Chapter 31 - 31. Camp?

The three had continued on their way to Asher's house. Jane left them at the front gate looking back to wave to them three times before she was out of sight. She was obviously worried about Art and did not want to leave the two of them alone. But she needed to get home before her own family worried about her too much.

"Mom!? I am home!" Asher yelled and instantly heard the noises in the kitchen. The smell of baked mac and Cheese was filling the air.

"Kitchen!" Her voice carried through the house easily. Asher knew that even if he whispered that his mother would hear him but he shrill yelled regardless.

Asher dragged Art to the kitchen. "Mom can I ask you something that is very important." He put on his most serious face and treated this like a professional business deal. He needed to make sure Art had a place to sleep. A good place to sleep. He needed to be a good friend and assure this would happen.

"What's wrong? You look very serious, this isn't like you." His mother stopped working on their dinner and gave her full attention to Asher's strange attitude while also glancing at Art who had his head down in shame.

'I need to put this delicately so Art doesn't feel even worse.' He tried to sugar coat his words as much as possible before he spoke. "Art needs a place to stay for a while. There are certain family traditions he needs to follow and I respect that. But I can't have him without a warm bed to sleep the night. Can he stay here until he beats his brother in to submission?" Art looked at Asher like he had just said something crazy.

'That was not as delicate as I had hoped it would be' Asher mentally kicked himself.

"Of course. But next time you ask, try to be a little more...eloquent. We never use that spare room so just go up and give it a good dusting before he goes up there." Asher and Art were equally surprised by this.

"Of course, I will go clean now!" Asher ran up the stairs.

"Wait, I won't put you out! I will help!" Art tried to catch Asher to make sure that he didn't do it all himself.

Little did the two know but Asher's mom had been listening in on the conversation while they had walked home. She always tried to check to make sure Asher and Cara were making their way home safely when they left school. It was a parents duty to make sure they were safe after all. Asher's mother just had super hearing to help her out.

The sounds upstairs of a bed being moved and a closet being opened made her smile a bit more. She knew that the two were doing their best to clean the entire room so it would be in pristine condition. ' My son finally has some great friends.' However just as she thought this a loud bang and the sound of multiple dresser drawers crashing on the ground made her flinch. "We are fine. Nothing happened." Asher's nervous yell put her even more on edge. "Breath through it, breath through it' Thus her cooking became just a bit more stressful.

Cara returned home with no trouble and saw that there were another pair of shoes on the mat again. 'This stupid brother is going to bring his friends home every day now.' She thought this but was secretly happy for him.

Soon after she returned their father also came in the door and did his best to go surprise his wife like usual. The surprised yell of Asher's mother was the sign that everyone was home and it was time to eat.

"So Art, you look especially...well done today. Did you all have cooking class today?" Asher's father had no idea to tell the boy that he looked like someone had tossed him on a grill using too much lighter fluid.

Almost choking on his mac n cheese Art tried to respond. After gulping down half a glass of water he finally managed, "It was a chemistry reaction that I got too close to. For some reason it burst in to black smoke instead of making bubbles. Even the professor had no idea what had happened."

"Well at least you didn't light the school on fire. I would have come for you if you rained out my engineering class." Cara gave Art a cold glare before taking another bite, Art visibly flinched as her teeth crushed the mac n cheese noodles.

"Oh, well if you didn't have cooking lessons today I am sure you will have it tomorrow. If i remember right it was the day after your gym class." Asher's mother looked very excited to have Asher learn to cook. Cara was not chef material but she had hopes that Asher would somehow come out as top chef in the house so she could make him help some nights.

"Oh that should be fun." Asher thought that learning a new skill like cooking could be a blast. 'I never had the chance to cook in the other world but now maybe I can learn how to make my own tacos' The dreams of making his own tacos whenever he wanted flew through his mind. Little did his mother know that if he was given free reign of the kitchen this would be all he wanted to make.

Their dinner went on much like this discussing classes and what they were going to do in the future. Cara interjected at one point, " What camp are you going to try and go to for the fall break?" Their high school gave them a week long break but they would have the opportunity to choose three different camps to go to to increase their studies instead of go on a normal vacation. Most students would choose a camp over staying home doing nothing.

"Oh, your father went to camp jack when he was in school. He learned a lot about laws and even some other trade skills there. It is definitely nice having a handy man around the house." The gross flirting had started between their mother and father.

"Avoid camp Jack got it" Asher made this decision right off the bat.

"I might go to camp Darwin just because I could use the studying of chemistry to help my element. But it's a tough choice." Art was still pondering this. He didn't need to worry about going on vacation with family since he was ousted from the house until he proved himself.

"You two should go to camp cruel. I went and I kicked everyone's butt every day. It was great." Cara had a villainous smile.

"Cara! It's camp Jewel. Don't insult the counselors that way. They run one of the only camps in the country completely dedicated to fostering the youths who wish to pursue law enforcement. They have trained some of the best in the field in their childhood years."

Asher had not found these camps in his memories in detail, there were just small details here and there. "Then I think I should go to camp jewel. If I want to be a hero and beat out Cara I need to catch up." Asher said this while staring off in the distance. His mind had already wandered off on to his future plans.

"Pfft you wish." Cara retorted and stuffed the last of her mac n cheese in to her mouth leaving in a huff.

Eventually Art and Asher finished as well. Art helped with the dishes insisting that he needed to or else his respect as a guest would be gone forever. Naturally Asher's mother took this in stride and let him have the task. The two eventually headed off to do their home work and sleep themselves. Asher had felt the soreness building in his body all day and was ready to let sleep take him.

With what seemed like a blink of his eyes his alarm was blaring in his ears. He slammed his hand down to silence it and realized he had slept in his clothes all night. Rushing to put on his sweat pants and sweat shirt he was dad set to beat Cara downstairs. His body protested the entire time.

Making small gasping sounds coming down the stairs as he bent his legs at every step he swore that he could hear Cara's giggling from the front door. He turned the corner to find that not only Cara had beaten him to the front door but Art was standing there too in a spare set of gym clothes. "Morning Asher, I'm coming with. You won't be getting ahead of me anytime soon." Asher swore he saw Cara smile for a second after hearing Art say this but in a blink of an eye she was straight faced again. 'I must be too sleepy still.'