VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 57

"Did you do it?" James asked as one of his fellow football players came out of the boy's bathroom with a wicked smirk, nodding like a bobble head toy. Sadie and Rian were leaning against a nearby wall, the former watching with total annoyance toward James, while the latter had a poker face— he, much like his best friend, didn't much care for this . . . the rest of the team was ecstatic, on the contrary.

Stain had attempted to eat his lunch in the bathroom that day to avoid his meal being ruined by his bullies. It was just bad luck that they'd snuck a peek of him walking in with his tray.

The boys howled with laughter, which only intensified when the small frame of Stain walked out of the bathroom, his body covered in juices and condiments and milks, his food uneaten on the tray in his arms. His head was bowed, his hair covering his face as he tried to walk away, but James was quick to grab him by the arm, causing him to drop the tray and spill his ruined food all over the ground. "Come on, Lame Stain. Let's get you cleaned up. I've heard the toilet is great for quick cleans."

Stain hardly even resisted as he was dragged back into the bathroom, the other jocks following closely behind.

"Some friends you got," Sadie muttered to Rian.

"Hey, I'm not like them!" He defended himself as Sadie grabbed his arm and started pulling him off to go to their next class.

"Never be like them again."

The sun was setting over the horizon as Rian's car pulled into the driveway of a nice little suburban home. "Come on!" Sadie said excitedly as she practically jumped out of the car before Rian had even parked it.

"Yeah yeah, gimme a sec," he replied, turning the engine off and climbing out.

Sadie was already knocking on the door to Wammy's house by the time Rian made it to the porch. Honestly, he was excited to see Wammy again too- maybe not quite as much as Sadie, but he always felt pretty good inside whenever he visited. Not only was Wammy an amazing cook, but she also adored the pair of Rian and Sadie, not to mention she had all kinds of wild stories about Rian's own grandma, which weren't the kind of stories anyone would expect to hear from such a kind and polite old woman.

After about thirty more rapid knocks, the door opened, and the kind old face of Wammy appeared. She stood a foot shorter than Sadie, and had poofy, thin, white hair that was usually pulled back into a bun, but tonight was loose and wild. "Boogerboo!" she exclaimed with a heavy German accent when she saw Sadie, wrapping her arms quickly around her granddaughter, before seeing Rian. "Stinkerstoo!" She moved to Rian and hugged him as well.

"Great to see ya again, Wammy," Sadie folded her arms and beamed, earning a chuckle from the little old woman.

"It's been lonely without having the family around, boo," Wammy replied. "Come inside, I already baked you two up some treats. This is the only company little old me has gotten all week, so I put lots of love into them."

"Oh man!" Rian grinned widely, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

Wammy's house wasn't your typical old lady house. Sure she had frilly curtains and the house smelled of old people, not to mention the walls were filled with pictures of family and friends throughout the years, but there was also an expensive treadmill in the corner of the room, a large flat screen tv taking up most of a wall, and a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. She led them to the kitchen, which was more of your stereotypical grandma kitchen, complete with fancy wallpaper of little angel babies decorating the walls.

"Help yourselves to everything on the counter," Wammy told them, waving one hand toward all the goodies she'd prepared; it was mostly different kinds of cookies, some chocolate chip cookies, some sugar cookies, and some cookies with raspberry filling in the middle- Sadie's personal favorite. "I've got some strawberries dipped in chocolate, too," Wammy stated, "but they're cooling off in the fridge."