"In other news, Mr. Johnathan Withers is currently being investigated under the charges of Child abuse and neglect towards his son, which thanks to a leak, we found out is actually his nephew whom he adopted as his son."

Click!

"I honestly don't think it matters if the boy is abused or not, he was taken into the home regardless of his blood-"

Click!

"-Mr. Withers should pay for what he's done to the boy, in the recording he clearly states that he doesn't even love him!-"

Click!

"-He's just giving him some tough love, let me tell you the problem with the youth of today, they are spoiled and entitled! That boy shouldn't complain about anything-"

CLICK!

Turning the TV off, Firedrake sighed out softly and threw his TV remote onto his bed, sitting back a bit he looked over to Sorrel who just shook her head.

"You know this just made things a million times worse for Ben, right?" Sorrel pointed out and Firedrake nodded.

"I know! I know! I was just so mad at Johnathan I didn't think..."

"That's apparent...Oh, hey, I think you want to look at this. It's obviously fake, but it's been going around school." Sorrel dug into her backpack and pulled out a piece of paper, Firedrake took it and just chuckled. It looked like a newspaper clipping, it was obviously fake from the paper it was printed on and it didn't even show a picture.

"Benjamin Withers died this morning from his suicide attempt..." Firedrake read from the fake looking clip.

"Yeah, Nettlebrand started handing these out. I knew it was fake seeing how you've been keeping me updated, but a lot of people around the school think the kid actually died." Sorrel explained and Firedrake chuckled.

"Geez, I miss two days and Nettlebrand does this...The grammar should be an indicator that this isn't real."

"Yeah well, if you read all the way to the bottom, there's a webpage dedicated to Ben. I looked it up, yeah it's legit."

"He really went that far?"

"Yep."

"Geez..." Firedrake rolled his eyes. "You know If I could just talk some sense into that moron...Or...Maybe...Could I?"

Sorrel could see the wheels in Firedrake's head turning. With a smile, she cupped her hands under her chin.

"Whatcha thinking about?" She asked and he suddenly rushed over to where his jeans from the days before lay. Going through the pockets he pulled out a piece of paper.

"What's up? Seriously, you know I don't like being out of the loop." She almost whined to him and he showed her the paper with the professor's signature on it.

"No date."

"Yeah?"

"I think I'm going to pay his brother Twigleg a little visit."

"I'm here to see Tw-...Tyler Creation." Firedrake showed the slip to the woman and prayed she'd just take it. She looked at the signature then back to Firedrake.

"Reason?"

He let out a silent sigh of relief as he smiled at her,

"He's my partner on the project."

"Alrighty." She paused and brought the phone to her ear before pushing a button. "Yes? I need Tyler down to the gym, his partner is here to meet him." She smiled as she spoke. She then hung up and nodded to him.

"You know where to go?"

"Yes. Thank you." Unlike last time, this woman took the permission slip and threw it into the garbage. That was fine by Firedrake. Putting his hands in his pockets he walked down to the gym. Stopping just outside of the doors he waited. The chilly air making his nose cold, rubbing it slightly he stopped when saw Twigleg walking towards him, head down as the boy was clearly trying not to cry. His eyes glossy as Twigleg slightly rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, he then sniffled loudly.

"Hey." Firedrake greeted, causing Twigleg to snap his head up and sniffle once more.

"Oh...Hi...Is Nettlebrand in there?"

"Nope. I lied and said I was your partner."

Twigleg's eyes went wide as he backed up slightly.

"W-Why?! Haven't I suffered enough! I mean...I guess we both have something in common-"

"He's not dead. Ben's not dead. I saw him yesterday."

"What? But the clipping-"

"Is obviously fake. It's not even worded right, and that website? The only picture of him is his fourth-grade photo because when you look him up online that's the first image you get. It's all a prank Nettlebrand pulled off to mess with me and you."

"B-But...Walter confirmed it!"

"Then Walter is in on it."

Twigleg shuddered as he looked down tears pooling in the corners of his eyes once again.

"I'm an idiot..." Twigleg whispered as he sniffled softly once more, Firedrake watched as he brought his arm up and wiped his tears away shakily. "Thank you for telling me. I'll try and see him after school...Maybe..."

"You really want to see him now, don't you?"

"Yeah...I do...But...I can't..." Twigleg whimpered softly as he stared down at as his feet. Firedrake sighed out softly as he looked around the hallway slightly, his eyes narrowed. A glimmer of red caught his eye and he turned to see the fire alarm on the wall.

"Yes, you can." Firedrake quickly ran up to the fire alarm before looking around.

"You're not..." Twigleg squeaked fearfully he then jumped back when Firedrake pulled the alarm causing a loud high pitch blaring noise to hit their ears. The lights on the wall started to blink rapidly and Firedrake took Twigleg's hand, quickly the two of them bolted outside towards the football field. Firedrake turned right and ran towards the fence, opening the gate, the two of them ran towards the front and to his truck.

Twigleg started to hyperventilate and Firedrake opened the glove compartment and pulled out a brown sack and threw at Twigleg.

"Sorrel is prone to panic attacks, I keep those on me in case, breath in and out of it." Firedrake fastly told him as he could see students and teachers coming out in lines and he quickly turned his truck on before backing out quickly and getting out of parking lot and school as quickly as he could.

Hearing Twigleg breathing into the bag, Firedrake looked over at the boy and gently patted his shoulder.

"It'll be alright-"

"ARE YOU INSANE!? WE COULDN'T OF JUST RAN!? YOU HAD TO PULL THE FIRE ALARM! YOU. IDIOT!" Twigleg screamed out suddenly as he started to hit Firedrake's shoulder in rage.

"Hey-hey-Stop that!" Firedrake calmly spoke as he grabbed Twigleg's wrist stopping the blows to his shoulder. "I pulled the fire alarm so we could get out of there cleanly-"

"CLEANLY?! THAT WAS ANYTHING BUT!...But..I do appreciate it..." Twigleg sighed out softly as he rubbed his forehead, he then ran his fingers through his crazy hair.

"Why is there a phone in here?" Twigleg asked suddenly as he reached and pulled Firedrakes cell phone from the glove compartment.

"Oh, I forgot that was in there, does it have any power? Just hit the middle button on the back to see." Firedrake instructed, Twigleg turned the phone over to find the button, once found, he turned the phone back around and hit the button, it lit up brightly.

"Oh, wow...You have...twelve missed calls and twenty-one texted messages...Oh, and it's at fifteen percent." Twigleg told him. Taking his eyes off the road for a second, Firedrake opened the compartment between the driver's seat and passenger seat. Reaching down he focused back on the road for a moment before going back to the compartment. Shuffling through napkins and CD cases, he finally found what he was looking for, a phone charger.

Pulling it out, he plugged it into the radio before grabbing his phone and plugging it in, allowing it to charge. Turning back to the road for a heartbeat he focused again on his phone and unlocked it. Going through the missed calls first, several where numbers he didn't recognize but one was the professor who called him the most. Shaking his head, Firedrake turned back to the road before looking at his texts.

"C-Could you pull over and do that, please?" Twigleg asked and Firedrake waved him off.

"It's fine."

He almost wanted to laugh, he did smirk at the fact that most of the texts were condolences from other students who really believed Ben to be dead. However, he stopped smirking when he saw one particular text from an unknown number and was shown as such, it was obvious that this person was trying to be anonymous,

You better hope you get to Ben before I do. He will pay for what you did. Let's see how much you really care for him. -J.W.

Firedrake couldn't stop the curse from leaving his mouth, that message was sent thirty minutes ago. Turning back to the road, he let his phone drop as he turned to a very worried Twigleg. Firedrake must have shown an unnatural amount of worry as Twigleg's on face morphed into his own extremely worried expression.

"What's wrong? Why did you curse?"

"Buckle up."

"What?"

"Put your seatbelt on."

Twigleg hesitated slightly but eventually did as Firedrake demanded of him, the moment Firedrake heard the click of Twigleg's seatbelt locking in, he floored the gas pedal.

Twigleg let out a scream, he sounded more like a pterodactyl than a human, honestly, Firedrake would have laughed if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation. He was reaching speeds he shouldn't be reaching, certainly not in the town like the way he was, he could see people literally stopping what they were doing was he sped by them. He could see a light up ahead, he saw it turn yellow and pressed on the pedal even harder, even still, he was too slow and it turned red. He didn't stop. Running the light, he heard Twigleg shriek even higher as a car coming from his right came close to hitting them. Thankfully that car stopped just in the nick of time and Firedrake avoided a collision. There was the blow of a horn as the guy flipped him off but by that time, Firedrake was already up the street and gone.

Finally, he saw his destination in sight, the hospital. Turning into the parking lot, not even slowing down to do so. He heard a loud 'thwack' as Twigleg hit his head on the window, which, thankfully, stopped the teen from screaming, as he rubbed his head.

"Ow..." Twigleg whined.

Firedrake suddenly stomped on the break once he found a spot to park. The good thing was the fact that Twigleg had his seatbelt on, which stopped the teen from going through the window, the bad news was it didn't stop Twigleg from accidently hitting his face on the dashboard this time.

"Oh god! MY NOSE!" Twigleg yelled in pain as he clutched his large nose desperately.

"We're at a hospital you'll be fine! Hurry! Ben's in trouble!" Firedrake yelled as he kicked his truck door open and got out. It took Twigleg a good minute to unhook his seatbelt and find the door handle. Getting down from the truck, he stopped and stumbled onto the pavement of the parking lot.

"I think my nose is broken," Twigleg whined as he continued to hold his nose. Firedrake ran over to him and forcefully moved Twigleg's hands to the side so he could see. The nose was slightly twisted to the side as blood pooled freely from under it along with some mucus, Firedrake could see the nose actually starting to swell.

"Yep, it is," Firedrake told him as he wrapped an arm around Twigleg's shoulders to help lead him to the hospital doors. He practically kicked the doors open as he ran to the nurse behind the desk.

"Hello, my friend broke his nose." Firedrake simply spoke, "By the way, I'm here to see-"

"Fill these out." The nurse duly told him as he handed Firedrake a clipboard with information details on it.

"No, you don't understand. He's just a friend, I don't know his information." Firedrake explained as he gently waved his hand towards her to get her attention.

"It's true," Twigleg muttered, his voice slightly higher pitched as he had his nose plugged.

"Alright, name?"

"Tyler Creation."

"I'll call you when the doctor is read-"

"Ma'am, I'm trying to see a friend. Ben Withers, did his dad take him out-"

"I'm sorry, that information has been classified seeing how you aren't his family. Please, have a seat." She gestured towards the seats in the waiting room.

"I saw him yesterday, the nurse lets me in. Please. I just need to see-"

"I'm sorry. But visits have been restricted to family only for him. Please, take a seat."

Firedrake rolled his eyes and brought Twigleg over to the seats.

"How's your head?" Firedrake asked noticing the bruise on Twigleg's right temple.

"It hurts...Then again, my whole face hurts...Why did you have to drive so fast, what was the big emergency?" Twigleg asked him softly.

"Ben's father might try something.." Firedrake perked up once he saw a nurse go out of the door leading towards the wards where the patients are being held. The nurse started speaking the other nurse behind the counter and Firedrake quickly scanned his eyes around the door where she came out of, at first he couldn't find anything that would give them a reason to be near that door until he looked a little more towards the left. Bingo! A water fountain!

"Get up," Firedrake ordered and brought Twigleg to his feet, Twigleg stumbled a bit as he blindly followed Firedrake towards the fountain.

"Pretend to drink." He whispered softly to the small teen. Twigleg did as he told, bending down as he pretended to drink...and drink...and drink...and drink...

"C'mon stop talking to your friend..." Firedrake hissed silently as he watched the woman still continue to chat like it was nothing.

"How much longer? I'm getting blood in the fountain?" Twigleg whispered softly.

"Hold it. She's coming."

Finally, the woman broke away from her friend and started towards the door, once close enough, Firedrake gave her a small smile as she used her card key to unlock the door, she swung it open and Firedrake quickly grabbed it.

"Allow me." He smiled once more at her, giving her a wink for good measure.

"Well, aren't you a gentleman." She smiled back at him and walked down the hallway. Firedrake looked around the other nurse was focusing on her computer and everyone else was more focused on their phones or the TV and once the coast was clear on the other side he grabbed Twigleg by the back of his shirt and dragged him through the door.

"But, we can't, we'll get in trouble. Twigleg whispered to Firedrake who scoffed,

"Twigleg, I pulled a fire alarm in a middle school with cameras watching me, and I ran a red light going up to a hundred miles per hour. I'm not stopping now."

"What's the big hurry? You still never told me." Twigleg asked as the two of them started to walk down the hallway, trying to look like they belong. Firedrake thankfully remembered the room number, which unfortunately was on the third floor. Going down the hallway, on the look out, Firedrake sucked in a deep breath,

"His father sent me a text, he might be planning on hurting Ben because of what I did. We have to hurry."

Practically jogging at this point. The two of them hurried down the hallway towards the elevator. Getting to the elevator, Firedrake hit the third-floor button and waited patiently as the doors closed. Firedrake looked over at Twigleg, gently, Firedrake peeled off his jacket and grabbed the back of Twigleg's neck gently.

"Tilt your head back." He instructed Twigleg to do so, thankfully, the teen did as he was asked and brought his head back. Using his jacket he held it under Twigleg's nose.

"Here, hold it there, that should stop the bleeding."

"B-But this is your jacket." Twigleg lightly protested, even though his nose was broken Twigleg could smell the sweet smell of laundry detergent coming off of the jacket as he held it tightly under his nose.

"I know it is. It's just a piece of clothing. I can replace it. You're bleeding and that needs to stop before anything else...And...Sorry. I'm pretty sure this isn't exactly the day you had planned."

"ARE YOU KIDDING! TODAY WAS AWESOME SO FAR!" Twigleg squeaked loudly with excitement. "I mean yeah, My nose is broken, and I'll get in trouble for ditching school, but it's been such a thrill, I can't help but think of it as awesome!" Firedrake couldn't help but chuckle, he could pratically see star's in Twigleg's eyes as he happily grinned at Firedrake the best he could.

"Little adrenaline Junkie." Firedrake lightly teased as he gently tussled Twigleg's hair. Twigleg then lets out a deep sniffle.

"I can't breath through my nose..." Twigleg softly confessed.

"Blow it."

"Your jacket-"

"I can wash it. Go ahead. Blow it if it'll make you feel better."

Twigleg had a small smile on his face before he suddenly blew his nose loudly.

"Ohhh that's a lotta blood," Twigleg muttered as he looked down at the gross bloody glob.

"Like I said, it'll wash out...Hopefully..."

The elevator finally stopped on the third floor and they stepped out, cautiously looking around, Firedrake rushed forward with Twigleg in tow. Once the coast was clear, the two of them walked briskly passed the other rooms as Firedrake looked for one specific room. Seeing it just up ahead, he and Twigleg practically jogged as they reached the door. Opening it, Firedrake ran in first only to have his fears confirmed.

Ben was gone.

Leaning against the wall, hand on his chest, he turned to Twigleg who stood there wide eyed as well. The two shared a look before turning back to the empty bed, both hoping Ben would just pop back in bed like nothing happened, but he didn't, he was really gone. Finally, Firedrake spoke,

"Ok...Ok...We gotta think...We have to do something...Otherwise, those pranks your brothers pulled might just become real..."

I want to thank the guest Reviewer ElizabethJohnson for giving me the motivation to continue this story =D Seriously, thank you