Strange Worlds [Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children] Enoch O'Connor

two

CHAPTER TWO
DEATH OF A PECULIAR

Ten minutes after the phone call had ended, we heard the loud honk unmistakable from his old Crown Victoria from the parking lot. On the way out, we were forced to break the bad news to Shelly, who still stood around the pool of Neverleak adult diapers.

"Family emergency." We explained.

"Right," she said.

We left the drug store and entered the sticky-hot evening to see Ricky smoking on the hood of his broken car. I cringed at the sight of the curling smoke coming from his lips. His breath always smelled so foul. But nobody could help but think him a punk, the way he leant on the hood of his car with his mud-encrusted shoes and the smoke and let's. Not to forget his hair. It all just made him so.

He saw the both of us and lept off the hood with a slight smirk. "You guys fired yet?" He shouted across the parking lot for all to hear.

"Shhhh!" Jacob hissed at him and ran towards the redneck James Dean look-alike. "They don't know our plan!"

Ricky punched his shoulder in a friendly joking matter, but I winced as his fist made contact with my brother as his punches were enough to snap his rotator cuff. "Don't worry, Special Ed. There's always tomorrow." Ricky looked up and smirked as his eyes landed on mine. "You coming, princess?"

I had only just realised that I had paused in the middle of the parking lot as Jacob turned and waved me forward. Man, I'm not too fond of Ricky. He'd never miss a chance to flirt with me or make innuendos that made both Jacob and me very uncomfortable.

Ricky kicked Crown Victoria's passenger door as that was the only way to open the old jammed door. I climbed in back and took my spot in the back seats while Jacob sat in the passenger seat and waited for Ricky to bring the car to life. Ricky had bought the car from the town dump with a jar of quarters.

The car smelt worse than Ricky. He reeked of old food and tobacco while the vehicle smelled of something rotten, an odour that couldn't be rid of no matter how many forest air-fresheners he'd hung from the mirror. The seats were covered in tape from all the rips the soft fabric gained over the years of not being cared for, and the exterior was rusted and covered with holes and dents.