The Moonlarks

The Forkman! (Aka Mr. Forkle)

As soon as I was ready, I grabbed my phone, and put it inside of my knee-high boot, cause if you don't have pockets, that's just what you do. I ran down the stairs to see if Callan and Ryan were already there.

They were, so I went to sit down between them. Alden came out a few seconds later. He looked like he had not slept at all last night. His eyes had dark, purple bags under then, and he had not bothered to do his hair. His blue tunic and gray pants were wrinkled.

"Hi, Alden." I said. The other boys echoed my response. "Hello, how are you all today." Even his crisp accent sounded dull and dreary. "Not much better then you look, other then the fact that I'm the only one who took the five minutes to do my hair." I answered. I meant it as a joke, but no one laughed. I expected that.

"Well, I guess it is better for you children to look better for first impressions." He said, he did smile a little though. "Did you contact everyone else?" Callan asked, actually looking up from his food, which at that moment I decided to get up and get some from the kitchen.

As I did, Alden said, "Sort of, I told Linh, Dex, Marella and Robin to meet us at Havenfield, along with Keefe's father. I have not told any of them why to meet us there though." "Ok, good." Callan said.

The food was some sort of orange leaf, with spiked sides and a thick stem. As I grabbed a plate of the orange leaf and went to go sit down, Alden also went to go get some.

I pulled my phone out of my boot, and started to play Hole.io while I was eating because, honestly, I was just bored. As soon as everyone finished eating, I went up to get my bag and I met everyone up at the leapmaster.

"Where are everyone's bodyguards?" I asked Alden replied, "Everyone's upstairs, planning what to do. I suggest you go get them." With that, I went up to go get everyone. Alden told me that it was the fifth room on the left.

I went up to find all of them standing around an oven table, shouting at eachother. "HEY!" I yelled at them, then respected it three times before they actually heard me. "We're going to Havenfield now, come on."

As they all filed out, I studied everyone. Sandor and Grizel looked both mad and tired. Ro and Tarnia looked just mad. Flori looked sad and empty, and Bo just looked a little mad, like that, 'Hey, I failed at this test but I don't really care.' kind of mad

Alden shouted "Havenfield." In a dull, tired voice. Soon enough we were all there. Edaline was already outside, feeding Verdi. "Where is everyone else?" She asked, clearly concerned.

"I really only want to explain once, so let's wait for everyone else to get here." Alden responded. I just think he want to spare himself the pain of explaining it multiple times. I went over to Edaline, the headache had come back, and I wanted to see if she had any pain killers.

"Hey Edaline," I started, "do you have any pain killers? My head is really hurting." She said yes, and started to go inside to get it, but Alden stopped her by saying, "wait, Kelly, where is the headache?"

"In the back of my head, why?" I responded. Alden lips twitched, "It will go away by itself, just wait." He answered. "How do you know?" "You'll find out soon enough." With that, he walked in front of me and Edaline, with a small smile, and walked inside the house.

Ryan, Callan, Edaline and I followed Alden. Once inside the house, us kids sat down on the couch facing the front window to watch for everyone else, while Edaline went upstairs to go get Grady and Alden got some custard bursts from the fridge.

Soon enough, Robin, Dex, and Juliene arrived, followed by the Linh and Granite, and then Mr. Forkle. Robin just kinda sat down next to me on the end, the order we always sit in, with me next to Ryan and Callan on the other edge, but it was missing an open spot for Hannah in the middle.