The Secret at Bon Boo Mountain (Unfinished)

Sarah just couldn't stuff her favorite bear into her suitcase! No matter how hard she tried the suitcase was too full. It wasn't going to give up! It had enough. Nothing else would fit! Young Sarah kicked the huge suitcase which was lying on the floor just in front of her. That didn't help very much! It only left her foot in a lot of pain. For six year old Sarah, packing things in suitcases just wasn't her cup of tea! "MOM!!!!" Sarah's mother came running into the room as if a bomb had just went off in the hall behind her! "Sarah! What's wrong?! Oh my gosh you scared me! Don't ever scream like that unless you really mean it!" Sarah said, "Well, I did mean it! Panky won't fit! I'm not going to Bon Boo Mountain without Panky!" Mom took Panky, a tan plush teddy bear, from Sarah's arms. "Okay, don't worry about it. I have a feeling you didn't pack the suitcase correctly. DARIN!!!" A fourteen year old boy with shoulder length black hair and in a much too big football jersey strolled into Sarah's room quite smoothly. "Might I add Mom that you could be taking your own advice and I've told you so many times Mom to call me Cameron!" Susan glared at her son. She began tying her red hair up in a pony tail. "How many times do I have to tell you that your name is Darin and it's not going to change!" Darin sat on the edge of Sarah's pink bed. "Mom, just take away the..." "The letter I Darin! I know I've heard this so many times! Just take away the I and it spells "darn" I know and it doesn't matter." Darin mumbled under his breath,"Also the fact you named me after Darin from Bewitched doesn't matter in the least either." Susan grabed Darin's face and glared into his eyes. "It doesn't matter Darin! Learn to live with it! It's you name! Help Sarah pack her suitcase so she can take Panky! I have to go check on Kara." She begins to walk out the room. She stops at the doorway. "Did you brush your teeth?" A soft mumble from the bed. "What?!" "No, mom!" "Well, do it! Kara?" "Yes, mom." Susan was pushing her way into her daughter's bedroom. Something heavy was behind the door. Grunting she finally made her way into Kara' s room. "Kara, could you for once keep your bean bag chair out from behind the door. There are other people in this house." Kara was shuffling out of her bathroom in her white bath robe. Her short, curly hair was just about dry and her big, round glasses were still fogged up. Her nose and mouth were hidden behind a huge red book. She wasn't looking where she was going but Kara didn't have to. She knew her room like the back of her hand. "Kara, please don't tell me that you're still trying to get ready after three hours. We've got to go! Now! I'll give you five more minutes. Change! Now!" Kara sighed and dropped her book on a nearby chair. A few minutes later her voice could be heard from the bathroom. "I've just got to see Mount Vesuvius before I die Mom!" Her mom yelled back, "You can take it with you in the car and watch it there!" Kara made a confused face in the mirror. "What?!" "You can take the movie with you and watch it in the car! Are you about done? We've got to go!" Kara rolled her eyes. "It's a volcano mom...in Italy." When you're grown up and with a fabulous career that brings in loads of money you can make that your first priority." She sighed and stared at the bathroom door. "Don't you have a movie about a volcano?" "That's Dante's Peak. Why are you in such a hurry anyway?" "The discount on Bon Boo Mountain only stays in effect until 3:00 this afternoon and it takes about two hours to get there from here and it's about 1:00 now so if you guys want fun then VAMOOSE!!! Now!!!" All three children ran out of their rooms. Susan let her arms fall at their sides. "If I'd known that was all it would take then we'd already be half way there!" Something click in place in her mind and she hurried behind them. THE RIDE Susan got to the car a few minutes later to find all her children seated inside and ready to go. Still slightly surprised at how easy it was to get her kids to obey her she smiled and climbed into the driver's seat. ''Wow! You three really must want to go to Bon Boo Mountain." She began to crank the car. "No, I want to get this over with so we can get back home. Slingers will be on by then and I'm not missing it," said Darin. "You can live without seeing that show one time, Darin." Darin leaned his head against the window of the farthest seat from his mother in the wagon. He scratched his long nose and mumbled,"The question is whether you'll live if I don't see it." Susan stopped the car in the middle of the highway! Cars came whizzing past them blaring their horns! Darin, Kara, and Sarah screamed, "Momma!!!" Susan drove the car to the side of the rode and turned around. "I don't ever want to hear you threaten me again Darin! I am your mother!" "Momma, did you even hear what Darin really said?" asked Sarah. Darin squinted hard at Sarah and Sarah's eyes widened,she pushed her blond, curly hair out of her eyes then turned around and sat back down in the middle seat in front of Darin. "I don't have to hear what he said Sarah. I know he was back-talking me and that's enough." Kara who was sitting beside Darin in the farthest seat looked over her book for a brief second.Her round glasses caught Darin's eyes, who glared back and then she quickly moved her book back in front of her face again. "Now, all three of you seat belt yourselves. We are going to have fun at Bon Boo Mountain!" Susan turned back around and drove back onto highway again. About ten minutes later Sarah was crying. When Susan asked why she was crying she said that Darin had put gum in her hair because she said she was excited about going to the theme park. "I have had just about enough from you Darin. Now you and your sister get that gum out of her hair and you two better get it all out because I'm not cutting Sarah hair!" Kara reached out and moved her sister's hair over the back of the middle seat and began to pick the gum out of her hair. She motioned to Darin who just shook his head and stared out the window again. A minute or so later Darin mumbled, "What about you Kara? You really want to go to this Boo Boo Fountain or whatever it's called?" Sarah yelled, "Bon Boo Mountain!" "Shut up! Well, do you?" "Well, I think it's mostly for kids like Sarah too but it does have some interesting historical value." "Oh please. Save me from the lecture of Kiddy Town." Kara asked,"What's with you all of a sudden? Why are you in such a bad mood? Don't tell me it's a girl!" Darin just grunted. "Oh my gosh! It is isn't it?!" "Shut up Kara or do you want gum in your hair too? Your hair's already so short and it's practically a nest as it is. Mom would have to shave it all! I wonder how you'd look bald. Probably not much better!" Susan pulled the van into Bon Boo Mountain's parking lot at 2:50 pm. "Come on guys! Out now!" Darin said, "Chill out mom!" "Okay, let's make a run for it!" The children crept out of the van. Kara even yawned. Susan stared at her two unenthusiastic children. All except Sarah who was rocking up and down on the balls of her feet. Susan mumbled,"Whoever can get to the ticket stand first will have my last fudge bar..." One quick look at one another and a small grin then they were off! Once again Susan found herself the one to catch up! They were all standing at the ticket stand by the time she reached them. Panting she said, "Okay, who was her first?" Both Darin and Kara looked down. "Well, what a surprise. It was Sarah." Sarah looked up very innocently but also triumphantly. Susan said, "Yes, that is a surprise. What with you in track and everything." "I didn't let her win!!!" screamed Darin. His mother gave him another look of warning. "Alright Darin." She pulled out her fudge bar and handed it to Sarah who grabbed it, ripped it open, and began eating it. The other two just rolled there eyes and looked in opposite directions. Being beaten by a little girl did not bother them in the least. Susan sighed and dropped her pocket book down in front of the ticket window. She pulled out her discount card. A seedy man with a greasy nose and cold, gray eyes stared back at them from the other side of the window. Susan said, " Hello sir. We want our discount please." The man grabbed the card and moved it in front of his eyes. Darin and Kara eyed each other and tried to stifle a laugh. The graying man said in a reedy voice, "You're cutting it as little close aren't ya mam! It's 2:55 pm!" Susan glared and him, "Well, it isn't 3:00 pm yet sir so can we have out discount?" Sarah, getting bored with the discount biz, decided she would have a look around. So pushing open the brown, creaky door connected to the left side of the ticket stand, Sarah got her first look at the theme park.