We're back!

A virtual high-five to Dirtkid123, LRW (I feel the same way!), LrLover444, and ShyMusic for answering the first half of the questions last chapter correctly! Great job to Rodrigo for getting both of them right! Sebastian teamed up with Tank and Lexi, and Principal Perry called them Creepy, Sturdy and Butch.

Thanks to Lady Cougar-Trombone and Doom for the comments!

This entry's one of those that I tremendously enjoyed writing. If you've played the board game The Game of Life: Twists and Turns, you'll probably really engage with this chapter.

Please enjoy!

Episode Tag to: Left Behind


Chronicle #049

"Heroic"

03/29/15

2:13 AM

You know what's harder than explaining what a hamburger is to people who haven't had it before? Explaining what a board game is and how to play it to people who haven't heard or even seen one before. Man. Bob, Spin, and their older sister Era gave me a headache. We had fun, of course, but we started off confusing each other. It even got to the point that they got me confused about how to play a game I've known how to play since I was eleven.

Just to backtrack, all of this happened because of the second care package my mom sent me. I tried to be a little bit more discreet about it because Spin took what Mom sent me the last time, but I guess hiding a big box from kids with enhanced senses wouldn't have worked in the first place. As I made my way to the quarters, Bob and Spin suddenly showed up behind me, with Bob asking, "What you got there, Leo?"

I looked back at them with widened eyes. "Nothing."

Spin smiled quasi-maliciously at the smaller box I was shielding behind me. Bob just frowned at the bigger box I was hugging at my side. "That doesn't look like nothing to me," he said.

"It really doesn't," Spin agreed. "You have any more of that butter peanut spread thing in there?"

When he stepped forward, I stepped back. "It's called peanut butter, and even if I do, you can't have any," I said defensively. "You already ate the first jar that my mom sent me."

"Well, that's kind of what happens when you wave around real food around hungry students," Spin says. "It's kind of like teasing a pack of hungry wolves with a good slice of meat."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "What do you know about hungry wolves?" I asked.

Spin shrugged. "Chase had us watch a documentary this afternoon," he said.

I nodded. "Ah. I guess that explains all the screaming and the crying we heard from one of the classrooms earlier," I noted.

"'The Game of Life: Twists and Turns'," Bob read the label on the bigger box. "What is that?"

"It's a board game," I answered after glancing at it.

"What's a board game?" Spin asked.

I frowned. "It's a game…that you play…with a board," I answered, but only then realizing that they may not even understand what I mean. And they didn't. The two of them just stared at me, more puzzled. "It's kind of like Chutes and Ladders?" I offered hopefully. Nope. Didn't work. I sighed. "You guys haven't played anything like this, have you?"

"No." Bob then lit up, "But you can teach us!"

"Yeah, I'm up for a game!" Spin said with a grin.

"Uh…" I stalled, because I knew then that it'd get pretty complicated and maybe even frustrating. "I don't think you guys are old enough to play this."

"It says nine plus on the box," Spin pointed out. "I'm nine."

"I'm nine plus," Bob said proudly. "I'm ten."

Spin glared at him. "Way to throw me under the bus, Bob."

Bob shrugged. "Sorry, buddy," he said.

"Yeah, I know it says you guys meet the age requirement, but – this is more of a…big kids' game," I tried to explain nicely.

"Why?" Spin asked.

"Because."

"Because…?" Bob asked.

"Just because," I said.

Apparently, my answer got on Spin's nerves. "Oh, come on, Leo! Why are you being so stingy?"

"Because!"

"Because what?" Bob asked. "You're going to have to expand on what you're saying, man! I can't bear the suspense here!"

I tried to make some sort of a compromise with them. I told them I could teach them how to play a card game, but it seemed like they had really set their minds on the one that they saw. They wouldn't let up, so our conversation pretty much ended with me distracting them before making a mad dash for the quarters.

Later on, when Adam, Bree and Chase finished their rounds at the Academy, I asked them if they wanted to play. It's been a while since we did something together really. Plus, it was the purpose of the board game anyways; Mom sent it for the four of us because she said it was something we've talked about playing before but then never got around to it.

The three of them were too tired for it, though. I asked if we could do it the next day, but they said they would be too busy. As it turned out, Big D handed down punishment to them for sneaking out students from the island and leaving two of them behind. He gave them duties to complete during the weekend, so anything remotely fun they could forget (although Chase had a bit of a pass because of what Big D did to his mission suit).

Because of that, I had no choice but to just put away the game.

A few hours into my sleep, an uneasy feeling woke me up. I thought at first that it was just because it was cold, but something told me that wasn't the reason. I sat up and looked around, trying to see even in relative darkness if anything was out of order. For a heavy sleeper to be woken up all of a sudden, I figured something must be going on. I got up, saw Adam, Bree and Chase still asleep, and then walked around. Nothing looked out of place in the quarters. I stepped out to the pool area, and there was nothing there, too.

I was starting to think that I was just being paranoid when, on my way back in, I noticed it: a strip of the packaging tape used on the care package sent to me sticking out of my storage box. I walked over to check it and found my suspicions to be true, that someone was there recently and had the guts to take what was mine, namely, the chocolate chip cookies, the jar of peanut butter and the board game.

Knowing exactly who did it, I made my way to the dormitories. Admittedly, looking for them was a bit awkward. Thankfully, I didn't wake anyone up, but looking in on the rooms unannounced while no one knew I was there, I thought, was still pretty rude. After searching a while, I didn't find them.

I came to the cafeteria to see if they had decided to go there – and there they were. Bob, Spin and Era were sitting on one of the tables closer to where an overhead light was, Bob and Spin munching contentedly on the cookies, Era trying to read through the instructions for the board game that was sprawled all over the table. I walked up to them, fuming, and then said, startling them, "Okay, you guys need to be taught what stealing is and how bad that is."

Spin was the first to speak. "Leo!" he said, laughing nervously as he tried to hide what he was eating. "What are you doing here?"

I crossed my arms. "I'm not the one who should be under interrogation," I said. "You guys snuck into the living quarters while we were sleeping, and you took something that is not yours. Believe me when I say that Big D will hear about this."

Bob laughed awkwardly. "Take?" he repeated. "What…What do you mean? We didn't take anything."

"Really," I said. "You're going to deny it even when the evidence is in front of me."

"What, these cookies? These aren't yours," Spin tried to reason. "We found these back there where they store the food."

"We did?" Bob asked. "I thought they only kept the nasty bars back there?"

Spin shot him a 'stop, Bob, you're going to get us in trouble!' look.

I smiled. "You know how I know you guys are guilty?" I asked. "Because besides the board game, I never said what was taken from me, and yet you guys seem to know exactly what it was."

Then they looked guilty (well, Spin and Bob, at least, because Era had been biting her lips out of remorse since I started talking to them). "Okay, fine, you caught us," Bob surrendered with a sigh.

"That I did," I said.

"So I guess you want these cookies back," Bob said as he sadly wrapped his half-eaten cookie with the paper towel it was on. Spin reluctantly did the same.

"No, you keep those," I told them. "I just want the rest of them."

Era turned to her side and then picked up the box, a good fourth of the cookies gone. She slid it towards me then said sincerely, "We're sorry."

I did feel bad for them. They did look terrified by the prospect of getting in trouble with Big D. Bob and Era, at least; Spin just looked unhappy and sulky. They also seemed like they were really sorry. Unknotting my arms, I told them, "Just don't do it again, okay? My mom worked hard on these. If you want any next time, just ask."

"But you never share," Spin complained.

I thought about it. "Well, as long as you don't tell your other siblings about me sharing, I will next time," I said. "Deal?"

"Deal," Bob said with a grin.

Spin just nodded.

Era smiled from behind the instructions sheet.

"What are you guys doing up so late? Or so early?" I asked while taking the vacant seat between Spin and Bob .

"We couldn't sleep because of the documentary," Bob said. "The whole thing freaked us out."

"Did you know that there are some snakes that can swim? Just the thought of that makes me…" Era shuddered in fear and disgust.

"Well, you don't have to worry about them. They won't come here in the island," I assured her. "They only go in the ocean to hunt for fishes so they can eat. They won't touch us."

"But still," Era mumbled. "It creeps me out."

"I'm just here because I want to play the game," Spin interjected.

"Spin said that it could help get our minds off the documentary," Era explained, seemingly embarrassed again for what they had done.

"Huh. How's that going for you guys?" I asked, looking down on the disaster on the table.

"Horribly. It's going horribly," Era said. "I've speed read through the instructions, but I still don't understand it. This Lifepod thing makes it all the more confusing. I mean, I know we use it for the plastic credit cards, but it looks so new I didn't want to mess with it and break it."

"You know, if you guys want to, I can play with you," I offered. "I know the ins and outs of this game. It should make it easier."

Era exhaled in relief, her hands with the instruction sheet slamming down on the table. "Oh, that would be awesome. I don't want to read this thing again," she said.

"Cool! Now we have four people playing!" Bob said.

Spin, meanwhile, just said, "I don't know. Box says you have to be older than nine to play. You don't look it."

I smiled at him widely to annoy him. "You know what? I'm going to take that as a complement," I said before separating the score cards, the credit cards and the skateboards by color.

After I asked them to take their pick, Era ended up with the red set, Spin the green set, Bob the yellow set, and I the blue set. I then explained to them that we had to choose one from the career cards that were available. Era picked the Science/Exploration career, starting off as a lab assistant. Spin picked sports, starting off as an amateur athlete. Bob thought about Corporate at first, because he said he'd be like Big D and have a lot of money, but then he saw the Animation Art/Comics card and took that. I took the Journalism career, beginning the first round as a newspaper intern. We then agreed that we'd play for thirty years, or thirty rounds, which should've given us about an hour of game time.

That first part was easy sailing. The next? Not at all.

We started off good. Even after I told them that they could pick whichever of the four starting places, the three of them still chose to stick with me, so there was a pileup of tiny plastic skateboards on the start place of the green quadrant of the board. We were actually able to do one round relatively unscathed. Then, come the second round. Because Spin passed the Lifepod back to Era instead of giving it to me (I didn't notice when they did because I was explaining something to Bob), she accidentally took a second turn, which, of course, made the counter decrease a year. We had to can that game because of that.

In our second attempt, Bob entered a wrong number when changing his salary after getting his promotion. Rather than having to do the math every round, Era and I decided to scratch that game, too.

In our third attempt, I discovered that each of them was reading events written on the bullet according to their chosen colors instead of the quadrant they were in.

By the fifth attempt, I was mentally drained and was ready to call it quits. Thankfully, that one went relatively well. We didn't have to restart.

Like I said earlier, after we got it all settled, it was actually fun. With their nervousness out of the way, the three of them were able to laugh at some funny events when they or another player picked them. We had some interesting conversations about them, too, like when Bob picked a card that told him that he found a banker to loan his start-up business. He earned $50,000 with it, and Era and I were just relieved that he picked Spin to be the player who would be the one loaning him the money. It landed Spin in debt and in a bad mood. Era and I just laughed.

Surprisingly, on the eleventh round, Bob found himself the richest out of all of us. He got cards that had him being featured on a famous magazine, giving him a whopping half a million dollars, and promoted three times, having him earn a salary of $85,000 as a comic book artist for four rounds. Add to that are the other miscellaneous money he earned from other events.

Era came in second, a Safari guide earning $40,000 a year who was only a few hundred thousand dollars short of Bob and who was a few moves away from being an Archaeology Teacher Assistant, which would give her a hefty pay upgrade. Spin came in last, which he wasn't very happy about. He would have been a Pro Starting Athlete, with $120,000 yearly salary, but as the Chance button on the Lifepod would have it, he was not yet to be, so he stayed as a Pro Benchwarmer at $40,000.

Being in third place wasn't too bad for me. I was one of two people who had a car (Bob bought a luxury car, too, after he earned money for selling a rare trading card), and I was able to afford a modest house. The money in the bank wasn't too great, though, after the purchases and spending money to get the degree I needed for the promotion to be a reporter, but I was happy.

Four years/rounds later, we reached a consensus that as we all headed towards the purple quadrant where all family events would be involved that the person to our left would be the one who would assign who we would get to marry. I was a little wary about that, but they seemed to really like the idea, and I was outnumbered. So, Era would choose for Bob, Bob would choose for me, I would choose for Spin, and Spin would choose for Era.

Bob was the first to get married. Guess who he ended up with.

"Okay," Era said in surrender, rolling her eyes with a grin after Bob smiled at her pleadingly. "You get to marry Bree."

"Yes! Thanks, Era," Bob said triumphantly. He then turned to me with a nod. "Hey, Leo. Guess what? You just got yourself a brother-in-law."

"Yeah. He's your problem now," Spin said.

"Mm, I think he's Bree's," I said. "Although if I were you, I'd think about buying a house. You and your wife can't be millionaires living in a car, you know."

"I'll keep that in mind," Bob noted, but I knew he had his eyes on his next move.

One round later, I got married.

"Can you guys stop with these weddings?" Spin asked, annoyed, after I reminded them that they each have to give up $1000 for me. "You guys are draining my money here!"

"Don't be such a cheapskate, Spin," Era chided. "It's a thousand dollars out of your bank. You've got lots more."

"I just don't get why we have to pay that much for the person getting married," Spin insisted.

"It's to help them start their new life together!" Era chirped.

"Yeah, man. Don't be so sore about this. You'll get married, too, and you'll want us paying," Bob nodded.

I chuckled. "He's just mad because he's an athlete living on a skateboard," I noted.

He glared at me after Bob and Era giggled.

"Speaking of marriage, your wife…" Bob said.

I waved it away. "You don't have to choose. It's fine. We can just leave it for another time," I said.

"Oh, no. That won't be fair for us," Era protested. "Bob would choose."

As we waited for Bob, I hoped that he wouldn't pick who I thought he was going to pick, because that would be very, very awkward. But instead, after stroking his imaginary beard, he told me, "You're marrying Amaranth."

I frowned, a bit surprised at the random choice. "Amaranth?" I repeated. "Why?"

The three of them exchanged knowing looks. Era just chuckled, saying something about Bob getting in trouble as she fake examined the instruction sheet. Bob, on the other hand, just shrugged, grinning. "Because," he said.

"Because…?"

Spin snatched the Lifepod away from my hands at that moment, took out my card, put his in, and then said, "Okay, you're taking forever. It's my turn."

I thought that he was being a bit rude at first, but then now that I think about it, he probably did that to distract me.

Two more rounds later, Bob did end up getting a house, just after picking an event that had him and Bree buying an RV to take the entire family on a vacation. Meanwhile, I ended up setting fire to my grandparents' kitchen (it was what the card said) and having two kids – twins, to be exact.

It was a bit embarrassing at first, and I really thought that the awkwardness would pass after Spin took his turn without much conversation about what happened on my last go, but then it happened: the complicated part of playing this game with children. "Leo? Where do babies come from?" Bob asked.

Saying that it horrified me would be putting it nicely. If it wasn't bad enough that Bob was really curious about it, Spin also turned towards me and waited for me to answer. I tried to look at Era for help, but then I remembered that, even if we were around the same age, she only knew as much as they did. Apparently, she seemed to wonder about it, too.

"Uh…" I laughed nervously. "That's a…That's a good question to ask someone who's not me a few years from now."

Spin frowned. "Will Chase be showing a documentary about it in the future?" he asked.

"Oh, I hope not," I said. "And if he does, run the other direction, especially if it's the 'Miracle of Life' one."

"Why?" Spin asked.

"Because it will destroy your life for a good week."

"Wow. It's that bad?" Era asked.

I nodded.

"Well, if we shouldn't watch it, why can't you just tell us?" Bob asked.

"Because telling you guys about that is your mentors' problem," I said. To prevent them from asking any more questions, I just said, "Aren't you supposed to be getting married or something, Era?"

She looked down on the board and said, "Oh." To my relief, she took the Lifepod, took her turn, and did get married.

Spin grinned as his older sister blushed under his and Bob's gazes. "Adam," he said with an upward nod.

"Of course," Bob chimed in.

I gaped. "You have a crush on Adam?" I asked her with a smile.

Era reddened more. She shot glowers at her younger brothers first before asking me worriedly, "Don't tell him, okay? I'd be so embarrassed if he finds out."

I held up my hands. "Hey, nothing will be coming from me," I told her. "Although, you know, if you really like him, I can see if he'd like to eat lunch with you sometime this week."

Era lit up. "You'd do that?" she asked hopefully.

"No harm in trying."

"If you made that happen, Leo, you're going to be my best friend forever," Era said excitedly.

"What, I can't be your best friend just for trying?" I joked.

Era thought about it. "Well, you can be my good friend," she said.

"Ow. I'm hurt," I said playfully. "Okay, Bob. It's your turn. Don't forget the thousand dollars for Adam and Era."

We kept going after that, ending up with both funny and cool events in the cards that we picked. Spin did eventually get married. I didn't really know who to choose for him, but then Bob suggested a girl named Leyla whom they have met at the pizza place when they went out to eat in the city and who he apparently has a crush on. He did get a house (Era did, too, later), but they still had that skateboard as their means of transportation. He didn't want children, but a card had him and Leyla adopting twins from Russia.

All of the 'bad' turns was cancelled out when he was finally promoted to Pro Starting Athlete. He was happy from that point on.

Bob suffered some losses with his money, and soon Era caught up to him. I would have taken the second place from Era after I got $900,000 and 4000 life points for getting a national sponsorship to ride the waves in California event, but then she got a card that gave her more money and points, too.

Two rounds before the end of the game, Bob and Era were in a close race for the top spot, I was in comfortable third place, and Spin was only slightly behind in the fourth place. At that time, Bob was a Special Effects Artist, Era was an International Treasure Hunter, I was a Newspaper Magnate, and Spin was a General Manager. With the exception of Bob, all of us had kids. I had twins, Era had a boy, and Spin had twins and a girl. We were all tired and sleepy, but we were still having a pretty good time.

As the Lifepod tallied the scores, Bob asked me, "Do you think it's possible that I'd be like this one day?"

"Like what?" I asked.

"Being in the animation field, and then having a house and other things of my own?"

"It's possible," I said. "It's not going to be as easy as it was in the board game, of course. You're going to have to put a lot of hard work, and you may take more losses. It may take a long time, too, but I don't see why not."

"Well, wouldn't it be kind of hard?" Era asked. "We're in here all the time, and we're being trained to protect other people. That would be our job. Is there really any room for us to be something else?"

I thought about it. "I don't know," I told them honestly, "but what I'm sure of is that one day, all of us are going to leave the Academy to live our own lives. We will be protecting others, yeah, but there's going to be a room there somewhere where we can be something else."

"Like a real coach?" Spin asked.

"Or a mom?" Era asked.

I nodded. "Yeah," I said.

Era smirked. "So is that what you're planning to be one day, too? To be a writer by day, superhero by night?" she asked.

"Uh, well, I'm actually trying to see if I could be an inventor."

"Like Mr. Davenport?"

"Yeah."

When the pod finished counting Bob's score, he announced, "73,919 points."

Era grinned. "I got 74,000 plus. I won," she said.

Bob just shrugged, and then all of us began putting everything away.

"I wish we had a mom," Bob said as he put the cards inside the box. "That way we can have someone sending us fun things like your mom does."

I glanced at him, smiling empathetically.

Because my attention was on him, I didn't notice the thoughtful expression on Era's face. "I know we're not supposed to ask this, but…did the guy who created us love us? Even just a little bit?" she asked.

I had two choices at that point: lie to spare their feelings or tell the truth and hurt them more. As much as I'd like to tell the truth and spare their feelings, it wasn't going to happen. So, apologetically, I just kept silent.

They looked either down or away in disappointment as they understood.

Era sighed. "Sometimes I wish some people would be more like penguins," she muttered.

"Oh, that would be so cool," Bob said.

"Penguins?" I repeated.

"In the documentary, it showed that they care for their babies. They protect them and really love them," Era said. "Wish he'd been more like that."

"That would have been nice," I agreed.

"If I did get to have kids one day, I hope they'd find it cool that their mom is a superhero," Era remarked.

"I'm sure they will," I told her. "But even if not for that, if you just try your best to be a good mom to them, they'd love it, too."

Era smiled reluctantly. "I guess so," she said. A second later, she frowned when something came to her. "Speaking of being a superhero, I've never even gone on a mission yet. I'm the only one in this table who hadn't done anything."

"You will soon," I said. "You're at advanced level. It won't be long until you can go on one with us."

Spin grinned maliciously. "Yeah. I'm sure she'd like that because she'd get to be with A-dam," he said, singing Adam's name before making kissy faces to taunt her.

Era rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. "You, Spin – you're something else, you know that?" she said, putting the lid on the board game's box before sliding it towards me.

I picked up that box and the one that contained the cookies with a smirk. "Watch, the first thing he's going to do when you guys come back to the mainland is to find Leyla," I teased.

Spin looked back at me with a frown, retorting, "No, I won't."

"Yes you will. You were just talking about it earlier," Bob said.

Spin glared at him.

Era and I laughed. I patted Spin on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, buddy. Your secret's safe with us."

"Yeah. We're all pro-Speyla," Era added.

"Guys, stop. Leyla's not my girlfriend," Spin insisted, obviously getting irritated and embarrassed.

"We'll see about that in a few years," I mumbled.

"What?" Spin asked.

"We should probably turn in," I told them instead. "Perry might be doing her rounds now. We don't want to be caught."

Bob hopped off his seat. "See you tomorrow, Leo," he said, walking off.

Spin was still fuming, but he did glance at me before following Bob.

Before trailing behind her brothers, Era looked back at me with a hopeful smile.

I nodded. "I won't forget. I'll ask Adam tomorrow, promise," I said.

Era grinned. She then waved at me, wished me goodnight, and then herded her brothers back to the dormitory.

As for me, I walked back to the quarters, which kind of took some time. I would have gotten on the hydroloop, but then the noise and the light it would make would have called unwanted attention. When I arrived, I saw that Adam, Bree and Chase were still sleeping soundly, even after I've been gone for almost two hours.

And I thought I was the heavy sleeper.

The following day at lunch, I acted on what I told Era. While getting our food, I started telling Adam about 'this student named Era' and how cool I think she is. I told him that she's polite and smart and "She's cute, don't you think?" Adam took a good look at her, and then agreed that she was cute. Then he asked me if I liked her. I told him I didn't, but if he thinks he might like her, he should probably join her at the empty table she was sitting at.

"Wouldn't that be breaking the rules?" he asked, hesitating.

I raised my eyebrows. "What rules?"

He thought about it as he looked at Era. "Touché," he said, and then he left to join her.

Era's face lit up as Adam joined her. Some of her sisters were poised to join them, but she waved them away from behind her back so Adam wouldn't see. They looked offended, but eventually they just walked away. As Adam settled down on the table next to her, she looked around for me, and when she saw me, she excitedly mouthed 'Thank you!' I just nodded before walking away.

It seems like Era was serious about what she told me, so now I have a new friend, which is good because it's looking like Adam, Bree and Chase would be swamped with Academy work for the next several days. She actually just asked me earlier before I left the island if we could do another midnight hang-out soon. Apparently, because a few of their siblings caught them sneaking back in and were curious as to where they were, she, Bob, and Spin had to tell them what happened. Now her older twin siblings along with one of her other older brothers want in on the game, too.

A board game playing underground club at the Academy. Cool, huh?

Who would have thought things would be looking up this soon?

Signed,

Leo Francis Dooley

03/29/15

9:29 PM

The Adam Chronicles


In this episode, what did Bob throw at the robbers to distract them (the very first item)? Reviews and answers are appreciated!

Next will be the 50th chronicle, you guys, and it's going to be a tag to my favorite season four episode so far! I have an idea for it already, but it came to me that maybe we can do a bit of a collab on it since it's a little special. If you've seen the episode Under Siege and have a request/prompt for the episode tag, tell me in your review. I'll try my best to incorporate it. (I'll credit you, too, of course. ;) )