Boz walked into the kings' bedroom with his brothers in tow. All the way back, Boz had an uneasy feeling – something was going to go wrong today. There was no way this could all go down without any trouble arising. Just how this would turn into a mess, Boz couldn't tell, but he knew it when he saw it.

Back in the bedroom, Brady was still covered in lotion and cheese fingers. It was a horrible sight in the jungle, and still a horrible sight now. The cleaners would have so much to clean up now – they always had to clean up a lot, but this would take it to a new level of weirdness and volume.

The bubble butt had gone, their chance to be stung vanished. Bill and Nancy were coming. This was going to be chaotic and Boz could feel some stress rising within him. He didn't want to say every five minutes that Brady had to hurry cleaning himself off. The king was too busy stuffing cheese fingers in his mouth, and Boomer was doing the same thing.

Which is why he still wasn't clean when Mikayla entered the room.

"Hey guys, I—" she trailed off when she noticed what Brady looked like. If she was panicking a little, she probably hid it better than Boz. It did take her some time to recover from the sight of the king.

"Why is Brady covered in lotion and cheese fingers?"

Brady stuttered, trying to find any excuse he could come up with. "I was just trying to turn sunscreen into yum screen."

He took a cheese finger, wiped some lotion off of him with it, and put it in his mouth. Boz watched with disgust – how do they survive in this world?

"Your aunt and uncle are early!" Mikayla said, and Boz sighed. Now it was confirmed, it was even harder to keep this a secret. Then again, they never mentioned it should be a secret. But the plan had failed, so Boz decided to make his own rules.

"Something else is going on," Boz said, and he could already feel the kings' eyes burning in his back. "Brady got stung by the waka waka. This was an attempt to be stung again. It failed."

"What?" Mikayla exclaimed.

"Boz, how could you?" Boomer said indignantly.

Boz turned to the kings. "This is not something to keep secret. Mikayla can help – she knows the stages." He looked at Mikayla again. "They tried to fix it on their own, and it almost worked until it didn't and now Bill and Nancy are early, you should know about this.

"Why didn't you tell me this would happen?" Mikayla asked Boz.

"I didn't know until I saw the bubble butt." It was a weird sight, one that Boz would never be able to unsee.

Mikayla looked at Brady and maybe she tried to imagine him with the first symptom of being stung. She turned to Boz again.

"Brady had bubble butt?" she asked. Boz nodded. She took a deep breath – how was this happening today?

"Okay," Mikayla said. "I'm gonna tell my father, you stay with the kings and make sure they don't do anything stupid."

"I'll get them ready for their aunt and uncle," Boz confirmed. Mikayla left the room while Boz stayed. Still, Brady and Boomer could not believe Boz told on Mikayla.

"You're welcome," Boz told them. "Now there are more people who know and thus more people who can help. Now…" he shook his head at Brady. "Ditch the cheese fingers and lotion. Would you want Nancy to see that?"

Just the mention of Nancy was enough to scare Brady into getting rid of the lotion and cheese fingers on his body. Boomer disappeared with his brother into the bathroom while Boz waited on the couch.

Boz stood in line in the throne room, with the other guards. Though he wasn't officially a guard yet, he was still present in a formal capacity. He had noticed the guards were a little on edge – Boz may have had something to do with that.

After Mikayla had left, Boz went out to look for Mason and inform him that the kings knocked over a Tarantula grave column. The machetes were sharpened and they expected an attack. Nobody knew when the Tarantulas would find out, but when they did, they would march straight to the castle.

And that on the day they might lose their kings.

At long last, the kings were present, too, and everyone stood in position. Boz and Mikayla locked eyes for a moment – that look in her eyes told him she hadn't had the chance to talk to her father yet. He'd been too busy running around, trying to make Kinkow look like the safest place on earth when that very much wasn't the case. At least Brady's ear seemed normal. Had elephant ear passed already? If so, they needed to cover for the angry amnesia.

"Good job," Boomer told the servants around, inspecting all the nice pleasantries that had been made ready. "My aunt Nancy is a sucker for the royal treatment."

"If somebody throws one more flower in my face!" an angry woman shouted outside the castle. That was aunt Nancy. Boz had met her only once. She was a nice woman who know what she wanted. If she wanted her nephews to come here, she was taking them home – unless they could convince her that this place was safe, which was going to be a challenge.

The double doors swung open. Nancy, Bill, and Mahuma walked into the castle, with Mahuma carrying their bags. He didn't like it but played along for the kings' sake.

"No need to put our luggage down, we won't be here for long," Nancy said. Then her eyes fell on the boys. Brady was clean, Boomer was beaming. Nancy and Bill still were the only family they ever knew and even if they threatened to whisk them away, they were still glad to see them.

"My boys!" Nancy exclaimed and she walked over to the boys she had raised for sixteen years.

"See, Nancy? They're fine!" Bill said, before gratefully grabbing a pineapple drink that was offered to him. This might be the best all-inclusive vacation he might have experienced.

Mason smiled brightly – he managed to hide his nerves well.

"Welcome to Kinkow," he said, "the safest place on earth."

Nancy glanced at him incredulously. Her eyes landed on the machete at his side.

"Then what's the machete for?"

Mason glanced down at his weapon.

"Oh, this?" he said. "It came with a cereal box."

Luckily for him, Kinkow's culture was so different from the mainland's that Bill and Nancy were inclined to believe it. they weren't going to comment on the machete if it came with something as mundane as cereal.

Brady screamed and Boz's smile dropped. He didn't even need to look at Brady to know what was going on – elephant ear. Brady had turned sideways – the nasty part about this symptom was that it struck only one ear. The good part about this was that Brady managed to conceal it by turning a specific way so the ear wouldn't be visible for Bill and Nancy.

Brady covered his tracks by saying he was so glad to see them, and Mikayla helped a little, too.

"Boz, why don't you show our guests inside?" Mikayla asked and Boz nodded. Gladly, if it meant that the Makoolas could catch up on everything that could go wrong today. While Boz lured Bill and Nancy away from Brady, they could figure out how to cover for Brady until angry amnesia kicked in.

"Gladly," Boz said. He first took them deeper into the throne room, allowing for Brady to be taken away before Bill and Nancy saw his huge ear.

"So, this is the throne room, as you might have noticed," Boz said. "Sometimes, it's a real mess. There's just one throne, so they always fight over who'll sit in it that day. Usually Boomer wins, but sometimes Brady gets a chance to sit, too." He glanced to his side – the kings were gone. The danger was averted for now.

"You're quite young," Bill noticed.

"I am," Boz said. "Look, if you have any questions on the kings, I'm your man. They mistake me for a friend, which isn't that bad. They're good kids."

He liked that he could still talk to his aunt and uncle, even if they didn't know at this point.

"So you're a good friend of our boys?" Nancy asked. Boz nodded.

"You could say we're like brothers," he responded. "I've been with them from day one. I'm almost their personal bodyguard, with the amount of time I've spent with them."

Nancy nodded. She folded her arms and Boz did not like where this was going. Was she convinced? Was she fishing for information or proof that this island was dangerous?

"So what have they been up to here?" Nancy asked.

Boz took a breath – now he needed to put a positive spin on some of the adventures they've had. Luckily, he'd been thinking about this, just in case he received this question.

"Well, they made some new friends on their first day. They both joined a club and even started to play some basketball. I think they even went back to school and took in a pet." Hopefully, this was good enough for Bill and Nancy.

"Where's the little guy, then?" Bill asked.

"He ran away," Boz said, "but don't worry. They took great care of him and his running away wasn't their fault."

He glanced beside him again, picking up some noise. The four had returned. Brady still hid his elephant ear, and now Mikayla and Mason were completely caught up. Brady was stung and the Tarantulas were going to attack, maybe soon, hopefully later. Now, they just needed to hide the symptoms from Nancy.

"Be careful, Dumbo," Mikayla warned Brady.

"Who're you calling Dumbo, Dumbo?" Brady responded. Mikayla shook her head and shot a glare at Boz. He knew where the glare was coming from – he had failed to tell her about the impending Tarantula war that made things ten thousand times harder. He just didn't want to dump both the sting and the war on Mikayla at the same time.

Then Lanny walked into the room, mischief in his eyes that looked directly at Bill and Nancy.

Boz sighed. Not now.

"Are you sure you wanna do this today?" Boz asked him. Whatever Lanny was going to say, Brady and Boomer wouldn't believe he meant any harm. They'd probably blame his nasty words on the heat.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Lanny said. "This is the perfect opportunity and I'm not letting it slide."

Boz sighed. He wouldn't say he and Lanny were friends, but that might be coming slowly. Boz had decided he wasn't going to stand in Lanny's way – with the way he failed so miserably every time, he was certain not even the island wanted Lanny to succeed. It was weird for both of them, having such different views on the kings, and yet finding common ground somehow.

"I'd advise against it," Boz said, "but I'm not stopping you, either."

Lanny nodded – he was very happy that Boz decided not to stop him anymore. He still wondered how he wasn't succeeding, but that success would come eventually.

"It's kind of damp in here," Nancy noted. She turned her head to her boys. "You guys sure you haven't been getting sick?"

Boomer saved the day. She came to Brady to check the temperature, but Boomer pushed Nancy and Bill to the Vault and divert their attention.

Mason took this diversion to speak privately with Mahuma. His face was serious, as was Mahuma's. This was all he needed to see – he didn't even need to hear their conversation. The Tarantulas were coming, and Nancy and Bill were inside the castle. So long as they stayed inside and didn't notice the fighting, all would be okay on that front. But then, they would still have the Tarantulas to deal with and nobody could predict how that was going to help.

Brady was seated on the throne his elephant ear away from Bill and Nancy, who stood at the vault side. Everyone was walking on eggshells, careful not to let Bill or Nancy know what was going on. it was a miracle Nancy hadn't picked up on the general nervosity yet.

"Your parents would have been very proud," Nancy told the boys, a proud smile on her face. Though she might consider this place dangerous, she still was proud of everything they had accomplished so far in their short lives.

"Give your baby a kiss," Lanny then suggested. "Kiss him on the ear! It's the Kinkow way."

There was no such tradition on Kinkow. But again, Bill and Nancy knew nothing of Kinkowian culture, so they went with it, and Nancy immediately turned to Brady. She wanted to kiss the elephant ear, which would be bad. Everyone watched, held their breath, as Brady no longer could resist, and turned his head.

Nancy kissed a now normal-sized ear.

Everyone released their breath, all relieved but Lanny. The elephant ear had disappeared. two down, four to go.

"That was close," Mason said out loud – that might have been a mistake.

"What was close?" Nancy wondered. Brady, Boomer, Boz, and Mikayla froze. why did he have to say that out loud?

"Close to tea time!" Mason recovered. "That's right, afternoon tea. Which means the boys should be in their tea attire."

Boz nodded. Quick thinking saved the boys and would get Brady out of the room in time for angry amnesia. Boz and Mikayla brought Boomer and Brady to the stairs. Boomer complained that those clothes were itchy. Boz tried to lead Brady out of the room as quickly as he could, but Brady wanted to know what was going on and he stalled.

Eventually, a blank expression appeared for just a second, and then he was angry. Boz hadn't been fast enough and now Brady had caught a glimpse of Nancy, of all people.