*****
"Now what are we looking for?" Lee pushed his hair back, trying to keep the
disgust out of his voice. He was tired, he was hungry and he didn't want to
be where he was--namely Amanda King's attic. He had come over earlier that
morning to pick her up because once again her car was on the blink (what was
it with those damn station wagons anyway?) and Billy had some files for her
to sort. Why Amanda had to do it was beyond him. It seemed like any girl
from the secretarial pool could do it, but Billy had insisted. So Lee had
pulled up in front of the house on Maplewood Drive, honked his horn and
waited. After 10 minutes, he had gotten out of the Corvette and made his
way to the back of the house. Amanda has assured him she was the only one
home, but he hated taking chances.
He had found her in the backyard surrounded by camping gear and muttering
something about a BACKPACK. She had greeted him with a nervous laugh and a
"are you here already?"
'Yes, I'm here already." he heard the agitation in this voice and he tried
to stop it, but he couldn't. She drove him crazy! Why Billy continued to
use her for assignments was beyond him. But he did have to admit he would
miss her, sort of, she wasn't around anymore. "Are you ready to go?"
"No, I'm not ready to go." she answered back, pointing to her jeans and
Georgetown sweatshirt. "Do I look like I'm ready to go. I figured I had some
time because you are usually late."
"I am not." he protested. "I can't afford to be late. It can mean the
difference between life and death."
"True." she nodded, "but you still are usually late."
"Not."
"Yes,"
"No,"
"Yes, you are."
"Amanda!" he could feel his blood pressure rising but also could feel that
something else was indeed rising. When had fighting with Amanda King become
such a turn on? When had Amanda King become a turn on? He really needed to
think about something else.
"What are you looking for?" he finally asked. "Maybe I can help."
"Jaime's fuzzy SOCKS. " she said in a quiet voice. "He wore them on a
camping trip last month and he hasn't seen them since."
"And he needs them because?"
"Because they are his fuzzy socks." she shook her head like Lee was the
biggest dunce on the planet. "They are his favorites."
"But why are we looking for them now?"
"Because he's going camping this weekend with the Millers and he will need
them."
"Because they keep his feet warm?"
"No, because they are his favorite."
"Well, can't you look for them when you get back?"
"No, no really."
"If you knew you were going to need them why didn't you look for them
earlier this morning, before Billy called?"
"Because I didn't know that they were lost this morning, nor did I know that
Mr. Melrose was going to call. Now would you just help me look?"
He wasn't sure how long they looked before they found the offending ugly
green things. "These are his favorite?" he had held them up by the toes,
like they were contaminated.
"Yes. " Amanda had grabbed them away, putting them in her jeans pocket.
"Surely you remember what it was like to have a favorite something when you
were little. It usually was, something no one else understood."
And then they had had to carry all the camping equipment back up to the
attic and tidy the back yard. Then just as he was actually getting Amanda
to go up and change and take her into the Agency, she started her "oh my
gosh." mantra and finally got out of her that they had also taken up all of
the things Jaime was going to need for this weekend back up to the attic.
"We have to go and get them."
And so for the last hour, they had once more been going through boxes and
what not, looking for the boys canteen and first aid kit and what not.
"Since you just dumped stuff and didn't put it in the box that was marked
for that thing. " she had grumbled.
"We need the map." she told him in answer to his question. "The water proof
map of Northern Virginia Water ways and then we will be done."
"Because we can't go camping without it." Lee fussed but started once more
to look in boxes. They worked side by side for a moment and he couldn't help
but notice that even with disheveled hair, dust on her nose and tired eyes,
she was still, well yeah, beautiful.
"It was my RED helmet." he finally said.
"What was?"
"My favorite thing. I had this old ugly helmet that my Dad had picked up
somewhere. The paint was chipped and it had rust around the edges and I
remember the next door neighbor. telling my mother, I'd put an eye out with
it. But I loved it. When I put it on and went outside to play where I
was became a super SPACESTATION and was the first man on Mars, or the moon
or wherever I wanted to go that day. No one else understood it but me. It
was my favorite thing."
"Oh Lee. Amanda said very softly, turning she he wouldn't ' see her tears.
"That was very nice."
'Yeah will not expect it to happen again."
'I won't."
"Hey here's the map!"
"Thank you."
Yes, she was very pretty.
Story Notes:
Instructions:
1. You must use all the words in your story.
2. You can use the words in any order, and even more than once - but you MUST use them all AT LEAST ONCE.
3. Each word must be CAPITALIZED, in order to make sure they stand out.
4. Each word must be used EXACTLY as noted in the challenge. Please no changing tenses, adding prefixes or suffixes, or pluralizations.
1. You must use all the words in your story.
2. You can use the words in any order, and even more than once - but you MUST use them all AT LEAST ONCE.
3. Each word must be CAPITALIZED, in order to make sure they stand out.
4. Each word must be used EXACTLY as noted in the challenge. Please no changing tenses, adding prefixes or suffixes, or pluralizations.