The secret place in this chapter is based on a childhood fort of mine. All of it is true, the renagades, the milk, the food, the vinyl sheets, let's just say, I was one messed up child. Hehe. Enjoy.
Carter jumped into the air and twirled in a circle. Her wet hair whipped around her hair as she sang. Her tight white tanktop and little black skirt showed off everything she had to offer.
"I'm going out tonight, I'm feelin alright, gonna let it all hang out. Wanna make some noise, really raise my voice, Yeah I wanna scream and shout. OH oh oh! Get in the action, Feel the attraction, Color my hair, do what I dare. OH OH OH! Man I feel like a woman." She sang as loud as she could as she danced around her room.
"Nice outfit." Melissa rolled her eyes and walked over to her dresser.
Carter jumped in surprise and stopped singing. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"
"To enter my own room? In which the door was wide open? And my...mentally deficient sister is singing country music while wearing... what the hell are you wearing?"
"Nothing." Carter mumbled.
"Heh. No kidding."
"Shut up." Carter slid her short skirt off and pulled on a pair of black flared with tiny white butterflies that swirled around each leg until they reached the floor.
"Those are cool. Where'd you get them?"
"Uhm... I dunno." Carter shrugged and laughed.
"How's your head?"
Carter made a funny face. Somebody must have told Melissa about her little mishap with the wall last night. "It's... fine."
"Can I borrow your white skirt?"
"Which one?" Carter had a million white skirts.
"The white one with the poofy WOO swirly bottom."
"The one with the different layers?"
"Yeah that one."
"Go ahead." Carter shrugged and threw her huge black duffel bag over her shoulder.
"Where are you going?"
"Out." She grinned and went out the door without another word. She ran out the back door and through the gate of the chain link fence in her backyard. Then she looked over her shoulder before running through her neighbor's backyard and scampering into the huge mass of bushes at the far end of the lot. She ducked between patches of sharp branches and those little round scratchy things that get stuck in her hair, until she reached a small spot, all the way in the back.
The light flickered around her as it peeked through the bushes above her. Little pink and purple flowers decorated the small area. Not real flowers, she bought them from a store and stuck them in all the tiny crevaces. She opened her duffel bag and took out 5 different colored, transparent, mesh scarves. She draped each one over a different branch and smiled as each of them swept the floor with each gust of wind.
She then reached behind her to wear she kept a huge cooler tucked behind the bushes. She reached into her bag and took out 4 small bags of chips, a small jar of peanut butter, a box of ritz crackers, 5 small bottles of water, a giant KitKat, a bag of hersheys kisses, and a bag of ice. Then she shoved everything into the box which now only contained a box of fruit loops and bag of peanuts. Food to live on.
Next it was time to stock up on miscellaneous emergency supplies. She reached to her left and grabbed a red blanket. She unrolled it to see her tube of vanilla frosting scented lipgloss, a hairbrush, a pair of jeans, a sweater, a toothbrush with toothpaste, and a half bar of soap. "Woo. Running low on supplies." She whispered.
She grabbed the flashlight out of her bag and laid it in the middle of the blanket. Next she put down 2 tanktops, a maroon t-shirt, a bottle of red hairdye, and a bottle of shampoo. "There. That should be enough."
Carter smiled to herself and rolled the blanket up again. Next, she picked up her spare walkie talkie that was always kept in a plastic bag (in case of rain) in her secret place. "Zac. Alright it's clear. Come out. Cool."
10 minutes later, Zac appeared with an even bigger duffel bag.
"Nobody saw you did they?"
"Nope."
"Geez what do you have in there?"
"Supplies."
"Cool."
Zac looked around and crawled over to Carter. "This place has gotten bigger. What did you do?"
"I had hedge clippers in here the other day and a chopped away some of the sharp stuff. So now it's alot bigger. I can stand up in here now."
"I can't."
"Shut up."
Zac laughed and opened his bag. "Ok here's the two pillows, the three blankets, my emergency clothes, deoderant..."
"Oh, thinking ahead."
"Yeah. Some extra books, my tiny battery tv."
"Tv?! Zac. Why'd you bring that thing? If we have to resort to this place, I don't think we'll be in the mood to watch tv."
"Never know. We might be out here longer than you think."
"I guess so. What else is in that thing?"
"Backup flashlight, more food because I knew you wouldn't remember the important stuff..."
"Like what's more important than crackers and peanut butter?"
"Ice cream."
"Zac, think about that one."
Zac made a confused face and then smiled. "Oh yeah. Well I also brought a couple extra bottles of water, some koolaid mix, pretzels, doritos..."
"Oh yeah, can't plan a getaway without doritos."
"You got that right."
Carter rolled her eyes. "Did you bring Mr. Nemo Delecatessan?"
"Sure did." Zac reached into the bottom of his bag and pulled out a four inch turtle. "I don't think he liked the bag much though."
"No kidding. So he'll stay here?"
"This is where we found him. This is like his home. I just took him inside for a while cause I thought he'd like that better."
"Ah. Anything else?"
"Yeah." Zac pulled out a plunger and grinned.
"You know what? Don't even tell me cause I just don't wanna know."
"So anyway. What's the plan?"
"Well. Next time one of the renegades intrudes, annoys, nags, yells, gives a headache, pulls hair, threatens to blow up, or anything else in that category, we split."
"Alright." Zac smiled.
They hadn't used the place in over a month. The first discovered it the week after Carter's mom died. Then they fixed it up, attached clear vinyl sheets to the top to keep the weather and rain out, and poof, they had a second home. Zac made the first mistake of trying to store milk, and other refridgerated things in the fort. A week later, they were forced to relocate for a month.
One time, they found a stray cat and tried to keep it in the fort. Big mistake, resulting in massive injuries.
After that, they decided it would just be their runaway place. Whenever they needed to get away for the night, or longer. One time, they spent 4 days there. Nobody seemed to notice they were gone.
But it was nice to know that in case of emergency or crisis, they had a place to go and be, together.