Caged In

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

            The next day, the old man walked downstairs to give everyone breakfast. After he had handed out the usual cereal, a big blur of green passed Alyce’s face. The man had opened the cage door and thrown in clothes for Alyce to wear. She had never received any clothes after she was kidnapped, so she had been wearing her pajamas the entire time.

            After the man had left, Alyce grabbed the green shirt. “Guys. He may not know my size, but couldn’t he at least know that I’m not a men’s extra large?” she complained as she read the tag on the plain, green shirt.

            “You would think,” Skye laughed. “It’s a good thing he took me during the day.”

            “Yeah. Well, he gave me clothes almost right when I came in,” Slate said.

            Alyce grabbed the gray sweatpants. “Well, these look like they’d fit.” Alyce pushed the button on her cage.

            About two minutes later, the old man came down and let Alyce out. She came back about five minutes later, wearing the baggy, green shirt and the gray sweatpants that did, in fact, fit her like a glove. The man locked back Alyce’s cage and left. “Well doesn’t this look lovely?”

            “I think you look fine,” Blake said. “I-I mean-”

            Alyce smiled. “Thanks.”

            Blake, looking relieved, smiled back.

            “Well, at least it’s comfortable,” Alyce sighed.

            “Yeah. If I’d known I was going to be kidnapped for the rest of my life the day I wore this, I’d have worn sweatpants, too,” Skye said.

            “Well he gave me normal clothes,” Slate smiled, looking proud. Not long after, he felt a sharp pain on his arm, and turned to see that Skye had slapped him. “Hey! What was that for?”

            “For being you,” Skye said.

            “Yeah, well I tend to do that a lot.”

            “I know,” Skye said as she slapped him again.

The next hour or so, Alyce was thinking of ways to escape. “Guys, I got it!” she shouted.

            “Got what?” Slate asked.

            “I know how we can get out.”

            “Seriously?” Skye asked.

            “Yes. Okay, here’s what we do. When he comes down here with our lunch, we all start complaining or start being annoying in general. Then-”

            Skye blurted, “Looks like Slate would be great at this plan.”

            “Hey!” Slate exclaimed.

            Alyce continued. “Anyways, then he gets really annoyed and lets us out. Problem solved,” Alyce smiled.

            There was a long pause. Suddenly, Slate burst out laughing. “Yeah, right. If we all were loud and annoying, he’d kill us before he ever let us out of here.”

            “Slate’s right,” Blake said.

            Alyce sighed. “You’re right. Dang it, Slate. Ruin it for me, will you?”

            “Hey, would you rather die?”

            Alyce paused and thought it over. “Now that I think about it, thanks, Slate!”

            “No problem,” Slate said. “Just used my brain, that’s all."

“Wow, Slate. So you really do have a brain up there?” Skye said.

            “Hey, I can be smart when I want to be.”

            “Okay. So what does it mean to be irate?” Skye said as she crossed her arms.

            “It means to be...proper. Yeah, that’s it.”

            “No, actually. It means to be angry.”

            “Well, that was a stupid test. How do you know that I didn’t want to be smart?”

            “Oh, I know.”

            “Hey!” Slate exclaimed on cue.