Blood Shadow: Book of Ariel
Page 15
might want to get in line now so you don’t have to wait to get in.”
Aaron ignored the slight and focused on the meal, “Do they have a special? What time does it start?”
The younger group broke out in laughter as Maxwell said, “We’re out,” and the group followed him out of the room.
“Out of where?” Maggie asked.
“I guess, out of the room,” Agent Blake added, as his group slowly filtered out of the sun room because the glare was becoming excessive.
Thaddeus and Garrison arrived back at the house and were no longer a duo of bully greasers. The completion of the full restoration of the 1964 ½ Mustang Convertible would have to wait until quieter times or perhaps the next surge in mid-20th century nostalgia. Andrew was the first person they saw in the main room of the house.
“What’s up, pops?” Drew asked with a tinge of disrespect.
Thaddeus was not going to let his grandson talk down to him so he grabbed him by the shirt and said, “Watch your tongue little boy.”
Drew smiled because he had gotten inside of his grandfather’s head. Garrison unhinged Thad’s grip on Andrew and stood between them, saying to Thad, “You’ll have your chance later, Thaddeus.
“Oh, you don’t want any of this,” Drew said with all of the bravado he used to display in his early years of high school.
Gary was the cool one until Drew stepped within range, so he extended his left hand and punched Drew in the nose. Drew backed up and Gary immediately got up in his grill, “Oh, I want all of that, little boy.”
Thaddeus looked at his contemporary in confusion and then tried to break up the scuffle, pushing Drew away as he dabbed the blood flowing from his nose on the way to the bathroom.
“That didn’t come out right,” Gary explained.
Thad laughed, “You think?”
About an hour later, Belinda, Maggie, Emily and Sharon were busy making breakfast in the kitchen when Nicole and Carla strolled in to see what was happening. Egg white omelets, granola and yogurt blanketed the table, and fruit smoothies were being made by Sharon.
“What is all this?” a feisty Carla asked.
“It’s breakfast,” Maggie simply replied.
“For old people…” the usually-upbeat and supportive Nicole sneered.
Kayla, Daniel, Andrew and Max walked up to Nicole and Carla, and Max said, “Who made the social security spread?”
The group of youngsters laughed as Hartwell came in the room with Thaddeus, Cal and Garrison.
“Somebody’s got to teach that boy some manners,” Hartwell said as he stepped toward Max.
“Slow your roll, gramps,” Max said to Hartwell, who had to be restrained by his counterparts to stop from killing his grandson.
“I won’t be slowing my foot up your…” Hartwell started to say until his wife covered his mouth with her hand.
“Now Thomas, we don’t need to talk to these toddlers this way. We’ll just bring a few extra bars of soap with us later to wash their mouths out.”
Kayla was confused, “Like I would use soap to clean my mouth out.”
Hartwell looked at Maggie and he knew that whatever restraint she had was now gone. Maggie zipped over and grabbed Kayla, and then she brought her over to the sink where she proceeded to squirt liquid soap in her mouth and then use the spray attachment on the sink to literally wash her foul mouth out. She then looked at the five other youngin’s and asked, “Anyone else want to say something disrespectful?”
Kayla spit out the remaining soapy bubbles and Daniel said, “Let’s get out of here, this place is lame.
“Let’s hit the drive-thru at The Burger,” Andrew said, referring to Beach Haven Burger.
“Yeah, let’s go. I’m buying!” Daniel said to the group as Carla fetched Kayla from the sink area and tripped Maggie as she walked by.
Maggie was still angry, “You’re butt is mine later, little girl!”
“That did sound right either,” Thad said to Gary.
“Tell me about it,” Gary replied.
SIXTEEN
The six younger people spent the day out of the house, enjoying each other’s company and hanging out at local teen hotspots including Beach Haven Coffee, Beach Haven Arcade, three meals at Beach Haven Burger, and then hours hanging out and making fun of people at Beach Haven 24/7.
In total and complete contrast, the ten older people were scattered throughout the town at Beach Haven Nails, Beach Haven Books, Beach Haven Hardware and Beach Haven Movies. Thad and Gary did not make an appearance at Beach Haven Bagel because of the calorie and fat content of the establishment’s offerings.
The younger group didn’t even bother to go home before the midnight fight, preferring to chug energy drinks and do radical tricks on their bikes over sitting around and watching themselves age. The older group enjoyed a huge dinner at the Beach Haven Diner at 5:25 pm, which was well within the Early Bird Special guidelines of the restaurant. Once a table was seated they were within the time of the special, even if they weren’t served until after the 5:30 pm cutoff time. Hartwell paid for everyone and gladly displayed the 20 percent discount the group received off their meals.
“We got it!” he exclaimed as he came back to the table after he paid for the meal at the front counter.
“I don’t know why you would ever eat after 5:30?” Agent Blake said.
If one of the people in the younger group were there they probably would have said, “Because I woke up at 11, ate breakfast at noon, ate lunch at 4, and then grabbed dinner at 8:30. I go to sleep after midnight, three hours after you pass out.”
Of course none of the youngsters were at the diner, so such a counterpoint could not be made. They were at the arcade dancing in the revolution and driving cars off cliffs while their older counterparts were diving into salads with oil and vinegar dressing and overcooked chicken, bakes potatoes surrounded in tin foil and vegetables cooked beyond their nutritional value. Dinner at Beach Haven Tacos consisted of heaping orders of nachos with gooey cheese sauce, tacos and burritos with everything but the pileta, and sugary sodas that also elevated the blood pressure until crashing an hour or so later.
It was midnight and the energy drinks were flowing through the bodies of the younger generation. They were so pumped up that there started head-butting each other and beating each other up in preparation for the festivities about to take place. The action at Hartwell’s house was a stark contrast to the action in the parking lot of Beach Haven 24/7. Out of the 10 older members, only two were still awake – Thaddeus and Garrison – and both of them drank too much water at dinner and had to go to the bathroom.
Gary noticed the time on the clock on his side night table – when he saw 11:54 pm, one and only one thought came to his mind.
“I wonder if anyone will notice if we skip this?”
That question was answered a few minutes later when the younger group starting making prank phone calls to the wireline phone in the house. The first few were hang-ups and then subsequent calls were of the full-prank nature courtesy of Andrew, who had experience with all aspects if deviant behavior in his youth and was putting these advanced skills to good use. By the time he was done with his five prank calls, everyone in the house was up and fully agitated.
“They coming?” Nicole asked Drew.
Drew smirked, “Oh, they’ll be there!”
There was definitely a hop in the collective step of the older group just as Drew surmised. They arrived at the Beach Haven High School football field about 12:15 pm, which was five minutes earlier than the younger group who took their time and decidedly arrived fashionably late.
“So nice of you to come,” Hartwell said upon their arrival.
Drew was still in a joking mood when he cracked, “So nice of you to wake up.”
Daniel threw some more gasoline on the fire when he turned to Drew, “But they already got three good hours of sleep and we’re about to put them to b
ed for the rest of the night,” in true braggart form of the younger generation.
Hartwell turned to his group and said, “Well, let’s say goodnight and put these brats to bed.”
The other nine people roared and then turned toward the six younger people and charged. Daniel and his bunch were so confident that they didn’t even flinch when presented with the visual of the stampeding herd of mature fighters. Andrew waited until the elders were about ten feet from them and then yelled, “Now, Kayla!”
Kayla was back to her protector self as her initiation of her three-fold shield effectively put half of the group out of danger and created instant match-up problems for the older group. The reactivation of her powers also had a trickle-down effect on the other 15 fighters, whose full powers were restored as they moved into action. The decided advantage swung to the side of the youth because of Daniel and Maxwell’s advanced capabilities, but it also meant that the seniors had three people – Hartwell, Belinda and Maggie – that had all of the powers of the vampires, protectors and hunters.
The initial protected members were Nicole, Carla and Kayla, primarily because Daniel and Maxwell did not need protection and Kayla needed protection so she could continue to control the action with Max, who was back to being a master strategist. But what the elders lacked in supernatural skills they made up for with experience. What might have looked good on the drawing board in Max’s mind had been played out on the actual battlefield by the members of