out, snatching at the boy's shirt. "You'll get us caught!" But Slick moved forward as if he hadn't heard in, and pulled open the door to the girl's shower room. He slipped inside the crack of the door, as a cool wave of sanitized air made its way out. Left with little else to do, Justin went in after his friend, gritting his teeth in irritance.



The two boys steadily made their way across the cool, tiled floor, looking cautiously at the eerily empty bath hall. Their silent footfalls made up the only noise in the shower room, as not even a drip of water could be heard impacting against the sinks and shower floors. It was like nobody had taken a step in here for years, save Justin and Slick.



Slick quickly glanced back and forth, a low growl coming from his lip. Then, he pounded his fist against the wall in disgust. "This is bogus," he complained, snorting derisively into the cold, shower room air. "There ain't any more hot babes here than at a sci-fi dork convention!"



"I don't get it," Justin mumbled, seemingly talking to himself rather than his friend. "The girls are supposed to enter the shower room at 11:30 sharp."



"But if were going to wrangle a couple of pervs, we do it earlier," a third voice suddenly broke out from the silence, light and airy even in the echo of the acoustics-driving room.



"...huh?" Slick suddenly squeaked out in a confused sort of voice. A thick bead of sweat rolled down his chilled temple, the cold caress of dread taking its bony hand unto the boy's heart.



The voice seemed to smile in the darkness. "Get 'em!"



From beyond the corners and in the stalls, a dozen teenaged girls suddenly poured onto the duo, their intent anything but friendly. They slammed into Justin and Slick and separated them, bringing them to opposite corners of the room. Six girls detained Justin by forcing his arms up against the wall, and another six did the same for Slick. In about seven seconds, the boys found they were completely unable to move, pinned like crucifix victims in the dark ages of the world.



Justin valiantly struggled against the bonds of feminine flesh, succeeding only in hurting his wrists. "What...the hell...!?" he growled out, looking back and forth between the pretty, yet devilish looking faces.



Slick was less resistant than his friend, glancing at the girls with a nervous smile pasted on his face. "Y'know, this might qualify as one of my fantasies if I didn't think I was about to die," he said, a slight nervous chucked escaping from his nonchalant facade.



"Well, you're not going to die," the same light voice spoke out from the other side of the room. "Just a little chill."



Justin and Slick both looked up from their bound positions to see the thirteenth girl exit one of the shower stalls, taking easy steps despite the tension of the scene. Her long, green hair was like a wet blanket, clinging to her shoulders in large swaths. "Maru Mari?" Justin spoke up, his eyebrow cocking upwards. "This was you?"



Mari smiled, oddly pleasant despite the underlying danger coming from her aura. "One of the girl's from your 5th period class yesterday heard about your plan," she explained, folding her arms. "She wanted to tell the teacher, but I decided this would be much more fun." The weird twinkle in her eye seemed to imply that she really thought it so, rather than her statements just being the lining of a venomous intent.



"Uh..." Slick piped up semi-shyly, grinning the grin. "What's 'this?'"



"This this," Mari replied. Then, she turned to the shower room door. "Bring it, Fiona!" she called out, putting a cupped hand to her mouth.



"Okay, Mari!" A voice responded, sounding a bit faint.



Justin and Slick's eyes followed the wave of sound to the door, which was beginning to pull open. Soon, a nondescript girl came forth from outside the shower room, holding a long garden hose. Their hearts were filled with dread as they saw their plan being turned against them, the hose being handed to Mari as if it were an executioner's axe. "Like to see girls soaked, do you?" Mari said wide a wide smile. "I think you guys are the ones wet behind the ears!"



"She's evil," Justin pondered to himself, starring transfixed at the gleaming nozzle of the hose.



"She's crazy!" Slick added, also making no other attempt



"No, no," Mari gripped the hose like a cannon, a devil-may-care grin on her face. "She's gonna have loads of fun!"



All the girls save the green-haired one had backed away from the duo, leaving their hands firmly bound with twine connected to wall hangers. A good thing too, because a large bulge was already starting to force its way through the length of the hose. Justin grit his teeth in anticipation of the frigid blast, following the bulge like a blood clot to the heart. Slick was practically hyperventilating, stretching his hands against the twine hard enough to carve notches into his wrists.



"Hope you brought a change of clothes," Mari crooned, bringing the hose up to bear as the pressure reached the nozzle.



"Not my beautiful hair!" Slick whined one last time, cringing.



And then a bolt of ice-cold water exploded from the nozzle, jetting out as rocks from a volcano. "AhhhHHHH...!" Justin and Slick screamed as they were soaked to a crisp, their calls echoing harmlessly inside the walls of the girls' shower room.



XXXXX



"I don't know if I can really do this," Andy said slightly to himself, cringing away from the door like a rat from a cat.



"You already made the appointment with her," Mary reminded him, gently pushing him towards the door. "You've got to fulfill it."



Sweat was rolling down his head, and goose bumps covered his arms from the shoulder down. "Maybe you guys can just say I'm not feeling well or something," he tried hopefully, turning to his aunt and uncle with a slightly abashed smile on his face.



The doorbell rang a second time, jarring the boy's nerves like a plucked piano wire.



"We're not going to make excuses for you, Andy," Noah said sternly, folding his arms adamantly. "Now, get going and let that girl in!"



Andy sighed, defeated. He turned away from his unhelpful family and proceeded towards the door, putting his hand on the knob. He had already looked through the peephole when the doorbell first rang, so there was no point in delaying the inevitable. He turned the knob and wretched the door open, trying to stomach his nervousness before he disillusioned his guest.



From the other side of the door, Tarah's smile greeted him like an insurance agent on a holiday, unwelcome yet irrefutable. "Hi, Andrew!" she said cheerily, her face increasingly gleeful every moment. "I'm sorry I'm late!"



"H-hi," Andy responded, remembering himself just in time for politeness. He took in her appearance: a black tank top with a pair of khaki shorts smeared with grass stains. In her arms was a small jar of bugs bouncing against the glass in a vain attempt at escape. All in all, she looked like a reject from a public television nature show.



Time for contemplating this was dwindling, as the girl was making her way through the door. Andy stepped aside to make room for her and, just like that, Terrible Tarah was in the house, as if she was a family friend stopping for a visit.



It was weird.



"I was catching bugs in the evening," Tarah said to him, handing over the glass jar. "I wanted to show them to you when I came over."



"Uh huh," Andy responded laconically, taking the jar and looking at it with wide eyes. Most of the things inside had frightened him as a young child, and still gave him quivers even today.



"All the interesting bugs come out in the evening, so I tried to catch them before I came," Tarah responded, seemingly taking no notice of his disgust. She resumed taking in her surrounding, looking around the room like a curious monkey. She soon turned towards Mary and Noah, who were waiting at the entrance to the den. "Are those your parents?" she asking, pointing her finger at them like a child requesting a new toy.



"Um, yeah, kinda," Andy snapped back to attention, putting the jar under his arms. "This is my Aunt Mary and Uncle Noah. I'm...staying with them now," he said, gesturing towards the two.



"It's very nice to meet you, Tarah," Mary nodded, taking the initiative for pleasantries.



"Uh huh," Tarah nodded enthusiastically, walking up to them and extending her hand. "Me too!"



In the time the girl was busy shaking their hands like some sort of room worker, Andy took the time to get used to the idea of the school nerd in his house. (Nothing's gonna happen) he thought to himself, idly rocking back and forth. (Everything's fine)



With that in his head, he meandered on over to the cheerful trio, where Tarah was shaking Noah's hand. He quickly got her attention. "So...you wanna start working now?" he asked her, trying not to lay too much eye contact on her.



"Sure," she said, walking over to him with an eager smile. (and of course staring him directly in the face) The pigtailed girl quickly brought one of the glass jars up to bear. "I think we could study these neat bugs," she said, holding up one of them for him to inspect. "See if they act on free-will."



Andy almost had to suppress a laugh. It was clear on where Tarah's brain currently was: right in the middle of a nature show on public television. "I...don't think that's what Mr. Clark had in mind," he said lightly, pushing the jar away.



"You sure?" Tarah asked, thrusting the jar to his nose again. "They're really cool."



Before Andy could debate on what was to be considered "cool", she was already going into the specifics of her hobby. "See this big one?" she bubbled, pointing out a rather groady looking creature. "It only comes out at night. And this one, it dies just after it reproduces."



The boy stood there politely listening at she continued to babble away about her interests. Another interesting effect was happening too; every time she span the jar to draw attention to another bug, she was unconsciously unscrewing the cap that kept all of them safely locked in.



"And here's a little tick I found in the yard," she added in, pointing to the little green one hovering around at the top of the jar. "They burrow under your skin real good."



"There are ticks in the yard?" Mary piped up, an extremely anxious expression coming to her face. "And now one's in the house?"



"Don't worry," she smiled cheerfully. "It's safe inside the glass...oh, there it goes!" she suddenly cried out, her eyes widening slightly as a small speck darted out from the half opened jar and started springing all over the place.



"ACK!" Mary suddenly shrilled, jumping about a foot back. "KillitkllitKILL IT!"



"I got this one," Noah said in a brawny sort of voice, clenching his fists as if to smash the bug into dust.



"Wait, don't hurt it!" Tarah hollered out, waving her arms around in a panic. "It's a living creature!"



"It's a devil!" the man insisted, moving over to the tick's current position and throwing punches at it. “Time to exorcise!”



Andy put his hand on his head in quiet disbelief. "Is this Murphy's Law?" he supposed for a moment, as the chaos around continued to swell and boil.



XXXXX



Time passed and floodwaters subsided. Andy was now up in his room with Tarah, figuring that they'd get work done better in comfort and silence. The room wasn't exceptionally large, but it was enough for two people to occupy. With the door closed, it made for a cozy little hovel for the two teens to curl themselves up in. Cozy enough that Andy was still glad that his friends had no idea on how close he was to the braided girl tonight.



Placing her hand on the electric globe, Tarah marveled how the streamers of lightning flew to her fingertips. "This is neato!" she said enthusiastically, rapping her fingertips against the glass.



"Uh, yeah," Andy responded, trying his best to humor her. "I got that at a science exhibit two years back."



"That was the Aviania exhibit, right?" she queried, straightening her glasses on the bridge of her nose.



"Right," Andy smiled, a little more humor in his voice now.



Tarah smiled back and proceeded to the bed Andy was lying on, bringing with her a lukewarm plate of linguini. Against Mary's judgment, they had opted to bring their meals upstairs, so they could work while they ate. She placed her food on a small end table, and sat down on the bed next to where he was lying. "Now what?" she asked, looking down at the boy's flash of sea green hair.



Andy brought his pen to his lip, studying the blank page before him. "I guess we start on this free-will thing," he started up, glancing towards the girl from the corner of his eye. "You have anything?"



Her response to this question was brief and blunt. "Nothing."



The boy started at this, and raising himself on his elbows. "But you're supposed to be smart," he protested. "I mean, you get good grades in everything, right?"



"I'm only really good in sciences," Tarah explained, looking up at the whirling fan above her. "I get Cs in humanities."



"Huh, and I thought you were supposed to help me," he said somewhat bitterly. He sighed and looked down at his hands. "I've been swinging and missing all week with this assignment."



The girl seemed to come to a revelation. "Did you want to talk to Maru Mari yesterday?" she asked him, looking at him furtively. "I'm sorry if I messed it up."



Andy looked at Tarah in surprise, wondering how she had made the connection. But he soon shook it off with a slight chuckle. "That's okay," he told her, offering her a brief smile. "Chances are I would've messed it up on my own anyhow."



"...But you tried," she said, looking at him with sympathy. "Mr. Clark would understand you just wrote something about what you did and turned that in."



"I...don't want to just blow it off," he tried to explain, shaking his head with disdain. "I want to get somewhere in this assignment. It's confusing me, and I want to conquer it."



At that, a light smile flowed to Tarah's lips. "That's neat," she said, cocking her head slightly to the side. "I like to do things like that, too."



Andy turned towards the braided girl, a strange expression on his face. With Tarah's soft expression imploring him, he stared straight through her spectacles, got the first good look at her eyes. They were a calming, pure blue, with both depth and charm swimming in the irises, as well as a measured amount of both innocence and experience.



Their eyes remained locked for a moment more before Andy suddenly broke the contact with a quick moment of his head. "So...uh, what do you want to get out of this assignment?" he asked her, rubbing his head and trying to get rid of the strange feeling he had experienced earlier. “You know…free-will and all that.”



"Oh, I don't believe in free-will," Tarah responded quickly, almost a little bit too quickly for the severity of the subject matter.



Andy reared up slightly at this unexpected answer. "You...don't?"



"Yeah, it's a combination of outward stimuli and the inward reaction to it," she explained, flopping down lightly on the bed. "Life is cause and effect, whether the cause takes place within the body or not. There's no need to say the mind's capable of control when it's just a machine, being controlled itself," Tarah's eyes then narrowed softly behind her glasses, as she stared seemingly through the ceiling. "There's no need to blame people for who they are or what they do. No need to blame anyone."



Andy gaped at the girl as if she had suddenly started speaking a foreign language. The words she spoke seemed as random and incomprehensible at the rest of her statements, yet it was clear that there was something very important behind it. Where was all this coming from? And why wasn't it sitting well with him?



It was becoming clear that this assignment was going to take him to some strange places within his head.



The boy was so deep in thought that he scarcely heard Tarah when he had gotten off his bed. Still, he looked up when he saw her staring down at him. "Andrew, can we rest for a little while," she asked. "I'm feeling tired."



"Um, alright," Andy consented, looking at her cautiously.



She nodded her thanks, and set about wandering the room, absently picking at the various knickknacks again. A moment of silence passed between the two, in which Andy was thinking very hard about saying something. When he had reached a consensus, he bolted off the bed like a rocket launch. "W-why don't we do something fun for a little while?" he asked her.



Tarah turned slowly towards him, a surprised look on her face. "O-okay!" she finally responded, a somewhat excited smile coming to her face.



Andy smiled in return, a slightly abashed look on his face. "That's good," he responded, putting a hand on the back of his head and running it through his hair.



Another brief moment of silence. "So what do you want to do?" she asked eagerly, moving a bit closer to Andy.



He gulped a bit at her close proximity, and looked away. "Well, we have something in the living room that's kinda fun, if a bit weird," Andy said, his hand still within his hair.



Tarah cocked her head to the side. "A videogame?" she asked curiously, blinking a few times.



At this the boy peeked back at her with a small, almost mischievous smile. "Not a videogame, but..."



XXXXX



The loud reverberation of the karaoke machine rocked the small living room like a car on hydraulics. Its pulsating rhythm sought to control the heartbeat of its audience, pushing them into the mood that suited it; unabashed enthusiasm.



"I still can't believe you purchased that infernal device," Uncle Noah was grumbling to Mary, his hands practically crumpling up the newspaper he held in front of him. "It's caused us nothing but pain."



"Hush," the woman admonished him, taking short sips of her Puar tea. "It was Andy's 11th birthday present, and he's gotten so much enjoyment from it." She put down her cup, and folded her arms in defiance of her husband. If you were to look close, you could see small streak marks where she had gripped the cup too tightly.



The two adults, large wrinkles of stress forming in their eyes, did their best to tolerate the mind numbing song from the high-tech device. Not to mention its overenthusiastic singer.



"WIDE WIDE WORLD, LET ME TAKE YOUR HEART!" Tarah squealed into the microphone, holding it close to her warbling mouth. "ONLY YOU CAN SOOTHE MY SOULLLLL!"



Andy sat on the sofa between his aunt and uncle, staring transfixed at the bespectacled girl who had transformed from a school oddball into some sort of karaoke demon. Politely, he refrained from covering his ears from the high-pitched siren that had made a death by shipwreck more appealing. Instead, he regarded her with a curious sort of stare, strangely entranced by her. (She's really getting into it.)



The song mercifully ended a second or two before the Champion family's eardrums burst. Placing the microphone on top of the machine, Tarah skipped back towards the sofa with a spring in her step. "Was that good, Andrew?" Tarah asked eagerly, smiling widely at the boy before her.



"Uh...it was nice," he generously lied, conjuring up a false smile for the girl's feelings. "Very...enthusiastic."



She noticed no duplicity in his tone, due to either cluelessness or nonobservance. "Thanks," she said, twirling her right braid with a finger.



Andy grinned in return, his pleasant mask becoming real in that instant. For some reason, the situation was simply too feel-good to even worry about the condition of your ears.



Taking a large breath of air and wiping her forehead, Tarah moved aside, leaving the path to the karaoke machine clear for the boy to cross. "It's your turn!" she said cheerily, making a motion towards it.



Andy nodded briefly, them left the sofa to proceed towards the bulky device. Picking up the microphone from where the girl left it, he tapped his finger against it a couple of times, and was rewarded with a few straggled clucks from the speakers. A somewhat silly expression overtook the facial features of Andrew Champion, and he turned towards his audience with a faux-debonair look on his face. "Ladies and gentleman, we are now taking requests," he said in a cool voice to the microphone. "What shall we hear?"



"I like `Talk to Her Heart!'" Tarah called loudly, even though they were only a few feet apart.



The boy cocked an eyebrow at the suggestion, though it did not completely squelch his zeal. "'Talk to Her Heart'” was a song done by the ten year old group Moi Taurus that was popular back then, but relatively hated now. "Are you sure?" he asked her, cradling the mike lightly in his grip. "It's pretty old."



"Uh huh!" she said eagerly, pumping her fists eagerly. "I can even dance to it!"



Well, if she was willing to dance to it, he was willing to sing it. Committed to the decision made, he plugged in the appropriate number into the machine, while Tarah moved to the front of the room beside him. During the brief time before the song started up, the girl and boy took the time to rearrange some of the furniture so that Tarah would have room to dance. Soon, everything was prepared, and the song was about to start.



The music began with the sound of drum machines, followed by a flurry of computerized brass hits. The pigtailed girl began bouncing back and forth to the beats, her pigtails becoming like the pendulum in grandfather clocks. A bead of sweat rolled down Andy's temple, as he fought to maintain a halfway calm expression. At least a guy, unlike some Moi Taurus hits, could sing it.



As he started singing, Tarah began swinging back and forth, making small circular motions with her arms and hands. Her eyes were half closed, and there was a ghost of a smile on her face. She performed a twirl that sent her braids flying like propeller blades, which caused the boy to wince slightly as the hair got a little too close to his eye. But Andy still kept his eye on the girl's form, rocking and rolling with the best of them.



She danced a lot better than she sang.



The music continued onwards, and the song got no better because if it. Yet Andy's mood had improved so much that he could now sing the song with a straight face. Tarah finished an impressive spin and took a brief look at the boy, smiling brightly for him. And he just smiled back, any thought of the project, school kids, and even Maru Mari floating away like a note just played...



XXXXX



"I didn't know you were such a good dancer," Andy said, taking a small sip from his juice box.



"My mom made me take dancing classes," Tarah said somewhat coyly, a smile of shy pride beaming on her face. "You're real good at singing," she added in. perhaps to take some of the attention off herself.



"I kinda have a lot of practice..." he chuckled, slowly running a hand through his hair.



The two fell into a comfortable silence, sipping from their respective drinks. They were sitting up in a dilapidated tree house in a mighty old oak in the middle of the backyard. Tarah had actually complained at first, claiming that the nails and extra weight hurt the tree. But he had managed to persuade her to come saying that the time outside would be refreshing after blasting their ears out indoors.



With his feet dangling over the side of the tree house, Andy looked over to where the girl was sitting, and then chuckled slightly. Tarah was currently distracted by a small caterpillar crawled up the side of the wood, obviously analyzing and categorizing it in her head. When she caught him, she simply smiled up at him, unabashed by his staring and unembarrassed. And the boy just smiled back,



Suddenly, Tarah straightened up a bit. "My mom's probably coming soon," she said, a slight trace of disappointment in her voice. "I need to get ready to go."



Andy nodded slightly, smiling serenely. "We didn't get a lotta work done, did we?" he said with a small laugh.



The girl giggled in response to this. "So, is your mom or dad coming home soon," she asked, turning her head slightly to face him directly. "Maybe I can convince Mom to let me stay a little longer, so I can meet them."



And then Andy's face darkened just a little bit, and he stared straight up ahead at the roof of the tree house. "They're not coming home," he said softly, his voice deceptive neutral. "They died...car accident."



"Oh..." Tarah squeaked out, her eyes widening for a second. "...sorry,"



Andy turned to the girl with a strained grin. "It's alright," he said, trying to wave off her concern. "It happened a long time ago."



Tarah stared down at her feet, looking embarrassed. "But your aunt and uncle seem pretty nice, right?" she tried, seemingly not sure on how to carry on the conversation.



"Yeah..." he responded, nodding his head. The boy looked back towards the roof again and began to slowly lean back over onto the floor. "Aunt Mary and Uncle Noah were living in a small house before the accident," he said, almost seeming to break off into a monologue. "A week later, they moved into our old house so that I could stay here. After a little while, Grandpa Moses came in too from his small apartment, so I'm never really alone. The guys've been real great to me for these past four years."



"The guys've been great, but...." A strange expression overtook Andy's face, and he sat up again to peer at Tarah. "I was always real close to my mother. You know, talking to her about everything, things like that." He stared off into the distant trees beyond the backyard fence, watching them sway with the slight breeze. "I can still hear her voice sometimes late at night, giving advice. So whenever I'm in trouble, I sometimes try and think about what she might say to me."



The boy suddenly felt a light, moist sensation on his cheek, the telltale twitter of bangs against his face. Reacting strongly to the kiss, he quickly whirled back towards its source, a look of amazement on his face. Tarah was subdued, with a small blush tingeing her cheeks, yet still smiling. Her eyes twinkled lightly within their glass containment, which seemed to reflect his own shocked expression almost perfectly.



The two continued to stare at each other...



"Tarah, your mom is here," ...and a projected voice suddenly burst out from the back porch, all but destroying the mood which had accumulated in the tree house.



"W-wha...?" The girl in question burbled out, her eyes widening as if she had seen a ghost. Jerking back and forth in a panic, Tarah eventually lost her place on the tree house floor, and began to slip out and off of the tree. "Whoooaaa!" she cried out, flailing her arms in a panic as he. Only Andy's quick hand and thinking saved her from a bumpy rendezvous with the cold, hard ground.



Dangling by the arm, Tarah looked upwards at the boy, who was straining heavily to hold her light, but still considerable human weight. She smiled a goofy sort of smile. "Whoops!" she chirped, obviously feeling very silly in that position.



Andy grunted a bit, putting another arm to use in keeping her up. "Yeah," he responded, a strained smile coming from his face.



Scooting slightly forward, the boy carefully lowered Tarah onto the ground. Once accomplished, he backed up a bit and stared down at the girl, a curiously hollow expression on his face. They looked at each other a moment more, feeling more and more awkward.



"Well, uh, I'm going now," she said, looking to the side for a brief moment before turning her eyes to Andy once again.



"Um...yeah," he managed, blinking a few times.



They both hesitated a moment, struggling to find something to say. "Hey, I'll see you in school tomorrow!" Tarah tried, a small bit of excitement smile coming to her face.



"O-okay," Andy replied somewhat laconically, staring wide-eyed at her.



The girl stood silent for a moment more, still locked in some sort of strange staring match with him. Then, she slowly turned into a run towards the door, where Aunt Mary was holding it open for her. Clearing the lawn in a scant few seconds, she arrived at the porch and entered the door. And then, with her fingers gripping the doorframe, Tarah spared one last look at the boy before she disappeared into the house, towards her ride home and normal life.



Andy sat silently for about fifteen seconds after the back door fell shut, like a statue of cold stone. Then, he flopped onto his back, the sharp hardness of the wood against his back feeling somewhat refreshing. His eyes were unfocused, seeming to stare off into another world. Maybe he had been in another world, a moment ago.



He slowly placed his hand against his cheek where Tarah's lips had grazed it. (What...just happened?) he wondered to himself, his voice wavering slightly in the brisk breeze.



Only the crickets answered.



-



More Coming Up…!

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