The Unknown

Library

Several months later

At the public library

Lisa's pov

"Mike, can we get a movie?" I ask, after we're done picking out books.

"Depends on what movie," he responds.

"Nightmare on Elm Street."

"The horror film? I don't think so. Isn't that rated R?" Mike sounded annoyed I asked for something so preposterous.

"I don't think so," I replied, hoping he'd believe me.

"Nice try, Lisa. The answer's no. Now drop it."

"But, Miiiiiike," I whined.

Mike gave me his warning look. The one that means I know what you're up to, I'm not amused and I'm losing my patience.

"Ugghh, fine whatever!" I huffed, rolling my eyes as I went to tell Stacey and Julie he didn't fall for it.

When I found them and said Mike didn't go for it, they were surprisingly chill.

"Don't sweat it, Lisa. We'll get Shane to say yes next week," Stacey said.

"Yeah, Mike's leavin' for Africa on Thursday so we'll get Shane to bring us back here on Friday. We'll get the movie then." Julie sounded pretty confident, so I just shrugged my shoulders and let it go.

When we left the library, Mike pulled me aside before I could get in the car.

"When I tell you no, Lisa, the only response I want to hear is acquiescence followed by sir. Understand?" He smacked my bottom once before glaring at me with his hands on his hips.

"No, not really. Aqua sense isn't one of our fourth grade vocab words, Mike," I responded, rather snottily.

"Honestly, not lovin' the attitude, Lisa." He reached back and slapped my right buttcheek.

Crap that stings.

"ACQUIESCE means to accept without resistance. No attitude, exasperated huffing, eye-rolling, or muttering whatever under your breath. Now do you understand?"

"Yeah yeah, I get it, okay?" I responded, while covering my butt with my hands to ward off more strikes.

"Good, now get in," Mike said, while opening the side passenger door.

When I turned and stepped into the backseat, Mike took the opportunity to smack my bottom again, twice.

"Ow! What was that for?" I yelled, rubbing the sting from my buttocks .

"You didn't acquiesce," Mike said, with a wink and a smile.

One week later

Stacey's pov

We convinced Shane to let us checkout Nightmare on Elm Street from the library by leaving out the 'Nightmare' part and convincing him 'Elm Street' was similar to Sesame Street. He's so naive when it comes to American cinema. We also told him, Mike forgot to check it out last week for us, giving him the impression Mike was fine with us watching the movie.

It was Friday night and we decided to watch the movie in one of the common rooms at 1am. Carrie doesn't like horror movies so she declined our invitation. Unfortunately, Lisa let it slip in front of Mindy, so she and her roommates Cathie and Jenny were going to join us. I wasn't thrilled about that turn of events but Mindy threatened to tell their guardian Rick if we didn't let them watch with us. We knew that Rick would go straight to Mike and Shane with the info so we didn't have much of a choice.

Surprisingly, we all managed to sneak out of our rooms unnoticed and made it to the common room without a hitch. We got out our snacks and turned the lights off before starting the movie. We sat on the floor, close to the tv so we could keep the volume low. The movie scared the crap out of us. In other words, it was awesome!

The best thing to come out of our movie night was how freaked out Mindy was. She had to sleep with a nightlight from then on. It probably didn't help that Julie and I would hide and sing the rhyme from the movie anytime we saw her. One, two Freddy's coming for you. Three, four better lock your door. I even followed her into the bathroom at school one time and sang it outside her stall door. Cruel I know, but it was funny and Mindy deserved it for being such a snitch most of the time.

It was a blast, until the whole thing unraveled that is.

The following week

Mike's pov

"Hey, when did you get back from Africa?" Rick asked, stopping me in the hallway.

"Yesterday," I replied.

"Oh that's great, man. It's good to see you," Rick said, as he continued walking in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Rick," I called out, stopping him to get his attention. "No offense man, but you look totally wiped and that's comin' from a guy who spent eighteen of the past twenty-four hours in airports and on planes. What's goin' on?"

Rick turned around and walked back towards me.

"Uggh, it's the girls, man." He rubbed his eyes and sighed. He looked completely exhausted. "Mindy, Jenny, and Cathie decided to watch some stupid horror movie at 1am last week and now Cathie's having nightmares, Mindy can't sleep without a dozen lights on, and Jenny wakes up every night begging me to stay with her until she falls back asleep. Dude, I haven't had a good night's sleep in a week."

"Wow, I'm really sorry. Anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah, destroy every copy of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels in case they decide to do something this stupid again," Rick joked, as he started to walk away.

"Wait a minute. They watched Nightmare on Elm Street?" I asked, suddenly very suspicious my girls might be involved somehow.

"Yeah, why?"

"Your girls watched the movie by themselves?"

"Yeah, why? What's goin' on, Mike? What are you gettin' at?"

I exhaled loudly, closed my eyes, and ran my left hand down my face resting it over my mouth while shaking my head. No, please tell me this wasn't their idea, I thought to myself. However, I knew the odds were not in my favor.

"Sadly, Rick, I think my girls might have played a part in this."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's just a little too much of a coincidence that they asked me if they could check that very movie out of the library just two weeks ago." Why am I not surprised they would disobey me. "Rick, do you mind if I have a word with your girls? I just have a few questions I'd like to ask them."

"No, of course not. I'm on my way over there right now if you want to walk with me."

It didn't take much persuasion (a stern look and a raised voice) to get Mindy to admit that my girls supplied the movie and she, Jenny, and Cathie just came along for the ride.