Untitled

Rebel. That's what they call me just because I stand up for what I believe in. I mean like what gives them the right to label me? They probably don't even know what a damn rebel is. Some days I fell like there's no use in living, so why live? Shit. I forgot my homework. Who cares? I'm probably failing anyways. How did my life get so screwed up?

"Kay! Jimmy's here." My sister Amanda yelled. Great. Just what I need. A night with Jimmy.

"Hey. You wanna go out somewhere? I need to talk to you." Jimmy said as I walked down the long staircase.

"Sure whatever. Let me get my coat."

"When will you be back?" Amanda asked.

"When I am, ok?" I snapped at her.

My sister is so annoying. It's like she needs to know every little thing I do. Amanda and I are like a mouse and elephant together. We don't mix.

There was an extremely awkward silence between Jimmy and me as we walked to his car. I suppose it was because we were both too absorbed in our own thoughts to talk to each other.

The awkward silence remained for the drive and even though I had no clue as to where we were going I wasn't going to ask. Instead I looked at the window and gazed at the stars as they started coming out.

He turned down a dark unfamiliar road that, for some reason gave me the chills. It was dark, and had trees that seemed to engulf the entire road. At first i thought there was no road. But as I squinted out the dashboard window I was able to make out a dirt road in front of the car. There was just something about this place that was scaring me.

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to ask.

"Jimmy, where are we?" I burst out.

"Don't worry this is just a little shortcut to where we're going." He replied with a blank expression. His expression reminded me of a robot.

"Ok, but can we not come back this way? It gives me the creeps." Suddenly an eerie chill fell over us and I totally freaked.

"Jimmy, can we hurry up and get out of here?"

"We are almost there. Just calm down."

"Calm down? Don't tell me to calm down! Where are we going anyways?"

"You'll see when we get there." Jimmy was being a real jerk, and I felt like hitting him, but I didn't. I didn't want to make things worse than what they already were. Also, I didn't want him to swerve off the road, and have us end up being stuck here. That was the last thing said between the two of us for the rest of the ride.

After what seemed like ages, we stopped. It was a dark dank place that was scary but also very intriguing at the same time. Without thinking, I ran out of the car to have a look at the place. It was gorgeous. Nothing like this I had ever seen before. I couldn't even imagine a place that looked half as good as this place. Although it was old, it was really intriguing.

"Let's go in. Shall we." Jimmy said with a smile. The first one I had seen from him all night.

We walked down a long, narrow hallway. The hallway was aligned with freighting old portraits of people who were most likely dead by now. It reminded me of the haunted houses you see in horror movies.

We stopped at door number 309. The room was beautiful. It had a huge canopy bed off to the side, and a large wooden bureau beside it. Although there was not much in the room, it was absolutely beautiful.

Why is the door number 309? There couldn't possibly be that many rooms in one house. Not unless it was a mansion or a castle and it looked like neither. It was simply an old, elegant, rather large house. What are we doing here? And where is here? I thought.

"Have a seat and I will tell you why I brought you here to talk to you." I did as he said and waited.

He poured two glasses of lemonade from a pitcher that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. It was sitting upon the bureau. When I had looked at the bureau I hadn't noticed it.

"Ok so you remember the night when we snuck out and went partying, right?" "Yea of course. How could I forget that?"

"Well anyways something happened that night that you don't know about. You see what I'm trying to tell you is..."

"What in the world are you doing here?" Interrupted an extremely pale old lady.

"What? I thought this place was abandoned." Jimmy asked surprised by the lad's presence.

"It was until I moved in here with my ten dogs, and eighteen cats."
"You live here?"

"Well if I moved here, then I must live here. That still don't explain what you're doing here."

"We just needed to get away from life and reality for a bit." I jumped in to Jimmy's rescue.

"Well ok dears. Continue on."

I wondered if the old lady was crazy. Or maybe she was just lonely, and had lost touch with reality. With that many pets surely we would have noticed at least one of them. Or even heard them.

"That was...ummm.... weird.…” Jimmy started, trying to shrug it off. “Ok back to the point, so you remember that night right?"

"Yes."

"Well that night when I came home I discovered my father was missing. I think he's been kidnapped. I also think I know who has him too. I keep getting these random emails saying the names of countries and famous landmarks. I emailed the sender back and the reply said 'BOO!!!' It was so weird! I think the emails could be clues to my father's whereabouts or then again they could just be some retarded person emailing me. But there is only one way to find out. I have to look for my father. I don't know how long I'll be gone or what kind of danger I'll be getting myself into, but I am doing this for my father." He said in one breath. By the time he had finished he was practically gasping for air.

I sat on the bed and stared at the walls in total shock.

"Say something!"

"I'm sorry, but it's a lot to take in at once. Just give me a minute." A couple minutes later I decided I was going to go with him.

"I'm coming with you." I declared.

"No your not! I am not gonna put you into danger!"

"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."

"No your not and that is final!! Let's get outta here."

"FINE!!" I shouted back at him.

"Of all the people I could have told, I decided to trust you, and tell you what is going on, and this is what you do to me? I was hoping for moral support, and help, not the chance to put you in harm's way."

Once again the car ride was as a silent as an abandoned house with nothing in it.

I stormed up to my room without even saying goodbye to Jimmy. I was so mad at him right now. I wanted to scream my head off. I don't care. I am going anyways! He's not going to tell me what to do! I started packing all the stuff I thought I would need.

"Knock, knock." Came a voice from behind my closed door.
"What?" I replied annoyed.

"What are you doing with your suitcase, hon?" My mother asked as she opened the door, letting herself in.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm packing."

"Don't get an attitude with me! Why are you packing?"
"I'm going with Jimmy as a sort of... vacation."

"So your gonna leave me here all alone? While you and Jimmy go on a vacation?"

"First of all, your not gonna be all alone, you have, Amanda. And second of all, it's not really a vacation. It’s more like a... business trip."

"Fine do whatever you want, you always do anyways." She took a swig of her beer and staggered out of my room, slamming the door behind her.

I neede to find out when Jimmy’s leaving and his source of transportation. Then I have to find a way to stow away without him knowing. If he finds out what I am doing he'll never trust me again. I got up and grabbed my notebook to write my ideas down. I always think well when I write things down. I would be lost without my black skull notebook.

When people saw my notebook they usually thought I was Goth. Most people living in Clovertown have stereotypes etched in their minds. Like you can only be one certain way. For instance if you liked death metal, you were a metal head who probably did drugs, and once you were classified as one of the many stereotypes you couldn't be anything else.

I started writing and my ideas just came pouring onto the page like rain pouring during a rainstorm.

The next thing I knew I was just waking up. I had the weirdest dream ever. I was in the middle of the sea on a ship full with pirates. The pirates looked really scary but for some reason they didn’t seem scary. They were drinking tea and using really good table manners. Then I was in a book store. I started looking around. As I passed the books they came alive and they just stared at me. It was extremely creepy. That was all I remember of my dream though because I woke up.

I didn't waste any time trying to decipher my dream. I had too much work to do to waste time. I got dressed quicker then ever before and raced down the stairs. As I was going out the door I decided to grab an apple. After all I was going to need my strength for all the work I'd be doing today. The first thing I decided to do was go to the local bus station. Hopefully I would be able to see if Jimmy would be using the bus to get out of town. It only took me about five minutes to get there, seeing as it is just down the street from my house.

When I got there I started thinking, will they give out information like that? I know some places are very confidential. I wonder if they are. Well there’s only way to find out.

“Hi. I’m wondering if a guy name Jimmy Creads has a bus ride planned for anytime soon?” It’s a good thing I know that Jimmy always plans things in advance.

“Creads... Creads... oh here he is. Yes he has a bus ride outta town leaving tomorrow... morning." A tall lanky girl replied.

“Thank you so much. Do you happen to know where he’s headed to?”

“Let’s see... he’s going to... Kalumnga.”

"Thank you so much again!!! You have been a lot of help!"

Kalumnga? Where the hell was that? I had never heard of that place before. Well now that I know where Jimmy's going, I should get myself a ticket and finish packing.

I purchased a ticket, and ran back to my house to gather my stuff.

I went upstairs to my room only to find my mom in my room going through my suitcase.

"If you’re looking for your drugs, don't waste your time because I don't have them."

“You had better not have them! No, I was just trying to figure out why there's a suitcase in it with your stuff. We are not going anywhere."

"Yea, you’re not going anywhere. You’re not traveling anywhere, and neither is your life! Mom, I told you last night. I'm going on a business trip with Jimmy."

"What kind of business?" My mom asked, starting to really piss me off.

"Just a business trip, ok? Why don't you stop worrying so much about me, and start worrying about yourself!"

"I don't need to worry about myself. I'm doing just fine."

"God, you need to stop with all the drinking and drugs. It's ruining your life and it's ruining mine."

"I'm the fucking mother. You don't tell me what to do. I tell you what to do."

"Yea and a lot of good that's done ya." With that she left the room annoyed.

I quickly finished packing my stuff, and then I went down to the kitchen to grab something to eat. I grabbed a piece of toast and quickly hurried out the door, on the run once again. I was going to need a good disguise if I planned to get on that bus without Jimmy noticing me. I went down to KonKo's, the local joke shop.

I went in and surprisingly there was Jimmy standing near a stand of masks. I quickly hid, so he wouldn't see me. I wonder what he, of all people would be doing in here. He was never a person for jokes; he almost always took things so seriously. You always had to be careful of the kind of jokes you told around Jimmy. So I was completely amazed to see him in here. Finally I got up enough courage to go over to Jimmy.

"Hey Jimmy." He practically jumped at the sound of my voice behind him.

"Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. So what'cha doing here anyways??" I asked wondering if he was here for the same reason I was: a disguise.

"Oh I was just... looking around you know...ya just looking around."

"It's just that you are the last person I would see in a joke shop. Does this mean you've decided to loosen up a bit, and stop being so serious about things?"

"I dunno. I was just walking around town and I decided to stop in here for something to do... Hey, why are YOU here?"

"Oh me, I was just looking for something for one of the kids I baby sit for. They have been really good for me, so I wanted to get them something." I truly felt horrible about lying to Jimmy, but I had to.

Plus he was probably lying to me as well. I know him well enough to know that he never just looks around. He's the kind of person who knows exactly what they want, and exactly where to get it from.

“Well I’m going to go now. But... Do you think you can meet me out by the docks tonight around seven?”

“Ya. Sure ok. Seven’s fine.” And he left the store without as little as a simple goodbye.

Something’s bothering him. I can feel it. Well I guess I'm going to have to wait till seven to find out what it is. Forgetting all about the disguise I left the store.

I headed over to my friend, Anna’s house. At least I have someone other to talk to besides Jimmy. I would be totally lost without Anna.

“Ding dong” The doorbell went as I pushed the button

Anna’s older brother, Fork, opened the door. Fork wasn’t his real name, it was his nickname. I have no clue how he got that nickname, but it stuck with him.

“Anna's not here right now.” He said with a smile.

“Oh ok. Well, can you tell her that I stopped by?”

“Ya, I will.” I started walking down the steps towards the driveway.

“Hey Kay?”

“Yeah?”

“You wanna come in, and practice with the band for a bit? Well there's not really a band, it's just me. Only if you want to.”

“Ya… sure that would be great. You got an extra guitar for me?”

“You know I always keep an extra one for ya.”

“I may be a bit rusty, I haven’t played for awhile.”

“Don’t worry you’ll be fine.” We walked down to the basement a.k.a ‘the studio.’

This would be the perfect thing to get my mind off f Jimmy. We started playing, not playing any songs, just playing what we felt. I totally zoned out while I was playing. This was my sanctuary, just me and my guitar. I pretty much rocked out for an entire hour, and I would have kept on playing if Anna hadn’t of yelled at us to shut up. I love my guitar and she usually got annoyed at me when I played it too loud.

"You want to take a break??” Fork asked snapping me back to reality.

“Ya sure… whatever.” We went upstairs and found Anna lying spread out on her bed, writing furiously in her diary.

“Hey.” I said interrupting her writing.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you guys were up here. I thought you were still downstairs.”

She said quickly hiding her diary from Fork, blushing.

“I’ll never get why girls always have to write down their feelings.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t get, Fork.” Everyone laughed at that, including Fork.
“Too right you are, Kay.”

I walked to their kitchen and opened up the fridge. I came over here enough I was practically family. I grabbed a can of root beer.

“You guys want anything?”

“Root beer!” they said in usion.

“Two root beers coming up.” I said as I passed them each one.

"So what have you been up to lately, Fork?" I asked striking up a conversation as we all sat and sipped our root beers.

"Oh, not too much. Mainly working at the garage to pay off old debts, and trying to get a band together.”

“Ya, key word there 'trying.' He hasn't had anyone even audition for the band." Anna interrupted him.

"Hey, at least I'm trying to do something with my life, and not just writing down my 'feelings' in a stupid book." He shot back at her.
Fork directed his attention to me now.

"Kay, why don't you join? You wouldn't even have to audition. It would be awesome. You rockin' out five minute solos, me belting out the lyrics...What do you say?"

"Right now is not really the best time for me, but I’ll think about it for the near future. I'll even help you with the auditions, and the managing."

"He'll need that. He can barely keep his head on straight as it is."

We all laughed. I walked to the back to the kitchen, and started raiding their fridge again. I was starving.

"Hey, what do think this is? A free food for all convention?" Fork asked sarcastically.

"For me it is." I replied.

"Do you have any flyers ready for the auditions?" Anna asked.

"No, not yet. Haven't had much time for that."

"You want me to use my awesome skills and do them up for you, Fork?" I offered.

"Ya, sure that would help me out a lot. We can hold the auditions... next Friday?"
I though about this for a minute, scanning my brain to see if I had anything to do that day.

"Sounds good to me, I'll have them done by tomorrow."

"Hey, you wanna go play for a bit? I really need to exercise my vocals." Fork asked me.

"Trust me, he really needs the practice." Anna said with a sarcastic smile.

I chuckled as I watched Anna get pelted with fake fruit. One could never get bored with these two.

"Alright. I could use the practice as well, since I haven't played for awhile."

I wasted no time at all in rockin' out on my guitar. I mainly improvised the entire time, trying to come up with new material for my future band. The hours spent down in the 'studio' seemed to fly by as quick as a speeding bullet. Before I knew it, it was dark out, and time for me to go.

I walked out the door with Fork by my side. Anna had said that she was too tired to walk with us, but I knew the truth. She was too busy writing in her journal about whatever it was that happened today.

It was a beautiful night. Not too cold not too hot. At first we just walked, neither of us talking, then Fork started a conversation. I was glad that he had asked me of all people to be in his band. This was the chance of a lifetime. Fork had had a band before, but the members didn't see everything the same way, so they split. It was sad to see them split because they were one of the few bands actually close to making it big.

We finally reached my house, and I turned to say goodbye when I saw Fork leaning in towards me, and kissed me. I was surprised at first, but I accepted it. He walked down the driveway without another word. I stared after him in shock. I never knew that Fork actually liked me. I always considered us as friends, and that was it. But I guess that he hoped we could be more than 'just friends'.

I walked into my house, and completely ignored everyone. I was shut out to everything around me. I knew I would get yelled at in the morning for being home so late, and not having an explanation, but I didn't care. Soon enough I would be out of this hell hole, and on my own. I couldn't wait till that day came. Sadly, it was still a couple of years away. I could move out now, but then I would be stuck with no place to live, no job, no money, no nothing. The only thing keeping me here was the fact that I had a bed to sleep in every night, and food on the table.

I walked up to my bedroom, and blasted my favourite CD, Alice in Chains, Dirt. I slammed down onto my navy blue bean bag chair, and grabbed my stuffed bunny, Chester. I had gotten my Chester as a present from Fork and Anna when I was younger. It was a little worn out now, but it was still as cute as it was when I got it. I hugged him tight. Chester always made me feel better. He gave me comfort, and in a strange sort of way sometimes helped me solve my problems.

I just sat on my bean bag chair and held Chester close. He was probably the best present I had gotten from anyone. I looked at my computer. It had said that I had new emails. I decided to check them. I hadn't checked my email for awhile now.

I opened up the first email. It was from an unknown sender, and when I opened it all it said was 'BIG BEN, LONDON ENGLAND', in bold capitals. That's strange. I checked the next one. This one was also from an unknown sender. This one said, 'SANTA'S WORKSHOP, NORTH POLE'. That one was even more weird than the first one. I checked the rest of my emails, and they all turned out like the first two. A sudden thought struck me. It came to me like a bolt of lightning. I didn’t realize this before, but I remember Jimmy had mentioned something about getting strange emails from an unknown sender that said the name of famous landmarks and places. I decided to reply and see what happened.

'Dear whoever this is,
Why are you emailing me this shit? How the hell did you get my email address? Who the hell are you, and what is your problem? If you are a kidnapper or something like that, I will find you, and so will Jimmy. If you have Jimmy's dad, my question to you is, why? What did he ever do to you?
From me'

I sent the email, and turned up my stereo full blast.

"KAY!!" Amanda yelled banging on my door.

"WHAT?!?" I yelled back to her. I was hardly able to hear her over the loud music, but that was okay with me.

"TURN DOWN THAT STUPID MUSIC!!" She yelled back even louder this time.

"WHAT STUPID MUSIC? I DON'T HEAR ANY STUPID MUSIC. I HEAR EXTREMLY TALENTED MUSICIANS, AND A DEARLY MISSED VOCALIST, BUT NO STUPID MUSIC!" I replied, knowing that it would annoy the hell out of her.

Amanda came bursting into my room headed straight for my stereo. She turned it off, and almost broke it while doing so. She was so pissed, I thought her head was going to blow off.

"Don't touch my stuff!" I yelled at her as she left my room without another word said.

I ignored what had just happened, and turned my stereo back on, louder than before. This time I turned the bass up full blast.

I went back onto the computer, and checked the new email I had just received a couple of minutes ago. The email said 'BOO!!' Exactly the same thing that had happened to Jimmy. I practically leaped out of my chair, and started to frantically look for the cordless phone. Most likely, Amanda had it. She was on the phone 24/7 talking to her so-called friends. I went over to her room to see if it was there.

She wasn't in the room, so I went in to look for the phone myself. The first place i checked was the bed, and sure enough there it was. Sitting there like it was reserved for royalty only. I laughed at the thought. I quietly tip-toed back to my room, hoping she wouldn't hear me, and come chop my head off for even looking at the phone, let alone actually touching it. Phew, I made it to my room without a scratch. I slowly closed the door, carefully to not make any noise, and dialled Jimmy's number.

As I dialled Jimmy's number, I remembered that he had asked me to meet him down at the docks at seven. I had totally forgotten all about it. He would probably be furious. Instead of meeting my when I said I was, I was hanging out over at Anna's. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to call him right now.

Kay decided to call him anyways. This was way too important to not let Jimmy know. Especially since it involved his dad. She pressed the talk button on her phone and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jimmy, it's me, Kay. Sorry about not meeting you tonight. But I went over to Anna's and started playing my guitar with Fork, and, well you know how it is when I play." I explained, trying to choose my words carefully.

"Ya, I know. That's ok. I forgive you."

This was strange. Usually when people didn't show up when there were supposed to he went a-wall on them. Something didn't seem right. It wasn’t like Jimmy at all.

"Well anyways, the reason I called is because I got these emails. The same ones you got. They said the name of famous landmarks, and places, and after I replied, a couple minutes later they replied with an email saying ‘BOO!!’. This whole thing is starting to freak me out." I said with a faint quiver in my voice.

I waited a moment for him to reply.

"Shit. Now they've got you involved in this too. I thought something like this would happen." He said, his voice quivering.
"What do you mean you thought this would happen?" I asked started to getting worried if i had done the right thing about telling him. It only took me less than a minute to realize that, yes it was the right thing, no matter what happened.

"Somehow they found out that I told you, or they know that you know my dad, and are close to me. Now, as much as I didn't want this to happen it did..."

"What‘s going on, Jimmy? I don't understand what you're saying." I cut him off in mid sentence.

"Will you give me a chance to finish, Kay?" He asked sounding annoyed.

"I'll explain it all to you, but I don't feel safe talking over the phone. I have a feeling that my step-mother is listening in on us. Or they could have my phone line wired. Either way I’m not going to tell you over the phone. It’s not safe. Meet me down at Zonko's in 10 minutes. Bye" He hung up the phone without giving me a chance to protest or ask any more questions.