Krystal Chapter 11 – Grounded By Harrod200 Copyright © 2006 by Harrod200 of Orbital One. All rights reserved.				Email Codey’s World
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As the sun sank below the horizon and the sky slowly faded to twilight, I felt a new sense of peace. Greg was still working away at his desk and Sam was still blushing quite a lot over the spontaneous hug while trying to do his own work. Since he wasn’t using it anymore and I had nothing better to do, I picked up the old maths book and took it back downstairs.

After giving Adam the book, I found a nice spot in the TV room and sat watching the world go by through the doors. I don’t know if everyone else was working on schoolwork or just keeping to themselves but the only sound now was the rain on the windows and the odd distant rumble of thunder.

“I like this weather.” A voice said from behind me, startling me and causing me to jump. Glancing up I saw Davey sitting down by me. “The way the world seems to come to a halt for a while. It’s so peaceful, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, it’s nice.” I replied. There wasn’t much more to be said, he just sat there next to me enjoying the storm as I was. After a few minutes, I felt a brush against my hand, then another and then the heat of Davey’s hand resting on my own. He pulled back when he saw me look down.

“S...sorry, I think I slipped.” He quickly said and shuffled slightly away from me, pulling his hands into his lap. I watched him curiously for a moment before turning back to the window.

“I...I was thinking that maybe you’d like to...” He stuttered, then sighed and shook his head, “No, never mind.”

“Go on, what were you thinking I’d like to do?” I asked him, intrigued.

“It doesn’t matter. I should get back to my homework” Wiping his arm across his face he quickly got up and hurried out of the room, followed a few moments later by the sound of a door slamming.

‘I don’t know what’s wrong with people today.’ I thought to myself, turning my attention to a squirrel darting across the grass.

“Krystal?” A voice from behind me called out. Looking behind me, Andrew was standing in the doorway. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure.” I replied, standing up to face him. He walked over to the sofa and motioned for me to join him.

“It’s about Davey. Nobody here has ever really been nice to him, nothing bad has ever happened but apart from me he’s alone here.” He said in a low, caring voice as I sat down next to him. “What I’m trying to say is that you’re the only person who hasn’t made fun of him for some reason or just ignored him completely. Since he arrived here he has been taunted and laughed at. It wouldn’t take much to hurt him and if I find out that you’re only being friendly to him to turn, I don’t care what your reputation is I will make you wish you hadn’t.”

“I’m...” I began defensively as he stood up and started for the door, but was cut off.

“Davey needs friends, be a friend but don’t hurt him.” I didn’t have time to reply as he simply left the room.

I sat on the sofa for about ten minutes going over what Andrew had said. In the end I concluded that he was just looking out for Davey, making sure that the new guy wasn’t going to be a problem.

“You look bored.” Two identical voices said simultaneously, one from either side of me. Stunned I looked around and saw a twin on either side of me. Grabbing me by the arms they pulled me up and dragged me into the dining room.

“Shh, wait here.” One of the two, who I still hadn’t managed to tell apart whispered as he held me at the door while the other sneaked into the kitchen, from where the sounds and smells of someone cooking dinner poured. “Ty’s asleep; we’re going to have some fun.” He grinned. A few moments later the other twin returned carrying a saucepan.

“Come on!” The saucepan bearing one called as he grabbed onto my arm and carried on back through the door without stopping. I was pulled, still in shock from the interruption to my thoughts up the stairs and into the bathroom.

“He said that we were wet earlier. We’re gonna show him exactly who is ‘wet’” The one whom I guessed was Sam giggled as he filled the pan with water from the sink, alternating between hot and cold. “Got it!” he said as he carefully carried the saucepan back out onto the landing.

When we reached the door on the back wall marked with a small brass ‘6’, Greg slowly turned the handle and peeked inside. Looking over his shoulder I could see that the curtains were drawn and the room was fairly dark.

“He’s still asleep.” He said and slowly pushed the door open. We crept into the room and watched from a corner while Sam placed the pan on the floor next to Ty’s bed and gently moved the sleeping figure’s hand into it.

After a few minutes the figure stirred and groaned, then I saw its head shoot up off the pillow and the hand lift up out of the pan.

“What the?” A deep and confused voice asked itself before groaning.

The twins couldn’t contain themselves any longer and grabbed hold of me again, pulling me out of the room while laughing in guffaws. >From behind us I heard muffled shouting and swearing as we ran back to our own room. I just caught a glimpse of Adam looking out of the office door before I was yanked into the bedroom and pressed against the door.

After just a few seconds I felt the door trying to open as the same deep voice shouted death threats into the room. Both twins were laughing their heads off as they stood either side of me holding back the rabid youth. It wasn’t long before the shouting stopped and was replaced by Adam talking down Ty’s rage, with only the odd frustrated reply from the teenager. Eventually I heard an exasperated groan and the sound of an annoyed person stamping down the hall. Greg opened the door right as Adam knocked, looking up with innocent eyes and an impish grin.

“What have I told you two about playing jokes on people while they’re sleeping?” Adam asked once the door was fully open.

“Do it more!” Sam replied gleefully.

“No, I’m fairly sure that the last time this happened, I told you that if it happened again, some unnamed pair of redheads would be spending the week grounded in their rooms.” Adam said in a serious tone.

“Ohh, don’t be mean Adam it was only a joke.” Greg pleaded.

“One week. If you’re not at school, in the bathroom or eating, you’re in your room. Understood?”

“Aaaaadaaammm!” The twins begged in stereo.

“Do you want it to be two?” He asked warningly, to which both the twins shook their heads and skulked back to their beds. Adam turned his attention to me, now left alone in front of the man who was looking much taller and meaner than he had before.

“I doubt you were anything other than dragged along in this, but I still can’t let you off completely. I hate to seal you away with these two miscreants,” he nodded over to the twins, who stuck their tongues out at him with their usual synchronicity, “but I can’t let you go completely. You’re grounded in your room for two days. That means that the only times you’re allowed out into the rest of the building or the garden is meal times and to use the bathroom. Either myself, Maggie or Cynthia will come up occasionally to check on you, so don’t let these two try to get you to sneak out or you’ll be grounded for longer. Try not to pick up any of their bad habits.”

I nodded to him then walked over and sat on my bed. The second the door was closed both the other boys cracked huge grins and broke into laughter again.

“Ty is the wet one now!” Greg hooted. “Did you see his face when he woke up?!”

“Yeah! We really got him!” Sam joined in. I lay back onto my bed and looked glumly up at the ceiling.

“What’s wrong, Kris?” Sam asked, still sporadically breaking into giggling fits.

“Thanks you two, I’ve been here less than a week and you’ve gotten me grounded.” I replied while I sat up, annoyed and upset.

“Don’t worry about it.” Greg said, sitting on the bed next to me. “We get grounded all the time, it’s no big deal. It just means we have to make our own entertainment, that’s all.”

For some reason, the idea of the twins getting grounded often didn’t come as much of a shock to me.

“It’s just that I’ve been here less than a week and I’m in trouble. I still can’t remember mostly anything about before I came here but I know I was in trouble a lot back then too. I just don’t want things to be like that.” I started to cry.

“You’re not really in trouble Kris,” Sam said softly as he sat on my other side and put his arm around me momentarily, removing it quickly after just a few seconds. “Adam has to do something so that it doesn’t look like you’re getting away with mur...everything. Everybody gets grounded sooner or later, it just gives you more time to plan the next prank.” He finished off with a devilish smile which made me chuckle.

“I suppose it was pretty funny.” I admitted, remembering the moment of recognition when Ty realised what had happened. “You do know that he’s going to be out to get you now though, right?”

“Oh yeah, he gets us, we get him, we all get grounded. It’s what we do. We’d be bored to death if we couldn’t torture someone.” Greg remarked.

“Adam was right about you two, you are troublemakers.” I said.

“Yep!” They both shouted, “And you’re stuck with us!” With that they both jumped on top of me and started tickling. I was surprising myself a little with how well I was managing to fend them off when the call for dinner was shouted and the sound of a houseful of hungry boisterous boys emanated thru the door.

***

“Hi Krystal.” Davey said as he sat next to me at the table. Both twins were still waiting to get their plates so I was alone.

“Hey. I’m sorry if I said something to upset you earlier.” I apologised, in case he ran off again before I had the chance.

“Oh. Oh, no it’s ok; I just remembered I had some homework I really had to do, that’s all.” He explained, but there was something in his eyes saying that wasn’t true. After Andrew’s warning I decided to play it safe and not push, in case it upset him.

“Ok then.” I replied, lifting a forkful of mashed potato to my mouth.

“Umm, do you want to come play the guitar with me later?” He quickly blurted out the second my mouth was full. It took me a few moments before I could speak.

“I’m sorry Davey, I...” I was cut off before I could finish.

“It’s ok Krystal, I’ll leave you alone now.” He said in a dejected voice, moving to stand up. Before he could, I reached out and grabbed his wrist. When he looked at me, his eyes were red already, and they looked to be welling up slightly.

“No, Davey, I can’t because I’ve been grounded in my room. I really liked playing before but I can’t until Monday.” At that his eyes widened and he suddenly changed.

“Great! Oh I don’t mean it’s great that you’re grounded, I mean that you liked being with me, uhh playing with me, uhh playing the guitar with me.” With each statement he was turning a brighter shade of red. “I’m going to go eat with Raven,” he nodded to where Andrew was sitting on his own in the corner. “I’ll see you later, ok?”

“Yeah, see you later Davey.” I replied and let go of his wrist. I watched him walking, almost skipping over to the corner. I turned back to my dinner and had just put another forkful into my mouth when I felt two sharp pokes in the kidneys, causing me to spew the potato all over the wall in front of me. A pair of twins sat opposite me, laughing.

“You got it everywhere!” the one to my left laughed, his laughter mirrored by the one in front of me. Telling them apart was a real chore, with only their eyes different it was becoming annoying. I could see how they caused mayhem with everyone else at the home.

“You know you really should learn to swallow your food Kris! It’s not nearly as good if you spit it onto the wall.” The one in front of me added. I tried to look and caught a glimpse of his eyes but not long enough to tell which one it was.

“I think I’m going to have to do something so I can tell you two apart. Maybe if I were to break one of your noses that’d make it easier.” I said in a deadly serious tone, staring at them both. They both instantly became very nervous and agitated.

“Uhm, Kris?” The one in front of me, who I had now managed to identify as Sam asked, his voice wavering. Both of them were obviously relieved when I broke the stare and started laughing.

“Gotcha!” I laughed. “Though, I think we’ll have to make it more obvious who is who. Maybe I could get some of Maggie’s makeup and put it on Sam eh?” I joked.

“Nah, we like it as we are.” Sam said, shifting in his chair a little.

“We couldn’t play as many jokes on people if they could tell us apart.” Greg chimed in.

“We’re double trouble!” They both chanted, I just shook my head.

“So if you have so much experience, what is there to do here when you’re grounded?” I asked, trying to get us onto a vaguely sensible topic.

“Well you can do anything that just needs the other person, or people in the room.” Sam said.

“Like what?”

“I spy, hangman, we even made a full monopoly game once. We were grounded for two weeks that time and it took ages. I think we still have it somewhere.”

“It’ll be alright Kris; you won’t be bored for a minute.” Greg added, with a slight evil grin.

“Just remember, which one of us can break your noses.” I said trying to be threatening, but ending up laughing halfway through.

“You couldn’t do that, Kris. You’d miss our beautiful unblemished faces.” Greg said sweetly, both of them smiling and trying to look cute.

“I can’t miss what I’ve never known.” I replied and poked my tongue out at them.

“That was just mean.” Sam tried to sound hurt but failed miserably.

“I think we’re going to have to get him back for that later, don’t you think Samuel?”

“Why yes, Gregory. I do believe we will.”

Both twins simultaneously turned to face me. “Krystal, you will regret your cruelty very soon.” They both said in a completely flat and neutral tone.

I shook my head and returned to my dinner. If one thing was certain, the next two days wouldn’t be dull.