[ 12 ] 2014

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"And I'll be the wife of a famous basketball player."

-

Harley and her friends had what they saw as a full proof plan to save Calum from his uncle Cole, and Harley went back to her house in the afternoon, to let Ashton know what they were planning to do. If they wanted to go through a plan that complicated, she knew some help from a ghost could come in handy to them. Ashton was the only one of them who could really come and go in front of humans without being seen. Harley was sure Ashton would be more than happy to help. He wasn't very fond of Calum, but he surely didn't dislike him as much as he used to. Harley remembered a time when they were always at each other's throats, but it didn't happen as often anymore. 

It didn't happen at all now because Calum was gone.

When she entered her house, her parents were not there per usual. She had noticed her dad's car was not in the driveway when she walked up, but her brother's new car was and next to it was her pink car. 

On a small table by the front door was a note informing her and her brother that they had gone out to dinner with some business friends of Aaron and that they would be returning late that night. Harley was glad that they were taking some time for themselves. Since arriving in Sydney, her dad had dedicated most of his time to his job and his mother seemed a bit reluctant to talk to some of the other rich families in the area, despite the fact that she was known to be very social. Harley knew that Harleen wanted to wait to meet people with Aaron, and they were finally getting the chance to do it.

As she walked further into the house which turned into the living room, she saw Cindy and Billy were on the couch together, with his arm around her shoulders, and her head on his chest. They seemed to be watching a movie, and both turned when they heard Harley's footsteps approaching them. 

Cindy smiled wide when she saw her best friend. "Hey Harley!"

Harley gave a small wave of her hand, and smiled in return. "Hi Cindy, hi annoying brother." She added a greeting for Billy.

He rolled his eyes at her, but greeted her back. "Hey booger."

"Should I go upstairs before you two start getting intimate or something?" She asked them, raising an eyebrow in question. She knew that Cindy had something special for Billy on his birthday, and she had no idea of knowing if she had given it to him yet. All she knew was that she wanted to give them some privacy to be together.

Billy replied with a proud nod of his head. "Probably."

"Okay." Harley said, gesturing to the stairs that led to the upper floor, "I'll be upstairs. You probably know mum and dad will be out for hours, so have fun...but not too much fun. Do I need to give you the safe sex talk, brother?"

Her brother scoffed, amused that she was suddenly taking up the role of a protective older sibling when he was the older one of them. "You don't, booger. I'm in the science club." He informed her, as though that were enough to make him a responsible teenager. "And anyway, we don't want to be young parents. We have plans for the future."

"Plans like what?" Harley challenged, hands on her hips.

"I'm going to attend UCLA on a basketball, football, cross country, or science scholarship. Cindy will get in on a cheer leading scholarship, or with her connections. Then if I keep up my grades and skills, I'll graduate with honors, and be recruited by the Lakers or the Steelers, depends on which sport I end up liking best. Then, and only then, Cindy and I will get married and want babies." He explained matter-of-factly. And if Harley knew her brother well, they were goals that were highly achievable. Billy was very skilled in sports, and had a lot of knowledge in the subject of science.

Harley was glad, and slightly relieved that they were going to wait until they were well settled in their lives and careers. She was even more relieved of their plans when Cindy added with a big smile, "And I'll be the wife of a famous basketball player."

It wasn't like Cindy would ever need money anyway. She had enough of it to last her a lifetime, as well as the lifetimes of her children, and grandchildren.

"That is a smart thing to do." She told them, and excused herself, making her way to her bedroom. She had things to talk about with Ashton, and she also wanted to make sure she would have everything she needed for their dangerous mission.

-

The next day, Harley went about her day as normally as she could, trying to avoid arousing suspicion from her parents. She was nervous that something could go wrong, and that something could happen to her friends because their mission was dangerous. If Cole found them out in their attempt to save Calum, he would be able to hurt them because he knew more than they did about their powers. 

She waited until she was alone at her house to retrieve her Diamond Rose from its hiding place. Ever since the accident had happened with Phoenix, where she broke her hand trying to lift Harley's special gun, she made sure to keep it in a place where no one would find it. The one place she knew, which her parents didn't know about, was the bomb shelter underground. It was the place she was now using as her secret hideaway and the place where she stored her Diamond Rose whenever she wasn't needing it.

Her parents had gone out for breakfast. They had gotten back from their reunion with friends at odd hours of the night when Harley and Billy were asleep. They had no energy to cook anything for breakfast and went to eat at a restaurant instead. They had invited Billy and Harley, but Billy wanted to head over to Cindy's house while Harley told them she would be spending the day with at Dempsey's house.

Harley went out to the backyard and to the picket fence that separated her from her next door neighbor's house. There was a small wooden door which she opened to get to their yard, where the entrance to the shelter was. 

She hurried to the other end of the yard, there was a patch of grass and dirt that she moved aside to reveal the entrance. Harley pulled it open and climbed down into the shelter, flipping on the switch next to the tunnel that led back up to the outside world. 

The bomb shelter covered the entire area underground that had once been the whole property of the Irwins, and it was large. There were several rooms and hallways to it. Harley had left her Diamond Rose in one of the immediate storage rooms, which Ashton's mother had used as well. There were various cardboard boxes in there with family albums and old toys that Ashton and his siblings used to play with. 

Harley made her way to the storage room and grabbed a step ladder. Her weapon was in a cardboard box on one of the highest shelves. She grabbed the cardboard box and pulled it towards her, but it slipped out of her grip and ended up falling to the ground with a thud, spilling its contents onto the floor and making a mess of things. Harley groaned in frustration and climbed off her ladder. She got on her hands and knees and gathered everything back in the box. Her Diamond Rose had fallen underneath a blue lunchbox with a rusted lock keeping it securely shut.

She had never thought about the reason why it would be locked, it was only a lunchbox. As she finished putting everything back in its storage place, she left the blue box out, and her Diamond Rose secured to her belt loop and concealed underneath the waist of her skinny jeans.

Getting back on her feet, she picked up the box and took it to the living room area, where she and her friends had been months earlier when they had been captured by Rohan. She sat on the couch with the old lunchbox on her lap and observed it. There didn't seem to be anything special about it, but she knew its contents were likely important if someone put a lock on the box.

Her hand reached out towards the lock guarding the contents of the lunchbox. Harley concentrated all her energy on her hand, making the lock rattle violently before it broke off and fell to the ground at her feet. With the box no longer locked to her, she pulled the lid off and a gasp escaped her lips at what her eyes found inside. Opening the box gave her a sense of déjà vu, it was something she had already done before.

The first thing she noticed was a rusted gun with a long chain attached to it. The gun was in a copper color that she was sure wasn't the way it originally looked. Underneath it were stacks of dollars in mint condition, and as she picked one of the stacks up, the gun clanked against the tin of the box it was in. Her eyes scanned the paper bills with the words Reserve Bank of Australia on the top, Queen Elizabeth II's picture on the left, and the date they had been printed on the bottom. 

The next thing she grabbed was a necklace, after placing the money back in its box. It was a silver chain necklace with a circle pendant on it. The pendant had something that looked like an Aztec jaguar face on it, with sun beams radiating around it, and zigzagged designs around it. 

She picked up the gun last, with the necklace still in her hand. The style of the model was oddly reminiscent of one she knew well.

She got her Diamond Rose out and compared the two. As her blue eyes observed the gun more closely, she could make out something written across one side. The rust made it difficult to decipher, but she eventually concluded it said Diamond Rose. Harley turned it over to the other side, where the name of its owner would be written out across the barrel.

"Ashton..." She read the name written on the old gun model.

-

dun dun dun suspense. 

why does ashton have a diamond rose? is it really his? are we going to get some kind of cool back story or explanation? probably. but you will all need to stay tuned for that ;)

anyway, im watching the mighty morphin power rangers, and reliving my childhood. this show was the best, i swear. but my sister told me something that blew my mind. in the very first american power ranger series, they used clips of the japanese version during the fight scenes when they were in costume. and trini (female yellow ranger) was a man in the japanese version. so i was like "she has a manly body" until my sis gave me those facts.

but yeah.

qotd: did you all watch power rangers? which version? who was your fave? and who did you dislike? like i mentioned, i watched the power rangers. i watched the mighty morphin ones, which was the first pr series in america. my fave when i was a kid was kimberly (pink ranger), but now its billy (blue ranger) and trini (yellow ranger). i also really liked rocky (2nd red ranger, bae af ok). i always hated tommy (green/ later became white ranger) bc he was too damn bossy. like boy, who made you the boss? i dont remember anyone voting for you to be the leader.

so i hope you like the chapter. make sure to vote and comment! ^.^

blessings, clary xx