The next day after Ephram's classes, he went to the music room and started practicing. One of his fellow classmates, who was also in the symphony asked, "Brown, ready for the big day in three days?!"
"Yeah, sort of."

"Not to psyche you out or anything, but this performance pretty much determines the rest of our lives." he chuckled.

Ephram looked at him, "How so?"
"Bro, I don't plan on working for the Mandolin Symphony for the rest of my life. I plan on going down to Florida and work my shit there. One of the orchestras down there said they will hire me when I graduate."

"Why move all the way down there?" asked Ephram curiously, "when you already have a job that pays so well?"
"The beach, maaan!"

Ephram decided not to reply and just got back to practicing. All the notes were smooth, he never missed a beat. He's practiced so much that its as if the music was apart of him, "hopefully" he thought to himself, "I play this well when the time comes…"

Around 3:15pm he pulled into the driveway of the house. He noticed Quinn and Skylar were visiting and hoped that Delia wasn't being too much of a brat. He smiled at the thought as he took his sunglasses off as he entered the house. There was noise coming from the living room so he made his way there. Delia and Bright were trying to sing karaoke as Quinn played her violin and Madison was at the keyboards. Skylar was beat boxing, all the while Andy was trying to muffle his laughter since Delia and Bright couldn't carry the same tune or sing at the same time. Madison smiled at Ephram as he sat down next to his father who whispered in between laughing fits, "your neighbors are quite the characters! Skylar and Delia get along so well, you'd think they were related!"

After a few more minutes of jamming, Quinn and Skylar decided it was time to leave. They chatted with Ephram for a little bit before heading out, "too bad you weren't here, Ephram. Madison only knows how to play a couple songs on the keyboard, not much else, so listening to Bright and Dee sing…or, yell rather, the same songs over and over kept getting even more funny. Take care" said Skylar as he slapped Ephram's hand before he left.

Around 3:30pm, Bright reminded everybody it was time to head into Brooklyn. Andy couldn't go, he had to make some phone calls. Jess decided not to go, she was too exhausted from the passed few days' events, so it was just Ephram and Madison and Delia and Bright who were off to see the sights in Brooklyn. Before they left, Andy jokingly said, "Get lost for me!"

Delia wasn't amused, "funny dad…not!"

They decided to take the Escalade into the city, Madison drove since she knew that part of area better than Ephram. Delia decided to ride up front since Bright wanted to play a card game with Ephram in the spacious backseat. "Dude," he said as they started playing, "you guys are definitely living the life! I mean, if you ever end up losing your jobs and then losing the house, you could always live in his vehicle! Little mounted TV" he pointed to the ceiling where the little TV was mounted, "and a frikken DVD player!"
Delia laughed, "they even have OnStar!" she picked up the phone, "can we call them and just start talking to em?" she grinned as she looked around at everybody.

"I don't think so" replied Ephram as he leaned forward to grab the phone out of her hand.

"So Dee," he started, "Madison and I are thinking of selling the protégé, want us to sell it to ya?"
She looked at him as if he were crazy, "why would I want a vehicle that is 10 years old?"

Ephram shook his head and chuckled, rolling his eyes, "Its four years old."

Delia turned towards him in her seat and gave him the 'A-OK' sign with her fingers and mouthed the word "sure" in a 'I-don't-believe-you' sort of gesture.

Finally they got there and parked in one of the parking garages and got out to roam the city. Bright didn't have all the gear he had when they were in Manhattan, just his video camera and the map in his back pocket. Madison said, "It's good you have the map, Bright, since I don't know this area too well. More so than Eph, but not much more."

"Dude…" he said, "two words…Brooklyn Zoo."
Delia laughed, which made Bright look at her strangely, tilting his head, "what are you on?" he asked.

"Nothing! It just reminded me of Ol' Dirty Bastard's song, Brooklyn Zoo"

Ephram slightly smiled as he looked at Madison who looked back at him with an amused look upon her face. He couldn't help but move closer towards her and put his arm around her waist as they walked behind the other two and whispered little jokes in her ear.

They got to the zoo and walked around for a couple hours since the zoo closed around 6pm. There was a sea lion show going on, which the four decided to watch for a while.

Bright suggested that they all go eat dinner at this restaurant he had heard about which wasn't too far from the zoo. As they walked, Bright noticed a rather interesting building with a sort of carport outside a door. The front door had a little stretched out canopy. He said, "What is that? That's a rather cool lookin' hotel!"
They got closer then Ephram laughed, "it's a funeral home, Bright!"

They got to the restaurant, and as they all ate, Bright kept ordering drinks from the menu because, as he said, "the pictures look so good!" He looked up from the menu, "plus I'm not driving, so its all good."

After dinner everybody decided it was time to head back to the vehicle. Delia decided to read the map but forgot to mention that map-reading wasn't her skill. 10 minutes later when they started to notice a poor section of town, Madison looked around, "we shouldn't be going this way. This doesn't feel right…" she took the map from Delia, and abruptly stopped walking, "Delia!" she yelled, "You've been reading the map upside down!"

Bright, who was sort of tipsy, couldn't help but chuckle, which made Ephram hit him in the arm.

The sun was starting to set as they started walking a little bit more briskly in the opposite direction. Somebody started following them not too long afterwards, "We really should get a move on." replied Madison as she noticed the person following them, "This so does not feel right…at all…" She decided to call the police and give them their location, and as she hung up, they were passing an alleyway and the guy ran up to them and grabbed Delia and dragged her into the alley with his hand over her mouth. The other three quickly ran after them. The guy had a gun, "give me all your money or the girl gets it."