Ariana H. King
When I opened the door, the first thing I saw was Mom's trampled yellow tulips. They were beautiful at one time, but then she had 7 kids. So, yeah... Toys were all over the yard. Dump trucks, shovels, the sprinkler, and a lot of other random toys. They weren't here when we left, because Mom had made us all clean up the yard the day before. Janie and Tyler told the kids NOT to make that big of a mess again. But, from the looks of it, that didn't work. Janie and Tyler were the oldest. No, they were not twins. Janie was 15 and Tyler was 16.
It was not dark, like I would have expected it to be. After all, we were gone for about 4 hours. It should have been 7:15 by then. Maybe I was off on my calculations...No. Definitely not. It had been at least 4 hours. Then why was it daylight?
"Where have you been?" I heard Janie screech.
I spun around and saw Janie starring at me while pushing Dakota on the swing set.
He was saying, "Go higher! Go higher! Underdog, Janie! Do an underdog!" Dakota was only 4, but he was fearless. He loved the swings.
I thought up a whole bunch of different explanations, but I didn't think she's buy any of them. Janie was really good at telling if you were lying to her.
All that came out was, "Uhhhhhhhhhhh..."
She rolled her eyes(that's where Roar got her skills from). "Mom and Dad have been worried Air! You and Roar have scared everybody to death! Speaking of Roar, where is she?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..."
Janie put her hand on her hip and stood there. She stopped pushing Dakota. He whinned.
"Air, you are going to be in so much trouble!" Janie scolded me. "Mom and Dad will kill you guys! When we got home, we figured you'd be inside, so Tyler tried opening the door. It was locked, so we rang the doorbell. We waited for you guys to open the door for 3 minutes, but it never happened. So Mom got out her keys and opened the door and yelled for you and Roar. But you never came, so she got a little angry. I personally thought you guys were gonna jump out and say,'Boo!' but...
Tyler, Dakota, Me, and Lyla searched the house, but obviously you guys weren't home. So Mom called all of your friends and she called Leah Huckel to see if you guys went over there and forgot to call her, but they all said no to her."
I winced. I-no we-are in big trouble. Just like Janie said.
It's all Roar's fault, I thought angrily. She was the one who insisted on going to explore! Argh!
"Where's Mom?" someone said.
I turned and looked at the front door, and there was Roar. She was wobbling a little, but I totally understood that.
I looked from her to Janie. Janie had a very weird expression on her face. It was a mix between shock and relief, with a little of annoyance in there.
"In the kitchen calling the police, no doubt." And Janie told Roar the story all over again.
I knew she was exaggerating about Mom calling the police. Mom trusted us more than she trusted Janie and Tyler. No, never mind. She trusted me more than she trusted Janie and Tyler. I couldn't say the same for Roar-ever.
After Janie finished her story, she told us to get inside and tell Mom where we'd been. I gave Roar a "twin look", as Lyla always said. "Twin looks" were something only twins could do, because they have the same DNA. So if we look at each other, we know exactly what we are thinking. Right then, I hoped Lyla was right. Cause I really hoped Roar knew that I had no explanations what so ever.
