The Unofficial Zack Warren Fan Club by J.C. Isabella Read Free Book Online

her arms and wrinkled her nose. “It’s like we’re on another planet.”
    “Colonels Lane?’ I read an old sign halfway down the road.
    “If we were in a horror movie, the freaky music would start playing now.”
    “Don’t spook yourself, Baker.” I didn’t have any humor left in me, and her eyes were cautious, as if she felt just as uneasy as I did. Our parents went and bought the crazy farm. That was it. We were screwed. They hauled our asses out of the city to the swamp, to live like Florida hillbillies. Which were the same as regular hillbillies…only without the hills.
    “You’ve got a lot of room to talk after you locked the doors and told me not to drink the water.” She said.
    I grunted.
    “Don’t tell me that’s home.” She stared, mouth agape, at the massive house on the bend of the dirt road.
    “Okay, I won’t.”
    Painted a grayish blue, our new house had an enormous wraparound porch with a bright white railing. Flowerbeds full of colorful plants bordered the mailbox, the house, and the trees. Kirk was going to have a ball digging his way though them, if he was any kind of a normal dog. The jury was still out on that though.
    White shutters graced every window, and they weren’t the fake ones for show. They had latches on them to close over the windows. Hurricane shutters.
    People always think hurricanes are bad. I’ve met northerners who cringe, saying they’d rather go through a tornado.
    Me, I’d take a hurricane.
    You get a few days warning, time to pack up, kiss your house goodbye, and crash in a hotel out of the danger zone. It’s like a vacation. With a tornado you don’t have luxury of deciding when to leave, you just grab your ass and kiss it goodbye.
    “Damn.” I spotted a tractor in the side yard. It was rusted, the engine lying next to it in the dirt. “Well, there’s the yard art Molly was talking about.”
    “My mom said she wanted land.”
    “For what?”
    “Breeding mosquitoes?”
    Green landscape went on as far as I could see behind the house. No other homes or fences, just lots and lots of swampy green filled with plants I couldn’t identify. A dense line of trees lay beyond, and maybe a waterway.
    I parked beside our parents and got out to glare up at our new home. Our side trip to the park had given them a five-minute lead.
    “Great, isn’t it?” Molly beamed at the house. “It was built in the early nineteen hundreds. The last owners restored it, so we’ll only have a few things to fix or change.”
    “Awesome.” I gave her one of the charming smiles I reserved for ogling girl. I don’t know what possessed me to throw away my spring break for relocating to hell.
    Chloe knew I was faking enthusiasm and played along. “Totally.”
    “Where are all the people?” I asked.
    “It’s Sunday.” Molly said, as if that answered everything.
    “And that means?” Chloe inquired.
    “Everything’s closed.” She jogged up the porch steps to open the front door.
    “Were doomed.” I said.
    Chloe sounded hopeful. “We’ve got the truck.”
    “Wrong, I’ve got the truck.” I wouldn’t mind sharing as long as she could handle my truck, without running anything important over…like people or the dog. Chloe had only ever driven the Mini Cooper. But then my act would be blown if I handed her my keys.
    “We’ve got to work on your people skills, Warren.”
    “Ha, forget it.”
    “Maybe you should be nice to me, and then I’ll be nice to you.” Simple, grade school logic. She’s bringing out the big guns.
    “Where’s the fun in that?”
    “This is about getting along for our parents.” We started for the house. Kirk wandered over to a tree and flopped in a shady spot next to a hammock covered in stringy moss and leaves.
    “I know, but I can honestly say I am enjoying one thing, Baker.”
    “What?”
    “Watching you suffer though this week will be worth the pain.”
    She stuck her tongue out, then, when I wasn’t paying attention, she stuck her