Gasparilla's Treasure (Trip Mongomery Book 1) (2 page)

When Trip got home, he still could not make sense of what Pappy had told him.  He was sure Mom would be able to help him understand.

Trip’s dad died eight years ago when Trip was just five years old.  Mom would never really tell Trip what happened, and any time Trip brought it up, she would tell him about how much his father loved him or how proud he would have been of Trip.  One thing Trip did know was that his father’s death was unexpected, and they were left with very little money.  They had Pappy’s retirement, but it wasn’t enough, so Mom started giving private music lessons to make ends meet.

Halfway through dinner, Mom’s reaction was surprising Trip.  She was always very interested to hear about Pappy, especially when he had been more or less himself.  But this conversation was not going well at all.

“You can’t believe anything your Pappy says Trip,” argued Mom.  “He’s delusional.”

“I'm tellin' you, Mom,” insisted Trip.  “I haven't seen him this focused in years.  He really knew who I was and what he was saying.  I’ve never seen him that way before.  He was dead serious, and he made me promise.”

“Even if all of that is true, which I'm sure it's not,” admonished Mom, “I don't want to hear another word about this trunk. OK?”

“But Mom, he told me…”

“No!  It stops here!” interrupted Mom.  “That trunk has already caused too many problems!”  Those words hung in the air.  Trip thought about what she had just said.  The trunk caused problems.

“So there is a trunk,” said Trip.

Mom knew she was caught.  Once the words were out there, she could not take them back.  Trip was too smart for that.

“OK fine,” admitted Mom.  “There is a trunk. But I will not let you waste away your life like both your great grandfather and your father did.  And that is final!”

“You mean Dad knew about this trunk too?” asked Trip, the excitement growing in his voice.  “This is huge!”

Mom had worked herself into a corner.  She had no choice. “Your father wouldn't stop obsessing over that ridiculous trunk.  Every spare minute, he and Pappy would be up in the attic tinkering with that thing.”

She saw the look on Trip’s face and stopped him before he could say anything.

“Don’t even ask,” said Mom.  “I don't know anything, they wouldn't tell me.  But every few months Pappy and Dad would get a wild hair and be off on some wild goose chase.  They wouldn't tell me what they were doing, or where they were going, but I know it had to do with that trunk.”

Trip could see this conversation had really affected Mom.  She stared down at her plate, absentmindedly playing with what was left of her dinner.  Mom had given him a lot of information, and Trip needed a little time to take it all in.

It was bedtime, and Trip just finished brushing his teeth.  He wanted to write down a few of the things he learned today before he forgot.  He was on his way to the desk to grab paper and pen when he noticed Mom sitting at a table pouring over some bills.  She did not look happy.

“Is everything OK, Mom?” Trip asked.

Mom wearily glanced up from her bills and put on her best smile.  It was such a wonderful smile, Trip almost believed it.

“Yes honey.  Everything's fine,” said Mom tenderly.  “You need to get to bed now. You have school tomorrow.”

It was obvious to Trip that everything was definitely
not
fine.  Trip watched silently a bit longer as Mom continued to pore over the bills.

The next morning, Trip arrived at school and couldn’t wait to talk to his best friend, Josh.  Trip spotted him hustling over from across the schoolyard.  Josh was a bit nerdy and out of shape.  He was a little winded as he ran up to Trip.

“I got your text,” said Josh.  “So what’s the deal with this trunk?  What’s in it?  Why is it so important?”

“It’s important because I…” Trip trailed off, as he stared off into the distance dreamily.  Josh waved his hand in front of Trip’s eyes.

“Earth to Trip,” said Josh.  “What’s going on in there?  Anybody home?”

Josh followed Trip’s gaze to see what had him so mesmerized.  Trip was staring at a girl he had never seen before.  The world ran in slow motion as he watched the new girl walking through the schoolyard, hair dancing as she turned her head.  She wore a radiant smile as she laughed and talked with her friends.

“Who is she?” asked Trip.

“Oh her, that's Sarah Valentine,” said Josh dismissively.  “We have Algebra together... seems nice enough.”

Josh realized Trip was still staring at Sarah.  His mouth hung so far open, Josh worried someone might step on Trip’s chin.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop it,” said Josh.  “No way.  Stay away from her.  She's more popular than both of us combined, and she's only been here three days.”

Oblivious, Trip started to walk towards Sarah.  Josh reached out and grabbed him.

“Aw, come on Trip,” pleaded Josh.  “Girls are nothing but trouble.  Seriously... you're gonna do this?”

It was too late.  There was no stopping Trip now.

Trip had no idea what came over him.  He was never really comfortable talking to girls, but he just could not stop himself.  It was like Sarah was a magnet pulling him over.  He vaguely heard Josh frantically mumbling about something, but he had no idea what he was saying.  Trip walked right up to Sarah and her friends and turned on the charm.

“Excuse me ladies,” said Trip confidently.  “I see we have a new student here.  I’m Trip.”  He extended his hand.

“I’m Sarah,” she said as she shook his hand warmly.

Trip nearly lost his pretense of confidence when he heard her voice.  It was beautiful, and almost made Trip melt.  He shook it off.

“Well, Sarah,” said Trip.  “I am with the official welcoming committee of our fine school.  I'm sorry to be three days late, but
I was busy...uh…founding the official welcoming committee of our fine school.”

Trip was surprised to hear the words coming from his own mouth.  He was worried as he noticed a few of the girls giggling behind Sarah.  Had he screwed this up?

“Well, Trip,” said Sarah, bemused.  “It’s better late than never I guess.  What does your official welcoming committee of our fine school do?”

“I haven't quite figured that part out yet,” said Trip truthfully.  “But I do know we will be quite good at whatever we decide to do”

Sarah gave a little chuckle.  Trip was surprised at how well this was going.  Most of the time, the girls Trip liked did not want a thing to do with him.  Sarah seemed as if she actually enjoyed the conversation.  He realized he had been awkwardly staring at her in silence as he thought.  He needed to come up with something quick.

“So Sarah, how do you like… Florida so far?”  Trip asked clumsily.

“I love Florida,” replied Sarah.  “I lived in West Palm Beach my whole life.  People are kind of
fake
down there, though.”

Trip stiffened his arms and body, and did his best robot impersonation.  Voice and all.

“Well Sar-ah,” said Trip in his robot voice.  “I am sure you will discover all the human units of St. Augustine to be reasonably real, not artificial.”

Sarah laughed, “Well if I meet any of these human units, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“Well as the official representative of the welcoming committee,” said Trip in his normal, confident voice, “I feel it is my duty to walk you to class.  And on the way...”

Trip was cut off mid-sentence by the meanest, ugliest, bully in the whole school.  Eli
Kramdon was twice as big as the rest of the kids in their grade, and he toted four goons along with him; each one of them a bit smaller, but no less evil, than Eli.

“Hey Twit!  Your name is Twit, isn't it?” barked Eli.

“Not right now Eli,” begged Trip.

“Oh, is it a bad time for you, Twit?” taunted Eli.  “Are you trying to get a little kiss from your girlfriend here?  I warned you about how dangerous this school is getting.  I can't believe you even dare show up since you haven't paid for my professional security services”

“Eli, I told you,” said Trip.  “I’m not giving you any money.  I don’t even have any money.  You’re going to have to…”

“You’ll give me my money,” interrupted Eli.  “And you’ll stay away from the new girl.  She’s mine!”  He said this loudly and declared it for the whole school to hear.

“Excuse me?” said Sarah, her words slicing through the air like a sharp knife.

“You heard me,” said Eli.  “This is my school and I get what I want.  And you are now my girlfriend.”

Trip looked at Sarah and saw that she was calm and collected.

“As if I would ever date someone who would wear that shirt with those pants!” said Sarah.  “My mom taught me fashion sense.”

Her friends laughed and high fived one another.  Sarah reached in her backpack and pulled out a can of mace.

“And my dad taught me self defense,” said Sarah.  “So stay away from me, or you'll get a face full of pepper.”

The crowd let out a collective approval of Sarah’s tactics.  Eli had no choice but to turn his rage back to Trip.

"Turn over that security payment right now Twit,” raged Eli.  “Or I can't be responsible for what might happen to you and your little boyfriend Josh over there.  Not to mention Miss Fashion Queen here.”

Eli’s goons started to move in on Trip and Josh.  They had seen this before, and they knew there was only one course of action to prevent bruised eyes or bloodied noses.  They took off running, straight through the crowd.  Eli’s goons tore off after them, but the crowd closed in on them as they passed through, which gave Trip and Josh a head start.

Trip and Josh made a beeline to an alley that led to the back of the school.  Josh started to dig through his backpack.

“What are you doing, Josh?” asked Trip, dumbfounded.  “There’s no time for that right now!  Put it away!”

They rounded the corner of the alley, hoping they managed to lose the goons.  Josh was completely winded and looked as if he could not go any further.  They stopped and took a moment to figure out what to do, but the goons saw them.  Josh found what he was looking for in his backpack.  He pulled out a bag of marbles.

“Over here!” yelled one of the goons to the others.  “They went down that alley.”

Two of the goons rounded the corner into the alley, only to find themselves slipping and sliding on a sea of marbles scattered across the ground.  They grabbed for each other, but only found handfuls of air.  It was quite the site as they flailed around.  Finally, the goons went down hard, landing with a thud on the concrete alley, momentarily stunned.  Josh came out of hiding and started to gather his marbles.

“Are you kidding me?” said Trip.  “Let’s get out of here!”

“Oh yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Josh, a bit chagrined about leaving his marbles behind.

Trip and Josh dashed down the alley.  Something worried Trip, and he didn’t have a chance to figure it out before it stared him directly in the face.

Only two goons fell victim to the marble trap.  There were two more out there, and they rounded the corner at the other end of the alley.  They were headed straight for them, and fast!

Trip turned to go back the other way, only to see the first two goons rising to their feet.  And they looked furious.  Trip and Josh were trapped.

Trip thought fast.  It was one thing for him to take a beating, but he couldn’t allow Josh to get beat up just because he was Trip’s best friend.  There had to be a way out of this.  The goons slowed, almost to a stop.  They knew they had won this battle and they wanted to enjoy the moment.  Trip and Josh made sure to keep an equal distance, and an eye on both ends of the alley.

“Bad idea, Trip,” taunted one of the goons.  “You’re only making things worse.  I could have taken mercy on you before you pulled that stunt with the marbles, but now you have to pay.  Just surrender, and maybe it won’t be quite as bad.  Don’t get me wrong.  It will still be bad, but maybe not quite as bad.”

Josh whispered in a panic, “Come on Trip!  This is not good!  You
gotta think of something fast!”

“I'm going to get past those two,” whispered Trip.  “They should take off after me.  You follow right behind them and make your way into the school.  You'll be safe there.”

“You’ll never get past those guys,” said Josh.  “They’re huge!  And did you see that one guy?  He was all sweaty and probably doesn’t wash his hands after he goes to the bathroom.  Do you know how many germs…”

“I’ll get past them,” Trip interrupted.  “You just make sure you run as fast as you can, and make it to the school.  Got it?”

Josh gave Trip a nod.  Trip was off, running fast in the direction they came from, straight for the goons that were victims of the marble trap.  Josh couldn’t see how this was going to work, and he was sure it was the end.

The goons prepared for Trip’s approach and assumed a crouched position.  Just as Trip reached them, he jumped on a garbage can, then up and across a dumpster, and hopped down on the other side of the goons.  He bolted down the alley.

Just as predicted, the goons took off after him.  Josh found it hard to believe.  Trip’s plan had worked.  Then he remembered that he still had to escape.  He took off.  He grabbed the trashcan Trip had jumped on and threw it back towards the other two goons.

Trip rounded the corner, moving fast.  He slowed down long enough to glance back and check on Josh.  The two goons that chased Trip were just coming around the corner, followed by Josh.  He allowed himself a smile when he saw his plan was working, and turned back around and poured on the speed. A foot reached out and tripped him.  He went down hard.  And there stood Eli towering above him.

“That was a bad idea, Twit,” said Eli.  “Probably the worst idea you’ve ever had.  And now it’s time to pay for your bad idea.”

Trip looked towards the school just in time to see Josh had made it safely through the doors. The goons gave up pursuit, completely out of breath, but satisfied with the knowledge Eli had captured Trip.

Eli’s goons now gripped Trip tightly in front of a gathering of students.  Eli took this opportunity to address the crowd.

“Now look what happens to kids when they don't have the good sense to use Eli's Professional Security Services.  Let this be an example to you all.  Without protection, this school can be a dangerous place,” said Eli, as he delivered a hard punch to Trip’s stomach. Trip let out a groan. “My associates here will be happy to tell you about our discount packages.”

Another punch flew, this time even harder, to Trip’s face. Trip heard a loud crunch as blood trickled out of his nose.  Sarah winced as she watched.  She couldn’t help but wonder if she was part of the reason Trip was getting such a beating.  Maybe she should not have humiliated Eli the way she did. 

Just then the school bell rang.  The goons threw Trip to the ground and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. 

“Now get to class, everyone,” said Eli with genuine pleasure.  “You don’t want to be late on a fine day like this.”

Eli could not have imagined this going any better.  Trip played his part perfectly.  This would be great for business.  Sometimes these things just worked out.  He strolled away to class, but made sure to stroll by Sarah before he left.

“He’s not so special now, is he?” Eli remarked, and he left Trip laying on the ground, beat up, with Sarah standing over him.