Won't be posting

I'm on vacation and loving it so far. I won't be posting for about a week or so but I would like to get a couple of them in if I can get around to it. So I'm sorry if you just started reading this and now I am leaving you. Well check back in a few days and I may have something new.

So happy holidays including, Christmas, channaka, kwanza, festavis, islamaca, and of course the worship of our lord satan.....I mean santa.....or do I? hehehehe.

Chapter eleven : Library trip

While Daniel was busy digging his holes Steve had made his way to the city library taking a short twenty minute bus ride down town where the library was situated between two aging brick buildings. Fortunatly for Steve there was a large selection of books to read about Canteoupe county and its history.

Steve read up on the subject most of the day and not just because Daniel had asked him to but because he got wrapped up in the material. It was intriguing and after a little while Steve longed for the chance to go with Daniel but he already had goals for himself and would rather read about it than go gallivanting across the state.

Steve arrived back at the orphanage right when the sun was setting. He walked up to across the field to where Daniel was finishing the second hole.

The sun shone at their back and cast long shadows on the ground as Daniel shoveled out the last bit of dirt.

"So did you find anything?" asked Daniel."I found a lot," said Steve. "I’ve got it all written down in my note book. This Mr. Davidson was an interesting character. He…"

"You can tell me about it after I get a shower and change into some clean clothes," Daniel interrupted. "Why don’t you do to your room. I’ll meet you there after I tell Mr. Hedges that I’m done."

Steve went up to his room and Daniel checked in with Mr. Hedges. He didn’t have to check the holes because Daniel always finished his punishment. It was about the only think he could trust him to do.

With the little energy Daniel had left he ran to the showers, hosed off and then changed into some fresh clothes in his room. The shower made him feel better almost like a normal person.

"So what do you have for me?" Daniel asked as he walked into Steve’s room.

"Well I got a lot," said Steve. "I photo copied maps for you, wrote down some simple directions for you."

"Well what is the land like?" asked Daniel excitedly.

"Well it’s pretty heavily wooded," said Steve. "The property itself is 500 acres like you had said but the area around it is empty and heavily wooded as well. All you have to do is follow route 20 out of town going east for about forever and then go north on interstate 19 for 30 miles before you hit the property. From the maps I saw there is a little dirt road that runs somewhere. It’s pretty hilly but there is a pretty big stream that runs through it so you can probably find some fish."

"Well that’s good. I guess I’ll need to eat won’t I," said Daniel.

"I also found out a lot about this Mr. Davidson guy," said Steve.

"Like what? He’s just an old guy that died. What could be so special about him?" Daniel said.

"Well the thing is that no one in the town there knew how he got his money," said Steve. "People think he made moonshine or that he was a gangster but it seems that most believed that he had a gold mine. Apparently he would come into town once a month or so and get a whole bunch of food, tools and supplies of different kinds but he didn’t have any kind of job that anyone could see."

"If he had money and no one knew where he got it wouldn’t the government come snooping around wondering what he was doing?" asked Daniel.

"That is true but if he paid his taxes they wouldn’t really care as long as he wasn’t doing anything illegal. The thing is people did go snooping around his property looking for how he made his money but nobody ever found anything, or if they did they never told anybody how he did it."

"That’s really cool but I don’t really care," said Daniel. "I just want to get out of here."

"I just thought you would like to know," said Steve. "So what is the next step? There is only a few more days until you said you were going to leave."

"I know but I want to get that paperwork from Mr. Hedges," said Daniel. "If I hide out long enough when I’m eighteen I’m going to want to be able to prove that it’s mine."

"Good point," Steve said.

"Well what else do you think I should do?" asked Daniel.

"Well first of all you should probably do some reading on surviving in the wild. I don’t know I guess that might be a good," said Steve sarcastically.

"Well how am I supposed to do that smart ass?" asked Daniel.

"Well lucky for you there library actually has a pretty good selection it thanks to Mr. Roberts," answered Steve.

"Is the library still open?" asked Daniel.

"Nope it closed about I don’t know yesterday," said Steve.

"Why are you being such a dick?" asked Daniel.

"Because you made me miss my movie," Steve shot back.

"I said I’d make sure you see it didn’t I?" Daniel said.

"How are you going to do that?" Steve asked.

"Mr. Hedges said I could leave the orphanage for the day tomorrow," said Steve. "We’ll go to the movies together. I’ll even pay for it."

"How are you going to do that?" asked Steve.

"I’ve got a job you know. I can pay for it," said Daniel.

"Digging holes is not a job Daniel," said Steve.

"Shut up," Daniel said.

"So you’re going to pay for it?" Steve asked.

"Yeah I’m going to pay for it," said Daniel. "Now tell me about some of this camping stuff. You’re a boy scout so you should know some stuff."

For the rest of the night until it was late, Steve taught Daniel all about making a survival shelter, starting fires without matches, what plants are edible and how to make a more permanent dwelling if the situation requires it. Daniel listened carefully as Steve broke down the basics and shared with him what he knew.

Chapter ten: Punishment

It took a day for Daniel to finally get everything down from the ceilings in the school. It’s a very tedious job trying to use a scrapper to unstuck a couple hundred desks and chairs on top of a ladder. Luckily for him he was able to get all the desks down and only broke a few of them while he was doing it.

Digging the holes on the other hand took a while. Daniel was stripped down to his jeans and wore gloves but after a few hours of digging it felt like agony for his hands and back, but he had already told himself that he would pay the price and that it was all worth it for one last prank.

Luckily it wasn’t the first time that Daniel had done digging like this and his hands were tough and leathery from all the punishments he had had before.

Daniel zoned out while he was digging and he didn’t even notice the Mr. Hedges walk up behind him.

“You doing alright down there Daniel,” said Hedges. “You know if it wasn’t for you getting in trouble all the time I don’t think would have the half the things we have out here. For as much bad as you have done around here I guess you have done a lot of good as well.”

“I guess,” grunted Daniel.

“Well here is some water if you need some,” said Hedges.

He placed a big jug of water down at the edge of the hole. Daniel was a few feet down now and two thirds of the way done with the first hole.

“Thanks,” Daniel said.

He placed his shovel against one wall of dirt, grabbed the jug and took a long drink.

“It will get dark soon,” said Mr. Hedges. “I want you back in the building as soon as it does. This may be a punishment but I don’t want you hurting yourself out here.”

“I will,” said Daniel grabbing the shovel again.

Mr. Hedges walked away as Daniel started to dig again.

The hours ticked by as Daniel dug in a trance. He sunk the shovel deep in the soil time and time again until he had the wheelbarrow full and then he carted it off to the edge of the field where he dumped it out. Over and over in a continuous cycle.

Dusk came and took a break to watch the sun go down. It stained the sky purple, yellow and orange as it sank behind the distant mountains as it made everything cast their long shadows until they disappeared with the night cold.

Daniel climbed out of the hole tossed the shovel in the wheelbarrow and then took them over to the work shed. He was covered in sweat and dirt. He muscles ached as he walked to the shower to hose himself off. After his shower he walked back to his room and collapsed on his bed to tired even to crawl underneath the blankets.

The next morning was Saturday and Daniel crawled out of bed early and threw on a pair of old jeans, a plain white t-shirt and headed back down to the hole. He didn’t feel like breakfast. The food in his stomach would only make him feel bad under the hot sun.

It’s to early for a Saturday, Daniel thought as he made his way across the field with a his wheelbarrow and shovel.

Daniel’s thoughts then turned to Steve. He should have been leaving about then and taking the bus into the city. It was only about a twenty minute trip into the city and maybe twenty more to get to the library. Daniel decided it was best not to worry about it and just focus on his work.

Daniel had finished the first hole and after a few hours was getting a good start on the second one. His muscles still ached from the day before but he tried to ignore them and dig like he always did.

A few more hours passed and he saw Miss Williams walking across the field toward him this time she was in a pair of jeans, a plain brown blouse and was a brown bag in her hand. He waved to her and then watched as she walked closer to him. She knelt down at the edge of the hole and looked at the progress he had made so far.

“So what did you do this time?” Miss Williams asked.

“Nothing much same of the usual,” he answered.

“Well I’m glad you don’t pull these kinds of pranks in my classroom,” she said.

“Now what kind of person would I be if I did something like that?” said Daniel as he continued with his digging. “So what are you doing here on a Saturday anyway Miss Williams?”

“Well I wanted to get a head start on next week and you know I can’t get any work done at my place,” she said. “Besides I thought you could use some lunch.”

Miss Williams handed him the brown-paper bag.

“That’s awesome. What did you get me?” Daniel asked as he looked inside the bag.

“Nothing special just a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich, an apple and a Gatorade,” Miss Williams said.

“It doesn’t matter it’s still great,” Daniel said just before taking a bite of the sandwich.

“Daniel why do you always do things like this?” asked Miss Williams.

Daniel paused for a second while he finished chewing another bite thought about the question.

“I don’t know. They are just fun to do,” answered Daniel. “This place is to boring anyway. If I can’t leave than I might as well change the scenery that I am stuck with.”

“Well you could do something else to do that Daniel,” said Miss Williams.

“Yeah but they aren’t as much fun,” said Daniel. “I think this is going to be my last one though.”

“Finally growing out?” asked Miss Williams.

“No, I’ve just run out of ideas,” said Daniel.

“Oh,” Miss Williams said. “Well I better go get to work. I’ll stop by Mr. Hedges office and see if I can get him to lighten your punishment. He’s in his office isn’t he?”

“Don’t do that Miss Williams,” said Daniel. “I pay my dues. I don’t expect not to get punished for the things I do. Besides I already dug one hole I might as well dig the other hole.”

“Well I’m proud of you then,” said Miss Williams. “You want to finish what you start. That’s really good Daniel. Well you don’t forget to drink lots of water out here and rest when you need to.”

“I will besides it’s not that bad,” said Daniel.

“See you later Daniel,” She said as she started to walk toward the school building.

Daniel waved goodbye and then continued to eat his sandwich.

“I hope Steve is finding out something useful,” Daniel said allowed to himself as he started to dig again.

Chapter nine: The last prank

Now Daniel had pulled many pranks in his day but this was to be his final one at the orphanage and he wanted it to be special. Everyone needed to benefit from this.

It was night now and Daniel was awake in his bed staring at the ceiling while Frank snored in the bed next to him.

Maybe he would just duct tape Frank to his bed Daniel thought. No, that wouldn’t be big enough even though it would be enjoyable. This had to be on a grand scale it couldn’t be like anything he had ever done before. All he had to do now was think of something and then plan it out and go with it.

I could put LSD in the faculty coffee pot this time, Daniel thought. No that’s to extreme and possibly dangerous. I know I could let thousands of mice loose through the building. No, it would take to long to get that many mice and I don’t have that much money to buy them. It has to be something fun.

“I’ve got it,” said Daniel. “Now all I need is some glue.”

The next day during Daniel’s lunch period and tracked down the custodian who was sitting in his little office in the basement.

He was old and mostly bald with a few gray hairs that clung to the side of his head. He wore blue overalls and carried all the keys to the orphanage around with him on a little belt clip that jingled as he walked. He was in charge of almost all the maintenance of the orphanage and had just about anything you would need to fix anything down in his basement storerooms.

Daniel had stolen a skeleton key from him a few years back and the guy didn’t even notice and luckily no one had found it because he didn’t keep it in his room. No one would think to check behind the picture of the headmaster than hung in the hallway near his office.

“Excuse me,” said Daniel.

The custodian looked up from the wall clock he was working on and squinted at Daniel through his silver rimmed spectacles.

“Yeah, what do you want to you little trouble maker?” asked the custodian.

“Well it’s just that I was making this pot in art class and I accidentally broke it and I was wondering if you had any super glue or anything like that?” asked Daniel.

“Nope all I got is a few buckets of super adhesive industrial glue,” said the custodian motioning to a stack of three five gallon buckets. “You don’t want to use that stuff. If you weren’t careful you could glue your hand closed.”

“Ok well I was just wondering if you had some,” said Daniel shrugging. “I can just make another one.”

“Ok then. Now get out of here,” said the custodian looking back down at the clock.

Daniel had already discovered what he had already suspected. He would need some tough glue to pull off what he wanted to do and he would make sure to wear gloves if the stuff was that strong.

The next thing Daniel had to do was track down Steve. He found him in the cafeteria and sat down across from him.

“Hey I need you to meet me tonight outside of the headmaster’s office,” Daniel whispered to him.

“I thought you said I wasn’t going to be doing any of the work,” Daniel whispered back.

“Ok so I lied a little bit so what,” Daniel said. “What’s the worst that can happen? It’s not like they can kick you out of this place. Where would you go?”

“I don’t know about this,” Steve said as he played with his macaroni.

“Come on don’t be a little wuss you know you want to help me out,” Daniel taunted.

“Fine I’ll meet you tonight just lay off,” Steve said trying to ignore Daniel. “What are we doing anyway?”

“I told you. You’ll find out later,” Daniel said.

“I still have a bad feeling about this,” Steve said.

“You have to be more confident in yourself Steve,” Daniel said. “We’ll have some fun.”

The rest of the day passed without incident. Steve mostly ignored Daniel for the most part. He was still a little mad at him for pressuring him so much but he was anxious to find out what they were going to do that night.

The hours ticked by and finally it was night time around midnight to be exact and Steve was outside the headmaster’s office where he had agreed to meet Daniel.

What the hell is taking him so long, though Steve.

Steve had been waiting there for almost twenty minutes and he was starting to get worried. The halls were dark and cold and only a small bit of moon light shown through the few windows in the hallway.

Suddenly, Steve heard a faint clanking coming from down the hall. Steve froze in place. There was no where to hide in the hallway.

I’m going to get caught, Steve thought as he pressed himself against one of the walls in the darkness.

Beads of sweat started forming on his forehead as the clanking sound got closer and closer.

Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, Steve thought.

He stared intently into the blackness trying to make out a shape or something but he couldn’t see anything. All he saw was a dark scary hallway. All of a sudden he thought he saw the outline of a person. It seemed to be moving slow but it was moving toward him and than he felt something cold and hard hit his stomach.

“Is that you Steve?” said a voice. “Can you help with this ladder?”

“Daniel?” said Steve softly.

“Of course it me who did you think it was the boogie man or something. Now help me with this ladder,” said Daniel.

The metal ladder had hit Steve in the stomach. Daniel had been carrying it in his arm and didn’t see Steve until it made contact. Steve grabbed the ladder from Daniel and put it up against the wall.

“So what are we doing already?” Steve asked.

“Oh nothing special,” said Daniel. “Just put on these gloves and follow me.”

Daniel and Steve worked through the night setting up the prank. It was 5:30 a.m. before they were finished and stole back to their rooms to get one last hour of sleep before chaos consumed the school.

Daniel woke up to the sound of voices in the hallway and feet running. It seems like everyone had found out what they had done. Daniel slowly got up got dressed, combed his hair and brushed his teeth ate breakfast and then walked to his first class with a huge smile on his face.

“Good morning ma’am,” said Daniel cheerfully.

“And what is so good about it?” his first period teacher shot back. “I’m sure you had something to do with this.”

Daniel than looked up at the ceiling and gazed at his handiwork.

Every single desk chair and table was hanging from the ceiling. It was like someone had turned all the rooms upside down. It was like standing on the ceiling and looking down at a classroom.

“I’d never do something like this,” said Daniel. “Besides I’m only one person. How would I be able to do all of this in one night?”

A voice blared over the intercom.

“Daniel Smyth report to the headmasters office at once,” said the voice.

Without a word Daniel still with a smile on his face walked down to the headmaster’s office and right through Mr. Hedge’s door.

“I think you know why you are here Daniel,” said Mr. Hedges.

“No I don’t but aren’t you going to offer me a seat?” said Daniel with a giant grin on his face.

Like the rest of the classrooms Mr. Hedges ceiling was a mirror image of his former office.

“Be quiet. You know what this means Daniel,” said Mr. Hedges. “You are going to take everything down by yourself and than you are going to report to the field to dig the holes for the new baseball dugouts. Now do you think this little joke was worth it?”

Daniel stood there silent still grinning.

“Well do you?!” yelled Mr. Hedges.

Daniel took one more look around and then stared Mr. Hedges square in the eye.

“Yes.”

Chapter eight: Frank and Plans

Now for the older kids they lived in two person rooms that to some people were no bigger than a walk in closet but they had enough room for two beds, two desks, two small closets and nothing much else.

Now Steve and Daniel were friends but they weren’t roommates and even though Steve was probably the smartest kid in the orphanage there was someone else that through he was and that was Frank Newman.

“Daniel what the hell are you doing with all that crap?” asked Frank as Daniel walked through the door.

“None of your business jackass,” answered Daniel. “Why don’t you get out of here anyway. Don’t you have a club meeting to go to.”

Frank just glared at him through his thick rimmed glasses. Frank knew his parents and they weren’t dead. They were just drunks and declared by the state unfit to take care of him. The problem was that the rest of his relatives were drunks too. His own grandma put away a fifth of whiskey before noon. I guess you could say that it ran in the family, but Frank was determined to change that and become successful.

Daniel and Frank were alike in that same respect but Daniel wasn’t accepted by most people while Frank fell into the intelligent click small as it was in school. Frank was the president of almost all the clubs at the school. Chess club, science club, math club, French club, Latin club, space club, young republicans club and chairman of the small united nations.

They both had something to prove, but all Frank had to prove was that he wasn’t a drunk and could be successful. Daniel had to prove that he wasn’t an absolute screw up, liar and idiot even though he was only two of those things.

“Are you going to live outside with the rest of the drifters?” sneered Frank.

“You know it amazes me that every time you open your mouth you prove that you’re idiot,” Daniel shot back.

Frank turned back to the work he was doing at his desk and Daniel entered the room but not after turning around sharply at his closet hitting Frank in the head with the edge of his pack causing his glasses to fly off.

“Hey!” yelled Frank clutching the back of his head. “Be more careful dumb ass.”

“Oh did I hit you? I’m sorry I didn’t see you there,” Daniel said sarcastically.

Daniel threw his gear into his closet shoved the door closed and then headed out the door.

Franks hands were clenched on his desk the force of, which snapped the pencil he was holding.

Don’t worry Daniel, thought Frank. I’ll get you sooner or later. You will pay.

If anyone in the school could be called Daniel’s arch nemesis it would be Frank. Even Mr. Hedges didn’t hate Daniel. He was just doing his job and sometimes got mad and annoyed at Daniel but like most people that deal with children he was just doing what he thought was best for Daniel. Frank on the other hand hated Daniel. He hated him not because of his pranks but for his carefree attitude. Frank considered Daniel lazy, ignorant and basically a waste of space because he didn’t work to contribute anything to the orphanage or to any other person as far as he was concerned.

Daniel is just a waste of a person, Frank thought as he tried to focus on his work. I don’t know what he is planning but I’m going to find out and if I can I’m going to stop you.

Daniel made his way back to Miss Williams classroom. Steve was sitting in one of the little plastic and metal chairs used in elementary school class rooms and Miss Williams was at her desk grading papers and trying to update her lesson plans at the same time.

“Hey Daniel,” Miss Williams said without looking up from her papers.

“Hey Miss Williams,” He answered as he plopped down next to Steve. “Did I miss anything?”

“No they captured some humans and they are being nice and fattening them up with a bunch of cake,” said Steve his eyes glued to the television. “Bet you twenty dollars they eat them.”

“Maybe but that seems kind of obvious,” said Daniel. “I would try and think of something a little more original.”

They watched as one of the sea monsters from Jupiter took a bite out of one of the captives with a horrible crunch.

“I guess I was wrong,” said Daniel.

“Hey what took you so long anyway? I thought you were just going to your room,” said Steve.

“I did, but Frank was in the room,” answered Daniel.

“Oh that explains it. Wait check this out here comes another one,” Steve said pointing to the screen as another human became another monster’s main course.

“I wonder why that guy hates me so much?” said Daniel. “I didn’t do anything to him.”

“Who haven’t you done something to?” asked Steve. “I mean there can’t be that many kids here that actually like you that much.”

“I guess you have a point,” said Daniel.

The movie ended after awhile and Miss Williams was done with their work. They said goodbye to each other. Daniel and Steve just stood in the hallway leaning against separate walls and staring at each other.

“Well I’m bored,” said Daniel with his hands behind his head.

“I don’t like the sound of that. I know what happens when you’re bored,” said Steve in a worried tone.

“Don’t worry about it I’m not going to do anything to bad,” said Daniel reassuringly. “Besides it’s still a couple days until the weekend. I need something to kill some time. All I need is a side project while I wait for the weekend.”

“I thought you would say something like that,” said Steve. “Just keep me out of it. I don’t want to get into any trouble.’

“Oh come on you know you want to,” said Daniel. “Besides it’s not like you have anything to do.”

“I’ve got studying I have to do and you should probably do some yourself,” said Steve.

“What for? I’m going to be out of here in a week in everything goes as planned,” said Daniel. “Why don’t you help me with just this one. I want you to help me with my last prank here.”

“Well if you put it that way I guess I could help but I’ll just help with the planning and materials I don’t want to directly participate,” said Steve.

“Fine,” replied Daniel.

“So what do you have in mind?” asked Steve.

“Oh you’ll find out,” said Daniel with a sinister grin.

Chapter Seven: Miss Williams

Daniel and Steve sat in the old classroom lined with televisions and video players. The light from the TV bathed them in blue light as they enjoyed their favorite pastime aside from Daniels pranks. They had started watching old science fiction and horror movies when they first met. It was probably one of the only things that Daniel had introduced to Steve that he liked just as much as Daniel.

“Look you can see the strings,” Steve laughed. “It looks like a bad sock puppet with some Barbie dolls.”

“Yeah you’re right,” Daniel agreed.

Both were lying on the floor with their feet propped up on a pair of desks when the lights flipped on.

“What are you two doing in here?” asked a tall woman wearing a gray skirt and sweater.

“We were just watching some old movies Miss Williams,” answered Steve.

Miss Eleanor Williams was probably one of the younger teachers at the orphanage. Unlike other members of the faculty she was just a teacher and nothing more but she worked long hours at the school because she could never get her lesson plans done at her home. She also unlike other members of the faculty liked Daniel, and of course she like Steve all the teachers did because he was polite, courteous and studied hard but she never lectured him for being friends with Daniel.

“I figured as much,” said Miss Williams. “I was wondering if I could drag you away from ‘Space Pirates from Venus’ long enough to help me with something.”

Miss Williams was probably the only teacher that Daniel would listen to. Daniel liked her because she was different than the other teachers meaning she wasn’t an evil bitch. Miss Williams was also very cute and he had a little bit of a crush on her but he wasn’t silly enough to think that anything would actually happen. She probably would have been married already if it wasn’t for the plain clothes she wore and the way she shyly rushed around outside off the school. It’s hard to notice how good looking and nice a person is when all you see is a plain streak rushing by you.

“I just need you guys to sort some papers of mine,” said Miss Williams. “I’m making some work booklets for my third graders and it would go a lot faster if I had a little help.”

“Sure we’ll help,” said Daniel as Steve nodded his head.

Daniel slung his pack over his back and followed Steve and Miss Williams out of the room and down the hallway.

“So what is the pack for?” asked Miss Williams. “It looks like you are about to go on a camping trip or something, or maybe you are trying to run away.”

Steve suddenly had a shocked look on her face but Daniel chimed in before Steve could say anything stupid.

“No I’m just learning some boy scout stuff from Steve,” said Daniel. “I though I might like all that outdoor stuff.”

“Oh that sounds like fun. I bet you would really enjoy that,” said Miss Williams laughing a little bit to herself.

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. He knew just like Daniel that he was never a very good liar and if anyone was going to see through him it was going to be Miss Williams.

“Ok, we’re here,” Miss Williams said flinging her classroom door open.

“You have got to be kidding,” said Daniel and Steve in unison.

Miss Williams classroom was covered in papers. On the desks, carpet, shelves, lamps, chairs, television, computer, closet, cupboards, refrigerator, microwave, bookshelf, easels, and craft tables. There were even some papers hanging from little strings suspended from the ceiling.

“Well I just need them to be collated,” said Miss Williams. “It won’t take long if we work together.”

“And by not taking long you mean the rest of the week?” asked Daniel.

“Don’t be so negative it won’t take that long,” said Miss Williams.

For the rest of the day, they all rushed around the room sorting the papers and getting them all in order. They made a kind of assembly line by walking along the papers and one after the other grabbing a page for each booklet and then finally stapling them together.

It didn’t take all week though like Daniel had predicted. It didn’t even take all day, but it did take a few hours.

“See that wasn’t that bad. We’re all done,” said Miss Williams cheerfully.

“Yeah sure,” said Daniel and Steve in unison breathing hard and looking ragged.

“Well I think you guys did a good job and to reward you I’ll let you watch your movies in here while I finish up the rest of my lesson plans,” said Miss Williams. “I could use the company and you guys won’t get in trouble if I’m watching you.”

“What do you say Steve? We haven’t finished ‘The Killer Sea Monster from Jupiter,’” said Daniel.

“Sure,” answered Steve.

“We’ll be right back,” said Steve and with that Daniel and Steve left the room.

“I have to ditch this gear,” said Daniel. “ I can’t just keep carrying it around like this. I’ll go to my room and hide this stuff and I’ll meet you back in Miss Williams room.”

“I got it,” said Steve.

With that both the boys split ways. One heading toward the audio visual room and the other headed toward the dormitories.

“Hey Daniel!,” yelled Steve from down the hall.

“What?!” Daniel yelled back.

“You like Miss Williams, you like Miss Williams,” taunted Steve.

“Shut the hell up!” Daniel yelled back.

“Yeah who is going to make me?” asked Steve.

“Just go get the damn tape you little freak or I’ll tell everyone you like Jenny Samson,” threatened Daniel.

With that Steve shut up and turned to go down the hall and then suddenly turned and said “Asshole” and than continued on his way.

Chapter six: Fear of abandonment

Steve burst into Daniel’s room a few minutes after he had arrived.

“What took you so long?” Daniel asked.

“Mr. Roberts took forever. He went over about a hundred ways to start a fire,” he said huffing and puffing. “I just couldn't get him to shut up.”

“It doesn’t matter where is this shed,” said Daniel.

Steve had his hands on his knees and was bent over trying to catch his breath. Instead of saying anything to Daniel he just motioned for him to follow him. Daniel followed Steve to the end of the football field under the bleachers to where a metal shed was half hidden from view.

“There is just about everything you will need in here,” said Steve as he unlocked the door and swung it open.

A cloud of dust escaped from the shed covering Daniel and Steve.

“(Cough cough) When is the last time you guys used this stuff?” wheezed Daniel.

“I guess it was (cough) a couple of years (cough) ago,” answered Steve.

Daniel stepped in and looked around at the contents of the shed. One side of the shed was covered with sleeping bags. All were rolled up and stacked like cord wood against the wall. On the other side were military style packs. They were faded green and had metal pack frames to help distribute the weight. There were also shelves that held a multitude of canteens, gloves, hats, lanterns, cooking utensils and other miscellaneous items. All of which were covered in a layer of dust.

“Well I guess I’ll just take what I think I’ll need,” said Daniel as he grabbed a pack from the pile.

He went from shelf to shelf and pile to pile looking at different items, stopping to look at shovels picking one up and then putting it back, looking at a flashlight and stuffing miscellaneous items into his pack. Meanwhile Steve ran around and grabbed all the essentials that Daniel was sure to forget such as an emergency blanket, snake bite kit and a first aide kit.

“If I wasn’t here to pick some stuff out for you you’d probably forget to even get things to cook with,” said Steve.

“Oh yeah I forgot about food. Where are the pots and pans?” Daniel asked.

Steve handed him a stainless steel mess kit including a fork, spoon and knife that all snugly fit together.

“Are you really going to leave?” asked Steve as he watched Daniel pack his bag.

“Of course I am you know how much I hate this place,” said Daniel. “Besides there isn’t anything for me here.”

“I just don’t see why you have to leave now,” said Steve.

“Now is as good a time as any,” answered Daniel.

Steve walked to the other side of the shed and pretended to fiddle with a lantern.

“I don’t even know why I’m helping you leave,” Steve said with a sigh. “I mean I’m only helping you abandon me.”

Daniel stopped packing and looked up at Steve.

“I’m not abandoning you. I just can’t stand it here anymore,” said Daniel. “I hate the kids, I hate the faculty and I hate this place. Now is my chance to leave.”

“But you are abandoning me,” said Steve as he turned around to face Daniel. “If you leave who is going to stick up for me. No one else likes me everyone just thinks I’m a dork. You’re the only one who as ever looked out for me. What am I supposed to do when your gone? Go live in a hole or something.”

Tears started to well up in Steve’s eyes but he fought them back. He didn’t want Daniel to leave he was the only friend he ever had.

“Why don’t you come with me?” said Daniel. “We could leave together just the two of us.”

“No I can’t!” said Steve. “I’m not like you. I’ve worked really hard to get good grades. I want to go to college and make something of myself.”

Daniel stood up and walked across to Steve putting his hand on his shoulder and looked him square in the eye.

“I want to make something of myself too,” said Daniel. “But I’m not like you either. I don’t have the good grades or the book smarts like you do. If I’m going to make something of myself I have to take drastic measures and doing something like this is going to be my first step on the road to something greater. I just know it. I don’t know what but I’ll know it when I see it.”

“I just don’t want you to leave man,” Steve said.

“I know you don’t, but I have to do this,” said Daniel. “Don’t worry I’ll write you when I can. I'll write down a different name or something and you can say you have a pen pal or something. Besides I’ll probably have some problems and I’ll need to keep in contact with you.”

“I guess that’s true,” said Steve. “You are kind of an idiot sometimes. Well maybe all the time but your not totally bad.”

“Oh thanks,” Daniel said sarcastically.

“So what do we do next?” asked Steve as he wiped his face with his sleeve.

“Well I’ll stash this place somewhere in my room or something and we'll just have to wait for the weekend before we can plan anymore.”

“What do you want to do in the meantime?” asked Steve.

“We could break into the audio visual room and watch movies,” said Daniel.

“Ok, sounds good to me,” Steve agreed.

Daniel and Steve left the shed locked it behind them and made their way to the main building.

“Do you think anyone will ask why you have a bunch of camping equipment?” said Steve.

“Nope if you act like something belongs to you everyone usually assumes that it does,” answered Daniel.

“So we’re going to watch ‘Corpse killers from Venus’ right,” said Daniel.

“I thought we would watch ‘Attack of the killer slugs,’” replied Steve.