CHAPTER 15

"Let's see now..." said Angela to herself, "this tint looks nice with gray, while this one's nice with navy..." she took down notes in a little notebook, "One pint to every tenth... that would take me.... hmmm..."

There suddenly came a loud scream from outside. Angela dropped her pen and ran out the balcony. The boys were all climbing out of the pool, shouting, the loudest of which was Danny. He ran all the way up the stairway and into the balcony.

"What's wrong?" asked Angela.

"S-sna-sna...." stuttered a pale looking Danny. The others merely stood around the empty pool, making howling noises.

"What's going on out there?" said Robert from behind. He was wearing a towel around his waist and his head was covered with soap sods. Angela looked at him and blushed.

"Robert!" cried Danny, "S-sssnake!" he stuttered. He ran to his friend's side and whimpered behind him.

"Really?" said Robert excitedly, "Did you guys caught it?"

"Kill it! Kill it now!" yelled Danny.

"It's in the pool right now." said Jon. "It can't get out.

"Yeah," Ken said snickering, "There's no need to worry, Danielle!"

"I think he wanted to take a swim," Matt said, "But we drained the water..."

"Poor snake..." said Mic.

"What poor?" Danny said behind Robert, "Kill it before it kills someone!"

"It's climbing out of the pool!" Ricky suddenly cried out.

"Ahhh! Kill it!!!" yelled Danny.

"Just kidding." said Ricky with a grin. Danny was about to throw a box down at him.

"Hey stop that!" said Robert, taking the box away from his friend.

"So, Danny's scared of snakes, huh?" Angela said as she watched the boy shivering behind Robert.

"Not scared, petrified!" said the boys around the pool, laughing.

"I'm going in now." said Robert. "Danny, stay in my room if you like, guys," he said facing the others. "Get rid of the snake."

With that, Robert entered his room with Danny trailing behind him. Angela looked at him...

"Such a nice body..." she found herself thinking. She suddenly realized what she was thinking and started pounding herself in the head. She looked at the boys instead. They were cautiously getting down the pool. "They're gonna get rid of that snake" she thought to herself. "The way Robert told them what to do... It's as if they truly respect him..."

She went down to the pool to take a look at the snake. It was coiled in the middle, staying so still; it looked like a rubber toy.

"Better not get in the pool, Ange." said Ken, looking at her. "This could be dangerous."

"Yeah, better leave this to us." said Ricky.

It was Mic who reached the snake first. He held the mop and struck the middle of the coiled snake. It started to wiggle and tried to slither away, but Mic held it down.

"Got it." said Mic.

"So, how do we get it out of the pool?" asked Jon.

"I ain't gonna touch that." said Ricky.

"Go get a sack or something." said Matt.

"But who's gonna put it in the sack?" said Ken. He already had a sack in hand.

Before anyone could react, Angela went down the pool and looked at the snake closely.

"H-hey, stay away from there!" said Ricky.

"It's a python." she said. "This kind doesn't bite." she then took hold of the snake's head and lifted it up.

She looked around. The guys were all staring at her, dumb struck. Mic has already loosened his hold on the map. Angela picked the snake. It was thinner than her arm and a bit heavy, about the weight of a full-grown cat. It reached the floor when she stood straight, the tail making a little coil on the pool floor.

"Um..." said Angela, "Sack please."

Ken hesitated a while then approached her and opened the sack. Angela dropped the snake in it and clapped her hands together.

"You guys okay?" she asked after a while of silence.

"How did you do that?" asked Matt, "That was great!"

"Yeah, are you sure you're a girl?" asked Ricky.

"You sure you're men?" Angela retorted. "It's just a snake, no big deal!"

"Danny..." Mic said, still staring at the sack, "he got bitten by a snake when we were younger. We saw it, Matt, Jon Obet and I... he was writhing in pain!"

"We had to rush him to the hospital..." said Matt.

"He was starting to hallucinate when we got there." continued Mic, "If it wasn't for Robert's quick thinking he would have been dead by now."

"Not only him..." said Jon, "We were so frightened we couldn't move, if he didn't kill the snake we would all be goners by now!"

Angela looked from one boy to another. They were serious.

"So, that wimp isn't such a coward after all?" she thought to herself.

"Anyway," said Kenny, breaking her thoughts, "It's no surprise that Robert chose you as his girlfriend." he chuckled. The others began to laugh with him.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" said Angela hotly.

"Okay, back to work!" said Ricky, ignoring her. The others took their mops and buckets and went back to brushing the pool floor.

"Hmph!" said Angela as she climbed out the pool, "Stupid wimps..." a hand suddenly appeared in front of her. She looked up and saw Robert standing on top of the pool. She took the hand absentmindedly, her eyes still in his while Robert pulled her out of the pool. "Such strong arms..." she thought, she felt her face burning.

"How's the snake?" he asked with a grin. Angela looked away.

"Right here Obet!" said Ken, the sack still in hand. "What you wanna do with it?"

"Kill it!" Danny yelled from the balcony.

"No, of course not!" said Angela. Robert looked at her, alarmed.

"You wanna keep it?" asked Ken with a grin.

"Yeah, guess I can give it to my sisters." she replied, "they've always wanted a pet, but my father's allergic to fur so..."

"No! Kill it!" said Danny, inching closer down the stairway.

"Stop that Danny." said Robert sounding annoyed.

"Don't worry, this snake isn't poisonous." Angela explained.

"It still s-slithers!" the other replied. He was now nearing the pool.

"Don't worry, here I'll throw it over the wall so it won't bother you any more, okay?" with that, Angela took the sack from Ken and heaved it over the wall to their house. "There, all gone." she said smiling. She looked at the others. They were staring at her, surprised. Later they heard someone screaming on the other side. "Manong Bernie!" yelled Angela facing the wall, "Take care of that snake for me will 'ya?"

She suddenly heard them laughing. Angela turned around and found all of them rolling with laughter.

"What?" she asked hotly. Robert approached her, still laughing, he pat her on the head.

"You really are something else..." he said with a smile. Angela felt herself blushing again.

"You guys okay down there?" he asked his friends in the pool. They were still laughing.

"Fine, Obet!" Jon answered, "We're just about finished here."

"How's your room?" he asked Angela next.

"Still mixing the paint..." she replied softly.

"Okay, I'll be in the kitchen then." he rubbed at his eyes, a smile still lingering in his lips and turned towards the house.

"Hey, I'll go with you!" said Danny following him.

Angela went back to her room. The paint buckets were left open and were starting to harden on top. She covered the buckets and stretched herself on the newspaper-covered floor, looking up the gilded ceiling.

"Robert acted real cool out there." she thought to herself. "I guess he isn't such a wimp after all...

In the kitchen, Robert was looking around the fridge for something to cook. Danny sat by the kitchen counter, flicking mites out of the rice.

"She's really something eh?" Danny asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Robert said absentmindedly.

"Ange..." the other replied, "She's really something else..."

"Yeah, guess so..." Robert smiled. He took out some chicken and placed it in the sink to defrost.

"You really like her do you?" his friend asked again.

"Yeah, she's a good kid. She may be a bit violent and hard headed at times, not to mention short tempered and aggressive but..."

"No, that's not the 'like' I meant..." the other cut him off, "I mean, really like her."

Robert looked at his friend. "You mean, like Belle?" he said straight out.

"Well, yeah..." Danny replied cautiously, "like Belle." Robert was silent. He looked down at the chicken in the sink and sighed.

"There's no one like Belle." he replied. "I doubt if I'd ever feel anything like that about someone again..."

"She told you to move on, you know." said Danny. Robert was silent. He was still staring at the chicken. "Okay, just drop the subject..." he said. He went to his friend and saw his eyes brimming with tears. "Oh, c'mon, Obet, not this again!" he said.

"Sorry..." the other said, rubbing his eyes. "Can't help it."

"It's been 7 months since that accident isn't it?" he said, patting his friend on the back.

"Yeah... and 5 since she died..." Robert replied with a sniff.

"Yeah... It's still too early to say anything." Robert looked at Danny. He was smiling at him. "And that girl is really something else. She's the exact opposite of your sister. Who knows what might happen." continued his friend.

"I told you, she's just an adopted sister..." Robert reminded his friend.

"It is quite ironic though," added Danny, "You fell in love with your sister and treat a complete stranger as an 'adopted sibling'." Robert's expression darkened. He took hold of the chicken and passed it under the running faucet.

"Enough of that." he said with a frown. "Go cook the rice, I'll take care of the chicken."

Back in the spare room, Angela still lay stretched on the floor with her eyes closed. The cool wind blew in through the opened windows. She felt a paw on her face and heard Yang purring. She opened her eyes and saw the yellow cat in front of her.

"Wait a minute... Yellow?" she sat up and looked at the cat. Yang was a mixture of yellow, green and blue! She then remembered the tints she put aside and saw the little saucers with multicolored paw marks scattered around it on the covered floor!

"Ah! Yang, you little-!" she tried to pick the kitten up, buy Yang pounced at her playfully and ran outside the room. "Come back here!"

Yang looked at her, making sure she chased after him. Then he ran down the steps, leaving paw prints of yellow white and blue. Angela chased after it. She can't help but smile as they went down the stairs and into the kitchen. The kitten went straight to Robert and jumped up to him. Robert turned around just in time to catch his cat. Its green tail was swishing violently as it looked back at Angela.

"What's wrong?" asked Robert as he looked at a gasping Angela. Danny stood beside him, holding the frying pan.

"Ahh..." said Angela, looking at the paw prints on Robert's white shirt.

Robert saw the paw prints on the floor. "What's that?" he asked, as he followed the path with his eyes, then saw his own shirt, and last, the colored cat in his arms. "Ah! Yang, what happened to you?" the cat meow it him and rubbed his yellow head on his neck.

Danny was the first to laugh. He placed the pan down and held his tummy as he points at Robert's cat. Angela started laughing too. She went to Robert and took the cat from him.

"Sorry, I guess the door was left open." she said laughing. Robert looked down at his shirt and began to laugh too.

"Silly cat." he said, rubbing the yellow head. "You're just as crazy as your mother here." he rubbed the paint in his hand on Angela's face.

"Hey stop that!" she said, "And who you calling crazy?" she shoved the cat back into Robert's arms, a grin in her face.

"Hey, you guys stop that." said a laughing Danny, "There's paint all over the place, tita's gonna kill us when she comes back."

"Right, Danny," said Robert, slapping him on the cheek, "Let's clean this mess up!"

"Hey quit that!" he said, rubbing his blue cheek.

They were still laughing when the others entered the kitchen.

"The pool's done!" shouted Mic.

"Need... Food..." said Matt.

"We left the water running," said Ricky, slumping on a chair. "It'll probably be full by evening..."

"Yeah, I'm gonna take a deep long bath later..." said Ken.

"Okay, where's the food?" said Matt. They were too hungry to notice the paint.

"Coming!" said Danny as he took a platter of fried chicken. "Hey, you two take the rest to the table."

"Aye-aye sir!" said Robert, raising a blue hand to his head. He looked at Angela who was now washing a struggling Yang under the faucet. She had a yellow paw mark on her cheek and paint on her forehead.

"I'll do that." he said. He took the cat from her, their hands touched. Angela suddenly pulled away. Robert looked down at her and met her eyes, she looked back at him blushing.

"Do you like her?" He remembered Danny ask. Robert felt his face redden.

"You go ahead and join the others in the table." he said, looking away. "I'll finish up here."

"Okay..." she simply replied. She rubbed her forehead to remove the paint.

"Missed one..." said Robert. He rubbed the paw print on her cheek.

"You've still got paint on your neck." said Angela. She pointed at it and smiled, then turned around and headed for the dining room.

Robert looked after her, taking a deep breath. He then turned to Yang who was yowling mournfully in the sink, its fur stuck out in all directions. He smiled and took the hand towel to dry the cat off. He was about to leave when he realized he didn't turn the faucet off. The water ran out.