The Favorite Fives: The Cake Theft
Quiet Country, Ohio, was anything but quiet. Over the years, three boys and two girls had a lot of noisy adventures. Steven Cooper, the leader of the group, was an 11-year old boy who sported a red shirt, glasses, and blue pants. He had brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin, and huge expressions. Luke Foster, the genius of the group, was a 10-year old guy with blond hair; usually covered by a cap, tan skin, blue eyes. Luke wore a blue shirt over green overalls, and red shoes. Linka Test, a 11-year old girl, had light-brown hair, white skin, and blue eyes. Along with that, she wore a green shirt, blue skirt, and she used a hairclip. She is a nice going girl and is willing to help those that need a hand. Crank Watterson, the strong man of the group, once lifted an entire couch with his own two arms. He might have been bald for his age of 9 ½ year old, but he still meant well whenever he caused mischief around people. He had gray eyes, orange shirt, blue pants, and white skin. 10-year-old Jennifer Fitzgerald was known to be a tomboy. She wore a blue polo shirt, some glasses, and a ponytail. She had black hair, brown skin, and green eyes.
The group had their first adventure in Quiet Country's elementary school, Joseph Elementary. Steven Cooper was busy checking his backpack for his classroom supplies in the hall. Looks like I have everything I need, he said to himself, as he started to head to his class. Then he tripped, and laughter erupted. He rose and saw the school bully, Cortex Holland, was the one responsible. Cortex was known to be the harshest kid in the school. He had orange hair, a goatee, purple eyes, and was ruthless to others around him, especially those who respected him.
"Looks like the freak had a nice fall!" Cortex bellowed. Steven got angry, as Cortex was about to pounce on him, but a girl got in front of Steven, and boy, was she mad at Cortex.
"You leave this boy alone!" she scolded angrily.
Cortex stared at the girl, while giggling. "You? Do you really believe I would listen to a puny roach like you? Don't you know who you are dealing with?" The girl found a crumpled paper that is formed into a ball, so while Cortex was busy laughing, she quickly got behind Cortex and threw the paper ball in his direction. Cortex stopped laughing as he saw the paper ball land in front of him. He turned around to see who threw it, but the girl managed to quickly get next to Steven. Cortex frowned, made the 'I'm watching you' sign, and walked away. The girl helped Steven up from the ground.
"Are you alright, kid?" she asked Steven.
"Yeah, luckily that guy didn't turn me into chum. Thanks for your help. Hey, what's your name, kid?" Steven asked her.
"Linka Test. I'm one of the newbies around here. Me and my family just moved here few weeks ago." Linka replied.
"Name's Steven Cooper. I have been around this area for couple years. Seems you need the tour around this school." The boy said.
"I guess so. Show me the school, Steve." Linka and the boy walked together to the center of the school. Steven told Linka about the directions of the school areas, such as the gym, cafeteria, classrooms, and portables. While they were passing by the restrooms, they kept hearing weird noises nearby the toilets. They found out that it was a boy walking out of the restrooms, dripping wet. Steven and Linka decided to find out what happened.
"Hey, kid. You feeling alright? You don't look so good." Linka asked.
"I just got swirled again by the bully." The boy responded.
"Let me guess, it was Cortex." Steven answered.
"Yeah, I am really just sick of his stunts. Even reporting it to the teacher didn't do much!"
"Let's just ignore that jerk. Here's a towel to dry yourself off." Linka offered.
The boy dried himself off with Linka's towel. "Thanks. Who are you guys?"
Steven and Linka then introduced themselves to the boy. He introduced himself as Luke Foster. Steven offered Luke to join them on exploring the school, which he agreed. The three friends went to their gym class together after finishing the tour. They were playing dodgeball. Most of the kids were on the same team against Cortex. Steven and the others stood no chance, as they were easily taken out. To compensate for that, a boy on their team grabbed a dodgeball and successfully struck out Cortex. However, that same ball ended up hitting Steven, Luke, and Linka as well. The boy grimaced, as he rushed on over to help the three kids.
"Sorry about that. I didn't know the ball would end up doing that." The boy said while helping the others up.
"That is alright. Everyone makes mistakes." Steven replied as he dusted himself off. While helping the others, the three kids introduced themselves to the athletic boy. He was referred as Crank Watterson. After helping Steven and his friends, Crank gave them tips on how to be more accurate when dodging ball attacks and defense. Once the gym class was over, Linka invited Steven to go to the cooking room with her, Crank, and Luke. Steven accepted, as they all got ready to head there.
Once classes were over, the four kids found themselves in an area where there was food everywhere. Bagels, pancakes, waffles, you name it. And in the center of the room was a huge cake. It was the most delicious cake anyone has ever seen. It is also rare. Steven and his friends stared at the cake in excitement. They were about to get closer to the cake, but they got interrupted when a voice was heard. "Hey! Don't even think about touching that thing!" Steven and the others saw a girl walked on front of the cake. They seemed confused.
"Uh, did you make this cake?" Linka asked.
"Yes, I made the cake. What's it to ya?" the tomboy replied.
"That is a really fascinating cake. One with that size, that seemed impossible for you to make on your own!" Luke replied.
"Well, it wasn't that hard. My family has a business of making things like these. I almost forgot. My name's Jennifer Fitzgerald. Just call me Jen, for short." The tomboy introduced herself.
"Nice. I'm Steven, this is Linka, Luke, and Crank." Steven replied.
Linka looked around the room they are in and the various foods surrounding them. "Jen, you made all this?" she asked.
"Only the cake. The others are made by many others who are a part of the cooking club I'm in."
As the kids talked about their interests, the lights turned out. The room was filled with darkness while the kids wondered what happened. The lights went back on, but Jennifer screamed as she investigated the place where the cake was. It was gone! The other kids were shocked. "My cake!" Jennifer cried. "It's gone! My parents are going to kill me if this cake isn't delivered to my brother's home!"
As Jennifer started to babble nonsense due to the cake being missing, Linka whistled to get her attention. "I don't mean to interrupt your panicking event, but maybe let's focus on trying to find out what happened to the cake."
Jennifer cleared her throat in response. "You're right. Let's get to business."
The cooking room was shuffled a few hours later. All the food that was there before were taken by their owners when the school day ended. Steven, Linka, Luke, Crank, and Jennifer were around the table where the cake stood. "So, your cake has been stolen. It leads to one simple assumption." Luke theorized.
"What is your theory?" Jennifer asked.
"Whoever stole your cake must be someone who would have wanted to eat it all for themselves." Luke concluded. Steven and the other kids nodded in response. They made up a list of people who were known to be obsessed with consuming huge amounts of food. Jennifer gulped as she looked at the time of the clock. Her brother's birthday was approaching, and it was up to the five kids to solve this mystery.
It was afternoon at the school, and there was still no confirmation from the suspects the five kids interviewed. The only thing that they can do now was to head back to the cooking room where the cake was last seen. Jennifer was sulking as the hours passed by while Linka patted her back as comfort. We searched everywhere for hours, asked people who might have been suspiciously wanting it, and we didn't find a single trace of that cake! I can already feel my brother being disappointed in his birthday. Jennifer thought to herself. As the gang came around the table of the room, they started to hear some loud noises behind them.
"What was that?" Steven asked in shock.
"It came from outside the school!" Crank shouted.
The kids ran to the school yard and saw that it was Cortex Holland making the noises. He was on a golf cart, carrying square-shaped bombs. And at the top of the golf cart was…
"The cake!" all the kids cried in shock.
"That's right, I was the one who poked my nose in that room! I stole that cake, fair and square! It was very easy to do when I sawed through the table where the delicious dessert was. Not to mention that when I turned off the lights to make my fantastic theft. Pretty clever, huh?" Cortex bellowed.
Steven, Linka, Luke, Crank, and Jennifer all stared at Cortex with angry faces.
"I should have guessed you were the one behind this!" Steven yelled.
"That cake belongs to Jennifer!" Linka shouted.
"That is quite barbaric of you to steal the cake!" Luke added.
"You, sir, made me found my first punching bag!" Crank said.
"You are the worst thing that came out of today! And you stealing that cake says something!" Jennifer said. The group charged at Cortex, but the bully stepped on the pedal of the golf cart and he sped away.
"How will we get that cake back now?" Jennifer said.
Crank saw a pizza truck arrive. "Pizza, anyone?" The other kids looked in his direction and grinned to each other.
Cortex laughed as he was driving on the road to the city. "This is marvelous! It was so easy stealing this cake!" As he continued driving, he got disturbed when his golf cart got bumped. He found out that there was a pizza truck chasing him. Cortex saw the five kids waving to him in a mischievous way. Those kids think they will get this cake back that easily? I'll make it challenging for them to get it back! Cortex put his jacket on the wheel and a brick on the gas pedal. He grabbed a few bombs and threw them at the pizza truck. The truck started to rumble as it got hit by the explosives. Crank tried to bump into the golf cart, but the bombs made it harder for him to see where he can find Cortex's weak spot.
"Blast! He's got bombs! There's got to be a way to defend ourselves from those projectiles!" Crank complained as he steered the wheel.
"I know what to do!" Linka suggested. Steven, Luke, and Jennifer watched as Linka made a gadget. With the hair clip she has, she used on a pile of wood and a rubber band. "Jen, give me your thumbtacks!" she said. Jennifer gave Linka her jar of thumbtacks. Steven and Luke smiled as they found out Linka was making a slingshot, with thumbtacks as ammo. Steven held on to Linka as she went through the window. The girl held on to her slingshot in position, aiming at the golf cart's tires to slow down Cortex's vehicle. She almost got her shot, but the truck hit a bumper, almost making her lose her slingshot. She adjusted her aim again at the tires.
As Cortex was taunting the kids, he failed to realize that the tires of his golf cart were deflating. It wasn't until he noticed his cart going slower than the usual rate. Cortex tried to step on the brake pedal, but it did not have any effect. The golf cart started doing weird noises while going on curved directions. The golf cart ended up crashing on a skyscraper. The cake was not damaged, as the pizza truck caught up to the golf cart. Steven and his friends got off the truck to grab the dessert.
"Alright, guys. Let's get this cake to Jennifer's brother so he can have a happy birthday," Steven said, as the others lifted him up where the cake is. He grabbed it and with some help of his new friends, they all went inside back the truck, with their objective complete.
The kids were walking to Steven's house in the following afternoon. After they delivered the cake safely to Jennifer's brother, they took some slices of the cake to eat while they went on home.
"That was one crazy day out there!" Crank said, as the others nodded in response.
"Did you see how Linka managed to get that shot perfectly? It was skillful!" Luke replied.
Linka laughed in response. She was very lucky to deflate Cortex's golf cart. The five kids went inside Steven's backyard. They saw that at the center of the backyard was a couple of trees, with some wood on top of them.
"Guys, this is my place. I'm currently having a treehouse being built over here." Steven announced.
"Awesome. I wonder what you will have in it!" Linka requested.
Steven thought it over. He whispered it on the kids' ears. They all grinned.
The group of kids started to get to work on the treehouse. Crank held the tree while the others were on top of the tree. Steven applied some boards on the area where the floor of the treehouse should be built. Luke measured some of the boards to align each other as Jennifer hammered some nails on the wooden boards to make them stick together. Linka was balancing the boards to make sure they don't fall. She suddenly was about to lose her balance and fall to the ground, but Steven grabbed her hand just in time. By the time that happened, the treehouse was almost complete.
"Thanks." Linka admitted, with Steven nodding as a way of saying 'you're welcome'.
Steven, Linka, Luke, Crank, and Jennifer stood together on the ground, starting at their completed work. It was a huge treehouse. It is sturdy, came with a ladder, and a neat top area. The interior was a different story. There was a table on the center area, a big TV, vending machine filled with drinks and snacks, chairs, and a desk. The five kids gave looks to each other.
"So, whatcha think, Steve?" Crank asked.
"It looks really amazing!" Steven answered. Linka smiled, thinking she and the others had done a great job making Steven's treehouse. They were going to leave Steven, but he stopped them from going forward. "Where are you guys going?" He asked.
"We are just going back to our homes." Jeniffer replied.
"Uh, before you do so, I want to say thank you to you guys. I felt neutral being here since my family first moved here. But you guys helped me feel like I was welcome to this neighborhood," Steven said.
"No problem. Say, maybe we can form some sort of group together. The five of us! We can call ourselves the…" Crank stated but stopped when he couldn't decide their group name.
Steven, Linka, Luke, Crank, and Jennifer were around a circular table in the treehouse. This would be their first group meeting ever made. They tried to come up with names that are suitable for them.
"Guys, these group-name suggestions aren't cutting it. We need something that describes us all in two words." Steven announced.
"How about the Cooper Supers?" Luke suggested, while the others shook the heads.
"Strength Superiors?" Crank asked, which the others gave a thumbs-down for the suggestion.
Jennifer then stood top of the table. "I got one. How about the Favorite Fives?" she said proudly.
Steven pondered about this idea and came up to his fellow friends about the name. "Favorite Fives, it is!"
It had been an important day for these kids. Steven no longer felt neutral about moving into his new neighborhood and had made friends. Linka felt happy for helping Jennifer reclaim her cake and her new friends being together. Luke is satisfied that thanks to defeating Cortex, he gained confidence in himself to avoid being bullied. Crank now became more athletic from their adventure. And Jennifer can trust on new people that she meets, especially trusting Steven, Linka, Luke, and Crank. The five kids now hang out together whether they are in the school, city, and neighborhood. Who knows what new adventures these guys would tackle? All that can be said was, they were all in this together. The Favorite Fives would be ready.