No rest for trouble

Chapter 1

It was 3:57 PM. The air was a little bit cool. Nearly all of the students have gone home. A small number of students have stayed at North Eastern Bear Middle School, participating in the after-school programs. There was the cycling club, and even the school chess club was in session. The small school was located near the north eastern area of the city. The cyclists got out of the school to unlock their bikes. They were parked next to the front door of the school. It was only a week before the first day of June. The gym teacher was carrying his bike out of the school. He only brought it when the cycling club was in session. "All right bicyclers. We got a nice trail to ride on." The gym teacher said as he was ready to go to the trail at a nearby park. The school front doors opened again. Two students came out of the building. A boy and a girl. The principal stopped at the front door. He wore a navy-blue suit and a dark green striped tie. He had a bald head and a unibrow. He was not happy.

"Don't forget that you will have two weeks of detention ahead of you. I have called your parents about the issue. They are expecting you two. One more stunt, and you two will get suspended for the rest of the school year." He slammed the school doors shut. The boy's name is Mark. He was a little slim. He wore a purple baseball cap with its front turned backwards. The hat covered his blond hair. Half of his hair was dyed half orange on the left side. He wore a light gray tank top. He had baggy black pants, and white shoes. He was carrying his backpack with one of his shoulders. Mark likes to call himself Marxes. He is 12 years old and is in the seventh grade. The girl is called Grace. She is one year older than Marxes. She is also in the seventh grade. She has black hair that went till halfway down her back. Half of her hair is tied up in a ponytail. She also had an earring in her right ear. She was wearing white baggy pants and a red tank top with an orange bandana holding the ponytail together. The two youths were in trouble. Marxes was caught nearly skipping a whole class after lunch. He used his scooter to buy a ham sandwich at the nearest convenience store. He took his time eating his sandwich. By the time he got back to the school, it was about ten minutes before his class was about to end. This wasn't the first time this happened. He had been doing this for nearly two weeks. The school rules forbid anybody in fifth, sixth or seventh grade from going anywhere off the school property during lunch time. The students are supposed to bring their own lunch. Grace was in detention because she got into a fight with another student named Holly. Holly loves attention. She likes to brag about herself. Holly was bragging and made an insult about Grace. The two girls got into a fight. Holly got a black eye. Grace got into the principal's office. She didn't go into her other classes for the day. Grace stayed in the principal's office. She even spent one whole hour in detention with Marxes. Grace and Marxes were carrying their scooters to the sidewalk.

They set them down and got on them. "Do you want to go to school tomorrow?" Marxes asked her. Grace shook her head. "That loser got what she deserved. Now the principal expects me to apologize to her. Forget that! I shouldn't come tomorrow." She protested as she started to roll down the sidewalk. Marxes rode his scooter down the sidewalk to the nearest intersection. The roads that intersect here is called Red street and Mile drive. It was a four way. He stopped at the intersection where Grace crossed the road without looking both ways. A silver car was about to cross the intersection. Grace surprised the driver as she zoomed across. The driver honked her horn. Grace was at the other side. She turned around and showed her tongue to the driver. The driver rolled down the window. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" She yelled. The driver sped through the intersection. As the car went across, Marxes crossed the road without looking both ways. He got to the other side, just in time to see a car stop at the intersection. Grace went down the sidewalk, parallel to Mile road going left. Marxes followed her. He tried to catch up. She stopped at another intersection. Marxes pounded his right foot on the ground, as it pushed his scooter forward. "Grace wait up!" He yelled. "Why don't you catch me you slow poke?!" Grace queried as she pushed her scooter down the sidewalk. She had a smile on her face, while gliding on the sidewalk. She approached another intersection. This intersection was another four way. Madison road was the road that meets Mile drive. Grace got to the intersection she turned left without looking both ways. She glided until she was on the road heading left. She got off her scooter and got onto the grass. There was no sidewalk on this street. Marxes was close to where the sidewalk meets the road next to the intersection. A blue car stopped at the intersection. Marxes' scooter touched the road. He turned left, but he didn't look both ways. The driver of that car shook his head as he saw Marxes going on Madison road.

The two friends walked the rest of the way down the street. "Do you want to walk instead of going home?" Marxes asked as he carried his scooter. "Yeah, besides I need to calm down. That Holly is driving me crazy. I so love to have her not make fun of me." Grace said as she walked on the grass. "She loves to brag in front of everybody. I think the principal believes her more than you." Marxes remarked. Grace's face slowly turned red. Their houses were not located on Madison road. They were further down on Mile drive. "Do you think our parents are going to ground us? I mean really. I didn't have a lunch today." Marxes spoke as he looked at the houses across the street. "I pack my own lunch you know. Maybe you should make it yourself." Grace told him as she looked at the trees while she walked with her scooter. "I don't think so. Besides, I don't want to be late for school." Marxes replied in her face. Grace about to shout at him. "I also love to cause trouble. If we don't show up at home right away, then maybe our parents would forget that the phone call from the principal didn't happen. I thought my mom is supposed to pack my lunch for me." Marxes thought as he took four steps away from Grace. "Same with me. My parents say that I'm a troublemaker too. Most of the trouble I do is at home. I also like that attention now and then." She said as she turned around. Marxes smiled. "So, are we going to walk the long way home? I looked at a city map. This way should be longer than going down that other street." "Are you sure? And when did you have the time to look at a city map?" "Yes, I'm sure. I actually looked at a map of the city inside the school library. When I was helping the janitor to clean it up." Marxes elucidated with a smile. "Somehow, I don't buy that." Grace said, seeing how he was lying. "I actually stole a map from the school library. It happened when my class visited the library. I looked at it once when I was having a roast beef sandwich from the convenience store." He explained. "Did you wreck it? The librarian is going to be really mad when she finds out that you wrecked that map." Grace divulged "No sweat. I didn't leave a stain on it. The principal got mad at me for being late. I returned the map during my next library visit. I left it on top of a few books on a shelf." Marxes assured as he stood on the grass. "Wow talk about a close call. That librarian must have been happy to have her map back." Grace implied as she walked away from him. Marxes quickly caught up with her. "I actually discovered something on that map." He conveyed while grinning.

"What?" Grace questioned. Marxes passed her and said, "Follow me, we should go and check this place out." Marxes put his scooter on the ground and began to roll on the pavement. He slowly sped up. Grace dropped her scooter on the road and began to follow him. They rode past some parked cars. Marxes quickly crossed the three way up ahead without looking in both directions. "Watch where you're going!" A city crewmember shouted out to him. He and two other employees were clearing some brush away from the street sign. A tree's branch has grown quickly and has covered the street sign. Grace stopped at the three way. She looked both ways. Grace hurried across the road. The city workers cleared off a few small branches away from the tree. Grace got her scooter on the sidewalk pavement. Marxes was riding his scooter to the right side down the road. Grace sped up to catch up with him. There were some branches that lay on peoples' lawns and twigs lay on the sidewalk. Marxes stopped after a while. He was standing next to an area that was cleared of the trees and the tall bushes. Grace stopped and looked around. "It's about time that the city started to clear away these trees."Marxes said while looking around. "This is wood they are going to be using for a bonfire. I sure like to burn it myself." Grace assumed. "This is the place I found on the map. Take a look." Marxes told her. Grace looked and saw an iron fence and gate. The iron gate had some sharp ends on the top. They noticed a small excavator in the area of grass. There were also some big holes dug out. There were four tombstones made out of wood. There were two tombstones already in a small pile next to the gate. "What is this place?" Grace wondered. "Can't you read the sign?" Marxes grilled, pointing upwards. A metal sign was constructed above the iron gate. Half of it was rusted away. The sign read "Quiet street cemetery". "Who would want to build a cemetery out here?" Grace queried. "I don't know. I guess I could look it up in the library back at school." Marxes said as he looked around. "Do you think that we could ride that excavator?" Grace asked. "Not if the workers catch us. We could come here instead of going to school. That is if you're a chicken." Marxes said. "You're on." Grace said as she rode away on her scooter.