"Does my tie stand straight, dear? I have to look good in case I run into any reporters!" Stephen Salt, patriarch of Salt house announced to the other 3 members of his family.
"Dad is going on another research trip and he's leaving us at home. Typical." Summer, the older daughter, said this without even looking up from her newspaper. (Some might question the truthfulness of a school girl reading the newspaper over her breakfast, but that just goes to show that Summer Salt was not your average schoolgirl.)
"Oh, dear, I already told you. You girls are still a bit too young to travel with me and your mother. Besides, adventuring is no reason for you to miss several days of school."
"But...But what if something happens HERE while you are gone?" Mouse, the younger daughter asked while desperately pulling on her dad's sleeve. "Maybe- Maybe Mrs. Hobbs gets kidnapped" (Mrs. Hobbs was their next-door neighbor and one who Mouse particularly hated, ever since the old woman caught her chasing after her cats) "or we and mom get attacked by burglars...Well, it COULD happen."
Mr. Salt gave his wife a hearty laugh and a big, broad smile.
"Ah, the girls have such imaginations, don't you think, dear? Now, girls, what is it that your dad always says?...Adventure..."
"...only happens in fiction..." the girls replied obediently in chorus. "You might want to think a bit more about that one, dad." Summer added.
"Now, now, no more backtalk. Obey your mother while I'm not at home, and Summer, look after your sister while your mother is out visiting her friends and shopping, alright?"
The two parents were still waving and laughing while they crossed the house treshold and waited for the taxi.
"Rather than us, THEY are the ones who act like something out of fiction" Summer muttered.
"So, what are we going to do now, Summer?" Mouse* asked excitedly.
(*Mouse's parents haven't christened their youngest daughter Mouse. Her old name, which she now refused to wear, even though it was affectionately hand-picked by her mother, was Susan. However after a complicated childhood incident gained her the nickname "Mouse", she took to the new title like a fish takes to water. She used it when she introduced herself and she even put it on all of her school supplies and clothing, after carefully scrubbing off the original text first, of course. Her parents tried to resist her, but eventually gave in, and from that point onward, nobody be they friend or stranger was allowed to address her by any other name.)
Summer knew that look on her sister's face.
Their parents have barely stepped outside, and she was already thinking of trying out something against the house rules.
Summer glanced outside the window. The milkman was finishing up his rounds, some early birds were gathering on the roadside. Business seemed as usual in the sleepy town of Hollering Heights. And yet, something felt off.
Her sixth sense was telling her that this wasn't going to be just like any other day.
She decided to...
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