Noelle - Day 26 (Glitch Preview, part one)

What is Glitch?
"Oh crud," you scream as you read the post title.  "See I told you this weird blog is finally going to corrupt my whole computer!!!  Help! Dog germs, dog germs!  Call the fire department!"

Well, maybe not.  Yes, this is a bit of an...odd blog, no, we're not coming to get you all.  And no, we're not going to corrupt your computer...yet *evil-ly grins at the computer screen*.

Anyway!!!!  Glitch is the book I have been trying to semi-successfully write - don't roll your eyes at me!  This is a real book, and also, this is Inklings-club GOLD!  Do me a favor and tell me what you think.  I'm looking for scathing remarks here (not mean, scathing.  Word choice matters) and grammar point-outs.  Please?  Yes?  Thank you.

Now, because chapter one is so long (and also the one and only chapter you will get to read here on International BFF's...sorry) I'm going to make you come back tomorrow for the whole thing.  Comment if you came back!  I want to know if it caught your interest.  Click the link below to see the actually part on of Glitch, chapter one.

Chapter 1:  Rabid Squirrels

12:35 p.m., July 28th, 2014

Holly Tree Housing, New Jersey

Ash Johnson was sitting on her bed on the sunny afternoon.  The sky was blue and the sun shining, and she stared longingly out the window as two children ran joyfully by.  Nibbling on the end of her pencil, she glared at the page.  She had already read this paragraph, but did those symptoms match up with malaria or just a bad case of flu?  Fight disease.  That’s what I want to do.  Ash reminded herself.  Which is why she was sitting in her bedroom, studying.

Ash’s cellphone buzzed.  Caller I.D. - "HT and Fiona".  Ash picked up, and Heather, one of Ash’s best friends, yelled into the phone, “Hey!  Everyone’s meeting at Tris’s house!”  Tris was a mutual friend of the two girls.

“You have reached Ash Johnston’s very annoyed answering messaging system, please go away until I text you back.  I currently can’t come to the phone, HT,’cause I’m studying.  You know I can’t put this off!  Please leave a message at the beep.”  Ash stifled a giggle and said, “Beep!”

“You and your studying!  Lay it off a day Ash!”  Someone screamed in the background.  Probably Fiona, HT’s twin sister.

“But-”

“Come over Ash.  We have this amazing new thing that I bet you’ve never heard of before, you’re going to absolutely love it.  I can’t wait to tell you all about it!”

Not fooled at all, Ash groaned and muttered, “What is it this time?”

“Life!!!  C’mon and live your darn life or all of summer will be gone before you know it and then where will you be?”

“School.  I’ll be in school hopefully.  Tomorrow, HT.  I’m sorry.  You know this is my studying day.  I’ll hang with you any day but Tuesday, ok?”

“Who studies in summer anyway?  Well, fine, at least give me a call later, maybe around five?  Fiona is going to drive me insane with this new anime show she found and I want an excuse to skip half the story line.  She’s going to get grounded anyway if the afternoon keeps going the way it has.”  Ash thought she heard a muffled ‘it wasn’t my fault!’

Shrugging, Ash said, “That’s a good enough reason.  I’ll give you a call.”

1:49 p.m., July 29th, 2014

Ash Crest Grocers, New Jersey

“Where is everyone?”  Katelyn Fisher whispered, because she didn’t want to break the dampening silence that blanketed the whole grocery store.

Her brother Mark shrugged, his usual clueless self.  “Mom said to get milk and bread.  So we get the stuff, we get out of here, we don’t have to worry about it.”  Katelyn looked at him hard.  She knew him well enough to know that behind all that bravado he really was worried also.

Mark shook his head thoughtfully as he grabbed a milk jug.  “Where is everyone?”  His voice bounced off the empty halls and up and down the ghost town aisles.

“We kinda do have to worry about it.  There’s no one at the registers.”

“Whatever, we can use that stupid self-checkout thing.”

Katelyn looked around the deserted grocery store.  Definitely no one around, but it still felt like she was being watched.  Security cameras, one behind her at a 180˙ sweep, two to the right, one facing away.  She checked one, pretending to look at the sale tag on five cartons of milk.

“I expected better, but it’s just a grocery store I guess...” She whispered to Mark, who knew exactly what she was doing.“Wires out in the open, not even with double insulation to prevent mice from chewing through it.  Who ever owns this store is a serious penny pincher.  If they have to replace a single wire they would have to reroute the whole system, and that could cost a pretty dollar.  Big time.  What do you think?”

“I think that I don’t know what you’re talking about....but I have my pocket knife with me, we could cut all the cords before they knew who we were.  Walk out of here with milk for free.”  Mark grinned, breaking the solemn air.  They both laughed, not caring if anyone heard (not that there was anyone who could hear them).  “I might get kicked out of boy scouts for that though.”

“Yep.  I think you would.”

1:53 p.m., July 29th, 2014

Lakewood Homes Park, New Jersey

Ziiiiiippp!  Xander Harrow flipped his skateboard with a flick of his foot, concentrating on the following grind down the pipe.  He must keep his trajectory perfect, or the skateboard would slip and crash.  All of the sudden, the trick was finished, and Jason, his skateboarding friend, came up and exclaimed, “DUUUUDE!!!  That was WICKED!!!”

Xander grinned and glanced at the swings, where his sister Trisanna sat talking to a girl, next to his duffle bag.  A man stopped by, murmuring something incoherent.  Like any New York kid, Xander glanced over the guy.  Mysterious trench coat, no apparent ipod to sing along too, definitely avoiding notice.  F.B.I. or off his meds; either way Xander didn’t care.

“Uh, dude?  You with me?”  Jason punched him in the arm.  Xander grinned, and pretended to stagger backwards in pain.  When he glanced back, the mysterious man was gone.  Whatever, probably nothing.

10:35 a.m., July 30th, 2014

Holly Crest Housing, New Jersey

Ash sat up, stretching.  10 o’clock?!  When had it gotten this late?  She stretched with a yawn.  Talk about an awesome book!  Her laptop, usually used for school, said, “Boop!”

Ash opened up the email inbox to see that Mark had sent her an email.  Hey everybody!  I got special passes to that a camp site out in the middle of no where.  Ten passes - enough for all of us.  Nobody’s going to be there, reserved for passes only...and no one wants them for some reason.  Let’s go!  Anyone who wants to come - be at my house nine a.m. two days from now. -Mark

Ash scrolled down, and saw that Fiona had already said, We’ll be there...but how exactly are we getting there?  And parents?  So she wasn’t grounded yet.

Zander had also emailed back, saying, Sure Dude!  But Fifi’s got a point, how are we getting there?  A campsite three hours away?  We can’t exactly bike. -X

Mark had emailed back and said that they were taking his Dad’s big 10-seater van.  Ash remembered that monstrosity clearly...it would fit all of them easily with room to spare.  After asking her dad, Ash emailed back I’ll think about it.  I dunno...three hours in a stinky van with you and Xander?!  I might not survive the trip! -Ash

Hey!  Watch who you’re insulting, Smokey!  Xander emailed back right away.  Ash frowned.  She hated the nickname Smokey.

Fiona, can you MURDER “X”?  Thanks.  -Ash

Fiona immediately jumped into the conversation.  No problemo, been wanting to anyway.

OMG Gurl!  That’s like harsh, Fifi.  Like, seriously, murder?  But if you like murder Ash, that would be like awesome.  OMG.  Like, totally.  -X

Trisanna suddenly appeared, and wrote, Hey, ignore my brother Ash.  He’s just jealous because MOM SAID GET OFF THE COMPUTER!!!!!  Btw, we're in.

9:35 a.m., August 1st, 2014

Holly Crest Housing, New Jersey

“Remind me again why we haven’t left yet Xander ?”  Fiona was leaning against the back of the van, a scowl on her face.  HT was perched above them in a pine tree, drawing furiously in her sketchbook.  “HT, give it a rest, no one likes your stick figures.”

“Oh please, like anyone likes yours.”  HT made a face at the back of Fiona’s head.  The twins were NOT morning people.

“Both of you give it a rest...coffee?”  Mark walked out of the house, carrying a tray with five steaming mugs on it.   Fiona downed her coffee in one gulp.

“Pass,” Ash said, rolling her eyes and dumping her bags in the back of the van, noticing that Mark had loaded about ten bags of supplies in the back.  Boyscouts, she thought with a grin.  Always over prepared.

“More for me,” Fiona commented with a shrug and began to drink another mug. “You haven't answered the question, Xander."

“What?"  Xander murmured, staring into his mug.

“Why haven't we left yet?"  Fiona growled.  She eyed Mark's untouched coffee, then shrugged, making her ponytail flick.  "You said we'd be off by nine."

“Correction:  I said be here by nine, not that we'd be leaving by nine.  You've known Tris and Katelyn long enough to know there is no 'on time'," Mark said.  “Stop complaining."

Bored with the argument, Ash climbed up the tree where HT was.  She shifted over on her branch without looking up, continuing to draw.  Ash looked at her page.  A perfect drawing of the landscape surrounding them was etched carefully onto the page.

“Oh my gosh...wow!"  Ash stared.  She had never seen HT do anything but draw a lopsided dog, or a stick man battle, or a house that a five year old wouldn't have found a challenge.  “Heather...have you always been this good?!"

  The other girl flushed, and for a moment, it sounded like HT wouldn't respond, but she looked up and whispered, “It's my way of coping I guess.  I draw different things at different times, but yes, yes, I'm always this good."

“But...but all the stick men?"  Ash spluttered, unable to continue for a moment, then said, “Why hide it?"

“Because...it's my secret.  My hidden tool.  Something that no one else has to know about.  It’s...what I’m good for, you know?"  She shook her shaggy black hair and gave Ash a warm but nervous smile.

“But why hide that?  You’re amazing!"

“HEY!?  What are you two whispering about up there?"  Fiona stood, arms crossed, fuming on the ground.  Xander and Mark lurked behind her, sniggering behind their mugs of now-cooled coffee.

“What’s up with them?” Ash whispered, torn between confusion about the whole situation and the urge to laugh at the expression on Fiona’s face.

“Oh, it’s just that...heehee...well, earlier, Xander just out of the blue asked who I had a crush on.”

Ash started giggling also.  “And...?”

“None of your business,” HT said quickly, blushing again.  “Anyway, when I didn’t tell him -”

“-creep-” Ash interjected.

“-he said it must be him, so those two baboons have been teasing me about it ever since.”

“AND....?!”

“Shut up Ash.”  HT snapped, not meeting Ash’s eyes.  She looked up, then grinned widely.  “Ooh, there they are (finally).  Hi Tris!  Hi Katelyn!”  HT ripped the landscape out of her sketchbook, folded it and put it in the zipper pocket of her purse, then climbed down to say hello to the girls, leaving Ash on the branch.

As Ash slid off the last branch, Mark announced, “Ok, everyone, get  your bags in the back and let’s get this show on the road!”

“Finally,” Ash heard Fiona mutter under her breath.

Ash poked HT in the back.  “This conversation isn’t over, you got that?”  HT nodded and hopped in the car with a mysterious smile.

Everybody dumped their backpacks and sleeping bags in a heaping pile in the back of the van, then piled in.  Xander and Mark volunteered to ride in the back seats, simply because they wanted to get the bumps and tug on “Fifi’s” ponytail.  Fiona rolled her eyes and plopped down in the next chair. Three hours...better get comfy.  Thought Ash.