Chapter 4 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

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I woke up in the morning and the first thing on my mind is the baby.  I jump out of bed quickly planning to see if there has been any news from the hospital.  I have got up a little too quickly and have to sit back down on my bed while I wait for the dizziness to stop.  My head feels really heavy and it's banging away reminding me that I was a little drunk last night and I'm probably going to pay for it today with a hangover.  I also remember my awful ride home in the police car and all the drama that went with it - I still need answers to why that happened and I'm determined to get those answers today.

I walk into the kitchen to find Uncle Prelude with Storm and Parsley, they have just finished eating breakfast and Prelude is clearing away their dishes.  Storm is a little annoyed and is arguing with his Dad who is pottering around the kitchen tidying up, while Parsley just sits silently watching them bickering, which is the normal scheme with the three of them.  Storm and Prelude always make me laugh, they are so alike it's scary and they bounce off each other constantly.  There is still no news from the hospital yet which irritates me straight away - just how long does it take to have a baby anyway?

I sat down at the table and Prelude dumps a bowl of cereal in front of me, I just look up at him a little gone out because he is giving me food.  "Eat it Tapestry or are you still a little GIT when it comes to eating?"  I pushed the bowl away from me, using both hand, pushing it out into the middle of the table, I wore a look of disgust on my face and didn't take my eyes off his face while I am doing it.  I must have looked like a defiant child, and I suppose I am, but food and me just don't get along, and there is no way he is going to get me to eat it.  Prelude stood looking at me for a moment then tutted and starts shaking his head as he picks up the bowl and starts to clear it away, making a point of doing it loudly.  Yes I'm still a git when it comes to food and I don't do breakfast, just the thought of it makes my stomach turn!! 

Storm and Parsley are both sat looking at me a little amused. I presume because of my behavior and probably the way their Dads reaction to it, I doubt very much they would have gotten away with doing the same thing Uncle Prelude can be very strict when he wants to be.  My cousins, even though they are twins they are poles apart in looks and personality.  Storm is the trouble maker, he is very much like a mini version of Uncle Prelude, his looks, attitude, personality and even his colour. Storm can be very mean and nasty, he's always quick to get into a fight and you definitely wouldn't want to be the one on the end of one of his punches, he is as hard as nails and he sometimes scares me even though he has always been alright with me, he is my friend as well as my cousin, he looks out for me and has gotten into many a fight because of me.

Parsley on the other hand is nothing like his brother, he is a good kid, very timid and shy, and couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag even if his life depended on it.  Every one loves Parsley because he is always kind and polite and never gets into any trouble, its always me and Storm who cause all the problems in our family.  Parsley doesn't have a mean bone in his body, and is over emotional he gets upset way too easily which really annoys his Dad, who is always calling him a wuss and really doesn't know where he gets it from or who he takes after.  He gets his skin colour from his Mom and he looks a lot like her apparently, but I wouldn't know, I can only imagine what she might look like as I've never seen her.

I like Parsley and we get on okay, but I tend to upset him with my mood swings, he can't cope with me, he can't take it when I rare at him or verbally attack him suddenly for no reason, he generally runs off in floods of tears, so he tends to avoid spending any time with me if he can help it.  He is another one in a long list of people who can't be bothered to put up with me or my problems.

My cousins are now as confused as I am, they don't understand any more than I do, why suddenly they have been dragged into this still unexplained situation, why the three of us have been singled out in particular from all the rest and are now it seems under house arrest.  I found it a little strange coming down this morning to find out that the three of them had spent the night here, my Grandparents have taken Mosaic and Coral to the hospital without me and we are stuck here with Prelude who is acting very strangely, even for him.

"I promised Mom I would go and see her today."  Parsley starts moaning quietly looking up at his Dad.  He must be more confused than me and Storm, we are used to stuff like this, we are always getting ourselves into trouble and at the moment it feels like we are in trouble for something.  Parsley doesn't get into any trouble, so why is he included into this?  I sit and try to think of anything that me and Storm have done together recently that might have caught up with us.

"Sorry Parsley, you are going to have to go another day, the three of you are going nowhere today!!"  he patted his son on the shoulder  "Don't worry I'll tell her it was my fault and why."  I couldn't help but laugh to myself - I'm glad at least he is going to tell someone why!!

"Stick this!!!!  If you can't explain what all this crap is about ...... then you can stick it!!"  Storm snaps at his Dad quite nastily  "I've made plans for today, I'm going out whether you like it or not ........ whatever Tap has dragged himself into - it's got nothing to do with me!!"  he said getting up out of his chair quite angrily.

"I'm sorry son but you are going NOWHERE, and if I have to knock you out to keep you in, then I will!!!"  Prelude looms over Storm, both of them staring at each other with their evil faces  "We need to wait for Mango to get home, then we will all sit down together and we will explain EVERYTHING to you then."  he says as he pushes Storm back down into his seat.

Storm after having a grumble turns his attention to me and is staring at me now a very strange look on his face.  "What's your problem?!"  I snapped at him because he is starting to get on my nerves continuously staring at me like that.  Storm ignored my question and carried on staring.  "Storm you are really beginning to hack me off!!!"

Parsley leaned towards me and said quietly "You know why Storm is so narked don't you Tapestry?"  I shook my head

"Shut your mouth Parsley before I fill it with my fist!!"

 "He's FINALLY got Honey to agree to go out with him, they are supposed to be going on a date today, and now he can't go!!"  Parsley starts sniggering then, Storm obviously didn't like it and he is cutting his eyes at his brother  "He's got it bad and has been hassling her for months on the quiet, but I guess you didn't know that?!"  Storm called him a big mouth then punched his leg, which really seemed to annoyed Parsley, I half expected him to run off crying but he didn't.   

"Oops!!  I'm sorry Storm - my tongue slipped, I forgot you didn't want Tapestry to know did you!"  he said sarcastically smirking at Storm  "Well it's about time somebody told him and all this rubbish needs sorting out!!"

"You are a prat Parsley!!"  Storm says quite nastily

 "No, you are the prat Storm!!  Honey is only gonna use you to try and get HIS attention  (he pointed in my direction which confused me)  "I think you even know it yourself!!"  Then he turned to me  "Honey is really upset Tap because you have got yourself a girlfriend and its not her!!  She's always thought you and her ........She's been waiting forever for you to ask her out!!"

"WHAT?!"  I said quickly not exactly sure that I'd heard his words correctly.  "Are you mad?!!  Honey waiting for me to ask her out! - No you've got it all wrong - she doesn't like me that way!!"

"See he's so stupid he doesn't even have a clue!!"  Storm snapped at Parsley

"She does Tap, we all know it - I don't know how you don't see it, or why she won't tell you, but she's been driving us all nuts because of her obsession with you for years!!"  I glance from Storm to Parsley trying to read the expressions on their faces, looking for signs that they are just having a laugh, that they are winding me up ..... but I can't see any, Storm is unusually quiet and looking deadly miserable and Parsley deadly serious.  My head is swimming, I'm sure they have got to have this all wrong - she doesn't like me romantically anymore than I don't like her that way.  Parsley points at Storm  "He's narked because she keeps knocking him back because of you, he likes her and she can't see past you.  He's been trying to hide it all from you because he thinks secretly you like her too and if you knew how she felt then you'd fall over yourself and ask her out and he wouldn't stand a chance.  Basically he's been trying to snatch her away before you get to her."

"Make me sound pathetic why don't you!!" Storm spoke to his brother quite nastily

"Well you are Storm!!!" Parsley snapped back at him  "Tapestry his latest brainstorm this morning is that you've found out he has a date with Honey today and whatever has been going on here since last night, you've caused it to sabotage their date."

I sat in silence for a moment while everything he has just said starts falling into place in my brain.  I then start to laugh hysterically looking at Storm which he didn't like very much, I couldn't help it, this has to be the funniest thing I've ever heard!!  How stupid is he - "Me sabotage your date ........ Oh Berry!!! ....... "  Im having to hold my stomach because its hurting from all the laughing that I'm doing, Storm and Parsley are both just watching me, I'm not sure they know what to think about me having hysterics. "Storm you are a prat - I am not the slightest bit interested in her romantically!!!"  I am finding it hard to speak through bouts of laughing - "She's my best friend and that's all she will ever be to me!!"   He is just sitting opposite me a blank expression on his face now, I'm not sure if it's disbelief or relief   "Honey is all yours .. you have been stressing for nothing!!"

I carried on laughing for ages, imagining Storm sneaking around behind my back trying to steal Honey away, when I didn't want her in the first place, but then I got to think about the other side of it - what they were saying about Honey and how she feels about me - I soon stopped laughing.

Prelude sits down on the empty chair next to mine and starts irritating me straight away because he's continuously drumming his fingers on the table top.  "The Freeze kids, besides Fern, have you come into contact with any of the other three?"  he asks suddenly looking at all three of us in turn.

"I had a fight with a couple of them yesterday dinner why?"  Storm answered, which was news to me, but then I did leg it out of school during the first lesson, so I was not going to know that he'd been fighting at dinnertime.

"Which ones and why?"  Prelude looked irritated

"Forrest and his brother, I don't know the other boys name."  Storm started sniggering  "I've crossed paths with their evil sister too, she has more mouth than both of her brothers."  I looked up quickly thinking he was calling Fern the evil sister.  I cut him a dirty look and was just about to have a go at him when he added  "Not Fern the dark haired one, she is a piece of work for a girl, she's actually quite a sexy bitch!!"

"DON'T EVEN GO THERE STORM - Tell me you haven't!!??"  Prelude looked really distressed for a moment until Storm said he hadn't touched her.  "Good we have enough problems with him and Fern"  he said pointing at me before he went quiet for a few minutes.

"Jade and Pine the other two are called"  Prelude said out of the blue, the three of us just sit and stare at him rubbing his head, he looks stressed out and he has a weird far away look in his eyes. Why would he know their names, I didn't even know their names, Fern has not really said a lot about them, so how does Prelude know them?.  "Why were you fighting with them Storm?"

"They were bullying Parsley and Strawberry for being mixed berries."  Prelude is now grilling Storm over everything that happened and everything that was said, he wants to know every little detail and especially if they picked out Parsley specifically for their bullying.  Storm explained that the Freeze kids had spent the whole of yesterday bullying every mixed berry that crossed their paths.  Not being in school yesterday I'd missed it all, I am yet to see Ferns twin sister and two older brothers, and I'm not sure I want to from what I have heard so far.

I'm sitting looking at Prelude in disbelief as he's telling all three of us that we are to keep well away from ALL FOUR of the Freeze kids, he looked at me when he said 'all four'.  He then went onto to say that I can forget about Fern being my girlfriend because its not happening!!  Straight away I jumped up and started to play my mouth at him,  I told him he has no right to tell me who I can and can't date, but he came straight back at me telling me my parents would be telling me exactly the same thing when they got back.  We are forbidden from having anything to do with them - the Freeze family are trouble and can be very dangerous.  He started to explain something about their father being around here yesterday threatening my Dad .......... but he didn't get to finish telling us because he was interrupted.

Preludes phone starts ringing, I look up hoping it might be Dad with some news, but I am a little disappointed when he answers his phone and it isn't him  "Manderine ............."  he glances at us quickly "I'm sorry!!!"  He pulled a face and looked at his watch  "Just hang on ...... SHUT UP woman and I'll explain!!"  he said as he looks over at us again a little uneasily then slipped out of the patio doors and into the garden where we can see him pacing up and down talking to his wife on the phone, but we can't hear him.

His wife, my Aunty Manderine, the mysterious Aunty that I've never seen, not even a photograph,  because she has always been in prison and my parents have never let any of us visit or have anything to do with her.  She is a taboo subject and is never really talked about either, so I don't really know anything about her other than she's married to my Uncle, she's Storm and Parsley's mother and she's spending the rest of her life in prison, but I'm not even sure I know why.  The only time I ever really hear her mentioned by any of our family is if I'm round at Preludes house, and even then it feels like they try to keep any mention of her to a minimum.  Storm and Parsley are both a little cagey over the subject of their Mother being in prison, they both hate it, but they do go to visit her regularly, unlike all of her niece's and nephew's, who are not allowed to set foot anywhere near the prison.

Storm and Parsley are nattering away to each other, my mind is away, wandering around in a world of it's own and I'm not really listening to anything that they are saying.  I'm incensed!!!  I don't care what Prelude or my parents say, I'm not listening to it, there is no way they are going to keep me away from Fern, there is no way!!  My phone starts to vibrate.  I take it out of my pocket to see the envelope flashing up on my screen.  A text ........ she's done it again hasn't she, I already know it's going to be Fern and she's forgotten I don't read them.  I passed my phone to Storm and asked him to read it for me.

"Meet me round the back of the bowling alley asap!!  Don't tell anyone you're meeting me and don't let anyone see you!!! xx Fern xx"  he read the text out load then looks up at me a little amused smirk on his face  "I'm coming with you, I want a word with your girlfriend, maybe she might know what the fudge all this is about ....... obviously it has something to do with the Freeze's!!"  he slid my phone back across the table towards me as he got up out of his chair.

"No Storm, you can't, we have to stay in!!"  Parsley starts moaning at him but Storm told him to shut up, and to keep his mouth shut when their Dad asks where we have gone.  Storm is like me, he doesn't listen and isn't scared to sneak off and defy his Dad, there was never any doubt that Parsley would stay and do as he's told.  While Parsley is constantly going on trying to talk us out of going, we are closely watching Prelude who is pacing around the garden still talking to Manderine.   We are waiting for an opportunity to bolt, Prelude keeps looking into the kitchen like he's keeping an eye on us, we wait for him to turn his back towards the glass.  The minute his back is turned we seize the opportunity to run, I follow Storm and we leg it out of the house, running as quickly as we can in the direction of the Bowling Alley.

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Fern smiles at me and jumps up off the floor from where she is sitting when I rounded the corner. Her face changes when she see's that I am not alone, she stands staring at Storm, her eyes widen and a strange look washes over her face.  "Fudge!!!  Tap I told you to come alone!!"  she looks a little panicked and starts looking around like she's scared of something as she starts to back away from the both of us.  "You shouldn't have brought HIM with you!!"  Storm looks in my direction and we exchanged a quick confused glance.  "I know who you are Storm Orchid, I've seen you ........ She told me."  she's looking straight at Storm while she is still backing away from us, my mind flashed back to the bowling alley and the way she had been looking at Prelude and the mood she had gone into after he left.  She is now looking at Storm in exactly the same way, and how does she know his name?

"Fern?"  I rushed towards her and grabbed her, I think I got to her just as she was about to run  "What's wrong?"  she put her arms around me and buried her head into my shoulder, she's shaking and I'm really confused.  "Tell him to go Tap .... I don't want HIM here!!" 

"Fern what's going on? What's wrong?"  What IS going on here? either I'm struggling badly today and am just not keeping up at all, or things are seriously starting to get very weird around here!!  I feel like I'm slowly beginning to lose my mind with all of the confusion swimming around in it.  "What has Storm done to you Fern?"

"Yes Fern - what the fudge is your problem?!  You don't know me ...... you've seen me? When? doing what? Who is She? and just what has SHE told you??"  he snarled at her quite nastily,  Storm now I can see is getting irritated, he's glaring at Fern and not in a nice way  "Why the fudge are we being told to keep away from you Freeze's??"

She suddenly turned round to face him  "You REALLY don't know do you!!??  I bet they haven't told you either!!!!"  she spat back at him and they just stood glaring at each other for a moment.  "How do you not even see it??!!  Or are you colourblind too??!!"  Fern got right up in Storms face, like she had with me that first day when she had been peering into my eyes but he pushed her away from him quite roughly. "Storm you are either colourblind or very damn stupid - the Purple man - your Dad - he saw it straight away!!!"

 She started laughing suddenly as she turned to face me, wrapping her arms around me and starts to kiss me.  I'm feeling very weird about this, her mood has suddenly just changed again, but also my cousin is stood feet away watching us.  I've got my eyes open and I'm watching Storms face, he's standing there just staring at us kissing, the weirdest look on his face that I can't read.

It all happened too quickly, neither me or Storm saw it coming.   One minute I'm kissing Fern the next I'm laying on the ground, in pain and winded, flat on my back after being roughly wrenched away from her.  Two large shadows are looming over me, I have to squint to see them properly because of the sun - both of them teenage boy's that I've never seen before are glaring down at me.  "You don't touch her again EVER do you hear me!!"  one of the boys snarled at me  "Keep your dirty mixed berry hands off my sister, I'm only going to tell you this once Orchid!!"  I'm slow to react with the shock as my brain is trying to piece together what is happening, I am lay on the floor looking up at Ferns two brothers, both of them glaring down quite nastily at me.  I scramble to my feet but as I straighten myself up I feel a heavy blow to my stomach as one of the boys punches me pretty hard and I double up with the pain.  I can hear Fern screaming at her brother, Forrest, to leave me alone.

I look up searching for Storm who I know is not going to just standby and watch,  I can see he already has one of the boys pinned up against a tree punching him continuously, the boy doesn't stand a chance and I can already see his legs are buckling.  Forrest has also noticed Storm making mincemeat of his brother and leaves me to help him, he goes for Storm, so I go for him.

It becomes bedlam, the four of us are in a huddle fighting.  The brother that Storm was punching is now back with it and is taking a swing at me, but I duck and kick his legs from underneath him and he falls to the ground, as he tries to scramble back onto his feet I punch him in the face and he goes flying backwards again.  Suddenly I'm grabbed from behind by Forrest and I feel something sharp digging into my throat.  Fern starts screaming hysterically and Storm yells at me not to move.  Forrest is holding a knife across my throat.

For a second everything goes silent as everyone freezes holding their breath and stand watching and waiting for Forrest's next move.  I can hear my own heart beating in my head, wandering if and hoping that Forrest does not have the nerve to actually use that knife - if he does, I'm done for!!!

Storm steps forward towards us  "Man put the knife down - you really don't want to do this!!"  Forrest, still keeping a firm hold of me, takes the knife away from my throat and points it at Storm who held up his hands and stopped moving, he froze on the spot where he stood.  "Okay, okay!!"  he said

"Stay where you are purple, don't push me or I'll stick the both of you!!"  he snarled at Storm viciously "Now back up or do you want me to slit your mates throat??"  the knife came quickly back to my throat, I'm kicking myself as I feel it dig back into my flesh, I should have knocked it out of his hand while I had the chance to. Storm took a few steps backwards away from us.

Forrest then starts talking in my ear "Maybe now you might take us seriously when we tell you Orchid to keep your mixed berry hands off my sister - she's been told like I'm telling you now - in future you don't touch her, you don't look at her, you don't speak to her - you see her coming you cross the road away from her, you got me??!!"  he pulled me roughly towards him, the knife still at my throat  "If we find you within a 100 feet of her in future - you won't be getting a second warning - I will be using this knife!!"

I just stood there saying nothing, I am finding it hard to believe that they are carrying on like this just because I am a mixed berry - what are they even doing in this town if they hate mixed berries this much - this isn't normal - who the hell do they think they are!!??  "What do you recon Pine, I think he needs a nice scar to remind him don't you think!?"  Forrest is saying to his brother  "Just in case my warning slips his mind, or he doesn't take it seriously"  The knife leaves my throat and I feel him running the tip of the knife slowly down my face.  I suddenly get a nasty feeling that he means to slash my face.  Both brothers start laughing.

"You don't have the guts - come on stick me!!"  Storm suddenly stepped forward, he has that evil look on his face, I now become very scared because I can see what he is doing, he wants Forrest to wave that knife at him - he's trying to distract him away from me and he's using himself as bait.  I told Storm not to be stupid but he didn't even look at me, he took another step closer to us. 

Forrest took the blade off my face and pointed it at Storm like he had before, Forrest tells him to back off, but Storm isn't listening.   "Come on Forrest - you don't have the balls to use that knife!!"  he snarled as he leans towards him, taunting him. Forrest threw me aside as he lunged towards Storm with the knife.  I watched Storm jump backwards away from the knife.  I thought at first it had narrowly missing him, but I can see now its slices through the material of his jacket, and blood is seeping onto his T-shirt.   Storm looks down as his clothes laughing as I kicked out at Forrest's arm, the knife went flying out of his hand and landed on the grass a short distance away.  There is a sudden tussel as Storm and Forrest both fly in the same direction fighting to get to the knife.  Storm got to it first.

Now the tables have turned, Forrest scrambles to his feet as Storm turns the knife on him.  Fern distracts me for a minute as she runs and throws herself at me, hugging me and telling me we need to run.  I push her off me, but kept a hold of her hand,  I'm not going anywhere, I'm not leaving Storm here on his own with a knife in his hand, he's hurt and he's bleeding and I know he is capable of being stupid enough to use it.  "Storm please leave it now!!"  I shouted as I watch him thrust the knife at Forrest who stumbles backwards trying to get away from Storm and the knife.  Forrest falls backwards and onto the floor, Storm quick to react is on top of him and has him pinned down on the floor and is holding the knife point into his throat, a small trickle of blood starts to run down his neck.

"STORM DON'T!!!"  suddenly Prelude appears out of nowhere, obviously he must have managed to worm out of Parsley where we had sneaked off too, which I'm now very thankful for, I know Storm is never going to listen to me.  "Give me the knife Storm - You don't want to do this!!"  he is yelling at Storm.  That's when I notice Parsley is stood behind him, looking terrified and already looking like he is about to cry. 

"He tried to slit Tap's throat, he was just about to slash his face, he's also stuck me - give me one good reason why I shouldn't!!!!"  Prelude looked at me quickly running his fingers across my neck, I didn't even know I was bleeding until I saw the blood on his fingers, I saw his face switch, I watched the evil glint turn on in his eyes as he's staring down at my blood on his finger tips, but that look was only there for a moment as another look washed over his face.

"Storm, Don't be a damn idiot like your Mother!!!"

"What the fudge does Mom have to do with this?! ..... "

"She's faded people - why do you think she's spending the rest of her life in prison -  she's thrown her life away - please don't you do the same!!"

"You're lying!!!  You'll say anything right now to stop me  - Forrest here, he needs teaching a lesson!! .....He's used his knife and he's drawn blood"  I watched as Forrest yelped, Storm pushing the knife point into his neck a little deeper, a fresh stream of blood runs down his neck, as Storm moves his face towards Forrest's making sure they have proper eye contact.  Forrest now looks absolutely terrified and I'm not too far behind him  "He needs to see that I will use it too!!"

"STORM .... PLEASE ....STOP"

Storm looks up at Prelude, the expression on Storms face tells me he's gone, that evil look, the glint in his eye that only means trouble, I've always thought it's like he gets possessed by the devil - when he gets like this he can not stop himself, he becomes unhinged and he goes too far - I can see he's in pain, I can see all the blood on his clothes, I'm very scared that Prelude is never going to stop him now.

"STORM  YOU CAN'T .... FORREST IS YOUR BROTHER!!"  

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