(9) - UNCOMPROMISING.
Speeding back towards the way they came from, Michael felt his anxiety grow. He couldn't really pin-point if it was from possibly meeting Stella for the first time or just knowing she was work -ing whilst not feeling well.Not being able to help himself, he asked a pressing question from their conversations with the Klaus;
" How long has Stella been with the Klaus Family?"
" I think.....for seven months now." Leo replied slowly with his head resting against the head-rest of the driver's seat. " Since the Barrett family left ten months ago and rented their house to a fami-ly, she moved in to live with Miss Claudia ; a kind and friendly woman who offered free accomoda-tion to a few young girls like her for a month. Then she left there with a seventeen years old girl....I don't remember her name. But they parted ways then.
She had another free accommodation from an old woman living alone about two kilometres from here for the next two months. We used to call her Grandma Vic. I could tell Stella was genuinely happy when living with her. But then, she couldn't stay there for long either. "He ended with a sigh.
" Used to call her.....is the woman still alive?" Mic-heal asked, then swerved to the side to avoid a stray dog.
" No, she isn't." Leona answered with a deep and sad smile. " She was very good to us all. But her children sold the house after her death and Stella had to leave and rent Mrs. Klaus' room. "
Just then they heard a sudden screech of the car behind them, prompting them to look back curio-sly.
" What happened?" Leona asked as Michael abru-ptly stopped the car and began u buckling his seatbelt with Philip who was looking keenly out the back window.
" I think they knocked down someone." Philip an - swered as he opened the door and stepped out- keeping it opened for Leo.
" Hey....boy!" Richmond was yelling at a young boy laying on the road in front of their car, barely moving. He was in a faded blue jeans with black and white old sneakers. His hands and arms were covered in a black sweater that was zipped tightly up to his throat.The hood covering almost his entire head. " Can't you freaky see! Throwing yourself in front of a car like that, do you want to die?!"
" Rich.....hey...." Chris called calmly beside him, tapping him on his shoulder repeatedly. " Rich calm down. Look at how pale....."
" Don't tell me to calm down Chris! " Richmond re-torted angrily, pointing at the slowly moving boy. "We're in a hurry to find Stella and this boy just wastes our time like this!"
" Shut up!" Philip snapped as he got closer, Micheal, Leo and Leona close by him.
" You're talking too much Rich," Raymond said and knelt down by the boy. " You should first make sure he's alright first."
" You do it! " Richmond snaled.
At that moment, Leo and Leona had frozen wide-eyed in place, whispering something to themsel-ves as they watched the boy on the floor in sho-ck. The word they whispered was drowned out by Raymond's yelling. But standing close to them, Michael and Philip heard them loud and clearly enough. Causing them to stiffen for just a se-cond before rushing forward to the boy strug - gling to get up from the floor.
Oblivious to the sudden extra caring and anxiety shift in the air, Richmond continued ranting ;
" If he wants to die, he should die somewhere else! I think he's just pretending..."
" Shut the hell up!!" Michael and Philip yelled at the same time Leo and Leona unfroze from their sudden shock to hear his last sentence and accusation, causing them to snap really loudly;
" Shut up!! "
Effectively shutting up from the sudden hostility, Richmond looked confused at the two pairs of people who had shouted so loudly at him that he felt his eardrums were actually drumming.
" Stella.....?" Micheal called gently but urgently, kneeling by the almost unconscious boy-like fi - gure, he slipped a hand under his head and rai-sed his face up.
Initially, he and Philip still had doubts after he-ring Leo and Leona whisper her name earlier. But as he raised the 'boy's' face, the hood slipped back a bit and he saw the familiar face a little more clearly. Even so, Philip pulled the hood back completely and everyone gasped.
It was really her! That was an undeniable fact. But what caused the chorus gasp was the almo-st paper - white paleness of her face, and she had stopped moving too.The two combined crea-ted an unwanted frightening image in their heads; a corpse.
" Stella!" Leona called, shaking her slightly whilst kneeling with her brother beside her. " Why is she not moving!"
" We didn't hit her!" Chris answered in fright. This sudden turn of events was too frightening. Even-though their car certainly didn't hit her, he was starting to entertain the thought that they had fri-ghtened her so much when they almost hit her that her sickness had gotten worse.
" Open the car!" Micheal shouted, already on his feet with Stella lying unresponsive in his arms. Before anyone could react, Philip was already at the back door of the car, opening it.
However, before Michael could get Stella into the car, a slightly old silver car pulled to a stop be- hind the car Chris was driving and a loud frantic voice called out as the Passenger door was flung open ;
" Stella!" The voice was feminine.
Every head, with the exception of Stella's turned towards the voice. A pair of beautiful slim and smooth legs in a shiny black six inches high heels stepped out quickly from the car before the full figure of a beautiful oval shaped woman in her early thirties with shoulder length red-dyed hair, brown almond shaped eyes with an averagely endowed but attractive body in a deep green knee - length skin-tight dress with light ma-ke up and deep red painted lips that matched perfectly with her hair - walked briskly to them, and straight for Stella in Micheal stepped away.
" Miss Claudia?" Leo and Leona called quietly in surprise at that sudden appearance of the wo-man.
" Hi.... Leo... Leona, it's been quiet a while since we met." Miss Claudia said with a bright smile while addressing the siblings. She seemed warm and harmless. " You two never visited me after Stella left my place..."
" Who's she... Leo?" Micheal asked, impatient. Stella was seriously sick and needed to be sent to the hospital. He didn't know where this woman come from to block them and waste their time like that?
" Oh....sorry Michael." Leo apologiesed quickly. " This is Miss Claudia. She's the kind woman we told you Stella stayed with for a month for free before leaving to live with the old woman who died. "
Michael merely nodded quietly, still having an I'm-patient look on his face. Looking at Miss Clau-dia, he asked straight forwardly; " Why are you here?"
" Hi, as he said, I'm Claudia. I... I...saw you kids with Stella. She's unconcious. Maybe you hit her by mistake, so I will take her from her from here and send her to the hospi-tal. You all can go back home to your parents...." Claudia said as calmly as she could, but at the end of her last sentence, she noticed a drastic change in the five older boys' expressions.
Even though they were in High School uniforms, she could judge easily they had great backgrou-nds. She could feel it easily in the power they run-consciously emitted, their ways of carrying them-selves, and their well - polished looks. With the kind of work she does, she could tell they weren't going to be easily dealt with.
" You're mistaken. we didn't hit her." Raymond said seriously and defensively.
" You didn't?" Claudia asked confusedly. Even though she had used the sentence - ' Maybe you hit her by mistake' earlier, she had indeed thought they had knocked her down with their car."Then... then what happened? Why....."
" She fell in front of our car. She's not feeling well and we're taking her to the hospital." Chris answered, irritated and impatient.
" Don't worry, I'm a good friend of hers. I won't harm her." Claudia said with a light smile." I just came from Mrs. Klaus' house. She told me she had thrown her out of the house. That crazy wo - man needs help! But it's okay now. The poor girl needs some peace and happiness. I'm here to take her back with me. She will stay with me from now on."
" I'm sorry but no. " Micheal said firmly, his gaze stern with his hands tightening around him possesively." Stella is unconcious now. No one can decide for her, including me. Even though I've been looking for her for what seems like ages, I'll wait for her to wake up. If she does and wants to leave with you, I won't stop her. I will support her decision."
Leo and Leona looked at him with deep touched emotions showing in their eyes. At that moment, a new found deep respect for Michael began to take root and grow within their hearts. They be - gan to really understand how much Micheal rea-lly cared and respected Stella. They each had li - title obvious smiles on their faces as they looked at him. " Please move aside. We need to quickly send Stella to the hospital." Philip said with a straight and impatient face and tone."Oh....okay. Go ahead." Claudia said, stepping aside. " I'll follow you to the hospital to make sure she's alright."
"Thank you" Michael said simply before very care fully laying Stella in the back seat of their car and closed it. Without waiting for a go ahead or not, Leona carefully got in the back with her from the other door - placing Stella's head gently on her lap. Seeing this, Michael simply smiled and shook his head slightly and shared a brief look with Philip who was looking at the scene in the car with a small smile. With their expressions, it was clear they were all pleased with her love and dedication to Stella. Philip moved to the passenger seat.
" What? I can't be with my sister?" Leona asked with raised eyebrows, pouting a little.
" No...no....it's okay. ." Philip said with a quick sha-ke of his head, still smiling. " I'm just a bit surpri- sed you call her your sister."Michael said and wal- king to the door Leona entered in, closed it gen-tly but firmly before moving to the driver's side. Leaving a bewildered Leo standing outside, his eyes wide;
" What about me?! " He asked, frowning.
Richmond who was the last to get in their heard Leo's exasperated question and turned around. Seeing. Seeing his expression, he couldn't help but chuckle and beckon him over ;
" Lion! Let's go!"
Hearing Richmond's call filled with amusement, Leo turned and looked at him, his irritation grow-ing even more with Richmond's provocating choi-ce of name for him, causing him to glare in his di-rection.
" Leo....go with them." Micheal, standing by the opened door told him with a smile tugging at his lips then lowered himself to get into the driver's seat. Leo began walking towards the other car reluctantly, his lips pouted and grumbling ;
" I'm Leo... I'm Leo...keep calling me that....and see if I'm not going to eat that stupid pretty- rich- boy face of yours...."
Just as Micheal got seated behind the wheel and reached for the door, a deep unfamiliar mascu - line irritated voice boomed from the driver's seat of the car Claudia had come in ;
" You can't take her! "
Each one of the four teenagers stiffened for a se-cond before instinctively looking towards the car.
What they saw confused them as much as it annoyed them;- A tall man in his sixties with fully greyed hair that didn't match his physique was striding confidently from his car towards them with two guards in black suits with matching pai-rs of black sunglasses a few feet behind him. His grey hair gelled and styled added to his attracti - veness and powerful figure in the light grey desi-gner suit.
" What's going on?" Leona asked no one in parti - cular as she looked back through the back window. "Who's he? "
" We don't know...but I think he looks familiar" Michael replied with a grimace.
" I've see him at a company dinner with my uncle before.They didn't seem close." Philip replied whi-lst looking back at the approaching man with a serious look whilst ignoring Claudia who seemed to be desperately trying to get him to back off.
Meanwhile the four boys in the other car realis-ing a new situation had cropped up up initially wanted to step out but Chris told them to wait a bit. Explaining that Michael and Philip might have a plan then called Michael on loud speaker. The call connected but Micheal didn't speak. The call remained connected though -
With a grimace, Michael looked at Philip who seemed to share his emotions at that moment and voiced their thoughts to Leona;
" I think this will turn very serious." He had said it calmly but that didn't stop Leona from getting more anxious as she looked at Stella's pale face.
" What! Why?! We need to get Stella to the hospi - tal!"
" Calm down.... Leona" Philip said gently looking back at her.
" Get out of the car kids!" The man, now standing by their car ordered loudly, his gaze and express-sion uncompromising.