Around midnight, Holly woke to a loud ringing noise. She looked around the room and saw that the rest of the friends were awake, Alex looking just as confused as she was while Jack and Zack groaned loudly.
“What is that?” Holly asked, sighing. She had been in the middle of a wonderful dream!
Alex let his head fall back onto the pillow he had been using. “Ugh!” he yelled.
Zack simply groaned before closing his eyes again. He sat there with a pained expression on his face until the ringing ended a few moments later. With everything quiet, the gang slowly fell asleep again.
Hours later, and Holly wasn’t exactly sure how much time had passed since the last time she was awakened, the same ringing noise jolted her out of her sleep yet again. Jack looked as though he was trying to ignore it, and Zack had his eyes shut tightly, a slight frown on his face. Alex, on the other hand, looked downright mutinous.
“This has got to stop!” Alex exclaimed. “Two bloody times in one night!”
The ringing ended again, leaving Holly to her very confused thoughts. What was causing the noise, and why did it have this effect on the Macmillan household?
Not much later, Holly awoke with a very painful sensation in her neck. “Aye,” she muttered. “I’ll feel that in the morning. Wait…it is morning…Good God, that’s painful.”
She took a quick survey of her surroundings to see what may have caused this blight upon her muscles. At first, she didn’t recognize the room she was in. There was a slanted ceiling with a fan whirring around. That must have been the sound that had woken her up. A few feet away, she recognized Jack lying on his side in the middle of the floor. Puzzled, Holly looked around the room a bit more. What was Alex doing here, too? The blonde boy was asleep on the sofa, his arm dangling off. Next to Holly, Zack sat in the armchair, asleep. And she was still on the arm of said chair, her head leaning on the back of it.
“Ouch,” she whispered. That must have been why her neck hurt! Slowly, it all came back to her. She was at Zack’s house. The gang was staying there for a week. They had been watching Pride and Prejudice on the television. And she must have fallen asleep in the middle of it, because she couldn’t remember the ending. How had she fallen asleep in the middle of a Jane Austen classic? The world never ceased to confuse her.
Zack stirred. “Mmph,” he grumbled. “Holly? Wha-what happened?”
“You fell asleep in the middle of Pride and Prejudice, you freak.”
“Oh. Right. Well that was to be expected, I guess.”
Jack sat bolt upright in the centre of the floor, his eyes wide. “Where am I?”
“Um, Jackie, you’re at my house,” Zack said slowly. “How does he not remember?” he whispered to Holly.
“It’s Jack. You really want me to try and figure out how his mind works?” Holly asked.
“Not even an experienced psychiatrist could figure that out.”
“So true.”
“I cannot believe you,” Alex said, sounding still half-asleep as he sat up. “You’re making fun of Jack without me. That can never be forgiven.”
Just then, Mrs Macmillan appeared in the room with a loud pop, sending Holly flying off of the chair in surprise. “Hello, children,” Mrs Macmillan said with a smile. “How are you this morning?”
“Tired,” Alex replied.
“Annoyed,” Zack grumbled.
“In pain!” Holly squeaked from the floor.
“Hungry,” Jack said. “Let’s make breakfast!”
“It’s almost noon.” Mrs. Macmillan laughed. “How about we make lunch?”
“I get to cut the cheese!” Jack yelled, running towards the kitchen.
“Jack, don’t--” Mrs. Macmillan began. She sighed. Zack looked at her questioningly. “Your father’s in there,” she replied weakly.
“Oh, no,” Zack said lowly. Two voices were heard from the hall.
“Hey, Ernie!”
“JACK!”
Jack came running back in, a nervous expression on his face. “How about you cut the cheese, Tori?”
“Not me, now,” Mrs. Macmillan groaned as she walked to the kitchen in order to prepare lunch.
“Jack, you’ll never be allowed back here again!” Holly laughed. She stood up. “Ow!”
“Rough night, huh?” Alex inquired. “Yeah, that’s what you get for sleeping on the arm of a freaking chair.”
“You took the sofa,” Holly pointed out.
“Shut up.”
~*~
After lunch, Norah and Maria arrived. Norah’s purple plaid dress was speckled with paint in every colour imaginable. Maria’s long brown hair was tied into a ponytail, but there was a smattering of green in it.
Zack laughed as he saw his cousins. “You’ve got to be kidding me! You just showed up here like that?”
“Apparently,” Alex said, nodding.
“Shut up,” Norah said, swishing her blond hair out of her face. “You’d be surprised how much fun it was.”
“Really?” Alex asked dryly. “It was fun? I’m shocked.”
“Well, some of the Muggles from the area were painting, too, so of course we couldn’t use magic,” Maria explained. “And it was fun to have to do something to Muggle way. It gave us a new appreciation for them.” Norah nodded earnestly.
“Oh, boy, here we go.” Zack shut his eyes. “Guys, no more Muggle-talk. You’ll start these two on a ranting rampage.”
“Excuse me?” Norah asked.
“Everytime you find a cause you like, you’re on the bandwagon for weeks, maybe months!” Zack exclaimed. “You’re on a Muggle-friendly kick!” He pulled his wand out so that he could clean up the mess from lunch.
“Nope, sorry!” Maria reached over and snatched his wand out of his hand. “Muggles do it without magic; so can you.”
“Oy,” Alex said lowly. “I see what he meant!”
A few moments later, a set of bells began ringing. Holly didn‘t recognize the sound (as they had arrived at Zack‘s house well past seven in the evening), and she hadn‘t heard it at all the night before. However, this had to be a recurring event, judging by the reactions that followed. Maria slammed her head down on the table, Norah put her hands over her ears, and Zack shut his eyes tightly.
“What’s up?” Alex tilted his head to the side.
“The church bells!” Norah screamed. “The freaking church bells!”
Maria groaned and began repeatedly hitting her head on the table. Zack sat completely still, looking as though he prayed it would be over soon.
“Okay, what’s the story with this?” Holly inquired.
“Well,” Jack began as though he was an expert on the goings-on of Zack’s small town, “a few months ago, around the Christmas holidays, I believe, they fixed the bell system on the Ye Olde Church. By the way, that’s not it’s real name, but I don’t know what it really is, so I’ll go with that. But, back to the story. At first, they were magnificent and beautiful. But now they’re just loud and obnoxious. They go off every six hours, and the six a.m. ones are awful.”
“So you don’t want them to stay, well, chiming?” Alex asked.
“Right,” Zack groaned. The bells stopped. He opened his eyes, Norah uncovered her ears, and Maria lifted her head up from the countertop.
“We can fix that,” Alex said.
“Alex!” Holly exclaimed. “That’s vandalism!”
“That’s helping a town that must be as miserable as the Macmillans,” Alex amended. “Not vandalism.”
Zack smiled widely. “Well…we could do a little something to make sure that the bells stopped tormenting the townspeople…”
“Zackary Macmillan, I swear to God that if you have something to do with the deliberate annihilation of those church bells, we are so over!” Holly threatened.
Zack pouted. “Oh, fine. I won’t have anything to do with it. Alex’ll have to go on without me.”
“Alex…” Holly began.
“Fine,” Alex sighed. “Fine, fine. I won’t destroy the bells.”
~*~
That evening, right before six o’clock dinner, the bells rang again. “Oh, my God.” Zack groaned. “That’s awful!”
“Get over it,” Holly snapped. “I think they’re beautiful.”
~*~
It was around eleven at night when the gang finally fell asleep in the living room. This time, though, they weren’t in excruciatingly painful positions such as the night before. Well, they might have been, depending on who they were.
Zack sat on the sofa, his feet on the floor, his head leaning against the side of the sofa. Maria sat next to him, her head on his lap, her legs hanging off the couch. Norah was next to her, with her legs on Maria’s and her head on the arm of the sofa.
Meanwhile, on the armchair, Alex sat with his feet stretched across to the coffee table. Jack was on the floor, his head leaning against Alex’s legs. Holly sat with her back on the floor, facing the ceiling, her legs up diagonally so that they rested on Jack’s shoulders.
One hour later, as the bells began chiming, Alex’s eyes fluttered open. This had to stop, he had woken up the previous night in much the same way. So, as he made to stand up by moving his legs to the floor, Jack’s headrest was terminated and he went falling backwards. As he fell, Holly’s footrest moved and her legs plummeted to the floor. All three of the teenagers were now wide awake.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“Standing up?” Alex asked softly as Jack began pummeling him with pillows. “Would you cut it out?”
“You woke me up!” Jack whined. “And it’s only--” he looked at the digital clock under the television-- “midnight!”
“Yeah, but I have a feeling that if I hadn’t woken you up, those damn bells would have!” Alex snapped. Zack grunted in his sleep. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get out of here before he wakes up or he’ll put your relationship in jeopardy!”
“You’re going to get rid of the bells?” Jack asked gleefully. “Oh, I love you Alex!”
“Oh, hi, Mrs. Macmillan!” Holly said.
Jack whipped around to see if the woman in question really was behind him. When he didn’t see her and realised that Holly was simply having some fun, he rolled his eyes. “Really nice, Hol.”
“So, I’ll see you in less than an hour,” Alex said as he began to walk out of the living room.
“Aren’t you going to Apparate there?” Holly asked. “It’s kind of far to walk at night.”
“Well, yeah, but Disapparating causes a noise, and that would wake everyone up,” Alex explained.
“Oh. Well, okay…” Holly agreed. “Make sure you don’t get caught!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Alex said, shaking his head. “You seen one Muggle prison, you’ve seem them all.” With that, he walked out of the room, leaving Holly dazed and confused as to what he meant. Seconds later, the front door opened and closed. There wasn’t another sound, save for Zack’s light snoring.
“I‘m quite glad he’s doing this,” Holly said with a contented sigh.
“I thought you loved the bells?” Jack asked.
“Oh, Jack, I just said that to dissuade Zack,” Holly explained. “If they get caught, my boyfriend will be in jail, and
s fragmented rays of sunlight seeped through the thin blinds in the window, Holly opened her eyes. “AGH! That’s bright!”
Alex sat only feet away from her, smiling slightly as he gestured to the clock. It read 7:51. She had slept through the bells! So had the rest of them! Wait…how was that possibly? They were so obnoxiously loud! Suddenly, the conversation at midnight came back to her.
“Alex!” she yelled. She stood up and hugged him tightly. “Oh, my God! I love you!” She pecked him on the cheek.
Alex blushed, although he would never, ever admit it. “I thought they were beautiful?”
“Oh, I needed to dissuade Zack from getting arrested,” Holly muttered. “They’re horrible and obnoxious and oh!” She squeezed him tighter.
Zack, unfortunately for him, woke up just at this moment. “Oy! I thought you were over her!”
“Oh, um, Zack!” Holly said, too elated to say anything more. “Alex just did the most amazing thing!”
“I’ll kill you, mate, I swear to God,” Zack threatened.
“Oh, Zack, no, gross!” Holly exclaimed. “Alex is…Oh, gross!”
“Hey, remember me?” Alex asked. “The ‘gross’ and obnoxious but hilarious best mate? I happen to still be in the room!”
“Right, sorry, man.” Holly grinned. “But Alex, tell Zack what you did?”
Zack proceeded to stand up, knocking Maria and Norah to the floor. This wouldn’t have been necessarily a bad thing, but Maria, due to her previous position, landed on Jack, who shot up with a scream.
Norah tilted her head to the side. “Explanation, please.”
“Well, around midnight, you three--” Alex gestured to Maria, Norah, and Zack-- “the three who complain about the bells the most, slept through them. I, however, woke up right in the middle.”
“And by waking up, he woke us up, because of our positions,” Jack whined, pointing to himself and Holly.
“Yeah, well, no one gives a damn about your apparent displeasure,” Alex said with a shrug. “Anyway, I was so fed up with being woken up at midnight that I went out, Apparated to the church and, well, look at what time it is.”
Norah squealed. “Eight o’clock! We slept through the bells!”
“You didn’t sleep through them,” Alex corrected, “because they never rang.”
“You- You- You destroyed the bells?” Zack asked incredulously. “I don’t think I’ve ever loved a man more.”
“That’s good,” Alex put in. “Otherwise Jack would be out of a job as the questionable one of our group.”
Norah smirked. “Thanks, Al. You rock.”
“Agreed.” Maria nodded.
Mrs. Macmillan walked into the parlor, looking particularly chipper for eight in the morning. “Hello, children. I got the most fabulous night’s sleep; how about yourselves?”
“Fantastic,” Zack said, smiling at Alex.
“Well, that’s nice, kids,” Mrs. Macmillan said with a smile. “Should I make you some pancakes for breakfast?”
“Yes, Tori, thanks!” Jack said with a grin.
“Mrs. Macmillan to you, Jack,” Mrs. Macmillan corrected with a scowl. She walked out of the room, and seconds later the gang heard the stove flicker on.
“Blimey, it’s got to be fun having a Muggle in the family,” Norah said. “Dad’s a half-blood, and that’s the closest it gets. He’s not much of a cook, anyway…”
“What about your mum, what status is she?” Holly asked.
“Pureblood; she’s Uncle Ernie’s younger sister,” Maria replied.
“Aunt Marissa’s an awful cook.” Zack laughed. “Really, it’s hilarious. Even Dad can manage to not explode a canister of Muggle cinnamon buns.”
“Oh, shove off,” Norah snapped.
Stay Awake by ringobeatlesfan4
Chapter Notes: Here's chapter two! Enjoy it, everyone, because my beta doesn't get back 'til Monday and she hasn't gotten around to chapter three yet! Once again, a HUGE thanks for Russia Snow for being the most fantabulous beta I've ever had. She's *great*. Chapter four's being written right now. I'd like to thank my loyal reviewers, not just for this story (one review? Anyone want to add to that? :D ) but for all of my fics. So, um. . . R&R, please!
Chapter Endnotes: So, I hope you liked it! And I have a couple questions for you to answer in a review, just for feedback: Which is your favorite character, and why? Which is your least favorite? Why? They're my favorite characters of mine, I love them, but I want to know how you feel about them! And I'll answer my own question: My favorite is Jack because he's such a sweetie, and his childish demeanor is (to me) endearing. My least favorite is Maria because, as you'll see in the next chapter, she's quite girly and not at all like myself. So, answer away! {BeccA}