ATTACK OF THE BEAN

By: Laura Caroline Gingrich

“O

CHAPTER 1: How It Began

kay girls, we’re just going to Zelda Zimmerman’s Christmas party

just ten minutes away,” my mom reassured us.

“Don’t worry Mom.” Raychelle, my twin sister rolled her eyes. “We’ll call if we need anything.” Dad kissed us each on the head and Mom hugged both of us. Then we were alone.

Hi. I’m Nadily Sidney. My twin sister is Raychelle Sidney. Our parents just left for the most extravagant party ever, one that we were invited to. But no, Raychelle just HAD to convince our parents to let us stay home alone. I am not enjoying this because, a)I’m stuck with Raychelle, b)I hate being home alone, c) I went over my cell phone minutes, so now I can’t really use it, and d)They were going to serve fresh, handmade sushi as appetizers. Mental Note: When your twin sister is trying to persuade you to stay home alone with her when you could be at a party, eating unlimited sushi, do not listen.

Raychelle pulled her straight, red hair into a bun and secured it with some bobby pins, then changed the channel to Ugly Betty reruns on ABC. “So sis, what do you want to do?” she asked me.

“I don’t know. This was your idea. Let’s just watch TV.” I looked at her.

“Can I give you a makeover?”

I glared at her. “No.”

“Well, fine. Let’s just watch TV.” Raychelle huffed. “Will you at least go upstairs and get some chips? I’m starving.”

I walked out of the basement and to the kitchen and switched on the light. I searched through the pantry and the fridge, and found some decent things to eat. As I poured out some chips, I saw some clear and blue plastic pieces that looked like plastic from a Bean.

“Gross,” I muttered. Things like that just want to make me not eat it, you know? It’s like finding hair in your food. I guess that meant no chips.

“Nadily, hurry up!” Raychelle hollered.

I was just about to go back down to the basement, and the lights suddenly flickered on and off, making it look like a strobe light was on all around me. There was a huge thump, and then a crash coming from upstairs.

“It’s probably just Biscuit,” I reassured myself, but then Biscuit (my cat) pranced over to me and rubbed against my brown sweatpants.

My eyes widened in terror. I’ve heard those stories, of kids being home alone and some robber breaks in. For example, the movie Home Alone. Kid gets left at home. Robbers come. Yes, the kid outsmarts the bad guys, but who said that I was that smart? I lost grip of the popcorn bowl I was holding, scooped Biscuit up and ran down the basement stairs as fast as I could.

“Did you hear that?” I was hyperventilating. “Raychelle, the lights flickered! Didn’t you hear the crash??”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Raychelle snarled. “Hey, where are my chips??”

“Raychelle, you’ve got to be kidding me! It was loud!” I was screaming now.

“I know you’re just trying to play a trick on me, so you might as well stop it right now,” Raychelle glared at me.

“NO! I’m serious! This is no joke! Please listen to me!” I wailed. “Someone is up there!”

“Fine, I’ll go upstairs with you just because you’re so paranoid, and to prove to you there is no one in this house but you, me, and Biscuit. Let’s make it quick because I’m on a commercial break.” Raychelle began up the stairs. I let Biscuit run to her cat cradle, while I followed Raychelle.

We walked around the winding hallway. Up here was the office, Mom’s designing area and the workout room. My dad had just recently purchased a workout device called The Bean. The Bean is clear and blue plastic in the shape of a bean that is made to fit your body as you do your workout. Dad really likes to do crunches on it, and do the celebrity workout that was free with his purchase. When my dad first bought it, I thought is was a teeter-totter for Raychelle and I. I said, “Dad, this is nice and all, but don’t you think Raychelle and I are a little too old for this?” He loved it, and all he did was talk about it. “Oh, Bean and I had a great workout today.” “Bean and I are getting stronger and stronger by the minute.” Strange, I know.

Raychelle poked her head in my mom and dad’s office, her above and me below, the way it always is in cartoons. Raychelle just rolled her eyes and turned around to continue our expedition. While Raychelle stomped down the hall, I tiptoed. She whipped open the workout room door. The workout room is a two-part room. First, it’s all of Mom’s yoga mats and stability balls, and then there’s a door leading to Dad’s area, where the Bean is. I watched Raychelle as she looked around the area. She kept the same irritated expression on her face until she reached the corner of the room. One of Mom’s favorite glass bowls that had been on a shelf was shattered into a million pieces on the carpet.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” Raychelle’s jaw dropped. “We are so going to get in trouble for this! It’s all your fault!”

“Mine?” I asked. There was no way Raychelle was going to blame this one on me.

Raychelle ventured further to Dad’s section. “There’s nothing there but the Bean.” She turned around. “Let’s clean this up. Be careful, there’s probably glass all throughout the carpet.”

“Maybe if all the glass is gone, Mom won’t even notice the bowl gone,” I suggested, looking uncertainly at the pieces of blue and orange glass twinkling in the lamp light.

Raychelle’s eyebrows rose at the idea. “Nadily, just start picking up the pieces.”

“You want me to collect glass with my bare hands?” I asked her.

“Fine, I’ll go get some washcloths and some gloves. You stay here. Try to get started on clearing an area for us to work.” Raychelle left, leaving the room cold and quiet.

Did she really expect me to clean up this mess and cut myself? I like my hands to be pretty! Even I could admit to myself that we needed Mom and Dad to help us.

About five minutes later, Raychelle appeared in the doorway. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re supposed to be clearing an area, remember?”

I snatched a pair of Mom’s gardening gloves out of Raychelle’s hands and started to sweep the visible surfaced glass away from the area.

Raychelle crouched down and joined me in the work. Cold air rushed by us as the door slammed shut.

Raychelle gasped. “What was that?” she choked on her words. We stood up and tried to open the door. “It won’t open!” Raychelle screamed, kicking the door like a maniac.

“Ray! It’s probably just jammed,” I tried myself, but after a few tugs I realized this was more than a jam.

“You know what’s worst,” Raychelle gulped. “This is the weird door. The lock is on the other side.” The builders screwed up on the door when they built this room. My parents said it was okay and that no one would ever need to lock that room anyway. Now, that wasn’t such a good thing.

Raychelle stopped kicking the door and glanced around with sharp eyes. Nothing seemed unusual, besides Mom’s broken bowl. She ventured out to the second room where the Bean was.

“There’s nothing in here,” Raychelle called back to me, and turned to help me clean up some more.

“Oh really,” a voice challenged. “I beg to differ.”

R

CHAPTER 2: Escape

aychelle turned, only to see the Bean soaring through the air, right in her direction. I tensed up, only seeing the Bean smash Raychelle with all its might.

“What are you doing?!? Get over here and help me!” Raychelle screamed at the top of her lungs, still trying to escape the Bean’s force as it pinned her to the ground.

I jumped up and tried to pull the bean off of Raychelle, but it wasn’t so easy. I was a bit overwhelmed, I have to admit, because only seconds ago, this thing was talking to my sister and I. And now it was pouncing on my sister like Biscuit plays with her catnip mouse!

After a long time of fighting, Raychelle and I pushed the Bean off. “What do you want with us??” I yelled, still catching my breath.

“I want this house to myself! I need a break once and a while! Do you think its fun having your dad lay on my all the time?” the bean hissed.

“We are not giving you our house,” I retorted.

“Well, since I see my little poisoning plan with the bean plastic didn’t work out, I’ll just have to chase you out myself,” the bean said casually. “I’m Stella, by the way.”

“You’re a girl?” Raychelle asked curiously.

“You tried to poison us with bean plastic? That was YOU who put that gross stuff in the chips??” I clenched my fists, and at the same time, I was still as freaked out as ever. I had to be dreaming….and this could not be real.

“Mark my words, children,” Stella raged. “I will get this house and I will throw the party of the century in it!”

“That won’t work, because you can’t throw a party when we’re home alone.” Raychelle said, as if she was the cleverest person ever.

Stella ignored Raychelle’s comment. “You may not be surrendering now, but when I get through with you, you’ll be begging to be.”

Stella threw herself in the air, aiming right for me! Raychelle grabbed my shaking hand and pulled me to the door. She whipped out a bobby pin from her bun and began to pick at the doorknob with it.

“Raychelle, like that’s going to work,” I frowned. But seconds later, Raychelle had the door wide open, gesturing that I should leave, right before my eyes.

“Do you think Stella will actually follow us?” I asked nervously.

“Nah, I don’t think so. I mean, she’s just a Bean. She can’t overpower us.” Raychelle replied, glancing back at the workout room as we headed for the stairs.

“Get the cat carrier!” I ordered Raychelle.

“Cat carrier?”

“We can’t leave Biscuit with this monster!” I cried irritably.

While Raychelle gathered Biscuit, her cat carrier, food, and some toys, I put some food in a picnic basket. We have a little playhouse that we used to play in when we were kids. Raychelle and I had the idea we could camp out there for a while.

Raychelle grabbed an extra guest key for our house. She stepped on some popcorn on her way to the drawer, but pursed her lips and kept going. Meanwhile, I tried to calm Biscuit, who was meowing with an upset tone in her carrier. Also, we happened to be staring at the words, “Get Out!” on the wall written in my favorite type of salsa.

I

CHAPTER 3: The Cold Playhouse

knew it was salsa because I tried it. I know that might have not been the smartest thing to do, but hey, I was hungry. What a waste of a perfectly good jar of salsa! If you’re going to write on someone’s wall, at least bring your own salsa to write with! And you know, it was chips and salsa. First she tried to poison us with bean plastic in chips, so why not do graffiti with salsa on our white-as-sugar wall? Mom was not going to happy about any of this. We were safe for now, right? What could be better than that?

“You are so disgusting,” Raychelle shuddered.

“It was good salsa!” I cried. I changed the subject. “Raychelle, when we leave, doesn’t that mean we’re leaving the house to Stella?”

Raychelle ran her fingers through her hair, as if she was thinking. “You put the stuff in the playhouse, and I’ll stay here. Then, we’ll make a plan,”

I picked up Biscuit and all the things we had packed. Raychelle opened the backdoor, and I stepped out on the icy brick patio. There was frozen rain falling from the cauldron-black sky. A few stars twinkled here and there. The slight wind breezed past me in a way that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight. Carefully, I stepped in the slushy ice to the playhouse, not that far away. The knob was rusty and stiff, and I had to jerk it a few times before it opened. By the way the door was, I was surprised when I saw no cobwebs. I placed the bags by the stacked boxes of old Barbie’s that Raychelle and I hadn’t played with in years. Biscuit meowed eagerly as she saw me setting up her water bowl and cat chow, and I let her roam around.

After I walked back to the house, shutting the door securely behind me so Biscuit wouldn’t get out. The frozen rain had turned to hail, and it pierced my neck like sharp pencils. I dashed inside to join Raychelle in the house.

“Gosh, I was starting to get worried,” Raychelle left out a big breath of air. “You know, I haven’t heard anything from upstairs. Maybe we should go see if she left,”

“Okay,” I shrugged. Where would she go? Maybe Raychelle was right….it was worth going to see, I guess.

We were nearing the door, only to hear Stella’s voice yelling as if she was talking on the phone. As it turned out, she was.

“Get over here now, Bruno!” Stella was saying. “Yes, right now! Bring everybody you know!”

Raychelle leaned in closer to hear better, but stubbed her toe against the door. “Ouch!” she yelped. Then she sealed her lips, but it was too late. Stella heard and saw them standing in the doorway.

“You! Get back here right now!!” Stella screeched. Raychelle and I spun on our heels to get away.

Stella chased us all the way out of the house and into the backyard, where Biscuit watched from the windowsill of the playhouse. I darted behind our patio table and slipped on the ice. The pain was so sharp that I couldn’t move for a while, and it never occurred to me that Stella was still chasing me.

Raychelle grabbed my arms and helped me limp out of the backyard.

“This is stupid,” Raychelle huffed. “Why didn’t we call Mom and Dad in the first place? Some of this never would have happened.”

“Agreed,” I answered.

“Go across the street to the Miller’s. Hide near that shrub, and I’ll be over in a minute. Can you walk?” Raychelle commanded.

“Yeah, I think I can. Hurry over, and be careful. I don’t like that we’re splitting up.” I raced over to the other side of the street and crouched by the scrub. Usually I’d ask Raychelle what her “plan” was, but I guess at that moment I wasn’t thinking straight.

Meanwhile, Raychelle ran back to meet up with Stella. She grabbed a hold of her and pulled the tab to begin the deflating process.

“Get your grimy hands off of me,” Stella shoved Raychelle back.

“Catch me if you can,” Raychelle taunted. Raychelle galloped towards the street, and timed it just right that she would get past the nearing car before it even came near her.

“The Bean can hold up to 8000 pounds, you know, the weight of an SUV?” I frowned after Raychelle explained her plan.

“I pulled the tab where she deflates. Just watch and learn.” Raychelle looked at me like I was stupid.

Stella was hopping towards us as fast as she could, and was positioned right in the middle of the road when headlights pointed at her. I covered my eyes, but I heard the sound. Raychelle told me there was nothing to see. So there was a loud, choking sound after Stella and the car intersected. The car passed like nothing had happened, and you would expect Stella to be laying there, lifeless, right? Think again. She was still talking to us, telling us how disrespectful we were and that Bruno would be there any minute to beat us up.

So what did we do? Of course, we threw her in the garbage. Okay, so it wasn’t our finest moment, but at least she was out of sight, out of mind….for the time being. “Bruno” did not ever show up. After, we went to the playhouse to collect our untouched bags and get Biscuit, who seemed to be enjoying the playhouse quite a lot.

When we were safe in the house, Raychelle and I discussed our plans what we were going to tell Mom and Dad.

“Dad always works out with the Bean, or, um, Stella on Sundays. Mom will notice right away her bowl is gone.” Raychelle stated.

“We never finished cleaning it up, you know. Let’s go do that and we can talk while we’re cleaning.” I suggested, and for the last time we headed to the workout room.

“So,” Raychelle began. “I think we’re kind of on the late side to call our parents and freak them out. And to tell you the truth, I think they’d be more freaked out at the fact that we believe that the Bean is going psycho.”

“Yeah, they’d send us to a psychotherapist or something for therapy,” I laughed. “I think we got all the glass that we can see.”

“Good job, sis,” Raychelle smiled. We gave each other high fives and began to clean up. Mom and Dad would never know a crazy night like this would have ever happened in the Sidney household….at least for now.

M

CHAPTER 4: After

ental Note: Never lie about parents possessions. It will cause you serious pain and boredom.

We thought everything was going to be fine if Mom and Dad didn’t know about the whole incident. We were wrong. Dad cried when he thought he lost the Bean, and Mom thought we had hidden her bowl from her to see what would happen. Dad never really caught on to Mom’s idea that we were the bandits. Raychelle and I continued to keep the story of Stella and the bowl a secret. But it did cause us serious pain and boredom. Being questioned about our night, parents going crazy, feeling guilty….

On the other hand, Mom and Dad still were letting us stay home within the next few weeks. Except this time he said there was going to be a “teenage-sitter”, as Dad called it (instead of baby-sitter). Raychelle and I thought this was totally unfair, but our parents stood their ground and didn’t change their minds.

So here we are, another Saturday night when I could be with my friends. Mental Note (or mental question): Why did I say that I wouldn’t go to Cara Flame’s silent auction party??

Mom is upstairs finishing the final touches of her makeup, and Dad is watching the last minutes he can of the Seahawk game. *DING DONG* the doorbell rang. “That must be her.” We got up from the couch and went to open the door.

A thin woman with straight chestnut hair was standing there. “Hi,” she said. Her voice sounded strangely familiar, but I couldn’t remember who I had heard it from.

“Hello,” Raychelle smiled. “I’m Raychelle, and this is Nadily.”

“I know,” the woman replied.

“What’s your name?” I asked, trying to be friendly.

“I’m Stella.” She smiled slyly. “We’re going to have lots of fun tonight. Lots and lots of fun….”

To Be Continued…..