Chapter One
BANG!
Chloe had just thrown her priceless porcelain doll with the black bow and green dress against the wall, and it had immediately shattered into dozens of little pieces. But when she saw that the doll’s face was still intact, she stomped over to it, banging it against the ground until it was officially unrecognizable. She stared at the remains of the doll’s face for a long time, acknowledging that it was really gone and then she swept up all the pieces with a little brush and threw them away. Why her Aunt Lenore had given her a doll for her sixteenth birthday, was a mystery that was never going to be solved, but more importantly why the doll just had to have a black bow in its hair and a green dress… well that was just cruel, or unfairly ironic or something twisted like that.
It was only the eighth day of junior year, but sixteen year old Chloe Manning was 99.9% positive that she was in no condition to go to school. She’d had a horrible dream last night, a dream that she could only talk to Nick about. And neither of them even liked talking about it. Actually, “talking about it” wasn’t a strong enough way to describe it. More like acknowledging that that unspeakable day had in fact taken place- that was the best way to describe it. Chloe shook her head furiously, trying desperately to drain the dream out of her head.
It wasn’t working.
Fuming, she leapt off of her bed and stormed around her room, trying to find her phone. After three grueling minutes she found it buried under a pile of crap on her dresser. She punched in a few numbers… and the phone rang… and rang… and rang once more….
“’morning Chlo.”
Chloe brightened immediately, the sound of Nick’s voice pretty much evaporating every little bit of the dream.
“Hey. Do you want to come over?”
“Um…” he said lazily in to the phone, clearly still half asleep.
“I just don’t think school seems like a good idea today,” she glanced out the window, noticing that it was a clear, sunny day. That was good. She’d have been miserable if it was raining. “It’s too sunny out to stay inside for seven hours.”
Nick laughed and she knew she’d convinced him. “Yeah-”
“So do you want to come over?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely. Clara hasn’t gone grocery shopping yet so I’d probably starve or something if I stayed home.”
Chloe giggled. “Yeah, we won’t starve here, Elsa just went shopping yesterday and the fridge is stock full of like, everything.”
“Sweet. Well, I’ll probably be there in like forty five minutes.”
“’Kay. I’ll call Jack and Adri.”
Chloe hung up the phone and then started dialing her boyfriend Jack’s number. It rang… and rang…
“Hey babe.” Jack moaned groggily into the phone.
“Hey. So, I’m not gonna go to school today and I was wondering if you could come over for a little, I don’t know what to call it, a post summer vacation-vacation. Oh, and I already called Nick and he’s coming and I haven’t called Adri yet but, you know, she’ll probably come too because, I think she still has a cold so she won’t want to go to school anyway, but yeah… can you come over?”
Jack didn’t say anything for a few moments and she suspected that his hung-over/high/whatever mind was struggling to warp together what she’d said. When he did he started laughing and Chloe was really glad because there was still a tiny little part of her mind that was refusing to forget the dream, and if Jack came over then that would definitely make that stubborn little bit go away.
“We’re doing that stupid can-jam game in gym so I wasn’t even planning on going to school today either. But yeah, I’ll be over there in like an hour or so, I just got to get some coffee or something, I look like a fucking zombie. I’ll be over soon though.”
“’Kay. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Chloe hung up the phone and was about to call Adri- when Adri herself called Chloe at that exact same moment.
“Hey.” Adri said. “So I’ll be at your house in an hour or so, I just gotta wait for my parents and Mackenzie to leave.” Adri groaned suddenly. “I gotta go, Jemma’s making chocolate chip pancakes, and I told her to her face that I wanted blueberry. Bye!”
Chloe hung up, pleased that all of her friends could come over. Now she just had to get up out of chair and get dressed.
As she flounced over to her bathroom and took a long shower, she hoped that that would help drain out the dream. Nope. Still there. Still vivid and ugly and awful. After she dried her hair, she meandered over to closet, nitpicking over several different bits of clothing. She had to wear something that screamed happy today. Nothing black or depressing looking. After several minutes of more nitpicking, she finally picked a violet tunic and white leggings. She glanced at herself in her mirror, examining the outfit. Perfectly optimistic choice to help cheer up what hadn’t been the most perfect start of a morning. That stupid, ridicules dream just could not stand to ever completely leave her alone.
If a person only saw the exterior of Chloe Manning, they’d assume that she was one of the luckiest girls on the planet. She lived in a beautiful three story townhouse that was within walking distance of the Guggenheim Museum. She went to one of the best schools in the country, Alvord Boscawen Academy/ABA, which didn’t even require uniforms. And she’d traveled all over the world; Dubrovnik, Venice, Cape Town, Moscow, Sydney, the list went on and on. Yes, Chloe was very blessed and she knew it. It wasn’t as if she didn’t feel lucky, or pessimistic, or something depressing like that. Quite the opposite actually. Days that started off like this just didn’t always bring out the best in her.
Chloe was 5’8 and she liked it that way just fine. That way she was tall but not so tall that every other person asked her if she played basketball. She also had long golden blond hair and shiny blue green eyes- and she’d been modeling since she was two and was currently one of the most well known teen models in the U.S. Not that she liked making a big deal over that; it was just something she liked to do.
That and cocaine, but that was a completely different story.
Yes, Chloe was a drug addict. So were Nick, Jack and Adri. Maybe Nick more than Jack and Adri. Yes, she knew that it more or less warped up all your insides and then bounced them arSoound until you felt like your head was on fire. And yes, she had a feeling that her parents knew she had perhaps “dabbled” with drugs but they seemed much more comfortable acting like their only child didn’t have a drug problem- the very idea of James and Angelica Manning’s beautiful, talented daughter doing drugs- it was just laughable! Chloe’s dad was a famous movie producer and her mom was a screenwriter. It went without saying in their circle of friends that the offspring of people like that just didn’t do that sort of thing, no matter what bizarre, insane, twisted logic was behind it all-
“Boo!”
“AHHH!”
Chloe screamed as Nick stood in front of, laughing his head off that he’d managed to creep into her room so quietly and scare that crap out of her, which admittedly wasn’t an easy feat. People rarely got away with sneaking up on Chloe.
“I did not- I did not think that was going to work!” he squealed, his face reddening a mixture of emotion, mainly over the fact that he’d managed to sneak up on her. “I’m really sorry, but seriously… that had to be a first!”
Nicolai Russo- who demanded to be called Nick at all times because he just hated the name Nicolai- had known Chloe longer than any of her other friends- Jack included- and he knew how to wedge his way between the cracks. He knew how to wedge his way between and out of a lot of things.
Nick was about five inches taller than Chloe, he had shaggy chocolate brown hair, hazel eyes, the whole shebang… and he was the captain of the soccer team so that fact that when he tore his shirt off on the field, he looked quite a bit like a younger David Beckham, well that definitely helped him “charm” his way out a plethora of sore spots at school. That and that fact that his dad had been the New York Giants linebacker Tony Russo (he’d been retired for over ten years and now he ran his own sports complex but his fans adoration still prospered). And his mom, Sophie Atherton-Russo, was an actress from a popular Law and Order-ish show- Chloe could never remember the name of the show but Parker had won four or five Emmy Awards for it.
Yes, Tony and Sophie were very well-esteemed, respected members of the Upper East Side. And if all their fans could see what their only child acted like behind the paparazzi pictures that screamed “preppy, talented, all around good kid…” oh it would be bad. Nick would have to go to rehab, Tony and Parker’s faces would be plastered over dozens of gossip magazines and the speculations would run wild. But ABA had yet to really crack down on the kid of such a well liked, glamorous couple, and seeing as how they hadn’t done anything all the other times Nick had treed on their toes, they probably weren’t going to do anything now, what with college around the corner.
As Nick collapsed into one of Chloe’s giant plush beanie bags, she couldn’t even yell at him for scaring her because when he saw that she was about to, he handed her a small plastic bag that was almost busting at the seams with cocaine.
“You are too kind.” Chloe giggled, setting the bag down on her dresser. “I ran out two days ago, it’s been fucking hell-”
Nick laughed but when she looked at him… she could tell. The fact that he’d had the dream the same night as she did was kind of freaky but that kind of look only meant one thing. That you’d had the worst possible dream imaginable.
“It never… it never really goes away for you either?” she asked quietly.
Nick shook his head adamantly. “No.” He stood up, picking a frame up off of the dresser, racing his fingers across the glass. The picture was of Chloe and Adri when they were twelve, bouncing on a trampoline, totally carefree and so happy. He smiled softly at her as he set the frame down. “But at least everything’s awesome now.”
Chloe nodded, shoving any thoughts of the dream as far back in her mind as was possible.
“Well, Jack and Adri should be here in like fifteen minutes,” she said. “Do you want to go downstairs and watch some TV until they get here?”
Nick nodded and they started walking out the door but then Chloe stumbled past the garbage can, it fell over, Nick helped pick up the scattered trash- and then he saw one of the porcelain doll’s eyeballs. He raised his eyebrows at Chloe, knowing that she had a way of being a little crazy, but nonetheless thinking that a glass eyeball was a little out there.
Chloe shrugged. “That doll always freaked the hell out of me.”
“So… why did you break it?”
Chloe had made some popcorn and she and Nick were watching TV in the living room, snorting lines and waiting for Jack and Adri to arrive.
“Well… I had the dream… she was in it for a second… and then when I woke up I realized how much the doll looked like her so it had to go. I mean…” she paused, pulling her hair back into a messy bun and fervently tapping her chin. “It’s not even her that I’m mad at, she never even did anything… technically- but the fact that she just thinks that everyone in her whole family is so fucking perfect, and talented and nice, it’s all- it’s all such a fucking joke but she’ll never see it like that because her parents are in the U.N. so obviously all of their offspring are going to be a couple of god damn saints.” She shook her head furiously, trying to make sense of a situation that never would. “I just feel really sorry for the youngest one… Holly? No, it’s Hallie, I mean she’s like what ten now? How long before you think she’ll be just like Jus-”
Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.
Chloe yelped, as she saw that the person calling her phone was none other than her mom. She hit mute on the TV as she slowly picked up the phone like it was on fire.
“Hi mom.”
“Hi sweetie,” Mrs. Manning cooed into the phone. “Have you left for school yet?”
“Um… no but I was going to leave in a minute or two, just throwing some stuff together for lunch.”
“Okay. Well, they’re throwing a big party for Thomas tonight so we’ll be flying home around 10:30 tomorrow and we should be back with just enough time to show you some pictures and- oh, I bought you the most gorgeous dress, you’ll just love it- and then we’ll just have a little mid-afternoon lunch together before you go to the Monalowe’s party.”
“Sounds cool mom,” Chloe said, on the verge of snapping that she was in no mood to talk about dresses. “I’ll see you then. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I miss you too! Love you too. Bye!”
Chloe’s parents were in London to see some friend of theirs show and after Chloe caught up with them for a little bit once she got home from school, she had to get dressed up for Mr. Monalowe’s- Jack’s dad- company’s dinner. She didn’t mind dressing up at all, but the party was so excruciatingly awful because if you weren’t sitting at the table eating disgusting food, you were dancing- only slow dancing- or talking to all of Mr. Monalowe’s horribly stuffy, pretentious employees. It all lasted six long hours and they had to stay for every last minute of it.
Pissed off about the party, Chloe hung up the phone and violently threw it onto the table, sending it skidding across the table and then onto the floor where it finally stopped when it hit the base of the media center. Not knowing exactly why she was irritated as she was, she grabbed one of the needles that Nick had brought along and stabbed it into her arm.
“We have to eat escargot at that party. I hate escargot.”
Nick started chuckling, mainly because he didn’t have to go to the party- only Mr. Monalowe’s employees and their families could go. Chloe was going because Jack’s parents always let him and his siblings bring a friend along. Chloe threw a pillow at him to make him shut up- and two seconds later she realized that hadn’t been necessary because his eyes were already glued to the TV.
“What is it-”
And then Chloe saw what “it” was and she felt like the very person that “it” was about had mercilessly shoved her off the Empire State Building.
As Chloe had been channel surfing, she hadn’t even been watching what she was skipping past, but of course she’d just had to stop on the News channel.
“Manhattan’s Alvord-Boscawen Academy has won the swimming finals again!” The over exuberant News woman said. “Team captain Justin Latimer not only led the team to an unforgettable victory but the ABA senior also broke three new records-”
Chloe quickly flipped the channel to MTV before grabbing a handful of popcorn.
“I think he’s a sociopath,” Nick said after several moments of silence. “I remember this one time when I was like eleven or so… his pet rabbit Louie was pretty old and Justin didn’t really care about him anymore because he couldn’t do much. So, this one day during summer vacation we went over to his house and he told me that he wanted to show me something. He took me to this one room upstairs where they kept all the pets and Louie was just sitting there in his cage. Justin told me that he was really old and- and that he was sick all the time so he got a towel… and he put it over Louie’s mouth and just held it there while he fidgeted and everything. It only took like three minutes or so but after it happened he just kind of looked at him like he wasn’t sure what had just happened or something. I ran out of there before he could do anything else and I just hung out in the playroom with Hallie the rest of the day.” He wove one of the needles over his fingers for a few moments before saying anything. “He told his mom that he died in his sleep.”
Chloe was speechless- how did someone respond to something like that? Try to tell an even more depressing story? She bit her lip for a long moment and she wasn’t sure if she was doing the right thing or not by mentioning what she was about to…
“You remember that time we got lost in Disney World?”
It had worked. Nick had appeared to be border line suicidal for a small spec of time, having watched something that actually made Justin look like a human being. But when Chloe had mentioned that unforgettable, positively magnificent trip to Disney World, she’d all but obliterated Justin from his mind. Nick smiled and nodded, clearly in a better mood than he’d been in moments before.
“How could I ever forget it?”
Eight years earlier
Chloe’s mom and Nick’s mom had been best friends in college and by the time Chloe and Nick had been born, they were more or less sisters. Their two families did almost everything together- dinners, church, trips to the beach, theme parks, ball game outings; the list went on and on. So, the summer after Chloe and Nick turned eight, they all went to Disney World together. The trip had been wonderful and they all had many great memories from it. But Chloe and Nick, being the mischievous, unpredictable kids they were, could not resist rebellion when it presented itself.
“I want to do small world!”
“I want to do splash mountain!”
“Nick! There’s Mickey Mouse!”
They’d been at the park for less than twenty minutes and Chloe and Nick were already acting like pure sugar was flowing through their veins. As they rammed their way through the plethora of people between them and Mickey, Chloe could have sworn she heard one woman say something about “brats” and “Ritalin.” But she could have cared less about that; all she wanted was Mickey’s autograph.
“Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me!” Nick yelled as he and Chloe pushed and shoved their way over to Mickey. Once they reached him, they flung their autograph books into his hands, squealing with joy. After Mickey signed their books they flung their small arms around him- and moments later their mothers grabbed them by the hands, pulling them away from the crowd of children who were crying about being shoved and tripped.
“Guys, you can’t just run away like that,” Mr. Russo said as they walked through the crow. “There’s people everywhere, you have to be careful.”
Chloe and Nick nodded, only just acknowledging the “be careful” rule. They were far too mesmerized by all the sights and sounds to really pay attention and once their moms let go of their hands, they ran ahead again-
“Kids, hold hands!” Mrs. Manning called out after them.
Once again, only partially hearing them, Chloe and Nick nodded ever so slightly and held hands.
“We’re getting pretty close to Small World,” Mrs. Russo said. “You guys want to do that one first?”
The kids didn’t need to be asked twice, the second they saw the Small World sign, they sped towards it. They were on the verge of having a tantrum when they saw how long the line was, but when they saw Goofy walking past them, their parents stood in line while they ran over to Goofy and got his autograph. And when Nick asked another little girl next to them how many autographs she had, the girl said five, and Chloe and Nick were about to tell her “Well, we have nine!” but at that same moment Chloe saw her mom give her a look that screamed “Don’t you dare.” So they both walked very slowly back to the line, so as to prove to their parents that as difficult as it could be, they weren’t completely incapable of functioning like normal children- they just preferred other whys.
“... keep your arms and legs in the cart at all times- and don’t touch the dolls!”
The ride attendant, Tara, had just finished telling the Manning’s and Russo’s the safety procedures and when she’d said the bit about not touching the dolls, she’d glared at Chloe and Nick, a mixture of fake cheerfulness and loathsome playing across her face. Chloe and Nick had just stared at her like they couldn’t possibly understand why she’d say something like that. But despite the fact that they’d smiled and waved goodbye to her as their cart twirled around the bend, she kept glaring at them- and when Chloe teasingly waved her fingers towards the edge she saw Tara’s eyes nearly bulge out of her head. They both burst out laughing and only stopped when they saw the dolls dancing.
Chloe could hear her mom giggling as she took a picture of them, staring at the dolls with their mouths wide open in awe.
“Daddy!” Chloe cried. “Do you think we could buy one of the dolls?”
Mr. Manning laughed, ruffling Chloe’s hair. “I don’t think so sweetie,” he said. “They need all the dolls or the ride won’t be the same.”
Chloe still stared longingly at the dolls. For being only eight years old, she had an extraordinary amount of toys. But at that moment she felt like if she could have just one of the dolls- just one- then everything in her life would be perfect, and nothing bad would ever seem that way because she’d have a beautiful, flawless doll that would cheer her up on even the worst of horrible days.
“… IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL, IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL, IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL, IT’S A SMALL, SMALL, WOOOOOOORLD!!!”
Once they’d gotten off the ride, Chloe and Nick had found Tara and she’d looked like she was close to wringing their necks when she saw them running towards her. And once they’d started dancing around her, she looked to be on the verge of dunking their heads in the pool of the ride, and holding them down until the kids stopped moving.
“IT’S A WORLD OF LAUGHTER, A WORLD OF TEARS, IT’S A WORLD OF HOPE AND A WORLD OF FEARS…”
“Chloe! Nick!” Mrs. Manning called out to them- a little too sweetly for Tara’s liking. “Come on, we’re going to a Caribbean restaurant for lunch!”
When Mrs. Manning had said that Chloe and Nick had just exploded with glee and Tara strongly considered asking their parents to get to a shrink a.s.a.p. because, no normal eight year olds should be that exuberant about everything, every single second of the day!
“Kids, say good bye to Tara.” Mrs. Manning said as she walked over to them.
Tara almost had a chance to shake her head no, but Chloe and Nick had already thrown their arms tightly around her and they only let go when Mrs. Russo grabbed their hands and dragged them away.
“We’ll come back soon Tara!” Nick yelled to her. “We promise!”
Tara had watched them leave and when she saw them disappear in the crowd, it took her a good two minutes to realize that they were actually gone. And by then she was silently bawling, tears pouring down her face.
“Tara,” another attendant named Joel cried. Joel raced over to her and led her away from the crowds and over to a table. “What happened?”
Tara didn’t really like kids and she only worked at Disney World because it was close to home. But when two kids as crazy as Chloe and Nick pushed her buttons like that, it was just enough to push her over the edge. Tara’s eyes were bloodshot with hatred, fear of Chloe and Nick coming back and the knowing that because her boss was an unfeeling asshole that if she’d asked to be moved to a different ride, that he might just fire her.
“Those kids will never stop. They will never stop screaming and running, they’ll never, ever stop…”
After they’d gone to the Caribbean restaurant, Nick had insisted on going on Splash Mountain, so they did that- and the kids were terribly disappointed when they saw that Tara wasn’t there- and then they’d gone to the Swiss Family Treehouse, because Chloe and Nick had wanted to see if there were any real monkeys in it.
“Excuse me. Excuse me!” Chloe cried, tugging on one of the attendant’s sleeves until she got their attention. “Are there any real monkeys on this ride?”
The girl laughed at her and Chloe fought the urge to stomp on her foot; she hated when people treated her like that, like she was just a silly little girl that didn’t understand anything.
“No, sweetheart, there’s only fake monkeys here. We could never use real monkeys, they’d run away!”
Chloe looked at the girl for a long, unwavering moment, wondering if she was just saying there weren’t any real monkeys, or if there were and this girl just hadn’t seen one of them. When the girl waved goodbye to her as they entered the Treehouse, that same dopey smile on her face, Chloe decided that the girl definitely didn’t know about the real monkeys, if she did then she wouldn’t be acting so stupid- she’d surely have been much more excited. While their parents talked about the Swiss Family Robinson movie, Chloe and Nick skipped ahead.
“I think there’s a real monkey in here,” Chloe whispered to him. “The workers just don’t know about it.”
“Let’s try to find it.”
Chloe glanced back at their parents, who were still talking about the movie. They were so immersed in their conversation, she and Nick could easily run ahead, find the monkey and come back before they noticed; it wouldn’t be hard. So, when they saw a corner that they could disappear behind, they did, they watched their parents go ahead of them, and then they raced off in the opposite direction to find the monkey.
“I have a whistle,” Nick said, as he pulled on out of his backpack. “Do you think the monkey would come to us if it heard it?”
“I guess so.”
Nick blew the whistle three times; they looked around, imagining that the monkey would just pop out of one of the windows or something- and after a few minutes of waiting nothing happened. They looked around the room, terribly confused.
“You remember that story about the zoo you’re mom told us?” Chloe asked him.
“Yeah.”
“What was the name of the monkey in it?”
“Um… Ryley- no Riki, it was Riki!”
“Well maybe he’s here!”
“Oh, he’d have to be! I mean… where else would he be?”
“RIKI!”
“RIKI!”
“RIIIIIIIIKKKKKKIIIIIIII!”
Chloe and Nick had been racing around the Treehouse for ten minutes, trying to find Riki to no avail. They were just about to ask one of the workers if they knew of any Riki’s, when they bumped right into one. The young man who Chloe noted was named Seth, glanced at them for a moment, and then as if he suddenly became aware that they were alone, he glanced at them at little more darkly, as if they’d just burned down the whole Treehouse or something equally horrible.
“Where are you parents?”
Chloe imagined that they must have looked pretty stupid, standing there gaping at Seth, trying to figure out a believable enough excuse.
“They’re waiting outside, we just wanted a little more time to look around.”
Seth didn’t appear completely convinced but Chloe figured that he had a lot of other things on his mind that were probably a lot more important than two troublesome eight year olds. But then she saw him move to grab their hands, as if intending to take them to his boss or something-
“Run!”
She and Nick both sped past Seth, shoving their way past the people in front of them until they got out of the Treehouse and into the open. When they looked around, they saw that their parents were nowhere to be seen. But unlike normal eight year olds, they weren’t scared at all; if anything they were elated.
“I’m kind of hungry. You want to find a place that makes sundaes?” Nick asked her.
“Oh, yeah, it’s like what 100 degrees?” Chloe said as they started walking away from the Treehouse, gazing around for any sign of ice cream. “I want one with chocolate chips, lots of strawberries and some pineapples.”
“I’m going to get one with lots of blueberries and fudge and anything else chocolate.” Nick glanced at Chloe for a long moment before speaking again. “I bet I can finish mine before you.”
“Oh, please, you couldn’t even do that at Adri’s birthday party-”
“That was different-”
“How?”
“I’d just broken up the piñata, remember? I was still really dizzy from being spun around so many times.”
Chloe snorted. “You keep telling yourself that. I don’t remember them spinning you too many times.”
The workers at the Ice Cream shop that Chloe and Nick found had seen a lot of peculiar stuff, having worked at Disney World as long as they had. But when they saw two little kids- who weren’t accompanied with any adults- sit down at the biggest table and yell for a waiter, well that had been a first.
“Hello,” the waiter said as he approached their table. “My name is Scott.” He smiled at them for a long moment, trying desperately to understand how two eight year olds were managing their way around Disney World all by themselves. “Should I be expecting your mom and dad anytime soon?”
When Nick heaved a sigh of annoyance Scott knew that for as long as the two of them were going to be in this shop, that little amount of time was going to go by very, very slowly.
“Well, we’re not actually related.” Nick said, raising his eyebrows at Scott, as if it were obvious that they didn’t even look anything alike. “But our parents are going on a few 3-D rides that we really didn’t want to go on so they told us they’d meet us here later.”
Scott looked from Chloe to Nick, and then back again, they both beamed away at him, doing a half way descent job of portraying perfect little angels, and after several awkward moments of silence, Scott rolled his eyes and asked them what they wanted.
“… and don’t forget the rainbow sprinkles!” Chloe yelled, as he stalked his way back to the kitchen. He was being ordered around by two self-righteous eight year olds. Whose parents were God knows where.
When Scott got back to their table ten minutes later, Chloe and Nick were impatiently thumping their fingers against the table.
“Finally!” Chloe squealed, jumping up and down in her seat. Scott swallowed hard, trying to cancel out the image of throwing the both of them out of the shop. As Chloe and Nick made a mess of their sundaes, Scott just glared at them.
“Your parents are really at some 3-D show?”
Chloe didn’t look at him as she adamantly nodded her head. Scott was just about to head back to the kitchen when Chloe called out to him-
“We need more strawberries!”
That. Was. The. Last. Line.
When Scott got to the kitchen, he grabbed the phone and called the Lost Children’s number.
“Good afternoon,” he grunted into the phone. “This is Scott at Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor. There are two children here who claim that their parents are currently on rides- I don’t know what’s going on but the fact is that they are running around the park without an adult. So, you’ll have someone here in at least fifteen minutes? Thank you.”
Scott was still smoldering with anger, he was so perturbed about being bossed around by two little kids. But at least they would be leaving very, very soon.
“Thanks.” Chloe muttered in between helpings of ice cream. Scott noted, as he set the strawberries down in front of her, that neither of them even glanced at him.
Despicable, ungrateful, spoiled rotten brats… who would be gone in just a few minutes time. Scott smiled serenely at them as he walked away.
“This is delic… what’s wrong Chlo?”
Chloe had dropped her spoon in midair when she saw Scott smile.
“I think he just called the lost kids people.”
“How do you know that?”
“He just smirked at us! He just smirked at us like he was thinking ‘I know something you don’t know,’ we just have to get out of here or else we’ll have to do no running or hold hands for the rest of the day!”
Neither Chloe nor Nick deliberately wanted to avoid their parents; they were just having fun doing stuff on their own. Before Scott could come back, they grabbed some money out of their backpacks, threw it on the table, and rushed out the door. Sara, another worker at the shop, watched them. Scott was sitting not far from her but he hadn’t seen them leave.
“Hey Scott,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Your mouseketeers just flew the coop.”
Scott’s jaw dropped to the floor, he raced outside, trying to find them- but they were already gone- and then he stormed back into the shop, locked himself in the bathroom and started screaming his lungs out. Sara chuckled. If the lost children people had come in time, Scott could have possibly gotten Employee of the Month for saving two helpless children.
Chloe and Nick had been hiding behind a few tables, and they’d seen Scott go mad when he’d realized that he’d lost his chance at Employee of the Month. They’d broken into such hysterical laughter, that people had started to stare and ask them if they were okay. They’d insisted that they were and then they decided to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. As they stood in line for the ride, they noticed that people were still staring at them, but when they glared at them ferociously enough, they’d looked away.
“…and you guys can take this one,” the ride attendant named Adam said to a family of five, as he ushered them into one of the boats. He glanced curiously at Chloe and Nick, no doubt perplexed as to why two little kids were all alone. Chloe was tired of telling the entire story so she just started saying whatever first came to her head.
“Our mom and dad didn’t want to go on this ride so they’re meeting us in the gift shop after we’re done.”
Adam still looked confused but when the family of five said that Chloe and Nick could join them, he just shrugged as they sat down in the front row next to the family’s two little girls. Chloe and Nick introduced themselves and then the mom and dad introduced themselves as Lucy and Mark, the little girl sitting next to Chloe said her name was Mari, her twin said her name was Aubrey, and Aubrey said that that their two year old brother who was sitting in Mark’s lap was named Freddie.
“You said you guys are here with your parents?” Lucy asked them.
“Yeah,” Chloe said, smiling at her so as to set her more at ease about the whole “two kids alone” idea. “They just don’t like this ride.”
She could feel Lucy and Mark watching the both of them and she knew what they were thinking. Mean parents, depressed kids, blah, blah, blah.
“Our dad had a surprise for us this morning,” Nick said. “We thought that we were just going to the park but at breakfast he told us that we were going swimming with dolphins first. It was awesome! The dolphin trainer lady even let us name one of the babies that had been born the other day.”
“And we named it Rosie!”
Lucy and Mark laughed and Chloe figured that they weren’t imaging that they came from a bad home anymore.
“Are you guys twins?” Mari asked Nick.
“Um… yeah.” Nick said slowly. “Yeah, we’re twins.”
Chloe was pretty sure that the whole family knew that he was lying; she and Nick didn’t look alike at all. Chloe pretty much looked like Sleeping Beauty incarnate, while Nick was more tan and had dark brown hair. But they definitely wouldn’t have believed them if Nick had said that he was at least a year older or younger than Chloe, it was obvious that they weren’t that far apart in age. Nonetheless, Chloe could still sense Lucy and Mark watching them. She couldn’t look at them for the rest of the ride because she knew- she just knew- that they were a little too concerned for their own good. She really wasn’t trying to cause any trouble for her parents, or make anyone think that they were upsetting her. She was just having fun running around with her best friend, without a care in the world. Without one little care in the world.
“Nick, Chloe.” Lucy said as they got off the ride. “Why don’t you stick with us until you find your parents in the gift shop? It’s not safe for you guys to run around alone.”
Chloe and Nick nodded ever so slightly, as they awkwardly looked around at all the pirate toys with Aubrey and Mari. Once Aubrey and Mari got distracted enough by some books, Chloe and Nick were able to sneak far enough away so they couldn’t hear them talking.
“Let’s get out of here.” Nick whispered to her.
Chloe nodded and they raced towards the door as quickly as they could-
“Nick! Chloe!” Nick’s mom shrieked at them.
Chloe and Nick froze in their tracks, just having taken a step outside of the shop. They turned around, knowing that they were going to get in bigger trouble than ever before- and when Chloe saw that Mrs. Russo’s eyes were really glazed over and she had a weird, goofy smile on her face, she had a feeling that they weren’t in trouble, but that something weird was going on. Mrs. Russo ran over to them, throwing her arms around them in an air tight hug.
“Mommy!” Nick wheezed. “We can’t breathe!”
Mrs. Russo laughed and let the kids go and then bent down to their level, looking them straight in the eye.
“You are not in trouble.” Mrs. Russo said really slowly. “We were just- we were just worried.” She laughed again, grabbing their hands and leading them out of the store. “You guys just can’t do that sort of thing!”
“Excuse me!” Lucy called out to Mrs. Russo.
No, no, no, no, no, Chloe muttered under her breathe.
“Are you their mother?” Lucy asked Mrs. Russo, fury spread all over her face.
Mrs. Russo smiled that same dopey smile at her and Chloe wondered if she’d gone on too many spinning rides.
“I am Nick’s mother,” she said, patting Nick on the head. “And Chloe! Well, she’s Nick’s best friend, so- so she’s like the daughter I never had, but no, she’s my best friend’s daughter.”
Judging by the way Lucy was glaring at her, if looks could kill, then Mrs. Russo would be buried somewhere near the center of the earth. Lucy looked ready to berate her on a number of issues, but that was that last thing on Mrs. Russo’s mind.
“Well, thank you very much for looking after them!” she said, patting Lucy on the shoulder. “But we really have to get going. Say bye-bye kids!”
Chloe and Nick waved goodbye to Lucy and her family, and when Chloe saw the look on Lucy’s face, she looked positively horrified and inches away from running over to them, punching out Mrs. Russo and taking Chloe and Nick home with her. Chloe tried to tell her that it wasn’t what it looked like with her eyes, but it didn’t appear to be working. Lucy was practically in tears and when Mari appeared to ask her what was wrong, Lucy cried so loudly Chloe could hear her from as far off as they were.
“I think those kids aren’t being treated well sweetie.”
“Chloe!”
When Chloe turned around from looking at Lucy, she saw her parents- who were looking as dopey as Mrs. Russo- racing towards her. Her mom grabbed her, twirled her around in the air, gave her a big sloppy kiss on the cheek and then put her down- and then her dad grabbed her, and said that she looked tired, so he’d give her a piggy-back ride.
“Did you guys have a fun day?” Mr. Manning asked them.
Chloe and Nick glanced at each other, terribly confused as to why their parents were acting so stupid- and then they said a bunch of yes’s and yeah’s until their parents started talking about dinner.
“Well, we are exhausted!” Chloe’s mom said. “So how does pizza back at the hotel sound?”
Chloe and Nick just nodded because they were afraid that if they said okay, that one of the adults would start speed talking about what kind of toppings they wanted, and frankly, all either of them wanted was to not have to listen to them talk like that anymore.
When the Manning’s and Russo’s got back to the Hotel, they immediately went to their suite. The adults collapsed in front of the TV in the living room and Chloe and Nick went to large room that they were sharing, to play board games. Chloe’s bed was on one side of the room and Nick’s was all the way on the other side so they didn’t really mind sharing.
“I had a lot of fun today,” Nick said as they started playing Candy Land.
Chloe smiled. “Me too. I just… I wish we could stay here longer.”
“Nick! Chloe!” Mr. Russo yelled. “The pizza guy’s here, can you get the pizzas from him?”
Chloe and Nick had been playing in their room for an hour, while their parents sat in the living room like slugs.
When Chloe handed the pizza guy the money, Nick took the pizzas- and the boy just looked at them with raised eyebrows. Chloe heaved a sigh, knowing full well what he was thinking.
“Our parents are just watching TV. Thank you for the pizzas!” she said, as she slammed the door in the boys face.
The adults were still half dead when Chloe and Nick told them that they’d set up the dining room table for dinner.
“We’re not too hungry kids…” Mr. Manning whispered. “Just- just help yourselves.”
Normal children would have been a little disappointed that their parents wouldn’t join them for dinner. But Chloe and Nick were far from normal. So, they helped themselves to as much pizza, chicken wings and soda as they wanted. And when they were done eating, they went back to the living room, everyone but Chloe’s dad was asleep so he just told the kids to do whatever they wanted. And then he passed out ten seconds later.
They’d played all the board games and there was nothing too interesting on TV- so they did the next best thing and ordered lots of desserts from room service.
“… and chocolate covered strawberries, sponge candy, and lots of Belgium chocolate.” Chloe said into the phone. “So, how much does that come to? One hundred and forty five? Okay. How long before that’s all here? Half an hour! Ok… fine. Thank you.”
While they impatiently waited for the desserts to arrive, they flipped through the channels on the TV in their room. After awhile they got to an action movie where every character appeared to have a gun. Chloe stared curiously at the screen for awhile, as if gouging what was going on in the movie.
“Do you ever wonder why people are that mean to each other?” Chloe asked Nick suddenly. Nick scratched his head, and Chloe figured that he was either thinking the same thing or struggling to figure out why people were like that.
“I think…” he started. “I think sometimes they just like, don’t know how to treat people any other way, you know? Or maybe they… maybe they don’t really know how to be nice, so they just do whatever they have to do to get attention.”
Chloe stared solemnly at the screen, and for a split second Nick thought that he knew what she was thinking- but then he wasn’t so sure.
“I feel really bad for those types of people,” she said. “But, you know, if they’re not going to try to figure out how to be a nice person… then maybe they should just be-”
At that same moment, Nick heard someone knock on the door and he and Chloe ran to answer it because they realized it was the delivery guy with the desserts. The short red haired boy who was standing there with all the food looked anything but pleased about the situation- but when he saw two eight year olds pulling wads of cash out of their pockets, Chloe noticed that his expression changed pretty quickly.
“I think that’s all of it,” Nick said, as he handed the boy all of the cash, and then went to close the door. “Thanks.”
“Wait!” the boy yelled. “It’s customary for guests to give tips-”
Chloe blinked rapidly at the boy for several moments… and then she pulled a few quarters out of her pocket and handed them to him.
“Thank you!”
The boy’s jaw slowly dropped open and Chloe giggled.
“What? Tips aren’t supposed to big or anything or they?”
When Nick agreed with her, Chloe slammed the door in the delivery boy’s face. She and Nick heard him screaming inaudibly on the other side of the door, but they just laughed and wheeled the plethora of desserts into their room.
Chloe and Nick slept for all of two hours that night, because after the majority of the desserts were gone, they were quite literally bouncing off the walls, watching a bunch of R-rated movies that they’d never be allowed to watch normally… and generally enjoying the best vacation they’d ever had. And the next morning, quite possibly was as unforgettable as the day before…
Chloe and Nick had just woken up when Chloe’s mom lazily meandered into their room. Her eyes were baggy and red and she looked like she’d been bludgeoned over the head to many times because she kept patting her head like it was hurting her. She coughed loudly in order to wake the kids up.
“Good morning mommy,” Chloe uttered a little incoherently, since she was too tired to lift her head from her pillow.
Mrs. Manning stared back and forth between Chloe and Nick several times before saying anything.
“You guys… ran off yesterday. That was very bad!” She waggled her finger at them and Chloe noticed that her entire arm was shaking. “You just don’t… ever… do something like that again. You could have been kidnapped or- or something really bad awful like that…” she cupped her face in her hands and Chloe stifled down a giggle because it looked like her mom was trying to keep her head from falling off her. “Do you guys understand why you shouldn’t have run off?”
“Um-hum.”
“Good. Good. We’re going to have breakfast in ten minutes so- so get dressed.” She managed to nod and shake her head at them at the same time, before grabbing her head again and very, very slowly walking away.
“Hey Chlo.” Nick said lazily.
“Yeah?”
“Adults are weird.”
After breakfast, the adults said that they were still too tired too tired to go out, so they just went to the beach across the street from the hotel. The adults sunbathed all day while Chloe and Nick made a giant sand castle with some other kids who were there. That vacation was just one dose of the excruciatingly pampered lives Chloe and Nick led. They’d had plenty of great vacations since that one. But at sixteen years old, both of them still agreed that no vacation had beat that perfect, flawless wonderful trip to Disney. After the Disney trip, they’d had to go back to New York, to school, to their normal lives. Back to certain people who made their skin crawl; people who made them want to race back to the suite at Disney World, lock the doors and pretend that no one else on the planet existed. No one would ever understand why that trip had been as perfect as it was. No one, no matter how hard they tried.
Since Chloe had mentioned the Disney vacation, that dark, angry fire that had been in Nick’s eyes when they’d seen the News bit about Justin was gone; she’d accomplished just what she’d wanted to. Yes, they could never make Justin stop being as border line sadistic as he was- it would be beyond spectacular if they could- but doing something that drastic would involve certain… certain attributes for lack of a better word… that Chloe had let out of her system a long, long time ago. And there was not one single soul that could make those attributes come back. Not one soul…
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