Strolson Twins

Chapter XXIII (Finding the Manhole)

Alex's POV

Date: December 21, 20??

Three dangerous hours after The skateboarding/head bonking incident......

We were sitting in a circle. (Order: Asher, Alex, Lexi, Yuliet, Danny, Ashley) Correction, a circular formation. These people simply can NOT form a proper circle. Apparently the ovalish hot dog figure has always been a tradition among these North Dakotans. These very German North Dakotans. Nor Dakotah, ya?

Me and Danny were locked in epic battle.

And I was not going to blink first.

Danny was going down.

I totally lost.

Where did that kid learn to stare like that?

"Breanna," Lexi's voice came suddenly, pulling me out of my silent sulking.

"Who?" asked Asher, "Wha?"

She's a mind reader! I looked at her in complete, utterly dumbfounded shock.

She shrugged, "You looked befuddled."

Asher looked from me to Lexi, apparently also in befuddlement, "Wha?"

"Befuddled. It's a legit thing," Ashley chimed in.

Asher looked at me, to Lexi, to Ashley, then to me again. In befuddlement.

We cracked up.

When the laughter finally settled, somebody spoke up behind us.

"What are you people doing?"

I looked up, seeing a girl with shoulder length curly, black hair. She had blue-grey eyes and a chiseled nose.

"Nothing, Breanna," the 'Monstrous Trio' said in perfect unison. (Really, it's L, Z, and S. But it fits.)

How many years do you a have to spend together to answer questions like that?

"Eleven," they said.

I nearly crapped. I stared at them in shock.

They simply shrugged in symphony.

Breanna plopped onto the ground of the living room, between Yuliet (got her name right) and Ashley. She looked around then asked, "Where's Cole and Bethany?"

Danny's eyes widened in...shock, was it?

"I'll go find them," he said, getting up and walking away.

"You do that," Yuliet said.

"Who's Bethany?" Asher asked, not having met the girl yet.

"Wellllll..... Honestly we think Bethany is Danny's future wife, but do NOT say that to either of their faces or... You know what? Go ahead. I dare you. I need a good laugh," said Yuliet (No joke. Her words.)

"That didn't answer my question in the least bit," Asher said, his brows wrinkled in befuddlement.

"Short hair. Yay tall. Smart. Brown eyed. Tomboy."

"That wasn't much help either."

"You'll just have to see her," said Ashley, taking pity on my brother and patting his arm.

Danny and a girl walked back in. Judging by Yuliet's description, she was Bethany. To be honest, her description was pretty much spot on. Minus the part were she left out the color of Bethany's hair.

It was brown.

And she may have been shorter then Yulie. It was hard to tell.

"Where's Cole?" I asked, wondering if he got lost in this house. Hard to do, but likely.

"I have no clue," said Danny, sitting down next to Yuliet, Bethany dropping down beside him.

Meanwhile, Lexi and Ashley thought up a game to play.

"Duck, duck, duck, duck..."

_____________

"GOOSE!" Asher shouted, hitting me as hard as he could on the head.

"This is sooo stupid," I complained.

"If you don't chase after him, you lose," said Danny.

I jumped to my feet.

In order to make the game harder, you had to run through the whole house.

I didn't even come close to catching Asher. But, after hitting Danny upside the head, I was able to get back into the circle.

That's right.

We're playing Duck, Duck, Goose.

Like a Boss.

____about four minutes later_____

"Let's bake a cake!" shouted Yuliet, "I'm bored."

Lexi looked at Yuliet in distrust, "Remember that one time you baked a cake for the cake walk?"

Yuliet threw her hands into the air, "It was one time! Once!" she shouted.

"I no longer have faith in your cake skills."

"Fine," she pouted, "You bake a cake, and I'll organize a search party."

"For who?" Asher asked.

"Cole."

"Who?"

__________

"Okay, so the teams are Asher and Ashley, Lexi, Alex and me, and Danny and Bethany," Yuliet said, "Let's split up and search for clues."

(I'm just rolling in the cartoon references)

Asher and Ashley hopped into the Camaro, Lexi opened the passenger side, where Ashley sat, handing her a large chocolate cake.

They drove away.

Danny and Bethany got into a blue Dodge pickup. As they drove away, I noted the picture of a dog in the back window.

Yuliet and Lexi climbed into a white Cadillac. Thinking quickly, I also got into the Cadillac. We pulled out of Lexi's yard and headed in a random direction until we turned. Then we headed in another, different random direction. Then we turned on a highway. We went straight, until we turned. We went through what I thought was a Main Street, then turned again. We turned one last time onto a highway labeled: 281. We headed in what Yuliet dubbed "south".

"Do you seriously think that he walked all the way to Aberdeen?" Lexi asked.

"It's Cole, it's possible," Yuliet responded.

"Possible, but not probable."

"Yes, yes," she waved her friend off.

______________

Asher's POV

"Where the fuck are we?"

_____________

Alex's POV

"Well, we made it all the way to Fredrick, and he's hasn't shown up yet, he's most likely not here," Lexi said, looking around wildly.

Then, a lone hand popped up from one of the holes in the road.

"Sweet Mother Fucking Daughter of Zeus!" Yuliet shrieked and slammed on the brakes.

I jerked in my seat, silently thanking anything and everything for seat belts.

"Did ja hit it?" Lexi asked, not shaken at all by the fact that we almost ran over a amputated limb.

"I hope not!" she yelled, "That was Cole's arm!"

"How the hell do you know whose arm it is?" I asked, slightly weirded out.