"Andre…"
Sleeping.
"Andre."
Still sleeping.
"Andre!"
Still sleep-
"ANDRE!"
Startled, the boy twisted around in his sheets and promptly fell on the floor.
"Morning, sleepyhead!"
Andre groaned.
"Come on, we have lots to do today."
"Idunwanna…"
Someone was attempting to pull the tangled sheets off of him.
"We're burning daylight, come ON!"
Andre pushed himself up and rubbed his sore head. "Did you have to shout so loudly?" he asked.
"Yup, now come on!"
He finally looked to see who had woken him so abruptly. "Of course it's you." He groaned. "How did you get in here?"
Barry grinned. "Kowalski let me and Kenny in."
Andre looked to Kowalski's bed which was vacated and had Kenny standing in front of it.
"You couldn't have made sure I didn't fall?" Andre complained, detangling himself further.
"Nope." Kenny said with a grin. "Today, we're doing a bunch of things before it starts to rain."
"And you're lucky we've crossed out swimming since it's so cold." Barry said. "Now come on!" he pulled Andre's arm. "Get up, shower, get dressed and brush your teeth."
"What happened to a Saturday sleep in?"
"It's eleven in the morning, that's long enough." Kenny said.
Both boys pulled Andre to a stand.
"I was having a nice dream." Andre complained.
"Write about it in your blog, let's GO!" Barry said.
"Alright, alright!"
"Good." Kenny said.
Andre glared at them while he gathered fresh clothes.
"Can't let me sleep…has to shout…why I oughta…" he muttered on his way to the bathroom.
Kenny and Barry exchanged high fives.
"You got him up, congratulations." Kowalski said from the doorway. "But you do realize that he's going to take longer in the bathroom?"
"No he's not." Barry said, rushing to the door. "ANDRE! ARE YOU IN THE SHOWER YET?!"
"Why's that any of your business?"
"Because we got to go!"
"Fine, I'll catch up. I haven't even started the water yet."
"We'll wait, don't make it too long."
Andre groaned loudly.
"Hey where are Rico and Skipper?" Kenny wondered.
"Rico's at the gym and Skipper went for a run around the block." Kowalski answered. "And I've got to get to the lobby for tutoring."
Barry smiled at Kenny. Kowalski didn't notice this and left with his bag.
"Oh no, I know that look." Kenny said. "What is your poisonous little brain up to?"
"Oh nothing." Barry said, inching backwards.
Kenny looked up. "No. No way. I won't let you-"
"They're not going to know."
"But I will know, and Andre too."
"Nope."
"It's an invasion of privacy."
"I'm going in."
"You could get in trouble."
"Chicken."
"You will get in trouble."
"Chicken."
"Skipper could be back any minute."
"A quick glance."
"I'm surprised you know what glance means."
"So that's a yes."
"NO! Don't go in there."
"Chicken."
"Stop that."
"Kenny's a chicken, Kenny's a chicken, Kenny's a CHICKEN!"
"Shut up."
"Look."
Barry backed into Skipper and Rico's room. "Hey, no deadly lasers."
Kenny groaned. "I refuse to accompany you. I'll tell people I tried to stop you."
"When?"
"At your funeral."
"Haha funny, get in here." He grabbed Kenny and pulled him into the room.
Kenny squeezed his eyes shut. "What does it look like? The scary lair, is it deadly?"
"Open your eyes, dolt."
Kenny opened his eyes. The room was dimly lit by the cloudy sky and it was partially messy. Skipper had his mug on his desk and a green hat lay next to it.
Rico's desk had papers messily thrown onto it. There was a bag of chips on top of a stack and a sock on his desk lamp. His computer was open and showed his firecracker wallpaper.
The wall on Skipper's side had a poster of Uncle Sam and some pictures of his family. Rico's side was blank except for a lone picture close to his pillow. Before Kenny could get a closer look, he noticed where Barry was.
"Get off his computer." Kenny hissed.
"No way, I'm about to uncover the mystery of Rico." Barry said.
"And then people will want to solve the mystery of how your skeleton ended up in the Sahara desert!"
Barry shook his head and continued.
"Come on, let's get out of here and hang with Andre." Kenny said, pulling on Barry's arm.
"No, I'm staying here." Barry said, shaking Kenny off. "Ooh, Facebook."
"ANDRE!" Kenny screamed at the top of his lungs.
Barry snapped up and clapped a hand over Kenny's mouth. "What the heck are you doing?" Barry growled. "Are you trying to get Rico to come up here?"
"No, I'm trying to get Andre to come out so we can leave. Going on his Facebook profile is like looking at another person's test, it's unfair and against the rules." Kenny said once he'd shoved Barry's arm away.
"It's just looking at his profile; we do it all the time."
"Yeah, from the safety of our own computers, not someone else's. From this angle it's like going into records and illegally taking out information on others. Don't be stupid, Barry."
"Is everything okay?" Andre called from the bathroom.
"Fine!" Barry shouted back. "It's all good, right?" he asked Kenny.
"Get off his Facebook page and let's go." Kenny said.
"Alright, I'll do it. Hey, can you see if I left my key in Andre's room?"
"Okay."
Kenny's search came up empty and he shrugged. "Hey it's not in- what are you doing?" He spotted Barry typing on the computer. "You better be checking the weather and not what I think you're doing."
Barry grinned sheepishly.
"ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!" Kenny bellowed, pulling Barry off the chair with all his strength. This ended up in both of them tumbling to the ground.
"What's going on?" Andre asked, appearing at the doorway. "What are you two doing in here?" He spotted Rico's computer and gasped. "Are you insane? That's private property-"
"That's what I tried to tell him." Barry grunted as he lifted himself off the ground.
Kenny looked livid. "You LIAR!" He lunged at Barry, but was stopped by Andre.
"Stop it, just stop what you're doing and let's get out of here." Andre said. "I don't care who started it, I'm stopping it."
"What. You. Doing?" A fierce low voice rasped from behind.
They looked around to see a sweaty and angry Rico.
"Aw crud." Barry squeaked.
Rico stared into each of their faces with fury etched in his own face.
"Y-you c-can talk?" Andre stuttered. He felt like he could practically feel the fire emanating from Rico's eyes.
Rico's response was to continue glaring until he spotted his open computer. He gasped and pushed them out of the way to see it. He seemed to become angrier as his face, ears and neck turned dark red.
Barry's face turned a greenish color. "I think I'll be go- RUN!" He screamed, bolting crazily to the door. "Guys, hurry!"
Rico let out a scream of frustration.
Andre had stopped when he realized that Kenny wasn't moving.
Kenny was stock still, his face paler than ever and his eyes were wide with terror.
Barry and Andre rushed forward, trying to pull Kenny back, but he was like a rock.
Rico advanced on them with his hands balled into fists.
"Come on, before he catches us." Barry said. "Aw, let's leave him. He can't catch all three of us anyway." He released Kenny and ran back to the door.
"How could you leave him?!" Andre said.
"He's not moving!" Barry said. He was about to open the door when Skipper came in as sweaty as Rico.
"Who's not moving?" Skipper asked with an amused expression.
"I KNOW NOTHING!" Barry screamed, darting down the hallway.
"I didn't know." Andre said as Skipper came closer.
Skipper's expression quickly changed to a scowl. "What's going on?" he demanded as he walked into his room.
He saw Andre right inside the door and Rico holding the front of Kenny's shirt. Kenny started shaking terribly. Tears were forming in his eyes.
"Kenny?" Skipper said. "Are you alright?"
Kenny didn't respond. Rico let go and Kenny fainted. Rico barely managed to catch Kenny again and carried him to the couch.
Skipper looked at Rico's computer and rolled his eyes.
"Private, what's going on here?"
"Stop calling me that." Andre snapped.
"Don't talk to me that way; just tell me what you were doing on the computer."
"I was taking a shower when those two decided to barge in and I don't know what they did. I walked in on them when Kenny pulled Barry off. Kenny screamed for me before so I think it's all Barry's fault."
"No, you let them into our room. Do you know what Barry wrote about Rico?" Skipper snarled.
"W-What? That's completely- I was showering!"
"Do you KNOW what that kid wrote about Rico?" Skipper repeated.
"No."
Andre looked at Rico who was trying to wake Kenny up.
Skipper showed Andre his phone. People were already replying to the post.
Andre's gaze turned to the phrase and he gasped.
The status update said Rico Blue -I am a psychopath, hide your babies. Don't believe me, ask my dead mother.
"Y-you think this is my fault?" Andre said with teary eyes.
Skipper didn't answer. "Rico, take Kenny back to his room when he wakes up. Mr. Davis is not to see him for the rest of the day."
"You can't do that!" Andre said.
"Yes I can." Skipper said with a tone of finality. He left a shaking Andre as he entered his room.
Kowalski had come back around three in the afternoon and was stunned to discover what had occurred. He had a talk with Kenny and he scolded Barry before coming back to Andre.
It had started to rain by then.
"Hey, you alright?" Kowalski asked.
"Fine." Andre said emotionlessly.
"Alright, I got to help Rico. He's getting hate comments. I can't believe Barry did that. You should have stopped him."
"Tactless! I was SHOWERING in case you didn't know that."
Kowalski didn't respond.
The rain grew heavier as if to express Rico's frustration which could be heard from the next room and possibly from outside. Skipper was cursing loudly and Kowalski was trying to simmer them down.
It grew darker as the sound of a door shutting was heard by Kowalski. He peeked in the room and then back out again, having assumed Andre went to dinner. Skipper scowled and burst in, noticing something on the bed. It was a note.
Skipper uttered a curse before dashing out of the apartment without a word.
Rico came in, looking puzzled. He and Kowalski looked at the note:
In case you didn't know yet, I have decided to run away. I am no longer wanted or needed here. You don't care if I get followed and possibly killed by a crazy stranger. You don't care, period. I won't go back home, but I will instead go live with Henry. FYI- his daughters would have known I wasn't to blame and they're less than three years old. I hate you all and even more for making me say that.
No longer your burden,
Andre
