A/N: Woohoo! Another chapter up! This is the only one that isn't going to be in dream form. I didn't think it would work very well in dream form, so yeah. And a couple of words are spelled wrong on purpose, especially when Green is talking. And as always, I don't own anything. And I'm also super sad that i'm almost done with this challenge! It's been a whole lot of fun! So as always, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review! I love reviews more than I love hits! Enjoy! :)
Chapter 4: Mob Business
Seaweed was walking home when he heard his name being called.
"Seaweed! Hey Seaweed!"
He turned his around and saw his friend Tyrone running to catch up with him.
"What's going on Ty?"
"You want to come play some basketball with us?"
"I can't man, my mom is making me watch Inez this afternoon."
"That stinks man. Can't you get out of it?"
"No. Sorry man."
"Aw, that's ok. Maybe later?"
"Yeah, I'll try, you know how my mom can be though."
"True. See you later man."
"Bye Ty."
Seaweed walked towards his house. He was disappointed that he couldn't play ball with his friends, but he understood that he held a responsibility to the household, seeing as he was the only man of the house. Seaweed was almost home when he tripped over something on the sidewalk.
"Ow! What the heck was that?"
He picked himself up and brushed off the dust from his clothes and looked down and saw a small black bag.
"What could this be?"
He opened it up and saw fistfuls of cash thrown in the bag.
"Woah!"
Seaweed's eyes grew wide. He never had this much money before. Seaweed began thinking of all the things he could do with the money, like buy comic books and go to the diner and buy milkshakes and take Penny to the movies and out to dinner some place nice. He was thinking about all this and more when he heard a voice behind him.
"Hey kid! Where'd you get that bag?"
There was a rough looking man of about 55, he about six feet tall and rather stout.
"I said, where did you get that bag?"
"I just tripped over it."
"A likely story!"
"I did man!"
"Tell it to my boss!"
"Your boss?"
"Yeah, my boss. You got a problem with that kid?"
"No sir. Not at all."
"Good. Follow me."
Seaweed rolled his eyes. Whatever line of work this guy was in her wasn't very bright and he wasn't very good at it.
The man led Seaweed down an ally way close to his house. Seaweed had seen this ally way several times but had never wandered down it. He just never bothered with it, because he didn't think it led anywhere. He now knew otherwise and made a mental note to never come down this way again. They stopped in front of a wooden fence. The guy rapped on the gate with his second knuckle three times, with his fist two times, and with his palm once. Seaweed gave him a look.
"Secret knock."
"Ah."
The gate opened.
"Kunckles, who did you bring us today?"
"Just a kid Green."
"A kid? That's it?"
"Yeah, well I found him with the bag."
"Good job Knuckles."
"So kid, come on in."
Seaweed walked in the gate a little further. He saw another man who was shorter than the first, he was roughly the same age, and even fatter than the first man.
"Now tell me, how did you happen upon this bag?"
"Well…" Seaweed began, he wasn't sure if this Green man was going to believe him, but it was worth a shot. "I was walking down the sidewalk and I tripped over it."
Green stared at him.
"You're kidding right?"
"No sir. I just tripped over it."
Green looked highly disappointed.
"You didn't steal it or nothing?"
"No."
"Damn."
Seaweed wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but he figured it wasn't exactly good whatever it was.
"Look, can I go home now? I have my sister to look after and…"
"Oh! You got a family?"
"Yeah…Doesn't everyone?"
"Well yes, but you see, in the mob business we have…an extended family."
The mob business? What had Seaweed gotten himself into, is all he did was trip over a bag of money.
"Wait, wait, wait. Back up here. Mob business?"
"That's right. You see that bag you tripped over? It's very important to us."
"Why?"
Green rolled his eyes like he couldn't believe Seaweed didn't know why it was important.
"It's a long story kid."
"It's ok. I've got time."
Green pulled back a chair at the desk he was sitting at.
"Sit."
Seaweed sat.
"Now, this all happened a long while back. It started two bosses ago. I was a new member of our family ya see. I was asked to do this task, to become an official family member."
"What was the task?" Seaweed asked.
"I'm gittin' to it! I'm gittin' to it! Keep your shirt on kid!"
Knuckles stood behind Seaweed and looked at him menacingly. Seaweed smirked, this guy couldn't hurt him even if he wanted to.
"Knuckles, back off the kid would ya!"
Knuckles backed away from Seaweed.
"So as I was sayin'. I had to do this task ya see. It involved a lot of our other family members from other branches. See, we have this rival family, the Buttkicks."
"The Buttkicks?"
"The Buttkicks is what I said kid. Are ya gonna let me tell my story or not?"
"Go on. Sorry."
"You better be."
Knuckles cracked his knuckles.
"Knuckles. What did I say about the kid?"
"Right. Sorry boss."
"So, as I was sayin' before ya yap interrupted me. The Buttkicks are our rival family, so we have to steal somethin' from 'em to prove ourselves and enter into the final initiation stages. It's all very complicated as you can see."
"Right. Complicated." Seaweed just nodded along.
"Well, on the night of this initiation things started to go wrong, we were led to the wrong hideout and ended up at the bank, we robbed the bank and managed to get away before the coppers got to us. So we've had this bag of money ever since my first night as an official family member, and if sometin' ever happened to it I would be very upset. Ya' see?"
"I see alright. But my question is, is how did it end up with me? Who could've left it lying on the sidewalk."
"That is exactackly what I want to know."
"Well, I was a tinkin' that you could help us with figurin' it out."
"Me?" The mob was the last thing that Seaweed needed to get involved in.
"Look, I would love to help but…"
"But what?"
"But I've got my own family to take care of and I have school and friends and…"
"Look, I ain't askin' for ya to become a perment member of our family, just temporarly."
Seaweed thought it over for a few minutes. It was only temporary…
"Alright. Tell me what I have to do."
Green smiled.
"Alright kid. This is what ya have to do…"
Seaweed couldn't believe he was sitting in jail. One moment he was standing on the sidewalk just holding the bag of money, that he accidently tripped over, and the next he's sitting with a mob boss, and then the next, he was sitting in jail! How was he ever going to explain this to his mom? She was never going to believe him. That's when he heard her.
"Stephen James Stubbs you have better have a good explanation for this."
Maybelle Stubbs' eyes had never looked colder and her mouth had never looked straighter.
"Well mom…"
"Go on, I'm waiting."
"What would you say if I told you that I accidently tripped over a bag of money and then finding myself helping a mob boss?"
"That you were grounded from this moment till you graduate."
