Walrus Chain (Walrus Hut Series Book 3)

Chapter 4 (Mitchell)

When I arrive at my house, I realize that I have a staff meeting tonight. I groan and call my mom.

"Hello?" She answers.

"Did you make any plans for Liam tonight that involve me?" I ask her.

"Well, I'm working late tonight, and your dad has a meeting, so you and Evening are going to have to entertain him."

"But we have a staff meeting!" I exclaim.

"You'll have to take him with you." She says.

"But Mom!" I protest, and she hangs up on me. Evening walks into my room.

"Why isn't the Netflix in the study working? Someone or something is using it in the living room," She declares to me.

"Probably Liam," I tell her, and we rush over to the living room. Sure enough, Liam is watching some dumb show that I can't identify.

"Which of you watches Greenhouse Academy?" He asks us. How dare he browse through my recently watched!

"Quit snooping through my Netflix," I say bravely, and he completely ignores me!

"I guess I'll just rewatch some American Idol episodes." Evening says, sighing, and stomps out of the room.

"So, how long are you staying here?" I casually ask Liam.

"Until the middle of August," he replies. This is going to be a long summer.

                                                                         ***

As soon as we arrive at Walrus Pizza, Ryan approaches me.

"Dude! Some serious stuff went down earlier," he tells me.

"What happened?" Asks Evening.

"Run along, Evening. The adults are talking," I instruct her.

"I'm sixteen, Mitchell! Sixteen!" She responds.

"Exactly. Not a legal adult," I say, and she groans and leaves us alone. She is probably looking for her little friends.

"Ryan, you were saying?" I remind him.

"Oh yeah! So anyway, Garfield dissed Lilla! And she didn't do anything about it! She's stayed very calm, like scary calm." He says to me.

"Maybe she's finally learned self-control," I suggest, but Ryan shakes his head.

"No, she'll get her revenge. Just you wait,"

"Okay. But I don't really care," I reply and turn my head to see Mr. Hayes tapping a microphone.

"Everyone, please take a seat. I have an important announcement to make."

Ugh. Staff meetings are so boring. I grab a slice out of a cake someone brought and sit next to Spencer.

"Did you hear about Lilla and Just-" Spencer starts to ask me, but I cut him off.

"I don't care about Lilla's problems anymore!" I respond a little too loudly. Mr. Hayes clears his throat,

"Is there something you would like to add, Mr. Walker?"

"No, sir," I answer politely, and I hear some snickering.

"Okay then," says Mr. Hayes, "now as I was saying." He starts talking about the trip until the end of July. I don't pay attention until he mentions the number of people going.

"They can accommodate twenty-two people, two of them will be chaperones, so everyone needs to decide who is going and who is staying."

The whole room erupts with noise the moment he says that. Spencer turns to me,

"I'm your plus one, right?" I begin to nod when Ryan rushes over with a panicked look on his face.

"My mom is going to force me to bring Jack! I need you to bring Jake!"

"No, no, no!" I hear Lilla shout, "Jake is NOT coming!"

"YES, I AM!" Jake screams in return.

"All the bosses need to meet in the break room!" Michael states calmly into the mic. I agree and try to make my way over there when I get stopped by Andrew Barker.

"How about we make a little bargain?" He tells me.

"No way," I retort and push past him.

Eventually, all eight of us are sitting in the break room, which used to be the conference room.

"So who are y'all bringing? I'm taking Brooke," Asks Becky.

"I'm bringing Amber," Says Bridget.

"Lauren is going with me," says Megan.

"Can I bring two people? Please?" Begs Ryan.

"Sure," says Jason.

"Okay, then I have Jack and Cole." Says Ryan, and I can literally hear Lilla's sigh of relief from across the room.

"I want to bring Justin and JJ," says Michael.

"Thanks, Mike!" Bridget says brightly.

"She's having him bring her ex and her boyfriend on the same trip?" Becky mutters to me, "That's awkward."

I nod in agreement even though I'm one of the exes coming on the same trip. Becky doesn't know that, though, and it's better this way.

"I'm gonna bring Chet and Marco." Says Jason. They all look at me.

"Well, my mom is probably going to make me bring Liam, so I'm taking him and Spencer."

"But I wanted to bring Journey and Kate!" Complains Lilla. An awkward silence fills the room. Surprisingly, Jason is the first to speak up.

"You know, Chet won't even be allowed to come, so go ahead and bring your little girlfriends, Lilla."

We all laugh at Lilla as she sits there fuming. She so deserved that. A few minutes later, Mr. Hayes knocks on the door and tells us to get back out there.

Once we're all situated, Mr. Hayes asks us,

"How many of you are going to Camp Unicoi?"

A bunch of us raise our hands, including Journey and Garfield. Journey happens to be sitting two seats away from me.

"Journey!" I whisper, and she looks at me, "why aren't you going to that camp in Indiana that you talk about so much?"

"We decided to go here instead. Do you have a problem with that?" She replies. I wisely choose to leave that question unanswered.

"So Becky and Megan will stay at Walrus Pizza." Mr. Hayes declares.

"When will this be over?" Liam asks me.

"Who knows?" I answer.