The Pretenders (ON HOLD)

chapter 15

An eerie silence filled the van. Everyone twitched anxiously, waiting for audio. A crackling sound came from the speaker before it burst to life. Once again they were connected. Every man wiped his brow, relieved that they wouldn't be punished.

They remained silent as they listened intently to the conversation they were picking up. It was just then that the boss himself walked in. He too stayed quiet, knowing the importance of what was going on.

He placed his ear to the speaker, so as to make out the muffled audio better.

"Are you liking school?" they heard someone say.

"That's him," said a man with a voice so cold it put summer on hold. He was a man that at first glance seemed charming, even kind. But if you ever caught a glimpse of his eyes, the colour of a blue so pale it was nearly white, the shiver it sent down your spine would extinguish all feelings you had for him.

All except one. Fear.

He mastered it. He knew fear; he'd lived it. And after looking into his dead eyes, you'd felt as if you'd lived it too.

This man stood stiffly in front of the speaker. His jaw clenched with a cold fury. As he turning to leave, seemingly to himself, he growled, "That's him."

And with no further hesitation he exited. A silent sigh of relief passed through the van. They continued to listen to the conversation coming out of the speakers.

"It's ok, I guess," said a higher voice. There was something weird about that voice. Although it wasn't clear through the radio, they definitely noticed it.

"That must be her," one of them concluded.

The whole crew shuddered, knowing full well how these two would suffer. Each of them remembered their boss' sadistic nature with deep horror.

"Just to make sure its them we should keep listening," one of the technicians suggested nervously. An unspoken agreement was made and they continued to listen in silence.

"Thanks for showing me around, Peter."

"No worries, anytime. Wendy, I'm just glad you're enjoying it here."

That was all they needed. They shut down all the computers and started the engines. Secretly they sympathised for the two children who were innocently having a conversation. They were completely oblivious to the fact that there were almost ten men listening in.

Each of them envied the two teens. Soon those two would come to realise the meaning of the saying, 'ignorance in bliss'.

Then the men's boss would make the two kids beg to be left alone. And when, if ever, their boss finally set the teens free, they would never be the same. Not after what he would put them through. They would have lost all that happy childhood innocence by the time they were fifteen.

If they managed to stay alive that long.

Lily made her way to Wendy's house that Saturday afternoon. She was scrutinizing the small crumpled piece of paper on which Wendy had scribbled her address. In fact, if she hadn't been holding the paper so close to her face in order to make out the tiny writing, she may not have bumped into Rick.

Now, of course, being Lily, she had something to say about her little collision.

"Well excuse me," she began in a not-so-friendly tone, "What the hell is your problem?"

Rick, not having had any experience with girls like this, prepared himself for a challenge. So with all the charm he could muster, he got ready to sweep this young lady off her feet. He looked at her with his gorgeous baby blue eyes. And he smiled his irresistible half-smile. And he took a small step towards her and purred, "Hey, I'm Rick."

The girl didn't even blush at this. Rick quickly put his head to forehead to check his temperature. Something was wrong here. Girls always swooned when he did his famous 'half-smile'. But with this girl; nothing.

"Oh I'm sorry, your highness, for the fact that you bumped into me," she replied, looking annoyed.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry, I was just standing here, minding my own business when you walked into me. And then you go and blame me for it? It's not nice to go telling off people who didn't even mean to offend you. You better apologise or I'll...I'll..." Rick said, so shocked at this girl's response to him that words were spilling out left right and centre.

"Or you'll what?" she teased, "Tell Mommy on me?"

"What's your problem? Did your mum die or something?" Rick spat back.

"Yeah she did actually."

Rick froze on the spot, his jaw on the ground.

"Oh my god, seriously? I'm so sorry! I didn't even kn-"

Lily interrupted him with a burst of laughter, "You should've seen the look on your face! I've always wanted to do that! Well, there you go. Now you've made my day."

She paused for a second before continuing, "No wait, that's right, you ruined my day, that's why I played that prank on you. Well have a nice life. See ya!"

Rick was lost for words. He didn't know what to do with himself. Never had he been treated like this. Whenever he talked to a girl she just blushed giggled and murmured something unintelligible.

"Hey wait!" he called after the girl, not sure why.

"I'm not giving you any money," Lily said, looking bored.

"I don't want your money. What's your name?" Rick raised an eyebrow, trying to pull off his cute innocent look.

Lily smiled and he could tell she was thinking of something witty to say back to him.

"My name is Cher."

"You're name is Cher?" he asked, just to make sure. He'd thought she would make up some ridiculous name but 'Cher' was so normal that he even believed her.

"Well is my name Cher? I mean, you are in my math, science and English class so I'm sure you'd know. Right, Rick?" she tested.

"Right...Cher," Rick replied dubiously. She smiled at him but in her head she was thinking, 'This is going to be fun'.

Rick, on the other hand, was searching his mind for any vague memory of, who he thought was, Cher. There was no way she was in his class. Rick would've remembered a girl like that.

In the meantime, lily was still squinting at the scrunched up piece of paper in her hand. She couldn't make out the number. It took away some of Lily's pride but she resorted to asking Rick where Wendy's house was. Rick responded quickly, saying that Wendy lived right next door.

"You live next door to Wendy?" Lily asked, slightly surprised.

"Yeah, but please don't tell her."

"Why not?" asked Lily, feeling that her day had gotten slightly more interesting.

"Because, um...well I, well...I'm, I'm just waiting to see...how long it takes for her to realise I'm her neighbour. Yeah, and so far she doesn't have a clue. So if you could just not tell her that I live next to her, I would really appreciate it, Cher."

"Who?" Lily asked.

"You. Cher."

"Oh yeah, that's right," she laughed. She didn't worry about Rick realizing that her name was Lily until their school photos came out. Even then, boys are so clueless he mightn't even notice.

"Well thanks for the directions."

"Hope to see you again, Cher."

"Yeah, sure," she said with obvious sarcasm.

Rick watched as Lily walked next door. He was going to make this girl like him no matter what. He would find what made her knees weak and use it to his advantage. He didn't like her, but it hurt Rick's ego to know that there was a girl out there that didn't love him.

Well, other than Wendy. Wendy was a different story. He didn't really even know Wendy.

No, for now, his next target was Cher.

***Thanks for reading, guys. Still more to come :) give me your opininions below***