So, instead of adding a second part, I just added it all to this chapter. It's probably good to read the whole thing again anyways (if you read the first part before), cosidering I'm a terribly lazy person and didn't feel like finishing it until now.

BE WARNED: This is done with no beta, so I apologize for any grammer or spelling mistakes. If you catch anything, please point them out to me!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except my plots. Everything else belongs to whoever it belongs to. But that's not me!

Here are the ages in this story:

Scott: 13/14

John: 11

Virgil: 9

Gordon: 8

Alan: 4

The soft patter of footsteps could be heard outside Gordon's door. He chose to ignore the noise, instead focusing on the pieces of paper on the floor in front of him. He frowned at them and began to poke his tongue through the gap in his teeth, which he did when he was frustrated. He had only lost his top left front tooth a few days ago, but he had already fallen into the pattern of playing with the area with his tongue (though his mother constantly told him to stop).

Gordon tapped his pencil against the paper, leaving small black ticks wherever it landed. He sighed heavily, dropping his chin onto his hand and resting his elbow on his leg.

This sucks. I'm completely stumped for ideas. I'm never stumped! 'Course, Johnny's the one who's good at writing riddles, not me.

A quiet knock at his door made Gordon look up in alarm. He quickly started to gather up the papers that had his plans written on them and shoved them under his bed, before whipping around and facing the door with an innocent expression on his face.

When it was a small, blond head that poked itself timidly around his door instead of the dark brown one of his oldest brother, he relaxed.

"What's up Al?" Gordon asked his only younger brother, while the latter shuffled across the room and plopped himself on the floor next to Gordon.

"I'm bowed, Gowdie." Alan replied.

"Where are Mommy and Daddy and Scott and John and Virgil?"

Alan sighed dramatically before answering. "Mommy's givin' Viwgie a piano lesson and Daddy's showin' Scotty an' Johnny how to fwow a football the wight way." The melancholy look on Alan's face made Gordon laugh, and he turned and grabbed the papers he had shoved under his bed, smoothing them out so Alan could see.

"Well then you can help me with my plan for Scott's birthday." He said, pointing his finger at the various plans and drawings on the paper.

"Ooh, fanks Gowdie!" Alan said and laughed, clapping his small hands twice. "What we gonna do?"

Gordon leaned over and whispered his plan into Alan's ear. The little boy sat very still, listening intently to his older brother's great idea.

"But I have no idea how to write the riddles. It's too hard." Gordon whined. Why did I come up with this stupid idea? I can't do it! He could feel himself getting worked up again, and tried to keep his temper in check. After all, the last time he had gotten mad he had almost broken his mommy's favourite teapot, and his daddy had been really mad at him.

Alan looked thoughtfully at the pages for a second. "Why don't we use a stwing instead?" he asked.

Gordon turned to him, confused. "Hun?"

"A Stwing. We can use a stwing. Like Gwandma's stwing." Alan explained patiently, as if Gordon was the four year old.

"Grandma's knitting yarn?" Gordon clarified. Alan nodded. "How can we use Grandma's yarn instead of riddles?"

"Like this..." Alan said, and he quickly explained to his older- and supposedly smarter- brother. When he was finished, Gordon sat back and stared in shock at the little boy beside him.

Wow... I can't believe I didn't think of that. He must be a genius just like John!

Gordon quickly stood up, grinning at the younger boy. He reached out, grabbed Alan's hand, and began to pull him up and towards the door. "That's a great idea Al! But..." He paused for an instant. "Maybe we should ask Grandma before we make any more plans. You know she won't be happy if we just take her stuff."

Alan nodded.

"I think she's in the living room. Let's go."

Half an hour later

"...Happy Birthday dear Sco-ott! Happy Birthday to yooooueeeee!" Scott beamed at his entire family, who all smiled back at him. He sucked in a deep lung-full of air, and blew as hard as he could. The 14 candles that were standing alight on top of his cake sprayed little bits of candle wax all over the face of his youngest brother as he blew them out.

Alan jumped back, disgust on his face as he pawed at the little spots of green and blue on his forehead and nose. Scott laughed and reached across the top of his cake to ruffle Alan's hair.

"That's what you get for leaning too close to Scott's cake." John chided. He pulled Alan back and helped him wipe the rest of the wax off his face. "You'll get your piece. Just be patient."

Jeff and Lucy exchanged amused glances over the heads of their children. Trying to get as close to the cake as he could was such typical Alan behaviour that Jeff had to chuckle along with Gordon, Virgil and Scott. Lucy was trying as hard as she could to keep a straight face so she could talk to Alan about waiting his turn, but one look at Alan's face made her burst out in laughter. Grandma however, was less lenient.

"Alan Tracy, what have you been told about being patient and respectful of your brother's things? You know better, young man."

Alan looked down sheepishly. "Yes Gwandma. I's is sorry."

Her stern look immediately melted into a softer smile, and she patted his cheek. "It's alright dear. Just wait your turn."

"Why don't you cut the cake so we can all get a piece?" Jeff said, handing the knife over to Scott. The younger teenager carefully pulled the knife down through the soft layers of strawberry and vanilla cake and plopped a piece down onto the plate that Jeff was holding out. He placed a fork beside the cake and handed it Virgil.

"Thanks Dad." Virgil said. He eyed the cake longingly, but he knew that his parents wouldn't be pleased if he started before everyone else had their food.

Scott quickly sliced six other pieces of cake and put them onto plates, which Jeff handed out to his eager children. The last of these he handed to John, who was still holding a squirming Alan. Alan was reaching his arms out, trying to get John's piece from Lucy.

"You have to wait for your piece Alan." Lucy said. "This is John's. You'll get yours eventually. Remember what we said about being patient."

Alan pouted, but stopped reaching. When he dropped his arms, John placed the plate in his hands, though he still kept a firm grip on it just in case.

Virgil and Gordon both dug into their cake when they saw that Alan had his piece, and soon all 8 Tracys were happily enjoys Scott's birthday cake.

"Wonderful as usual, Mother. Thanks so much for making Scott's cake instead of going to that class at the community centre."

"Nonsense Jeff," Grandma said, placing her empty plate delicately on the table. "I wouldn't have gone anyways. Not with it being Scott's 14th birthday! 14 is an important birthday, you know." She said to Scott.

"Ah, yes. 14 is truly a teenager, isn't it?" Lucy asked. Scott nodded enthusiastically, while (most of) his brothers looked at him with jealousy burning in their eyes. "I guess that means you're too old for presents, doesn't it?" Lucy teased.

Scott looked at first his mother, then his father and grandmother. They all had identical amused looks on their faces, waiting for his obvious denial to the previous statement. "Mom... come on! You know I'm never too old for presents."

"Of course not, my mistake." She said. "Stay here. I'll be right back." She walked to the door and made her way towards her and Jeff's bedroom, where Scott's presents were hidden. When she returned she had a large package under her left arm, as well as a small box on her right hand. The large box was wrapped in gleaming green paper and covered with a big silver bow. The smaller one was similarly wrapped, the only difference being a yellow bow in place of the silver one.

She put the boxes down on the table and motioned to her four other boys. "Go get your gifts now boys." John pushed Alan into standing instead of sitting on his lap, and he and Virgil immediately scampered off to their room. Gordon grabbed hold of Alan's arm and pulled him towards the door. The young boy's face was filled with delight and mischief at the thought of their planned surprise.

"Come on Al. Let's go get our present." Gordon snuck a quick glance at Grandma, who was quietly whispering something into Lucy's ear. Whatever she was saying, it was obviously amusing to Lucy, because the younger women smiled broadly at Gordon and Alan before turning to her husband and whispering in his ear. Jeff listened intently, and then he too smiled at his two youngest.

Gordon quickly smiled back, then turned and tugged Alan out the dining room door.

Scott stood at the base of the stairs, staring up in frustration at the place where his two youngest brothers had disappeared from view. The constant tapping of his foot on the floor created an even beat. He wasn't one to hide his emotions, and his crossed arms, drumming fingers and scowl all showed his family how he felt about being told to wait for something as important as a present. The Tracys that were still in the living room with the unwrapped gifts all exchanged smiles- John and Virgil having been told about Gordon and Alan's plan while Scott had been in the bathroom. Though Virgil didn't quite understand what was going on, the amused atmosphere in the room was infectious, and he found himself grinning happily along with his brother, parents and grandmother.

Scott could hold in his impatience no longer. "Come on guys! What're you doing in there?"

"Just hold on for one more second Scotty!" Gordon called back.

His silence lasted for all of ten seconds before he burst out again. "If you don't come out here right now I'm going to come up those stairs and-"

"Scott..." Jeff's voice warned from the living room.

Scott shot a glare that lasted for exactly 2 seconds at his father before continuing. "Just hurry up!"

The response he got was not one that Scott expected. The small ball of yellow yarn bouncing down the stairs came to a rolling stop in front of his feet. He bent down and picked it up, weighing it in his hands and staring up the staircase at the unwound string in confusion.

"What... is this?" He turned to his family, prepared to question the sanity of his youngest brothers. He realized that they would be of no help when he saw the identical smiles on their faces- smiles that said "I know something you don't know and I'm not going to tell you!"

Grandma was the one to break the growing silence. She stood from where she was sitting between Jeff and Lucy, and slowly started walking towards Scott. "Scott, your brothers wanted to do something special for you for your birthday."

"So they throw yarn at me?"

She laughed softly and smiled at her oldest grandson's confusion. While the boy loved his youngest brothers to death, she knew that they often confused and frustrated him. It was actually quite amusing to watch sometimes; the way Gordon and Alan's young minds could concoct plans that he didn't understand at all.

"Do you see how the yarn goes into their room?" she said, pointing up the stairs. The thin, yellow string connected to the ball in Scott's hands disappeared under the door to Gordon and Alan's shared room.

Scott nodded. He still didn't understand what was going on, and it was starting to annoy him. He had really started to feel the age difference between his youngest brothers and himself recently, and he wasn't entirely sure how to deal with it. He guessed that if there were fewer years between him and the younger ones, he would probably be able to figure out what their plan was, but as it was he had forgotten what it was like to be 8.

"Well, you're supposed to follow it."

Scott turned to look at his grandmother. "What?"

She laughed again. "I said, you're supposed to follow it. Your brothers thought it would be fun to play a little game on your birthday."

"A game..." he said slowly.

"Yes," His mother called from the couch. "a game. They have the other end of the string, and you have follow it until you come to your gift. They worked very hard on it too, so don't you go and ruin it for them."

"They want me to chase them around the house, following a piece of yellow yarn?" the confusion on his face quickly morphed into incredulity.

"That's the gist of it."

"That's crazy!" he exclaimed. He quickly transferred his gaze to his father. Jeff was usually the parent to veto activities such as this, and Scott hoped that he'd be able to get out of playing his brothers' little "game" by having his father say no. However, Jeff simply smiled at his son.

"You're okay with this?" Scott asked his father.

"Yes. I explained to the boys where they're allowed to take this, and I know they'll be careful, so I see no problem with it."

"I can't believe this." Scott muttered, dazed. "I cannot believe that you all think this is a good idea."

John called to his brother. "Oh, come on Scott. The little'uns worked hard on this." It was hard for John to hold in his laughter, and one exchanged glance with Virgil almost put him over the edge. "Besides, it'll be fun."

"Easy for you to say; you don't have to do it!"

"Just go." John said. He knew that Scott had begun to consider himself too old to play certain games with the youngest Tracys, and John hoped that by doing this, Scott would age back down a little bit.

Scott huffed. "Fine. But for the record, I don't think this is a very good idea. You're letting those kids run wild, parents."

Grandma cleared her throat expectantly. Scott heaved a big sigh, and then began to walk up the stairs. Once he had closed Gordon and Alan's bedroom door behind him, Grandma returned to her chair and the rest of the Tracys looked at each other.

"So what now?" Virgil questioned.

"Now," Lucy said with a smile, "we wait."

Scott stared ahead of him in shock. No. Fricken'. Way. I thought Dad said he'd explained the boundaries to them!

He shivered a little in the unusually cold room and stepped closer to the open window, carefully picking his way through a mess of toys, books and blankets scattered on the floor. The curtains rustled as he placed his hands on the windowsill, his fingers gently playing with the yarn that was resting on the wood frame. Through the window he could see fields and the barn. Past the family property, the star-spotted, inky black night sky stretched on for what seemed like forever.

Scott shook his head a little and brought his attention back to the issue at hand. The ball of yarn in his right hand was connected to the string in his left, which in turn dropped sharply out the window and onto the dark ground below. It's the second-story window no less. Scott eyed the drop and turned away- intent on returning to the living room to the rest of his family- when his mother's words came back to him.

"...They worked very hard on it too, so don't you go and ruin it for them..."

Of course she knew just the thing to say to guilt him into going along with his brother's little "game". If there was one thing Scott didn't like to do, it was to disappoint any of his brothers. It always made him feel insanely guilty, and he usually couldn't focus on anything else until he made it right with whoever he had hurt. Just imagining the looks on Gordon and Alan's faces if he didn't play along stirred the guilt in his chest.

Sighing and shaking his head again, Scott accepted the inevitable and lifted his left leg over the windowsill. With the ball of yarn stuffed safely in his sweater pocket, he used both hands to grip the window frame tightly and brought his other leg outside. Once he was fully out the window, he slowly began to lower himself until he was hanging from the ledge by his fingers.

Silently he counted to three. One... two... three...drop! It took only a second and a half to drop the eight feet to the ground. Scott steeled himself for the hard impact with the ground, but instead dropped harmlessly onto a pile of pillows and blankets that had obviously been arranged for this very quickly scrambled to his feet and turned to stare at his landing pad. At least they had some sense.

Scott quickly untied the yarn from the nearby rock it had been anchored to and wrapped it around the ball before turning his attention to finding out where he was supposed to go next. From what he could see, the thin string led across the yard, then disappeared into the darkness. Cursing himself for not thinking to grab a flashlight, Scott took hold of the string and began to walk, winding the yarn as he went.

At first all went well; he took a step, wound the ball a little, took another step, wound the ball a little more, and so forth. He even began to enjoy himself a little. The cool air that comes with April nights surrounded him as a followed the thin, yellow string further into the darkness. It invigorated him. His thoughts wandered a little more with each step.

The little'uns must've really wanted to do something special to go through all this trouble. Man, I really do love them. They're pretty amazing. And I've been such a jerk these past few weeks, always ignoring them and refusing to play their games. I guess that makes me a terrible brother, doesn't it? They don't deserve to be ignored. Well, starting tomorrow I'll play with them whenever they want and spend at least a little time with them every day.

Lost in his affectionate thoughts for his younger brothers, Scott didn't realize where the yarn was taking him until he inexplicably found his face two inches away from the outside wall of the barn. The yarn was wrapped three times around a protruding nail and then disappeared into the window of the loft- a window that was 12 feet in the air.

"You have got to be kidding me- another window!"

As he was looking around in disbelief (he was convinced that any second his family would jump out and yell "gotcha!"), he noticed something that made him groan loudly: a thick, woven rope (the kind that was stored in the lower level of the barn) was dangling out the window next to the thin, yellow yarn. In an instant it became painfully clear to Scott what he would have to do.

Before he could question his sanity (while questioning the sanity of his youngest brothers) Scott gripped the rope and began to climb, using the wall as an aid.

Thank God we started weight training in gym a while ago. A month ago I wouldn't be able to climb this.

Even with the extra muscle Scott had developed during his daily training sessions at school, his arms were still shaking by the time he reached the top. He scrambled over the windowsill and stood for a moment, catching his breath. Gordon had had the good sense to leave some lamps on, so Scott wasn't left in total darkness.

The loft appeared to be as he remembered it from the last time he had been there; the youngest Tracys hadn't set-up any secret booby traps- though if they had he wouldn't have been surprised. Then again, if they had created some secret obstacle course and Scott didn't set it off, they would have had hell to pay from the next brother who met it. Even though Gordon and Alan were still extremely young, the rest of the Tracy sons had already experienced more than a few of their escapades, and hadn't exactly come out unscathed on the other side.

Scott untied the yarn from the nearby table leg it was attached to and followed it down the stairs to the dirt floor of the barn. There were clearly-visible tracks in the dirt from where Gordon had dragged the rope that Scott had used to climb in upstairs. Even though he was irritated at being forced to complete an almost military-style obstacle course, Scott couldn't help but be impressed by his young brothers' thorough planning and forethought.

Maybe I won't kill them- It'd be interesting to see how their "talents" develop with age.

The yarn led him out of the barn- that was a completely pointless place to go- and into the darkness once more. Five minutes later he found himself within shouting distance of the house again. Another two minutes and he was standing outside the kitchen window trying very hard not to hit something.

What is it with all the damn windows! You'd think they were deliberately trying to get me to break my neck or something. At least this one's on the first floor...

Scott quickly located the milk crate that had been left leaning against the shed and pushed it against the wall below the open kitchen window. The crate was more off balance than he had anticipated, and it took a few tries before Scott managed to steady it enough to get a good grip on the windowsill. He pulled himself through the kitchen window... and almost landed face first in the sink. Catching himself just in time to prevent doing a face plant onto the marble countertop, Scott quickly righted himself and landed on the linoleum floor with a thud.

As he was unwrapping the yarn from around the tap, Scott could hear his family talking and laughing in the next room. His anger began to grow as he thought about how they had all just sat there while he had been led on a wild goose chase.

And it didn't even lead me anywhere, either. Just right back to wear I started. I take back what I said before- as soon as I see them they're dead!

A particularly loud round of laughter brought his anger to a head.

"All right, this is ridiculous! Those little twerps must have driven you all absolutely crazy for you to agree to their stupid plan. Why the heck did you... even... what?"

Scott had intended to enter the living room making his frustration known by yelling his head off, but as he rounded the corner he was brought up short. His parents, grandmother and second and third younger brother were all sitting exactly where he had left them- it was the two additions to the room that had made him pause mid-yell.

Scott looked down at the messy ball of yarn in his hand and allowed his gaze to slowly follow the piece that was still unwound to where it was tied: around Alan's pudgy, little finger. The youngest Tracy son was sitting in the middle of the room with a bright red bow on his head and a huge smile plastered on his face. Gordon was sitting beside him, sporting an equally large smile and an equally ridiculous head adornment.

With confusion clear on his face, Scott turned first to look at his mother, than his father and finally his grandmother before returning to the two beaming children on the floor.

There was a moment of silence in which all of the Tracys (excluding Scott) grinned eat each other. That silence was broken by Alan, as he rushed forward and exclaimed "Happy Biwthday Scotty!" and rapped his little arms around Scott's mid-section.

Scott automatically returned the hug, though he still didn't understand what it all meant. His attempt to make sense of the scene was interrupted by Alan's childlike voice once more.

"Do you like you's gift?" he asked.

"Erm..." Scott replied. "Well..."

Suddenly it all clicked for him. "Oh." He looked down at the little boy who was still attached to his stomach. "Are you and Gordy my gift?" he asked.

Alan's face was glowing like a firecracker as he nodded enthusiastically.

"Unhun!"

Scott's anger completely melted away at the sight of his youngest brother's shining faces. How could I ever have wanted to shut them out of my life?

He bent down to give Alan a proper hug. "I love it Sprout! It's the best gift I've ever gotten!" He gestured to Gordon, who came running over to join their hug. Scott looked up at his parents, who were both smiling affectionately at the three of them. He noticed that John and Virgil were laughing, and that even Grandma was chuckling.

He would have been content to stay like that for a while, but a thought occurred to him that made him pause and frown. He pulled away until his hands were resting on his brothers' shoulders, and looked them both straight in the eye.

"What the heck was with all the windows!"

I'm not sure if the ending was as good as it could have been, but I'll leave that for you to decide. One thing I am sure on though: Next time, I'm going to finish the story completely before I post it.

Thanks for reading, and as always, R&R!