Lockwood loves expresso

Parenting Practice Part 7

"Do any of you have a key to the house? Because I think my keys are in my pants."

"And your pants are in the house.'' I finished for him. We all thought for a moment.

"We could go through a window?" George suggested.

I was wondering if all the windows would be locked. Nope, apparently not, because George looked a bit better.

"My room window shouldn't be locked."

Now, how are we supposed to do that? It'll be hard because his room is on the 2nd story (tell me if I'm wrong). Wait! I remember we had a ladder in the garage. I run to the garage and see the 15 ft ladder (I don't understand metric).

"George! Lockwood! I need help with this!" I yell as they come around the house to the side of the garage.

"Aww man," George wails as he sees my face,"how are we supposed to move that with these?" He said, indicating to his pudgy hands.

Kipps came around to where we were. Ughh, why's he still here? I wonder if he is going to RUDELY KIDNAP us again? But my thoughts were rudely interrupted by him walking towards us in the wet, soggy rain.

"I see you won't be able to move that by yourselves, especially since your small little hands." He said looking pointedly at me.

I glare at him. Lockwood puts a reassuring arm around me, still a good 4 inches taller than me. Well, then again George had 6 inches and Kipps' got about 3 feet. I blush profusely but he doesn't seem to notice. He has a brave face on, which I admire deeply.

"You know what, that would be a problem. Do you mind getting it for us?" Lockwood asks with more sweetness than a bakery in his voice.

"You know what? I'd be honored!" He said with a dramatic thrill in his voice. "I'll do it right away if you let me speak to Lucy." He added with the same amount of sweetness that Lockwood had.

Lockwood looked at me, puzzled. I just shrug and walk to the giant.

   "Come over here," he said motioning to the side of the garage."this is a private talk."

   "Care to tell me what this is about?" I asked him with a little edge to my squeaky little voice.

   "When are you supposed to-"He was interrupted by George and Lockwood grunting as they manage to lift the ladder and started to drag it.

   "When are you supposed to turn back to your....."

   "16"

   "16 year old self?"

   "I'm pretty sure it's a month. Why?" I ask with the suspicion clear in my voice.

   "Since little Cubbins made this happen, maybe you will consider switching to my team. Well, Fittes in general." He said, the plea clearly used.

   "No, I've told you enough times, I like it here, and you only want me because my talents powerful." I said matter of faculty. His face turned down.

   "Whatever. You come to me eventually." He said this as he trudged, clearly annoyed by my turndown, to Lockwood and George. They clearly got it without Kipps, which I bet annoyed him even more. I smiled at the thought.

   "Luce?" George asked, clearly straining." Can you help here?"

   "Hmm, what, oh yeah." I said as I skipped to them. I put my fingers on the bottom as I tried to lift the heavy ladder. I finally got the strength and tugged up.

   "AGH!" Someone screamed as they dropped the ladder. On. My. Foot.

   "YOWW!" I shrieked as I felt a toe crack. How? The ladder wasn't even that heavy! I scooted my foot from the ladder. Who screamed? I suddenly thought as I looked up. Lockwood was on his bottom with a face of pure horror.

   "SPIDER!" He said, clearly disgusted.

   Kipps slid next to me on his knees and put his fingers on my fragile foot. I pushed him away, and tried to walk away. It didn't work out as I planned, and fell flat on my face.

   "Mmgh!" I tried to say 'owww' , but the wet, soggy ground muffled my words.

    "Lucy-"

    "Don't touch me!" I yelled at him,"Why do you care now, all of a sudden?"I asked challenging. "Exactly."

   I went to get up and George ran to my side.

   "Luce I am so sorry, I don't know what came over me! I'm not afraid of spiders anymore." His voice became quiet after the last word, and his deep, sea of brown eyes looked at me with sorrow.

   "It's okay, Lockwood. I know what it is to be afraid of someone-I mean something." I replied, whilst correcting myself. "Let's get this up to George's window." I said.

   I tried to stand up fast, but crumpled to the ground immediately. I stood more carefully, and hopped on one leg. Amazingly, the ladder was already up and going with Kipps and Lockwood hulling it up to perch next to George's room window. George came to me and took off my shoe. He pulled off my sock and started to examine my toes. He took a few moments but then said they would be fine, but one was sprained. He lifted me up, putting one arm under my arm and we started towards the front door.

   "Hi, guys. Come on, let's look for Holly."

   Holly. I totally forgot about her. We went inside and started our search. We called her name, but we got no response.

   "I'm in the basement!" She called in a squeaky voice. Oh no!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word count: 925