The Vendeleer Brothers Book 2: Serenity Hill

Roderick had quite a fretful night’s sleep, haunted by images of Kishnu and Pinnacle Gulch. The next day, he attempted to go out and do some more investigating, but then ended up sleeping most of the day anyway in Brian’s van. Joey and Brian didn’t bother him, deciding that it would be a good time to do some research in the books Joey was keeping in her car.

After actually being able to sleep through the night, he suddenly jolted awake the next morning to someone blasting Good Morning from Singing in the Rain. For a split moment, he sat up dazed and confused, rubbing his horrible bed head, only to realize what was going on when he heard Brian laughing hysterically.

“I had to get you back from the other day dude!”

Roderick slowly smiled and yawned.

“Man. How long did I sleep?”

“Only like a day. You ready to get back to work on this thing?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Then let’s goooo!” Brian exclaimed, jumping out of the car like things were still normal.

Well, as normal as things could be when trying to solve a paranormal case. Roderick took some time to get freshened up and change his clothes, and then he was ready to deal with their first task:

Ian and Jordyn.

After some discussion, the three of them agreed that they would need both of them to figure this thing out.

And besides, Roderick was ready to get his brother back.

He needed him.

So here they were, standing outside of Jordyn’s quaint little home, watching as Ian and Jordyn pulled weeds again.

“Ok. So how are we going to do this?” Roderick asked, putting his hands on his hips.

“Hmmm. Well, you said Jordyn’s eye kind of twitched when Ian was trying to make her mad right?” Joey asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well let’s try to make them mad.”

“Hey Jordyn! Your house looks like a skunk’s butt!” Brian yelled. Ian and Jordyn simply laughed.

“Oh Brian!” Jordyn chortled, taking off her gloves and padding at some of the dirt.

“I mean really mad.” Joey corrected.

“But Jordyn usually gets really mad at everything.” Roderick said, sounding a bit concerned. “She would have exploded at the things Ian said to her the other day, but she didn’t. All we got was an eye twitch.”

The three of them stood there thinking as Ian and Jordyn laughed at something else. Brian suddenly gasped as if he had an idea.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed. “Only… uh…”

“What is it Brian?” Roderick asked as his best friend seemed hesitant. Brian took a deep breath, putting a brave face on, and marched over to Jordyn. Before he got to her, he turned around and saluted the two of them.

“If I die, Roderick, you can have all my video games.”

“What?”

Joey raised a brow as Brian walked up to Jordyn and pulled her off the ground. Then he put both hands on her shoulders and faced her as she looked at him with that same smile, only, looking slightly confused.

“Uh… What’s he doing?” Joey asked.

“I don’t… know.”

A moment later, the two of them screamed in horror as Brian pulled Jordyn close and kissed her.

The effects were almost immediate.

After about 2.5 seconds, a swear rung in all of their ears as a moment later, Brian was on the ground with Jordyn on top of him, a look of pure unadulterated rage on her face as she punched him in the jaw and grabbed him by the shirt, holding nothing back as she screamed.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING YOU-!”

“JORDYN! STOP!”

Joey and Roderick ran over to her and pulled her off of her victim as she struggled against them.

“I’m sorry!! I’m sorry!” Brian begged, dragging himself away from her, his lip bleeding. “I couldn’t think of any other way to make you really mad!!”

Jordyn could have had smoke billowing out of her nose and ears with how red her face was. She huffed and puffed like a tank engine-her nostrils flared.

“Jordyn! Please calm down! He only did it to bring you back to normal!” Roderick cried.

“What are you talking about-?”

She froze as it suddenly hit her.

“What the crap just happened?” she asked, looking around, suddenly confused.

“Do you… remember anything?”

“Of course I remember!” Jordyn seethed, wiping dirt off her red and blue flannel shirt. “I came here to investigate a missing coworker, and for the past few weeks I’ve been acting like an idiot and-.”

She suddenly gasped in disgust as Ian waved at them, a large smile still plastered on his face.

“I’ve been making contact with… him! Ugh!”

“Uh… You guys didn’t do anything did you?” Brian asked a little warily.

Jordyn shot him a glare that could’ve burned puppies.

“No. Thank goodness.” she seethed. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself down. “What I don’t really understand, is how you guys fixed me-or-or what’s going on here.”

“We’ll explain in a moment Jordyn” Joey began to explain. “But first, we should probably fix Ian. We need to get him really mad. That’s how we got you out of it.”

Jordyn shot another glare at Brian, who flinched and hid behind Roderick as she put her hands on her hips and looked around.

“Hey-that chevy cruze belongs to your brother right?” she asked nonchalantly.

“Uh… yeah.”

Wordlessly, she reached in her pocket and brought out some keys, twirling them on her finger.

“Hey Ian!” she called out as he finished putting up their gardening equipment.

“Yes Jordyn?” he asked, coming over.

Jordyn flashed a devilish smile and then sent an earsplitting screech into the air as she dug on of her keys into the side of his car.

Ian’s smile melted off his face.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” he suddenly screamed, running over in a panic.

“You need a new car anyway. This one’s too girly for you.”

“YOU KEYED MY CAR!!”

“So? You probably deserve it for something.”

“YOU KEYED MY FREAKING CAR!!”

“Ah… That’s better. Back to normal…” Joey sighed dreamily.

“Ian! You’re back!” Roderick exclaimed ecstatically, throwing his arms around his brother.

“Get off of me!” Ian protested, still concerned with the fact that Jordyn was laughing and twirling the keys around her finger again.

“Ian-she had to-she had to make you mad in order to bring you out of-the weird happiness thing.”

Ian took a deep breath, glaring at Jordyn. Then he took a moment to compose himself as Roderick stood there smiling.

“So do you agree with me now that something paranormal is going on in this town?”

“Uh, yeah bro. You’ve been uncharacteristically happy for days. And we both know that doesn’t happen without paranormal activity.”

Ian rolled his eyes.

“Wait-so if Jordyn keyed my car, what did you do to make her snap out of it?”

“We’re not going to talk about that.” she seethed, sending another glare at Brian, who squeaked again.

“Brian kissed her.” Joey said matter of factly. Ian’s mouth dropped open as he noticed how beat up Brian looked at the moment, and then, he started to laugh. Roderick couldn’t remember the last time his brother had laughed so hard.

“Brian-kissed-Jordyn?!” he gasped, leaning on his brother for support, unable to handle it.

“Shut up!!”

“I bet you enjoyed it huh? HA!”

“HIS BLOODIED UP FACE SHOULD BE ENOUGH OF AN ANSWER FOR YOU!”

“Quick! Everybody smile!!” Joey suddenly ordered.

Immediately, Brian and Roderick caught on and spread out into large smiles, much to the confusion of Ian and Jordyn.

“Uh… Why-?” Jordyn started.

“Just do it!” Joey said through her teeth. Slowly, Ian and Jordyn joined in with some rather weak smiles as a mail truck stopped in front of the house.

“Well hello neighbors!” the man grinned at them, putting a letter in the mailbox for Jordyn.

“Uh… and… hello to you too…” Jordyn said halfheartedly, struggling to keep the smile on her face.

“Well, I’d stay and chat, but the mail won’t deliver itself!” he said with a wink, lifting the white hat from his blond head.

“So what? If someone catches us not smiling are we going to have trouble?” Ian whispered to his brother, also struggling to keep the smile on his face.

“That’s the idea…”

“Oh great. If I get turned all happy again-don’t let Jordyn key my car anymore.”

“Keep a smile and we won’t have to worry about that!”

“You keep a smile so we don’t have to-.”

“Guys--can it!” Joey said through her fake happy face.

The five of them waved as the mailman finally left. As soon as he was out of sight, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

“I don’t know how long I can keep this up.” Jordyn said, concerned. Ian nodded.

“For once I’ll have to agree with you. We’re doomed.”

Roderick rolled his eyes.

“Come on guys. Let’s go inside. It’s time to fill you in on what’s been happening.”