The Adventures of Pete and the Pals

Technically...

I got Henry on the quiz! I knew it. I've established a reputation for being technical and precise my whole life.
 
"So, where’re you going now?” Rory asked Tyler around a mouthful of Heavenly Caramel Haze ice-cream.

“Well, my family’s going to the waterpark. Want to come?”

‘Sure!” all of us shouted before Amy could interfere.

There are only two words to describe the waterpark—WICKED AMAZING. We melted into the crowd once we got there to escape Amy’s persistent warnings about standing up on waterslides, etc. As if any of us were that stupid! I mean, she wasn’t talking to VidKid here!

After spending a few great hours going down waterslides and meeting perilous waves in the wave pool (Teddy almost drowned because of a dumb rule about “no grabbing onto the sides of the pool”) Amy declared that it was time to leave the park.

“But it’s only four o’clock!” Johnny protested. “The park doesn’t close til nine!”

“You don’t want to do everything the first day,” Amy said. “Besides, look at the sky.”

We did, and got Amy’s point. Large black clouds had suddenly covered the sun.

“Hey, where are you staying, Tyler?” Johnny asked our new friend.

“At that hotel around the corner.”

“SWEET!” Johnny shrieked, causing the nearest group of people fleeing the upcoming storm to stop and look at him like he was a candidate for a crazy house.

“What?” Tyler asked.

“We’re staying there, too! Rooms 510 and 511.”

“I cannot believe this. We’re right down the hall in 530, the family suite!”

Our discourse was cut off by a sheet of rain.

“Eek!” Rory screeched, cowering protectively over the various chocolate bars, candy, and other treats he’d purchased throughout the day. “Let’s go! I don’t want my kettle corn turned into a watery mess! It was five dollars for this measly bag!”

“Four eighty-nine,” corrected Johnny. “And yeah, that’s SUCH a rip-off.”

Amy quickly put a stop to this discussion and herded us out of the park. We ran around the corner to the hotel, with Rory bringing up the tail end of our little procession because of his burden of snacks.

“So, NOW what?” Johnny asked when we were safely in room 510, out of Amy’s earshot.

“Let’s watch something,” suggested Pete. “And we can invite Tyler over and eat all those snacks Rory bought—if he hasn’t gulped them down already.”

Rory stopped stuffing cotton candy into his mouth and objected. “Hey, it was my money!”

“The Pal Club treasury will reimburse you,” Henry assured him.

Teddy and Henry were sent to fetch Tyler. They found him sitting on his bed, looking bored to death while his sisters watched some girly thing—some dumb retelling of a classic starring Barbie. He eagerly accepted our invitation.

Back in room 510, things got even better. Amy said she had to run to the grocery store with Nika and pick up some food. After pleading with her not to get Offenbach’s again, we declined her offer to take us and happily slammed the door after her. Henry locked it according to Amy’s instruction, while remarking that it was statistically improbable that anyone would randomly choose our room to break into, given that there were at least 600 rooms in the hotel.

Johnny, however, objected. “They could have cased the joint, followed us here from the park, and heard Amy say she was going to the store...”

Henry was not impressed with this theory, and thought he knew what prompted it. “You just finished reading a mystery book, right?”

“Yeah. Murder in the Hotel. But I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

Teddy was interested. “Whoa, nice title. Did you like it?”

“Oh, yeah! It was great...nine victims! A practice one, an accidental one, the intended victim, the poor fool who tried to blackmail the culprit, a bigger fool who didn’t learn from the first guy and tried to do the same thing, somebody who had incriminating evidence but didn’t know it, some kid who was playing detective and stumbled on the truth, one of the real detective’s partners, and lastly, the culprit himself. Oh, and a policeman or two in the final shootout, but that didn’t count. All of the murders and the shootout happened in the same hotel room.”

“Thanks, Johnny,” said Rory sarcastically.

After a bit of an argument over what movie to watch, Tyler had a ‘brilliant’ idea. “Hey, I just remembered!They made a movie version of
Murder in the Hotel!”

“Well, we don’t have it,” said Rory quickly.

But it was too late. Johnny was interested. “Sweet, Tyler! We can look it up on Netflix!”

“Yeah! I can access our family’s account on Amy’s laptop, and Henry can hook it up to the TV!” Pete exclaimed.

“Don’t you need a special cord?” was Rory’s last desperate attempt at stopping us.

“Amy keeps all the cords for her laptop in its case,” Tim informed him.

Everything went according to plan—except that it was a little hard to find the movie, because the moviemakers had changed the title to A Knock At Your Door. Appropriately creepy.

Just as it was ending, we heard it. A knock on the door, followed by a faint whisper and several more knocks.

With what Johnny later described as a ‘strangled gasp’, Rory ran into the bathroom (the only room with a lock).
 
“Relax, Rory! It’s just Amy coming back!” Henry said.

Then we heard the voice.

“Um, since when did Amy sound like...”

Pete interrupted Tim. “That’s a strange man! Quick, follow Rory!”

All of us—including Tyler—dashed to the bathroom.

“Open up, Pal!” pleaded Teddy. “Hurry!”

Rory unlocked the door, and we raced in. The handle of the main door was now being violently rattled.

“So, what do we do if he breaks in?” Teddy whispered.

“I have an idea!” Tyler said in a hushed tone. “The bravest one of us will be the decoy. He’ll unlock the door.”

“So, how does that help us?” interrupted Tim.

“Wait, I was coming to that. Two of us hide behind the door, and as soon as the man rushes in, we knock him out with that dumb little chair thing that’s in the corner by the window.”

Henry was unsure. “That sounds a little—dangerous. Suppose it’s just an innocent plumber or something? If we whack him over the head he has sufficient grounds to sue us.”

“It’s either that, or somebody runs out there to the phone and calls the hotel security,” Tyler said.

“It’ll take a while to convince them it’s not a kid’s practical joke,” Pete said. “And I think the staff has a bad opinion of us after that escalator stunt Teddy pulled the first day here.”

“Well, I say phoning security is our best option,” Henry insisted. “It’s more of a sure thing, and there’s little to no chance of being sued.”
 
Are you familiar with the old comedy routines of Bill Cosby? The latest installments of your story remind me of his narrative "Ninth Street Bridge," about himself and a friend in childhood seeing a horror movie and therefore fearing they would meet a real monster after leaving the theater.
 
No, I've never seen Bill Cosby. :)
This is actually based on a time that some of my sibs and I were left home alone at night and heard someone sawing the bars off the window in the basement. :D (Of course, no one was really there. It was the turtle tank filter sawing itself in half because it was broken/my brother forgot to put enough water in the tank.) We really did lock ourselves in the upstairs bathroom (only lockable room in the house). :D
 
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“Okay, so who’s the bravest?” Rory asked. “Don’t look at me.”

“Or me,” Teddy said quickly. “Mom wouldn’t like it if she found out I went instead of you bigger, older, smarter...”

“Enough with the flattery,” Johnny snapped. “I guess I’ll go, if Pete and Tyler come with me.”

“What for?” Pete demanded.

“To guard my back, of course!”

The three of us slowly opened the bathroom door all the way, wincing as it creaked horribly. Didn’t this hotel ever oil doors?

Johnny picked up the phone—just as there was a shrieking type of gasp outside the door, followed by a thump.

“Hey, maybe that’s security!” Johnny said as the thump was followed by a shout.

Tim hurtled past. “That first sound was Amy! Maybe she’s in trouble!”

To the rest of us, this was welcome news. But before we could stop him, Tim yanked open the door—and we all froze with astonishment. A strange man was sitting/lying in a heap on the doorstep, and Amy was standing over him, complete with an angry vindictive look and a raised shopping bag. From the looks of it, it was filled with cans of Offenbach’s and other heavy items.

“Um, what happened?” Tim asked feebly.

“This person was attempting to break in!” Amy said. “Call the police!”

“All right,” Johnny said, for once eager to obey Amy.

“Hang on!” the man on the floor said. “I wasn’t trying to break in!”

“Oh, yeah?” Pete said. “Then what WERE you doing? Trying to deliver a pizza?”

“I was trying to get into MY room!” said the man, rising to his feet.

Amy pulled Tim behind her and raised the shopping bag protectively. The man jumped backwards at least two feet.

“Um, you better not hit him again until we find out if he’s a burglar or what,” Henry whispered. “Legal advice.”

“This room happens to be occupied by US,” Amy said angrily, addressing the man.

“It’s room 510, right?”

“Yes,” Rory said nervously, peering around the doorframe.

“Then it’s my room.”

What could have been a long argument was cut short by the desk clerk rushing up and interrupting. “Oh, sir! I’m so sorry...you were supposed to be given the room across the hall, 581! Room 510 is already occupied by these children.”

Amy (and us boys) gave the man triumphant glances.
 
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“It’s a good thing I had you lock the door from the inside with the bolt,” Amy said as we entered room 510. “Otherwise, he might have gotten in...”

Her voice trailed off as she saw her laptop plugged into the TV and the words ‘THE END’ on the screen. Johnny hastily jerked the cord. “Uh, that’s just a harmless old black-and-white movie we were watching.”

Amy looked unsure but said nothing, going into her room to put the groceries away.

Tim was stunned. “Wow! She didn’t even bawl us out for using her laptop!”

Johnny had a theory. “Guilt.”

“Huh?”

Johnny was happy to explain to Rory. “She took out her INNER ANGER at us in the whack she gave that guy. Now she’s guilty.”

“Since when did you get a psychology degree?” Pete wanted to know.

Our discourse was cut off by a knock on the door. Rory gulped and got ready to run, but it was only Tyler’s sister Elena with a message that Tyler was to come back to the family suite and get ready to go out to dinner.

“Man, your family must be wealthy!” Teddy said wistfully as Tyler prepared to leave. “How else can you afford going out to eat all the time?”

“It’s in the vacation budget,” Tyler explained as he went out the door. “See you tomorrow, before we leave for the park!”

However, any plans concerning the park had to wait. The evil thunderstorms bent on destroying our good times continued into the next day.

“Unfair!” Johnny moaned. “Those Soup Can people probably picked this week because they KNEW it would be raining.”

“They couldn’t have,” Henry pointed out. “The prize week was chosen three months ago. The weather websites can’t accurately fortell that far in the future.”

After breakfast, we wandered down to the lobby while Amy was cleaning up, desperate for amusement. There, we bumped into Tyler’s family. They were leaving for a nearby children’s museum and invited us to go along. Amy agreed, if she could come, too. The museum was a generic one, currently full of exhibits pertaining to outer space. Nothing worthy of mention happened there except for one little incident. Johnny put a dollar in the pop machine in the cafeteria, and instead of calmly spewing out a Dr. Pepper, the machine began depositing cokes all over the floor. After the thirtieth one, the supply was evidently used up and it stopped. Some of us were of the opinion that since the machine had been kind enough to break, we should leave well enough alone and leave with the cokes. Henry’s opinion prevailed, however, and we hunted down a janitor who looked bored and muttered something about not being able to put them back, anyway. So we got to keep them all. Split seven ways, we each got four. (Johnny kept the extras.)
 
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After breakfast, we wandered down to the lobby while Amy was cleaning up, desperate for amusement. There, we bumped into Tyler’s family. They were leaving for a nearby children’s museum and invited us to go along. Amy agreed, if she could come, too. The museum was a generic one, currently full of exhibits pertaining outer space. Nothing worthy of mention happened there except for one little incident. Johnny put a dollar in the pop machine in the cafeteria, and instead of calmly spewing out a Dr. Pepper, the machine began depositing cokes all over the floor. After the thirtieth one, the supply was evidently used up and it stopped. Some of us were of the opinion that since the machine had been kind enough to break, we should leave well enough alone and leave with the cokes. Henry’s opinion prevailed, however, and we hunted down a janitor who looked bored and muttered something about not being able to put them back, anyway. So we got to keep them all. Split seven ways, we each got four. (Johnny kept the extras.)

Yum, yum! :D
 
Back at the hotel, we spent the rest of the day drinking our cokes and watching various movies—Star Wars IV and V, a few episodes of Zorro, etc. For a 1950's black-and-white TV show, Zorro was actually pretty good.

The next morning, the four of us in room 510 awoke and simultaneously ran to the window in trepidation. (Thank Henry for two big words in one sentence.) It actually wasn’t raining! After we got over our shock, we rushed into the next room to wake up Amy, Teddy, and Tim. Before we could leave, Amy made us go through the ordeal of room tidy-up (by now, we had somehow managed to get our hotel rooms as messy as our rooms at home with about one quarter of the stuff).

When we were done, we eagerly headed out the door, joining up with Tyler’s family in the lobby.

At the park, we decided to play some of the games. We ran for the ring toss, which looked pretty easy. After trying it out, we discovered there was just one word to describe it: DECEITFUL. The cunningly chosen prizes were stuffed animals of frogs, owls and ferrets as big as Teddy. The hind paws hung down over the bottle tops , and the first five of our rings hit the offending footpaws, bouncing off. Henry complained to the game attendant, who said, “Kids, if we made this game easy enough for everyone to win, we’d be out of prizes.” All the better, we say.

Figuring that it was no use to even aim, Tim threw the last remaining ring—and got it over a bottle top! He chose a large gray ferret as a prize. Then we were faced with a problem—lugging the huge things around the park. Fortunately, Tyler’s parents were using Elena and Tyler’s old double stroller for Jada. We simply stowed the ferret away in the backseat.

The Roller Rage was closed for some kind of cleaning or repairs. Johnny said it was rumored that a person fell off the top bump and splattered all over the track. Henry didn’t believe this and got the real reason off the roller coaster attendant. It was slightly less gruesome: somebody lost their lunch going down the big hill.

On the way to the Logger’s Revenge, Teddy spotted a poster that advesrtised the grand celebration happening at the park for its first anniversary. Henry scanned the dates. “It’s in two days!”

“Anything good happening at this celebration?” Johnny asked skeptically. “Or is it just an advertizing stunt?”

Tyler quoted from the poster. “Games, trivia contests, prizes, free refrshments, fun, fun, fun.”

“Oh, man! Free refrshments!” From the grin on Rory’s face, the rest of us could see what he was envisioning: all the concession stands and restaurants handing out their stuff for free.

“Uh, I think that means little stuff. Like popsicles and ice cream cones,” Tyler said.

“Baby-sized ice creams cones,” Pete added. “Remember the Fourth of July party at Collin’s Department Store?”

(We did. What were deceptively broadcast as ‘free lunches for all—plus dessert’ were really tiny hot dogs on even smaller buns, bottled water, and baby-sized vanilla custard cones. Johnny was so mad that he was going to toss his lunch in the trash, but before he could Rory grabbed it.)

“Well, even baby-sized cones are better than nothing,” Tim pointed out. “Amy can’t object because of the expense.”
 
“I wonder what the games and prizes are,” mused Pete.

“And the trivia contests!” added Johnny. “We ought to enter Henry in all of them.”

“Hey, I’m not a race horse!” Henry protested. “And what if these ‘trivia contests’ are on stuff like the newest teen books and movies?”

“I’m sure they’ll have at least one decent one,” Pete assured him. “Let’s go ask a worker.”

Unfortuantely, the workers were evidently not allowed to let information slip. After trying to question at least five, Johnny indignantly pointed to a sign featuring a smiling college-age girl in a Loopy Island employee T-shirt. Large purple words above her head stated: “Have a question? Ask a worker!”

“Yeah right,” said Rory scornfully.

“Well, we’ll just have to prepare for questions on anything and everything,” Pete decided.

“WE?”

“Henry, I mean. And if there’s a contest on movie quotes, Johnny can enter.”

Just then, Johnny spotted the drop tower. “Wow! We GOTTA go on that!”

And we did. It was the rare type of ride where the going up was more intense than the going down—the sudden jerk upwards nearly snapped our necks. We all felt we needed a break, so we searched the park’s game booths for ones that looked easy to win. Rory wasted ten dollars on the fishing game before finally claiming a puny plush fish as a prize.

Next we checked out a game that looked simple—get both heavy balls into a bucket about two feet away and win! Teddy tried it. He carefully tossed his first ball. We cheered as it flew into the bucket—until it bounced out. (The bottoms of the buckets were cleverly made of some springy stuff.) He managed to get the next one in, but it was both balls or nothing.
 
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After trying four or five more games, we finally found an easy way to get prizes. We went to one of those games where seven people each try to get their ship to the finish line first by pumping air into this tube that blew into the sails. Including Tyler, there were seven of us, so one of us won every time—plus, each participant got a tiny thing. After four or five games, we were loaded with stuff, so we set off to find Tyler’s parents and the handy double stroller. Once we found them, Tyler’s mom insisted that he accompany the rest of his family to the petting zoo. Being loyal Pals, we didn’t desert him.

After being stalked by hungry goats for fifteen minutes while Tyler’s mom took pictures of Jada feeding the lambs, Rory put a quarter in the animal food machine. He had barely stepped away with his handful of corn when he was attacked by four large goats that knocked him over and gobbled it down while stepping on him. Pete and Tyler hoisted him to his feet while Johnny snapped a photo with Pete’s cell phone.

The goats kept bugging us, expecting more food. We ignored them until they were joined by a llama. We were cautious about this—we knew as well as anybody that when llamas get annoyed, they spit. Rory decided to buy another handful of corn, just to humor the llama. While he was digging through his pocket-sized bag of change for another quarter, it was plucked out of his hands by a pony. Fortunately, we got it back before it was swallowed.

By this time, we were a little fed up with the petting zoo. When we attempted to sneak out, Amy caught us and asked us just where we thought we were going. Before she could get started on a real lecture, Pete cleverly mentioned that rats thrive around livestock. Suddenly, Amy was more eager than we were to leave.

After we escaped the petting zoo, we headed for the waterpark, where we spent the rest of the day going down the slides.

The next morning, it was pouring so hard we couldn’t see out the hotel windows. Naturally, there was no amusement park that day. We lounged around room 510 watching a cool new show Tyler showed us: CrimeCam. Basically, people staged fake crimes and filmed the public’s reactions to them. We could tell Amy disapproved, but she didn’t say anything—probably because Tyler had his parents’ okay to watch it.
 
Thanks, Sopespian and VictorianLady!

The laptop with the updates for this story on it crashed, but my dad is working on retrieving the documents from the hard drive, so I might be able to post some more over the weekend.:)
 
We watched, mesmerized, as a ‘pickpocket’ sidled up to an unwary citizen.

“That actor’s in trouble if that guy has a concealed handgun permit,” Henry pointed out.

“I’m sure that the show picks places where that’s unlikely,” Pete said.

“Unlikely, but not impossible,” Henry said stubbornly.

“That I want to see,” Johnny said, his eyes glued to the screen.

Fortunately for the pickpocket, his target was not an armed citizen. He carefully removed the guy’s wallet and casually strolled off. Two teenage girls who had witnessed the whole thing giggled and kept walking.

“Typical,” Johnny commented. “They probably think he’s a hero for being so daring.”

Another witness, a middle-aged man, quickly turned and walked away after checking his own pockets.

“Maybe he’s going to call the police,” suggested Teddy.

We were shocked when the guy calmly walked into a Starbucks, ordered a coffee, and proceeded to drink it.

“Hey!” Johnny gasped.

Tyler wasn’t surprised. “Yeah, there’s barely anyone who actually does anything, even if it’s just calling the law enforcement.”

“Has anyone ever done anything...well...drastic?” asked Pete. “Like pulling a gun or punching the ‘criminal’?”

“Somebody punched a pickpocket back in Season 2,” Tyler remembered. “And I think somebody did make a citizen’s arrest during a filming, but that wasn’t aired. The guy who did it refused to let himself be put on TV. Something about it being embarrassing. But someone pirated the footage and posted it on the internet, so I got to see it.”

Henry was shocked. “Hey! You viewed illegal...”

“Relax! I didn’t know it was pirated when I saw it,” Tyler said. “Ooh, ooh, here’s a good one—a false bank robbery!”

We watched as a guy in a black suit, complete with bandit mask, marched into a bank and ‘held up’ the wimpiest-looking cashier. The innocent bystanders hastily began edging towards the exit, but froze when the ‘robber’ turned his head.

Johnny was mad. “Hey, if I was in that situation I’d have tackled him.”

“Well, you know it’s staged,” Pete pointed out. “But they don’t.”

“Still, I wouldn’t just stand there like a mannequin,” Johnny muttered, crossing his arms.

After a couple more ‘crimes’, the half-hour show was over.

“They only air it once a day,” Tyler said, “but I have some tapes. I’ll go get them.”

“Why don’t you go do something else?” suggested Amy, who had snuck into the room without being noticed.

“Like what?” asked Rory.
 
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I just started reading this. It is absolutely priceless. I can't wait to catch up on the rest of it! :)

Thanks, Miss Reepicheep!

Updates are currently a little slow because I now work full-time, plus my laptop broke, so I have to fight my siblings for computer time. :p More should be coming soon, though.
 
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