Chapter 5 The Race against Time?

Peter pulled the RV into the University's bookstore parking lot. They stepped out of the RV in preparation for the race against time.

"On the count of three," said Leah. "One"

"Two," said Peter.

"Three," They said unison and ran into the University's bookstore. They walked quickly but smartly through the turnstyle and over to the first row of textbooks. Leah reached down and grabbed two of each book, handing off one of each to Peter. After they had 10 books, they walked as quickly as they dared to the cashier. Leah put her books on the counter when her turn finally came. The cashier gave her the total. Leah searched her pockets for her money. "I seem to have forgotten my money at home. Can you hold these for me? Thanks!"

Peter searched his wallet for money. He had been given more than enough money for two weeks stay at Mrs. Lehman's house, but not enough to buy both his and Leah's books. Textbooks were expensive at $95.00 a pop. Peter quickly paid for his books and they took off for the RV.

"That's just great!" exclaimed Peter. "Not only did we have to go back for the key, now we have to go back for the money! And we think we are going to be able to raise ourselves? I doubt it! We can't even find our brains let alone our heads!"

"Just drive, will you! I don't want to hear about it!"

Peter drove out of the parking lot and headed towards 'home', which in this case, was Mrs. Lehman's house. Leah put her seat back, closed her eyes and attempted to sleep for a few minutes. Peter came to a stop at the railroad tracks and watched the train go by.

Leah jumped up, noticing the sounds around her. Alarmed, she asked, "Hey, aren't we going to stop off at AJ's first for our bikes?"

"And waste more precious time? I think not!" Peter drove until they were 1/2 a block away from 'home'. "Well come on. We have to walk from here and try to sneak in."

"The secret door! We can sneak into the East wing through the door in the fence that leads right to the East wing!"

"Leah, why didn't you tell me that before?"

"I did! We just both forgot in our rush, that's all."

Peter and Leah took as much money out of the safe as they felt they could possibly use. "How are we going to carry the money to the RV?" asked Peter.

"I'll go grab some bags from grandma."

Leah crept to the door leading to main part of the house. She held her ear to the door trying in vain to hear where her grandma might be. The house was huge. Her grandma could be anywhere, including right outside her door! The doorbell rang. Leah knew the Butler would answer the door. But what about the maids, Leah thought to herself. She slowly opened the door and peeked. No one was in sight. She ran quickly but quietly to the dining room, just like they taught her in ballet. She peeked around the corner to make sure the kitchen was clear. It was. Leah ran to the pantry, grabbed as many bags as she could carry. The butler closed the front door and started towards the kitchen. Leah looked out of the kitchen window and saw grandma sitting on the porch, looking at the extensive gardens. Leah took off for the East wing as fast as her legs could carry her without making a sound. She made it to the dining room just as the kitchen door opened. She ran as fast as she could to the East wing door. The butler would still be able to see her in the dining room. The butler continued thru the Kitchen and out the door leading to the porch. Leah darted thru the door. Peter quickly turned the knob and closed the door noiselessly shut. They ran upstairs to the secret room. Feverishly, Peter and Leah stuffed the money into the bags. They each grabbed 6 bags and carefully walked down the stairs and over to the RV. One of Peter's bags started ripping. Money dropped like golden nuggets, marking the way home.

"Peter," whispered Leah. "You're losing money!"

"We'll have to come back for it."

They threw the money between the seats in the RV and ran back to pick up the money that had spilt onto the road. Peter and Leah stuffed the money into their pants pockets, jacket pockets, shirt pockets and socks as quickly as they could. Peter even started stuffing his jeans with the money, tucking his pants into his socks. They ran back to the RV, jumped inside and took off. A police car rounded the corner in front of them. Peter turned on his turn signal and made a right turn. He made another right turn and then a left, trying to get as much distance between him and the cop as possible. Soon, they were in the clear. They breathed a sigh of relief. Back at the University, Peter put on a different outfit and combed his hair differently. Leah went in as she was and bought her books. Peter followed shortly afterwards and bought 10 more books. They ran back and forth buying books and changing clothes in the RV to look like a different person. They made sure to go to a different cashier everytime. Peter thought it was a good thing that the Mafia left the clothes in there. They wouldn't have came up with that idea themselves. As is was, Peter wasn't sure they could think of anything themselves. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, they were just pulling into Burgerama's drive-thru for lunch, tired and exhausted. They had finished buying textbooks, notebooks with the pages numbered, lab books, and other supplies. They had bought a copy of every textbook the University carried.

Peter pulled into a toy store after they had finished eating. He looked over at Leah,"Ready?"

"Sure,"said Leah, unenthused.

They each grabbed a cart and walked quickly up and down the aisles looking for anything that grabbed their attention. They weren't big on video games. They were to boring. Leah ran-walked down the aisle and grabbed some jigsaw puzzles while Peter loaded up on Legos. Leah grabbed some Legos and Palace building sets. Peter grabbed the Castle building sets. After they paid they threw the purchases in back on the RV. Peter drove them to the next toystore and they bought more legos and building sets. They ran the carts to their RV, threw those purchases in back, and took off for Craftsville. Each of them grabbed two carts, because they were small, and ran-walked the aisles very quickly, loading up on[read this part quickly to get how they felt] brushes and paints for watercolor, oils, acrylics, and fabric; canvases, watercolor paper, beads, embroidery thread, silk ribbon, gel pens and crayons, colored pencils, black paper, drawing paper, drawing pencils, acid-free markers of various colors, thicknesses, and designs for plastic,photos, and paper; block printing supplies, drafting supplies, 2 portable drafting desks, large 3' x 5' graph paper, paint dishes, paint brush cleaners, paintbrush bags with stands, 24K gold leaf, stencils, rubber stamps, rubber stamp inks, calligraphy pens and quills, quills nibs, parchment paper, blank journals with plain black covers, shells, colored marbles, rocks, quartz, and every other kind of rock and mineral you can think of; and last but not least, lots of paper for every project you can imagine!

At the mall, Leah and Peter had a quick planning meeting.

"Now, Peter, we don't necessarily buy our clothes at the same stores, so, I think we should help the other pick out clothes. I wear a 12 girls. What size do you wear?"

"A 14 boys."

"Let's buy some clothes in larger sizes so that we have clothes when we grow taller."

"Agreed."

They quickly walked down the hall searching for a clothing store that agreed with them.

"I can't believe how hard it is to find conservative clothes with teenager's wearing clothes that show the belly button!" complained Leah.

"I know what you mean! I wouldn't want to see you dead in any of these clothes, let alone alive!" Peter responded. "Hey, look at this, plaid shirts!"

"And they have kilts too!"

"Our names aren't Scottish."

"So, that doesn't mean that we don't have scottish blood in us."

"Besides, our hair is too dark to pass as a Scot."

"I don't care, I am buying a kilt anyhow. I like them."

"I do too, actually. We could always pretend we are taking Scottish Highland dancing lessons."

"Just grab any plaid shirt you like in sizes you can grow into. Let's hurry."

Peter rushed around the store grabbing blue, red, green, and purple plaid shirts. He grabbed Mens xtra-small, medium, and large. Leah grabbed Misses sizes 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 in as many different plaids as she could. She ran over to the kilts and chose several of those too. After grabbing the socks and shoes they paid for their stuff and ran out to the RV, plopping the clothes on top of the kitchen counter tops.They ran back to another clothing store. They walked quickly around the store grabbing suitcoats, blazers, 3-piece suits, formal dresses, formal shirts, belts, cumberbund and many other items. Peter and Leah went around to several stores buying this that and the other thing. They only thing they didn't buy was anything they thought immoral or not conservative enough. Think ultra-square. Yes, society thought they were so lame. But, they didn't care. They loved themselves just as they were.Another thing they did not buy-shorts. Legs stick to chairs in shorts and that might be a bad thing if they ever had to move quickly. They even bought several formal outfits for each of them, including a faux mink shawl and several faux fur coats. Neither of them are big on killing animals for their fur, so faux was the only way to go. The object was too appear richer and maturer than they really were.

Peter drove into Lendmon's Foods. It was decided that they would each take 2 carts and grab everything they thought would be ate in 4 months time. The trick was to be the first one finished and in the RV. Good thought but they only had one hitch!

"Peter, where are we going to put the food? We can't even get to the couch, let alone the Kitchen!"

"Oops!"

Peter unlocked the storage areas underneath the RV. Leah started handing him the clothes as fast as she could. He threw them as neatly as he could, underneath. Next came oodles of bags of art supplies.

"Now where should we put the rest of the stuff? The bins are full!"

"Just hand me the food. We have to get going."

Peter handed Leah the food and quickly got into the driver's seat. Leah stayed in back rearranging the bags of goodies until she could reach the Kitchen. Peter quickly took off toward's AJ 's. They still haven't bought enough food, but he didn't feel like staying in a parking lot attracting attention either.

"Peter, how do you turn on the Fridge?"

"How should I know? I've never owned one of these before!"

"Well, the owner's manual has to be somewhere!"

"Check the glove compartment. I have to drive. I have a stupid cop on my tail and he seems to be following me!"

Leah took a quick look around to catch her bearings. "Peter, take a left at the next stop light. It will get us to the freeway."

Peter did as he was told. The cop followed. "Exit on 56A. It will take us to the back roads." Peter exited and saw much to his horror that the cop kept on following them. Peter kept on driving, wondering when the lights were going to go on.

"We will be at the state line in another hour. Just don't make any mistakes and we'll be fine. He can't pull us over on suspicions."

"The end of that hour can't come soon enough for me!"

After a few minutes, the cop stopped and turned around. Peter kept right on going as if he had meant to go this way.

"Turn left at the very next county road. I'll direct us home to AJ's a different way."

"Whew, that was close! I wonder why that cop was following us for so long?" asked Peter.

"I haven't a clue. It's not like we stole anything or anything."

"No, we just look a little too young for the amount of food we bought."

"You know what that means?"

"What?"

"We will have to lie low for awhile. If we run away now, he'll know we took off in the RV." "Shoot! Now we'll have to finish that stupid boring-work, otherwise known as homework!" Peter exclaimed in a peeved anger.

Peter leafed through the owner's manual until he found out how to get the fridge and freezer up and running. Leah had managed to load the Freezer and Fridge with all the food. Fortunately, they hadn't bought any milk or juice that needed to be refridgerated. That would have spoiled by the time they could take off. They got on their bikes and headed for home.

"Tomorrow Leah, we will have to race to see who can finish their homework first!"

"I am so thrilled, I could puke!"

"I know the feeling. Hey, maybe we can finish all the homework in all of our school books, I mean all of the homework that they could possibly assign."

"You mean, finish all of the workbook pages and the math book pages?"

"Yes!"

"That will take days!"

"But I think the results will be worth it. We may just be rewarded with the next level math book." Overly tired, Leah tossed and turned in bed, trying to fall asleep. Peter fell to sleep before his head even hit the pillow.