Chapter Two, Part One

Chapter Two
“Are you sure about this, Kiho?”
“Positive. It’ll be the best prank we’ve ever pulled. Stop worrying.” Kiho brushed her concerns away with a dismissive hand.
“But, but, I don’t think this is right. It’s a grown up we’re doing this to!”
“I know.” Kiho said, her voice clipped. “I know the difference between a child and an adult, you know.”
“I know, I know. But still. This isn’t just parents, or family. This is different. This guy is dangerous.”
“He is not. He’s just a loser.”
“Kiho,” Lexie said, her voice pleading.
They were in Lexie’s backyard. Her backyard was huge considering she wasn’t in the country. It was several acres, and most of it was woods. They often went there to work on a clubhouse they were building with another friend of theirs, Damon. He was a few feet behind them, trying to push through some weeds.
Damon seemed to have entered their lives suddenly, without their notice. His acceptance into their friendship wasn’t big, or memorable, like Kiho’s had been. Somewhere around Lexie and Kiho’s birthday he had turned up in town. He went to the local school, and Kiho was curious. Lexie was, too, but she was only curious because Kiho was. Lexie tended to take things at they came, Kiho looked for them. They had gone up to his blue house, and knocked on the door. A male adult opened the door. Adults were still giants to be overcome at that point, but by then they’d learned that one had to be polite with giants. They had phones, and they would call your parents if you weren’t polite. Parents were dangerous giants when they were mad. Parents were giants that could take away privileges and spank you.
“Hello?” the man said in a gruff voice. Kiho looked at Lexie. Lexie could handle grown-ups better than anyone else.
“Hi.” Lexie kept her voice very sweet, and very polite. “My name is Alexandra Athena Dulcinia, and this is my friend, Kiho Braeden. We want to meet Damon.” Kiho looked at Lexie in surprise, and then she quickly covered it. She didn’t know that Lexie knew the boy’s name.
“Are you from his school?” He sounded suspicious. Lexie was nervous. She chewed on her tongue, a habit she had.
“No, we aren’t. We’re homeschooled.” Kiho answered that. She sounded tired of the constant refrain. “We saw him riding his bike, and we wanted-“ Lexie knew that Kiho was going to say “wanted a ride.” That didn’t sound nice, and the man might not let them in.
“We wanted to get to know him. He looked nice.”
The giant was large, even for a giant, and had a bushy dark beard. His eyes were small and dark, too. Even Kiho, who was good at reading what people thought from their faces, couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He had a funny voice, too. Different.
“I’ll get him.” He said roughly, and shut the door. He came back a few minutes later with a boy.
He was tall and had sandy-blond hair. He had a wind-tousled appearance, and his face was weather beaten, but not unpleasantly so. As if he’d sailed a lot. His eyes were bright blue, and earnest.
“Now, son, stay at the park. Come back before five. You have homework that needs to be done.”
“Yes, father.” The boy had a funny voice, too. They all started walking towards the park.
“Why do you sound so funny?” Kiho asked, not in a mean way. Just asking.
“Kiho! That’s not nice!” Lexie blushed. “Sorry, Damon. She’s not very polite.”
“It’s quite all right.” Damon answered, then turned to Kiho. “Why do you sound so queer?” Kiho scowled. She folded her arms.
“That’s not funny. I’ve never heard anyone who sounds like you, and lots of people who sound like me.”
“Well, where I come from, there aren’t so very many people who sound like you.”
“Do you come from Colorado?” Lexie had been curious about Colorado ever since Kiho had mentioned it, so long ago. Her parents taught her about it, but Lexie still wanted to know more. Kiho laughed.
“I don’t get why you think about Colorado so much. It’s just a state, and he’s not from there.”
“No, I’m from England. My father and I just moved here last week. Why aren’t you two in school, by the way? I haven’t seen you.”
“We’re homeschooled.” Kiho answered, voice dull.
“Why?” The girls looked up in surprise. They were used to the phrase being like a password. As soon as you said it, people turned to talk to your parents about it. No one had ever asked why before. They had never asked why before. It just was. Lexie thought.
“I- I think it was… Oh, I don’t remember. I think I cried a lot when I was little, and didn’t want to go to school.” Kiho didn’t even have to think.
“I got in fights all the time. I finally bit the teacher, and my parents pulled me out. My mom teaches me now. At first I had a tutor, but I bit him, too. I hated teachers.” She made a disgusted face.
“I didn’t know that.” Lexie said mildly. She didn’t really care it was just interesting.
“I never told you. You never asked.”
“I would so love to be homeschooled,” Damon broke in. “Well, leastways, I would have. But I don’t think Father would be a good teacher.”
“My dad teaches me about as much as my mom does,” Lexie offered. “Why don’t you ask your mom?”
“I don’t have one.” Damon looked away.
“You don’t have one!” Lexie said, and started to go on, but Kiho was, for once, more sensitive than Lexie. She pulled on Lexie’s arm, and shook her head. She mouthed the words “I think she’s dead.” Lexie’s mouth slammed shut. No mother? The poor boy! After that day, he hung around them, and just never stopped. They didn’t mind.
Lexie turned back to help Damon out of the thorn bush. “Your squirt gun is leaking,” she told her matter-of-factly, and he glanced at it, annoyed.
“The bloody thing won’t stop leaking!” he groaned. Lexie thought for a moment.
“Here, let me see.” She took the gun from him, and pulled the wad of gum out of her mouth, and stopped the leak with it. She handed the gun back to him. He looked slightly grossed out, but took it anyway.
“Don’t be such a sissy, Damon,” Kiho said sourly. She acted like more of a boy than Damon did. At 11 years old, Kiho was as much of a tomboy as ever, while Lexie was a bit more sensitive.
“Are you ready? He’s probably just around this corner.” Lexie, Kiho and Damon were constantly pulling pranks. This time, the victim was an old hobo that was living in the woods until the next train came in. Kiho couldn’t believe that Lexie was just letting him use the clubhouse until then. So she planned a prank. They were going to squirt him with their guns from behind a bush, and see what he did. They also had a trap laid out for him if he went anywhere outside the clubhouse. Lexie had an uncomfortable feeling that this was cruel, but Kiho claimed that it served the man right for stealing the house.