The Ice Cream Man

Chapter 1 - The Children of Queensville

It was the first day of summer vacation. A bright, sunny, happy day. The Brunson twin boys were playing out on their lawn, mom was inside making lemonade and the dog actually wasn't barking. It was the perfect first day. So, naturally, I stayed in my room to play Xbox.

Not long after she heard the sound of gunshots, my mom came thumping up the stairs.

"Kenton Olsen!" she scolded. "It's the first sunny day of the year and this is how you spend it?"

"Oh com'mon mom! It's summer vacation!" I argued.

"Which is exactly why you're not spending it playing video games."

She walked into my room, stepping over my dirty laundry and opened up my curtains. The light stung my eyes.

"Mom!"

"Don't sass me young man! You're 16 years old! Go do something outside. The lawn needs mowing."

I rolled my eyes. "Ugh! Please, mom! Anything but yard work."

"Then find Jamie and go somewhere. Go to the park. Do something outside."

She turned off the TV and walked out of my room. I rolled my eyes. There was no arguing with my mother. So I threw on some clothes that I found on the floor and deodorant and ran out of my room.

I slid down the stairs and out the front door to my car. I started it and drove to the next neighborhood over to my friend Jamie's house. I walked up to his house and knocked on his door. He answered.

"Hey bro!" he said. He exchanged fist bumps. "What's up?"

"Mom made me get up and do something outside," I answered.

"What a pain. Did she interrupt your Xbox game?"

I nodded.

"Ah, dude, that's goin' too far. Com'mon in."

I walked in and we ran up into his bedroom. We settled down on the floor and started up some Call of Duty.

"So..." Jamie said. "Any new girls you into this summer?"

I shook my head. "None. Dude, I swear, we have no cute girls at our school."

He nodded. "True. If a girl is cute and you end up dating her, then you break up, she's not cute anymore. Why is that?"

"Maybe we've just dated too many girls."

"It's a small town, Kent. Besides, we all know that you get all the girls anyway, cute or not cute."

I looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Not to sound gay, but if I was a girl, I would totally go for you."

I laughed. "You're kidding right?"

He shook his head. "You got the blonde hair and perfect tan skin that girls are always after! Plus your eyes are blue!" I gave him a weird, awkward smile. "You look like a surfer boy minus the surfer part. I would kill to look like you."

"Girls dig you too, ya know," I said.

"In Queensville, not many chicks go for guys with brown hair, skin and eyes. But some is better than none."

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I paused the game to look at it. It was a text from Violet.

"Come down to the park," it read. "There are things that are happening."

"Violet wants us to come down to the park," I said.

"Fine." Jamie turned off the Xbox and we got into my car and drove to the park.

When we got there, Violet ran up to my car.

"What'd you call us down for?" I asked.

"Com'mon!" she said. She started running off, her long, brown hair flowing behind her.

Jamie and I exited the car and took off after her. She stopped running and faced us. So we stopped too.

"Now she's kinda shy," she said.

"Vi, what are you up to?" I asked.

"Look, she's a new girl here, and I want her to be in our group, so please just bear with me, okay?"

Jamie and I looked at each other before nodding. She "clapped" her hands excitedly as she walked on, leading us to a park bench, where a girl with long blonde hair sat. She looked up at us through her hair with dark green eyes.

"She just moved here from California," Violet informed.

I could already tell that. Her legs were waxed and perfectly tanned. Her hair had natural highlights in it that were even lighter than her actual blonde hair. She had a few scattered freckles on her face. She smiled at us, her white teeth contrasting with her skin tone. Kinda like how mine did... But wow, was she a looker.

I held out a hand to her. "Welcome to Rhode Island," I said.

She took my hand and shook it. "Thanks," she said in a small voice. "No ones really talked to me since I moved here, I appreciate it, you guys."

"What's your name?" I asked.

"It's Tiara," she replied.

"Cool name," I commented. She blushed.

"Thanks..."

"I'm Kenton and this is Jamie."

"Is this the only reason why you called us down here?" Jamie asked.

Violet shook her head. "Tiara actually pointed it out to me when I first got here," she began. "Look."

Violet pointed across the street to a white van with a clown head on top of it and an ice cream menu plastered on the side door.

"It's an ice cream truck...?" Jamie asked, confused.

"It has no music, it looks old and best up, and the windows are tinted. You can't see who's inside," Violet pointed out. "Don't you think that's just a little bit strange? Even at all?"

"I was the only one at the park when it pulled up," Tiara said. "I felt like whoever is in it was just staring at me and I was too scared to move. So I hoped that someone would come along. Violet did, then some more kids and their mothers, so I feel okay now. But still..."

"That's really messed up," Jamie said.

"Don't worry. Nothing's gonna happen to you," I reassured. God she was cute. "Nothing ever happens in this town anyway."

"Do you want to come hang out with us?" Violet asked.

Tiara nodded her head. "Yes, please."

"Welcome to the crew," Jamie said. I extended my hand to help her up as I glanced back at the ice cream truck one last time.

"Let's get out of here," I mumbled. The four of us walked back into my car. As soon as I started driving away, I noticed in my rear view mirror that the ice cream truck had started driving away in the opposite direction.

Something in my gut told me that this whole thing was a little off. But I ignored it, triumphing in the fact that I had a new hot girl to hook onto me. But still. That truck was unnerving.

Whoever this person was, they had a good cover. There were lots of ice cream trucks in Queensville, especially this time of year. But if there was something really wrong, this person was going to be very hard to catch.