A Bit Too Much Zip

Subject: A Bit Too Much Zip Sat Jun 06, 2015 8:17 pm

(Closed to Tony)

"One! Two! One two th-"

"Gerald!"

Gerald jumped, looking around for where his mother could be now. It was no surprise when she stepped out of her car, angrily marching towards he and his forming band - it was merely disappointing.

"Gerald, I told you. You can't have band practice in here, I need to park!" Mrs. Sawyer crossed her arms, glaring at her son as his friends remained speechless. One, a boy with a backwards ball cap, was snickering at his friend's poor luck, while another in a purple jersey, sitting at a drumset, had gone as pale as a ghost. Most likely at the prospect of having to move his instrument again.

"We can't have practice anywhere else, ma! Please, just ten more minutes?" Gerald pleaded, anxiously picking at the strings of his guitar. The expression on his mother's face said everything he needed to know, and he looked down at the pavement in defeat. Turning to his bandmates, he shrugged with a sigh. "Pack it up boys. Kyle, you want help with those?" Kyle nodded eagerly, but Mrs. Sawyer butted in. "No, I'm sorry, Kyle, but you'll have to do that yourself. Gerald's got groceries to put away, now."

The boys groaned in annoyance, ball cap kid putting his bass away before slinging it over his back and moving to assist poor Kyle. Gerald went to unplug his amp, but found something odd. It was already unplugged. He'd have sworn it was only a moment ago, he'd been playing songs! Brows furrowed, he straightened up and played a cord, which rang out with clarity and far more volume than he'd have expected from a dead guitar. "Gerald!" He heard his mother scream from the driver's seat of her car, clearly unhappy with having to wait for her garage to clear itself. "I'm going, mom! Geez..." He unplugged his guitar from the amp, and struck another cord, just to be sure. This time, however, it played as expected. Shrugging to himself, he lifted the amp onto his dad's tool bench and tucked his instrument underneath.

The other boys left, one carting a fairly heavy set of drums in a wagon, and Gerald stepped out so his mother could take her spot inside. She turned the keys to turn off the engine and.... Well, nothing. The car kept running. Mrs. Sawyer tried again, this time with more force. The only thing that happened was the engine revved, as if in outright refusal to quit. "Ger, call your dad at the auto shop. See if he knows what to do."

Gerald frowned, finding this highly suspicious. He pulled out his phone, and was shocked to see the battery at 100%. He hadn't charged it in days, and it was near 20 this morning. This was getting concerning. He obeyed, nevertheless, in fear of upsetting his mom any further. "Dad? Hey, yeah. Have you ever heard of a car not UNstarting? Yeah."

Robin strolled with her hand over her face, eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the addresses. Holly had invited her over, but it was seeming a bit too complicated to find her house. They all looked the same around here, and their system was so outlandish. "1134, 1136, 1928? Seriously, this is not how you design a residential street," she sighed, feeling it would be best to ask, at this point, where the 1400 houses were. She spied with her little eye an open garage door, and some people just inside. Good enough for her.

"Excuse me, uh..." Robin called out, waving a hand in the air to catch their attention. "Could you help me with some directions? I'm a bit lost and, uh..." She trailed off, raising an eyebrow at the odd situation she'd walked into. A car being on inside of a garage was probably expected, if they just pulled in, like it appeared at first. But this seemed to be dragging on a tad long, hadn't it? "You know, um. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to turn those off when you park them, right?" Gerald glanced her direction, his face full of frustration and what seemed like a bit of annoyance at her presence. He pulled the phone from his face and covered the speaker for a moment. "We're a bit busy right now, could you maybe ask someone else? Thanks." Robin scoffed at this, holding her hands up in a gesture that could only be described as "how the hell was I mean't to know?"

Subject: Re: A Bit Too Much Zip Sat Jun 06, 2015 9:09 pm

Tony woke to the sound of someone vacuuming. He rolled his eyes and rolled in bed trying to get into a position that he wouldn't be able to hear the loud vacuum. Of course Tony was unsuccessful so he rolled out of bed. "Gramps! I'm trying to sleep!" Tony yelled as he put on his glasses. When his Grampa didn't respond Tony sighed. "You know I need to sleep in when I'm on a break from school!" Tony yelled and got dressed. Once again his Grandpa didn't answer. Tony ran down the stairs to figure out what was going on. Tony found his Grandpa messing around with his iPod. Tony walked up to him and tapped the screen to get the iPod working. "There you go Gramps." Tony said.

Dr. Lantz Sr. smiled at his grandson. "Your Dad called earlier. He said he needed some help down at the ER." He said.

"Course Gramps, I'll go down there right away!" Tony yelled from the kitchen of the large suburban house. Tony walked back in the living room with a piece of toast. "Did Dad not want the "Legendary Dr. Tony Lantz Sr." to help him out?" Tony joked.

"I'm retired Lancelot and he asked for you not me." He said.

"Kay whatever." Tony said and walked outside of his childhood house.

Tony pulled out his cell phone as he went to grab his bike. He ignored the missed called from his Mom and called his Dad.

"Lancelot finally! I need you down at the ER stat!" His Dad Dr. Tony Lantz Jr. exclaimed.

"I'll be there soon. What's going on down there? You usually don't call for a med student to help you out..." Tony said.

"The ER is full. All the other Doctors on staff are helping out but I need you to help out a different patient." His Dad said.

Tony's eyebrows furrowed. Why was the ER full? "Am I helping out another "mystery illness" patient because last time it just ended up being Lupus". Tony said.

His Dad sighed though the phone. "Yes it is but it not Lupus this time." He said.

"I'll be there soon." Tony said and hung up. He hopped on his bike and started down the street towards the local hospital. A few minutes later he spotted someone standing in the street with an annoyed expression. "Hey are you lost or something?" Tony shouted out and slowed down his bike to stop next to the person.

Subject: Re: A Bit Too Much Zip Sat Jun 06, 2015 9:30 pm

Robin spun around, a small smile on her face at a sign of actual help. "Yeah, uh. Do you know where all the 1400 houses are at? These addresses are really, well. Weird." She shrugged, motioning towards the houses around her as if to prove her point. "I'm supposed to be visiting a friend like... Well actually somewhere around 20 minutes ago, probably. Do-" She was cut off by a loud sparking sound behind her, along with the frantic shouting of a kid in fear of his instrument being ruined. Turning around, she was quite surprised to see his case on fire, and decided she wouldn't be skeptical of electrical outlet fires in the future, if she ever had been in the past.

"Woah, everything alright in there?" Robin squinted, considering the possibility that she might need glasses sometime soon, and stepped closer to the garage. Gerald waved her off, dousing the flames with the sports drink he'd left nearby. If sudden spontaneous fires didn't kill him, those sugar filled death traps surely would. "Is this like, a normal thing for you? Because I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen." She caught a glare coming from the boys mother, and put her hands up in surrender, "But hey, what do I know, right?"