No rest for trouble

Chapter 2

"Why would there be a graveyard out here?" Grace questioned as she looked over the area. "I don't know. Come on, I don't want my dinner to get cold." Marxes responded as he rode his scooter on the pavement. For a while he was riding the scooter in the middle of the road. Grace followed behind him. "Don't forget about me." Grace pleaded as she rolled down the street with her scooter. They arrived at home ten minutes after six. Marxes and Grace both went into their homes. They were also neighbors. Marxes' father and mother looked at him with angry faces. "What did you did at school?!" The parents of both youths asked them. "Nothing much." Both youths answered. "Why didn't you pack your own lunch? Be more responsible!" Marxes' mother yelled at him. "The sandwiches at that convenience store are so much tasty." Marxes answered. "Really Mark! Why don't you take more responsibility for yourself!" His mother shouted at him as he put his backpack and scooter away. He came back to the dinner table.

"Why did you fight that other girl?" Grace's father asked her. "She insulted me! She deserved that black eye! I'm not going to apologize to that rat!" Grace talked back. "You should apologize to her. With all that trouble that you cause at home, and now you cause problems at you own school?! Now we are considering sending you to a better school. One that will make you behave your best." Her mother snapped. "Now go and put your stuff away. You're not allowed to do anything on the weekend. Not only you're grounded, but you don't get to do anything during the weekend!" Her father added, shouting away. Grace groaned and put her backpack and her scooter in her room. "We should give your scooter away. We should even ground you forever!" Her father shouted. "Like that would even happen!" Grace yelled back. "Not only we're going to ground you, but you're on a curfew." Her mother said. Grace threw her stuff into her room and stomped back to the dining room. She even pouted while eating her dinner. Tears fell out of her eyes and landed on the table. "No pouting!" Her father screamed to her. Her mother even shook her head. Marxes parents were also as disappointed too. "Maybe we should send you to school that teaches you to prepare your own sandwiches. You're not a baby anymore." His mother told him. Halfway through the meal, "Hey, I'm still a kid you know." Marxes said as he was about to pick his cup up. "You should be more responsible son! Maybe we should get you to watch cooking shows. Then the professional chefs will show you how to make a healthy lunch." His father commented before picking up a piece of butter chicken. His dad also enjoyed eating butter chicken. It was one of his favorite dishes to make.

Grace ate a piece of hot beef sandwich that her parents made. The parents watched their kids as they ate through the whole meal. The parents gave a slice of fruit cake to Marxes. This kind of cake flavor was his dad's favorite. Grace ate a slice of cheesecake for her dessert. "When you get to your room..." Marxes father began. "I want you to work on the homework that you have." Grace's mother finished. "If you don't," Her father added. "We will consider transferring you to a different school." Marxes' mother said. "I sure will like to see you back at school, working on your homework only during recess." The parents of both youths said to them. Marxes went to his room. He felt that he had heard enough. Same with Grace. She quietly groaned as she walked to her room. Marxes took his time while working on his homework for the day. His parents watched television while he worked. Grace's parents were discussing what should they do after Grace went into her room. She slammed the door as she worked on one page of her homework. She heard footsteps coming. Her mother flung the door to her bedroom wide open. "You should be working on your homework right now." She shouted. "No way!" Grace snapped as immediately stood up. She went to confront her mother, but she stood in the doorway. "I'm going to be making sure that you will get all of your homework done. I'm only going to move from your doorway when you get it all done." She said, crossing her arms. Grace was getting mad still. After two seconds she went to get her backpack. Grace took out all of the school homework she had and started to work on it. Her mother was making sure that she was doing it. Grace tried to cover her arms in front of her schoolwork. "Take them away from the binder. I want to see you giving out the right answers." Her mother said sternly. Marxes slowly finished three pages of his homework. He only had two pages left to go. After finishing his work, he took a shower and went to bed. Grace felt pressured with her mother watching her work away. After she finished working, Grace went to take a shower and went to bed. She had a nightmare about Holly. She was insulting Grace. Grace felt that Holly was bullying her, so she went to punch her. Holly suddenly turned into a monster. Her skin turned into a gray color and became more like a lizard. A forked shaped tongue poked out of her mouth. Holly began to make a hissing sound.

"How dare you hurt me!" Holly scolded as her clothes melted into her skin. Holly also grew. She was now a giant serpent. "You will pay Grace!" The gray serpent said as it lunged at her. Grace turned around and ran away. "Get away from me!" Grace yelled. The gray serpent slithered after her. Grace suddenly woke up. It was time to get ready. Marxes didn't dream at all. His alarm clock went off. He got up and went to the dinner table. There where he usually sits, Marxes found a letter from his parents while they were serving buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup. The note says "Prepare your own lunch! Make your own sandwich!". Marxes went to the kitchen counter to get his breakfast. "Today, we expect you to make your own sandwich Mark. We are watching you!" His father warned him. "We want you to apologize to that girl you got into a fight with at school." Grace's mother said with a calm yet strict tone of voice. Grace frowned for a second and then went eat her French toast breakfast. Maple syrup covered his entire meal. After breakfast, Marxes got himself ready. He went into the kitchen and went to make his lunch. Grace went to make her own lunch to. After packing up their lunches, the two youths got went outside. "Have a nice day!" The parents said cheerfully to Marxes and Grace. Grace was wearing a pair of jeans with a hole on the right pant leg. She was also wearing a white T-shirt. Marxes was wearing a gray hoody with baggy gray pants. The two friends met up next to the closest intersection. "Do you still want to go to school today?" Marxes asked Grace. She shook her head. "No way! I just want Holly to forget that the fighting ever happened. I don't want to apologize to her. She should apologize to me first. Holly did start the fight." Grace reasoned. "So, do you want to take the long way to get to school?" Marxes queried as he went down the road to the old cemetery. Grace said "Sure, it will be nice to see this cemetery again." The two friends went to the cemetery. The demolition crew was ready to dig up another grave. The excavator operator slowly excavated the ground. A wooden gravestone was pulled out of the ground. It now laid with the other wooden gravestones in a pile.

The friends watched as the workers carried a coffin out from the ground. A Hearst was waiting for the workers to carry the old wooden coffin into the back. Marxes had an idea. He rolled up towards the workers on his scooter. "Excuse me, what are you doing with that coffin?" he asked them. "Don't worry about it lad. We're transferring to another graveyard." One of the workers said as he written something on a yellow post it note. The note was then put on the old wooden coffin. The wood was weak. The demolition workers safely put the whole coffin in the back of the vehicle. Marxes rode along on his scooter. He hid behind a house around the corner. The demolition workers stopped working. They locked up the gate to the cemetery and went to have a break. The mini excavator was left at the sight of the old cemetery. Grace walked along and stopped next to the locked-up gate. She waited for Marxes to come out of the corner. He rolled across the street with his scooter. Marxes didn't stop until he was close to the cemetery gate. "So, do you think we should have a little bit of fun before heading to school in the afternoon?" Marxes asked her. "Yes, I'm sure the workers won't mind if we have a look around. I hope Holly won't be at school today." Grace said as she climbed over the old gate. She left her backpack and scooter leaning on the fence nearby. Marxes did the same. The two friends looked around. Marxes ran for the excavator. He got into the operator's seat. The key to starting up the mini excavator was nowhere to be found. Grace slowly looked at each of the remaining gravestones. She tried to look at the name of the person on one gravestone. It was hard to find the name. She thought that the name would be carved or burned into the wood. There was no name she could find on any of the gravestone. "Do any of these people have names?" She questioned herself. "What are you looking at?" Marxes queried, nearly shouting. "Quiet!" Grace said, shushing to Marxes beforehand. "We don't want anybody to know that we're here. Take a look." She whispered. Grace pointed at the gravestone with a whisper. Marxes looked at it. "Where's the writing on it?" He pumped. "I don't know." Grace answered. Marxes was not impressed with the gravestone. He leaned on one side. The gravestone was tilted towards the left.