Silver Fort Town

Two SUVs were enough for the group to reach both the destinations. Andrew and Nicole took the kids to drop them off at the outskirts of the town. And the other three couples took another SUV and went to the airport. It was at the distance of one and a half hour. With a good off road vehicle and without the obstacles like traffic the SUV reached the highway with the dreamy scenery and horses herding in the farms nearby. The sun was still soft while spreading the heat. The way took turn to another dimension as they turned from the highway to the side road leading to the forest. The Trees on the side were different. As if the whole road was blessed with Flame of forest. Palash Trees lined up by this road were giving tempered feeling. Like a fire breathing in the veins.

While enjoying the view of fiery flowers without fragrance the vehicle reached the town sign. Mr and Mrs Vlahos got out of the vehicle as they helped the kids with the luggage. Nicole hugged the girls and ruffled Carter and Raph's hair and told farewell. Andrew also told some instructions to Raph and hugged Harper. The couple wanted to wait for someone to pick them up and then depart. But the kids urged them to go ahead so as not to miss the flight. Finally the five teenagers with their luggage stood at the outskirts of the Podunk town. The signboard called Silver Fort Town was indicated on the side of path.

The path was not cemented or concreted, but the visible line starting from the signboard to the other side of the path was clear and undamaged. Even though it was drawn on the dirt and soil with some wooden stick. At least it looked like.

Harper checked her phone as waiting was always the boring activity for her. She went to check her social media accounts but it could not load. As she checked the network, the signal was buffering. After a few moments the signal showed offline and empty.

After some battling in her mind, it dawned to her that it was the middle of nowhere and forest area. The network would only load after some distance of entering the town. She sighed loudly. As a cue Carter started groaning and complaining as how his baby will feel lonely and deserted without signal.

But some ruffling and sound of throat clearing caught their attention. An eleven or twelve years old boy was standing there with his arms crossed on the chest, as he tried to look intimidating but failed miserably. Just because of the cute face with chubby flushed cheeks and sulky pout.

He was wearing everyday khaki trousers and maroon button down shirt with a brown and white checkered muffler around his neck. His short dark brown hair was not covering his forehead. It could have, but it looked like he must have ran his hand through it a few time. It can be annoying.

A cute frown was marred on his face as he gestured them to the jeep which was parked behind him, which they did not even notice. The driver enthusiastically waved at them as the boy helped the guys to settle the luggage.

As soon as the jeep crossed the line into the town, Harper's cellphone blared with the tone showing arrival of notifications.

Harper removed her cellphone from the front pocket of her trousers. Other six pair of eyes were glued on that slick, flawless, shiny black gadget, the moment she held it out. It was still blaring with notifications, as Harper was quite active on her school forum and other sites.

A bump on the road broke the moment, reminding the driver to pay heed on the road. He hurriedly turned around and focused on the road once again, not before muttering a small apology.

"Uh...I forgot to switch off the data connection. Not that there was any sign of network a half a minute ago." She countered to the absence of any remarks. Then started surfing through the notifications on now silent cellphone. Raphael sighed at his sister's weird conduct. He knew she was handful, but her last sentence kind of bothered him. In this era, there was an area with an absence of network.

Even Anna had noticed this. Harper knew her observations were bothering them. She was shrewder to be noticed peeling the information around than how she looked. A fragile, innocent looking, unaware flower. An appearance can be deceiving. She did not want to rummage through the surface just yet. She liked to be patient while noting the odds and remaining oblivious externally.

Raphael sneakily glanced at Lana, who was sitting on the right side of him as he sat between her and Harper, in front of Anna and Carter.

She was quietly listening all this chatter as Anna and Carter were whispering to each other. She felt someone's gaze on her and turned her eyes to the source.

Raphael watched the mesmerizing sight in front of him. She tucked the strand of her silky golden brown hair as she turned to look at him, revealing her high cheekbones with slightly chubby cheeks, and raised an eyebrow. His lips curved in a teasing smirk. The brunette was confused as to why this ginger was looking at her this way. Did he find any hilarious post about her in the School Forum? Or Harper told him something about their shenanigans with their school sports team and cheerleading team. No. That cannot be. Otherwise this hunk would not tease her. Just directly confront them both and make the huge deal out of it. Lana frowned while looking at other's face and tilted her head indicating 'what?' The redhead shook his head.

"You forgot your diary in my room last night." Raph whispered to her and watched her face changing from array of confusion to parade of dismay and then to formation of seismic disturbance.

"Did you look?" She asked as she stared at that annoying smirking face with dead in eye.

"Let's talk about this later." Raph satisfyingly closed the conversation and leaned back in his seat.

Lana narrowed her eyes at that ass. How mean is this man. First he looks into her personal diary and then teases her about the same. Well, technically it is not hers but also Harper's collective secret diary. More like Art Diary. Which contains pencil portraits of handsome faces. Real and imaginary both.

Anna decided that the ride was too silent besides the rustling of leaves and chirping of birds and insects. She turned her body to the left, towards the front of the jeep, where the boy and driver were sitting.

"Hello cute buddy. What's your name? I'm Annaelle. But you can call me Anna." She introduced herself excitedly, engaging his attention. The little boy turned his chubby body sideways and looked at her.

"Everyone calls me Joe." He replied softly. He eyed everyone else sitting on the backseats curiously, wondering why these beautiful people came in their town. Anna took it as a signal to proceed the introduction further.

"This is Carter. And these are Lana, Raphael and Harper. Those two are twins." Anna pointed out with a warm smile. Poor boy looked at her with awe and flushed as the beautiful elder sister smiled at him. He shyly waved at everyone.

"Aww... Look at those cheeks. They look so soft like strawberry mochi. Let me squish them. Please, can I... bite them?" Harper squealed excitedly. Animatedly made the teeth clattering action at the end. Which clearly shocked the boy with fright.

"NAW. You can't bite my cheeks. You can squish them. But can't bite." Poor boy held his cheeks with both his hands and yelled. Which made Harper chuckle.

If that was even possible, the boy became redder. His eyes rounded in embarrassment. The man driving the Jeep heartily laughed.

"Is the town very far from here? We are driving for quite a time." Raph asked.

"Well, as you ask this we are here. Actually the town is at the south west side of Ancient Forest. The north of this is actually very deep jungle. You can't go there unattended. You'll get lost if you are new." The man driving the Jeep rumbled with his baritone voice.

"Oh, yeah. This is Roman. He owns this jeep. He is awesome and buys me chocolate every time we meet. He has garage and he repairs cars and jeeps." The young lad in front seat chirped with his hands still on his cheeks while at every moment or two glancing at Harper who was still eyeing his cheeks.

The teenagers laughed mercilessly at the poor lad for believing Harper the troublemaker. The older man looked at him chuckling.