Lakeview County |Episode 4 {Season 1} | Collection Chaos

~~~

Taryn was happy.

It was the first day in weeks that she had nothing planned. Nothing to do.

No school. No chores.

Today was her day to chill.

And Taryn was determined to spend the day on her 3DS (3 Doll System). 

"Taryn, can you even hear me?!" Charlie shouted for the fifth time.

Taryn sighed. "Yes, I can hear you. I'm just trying to ignore you."

"Well, stop it, because I have a job for you." Charlie replied, nonplussed.

"Oooh no. Nope. Sorry, but today is my day off!" Taryn said, waving her hands animatedly.

Charlie smiled, "But Taryn I won our bet. Now you're going to clean the house!"

"Well... not quite. Our deal was you couldn't be in charge of anything. You were bossing June around, so that means I won our bet." Taryn turned back to her game smugly.

"Hmm. All right, how's this? You're going to take a turn tidying the house, or I'll confiscate your video game thing."

Taryn slid off her bed with a groan.

"I want you to know that I am not happy about this."

~~~

"And once you're done all of that, you can clean up the mess your exploding fridge made in here." Charlie finished as she led Taryn into the kitchen.

"I'll go get started." Taryn grumbled.

Charlie turned around and saw Kit and Ruthie sitting at the table, looking concerned.

"What's going on in here?" Charlie asked.

"Oh, nothing, nothing." Kit said with a strained laugh.

"That's exactly the problem!" Ruthie exclaimed as Charlie turned her attention elsewhere, "Nothing is happening! For weeks now we've had nothing to print. I think the 'Hard Times News' is running dry."

"Don't worry, Ruthie. We'll find a story soon." Kit asserted.

"Amy," Charlie called as Amy scotched past her into the kitchen, "Can you please remind me to call a refrigerator repairman?"

"No problem, Charlie." Amy said sweetly. 

Kit groaned as she stared at her blank page of story ideas.

"What's wrong?" Amelia asked.

"We don't have any stories to follow up on." Ruthie replied as Kit smacked her head with the book, "Or any stories for that matter."

There was a knock on the door, and it opened as Heather let herself in.

"Hey guys!" She greeted the room, "Do any of you know where Molly is? I came over to tell her -"

Heather was cut short by a scream from downstairs.

"Um, I think Molly is down there." Amy replied nervously.

"Oh boy." Heather sighed, "Here we go."

~~~

"So..." Heather began as she eased herself onto Molly's bed, "What's going on?"

Molly sighed, not bothering to look up from her book. "Oh, who knows? But in this house, whatever it is, it promises to be interesting."

"OK, that's fine but what is it?" Taryn asked, gesturing to something on the floor.

Charlie was obviously confused and annoyed by Taryn's reaction. "Taryn, it's not that big a deal."

"It's just my used tissue collection. Finish cleaning, then I'll put it back under the bed."

"What?!" Taryn cried.

"And please don't touch any of my other collections." Charlie added.

"There are more of these disgusting stashes of clutter in our house?!"

"Yes. I mean, no! I mean - they aren't disgusting!" Charlie said defensively, "It's called recycling, Taryn."

"You took that meaning completely out of context."

"You never noticed them before, why is such a big problem now?"

"Um," Taryn pretended to consider it, "Oh, maybe because now I'm afraid to touch anything! I don't want to find any of your 'collections' by accident!"

As the argument raged on, Heather whispered to Molly, "Do you think we should help them?"

"I suppose." Molly replied along with a drawn out sigh, as she set her book on her bed

"Heather! Can you please explain the health risks of these germ collectors?!" Taryn shouted.

"Don't worry." Heather said soothingly, "We'll deal with this."

"Because it desperately needs to be dealt with." Molly shuddered as she glanced at the pile of dirty tissues. 

~~~

"Molly, don't push me!" Charlie struggled against Molly, who had guided her to the kitchen. "I need to get back down there, or they're going to throw out my collection!"

Molly whipped her around and shook her gently. "Charlie! Do you hear yourself?! You're trying to defend a heap of dirty, molding Kleenexes!"

Charlie gasped and pulled away.

"I've become a monster!" 

While Charlie hyperventilated and muttered under her breath, Molly looked back down the stairs.

"I need to talk to Heather," Molly said as she massaged her temples, "We need to figure out what we're doing." 

Ruthie's gasp came from the kitchen table.

"Kit, how could you suggest such a thing?! We can't just make up a story! It has to be built on fact."

"Ugh, I know. But -"

Kit was cut off as the door opened.

"No need to worry folks, I'm here." a young man said as he walked into the kitchen.

He shuffled past Charlie, who was still very discombobulated, and to the fridge.

"Um, I'm sorry, but who are you?" Charlie asked halfheartedly.

"I'm Jock." he replied. When Charlie still looked confused, he added, "The fridge repairman?"

"But I didn't call -"

"Well, that hardly matters. This fridge needs serious help, lady."

Before Charlie could ask any more questions, Molly came and herded her back downstairs.

For a few minutes, Jock dug around in the fridge, making an almighty racket.

Then he stood up and grinned.

As he rubbed his hands together he muttered, "Ha. Sucker. Now, I wonder where they keep the good stuff."

Kit cleared her throat.

"Oh! Heh heh." Jock laughed weakly as he faced Kit's glare, "I, um, meant 'I wonder where they keep the good fridge fixing stuff'. Ha."

Kit didn't even blink.

"I've, ah, gotta go get some stuff from my truck." Jock said shiftily.

Kit smiled slowly.

"Ruthie. I think I've found our story."

~~~

"So, why do you have these collections?" Heather asked.

Charlie beamed. "Oh, that's easy! I like sorting things. It helps me relax. I usually alphabetize or colour-code my collections once a day."

"OK." Heather said, trying not to shudder. "And how many do you think you have?"

"At the moment, I have 43 and a half." Charlie answered proudly.

Molly tried not to think about what half a collection meant, as she said, "So, I think for starters let's say you can keep twenty. Then we'll go from there."

"What?!" Charlie cried, "I have to get rid of them?! That's like asking someone to get rid of their extra children!"

"Claire, do you think we're being fair?" Molly appealed to Claire. 

"Well, I was going to say we should take them all and have a huge bonfire so..." Claire trailed.

"Why is she here again?" Charlie asked.

"Emotional support?" Heather shrugged.

Charlie and Claire both rolled their eyes.

~~~

"All right, Charlie. Molly and Taryn found these three collections of um..."

"Used tissues, rotten vegetables, and marbles." Charlie finished helpfully.

"Uh... right. So, choose one to keep and we'll get rid of the others." Heather explained.

"Only one?!" Charlie groaned, "Oh, um... ahh! I don't know!"

"Really? You have a choice between decaying food, dirty tissues, and shiny marbles."

"Um, I'll keep the... rotten vegetables!"

Heather smacked her palm to her forehead.

"Told you we shouldn't have given her the choice." Claire rejoined.

"This is going to be harder than I thought."

~~~

"OK, Ruthie, our witness will be here in a few moments." Kit said excitedly.

"OK." Ruthie replied slowly, "But I still don't understand why we need a witness. We already know this Jock guy is casing our house, planning to rob us."

"Dear, sweet Ruthie. You don't become a big time reporter by working off what you know!"

Ruthie reluctantly took her seat, and their witness, Amy, walked in.

"Hello, Ms. Woodhouse." Kit greeted diplomatically. "Please, take a seat."

"Um... where?" Amy asked, looking around the kitchen for a third seat.

Kit waved her hand at Ruthie, and Ruthie, with a dramatic sigh, gave Amy her seat.

"Now, please tell us everything you know about the case." Kit prompted once Amy was settled in her seat.

"Um... well, there's a guy and he's pretending to fix our fridge so he can rob us." Amy answered succinctly. "I was also wondering if I could be your assistant for this case?"

Kit smiled at Ruthie and raised her eyebrows.

"What do you think Ruthie? Do you need an assistant?"

"Fine." Ruthie relented with a sigh. "But only if you lose the princess dress."

"Alright, let's find out what this creep is trying to steal."

~~~

"Claire, what are we going to do?" Heather asked helplessly, "We've been at this for an hour, and we still have 37 collections to go through!"

Claire didn't hear Heather, because she was thinking about what a good bonfire all of Charlie's stuff would have made.

"Wait a minute." Heather muttered, as she noticed something, "Claire, did you move the collection of shingles with holes in them?"

"Um, no. Why?"

"Because it's gone."

Claire sat up and looked around the room. "The piles of cracked boards, rusty nails, and half cans of paint are gone too."

"But who would do something like that?" Heather asked with a shudder, "None of your sisters would touch them so that must mean..."

"There's a thief in the house!" Heather shouted.

"And they must be really sick if they're taking this stuff." Claire added.

~~~

"Ahh," Jock sighed happily, not even suspecting that he was being watched. "There it is. I just have to grab it before those stupid kids catch on."

"Kit we have to make our move." Ruthie hissed to her friend, "Or he's going to make off with something."

"Hold it." Kit said calmly, "We have to wait so we can catch him red handed."

Suddenly Jock whipped back around the corner and plastered himself to the bed.

"Guys!" Heather cried, "We need to be on the lookout. There's someone in the house stealing things, and-" She broke off as she noticed her friends frantically gesturing at Jock.

Jock grinned awkwardly at them.

The thief made a dash for the stairs.

No one was close enough to grab him.

He was going to get away with it.

But not if Ruthie had anything to do with it!

"Look out!" Ruthie shouted as she launched off of the top bunk.

Ruthie flying tackled Jock, mid-stride.

"Ow." Jock and Ruthie both grunted.

~~~

Once everyone had settled down a little, they began interrogating Jock.

Ruthie kept her hand firmly on his shoulder.

She didn't want to do any more tackling today.

Charlie, who had risen to the occasion beautifully, began, "Now, tell us what you were doing."

Jock grunted, "I don't have to talk to you."

"Does that mean I can call the police?" Kit asked hopefully.

"No, please! I'll talk, I'll tell you what happened, just please don't call the cops." Jock pleaded. "Look, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I was hired to do this."

"To rob us?"

"No, she said I needed to look like I was going to rob you, but not to take anything. See, I really am a fridge repairman, but I haven't had much work lately, and the girl said if I did this, you'd all think it was funny and then you'd hire me to fix to the fridge."

Kit narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Oh, really. Can you describe this girl to us."

"I don't know." Jock shrugged uncomfortably.

"Ha!" Ruthie cried, "That's because you made her up!"

"No, it's just, well... I remember she was wearing a princess dress."

Everyone went silent, then slowly turned to look at Amy.

"OK, guys I can explain." Amy said with a giggle, "I knew that Kit and Ruthie needed a story, and I knew Charlie would forget to call someone to fix the fridge, so I thought I would solve all of the problems at once."

"That's all fine." Heather said, "But what did you do with the stuff you took, Jock?"

Jock shook his head, "I didn't take anything, I swear."

"Well then, where did the stuff -"

Heather was cut off by a cry from behind her.

"Lanie?!"

"Oh, is that you Molly?" Lanie asked nervously.

"Lanie, I feel like I'm going to regret asking, but what are you doing with the rotten vegetable collection?" Taryn groaned.

"Um, collection?" Lanie looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"Wait, it was you taking all the stuff?" Molly cried.

"Yeah, I needed it for my new project."

"Please don't tell me you got a donkey." Claire whispered.

Although Lanie couldn't see, she could hear very well, and she glared at Claire. "Claire, I'm not completely irresponsible. Come on, I'll show you all."

~~~

"My chicken coop!" Lanie announced proudly, presenting a pile of wood and screws.

Molly face-palmed herself as Charlie sighed.

"Well I guess it's a good thing we don't have any chickens." Claire laughed.

"What do you mean?" Lanie asked as she dumped the rotten food on the ground.

As soon the vegetables hit the ground, two hens began pecking at them.

Claire groaned.

~~~

Lanie listened to her chickens clucking happily.

"Thanks, Claire. I really appreciate it."

Claire grinned as lookedat the new chicken coop she had put together for her friend. "No problem. I don't usually build stuff with wood, but it's not too shabby."

"Um, Claire?" Molly said as she walked up to them. "While you were out here, Charlie took all of the collections and hid them again. We need your help to find them all."

Claire smiled. "I think I have a better idea."

~~~

"And so, we all pretended that Taryn had never stumbled upon Charlie's collections and we are all very thankful that the fridge woks again. Jock: 5/5 stars." Kit read the closing of her article to Ruthie. "Anything you want to add?"

"Yeah," Ruthie moaned, "Don't flying tackle people. It hurts."

The End