Zac stomped up the attic stairs and barged into Isaac's bedroom. Isaac was laying on his bed reading a boring, lengthy cookbook. He was working on becoming an independent chef but so far he'd only mastered the art of toast.
Isaac looked up and watched as Zac opened Isaac's closet door, looked behind the clothes, and slammed it shut. Then, he ran over to Isaac's bed, threw the sheets over the side, and looked underneathe. Then, he went to Isaac's bookshelf, moved all the books, and looked underneathe a piece of paper that was lying on top.
"Uhm, Zac, mind if I ask what you're looking for?" Isaac asked, looking back down at his book.
"Carter."
"And you expected to find her under a piece of paper?"
"You never know, she's damn good at this game." Zac and Carter had been playing hide and seek for three hours. Carter had been hiding for two and a half. Zac stopped what he was doing and turned to Isaac. "So, have you seen her?"
"Zac, even if I did, I couldn't tell you. That's cheating."
"YOU KNOW WHERE SHE IS!" Zac stomped his foot.
"Do not."
"Yes, you do. You know where she is and you're not telling me because you've formed an alliance with her, which means, she's in here somewhere!"
"That might not be true. She could have just come up here and asked me if I knew of any good hiding places."
"No. That wouldn't happen. She would never ask you for a hiding place. You suck at this game."
"As you can clearly see, she's not in here."
"You would want me to believe that. You would want me to give in that easily. And all the while, Carter could be stashed under the floorboards trying desperately not to laugh."
Isaac turned the page in his cookbook. "Zac, I'm not telling you where she is."
Zac stomped both of his feet and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To check the pool. She can hold her breath for a long time." Isaac began to respond to that but Zac held up his hand. "Don't talk to me, you... you... hide and seek nazi."
"Nice." Isaac laughed and rolled his eyes.
Zac stomped down the stairs and tripped over a stack of shoes, falling face first into the area at the bottom of the stairs that Taylor used as a closet. "DAMMIT!" He shouted, opened the door, and fell into Taylor's bedroom. "This game sucks!"
Taylor laughed. "Still haven't found her? You're going on three hours aren't you?"
"Shut up."
"Hey, I'm not judging. You've gone days without finding Carter. She's the queen. However I do believe she's the only eighteen year old I know that can't go a week without playing hide and seek."
"That rhymed. So anyway..."
"No, I haven't seen her. And if I knew where she was, I wouldn't tell you anyway."
"DAMMIT!" Zac slapped the wall. "YOU PEOPLE ALL SUCK!"
"Yes, yes, we do."
Zac went out into the hallway and sat at the top of the stairs to think. Where would I hide if I was five feet tall and one hundred pounds? Where would I hide if I was hot... very very hot... Ok wait, getting off track. The boundaries are within the walls of my house. But my house is technically her house, so that means her house is technically my house. But she wouldn't stretch the rules that much. And that does leave out the pool. Scratch that off the list.
Ten minutes passed while Zac sat on the stairs. He had already checked the passageway in the basement that connected their houses. It had once been used for the underground railroad*** After fishing through boxes and spiderwebs, he found that she wasn't there.
"Where the hell is she?" He muttered "I GOT IT!" He jumped up and ran to his bedroom. He stared intently at the doornob to his closet door. "Ok, here we go." He lifted his left leg, smacked the wall, then spun around and slammed his leg into the door. Then, he turned the nob as quickly as he could. The door opened. "AHA! I GOT YOU! ... GOD DAMMIT!" He yelled when he noticed the closet was empty. "This game sucks. This game sucks ass!"
"Then why do you insist on playing it?" Melissa's voice came from Zac's doorway. He turned around to see her standing there, grinning. Her hair was down and it draped down her shoulders. She wore a hair of black pants and a tight, dark, purple sweater. She wore a pair of thin, wire framed glasses.
"You look nice. When did you get glasses?"
"Today. Just got back from the eye doctor."
"They look a little like Taylor's."
"Yeah. So, you still haven't found her yet?"
"Nope."
"That sucks." She smiled. <>"You know where she is, don't you?"
"Yup."
"Dammit." Zac growled and pushed past her.
Six hours later, Zac gave up and threw himself face first onto his bed. There was no use. She was the queen of the game. "Alright, Car, come out. I give up. You win. Nobody can beat you."
He waited a few moments before he heard a scuffle and a thump. "Ok, let me out."
Zac's attention shot to his closet. "Are you invisible?"
"What?"
"I already looked in there!"
Carter laughed. "I know you did. You just didn't see me."
"YOU SUCK!"
"Yes, I do. Now let me out cause I really have to pee. I swear everytime we play this I end up with a bladder infection because it takes you so damn long to find me."
Zac got into the "open the closet door" stance and let Carter out. She jumped out of the closet. "Ok, now show me how you did that. Cause I'm stumped."
Carter pulled Zac into the closet and pointed to the inside wall. "There, remember when we had to sledge hammer me out of here?"
"OoooH!" Zac stared at the large hole in the wall. The outside had been patched and plastered but on the inside there was still a huge, gaping hole in the wall. Zac nodded his approval. "Very nice. You are and shall always remain, the queen of all that is holy in hide and seek."
"Why thank you." She grinned. "Now, excuse me before I pee all over the floor."
*** There really is a door that connects the basements of these two houses. There are also holes in the cement walls that had been filled in. An actual stretch of the underground railroad is recorded in my town (Williamsport) and it was proven that a few houses in my old neighborhood were part of it.
Carter
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