Benny, Ethan and I walk out of the school at the end of the day as Benny looks through his phone. "Hey, check it out: looks like they found the rest of that missing senior" Benny informs us. "The rest?" Ethan asks confused. "Yeah, says here he was shriveled up." My eyes widen. Shriveled up. What could have flown out of the sky and done that?
"You know, kind of like this juice box." Benny squeezes it and juice squirts out all over Ethan's face. I start laughing at the priceless looks on their faces as Benny starts apologizing. "Dude!" Ethan shoves him in the shoulder, wiping his face off. "This isn't funny" Ethan tells me with a glare. "You're right. It's hilarious" I chuckle as Benny takes a drink of his juice.
"Oh, bummer." We look over at where Benny is to see the girl Ethan ran into leaned up against a tree with Jesse right in front of her, both of them wearing sunglasses. "Looks like she's already hooked up with Mr. Too-Cool-For-School." Benny sighs. "Did somebody mention my name?" Rory leans his elbows on Benny and Ethan's shoulders as I give him an unimpressed look.
"Well, it's too late to turn back now!" Jesse calls after the girl as she starts walking away. "Jesse, Sarah said you weren't a big fan of vampire movies?" Erica walks up to the little group as I notice the two guys sitting on the car with sunglasses on, looking over at us. "I love vampires. That's exactly what I told her." Jesse corrects. "Yeah, well I gotta go." The girl, Sarah, sighs, walking away.
"Okay. Well...I'll see you around. Dusk forever!" Erica calls out, holding her fist in the air as I roll my eyes. "There's something not right about that drama club." Ethan says. "Hope we all see you at the screening" One of the seniors tells Erica. Erica smiles. "I am so going to your house tonight" Benny sighs dreamily as he looks over at Erica. "Great...The more 'mathletes', the merrier." Ethan grumbles. "Can I come?" Rory asks hopefully. "No" Ethan and Benny answer at the same time.
"What about you, Ry? Are you coming?" Benny wonders. "Only to see what you find so attractive about this Erica chick" I scoff. "How come she gets to come but I don't?" Rory pouts. "Because, I'm cooler" I shrug. The car the drama club seniors were sitting on starts speeding off. We quickly move out of the way before we're hit. "Watch it, nerds! Ha! Ha! Ha!" The guy laughs. We all watch after him shaking our heads.
~~~
I knock on the door and it opens with a disappointed Mrs. Morgan stood there. "Hi, Ryleigh" She sighs. "Hello, to you too?" I ask as she lets me in. "Sorry, the babysitter is running late. I was hoping it was her" She explains and I nod. "Ethan is up in his room, pouting." She informs me. "Got it. Thanks" I smile, heading up the stairs. I knock on the door. "I'm busy" He calls out.
"Too busy for me?" I call back. The door opens quickly. "I thought it was my mom." He says as I walk into his room, flopping on his bed. "Whatever" I shrug as he sits at his desk. He starts to draw as I sigh. Ethan starts getting a video call and answers it as Benny appears. I get up, leaning over his shoulder. "Hey, man. Any sign of the babe-o-sitter yet?" Benny wonders as I scoff. "Clever" I say and he smiles.
"No. I'm staying in my room as a form of protest." Ethan sighs and Benny gives him a look of disbelief. "Well, I'm not! First sign of Babezilla approaching, and I am there." Benny smirks. "Good luck with that" Ethan says before ending the call. "She's not as attractive as he's making it out to be. All she talks about is Dusk. Some dumb vampire movie in my opinion. Her friend on the other hand, I wouldn't mind if she just randomly showed up at the door" I sigh, flopping back down on his bed again.
"Yeah, and what are you gonna do if she does? Offer her your shirt again?" He scoffs, looking back at me. "Any chance to be shirtless in front of a pretty girl" I shrug and he rolls his eyes at me. "Yeah, right. If she were to show up, I bet you wouldn't even know what to say" He says. "Whatever" I scoff. We hear a noise outside of Ethan's window and give each other a look. "It's probably the wind" I wave it off.
He starts drawing again as I play on my phone. We suddenly hear some type of animal noise and growling coming from outside. We look at each other again and Ethan gets up to go look out his window. "I don't see anything" He tells me as he starts getting a video call. I get up and answer it as Benny's face appears again. "You two hear that? It sounds like ultimate raccoon fighting in our backyards!" He exclaims, holding something up to help him listen more.
"Sounds huge!" He adds. Ethan hangs up and sits back down. "I guess it's fight club tonight" I shrug and Ethan scoffs. We suddenly hear a loud thump come from outside of his house. "What the..." I trail off, looking out his window. His doorbell goes off as Ethan and I give each other a look. "Jane? Your babysitter's here" We hear Ethan's mom call out. Ethan gets out his phone to text Benny.
"Come on" We both walk down the stairs and freeze as we see the babysitter. It was actually Sarah, not Erica. We both look at her with wide eyes. "Uh, Earth to Ethan?" Mrs. Morgan calls out. Ethan breaks out of it, nudging me. "Hello" he says in shock as they all stare up at us. "Hey." she says back. "Do you like Dance, Dance Revolution?" Jane asks as Ethan and I look at each other. "Not so confident now, are you?" He snickers. "Oh, shut up. You reacted the same way I did" I elbow him as I notice Mrs. Morgan watching us.
Jane starts leading Sarah towards the living room to play but Mrs. Morgan stops her. "Oh, hang on a second, honey. You're bleeding." She points out. "Oh, uh, it's nothing. I tripped on the way here. Uh, it doesn't even hurt" Sarah waves it off. "You know, I'll go get some bandages." Ethan grabs my arm, dragging me up the stairs. We go into his room as he starts pacing.
"What do we do?" He panics. "I don't know. When I was saying the thing about her showing up, I was joking! And now she's actually here..." I shake my head as Ethan starts digging through his closet. "What are you doing?" I ask. "I can't walk back downstairs looking like this" He scoffs, starting to change into a different outfit. "What's it matter? All your clothes look basically the same" I point out. "They do not" He denies. "Sure. Whatever you say" I scoff. He starts struggling to get his pants off as I watch in amusement.
He almost falls to the ground, falling into his shelf. "Clumsy is right" I snicker. He manages to get some different pants on and changes his shirt as well. "Didn't you tell her you were going to go get her bandages?" I point out. "Right, the bandages. Can you go down there and distract her?" He asks. "No problem" I wink and he rolls his eyes as he goes over to his bathroom.
I head back downstairs as Ethan's parents are just leaving. "Bye Ethan!" Mrs. Morgan calls out. "Yeah, bye!" Ethan calls out. "Bye, Ryleigh" Mr. Morgan says and I wave them goodbye as they leave. I notice Sarah and Jane digging through the freezer, Jane chanting about getting ice cream. I walk towards the two. "Ryleigh, do you know where the ice cream is? You're always looking through our fridge" Jane brings up as Sarah raises an eyebrow at me.
"Let me see" I say and she moves out of the way as I dig through the freezer. I pull out a box of fudgsicles and hand it to her. "Yes. Thank you!" She cheers, grabbing one and opening it, starting to eat it. "So, are you also related?" Sarah asks curiously. "To Ethan. Pfft, no way. I like to think of him as a brother though. We're best friends" I tell her and she nods. "I found the bandages" We hear Ethan coming down the stairs.
"And we found that secret stash of Fudgsicles!" Jane runs towards the stairs where Ethan is as we follow after. Jane runs right into Ethan though, getting her fudgsicle all over his pants. "Ah! Jane!" He exclaims, looking down at his pants. Sarah laughs as she notices. "Nice! I guess now we're even." She smirks. Ethan chuckles nervously, handing her the bandages.
There's a knock at the door. "Um, I got it" Ethan starts to walk towards the door. "No, no, no!" Sarah grabs an umbrella and starts running towards the door. The door opens and Benny walks in, his hands full. "I got pop, chips, and the first season of The Bloodsucker Diaries." Benny starts explaining as he looks down at everything in his hands, closing the door with his foot. "Who-" He cuts himself off as he finally notices who's stood there, shoving the fake fangs in his mouth as he looks on in surprise.
Ethan and I give him a look as Sarah turns to look back at Ethan. "Where's your bathroom?" Sarah wonders. "Oh, um...It's down that hall there to the left." he points and Sarah starts walking towards the bathroom with Jane following after. Benny pulls the fangs out of his mouth, walking closer to us. "Guys...isn't that your robo-babe from school?" He motions to me. "Definitely" I nod. "I guess Erica couldn't come so she sent her instead." Ethan explains.
"So she's like a...substitute babe?" Benny asks as we start to head towards the kitchen. "Dude" Ethan shakes his head. "Sweet!" Benny smiles. "No, no. Not sweet. Jeez, could you be less of a geek for once?" Ethan asks as we make it to their island, Benny setting his stuff down. "Oh, yeah. This coming from the guy who looks like he pooped his pants from the front. Nice job, by the way" Benny scoffs. "It's Fudgsicle!" Ethan defends himself. "Whatever it is, he's got a point" I wave it off. "You watched it happen" Ethan brings up.
"It was pretty funny" I tell Benny and we both chuckle as Ethan rolls his eyes at us. "Anyways, let's order some 'zza. I'm starving." Benny pulls out his phone, dialing the number. "Hey, it's me." Benny sighs as Ethan walks towards the bathroom door where Jane was stood. "Give me the usual, and supersize that puppy. I'm next door. It's, uh, exactly 7:19, and you have 30 minutes or it's free. Engage!" He quickly hangs up as I roll my eyes at him. "Why do I even hang out with you sometimes?" I shake my head as he sets his watch.
Benny starts looking over a magazine as I text my aunt, telling her where I am. Ethan quickly walks towards us. "Guys!" He whispers. "All right, guys. This new Galactica spin-off is on tonight, and we should totally..." He pauses. noticing Ethan's expression. "Okay, what's up?" Benny asks. "I just saw Sarah. She was...she was in front of the mirror, but...not in it!" Ethan explains. Benny and I both give him a look. "Okay, hold up. How much aftershave did you drink?" Benny asks.
"Guys, I'm serious! Her reflection was all wonky. She's not normal, okay? She's like a..." "Supermodel? I know" I nod. "Hey, look. You guys don't really need a sitter, do you?" Sarah asks, coming out of the bathroom. "Depends on what you mean by 'need'" Benny winks and I nod in agreement. Ethan gives us a look before turning back to look at Sarah.
"No, no, we're fine. My mom just likes humiliating me to make a point." Ethan explains. "Okay, good. I need to find my friend, Erica. I think she's in trouble." She starts to head towards the back door. "Uh, maybe I should come with you. You know, for protection" Ethan suggests, walking towards her. "It's okay, Ethan. I could protect her instead" I wave him off, walking towards her as well with a smirk.
Sarah drops something and Ethan reaches down to pick it up. He hands it to Sarah and gasps, staring ahead of him as I look at him confused. "Ethan?" I call out. He gasps again, letting go. Sarah just looks at him confused. "Trust me, you don't want to go out tonight. Besides, save those muscles for protecting yourselves" She feels both of arms, pulling her arm off of mine quickly like she hadn't realized I was stronger than she thought. What can I say, I work out.
"Did you just see that?" Ethan asks us, looking around. "Uh...later guys." She waves awkwardly, leaving us. "Dude! Way to scare her off" I hit his shoulder. "But...uh..." He trails, turning to look at Benny and I as walk back towards the island, opening up the chips Benny brought, starting to eat them. "Wow, smooth. We get a mad-hot babe here, and you have to immediately go and weird her out. Well done. I'm very impressed." Benny applauds.
"I'm telling you. I just saw something. Okay, she's not normal, and I'm going to find out what's going on." Ethan explains. "Fine. Undercover brother's on a mission. I like it." Benny nods as the two look at me expectantly. "You want to help us, sis?" He adds and I roll my eyes. "All right, fine. But uh...isn't there something or rather, someone you're forgetting?" I bring up as the two head towards the back door. "Yeah. What are you forgetting?" Jane crosses her arms as I point over at her. "Right" Ethan sighs.