Chapter 6 - part 3 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

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Standing in the meadow with the rest of the boys and at the moment all eyes are on me because I really don't like the plan that they have come up with and I am stalling.

Me being her boyfriend I am the ideal one to get her here, we plan to use Fern as the bait to lure all the other Freeze kids out, including Forrest.  The police haven't found Forrest yet to arrest him - he has gone into hiding - we are hoping that us holding Fern hostage will flush him out and get him here, but I doubt he would be that stupid!!  Carmine and Mosaic are seriously after Forests blood and they are scaring me!!

Fern's phone is ringing and she doesn't answer it.  It just gets cut off.

"You know this isn't going to work!!"  I looked at the other boys  "She just cut off the call"

"Try again Tap - we NEED to get her out first to lure the others out, or how else are we going to do it??!!"  Mosaic is egging me on.  In a way I hope she doesn't answer her phone to keep her out of this, but I call her number again anyway, I don't really have a choice with four sets of eyes staring at me.

Her phone starts ringing and I stand listening, after only two rings, my heart skips a beat as there is a click as she answers her phone.

"Sorry  Tap - my brother was in the room, I'm really sorry about Storm - are you okay??!!"  she whispers down the phone.

"No!!  Fern can you get out?  I really need to see you!!"  I tried to sound upset.  Inside I'm shaking because I really don't like the idea of using Fern, I'm helping to lure her out into the middle of the trouble when I don't want to, but I have to keep remembering I need to stick with my brother, he is determined to do this with or without me.   The sensible thing would be to try and talk them out of this revenge attack but deep down I too need to see something done for what they have done to Storm - Forrest has to pay for what he's done.  Storm wouldn't have just sat back and done nothing if it had been one of us - he would be here and doing this, so I feel I have to - for him.    

"Meet me in the meadow, Please Fern I need you!!"  She falls for it and says she'll sneak out and be here as soon as she can.  I snapped my phone shut looking at the boys

"Happy now?! She's on her way."

Now all we can do is wait.

The other boys went and hid away out of sight while I sit out in the open where she can see me, strategically placed as we have planned it.  This gave me time to think - I have to make sure they don't hurt Fern, she really doesn't deserve what they think she has coming to her - just because she is a Freeze it doesn't make her bad, unlike the rest of her family she doesn't care about colour or mixed berries, she hasn't bullied anyone, she hasn't been mean to anyone - her only crime is her name and her family.   It didn't take long for her to appear.

I stand up when I see her coming and watch her walking towards me, my stomach flips, I really don't like the thought of what is coming.  Without saying a word she puts her arms around me and starts to kiss me.  Great!!  This is all I need, I nearly pushed her away but have second thoughts.   If I stop her from kissing me she might get suspicious and it is I suppose a pretty good way to keep her distracted, it helps me to do what I have to do while I am waiting for the other boys to pounce.

As she is kissing me I already know, this isn't going to be as hard for me as I thought, instantly it has helped me clear up any confusion that I might have over breaking up with Fern for Honey.  I know I fell for her pretty face and the fact that she was the first girl that showed any interest in me, a boy who thought he would never get himself a girlfriend, because I struggle to even make and keep friends.  She is kissing me and I don't feel a thing, there are no sparks, there is no chemistry, I'm just going through the motions of kissing her and all I can think about is Honey.

Suddenly she is wrenched away from me  "Nice move Tap - the kissing was genius!!"  Mosaic is laughing, while he has a hold of Ferns one arm and Maize has a hold of the other.

"Hey what's going on??"  she starts yelling and tries to wriggle out of Mosaic and Maize's grip, but it's useless they are too strong for her and have her pinned up against the rock.  "Tap??!!"  she is looking at me a little distressed

"I'm sorry Fern!!"  I pass her phone to Carmine, as I watch her eyes widen as she must realize that I had picked her pocket while my hands were wandering when she was kissing me.  She must have thought I was touching her up but I wasn't I was searching for her phone.  Carmine is already in her phone and calling the number we had decided on.

"No it's not Fern!!"  he laughs into the phone, obviously Pine has answered his phone  "We have your sister and if you don't want us to hurt her, you'll come to the meadow."  he stands listening pulling the phone away from his ear and starts laughing.  Even I can hear Pine shouting because it is so loud.  Fern starts screaming for help, which no doubt her brother can hear. Cinnamon quickly moved to cover her mouth to quieten her, as he looks around nervously hoping no passers by have heard her screaming.   

"I'm not joking Pine, I've got a knife, you've got 5 minutes before she starts losing things, starting with her pretty face!!"  Carmine says to Pine then he snaps the phone shut a big grin on his face.  He sees me scowling at him  "Don't worry Tap, I don't have a knife, but Pine isn't to know that is he!!  Your girlfriends face is safe ..... for now."  he starts laughing again, I felt like punching him!!

"You bitch!!"  Cinnamon shouts and starts hopping around shaking his hand  "You should have warned us Tap that the bitch bites."  They all started laughing but I'm not really finding this very funny, especially where Fern is concerned.

I heard a twig snap loudly behind me and I turn to look, surprised to see Strawberry making her way towards our little gathering, I'm not happy that she's here, we managed to stop Coral and Juniper coming, she even helped us talk them out of it, so why is she here now?!   

"Strawberry what are you playing at - you need to leave - you know it's not safe!!!"  I say to her telling her she needs to go again, but she just stands there with her arms crossed saying she is going nowhere.

"I'm here for my sister, I don't trust you Tapestry!!"  she snaps at me  "Tap have you told her yet she's so dumped??!!"  I swear this girl is mad!!  Pine and Jade and possibly Forrest are due here any minute and she's come here just to make sure I've dumped Fern!!

"This really isn't the time Strawberry!! the others will be here any minute, you need to leave!!"  I'm scared that if she is here when Jade arrives being the only girl Strawberry will be her first target and I doubt she will stand a chance.  Strawberry being Parsleys girlfriend makes me extra nervous, he has been through enough today without his girlfriend getting hurt on top.

Strawberry walked up to Fern and slapped her face pretty hard,  "That is for Storm!!"  she says to her which I thought was pretty harsh as it wasn't Fern who stuck the knife in, it was Forrest, and I think we are all forgetting that Storm was her half brother too.  "And while I'm here just so you know - your boyfriend here has been getting naked and horizontal with my sister."  Oh boy!!!  I can hear Mosaic and Cinnamon sniggering quite loudly  "So you are dumped, its over - from now on you keep away from Tapestry or me and my brothers will be coming after you!!"  I wanted a hole to open up in the ground and swallow me whole.  I glance over at Maize and Carmine who are just glaring at me, both Honey's brothers I guess they don't find it as amusing as my brother and Cinnamon do.

Fern is also glaring at me.  "Tap, tell me she's lying"

"I'm sorry Fern she's not, we have to break up because I'm with Honey now."  She is silent for a moment then a hale of swear words start to fly at me as Fern starts kicking and screaming, trying to wriggle out of Mosaic and Maize's grip again.

Strawberry's disruption has made us take our eye off the ball, for a while I think we almost forgot the whole purpose of us being here, now too busy watching Fern kicking off and waiting for her to calm down, we don't see what is coming behind us - the remaining three Freeze kids. I feel something hard hit my back, a rock falls to the ground by my feet with a thud.

"You know Orchid we really need to stop meeting like this."  I can hear Forrest behind me and I know he is talking to me.  I spin round and am faced with Forrest, Jade and Pine.  I am very surprised that Forrest has appeared, I didn't think he would actually be stupid enough to come out of hiding, I only expected Pine and Jade to turn up.

"Let my sister go now!!!"  Forrest is snarling at us

"Not till you get what's coming to you berryhole!!!"  Carmine shouts at him, he really is up for a fight.  "You are going to pay for what you have done to Storm!!"

Forrest started laughing  "That was his own stupid fault for trying to be clever!!!  If you play you have to be prepared to lose!!"  he steps towards me and stops laughing  "Shame I didn't know he was my brother at the time, he had balls trying to protect you, I could have used him, he would have made a nice addition to our team!!"

"Berry Hole!!!"  he made me angry, I saw red and I flew at him, but I didn't reach him, Pine and Jade charged forward both pushing me flying backwards and away from Forrest.  I fell backwards onto the grass, as I tried to scramble to my feet all hell broke loose.  I saw Carmine and Maize fly at Forrest and the fighting starts as they both start laying into him.

As I got to my feet Pine steps in front of me.  "You should have listened Orchid!!  You should have kept away from Fern when you were told to!!"  he hisses at me.  "We don't make idol threats!!"

"What the fudge is your problem anyway??"  I snap at him  "This is all about colour - you are pathetic - if you have a problem with colour mixing then you should get the fudge out of our town, you have no rights being here!!!"

"To start with yes, it was only about colour mixing -  but this runs a little deeper than just colour now!!"  he's in my face  "Your three families, yours in particular, are the reason why my Mother is in prison!!"

W.T.F is he on about???!!!  I don't get the chance to ask because he is coming at me, he throws a punch so we start to lay into each other.  We are exchanging punches for a while when Mosaic throws himself at Pine sending him flying away from me, Pines gets up and starts on Mosaic.

I look around quickly, Jade and Strawberry are knocking each other around, I'm surprised to see that Strawberry seems to be holding her own, Pine however is now making mincemeat of Mosaic so I start to go back to help him and have a quick look for Fern but I don't see her.

Then I feel her as she jumps on my back and starts slapping my head.  I quickly throw her off and as she lands on the floor I pin her down.  "Fern you need to get out of here - run now while you have the chance!!"  she just lay there looking up at me wide eyed  "Go Fern please, I'm not going to hurt you but if one of the others get a hold of you they will, please go!!!"  I loosened my grip on her and scramble to my feet pulling her up with me      

"You are a pig Tapestry!!!  she starts to slap me like an hysterical child  "A Cheating PIG!!"  I can tell by the way that she is slapping me, she is not a fighter, she is like Parsley, she is not like her other brothers and sister.  If any of the others get a hold of her I doubt she could even fight back  - I'm doing the right thing getting her to leave before she gets hurt.

I had to grab her by the arms and shake her to stop her from being hysterical  "Fern this isn't the time, you need to run NOW!!"

"This isn't over Tapestry!!!  We WILL be talking about this!!"  she said as I pushed her away from me telling her again to go, after hesitating for a moment she started to run, she looked back at me before she disappeared out of sight running out of the meadow.

I turned my attention back to Pine and Mosaic, Pine is now sat over Mosaic and he is laughing.  As I get close to them my heart nearly stops, I can feel all the colour drain away from my face as I can't take my eyes off a knife handle that is sticking out of Mosaics shoulder surrounded by a growing circle of blood.  Fudge!!!!  If I had gone to help him when I first went to instead of stopping to help Fern escape I might have been able to have stopped that from happening!!!
Pine has stabbed Mosaic.  Oh Berry!!!  Please don't let my brother fade too!!!!

I need to get Pine off Mosaic, I look around the floor quickly and see a large rock which I pick up and quickly smash Pine in the side of the head as hard as I can, he flies to the side, off and away from Mosaic, as he falls he hits his head on one of the larger rocks slumping onto the grass in a heap, he lies there motionless because he's out cold.

Mosaic is riling in pain, he's looking down at his shoulder and is try to pull out the knife.  "NO DON'T!!"  I shouted at him as I fell to my knees next to him  "Don't pull it out, Dad told me that's what does the damage, it has to stay there."  He's moaning that it hurts and I don't know what to do for him, in a panic I took out my phone and pressed the "D" in my list of numbers, I have no choice but to phone Dad for help.   

Suddenly Mosaic shouts he is looking up and starts pointing  "Tap Behind you."  he warns me. I pass him my phone quickly hoping he will finish making the call to Dad.

I spin around just in time to see Jade coming at me, Strawberry is lying on the ground moaning, as I stand up to face Jade she stops right in front of me, leaning in menacingly our faces are inches apart.  "You keep away from my sister, breath the same air as her again and I will hunt you down until you are lying next to Storm!!"

Then without any warning she hit me with a full force punch in the stomach.  Man that hurt!!!  Trying to ignore the pain I threw myself at her and the punches start flying - she can fight for a girl - Storm wasn't wrong about that.

I can't believe that I'm rolling around on the meadow floor with a girl fighting, but she's not just any girl so I don't feel so bad for fighting with her - she's a Freeze, Ferns twin sister and anyway she is  beating the crap out of me!!!!

Suddenly I hear someone yelling her name  "JADE!!!  Get off him NOW!!"  the man yelled  "What did I tell you lot ....... we are in enough trouble!!!"  he sounds really angry.  I look up quickly and see a man I've never seen before, I also see Fern stood not too far away from him.  Why is she back?

"Dad they had Fern hostage, what were we supposed to do, just leave her??!!"  Forrest sniped at the man from somewhere behind me.

"FORREST ...... Are you TRYING to get yourself caught??!!"   The man, who I now know is there Father, is yelling at his son.

I scramble to my feet thinking its over, but Jade has other thoughts, she doesn't seem to care that her Dad is there, while he is busy arguing with Forrest, she starts on me again, we start exchanging punches and our fighting continues.

Suddenly it stops, I hear a load of shouting as I'm knocked to the floor, my arms are being roughly pulled behind me and I feel the cold metal of the handcuffs as they are clamped on my wrists, I don't try to fight it I just let it happen - I know it's over.  The police are here.

I lie on the ground and look in Mosaic's direction, I see my Dad and Mulberry on their knees leaning over him.  I should have known that Dad would bring the police with him!!!  I am roughly pulled up to my feet, that's when I get to look around properly.

Prelude angrily makes his way over to Mr Freeze and they instantly start yelling at each other.

The argument gets very heated, Prelude seems to be the angrier one of the two and I am not surprised when Prelude goes for him and they start swinging punches at each other.  They are quickly separated by police officers and warned to stay apart or they will be arrested along with us kids.

Mr Freeze moves straight away going over to put his arm around Fern, who I can see is crying, while Prelude reluctantly moves away, after a little hesitation he goes over to check on Strawberry, I'm surprised to see Prelude walk away so easily it is unlike him, once he blows there is usually no stopping him.  I keep watching them as they both keep occasionally exchanging angry looks with each other.

Dad distracts me when he leaves Mosaic with Mulberry to come over and check me,  he looks at me crossly but doesn't say anything other than to ask if I'm hurt anywhere. when I tell him no and he sees I have no serious injuries he goes over to check on Strawberry then Pine.

Strawberry, Pine and Mosaic are still lay where they fell, the rest of us are in handcuffs and being pushed into two groups, Jade and Forrest are kept a distance away from the rest of us.  At least one good thing is going to come out of this, they have Forrest now, they will lock him up and throw away the key, he is going to spend the rest of his life in prison just like his Mother. 

Strawberry is carried away by a paramedic, Pine, who is still out cold, is placed on a stretcher like Mosaic who Dad is fussing over.  As they walk past us one of the police officers calls my Dad, I laugh to myself as I look towards the voice and I'm looking at one of the police officers who dragged me and Fern out of the dive bar.  "What about this one?"  he says pointing at me.  "Do you want me to let him loose?"

"NO!!!  Take him away with the others."  Dad says as he glances at me  "Do whatever you have to with him!!"

"DAD!!" I shouted pretty shocked.  For once I wanted him to make his excuses for me and get me out of trouble, I wanted him to be his usual over protective suffocating self ......... and for the first time ever ......... he isn't going to!!

"I'm sorry Son ...."  he seemed to hesitate for a moment  "..... It's the only way you are ever going to learn!!!"  he says as he walks off with Mosaic towards the ambulance without looking back.


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