Run Away!

Chapter 1 The Plan

A/N: Hello and welcome to my first non-Harry Potter story. Well, technically it's the second, but I'm not counting that other one, because that was just a stupid song. Well, read, review, and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own…oh, wait a minute. I don't need a disclaimer for that, because I own all the characters. OK. Um, don't steal my characters. If you want to use them, for reasons I can't imagine, please ask permission in your review or something. Also, let me know if you're going to strangle them, suffocate them, or cause them any harm or distress. Only certain characters I will allow you to do this to, because I don't like them. OK? OK. Now read!

"And, and, do you know what he said next?" asked Kent, as he and his big brother Alex Cortez were walking home from school. He looked ready to burst into hysterics for 190,890,438,904th time that day.

Alex rolled his eyes. "What did he say, O' Comical King?" he said sarcastically.

"To get…to the other side!" Kent obviously couldn't control himself and started rolling around on the pavement, laughing like a maniac. "BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH!"

"Um, I don't know him," said Alex, as people on the street stopped doing what they were supposed to be doing (what that was, nobody knows) to stare at them. Alex blushed and ran into the corner store to get away from the stares. Alex didn't like people staring at him. It made him VERY uncomfortable.

Alex was sick of pretending he didn't know his awfully embarrassing family. Kent wasn't the only one in his family that was strange. His dad was quite odd too. His dad was a lawyer for a major company, and he always smiled, even on murder cases. His dad seemed oblivious to the fact that Alex was in sixth grade now and still treated him like he was two. Alex's mother worked at a jelly bean factory and was never home. When she was home, she would dance like an insane person to the weirdest music in existence. His sister Jen would raid his room constantly and take his stuff. Plus, she would tell him the most frightening bunny stories. Since Alex was mortally afraid of all things fuzzy and cute, these stories would have him running for cover in his room. Jen found this extremely funny. Alex, however, found it extremely irritating.

Actually, now that he thought of it, some of his peers actually embarrassed him too. One very nerdy kid at his school that Alex had secretly nicknamed the Disease was highly insulting to his IQ. There were much more kids, way too many to list here. It was so hard to meet girls from other, more highly sophisticated schools that way.

That was why, last week, he had thought of a plan.

Nothing too big. Just running away. No big deal or anything. Just your casual running away. The kind of running away that included supreme comfort and relaxation, laying low at one of your friends' houses. Of course, there was a problem. There always was. That was the fact that none of his friends seemed to want him running away to their house.

"What do you want to run away for?" Bob had asked him, scratching his armpit.

"You're crazy man!" exclaimed his good ol' (usually) buddy, G.G. (short for…oh, never mind)

"Stop kidding around, dude, we have to finish practicing Beethoven!" his piano pal, James had cried.

" I don't think so. I mean, I'd want to, I mean, I'd love for you to stay and everything, but there's, like, not enough room under the bed…" Kristy Drew had said, twirling her blonde hair and snapping her gum loudly.

Whilst looking for nothing in particular, Alex had given up complete hope of his Master Plan, when an idea struck him like lightning.

Who said you had to ASK to stay over?

Obviously, he wasn't going to pick any of the mentioned above, but there were plenty of other people in the 6th grade population, right? So he had to pick someone near the school that WASN'T one of the reasons he was running away.

He tiptoed out of the corner store after the owner had given him a nasty look, then looked down the block at the houses for potential running away-ment.

Alex took out a pad and pencil and made a list:

House #1: Don't know these people.

House #2: Ditto.

House #3: Ditto.

It continued that way until:

House #11: Sam

House # 12: Rachel

Hmm. This was starting to get interesting. Sam was his second best friend (first G.G.), but his parents cooked really weird dishes…no, Alex didn't want to live there. Besides, where would he sleep?

Rachel was not particularly someone he hung around with at school. Just another face in the crowd, if you get my drift. They were OK friends, but they never really socialize. Alex decided on her.

He started to run to her house, but Steve (his third best friend) blocked his path, so Alex skidded to a stop.

"Dude, where are you going? You don't walk this way!" shouted Steve, waving his arms around like a windmill. Why was he doing this, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine. Anyway…

Alex was running out of ideas. "I'm, uh, you know, doing something…"

"Oh! I get it! You're going to a babe's house! So where does she live, huh, huh, huh? Maybe I could go with you!" squealed Steve, jumping up and down.

Alex sighed. "Mm-hmm, that's it. And…you can't come. Bye!" Then Alex started to run to Rachel's house again.

She was in the house already, and she had mistakenly left the bottom door unlocked. He twisted the doorknob, but…

Steve's cries could be heard from down the street. "HEY! RACHEL ISN'T A BABE! GET OUTTA THERE MAN! YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG HOUSE!"

"Shut up, Steve," muttered Alex.

"DON'T GO IN!" shrieked Steve.

Alex went in.

He climbed up the stairs to the second door. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He tried to karate-chop the door open but still nothing. Finally, he tried to tackle the door but it wouldn't open an inch. Finally he decided to knock.

There was silence. And Alex was getting nervous.