Oliver woke up to the sound of his phone ringing.
It was 6 am on a Saturday. Who was calling this early?
He looked at the caller ID and rolled his eyes.
Soundwave.
He answered the call, still lying down and exhausted.
"Jesse, it's six in the morning."
"Yes! And the headquarters just opened! Adrian comes in at eight, so if we want to get revenge, now is the time!" Jesse exclaimed.
"What? Jesse, no," Oliver said. "This is my only day to sleep in. You know I coach the little league soccer team Sunday mornings."
"You can take a nap after! It's Adrian's team's turn to work Saturday and I want to make it as miserable as possible!"
Oliver, though sleep deprived, had an idea.
What if he could combat Soundwave's every attempt at sabotaging Adrian?
That's how he ended up at Renegades Headquarters at 6 am.
"What practice room do you think they'll use?" Soundwave asked as Maple (they were referred to as their superhero names because they're in uniform) took a huge sip of his coffee.
"I don't know, man," Maple said, already exhausted.
"Come on, Ollie! It's gonna be fun!"
"I have to deal with screaming six-year olds tomorrow. I don't want to deal with you acting like you're six years olds today," Maple replied darkly.
Soundwave just chuckled. "I know you're kidding!"
"Hey!" A voice said.
Maple turned and was face-to-face with someone he didn't know.
"My name is Tara, and I am vice-president of the Renegades Fan Club." She flashed what Maple though looked like a coupon but was so quick he couldn't be sure.
"Our dear president is at work today, dealing with the Karens of Gatlon. So she sent me. Someone tipped us off and told us that you would be getting revenge on our dear, sweet Sketch," Tara said. "And I'm sorry, Soundwave. I love you, I really do, but I can't let you do that. Sketch is very much loved within our club."
"Hmmm. I wonder who tipped them off," Soundwave said, turning to Maple, who just played dumb. "Sketch is loved by everyone. Nobody ever loves me." Soundwave added.
"Your mom is a psycho. You're surprised?" Tara asked.
"How do you know that?"
"The fan club knows all." Tara said, not elaborating.
"Anywho, lucky for you, you're my favorite. So I'll let you off with a warning." Tara stated.
"But you'll understand if we have someone discreetly guarding Adrian this week. We already have volunteers. If you're mad, take it up with the president. She'll be guarding Adrian with our youngest member, Stacy, on Wednesday at..."
She looked at a clipboard "4pm to 8pm."
"Good day, sir."
At that, she stayed on a bench and waited for Adrian. Looks like she would be the first guard today.
Maple silently thanked Grocery Store Girl (GSG) for telling her club.
Then, he went back home and went back to sleep.
At practice the following Monday, Soundwave didn't say anything about Saturday and Maple allowed himself to believe that maybe, just maybe, Soundwave let this whole thing go.
On Saturday, when Maple was enjoying a dream about being a part of the Renegade Council one day, his phone rang.
"I swear to God if it's..."
"Hi, Jesse," Oliver said stiffly, answering the phone.
"I know it was you," Jesse said.
"What?"
"You told your little flirt buddy about my plan, didn't you?"
"Huh?"
"The president of the fan club! She works at the store your family shops at all the time, and she happens to be the president of the fan club that stopped me from getting my revenge and I know it was all you."
"It was for your own good, and she gave me a list..."
"I don't want the damn list, traitor! Now, if you don't get your ass down here and help me get revenge on Adrian, you're officially off of my team."
"Jesse, seriously? We've been friends since we were toddlers..."
"And don't tell your girlfriend about it. I'll know if you do. Tara better not be there to stop me."
"She's not my... Never mind. You're really not going to let this go?"
"No," Jesse replied. He sounded angry. His words stuck in the air like an angry virus.
For the second Saturday in a row, Maple was at Renegades Headquarters at 6:15 am with a travel cup of coffee clutched in his hand, feeling more bitter than last weekend.
"Why is Adrian working again?"
"Luna is out sick..." Luna was a renegade who could light herself up with blinding white light, bright like the full moon. "And Adrian offered to take her shift if he could get next month's Saturday off, and she agreed."
"Luna! She's a nice girl! Why don't you date her?"
"Everyone knows she's asexual, Maple," Soundwave replied. "She could still date, but she swore it off. She wants to be like Artemis, that mythological goddess of the moon."
Maple frowned. He had forgotten that little detail.
Adrian came in at eight.
"Why did we arrive two hours early?"
"So I could bounce my ideas off of you."
Oh, right. The whole time Soundwave talked about his ideas; Maple ignored him. In one ear, and out the other.
"So, we both agreed that I'd replace with early morning mango shake and donut with a kale smoothie and his doughnut with play-dough."
"Mmm hmm," Maple said, tuning him out once again.
Adrian set his food down to talk to Ruby about the day's plan and Soundwave striked.
He replaced the smoothie (it was in a non-transparent container), and the doughnut.
When Soundwave wasn't paying attention, Maple changed it back.
Soundwave watched, waiting for Adrian to spit it out.
He looked at the shake, confused. He opened the lid of the shake container.
"Oh, it's green. Did I not switch them? I could have sworn I did... I bet Adrian got a kale smoothie this time! I thought he hated kale! Damn it!"
Insomnia walked past the two. She looked at Soundwave. Their hiding place, behind a fake plant, wasn't good. It was a wonder Sketch hadn't noticed the two.
"I don't know what you're doing, but I want that smoothie. You didn't drink out of it, did you?"
Soundwave shook his head.
"I was actually bringing it to you! Because I want to be your friend!" Soundwave lied.
"Ok, cool," Imsomnia said. "I love kale."
"Can I give that donut to Oscar?" She asked.
"Oh, you don't want the donut. Trust me." Maple interjected.
"No, that's why I want to give it to Oscar." The superheroine replied.
"It's a veggie infused donut. Maple's favorite." Soundwave lied.
"Oh, yeah, Oscar hates anything healthy," Insomnia said. heading back to her team members.
"My favorite?" Maple asked.
Soundwave shrugged.
*For months after that, a member from the well-meaning Renegades Fan Club showed up every morning to give Maple a custom-made vegetable donut because they overheard Nova telling Oscar about the incident and Maple had to force it down because he didn't want to hurt their feelings.*
"Ok, well good thing I have a plan B."
'And what's that?"
"Embarrassing him in front of his teammates!"
Maple sighed.
As Sketch's team sparred, Soundwave threw some marbles on the floor.
Maple pretended to accidentally drop something heavy on the floor, so they would stop sparring.
It worked, and Adrian noticed the marbles.
"How did these get here?" Adrian asked.
"Maple! You ruined my plot! Be more careful!"
All day, Soundwave tried to get his revenge, and all day, Maple foiled his plan.
At the end of the day, the two were on their way home, Soundwave was angry and sad. Maple felt bad, but Adrian was innocent in all this. Maple was also very tired and hoped that Soundwave would give up after this.
Maple did not expect to see an enraged president and vice-president of the Renegades Fan Club waiting outside for the two.
Kennedy was seeing red, and her second-in-command, Tara, was so angry she could barely speak.
"What were you doing in there?" Kennedy asked, arms crossed.
"Um... " Soundwave started.
"Our good friend and fellow member of the fan club, Aaron, who works at the front desk told us that you were here today and looked awfully suspicious, hiding behind fake greenery," Kennedy explained.
"And we knew what you were planning last week," Tara spoke, getting calmer, but not by much.
"First off, Soundwave, I don't know what your problem is. Nova is not some prize, and she deserves respect and autonomy. You will not fight over her like she's something that can be won or bought." Kennedy ranted.
"Second, Maple, we expected this from Soundwave, but you? We thought you'd be smarter than this." Tara said. Kennedy looked particularly disappointed.
"I thought we were friends," She interjected. "You said you were a feminist, too."
Maple couldn't tell her the truth, or else Soundwave would kick him off the team, so he stayed silent. He could explain himself later, in private.
"If you ever attempt to get petty revenge on Adrian again, we will have no choice but to kick your team off of our team roster, which means you will never get gifts from the fan club and..." Kennedy started.
Tara narrowed her eyes. "We'll tell the council about your sabotage an let them decide your fate." Tara finished.
"And in case that's not serious enough, we'll tell every single renegade about what you did and you will never ever get a date again." Kennedy added,
The two women walked away.
"They're not happy."
"No, shit, Jesse." Maple sighed. "I'm going home now, and never ask me to take part in one of your stupid ideas again." He followed after the girls, to his own car.
"Wait! You're my ride!"
"Call your sister!" Maple yelled back.
Then he left.
Jesse may have big talk, but in all honesty, he and Oliver go way back. Oliver was sure that Jesse wouldn't kick him off the team.
Now, he just needs to make things up to Grocery Store Girl.
The next weekend, Oliver had a plan.
He had gone to the person in charge of renting out rooms and asked when the renegades fan club would have their next meeting. She thought it was strange that a renegade was asking and pointed out the Renegades Fan Club was for non-renegades, but he said that he wanted to make a surprise visit. They love renegades and knew they wouldn't mind. The person smiled and readily told him after that.
So Saturday afternoon, at one-fifteen pm, fifteen minutes after the meeting started, Oliver had rounded up Jesse and td him that he needed to apologize to the whole fan club.
Oliver opened the door and saw Tara and Kennedy showing the club how to properly put posters of the renegades on their walls.
"You always want to put the tape in the corner and horizontal," Tara said.
"Or, if you want to get fancy, fold the tape and put it on the back, but it takes a lot of tape to hold it up that way, so do it sparingly."
The girls looked up to see Oliver and Jesse.
"Oliver? Jesse?" The whole room turned their heads to look at them.
The youngest member, Stacy, at ten years old, stood up and pointed at them.
"It's Soundwave and Maple! Maple, do the thing!"
Oliver looked surprised. "But..."
"On the table! That way, it won't make a mess!" The girl suggested.
"I..."
"It would make a mess," Soundwave said.
"Come on! Do it!" The ten-year-old pleaded.
"We do have paper towels," Kennedy said.
"Ok," Oliver said. He aimed his hand at the table and concentrated.
Maple syrup shot from his hand like Spiderman's web does.
The whole club cheered.
After the cheers died down, Kennedy spoke.
"What brings you two here today?"
She desperately tried to hide her poster, because it had Maple on it. Oliver pretended not to notice.
"Jesse has something to say," Oliver stated.
Jesse looked down.
"I'm sorry for betraying the club's trust and trying to get revenge on Sketch," He said.
Kennedy came forward.
"Well, what do you say, club? Should we forgive him?" She asked.
Tara nodded, and so did many club members. Some die-hard Sketch fans shook their head.
"Well, by majority vote, we forgive you, Jesse," Tara said.
Jesse smiled. 'Thanks. It means a lot."
Stacy and Aaron cleaned up Maple's mess, since they were closest.
"Hey, is that a poster of Maple?" Jesse asked, pointing to Kennedy's poster.
"It's not like that!" She defended. "It was the only one I could find."
That was a lie. There was an open magazine on the table and there was a poster of Smokescreen on one side and a poster of Genissa on the other.
The cub members all knew she was lying. Maple really was her favorite renegades, and not just because she thought his powers were cool.
Tara went up to Jesse.
"I'm not afraid of your mom," She stated, slipping a piece of paper in his jacket pocket.
Jesse blushed.
"Well, as much as we would love for you to stay, we must show our club members proper poster etiquette. Oh, and Oliver, expect a big shipment of birthday presents next week. We're not saying from who."
Oliver thought the answer was obvious but nodded. He almost forgot his birthday was next week.
The club members waved good-bye and stepped out of the room, closing the door.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Oliver asked.
Jesse stared at the slip of paper Tara had given him. It had her number on it.
"Tara's pretty. And she's nice." Jesse said.
"She is. But she's not a renegade," Oliver said.
"I don't mind that," Jesse said, pocketing the slip of paper again.
"So your crush?"
"Not Tara," Oliver said, confused.
"No, the other one." Jesse stated.
"Oh! Not her, either..."
"You're lying."
"Am not!"
Jesse gave him a look.
"Ok, maybe I like her a little bit."
"So, double date with me and Tara?"
"I haven't asked her on a date,"
"No, but I know you will."
"Maybe," Oiver said."But first, let's go see a movie. With just the two of us, to celebrate the club forgiving you."
"Deal," Jesse said.
So this turned out way longer than I expected.
As I was writing about Maple, from the very start, I realized that I liked him.
So I immediately started to ship us.
There's a part in this chapter where I mentioned the word "feminist".
I am a soon-to-be social worker, and I can tell you with certainty that the word feminist means equality for men AND women. It, in no way, implies that women are better than men, that would be a feminazi.
Just to clear things up.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. I no it's not Nodrian or Osby based, but now that Soundwave is out f the way, Adrian and Nova can continued to be happy.
And Nova likes kale, who knew?
So, until my next update,
Keep Reading!
