"You didn't answer the phone last night, Sam," Levy says the next morning, joining the ravenette at the bus stop. Kendall and Derick are no where to be seen, so presumably they were running a little late.
Sam let out a groan, running a hand through his ravenette locks. "When I got home last night, my parents were pissed. My mom especially."
Levy groaned and placed his hand on his forehead knowing Sam's parents were kind of strict with staying out late. "At least you're alive!" He added in a halfhearted tone, rolling his eyes. "I'll let you know that if they found out what they did, I don't think any of us would be here right now!" Sam exclaimed. Levy thought to himself, his friend had a point. "Where are Derick and Kendall anyway?"
Just at that moment, both of them appeared from a distance and were walking up to them, "Hey!" Derick gave them a small wave whilst Kendall smiled at Sam and Levy at the bus stop. "It's about time you got here- we would've missed the bus!" the black-haired boy shouted. "Well if we look at that!" Levy said, taking a few steps to the bus that was meters away from them. The other two boys started to run, waving their arms frantically in the air and Sam chuckled as his friend rolled his eyes. Seconds later, Derick and Kendall got on, trying to recover and regain their breath. "And this is why we are on time to places" Levy remarked. In return, the blonde boy rolled his eyes and the other ignored, taking a seat behind Sam and Levy, waiting for the other boy to join him. "Got the magazines?" Levy whispered. Kendall smacked the backpack as a signal that they had them. "Good." They were heading to school but after that, they would be going to sell them.
The four of them were sat in their usual seats for class as the teacher rambled on about something boring, so Derick began writing notes on a piece of paper. "When will this class end already?" Sam looked over to see what he could've been writing but his eyes couldn't read the small writing. The rest of the day went by with them passing notes to each other stealthily until the very last lesson.
"Passing notes in class are we?" a teacher was standing behind Levy as he tried to cover it up and pretend to do his school work. "No! Of course not!" he said shaking his head. The older person sneered, "Give me the paper!" Levy hesitated and watched his friends give him fretful looks. "NOW!" The boy handed over a small piece of paper with nothing written on it. He was extremely lucky to have spotted it. The teacher sighed, "I've got my eyes on you Levy..." and walked to her desk. The boy mouthed, "That was a close one" before alternating between actually studying and passing notes to his friends again.
After school, the four of them walked out of the school gates and Derick was quick to scold him. "What if we got caught Levy? Do you know how risky that was? Well. You're lucky Miss didn't find the notes..."
The four boys continued walking in an awkward silence. Trying to lighten up the mood, Kendall randomly asked, "So where are we gonna sell them today?" Everyone but Derick hummed and mumbled in agreement. The other boy thought about it for a couple of seconds. "We can't go to the next town- it's too far- and we can't go to the town before ours..." he paused, taking some time to think about it as he walked but before he could say anything, Sam quickly interjected, "So are we gonna go some weird place between the two?" He smiled at himself for saying something that was quite smart and waited for an answer. "I'll admit, I wasn't thinking that but it sounds like a pretty good idea."
All of a sudden, Levy and Kendall chanted, "We're going to Limbo!" and the group burst out laughing. "But it better be quick- I'm grounded for a month remember!" Sam cried. Reassuringly, Derick told him that they'd be home in time but Sam was still anxious and asking a lot of questions. "SHUT THE HELL UP!" Derick finally snapped, getting tired of Sam's incessant questions. "We're almost there anyway..." The boys kept walking until Kendall stopped. "I think this is the spot! We'll sell them here!" he said with a grin on his face. Levy, clearly tired and confused looked at him, "BUT THERE IS LITERALLY NOBODY HERE!" To their surprise, a random man walked up to them, "Are you guys lost or something?" The stranger scratched the back of his neck before swiftly bringing his hand through his dark brown hair and putting it down again. Kendall was about to open his mouth but Derick beat him to it. "We aren't lost..." he stated, looking to see if there was anyone around, "But we wanna make a deal with you."
The four young boys nodded at the tall man in front of them, who gave them a puzzled look. "What do you want to sell because I have no-" he was interrupted by Levy, "I can see your wallet you know!" The child rolled his eyes once the man grumbled in defeat. "Okay, okay! But what do you want?" Kendall took the backpack and revealed one of the many magazines sitting in there. "You want this?" he said with a smirk on his face. Their future customer wore a dumbfounded expression. "How did you get your hands on those?" He looked around before continuing in a low voice, "How much?" Levy, Sam and Kendall turned around to decide as Derick told the person to excuse them for a minute. "Should we ask for 100 bucks? "Levy whispered. The three other boys mumbled, disagreeing with his idea. "How about he tells us a place where we could sell more of these? Or..." Kendall stopped, not having any other ideas in mind.
"Or what?" Sam spat. "I don't know!" The four of them tried to think of something but in the end they could only think of selling the copy for 15 dollars. "Here." Derick said bluntly waiting for the money to reach his hand. The man rummaged through his wallet and handed a lot more than what seemed to be $15 but none of them were complaining. "Nice doing business with ya!" After that long conversation, the boys started moving and talking but Kendall noticed that Sam wasn't with them anymore. Sam went in the opposite direction. "Hey, Sam! Where are you going?" Kendall asked, running up to his friend. "Home. I'm already grounded and if I'm being honest, I wanna be alive tomorrow!" Slightly shaking his head, the dark-haired boy kept walking to his house, getting further and further away from the other three.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps follow him and Sam began to walk faster. "Wait up!" Kendall yelled, "Yeah, it's just us!" He stopped walking, "I thought you were still exploring Limbo," rolling his eyes as he said it. "We were-" Derick began but Levy hastily interrupted him, "We chose to go back. This place was kind of giving me the creeps anyway". The boy shuddered and walked towards the black-haired boy. Kendall followed and Derick scowled before joining them and walking towards their town. Derick and Sam didn't talk to each other the entire way back and everyone walked in an uncomfortable silence. All that could be heard from them were mutters, "What time is it?" or "How much longer do we have to walk for?" Derick was also grumbling to himself but it was so quiet that none of the other boys could decipher what he was saying. But, he was certainly pissed off with Sam.
Eventually, they reached town and the sun was starting to set. "Guess we made it in time," Sam sighed in relief. "But I've got to go home now. So see you tomorrow?" Everyone except Derick said goodbye but Sam didn't really care at this point. He waved and headed to his house, knowing his mom was going to be slightly annoyed at him. Meanwhile, Levy, Kendall and Derick were talking among themselves about the next stages for their plan and their return to Limbo. "How about we go back tomorrow?" Levy whispered. "Yeah!" Kendall agreed and Derick just hummed. Just as Kendall was about to talk about their plan, Sam's mom came out and stood at the door. "Whar are you doing outside boys? Come in, come in!" She gestured them to come in with a nod and wave and the three of them walked in. "Want anything to eat or drink?" They were all hungry and a snack sounded great. It was also great because that meant Kendall could finish talking about the plan. "Mission Limbo is on!" he said as soon as Sam's mom left the room. "Huh?" Sam looked confused and the other two boys just groaned. "So, I guess that's what we're calling it," Derick mumbled. Levy rubbed his hands together, "Tomorrow after school? Back to that place?" Everyone nodded.
"Are we still meeting up with that guy?" he asked. Sam shivered, recalling their meeting and his first impression- which to him wasn't exactly great, kind of creepy to be honest. "I-I don't trust that guy..." he began. "What guy don't you trust sweetie?" Sam's mom walked back in holding snacks for the children. "Some kid at school!" he replied hastily, thinking how lucky he was to have quickly thought of something. "He seemed a bit... off. But it's probably just a bad first impression." The woman just shrugged, "Okay," and left the room again. "As you were saying..." Derick uttered. "As I was saying, he's not trustworthy. Did you see the way he reacted and handed us more than we asked for!" Levy argued by saying it's a good they got more money than they had originally anticipated. "But yeah, he does seem kind of dodgy. And he did come out of nowhere!" Kendall agreed. Everyone looked at Derick- he was awfully quiet and everyone could sense his anger. The tension was in the air. "Well," he spat. "We are going ahead with 'Mission Limbo' anyway. He is our chance of making more money.
But if it weren't for someone here, I'm sure we would've got more money to share and an emptier backpack." Derick glared at Sam, who glared back for a second and sighed before beginning to fidget with his fingers. "Well, I'm not coming then!" the other boy retorted bitterly before getting up and storming off to his room. Kendall looked at Levy who also felt the tension in the room. "Let's not waste our time on him. Let's go." Derick got up and headed for the door. "Thanks Sam's mom for the snacks, but I need to make my way home now!" he smiled for a second and waved but both of the boys knew that the grin was gone as soon as he turned to open the door. "Let's follow him," Levy said in a low voice. Kendall nodded and they, too, thanked their friend's mom before walking out and running after Derick. "Derick! Hey!" the boys called out for him. They were ignored and their friend kept walking away. Kendall started running towards him, "What is up with you? Can you quit moping around and say something!" Derick growled and continued walking to his house. "Hey!" Kendall called. "Just leave him alone," Levy told him, "There's no point." The two of them walked in silence until they had to split up and go their separate ways.
When Levy got home, he was greeted by his parents hugging him. "Where were you? This is not the first but the second time this has happened, where were you Levy?" his mother suddenly started questioning him. "Honey, calm down. He was probably with the boys again. But Levy, you need to watch the time! It's dangerous at night you know." his father stated. "I was at Sam's house and we lost track of time," the boy answered, obviously not telling them his adventures outside of town, "And I walked home with Kendall!" He watched his mother sigh in relief as she hugged her child. "At least you are safe and sound..." His dad joined the hug, "She's right you know. We were worried sick!" Levy smiled. The smell of food wafted across the room, making him hungry. "What's for dinner, mom?" She grinned at her child, "Spaghetti bolognese." The boy licked his lips and ran to take off his shoes and wash his hands. 'I wonder what the others are up to' he thought to himself.
Kendall walked into his house, going unnoticed by his parents who were in the middle of a conversation. "Hey Mom and Dad!" In return, they only said hello and asked how he was before continuing their conversation. 'Oh well. At least they didn't interrogate me.' he thought to himself. He ran into his room and closed the door. "If Derick is just gonna frown all day, I might as well plan 'Mission Limbo' myself!" He rummaged for a piece of paper and began to write. But the real question on his mind was if he could really trust the guy he met today. "I mean he did give us more than we asked for, and he did say he could get more people to buy the mags..." he mumbled to himself, doodling something random on the paper. "But his reactions were kinda strange, to say the least. Why was he looking over his shoulder every five minutes?" The boy continued drawing, trying to get rid of the negative thoughts and doubts in his mind but it was difficult. The boy sketched and shaded in the image, completing it in around 20 minutes. "Well, what do we have here..." he muttered to himself.
"Why did I draw him?" He stared at the image of the man he met today. "I guess I'll need this for when we go back to Limbo tomorrow." He also made a mental note not to walk there tomorrow. "Okay, how was I able to draw the stranger and start thinking about him and whether he can be trusted rather than be making a plan for 'Mission Limbo'? I'm so easily distracted..." He shook his head before beginning to make useful notes on the other side of the paper. "So we'll go to school, go home and get our bikes and say we're going to the park to cycle. Then, we'll speedily make our way to Limbo and meet that man again. I've got the picture so we should be able to recognise him, when he comes. By the end, we should be home earlier and have more money in our pockets!" he mumbled writing what he was saying in note form.
Sam sat on his bed, boiling with anger, as his friends left his house. "I'm not coming tomorrow..." He thought about that man he and his friends met, "We can't trust him... something seems off about him- but I can't put my finger on it!" he grumbled in annoyance. The phone started ringing and he walked over to answer it. "Hello?" he greeted the other person weakly. "Sam! I've got a plan!" Kendall told him. He rolled his eyes, "I told you, I'm not coming! Something isn't right about him!" Before Kendall could argue with him, Sam kept talking, but in a quiet voice, "I'm not coming whether you like it or not.
And I certainly don't want to talk to your other friend right now." Kendall stayed silent for a few seconds, "You do realise he's not talking to anyone, right? So you better come and fix up between the two of you!" he hissed. The black haired boy huffed, "Fine!". "Good!" Kendall replied, "So here's the plan!" The boy on the line hummed. "So, we go to school and study- the normal stuff. Get the bus home, get our bikes and head straight to Limbo!" Sam remained silent. "What are we gonna tell our parents? We can't just leave- you know they'll ask where we're going!" To Sam's subrprise, his friend laughed on the phone.
"I already thought of that! We're gonna tell them that we're going to the park and hanging out there." Not waiting for an answer, Kendall continued talking, "As I was saying, after we get our bikes, we go to Limbo with more time to spend there. Find the man, get some more customers and fill our pockets, then quickly get back home without anyone suspecting anything!" The boy smiled at himself, proud of his well-devised plan. "So what do you think? Do you think it'll work?" Sam took a deep breath before speaking, "Kendall, I think it's a good idea but-" "What do you mean but?" The other boy interrupted. "I spent a lot of time trying to think of something!" he cried. "You didn't let me finish!" Sam yell-whispered.
"How are we gonna find that man in the first place? We might not be able to remember what he looks like to every small detail- so we might get the wrong person! What if he has a twin or something?" Sam began to think of many reasons why it would be hard to find the stranger. "Don't worry about it! Before planning this scheme, I drew him. I wasn't planning to make a sketch of that man but it is quite useful." Sam sat there surprised, "How could you still remember what he looked like? We're lucky you're pretty good at art!" Kendall scoffed, "Pretty good? I'm a better artist than you last time I checked!" he laughed. "I'll tell Derick and Levy tomorrow. But I better be going now!" Both boys said their goodbyes and ended the call.
'Let's hope Derick is in a better mood' Sam thought to himself.