More Story.
The group of four materialized and crashed on the front lawn of a house. It was early afternoon, and although the sun still shone brightly, the shadows on the ground were starting to grow. Alicia slowly got up, wincing and rubbing her side. Jay got up and touched a hand to his glasses to make sure they weren’t broken. Kate was laying face down in the grass, passed out. Speed glanced around for an instant, seeming to come to a realization, then got up and dusted himself off. He stepped between Jay and Alicia, strode across the lawn, and stepped up onto the covered porch of the house. He opened the front door and went inside. Alicia and Jay stared after him. “Uh, where are we?” Alicia asked, confused. Jay had started looking at his surroundings. So far, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary that he could see.
“I don’t know. But obviously our guest does, or he wouldn’t have gone in there,” Jay replied, gesturing at the house. Alicia shrugged. “Maybe it’s his house,” she suggested. Jay looked down at Kate's prone form. “I hope it’s his house,” he said. “We’ve got to do something about Kate.”
“Yeah,” Alicia remarked. “I hope that guy comes back and tells us what the deal is.” She folded her arms across her chest. The two of them stood on the lawn facing the avant-garde looking house and waited.
Speed stepped into the foyer of his house. It was quiet. Nobody was there, as they expected him to be away elsewhere for a race. True, he was supposed to be in China for the People’s Republic 500, but that madman with the nukes had diverted the airplane. He was peeved about that, but there was nothing he could do since he was now about 9000 miles away.
Speed wandered into the kitchen. There were a few things now on his mind, most notably why in the heck he was all of a sudden back at his house. And where were his parents? He turned, opened the fridge, and pulled out a bottle of Coke. He popped the metal cap off the bottle with a bottle opener he'd found in the drawer across from the fridge and he leaned up against the counter, sipping the soda out of the bottle and mulling things over. That's when he noticed the note.
It was stuck to the fridge with a large, Pillsbury Doughboy magnet. It said this: 'Sparky - Don't forget to water the plants while we're gone.' The note was signed with Speed's dad’s name. Apparently, since Speed was going to be away for a while, his parents had decided to take a vacation.
The note explained why the front door was unlocked, at any rate. Sparky was watching the house while Speed's parents were gone and probably had a spare key. That was nice to know. Speed pulled the note off the fridge door and shoved it in his back pocket.
He turned his attention now to what to do about that passed-out girl in his front yard. Apparently, when he'd appeared in that other kitchen, he'd given her quite a shock. Speed pitied her, but her reaction frustrated him. Why had she acted that way towards him? He hadn’t even done anything! And what was that whole bit the other girl was talking about, about him being a popular character on a TV show? Speed shook his head and chuckled. These people are ridiculous, one part of him said.
But still...they’re harmless, another part of him said. They’re not like the other crazy people I’ve met. They almost seem like...well, like they’re disoriented, or something. And they’re so young... They can’t be any older than me, he thought. Speed eyed the couch, sizing it up and thinking that he could lay Kate on it until she came around. However, he didn’t know how long it would be before that happened. At any rate, he didn’t think it would be cool to leave a passed-out girl outside on his lawn, so he went to the front door to get the others and invite them in.
Alicia paced slowly back and forth across the front yard, studying the house. “What an odd house.It’s very...angle-y,” she observed, trying to find the right word to describe the structure in front of her.
“It’s a geometry student’s worst nightmare,” Jay muttered from where he was standing over Kate with his arms folded across his chest. He, too, was facing the house and thus could also observe and comment on what she was saying. “I can’t tell if it’s one story or two,” he remarked, gesturing toward it. Just then, the front door opened. Speed Racer stepped out onto his porch and strode across the yard to where Jay and Alicia were standing over Kate. “Hey, what’s up?” Alicia asked as Speed stooped down and scooped Kate up, cradling her in his arms.
“I’m going to let your friend rest on my couch,” he replied.
“When do you think she’ll wake up?” Jay asked.
“I don't know,” Speed answered thoughtfully. “Hopefully soon. You can come in, if you like,” he added.
He turned and began to walk toward his house. Alicia and Jay hesitated for a moment, then followed, seeing as though there was nothing else to do. The group disappeared into the house.
On to the next chapter. ---->
