FicWad

Everyone was silent as Ledgard drove the car down almost deserted roads towards Storey’s new home. Rachel sat in the front seat, her right leg jumping up and down, a habit she had retained from her depression years and pounding out a beat on her bass drum. She was waiting for her body to admit defeat and awake up. Mel was sitting behind her looking out the window with a blank look on her face. She was oddly quiet and it made Rachel want to turn around every five seconds to make sure she was still breathing. She instead settled for eyeing her off in the car’s side mirror. Rachel was also making sure Ledgard’s eyes kept flicking to the rear view mirror. Rachel was glad she was not driving. Having to see Storey’s emotional face in the rear view every few seconds would probably scar her for life. Storey rarely showed emotion in public and seeing it radiate from her with such intensity made Rachel think she had finally fallen off of the deep end. Rachel was startled when Ledgard pulled up opposite Storey’s unit. Usually it took double that amount of time to get here. Everyone sat in the car waiting. Rachel eventually spoke.
“So what are we going to tell them?”
“What,” a baffled look spread over Ledgard’s face.
“Well what are we going to tell everyone in there?” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward the unit.
Everyone looked at her like she had missed the punchline of the joke. Mel’s head peered out in front of Rachel, in between the front leather seats of Ledgard’s Proton.
“How about …” Mel paused like she always did in the middle of suggesting something. She had always done it. Rachel thought it must be a defense mechanism she still done subconsciously because of all the times her ideas had been rejected with unnecessary force. Rachel folded her arms and waited for her to spit it out. Now that the car’s heater had been turned off the cold morning air seeped through the cracks. Rachel wished she had brought more than the thin jumper she had thrown on in the rush to leave.
“Never mind.” Her head retreated. Rachel slumped a little and was about to goad her when she decided that it wasn’t worth it.
“Well just tell them the truth.” Ledgard’s face had turned away and he was looking out the windshield.
“Oh yeah that’s going to be a happy conversation. “Hi everyone, get up you have to go home now. The scary big motherfucking alien invaders, or what ever the hell they are, have just attacked Brisbane and Melbourne, so grab your shit and go pray in a corner.”” Rachel stopped ranting. Her friends were looking at her like they usually did when she started spilling out her random thoughts. Usually she kept them to herself but occasionally she slipped.
“Ok sorry just forget I said that.” Rachel said as she swiveled in her seat to open the door. She stepped out into the morning and met the cold air that had been making its way into Ledgard’s car. She shut the door and stood in the still morning air. Although she had been cold in the car she now felt quite content. She loved being cold. She hated being warm and then one part of her body would ruining it by getting cold. That’s why she preferred the cold. If one part of her started to freeze the rest soon followed. Although she was quite partial to being warm in bed to the point where she was almost overheating.
As she crossed the road she heard the other car doors open and shut. She walked across the dirt that was Storey’s front garden and under a large gum tree. The gum tree was huge. It leaves created a canopy over the garden preventing the sun from reaching the ground for more than a half hour a day. The result was dirt. She stopped in front of the wooden door and knocked a few times before turning her attention to taking her muddy vans off. No sound came from within and the others joined her just as she finished shedding her shoes. She knocked harder and called out as the others took to taking their own shoes off.
“Hello! Drunken people wake up.” She paused and then grinned as she let her random chain of thought take over again.
“It’s the police if you do not open the door we WILL kick it in! You have until the count of three.” Still no sound came from within the house.
“One, Two…” The wooden door opened and revealed Alex, or Alexis as we called her, walking away form the door towards the kitchen
“You don’t fool anyone Rachel,” she called as she carried on shuffling down the hall. “Your fucking accent gives you away.” Rachel smiled and began walking after her, leaving the others to deal with the door. When she entered the kitchen at the end of the hall she saw Alex, now sitting on a counter eating some sort of cereal. Olivia, or Brain as she liked to be called, was sprawled out on the floor. Brain turned her head to the right to get a better look at Rachel. She smiled her wonderful slightly lop-sided grin and jumped to her feet.
“Rachel!” She exclaimed as she hurled her body at Rachel. Rachel knew she would do this and returned the grin as she caught her and embraced her in a hug lifting her clean off of the floor as she did so. She squealed as she did every time someone picked her up.
“So where is everyone?” Rachel asked as Olivia moved away and down the hall to greet the others. Alex didn’t look up from her bowl of cereal as she replied.
“Look over my shoulder.” Behind Alex was a large opening in the wall that looked out into the dining room. Rachel tilted her head up and looked over Alex’s shoulder.
“I can’t see anyone,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders.
“Look at the floor.” Alex replied with her mouth full. Rachel walked straight over to the counter next to Alex and leaned over to get a good view of the floor. There and the floor, still in their party clothes, were Georgia, Squee, Lauren, Nicole, Quark and Holly.
Rachel grinned evilly as she backed off and strode across the room. She opened a cabinet, reached in and carefully took out a saucepan. She then walked back over to Alex and opened the second drawer down. Alex stopped eating when she saw the sauce pan in her hand and let out one of her evil little laughs. She then spun around towards the opening in the wall to get a better view of the dining room. Rachel found what she was looking for and walked towards the door on her right. Walking into the living room, she carefully stepped around the people lying on the floor and the debris left over from last night.
Alex nodded her head vigorously at Rachel when she looked at her to ask if she should. When it came to practical jokes, Alex and Rachel were partners in crime. She raised her right hand as high as it would go and let out a little snort as she brought the wooden spoon down as hard as she could on the sauce pan. In the instance that the silence was broken Squee jumped from her little ball in the corner practically onto her feet with the look of a petrified cat. Quark shook violently and opened her eyes wide, scanning the room for the source of the commotion. Georgia, Lauren and Nicole all screamed to varying degrees, with Lauren’s outdoing the volume of the sauce pan, while Holly just opened her eyes.
Rachel and Alex doubled over where they stood, laughing hysterically. Georgia was the first to recover, looking at Rachel with wide eyes as she shouted at her.
“What did you do that for?!” The pair just carried on laughing, Rachel had dropped to her knees, while Alex rolled around on the kitchen bench clutching at her sides. The others all glared at them with the exception of Holly, who merely closed her eyes again. Quark looked slightly amused. She was one of the only ones who laughed constantly at Alex and Rachel’s ‘jokes’, even if they were being performed on her. Rachel gained most of her control back and stood. She was still giggling now and again as she spoke to them.
“Come on we have a major proclamation to proclaim in the living room when you lazy buggers get up.” She stood there smiling. When nobody moved she hit the saucepan a few more times for effect.
“Come on people we have something important to tell you. Now chop chop! Go into the living room.” They all groaned and started to stir, much too slowly for Rachel. She hit the saucepan again.
“Come on I’m serious, this is important,” she paused. “Any one in the back room?”
“Yeah there are.” Nicole replied
“Well get them up too we need to talk to all of you.” Rachel moved across the room and back into the kitchen. Alex was still letting out occasional chuckles and when they looked each other in the eye they started laughing again. Rachel put the saucepan and spoon back in their homes and beckoned to Alex.
“Come on.” Rachel led the way back out into the front hall and through a door on the left. It leads to a large room that had only a few pieces of furniture. The four-seater lounge and armchair were filled with people and the small TV in front of the window was turned on. On the sofa sat Nat, Storey, Mel, and Amy. Ledgard sat in the armchair. Jenny, Sarah and Olivia sat in front of the sofa. Everyone’s faces were directed at the TV and they all had their mouths open except for the three who had been at Rachel’s for the breaking news.
“What’s going on people?” Alex asked as she went to sit down next to Jenny. Jenny replied by merely pointing at the TV. Alex turned her attention to it when Ledgard spoke.
“What was all that noise?” Rachel looked down at the floor and let out a little chuckle.
“Squee’s new phone alarm.”
Ledgard’s attention returned to the TV but not before she saw him roll his eyes. She crossed her foot over her left and tilted her body to the right, leaning against the door frame. The TV screen was now out of view, but she didn’t want to see it anyway. She looked to her left and through the kitchen door as the others appeared. Holly, Quark, Georgia, Squee and Nicole all walked through the door and took a spot on the floor.
“The others are coming,” Nicole said as she passed through the doorway.
Their expressions soon mirrored the others as they watched what was happening in Melbourne and Brisbane. The others walked through the door at that moment and greeted Rachel as they walked past. There was Jackie, her boyfriend, Ryan, Nathan, Emma, Tegan and Megan. They filled up the remaining space and turned their heads towards the TV. Again everyone’s faces dropped into the same looks as the rest of them. First horror appeared, then despairs and sorrow for the people in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Then fear set in. Rachel frowned and moved off into the kitchen. She looked in the fridge out of habit more than anything else and closed it. She opened the pantry and decided to make pancakes for everyone. They would want breakfast soon, including Alex whose hunger never ceased. She retrieved the plain flour and returned to the fridge for milk and eggs.
She had just achieved the right consistency for the mix when someone called her name. She turned around to see Storey enter the room.
“What are you doing?” the emotion had disappeared from her face again. Buried deep within her. Rachel wondered if that was a good thing or not.
“Just making pancakes for everyone.” She turned back to the mix on the counter and carried on stirring. Storey walked up to her side and placed her hand on the small of her back.
“Are you ok,” she asked while looking up at Rachel’s face. Storey was shorter than Rachel although that wasn’t hard seeing as she was a monstrous 6 foot 2. Storey was the shortest in the group and she hated being reminded of that. Rachel turned to face her and placed her hands on her shoulders.
“I’m fine what about you?” she looked Storey straight in the eyes. “You know your cousins …” she drifted off. The ghost of pain floated behind Storey’s eyes.
“They’ll be fine.” She replied but her voice had no feeling behind it. Rachel bent down and hugged her tight.
“They will be fine,” Rachel whispered in her ear. Storey sighed,
“I know.” The phone then rung and Storey broke away to answer it. Rachel went to turn the stove top on.
“Oh my god! Are you ok!?” Rachel wheeled around to face Storey.
“Where are you? Bali. What are you doing there?” Rachel gave Storey an inquisitive look. Storey moved the mouth piece away from her face and spoke.
“It’s my cousins. They’re in Bali on Holiday!” she then moved off into the dining room and walked into the back room closing the door after her. A smile flitted across Rachel’s face and faded when the annoying little voice attacked her moment of peace. ‘Doesn’t matter where you are, they are coming Rachel, and you know they won’t stop just with Australia.’ Rachel let out a very quiet growl and returned to the pancakes sometimes her brain really did think up some crap.