Kendall Knight stared out the window of his Palmwoods apartment that he shared with his mom, sister and three best friends. It had been raining for almost a week now and cabin fever was definitely setting in. Three days into being apartment-bound, video games had lost their appeal and by now the boys would have even welcomed an intense dance class or a long, tiring recording session, anything to break up their increasingly monotonous days. Unfortunately for them, Rocque Records had flooded two days into the rain and Gustavo had been forced to give them the rest of the week off. As boredom entrenched itself on the group, small personality quirks were emerging, and in the limited space shared by the four stir-crazy teenage boys, they were proving to become major annoyances.
Kendall surveyed the room. Logan, the smart one of the group, was holed up in the corner of the room with his laptop, no doubt studying or at the very least reading something educational. He seemed to be taking their forced imprisonment the best of all of them. Having caught up on his homework (and, under protest, everyone else's) on day one, he was now taking the opportunity to get a head start on his future career of being a doctor. However, apparently inspired by the weather, he had taken a break to discover some facts about the rain.
"Did you know heavy rain is classified as being more then 0.30 inches of rain an hour? And rain drops can fall at speeds of about 22 miles an hour!"
"Did you know how much we DON'T care?" James replied, throwing a cushion at Logan, before returning to his mirror.
"All I know is this weather is terrible for my complexion! How am I supposed to maintain a healthy glow without my standard four hours of sunbaking each day? Look at me! I'm practically translucent!" Kendall rolled his eyes at his vain friend, making note to dispose of any fake tan remaining in the house before James got desperate and they had another Hollywood Fever incident on their hands.
"Well do you know how much WE don't care about THAT" Logan practically spat back, sinking back down behind his computer screen. It was at that moment that Kendall realised something was off. It was too quiet. Once his friends had stopped bickering, the only sound he could hear was the gentle electrical hum coming from Logan's corner and the rain slamming against the windows. He couldn't hear Carlos.
Of the four of them, Carlos had reacted worst to their current situation. He was a ball of energy and being confined to a small space was his worst nightmare. He had managed to keep himself and the others entertained for awhile by creating games, such as using (with limited success) the lounge as a launching pad in the hopes of discovering if any of them could jump straight to the top of the indoor slide (thus, in Carlos's way of reasoning, saving the climb), or who could shove the most marshmallows in their mouth at once and still take a sip of soda without choking (Logan, surprisingly). Once he had exhausted everybody else, including Kendall's ten year old sister Katie, he had resorted to bouncing off the walls. Literally. Timing this particular game for when Mrs Knight and Katie had left to get groceries, he had strapped pillows to his stomach and back, donned his ever present helmet, and hurled himself from wall to wall in the hope of seeing how far he could rebound off each. This had lasted at least an hour and a half and was accompanied by squeals of delight, yells of annoyance, and the smashing of everything from bowls to photo frames. Only now there was silence, and Carlos was nowhere to be found. In Kendall's experience, that rarely ended well.
Before Kendall could say anything to the other two, he heard a shriek as Carlos hurtled out of his room on some pink rollerblades obviously belonging to Katie straight into James, who happened to be holding a glass of soda which was knocked out of his hand and onto Logan's computer, resulting in sparks, smoke, and a very angry future doctor. Picking up the cushion he had been sitting on, Logan whacked James over the head. He fell into Carlos, who fell to floor and somehow dragged the other two down with him. The three of them kicked and yelled as hair was pulled and clothes were ripped. Watching the scene in front of him unfold, Kendall had had enough. He stood up on the nearest table and whistled shrilly, stopping the fight in its tracks. Raising his right hand, he declared,
"We have been stuck in the apartment long enough! I say we need to get out and make our own fun! If we stay here any longer we're going to tear each other and the apartment apart! We're supposed to be on holidays and having fun, not trying to kill each other! Now let's go and enjoy our week off! Who's with me?" The other three boys looked warily at each other, before breaking into grins and running at Kendall, tackling him off the table. He smiled to himself. This was what he loved about his friends. No matter what had just happened, they could always forgive and forget in the name of having fun. Logan glanced over at his smoking laptop and sighed.
"I've gotta get myself new friends."
Well, almost always.
