Five Becomes Four - Chapter O4

Allllmost done. Iunno why I bothered titling these chapters in my files... I don't ever use chapter names anyways. XD

Notessssssss:
--ASHLEIGH.
...Need I say more?
--Somehow, Barney and Ashleigh would stand up, and then a paragraph later be on the floor again. Yeah, Iunno..
--It is SO hard to write Mr. Wu. I hate using caps - I'm an italics sort of person. But what is one to do when somebody talks ONLY in caps? To a point where not even italics can suffice?
--Speaking of italics, they don't post on here unless I do them manually. Which I am too lazy to do.
--Orange eggggggsss. Everybody thinks it's strange. Even Richard. XD
--If anyone was confused, Katherine and Richard are Brynn's foster parents... just putting that out there.
--Not sure how Nana was able to contact the high school at ten at night... I guess she's just magical like that. *shot for bad pun* It made sense when I wrote it--...No. Didn't even make sense then.

* * * * *

I awoke to screaming. Very loud screaming.

“BARNEY WU! GET YOUR WORTHLESS ARSE DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW.”

I practically leapt off the couch in surprise. I ran forward, only to bump into a wall and fall on my butt. I groaned and rubbed my forehead, right where I had collided with the plaster structure. I was sure I had bruised my ever delicate gluteus maximus.

“Ashleigh, what in the world?” a mumbled voice called from the top of the stairs. “I was sleeping on the freaking third floor and I could still hear you.”

It was pitch black. I couldn’t see anything in front of me (including the wall), let alone know who was talking. I heard a female voice snicker. “Oh, Barney,” she teased. “I have special permission from Coach to wake you up at six in the morning.”

“What the… Why?” the boy on the stairs demanded. I heard footsteps and assumed he was coming down. A few seconds later, I heard a tremendous crash and a hard thud on the wood floor. A shout of surprise echoed in the downstairs and a shrill laugh followed it. “Get
off! You’re heavy!” the boy complained.

“One! Two! Three! You’ve been pinned!” the girl squealed. I heard the shuffling of feet and I assumed the two got to their feet.

Suddenly, a blinding light switched on. I squeezed my eyes shut. I cracked them open a bit and waited for them to adjust. When they finally did, I glanced around to find the boy I had met earlier (Barney, not Brian) getting up from the floor. A girl who looked a few years older than me stood beside him, a wide grin planted on her face. But who had turned on the lights?

I got my answer soon enough.

“BARNEY!”

My head shot around to see Mr. Wu standing in the doorway of his bedroom. He had a dark green facial mask covering his features. I sat back in surprise. Out of everything I had witnessed in the past twenty-four hours, this was by far the most surprising.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?”

Barney glanced around, dazed. He looked a little fuzzy. His black eyes finally focused on his father and he yelped in surprise. He shot an accusing finger at the girl. “It’s Ashleigh’s fault!” he whined. “She’s the reason why we should lock the back door at night.”

“Hey, I have every right to storm into your house at early hours!” the girl protested, scrambling to her feet. She stood an inch or so taller than Barney, making for a rather intimidating presence.

“What makes you think so?” Barney shot back.

“Because I’m your best friend, you bucket of fail.”

Barney rolled his eyes and shrugged apologetically at his dad. “Guess I’d better start breakfast,” he mumbled to himself, slinking off to the kitchen.

“Way to be positive!” the girl, Ashleigh, announced, though I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. As she followed the seventeen-year-old to the kitchen, her eyes rested on me, sitting awkwardly on the floor. “Whoa, who are you?” she demanded.

I scratched the back of my neck and shrugged. “I’m new here,” I explained. Did this chick know who Kong Li was? Was she in the dark like Barney supposedly was? How could I tell the difference between people who knew and people who didn’t? I’d have to ask someone
about that.

“Ah, Mei Hua’s adopting more kids, right?” Ashleigh shrugged. “I didn’t think she’d adopt another so soon after Tyko. Welcome, noob,” she greeted, holding out her hand to me. I took it and she pulled me to my feet. Since she had been taller than Barney, she stood a good several inches taller than me. I had to noticeably look up to see her face. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for Tyko to talk to her.

“You’re… Barney’s friend?” I stuttered, following her into the kitchen. She nodded, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder.

“I’m on the wrestling team with him, as well as have almost every class with him,” she answered.

“And you do that… every morning?”

She laughed, sensing my uneasiness. “Nah, just on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” she assured, though it didn’t do much to calm me. “And only during wrestling season,” she added.

I was supposed to know when that was?

I decided to just smile and nod.

We found Barney cooking something that smelled really good on the stove. Eggs, probably. And sizzling bacon in another pan. It smelled wonderful to me. Why did Mr. Wu cook Wu’s food, when he had a cooking prodigy on his hands? Ashleigh plopped down on one of the
stools in the kitchen and put her feet on a counter. I walked up behind Barney and watched as he poked around at the eggs.

“Want some?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I’ll make my own. I cook them a special way.” Then added, “Can I use your food?”

Barney gave me a strange look. “You live here now, don’t you? You’re one of the family. Use whatever you need.” He grabbed a couple plates from a cabinet and shoveled the eggs onto them, adding some bacon to each. He placed one plate in front of Ashleigh, who looked pleased. “I’m assuming you can here mainly for food and not to wake me up, right?”

“Ah, how well you’ve come to know me,” she smiled, eagerly digging into the food with the fork Barney promptly provided. He sat down beside her and they both started piling food into their mouths.

I tugged the fridge open and quickly located the rest of the eggs. Beside the carton was a jar full of I-didn’t-want-to-know-what. I shuddered and slammed the door shut. I cracked the eggs expertly into the pan and discarded the shells into the sink. I spun to face the wrestlers. “Where are the oranges?” I asked politely. I hoped they had them. That would ruin the meal if they didn’t.

Barney pointed behind me to the left and gave me an odd smile. I turned and grabbed one, peeling it quickly. I took a knife from off the counter and sliced it up into little pieces. I then tossed the chunks into the pan with my eggs. I then began the process of mixing everything up.

“What’s all the commotion?” a voice demanded from the stairs. I turned and smiled as Tyko trudged into the kitchen, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She looked like a little kid who had been woken after a long nap. Which is just what she was. She was followed into the kitchen by the other three, all looking just as tired, save for Tobey, who was already bouncing off the walls with excitement for the day. He could
hardly sit still while he poured Corn Flakes into a bowl. I winced when I saw him pour a gallon of sugar on it.

“What’cha making?” Tyko wondered, standing on her tip toes to see what I was doing. Her nose scrunched. “Are those oranges in your… eggs?”

I nodded. “It’s actually really good,” I admitted, embarrassed that my weird appetite had been discovered. “I don’t suppose you want any?”

She shook her. “I’ll stick with my usual dry cereal.”

I raised my eyebrow in response. “She doesn’t like milk,” Sid explained, reaching into the fridge beside me for the apple juice. “Probably why she’s such a midget.”

“I heard that, you jerk!”

Sid smiled and took out the milk. He glanced over at the pan where my eggs sat. “That’s… different,” he admitted. “An acquired taste?”

“Somewhat,” I smiled.

He nodded and grabbed a couple packets of oatmeal from a cupboard. He made them quickly and efficiently in the microwave as I finished up cooking my eggs. I tossed the pan gently into the sink and grabbed a cup of apple juice and sat down for my meal.

“That’s gross,” Tyko sang from across the table. She dug into a bowl of dry rice chex with her spoon and munched on it.

“Not as gross as what you’re eating,” I remarked, forking some eggs and putting them into my mouth. The sweet and tangy citrus collided with the classic egg taste in a delicious way. I hadn’t been able to make my orange eggs for a while. Richard said I wasn’t allowed to eat them in front of him because he thought it was so gross. Of course, he had been kidding, but I still didn’t cook them unless I was home alone. It was at that moment that I realized how much I had missed them.

Sid sat beside me and pushed a bowl of oatmeal across the table to Sue. It bumped into her head; she was lying with her face on the table. Upon impact, she slumped up and lazily slopped oatmeal into her mouth quickly, yet daintily. Was that possible?

Nana finally entered the kitchen. “Hello,” she greeted, sitting at the table with a banana.

“Where’s Dad?” Barney questioned.

“I believe he went back to sleep.” She focused her attention on the rest of us. “You have to leave for school in half an hour,” she told us. Her eyes flickered to me. “I called the high school last night,” she said. “You’ve been registered.”

“How?”

“I got a hold of your records from Ohio and emailed them to the school.”

I was about to ask how again when Sid cast me a look that told me not to question. Apparently Nana had connections. I shrugged
and nodded. It’d be weird being the new kid, but I’d give it a go. At least I had the hope of getting Sue, Tobey, or Tyko in one of my classes.

The morning went on uneventful. I took a shower, the first I’d been able to have in a couple days. It felt great, though I felt weird without my own shampoo. When it came time to leave, Sue lent me one of her old backpacks, which I didn’t mind. I stuffed some pens and a pad of paper into it. When I got back downstairs, Nana provided me with a couple binders to use for math and other classes. With that, she
got me a ruler, graph paper and a small map of the school that Sue and Tobey had used at the beginning of the school year to get around. I took it gratefully and stuffed it into my pocket. The school was only a few blocks away, so we walked there. It was weird, all seven of us walking in a straight line, pretty much knocking anyone else off the sidewalk. I walked jammed between Tyko and Sid, which I admit was quite uncomfortable. But at least we arrived at school with nothing too awkward occurring.

It was the moment I saw the large building that I realized just what I’d gotten myself into.

* * * * *

...
NO BLATANT SYNN?!
...Unless, of course, you count the sitting next to/walking beside each other stuff.
But that doesn't count. =D