Chapter Four
Unexpected Things
Rob waved to his mother from the open front doorway of his house, who was sweeping the living room floor. The large rug had been draped over the back of the couch.
"I'm leaving now," he called quickly before hurrying out the door.
Rob dashed off the porch and set his skateboard down on the ground and whizzed down the straight driveway, then turned ninety degrees onto the sidewalk. There were a couple of grassy clumps on the sidewalk from where apparently someone had been digging up weeds in their yard and had missed a few.
He wheeled around them, then passed a grandmother and two of her grandchildren on the sidewalk- they lived a few houses to right of his- with the old woman pushing a large stroller. The older of the granddaughters waved two toy cats at him, one grey, and the other calico. Rob waved back automatically, and heard the rattling sound back in reply.
He zoomed across several blocks and swerved around a couple of trash bins that were for some odd reason in the middle of the sidewalk, then in front of an elderly man sweeping in front a small store. Rob then turned the corner-
And banged straight into what looked like a gang of rough high schoolers.
Rob toppled off of his skateboard onto the hard ground. He looked up to see the furious face of a tall, lean high schooler wearing a bright green jacket. He quickly stood up, only for the teen to shove him down again. Rob winced as something from his backpack painfully jabbed into his back.
"Watch where you're going, runt!" the teen spat at him.
Thankfully the rest of the group of high schoolers then just laughed and jauntily walked off instead of showing more interest in him. Rob stood up again and readjusted his pack so that it was more comfortable. He then looked around for his skateboard, where he had seen it stop against the brick store wall.
It was not there.
Frowning, Rob turned around, even glancing under a couple of parked cars nearby. He only saw a bit of litter on the paved road, and when he turned arounds the old man was looking at him, his wrinkled hands placed atop his broom.
"Did you lose something?" he asked kindly.
Rob nodded quickly. The man raised one had and pointed toward the street.
"Those boys that bumped into you seem to have something," he stated.
Rob followed his gaze, and his eyes widened as he saw the high schoolers chortling nearby on the cross walk. The rude teen that had spoken to him was holding his skateboard in front of him, while a few inspected it, with one even spinning the front left wheel.
Muttering a quickly "thanks" to the old man, Rob dashed across the sidewalk toward the white painted lines.
"Hey!" he called out.
The teens turned around, but a few of them just laughed, including the one in the green jacket that was holding his board. The high schooler raised an eyebrow at him and held up the skateboard tantalizingly, then ran off, his group following him.
Rob scowled and took off after them. It did not help that the high schoolers had a head start, but there was no way he wanted to lose his skateboard that he had had for several years now.
He followed them around several buildings, then back across another cross walk. Rob rounded another corner, but the crowd had thickened around a large display of books and doughnuts, and he had to frustratingly veer around them, almost touching the street. By then, he had lost the sight of the group and the bright green jacket.
Rob huffed at the unfamiliar sparse crowd around him. By now, he had come onto some random street, that, as he looked around, was actually not too familiar. He vaguely remembered traveling this way before Jamal and Alex to look for Tina's younger sister one time, but he had not come to this particular area since then.
Of course, now, he was not only quite likely minus his skateboard, but he was also lost. The former was definitely worse as he could easily ask for directions from a friendly store owner somewhere, though.
Suddenly, he heard a sudden commotion from across the street. To his surprise, he saw the group of high schoolers standing there, with the one in the green jacket shouting at a slightly shorter person in the group. The latter spread out his arms in a confused manner before the taller one shoved him roughly, causing him to tumble to the ground.
He picked himself up off the sidewalk, then walked off, scowling. The one in the green jacket huffed, and headed in the same direction. The others followed him, looking no less angry.
Rob was about to chase after them yet again, when someone shorter stepped out from outside a small store across the street. He instantly saw that the person was carrying a skateboard that could even be his, and then as he remembered the teens walking away, that none of them had been carrying anything.
He squinted as a car passed nearby him, briefly blocking the view of the kid across the street. It could have been just the sunlight that was quite bright, but it really seemed that the boy had dark brown hair . . . and looked just like him.
Was he really looking at the mysterious doppelganger that had caused so much trouble?
The kid did not look like any sort of troublemaker, nor did he sneer in triumph like the rude group of high schoolers had. He was just staring in Rob's direction, his face mostly neutral, but with another expression that he could not tell what it was.
Rob shook his head and was about to charge toward the doppelganger, when they lifted their arm holding the skateboard. He cringed slightly, wondering where he was going to chase after it now, when the kid let go of the board in a powerful throw.
He stared, amazed, as the skateboard seemed to fly, spinning slightly as it sailed through the air in a perfect arc toward him. Rob braced himself to dash after the board once it hit the ground somewhere in the street, but surprisingly, it kept on coming in his direction.
Once it was just about a foot away from him, it slowed, somehow. Rob watched, slightly stunned, as it actually stopped about a foot above the ground, hovering in mid-air, then suddenly toppled onto its wheels and rolled slightly away toward the street. Rob blinked in astonishment, then lunged forward to pick it up. He absentmindedly checked the board for any sort of damage, but other than the usual dust from the ground on the wheels, it seemed to be just fine.
Rob then remembered the doppelganger again. He looked across the street, but to his disappointment, only a few unfamiliar pedestrians meandered along the stores, and no one with brown hair seemed to be his age.
He quickly tucked his board under his arm- just to be safe- and ran across the cross walk. Even checking in and around the line of buildings yielded no results. Rob stopped by the light post, fairly disappointed as he gazed out onto the busy street. His doppelganger had vanished just as easily as the group of high schoolers, except he seemed to have easily stolen a skateboard from the gang of rough teens, all older than him . . .
Who was he, anyway?
Rob went into the same store that he had seen the doppelganger come out of. Thankfully, the store clerk was thankfully both free to talk to and knew how to get to where he had been before the chase. He mostly easily followed the directions, and soon found himself on a street that he recognized.
The same old man from earlier was now polishing one of the store windows and turned around as Rob passed by.
The man smiled, pausing in his work. "Oh, I see you got your rolling thing back," he stated friendlily. "I'm sure someone nice helped, right?"
Rob quickly nodded. "Er, yeah," he replied, still a little unnerved.
He then put down the board and whizzed on by, careful go a bit slower around the corners. Rob then stopped to wait at yet another crosswalk, with a large blue station wagon passing in front of him. He then looked around again. The crowd around him was all unfamiliar, with no one that even looked close to any person that he had seen before, besides a few police officers chatting by a street pole.
He scowled a bit, remembering the unexpected visit from Officer Gwerson at his house and the trouble from that, as well as the incident from the book store owner just yesterday. "Nice" was definitely not a word that had come to mind before when thinking about his evasive thief doppelganger.
"You saw the doppelganger?" Alex repeated, his face almost disbelieving.
Rob nodded at his friend from across the small cafeteria table. He had met with his friends from Hurston at lunch again. "Yeah, he was across the street," he said.
"Where was that?" Lenni asked, interested.
Rob shrugged. "Don't know," he replied. He certainly had not been paying much attention to what streets he had rushed through, chasing the rude gang.
"Anyway, these high school guys stole my skateboard," he relayed. "I was following them, but then lost them a few streets away. Then I saw them again, across the street, but they didn't have my skateboard anymore."
Jamal raised an eyebrow. "Did they hide it?" he wondered.
Rob shook his head. "No, since the one that had it was real mad at this other guy in the group. Then after that they were gone, and that's when I saw him."
"The doppelganger?" Lenni asked.
Rob nodded. "It was just really weird," he replied. "He really did look just like me. And then this weird thing happened . . ." He hesitated, remembering what had occurred next.
"What?" Alex asked, now holding a piece of garlic bread.
Rob described the queer events after that, and predictably, Alex was soon rolling his eyes in disbelief.
"There's just no way," the Latino boy said as he finished his bread and picked up his juice. "Sure, maybe you also saw the doppelganger, like I did. But there's no way I'm going to believe that skateboards can fly."
"And float," Lenni added dubiously, raising an eyebrow.
Rob scowled. This was why he had not really wanted to tell the last part in the first place, but he knew that he had seen it, though.
"I'm telling you, I actually saw it do that," he retorted, leaning forward slightly.
To his disappointment, his friends still had rather doubting looks on their faces, including Jamal. Alex picked up his second piece of garlic bread, while Lenni crossed her arms above her finished lunch and looked out toward the noisy cafeteria.
He sighed, leaning back into his seat. If his friends knew about Ghostwriter in the first place, why did they not believe him? Sure it was rather strange, but he had seen it. It sure seemed like Jason, his older brother, would know that he was not lying. Unfortunately, he would, as it usually always was, have to wait for a reply in about a week due to the sometimes almost unbearable slowness of the post mail.
Rob zipped up his lunch box, picking up the single plastic bag his sandwich had been in.
"Where are you going?" Jamal asked as he stood up from the table.
He huffed a bit. "Somewhere else," he replied curtly.
Rob then left the small table, and after throwing away the bag, headed toward the computer lab where no one would call him nuts.
Rob pulled open the glass door of the bodega with a loud jingle of the bell above it. Alex had told him right after school about the team meeting at the bodega instead of Lenni's place, and the changed time for an hour and a half after school instead of just an hour.
He wondered if he was the first one there, besides Alex and Gaby, of course. Rob smiled some as he saw the Latino boy busily piling some chip bags on the stacks in front. He was feeling much calmer than earlier.
He headed toward Alex, wondering what other clues the team could come up with next. Hopefully they could even find more hints about the doppelganger.
Rob then suddenly felt someone bang straight into him, and he toppled backward to the floor even as he heard what sounded like a bunch of boxes tumbling onto the ground.
"Ow," he heard Gaby mutter.
He looked up to see Gaby rubbing her head, with various small colored boxes around her.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
There were some running footsteps, and he stood up and saw Alex glaring at his sister, who was busily stacking the boxes on the floor. "I told you that was too many for you to carry," the Latino spat, frowning some.
Gaby rolled her eyes as she stacked the last box in a rather jumbled pile. "I was carrying them until Rob banged into me."
She then tried to heft up the disorderly stacks, but even Rob could tell that they were going to fall again. He put down his skateboard against the counter, and held out his arms.
"Here, let me carry some of them," he offered.
Gaby looked rather annoyed, until Alex spoke up. "Papa would be pretty mad if those crackers got all broken if you drop them again."
His sister huffed. "Fine," she replied, allowing Rob and Alex to take some of them.
She then hefted the rest closer to her, and he followed her to the left edge of the counter, where there was already a bunch of various cracker boxes neatly stacked.
"They go right there," Gaby said, pointing awkwardly with one arm to a somewhat empty case to the left.
He nodded, and stacked his pile on top of Alex's. Gaby was neatly rearranging hers on top, when Rob heard Mr. Fernandez speak from behind him.
He turned to see the friendly Latino man smiling at his children. "Good work," he stated, looking at the filled supplies on the racks. "That's the last of it?"
Gaby nodded. "Sí, Papa, and we even got the extra naranjas outside," she stated, grinning.
Mr. Fernandez nodded. "That's definitely good," he responded. "Many people have been wanting more fruit lately, so it is nice to supply them with what they need."
Alex nodded, looking satisfied at the praise. His father then seemed to notice Rob, and he stared a little bit before speaking.
"Oh, so you're Rob, then?" he asked, his face quite curious.
Gaby raised her eyebrows. "Of course you know Rob, Papa. He's our friend."
Mr. Fernandez nodded as he went behind the counter. "I saw someone earlier that looked just like him, just about an hour ago."
Rob was confused, but Alex beat him to a reply. "But Rob was still at Hurston, then."
He nodded. "Yeah."
Mr. Fernandez shrugged. "I guess so," he replied. "It was quite strange. He came into the store, and was just looking around with a couple of friends. I noticed him, and called him Rob, of course, since he looked very similar."
He pointed to Rob, then continued. "He then looked confused, and asked, 'Who's Rob?' I asked him if he was playing a joke, but he seemed to still be confused. He told me then, that I must be thinking about someone else. He then later leaves the store with his friends."
Gaby's eyes widened. "You saw the doppelganger!" she exclaimed.
"Doppelganger?"
Alex nodded as he leaned closer to the counter. "Yeah, there's this thief going around that looks like Rob, and no one's been able to catch him," he informed his father.
"But it's not Rob," Gaby put in.
"And those friends of his- maybe they don't even know that he steals stuff."
Rob nodded as Mr. Fernandez looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "Well, he certainly did not look like a thief, or his friends," he said. "He was polite, did not look suspicious- and I have certainly seen many that were very suspicious during the years."
"Maybe he even stole something from here," Gaby added with a small scowl on her face, ignoring her father's words.
Unfortunately, Mr. Fernandez only shrugged, not looking too interested in the theory. "That is interesting news about Rob having a look-a-like, but I cannot blame anyone without proof," he said sternly. "That would only cause more trouble."
Alex looked to his father expectantly. "Well, we know that the doppelganger was stealing things before," Gaby said. "A police officer even caught him on camera, and two people saw him stealing something yesterday."
Rob frowned ever so slightly, even though he knew that Mr. Fernandez had seen someone that looked like him- like he had this morning, actually. Was there a reason why the doppelganger had been there, and then at the bodega, where he was going to be later? Him being at the book store yesterday was most likely coincidence, though- or he hoped that, anyway.
Alex's father looked up again, this time looking much more stern. "I hope you don't go around blaming people when you don't know they have actually done something," he said firmly. "Now, you can stay here and be quiet, or go elsewhere to talk."
Rob blinked a bit- he had not heard the Latino man sound quite like that before, but then again, he was not his son. Alex, then Gaby nodded, looking a bit somber.
"Sí, Papa," he agreed, and Gaby followed suit.
Rob went with the siblings into their large shared bedroom, where they were soon joined by the rest of the team. Jamal sat next to him on Alex's bed, while girls crowded on Gaby's. They soon ralayed the recent happenings from just a while ago, and Lenni opened her backpack and took out the blue notebook, copying the information down.
Gaby spoke up again. "We've got to do something more about that doppelganger," she started, huffing a bit.
"Yeah, and before Papa gets mad at us again," Alex agreed, frowning as he crossed his arms.
Lenni nodded as she put her pen to the paper in her notebook again. "What do we want to know about him?" she asked.
Tina spoke up from where she was sitting next to Gaby. "We want to know where he lives, or someplace that he might go," she said. "It's hard to find someone when you don't know a place where they would be."
Alex nodded. "Like a secret hideout with other thieves," he added.
"They could be in this huge abandoned mansion that no one has used in years," Gaby chimed in, her face suddenly excited as if she was imagining a large, movie-like mansion complete with vampires, bats, and secret passages full of treasure.
Tina was frowning at that. "I don't think that there are any mansions around here that no one knows about," she replied doubtfully.
Gaby shrugged just before Jamal spoke up. "They could be hiding somewhere, but we already know that we don't know how to find them." He lifted a finger in the air a bit. "But what we do know, is who the doppelganger hangs around with."
Rob nodded. "Yeah, they could even be the two people mentioned that Mr. Fernandez saw with him."
"Travis and Daiki," Lenni stated, pulling turning to another page in her notebook and presumably pointing to their names.
Gaby put her chin on her right hand, leaning downward on her lap. "But how would we find them?" she asked. "We don't even have their last names."
Rob was wondering the same thing, when Alex spoke up. "I can't believe you forgot yesterday," he stated to his sister.
Gaby rolled her eyes. "Why would I forget that book store owner accusing Rob?" she demanded.
Alex laughed a bit. "Hello? We've been talking about the doppelganger's friends names, right, which they found out when they went to Dayton?" he said, pointing unnecessarily to Rob and Jamal.
Rob then saw where Alex was going with this, but let Gaby speak up.
"So?" she asked.
Alex made a small face in disbelief. "You're kidding, right," he said. "You completely forgot that even though we can't go through an entire school directory without someone noticing us, we know someone who can."
Gaby nodded, looking thoughtful. "That's right. Ghostwriter."
Alex nodded, and Lenni was also. "Yeah, there might be a lot of students that go to Dayton with the name Travis, but probably not very many named Daiki."
"And probably one grade with both of those names," Jamal added.
Lenni grinned as she held up the hand holding her pen. "And we can also get their addresses," she said.
Tina slumped a bit, however, looking a bit worried. "How would we know that the doppelganger would even be at their houses?" she asked, concerned. "Maybe he has never been at either of them."
"We won't know unless we try," Alex stated, shrugging a little.
Lenni nodded, writing down something while Gaby and Tina curiously watched. "Ghostwriter, please find the names Travis and Daiki in seventh and eighth grade at Dayton Middle School, and find their last names and addresses," she read aloud.
Gaby then looked up, interested. "Maybe Ghostwriter can also look for a list of things stolen at Dayton," she suggested.
"Maybe," Alex said, shrugging somewhat. "That is, if they happen to keep a list anywhere."
Jamal looked a bit thoughtful. "We don't know what was stolen, but if it was something major, like sound or some other type of equipment, they might."
Lenni leaned over the notebook again. "Please also look for a list of things stolen from Dayton," she said while writing.
"But the names and addresses of the doppelganger's friends are the priority," Alex added. "I really want to catch that guy."
Rob nodded in firm agreement. "Definitely," he added.
Though the doppelganger was only one of the thieves, it would definitely help if he was caught. He had had enough of his father frowning at him for something he had not actually done. Plus, he really did not want more trouble if any police officer thought he stole something again.
He soon saw familiar sparks fly through the wall of the bedroom, then circle above Lenni's notebook. Ghostwriter soon flew away.
Tina set a chin on her hand. "What about the girl that Rob said was the police officer's granddaughter?" she asked. She looked up toward Rob. "You said that she was in your grade."
He shrugged. "I don't know who she is," he replied. He turned toward Jamal, but the dark-skinned boy mirrored his shrugging gesture.
"I don't know either," he stated.
Alex nodded. "It's not as if anyone goes around asking who has a police officer for a grandfather."
Lenni frowned a bit as she laid her pen down on her open notebook. "Would that really help at all?" she asked. "I mean, we know she saw the video, but would she really believe it wasn't Rob who stole something if her grandfather showed her another one?"
Rob saw Gaby scowling slightly. "You could at least tell her that Rob didn't steal anything the first time," she countered. "If you get her to believe that, then maybe she won't believe it next time."
They chattered about the doppelganger and his friends a bit more, then moved on to the stolen items, and the incident from yesterday. Gaby had gotten to the possibility that the thieves had somehow vanished onto a roof without anyone noticing, when Rob saw Ghostwriter's familiar sparks show up behind Lenni.
"Hey, it's Ghostwriter," he called out.
Alex, who had been frowning at his sister's statement, suddenly sat up straighter and looked in the older brunette girl's direction. The sparks flew through the air to between the beds, as if the ghost knew where to form a message where they would all easily see it. Actually, that was probably the case.
Lenni busily scribbled down the message, while Gaby and Tina watched intently. Rob noticed that although there was only one name and address for Daiki- Daiki Ishida- there were two for someone named Travis. He leaned forward a bit, seeing the names Travis Johnson and Travis Korreti. All were in seventh grade at Dayton Middle School. Three unfamiliar addresses were added after them, though he recognized one of the streets. Ghostwriter then added another message underneath the first.
I didn't find a list of stolen items at Dayton, but I can keep on looking.
The older brunette girl finished jotting down the words. She nodded as the horizontal glowing message in the air vanished, and Ghostwriter's familiar circle and double curved line symbol appeared, hovering a bit, before flying through the wall behind them. Gaby soon got a large atlas that she and Alex spread out on the floor, and they were able to pretty quickly locate the street of both addresses.
"That one's the closest," Lenni pointed out, looking at the one for Travis Johnson's address. "It's right near that big playground over there. The other Travis is just about a block away."
"The other one, Daiki's, is just a few streets nearby," Tina added, pointing to another small street.
Gaby grinned some. "Right near Dayton." She pointed to the two-dimensional rectangular depiction of the building.
Rob was quite relieved that at least they did not have to return to the school this time. Once was enough, and also the rude Dayton kid, plus the angry high school girl had spotted him and Jamal, had correctly identified them as intruders.
Alex sat up. "We should probably split into groups to find out which Travis is the right one," he said.
Tina was frowning again. "How would we know?" she asked.
The Latino boy shrugged, and Lenni responded instead. "Maybe one of them would look different than what Alex said he looked like," she suggested. "If he doesn't have dark skin, then we would know for sure."
"What type of dark skin?" Tina was wanting to know. "Was it like Jamal's, or maybe darker, or lighter?"
Alex frowned, thinking. "I think it looked more like Jamal's color," he said after a few seconds.
Lenni then smiled. "And even if they both had about the same color, maybe the right one would recognize Rob-"
"And think he's the doppelganger!" Gaby finished, looking excited. "Wouldn't that be great?" She then turned to Rob, her grin becoming even wider. "You could even pretend to be a double agent and find out all kinds of things, like where the doppelganger is going to steal things next!"
Rob winced a bit at that one. For one thing, he really did not relish the thought of pretending to be a thief.
Fortunately, Tina spoke up. "I thought that the doppelganger's friends weren't the thieves," she reminded them, while Jamal nodded some in agreement.
Alex nodded. "Yeah, we don't need more than we've already got. Catching that one guy is hard enough."
This left Gaby scowling a little bit, but she did not comment. A little while later, she and Tina refolded the atlas and took it back where it belonged. The former then purposely hung a small picture camera around her neck with its long, flat cord, even though that there was not too much of a chance that the doppelganger would be at any of the addresses. They decided that only two people needed to accompany Rob at each house, as Jamal pointed out that six would be too many at once.
Once outside, they walked a ways before splitting up near a set of apartments on Hartcourt Lane. Lenni gave them a thumbs up before Rob followed Jamal and Gaby up the narrow staircase, with Jamal holding a small notepad he had gotten from Alex.
Rob was a little worried when Jamal rang the doorbell and a dark-skinned woman with a skin tone close to Jamal's answered. She stated that her son Travis was busy doing chores, but they could leave a message. They hastily said that they were just friends- as they did not even know the doppelganger's name, for one thing- and soon were leaving down the narrow staircase back to ground level again.
The next address was a whole lot less stressful, since Travis Johnson had light skin. Jamal stated that they must have gotten the wrong place before quickly leaving. They met up with the rest of the team and went to the park nearby, sitting on long benches in underneath a large wooden shelter.
Gaby smiled. "It has to be Travis Korreti," she stated officially while Lenni crossed through Travis Johnson's name in her notebook. "The other Travis has pale skin, light brown hair, and a lot of freckles."
"Definitely not the guy I saw at Hurston," Alex agreed, nodding.
Several young kids ran by just outside the shelter before Tina spoke up. "That leaves only one person left," she said.
Lenni nodded as she pointed to the short list. "Daiki Ishida," she stated.
Alex shrugged as another younger kid's playful squeal sounded from behind them. "We won't know until we try it," he said.
"Yes!" Gaby cheered, pumping a fist into the air. "Let's do it!"
They all left the park and went to the narrow sidewalks on a street of small, two-story town houses. Rob looked around him a bit warily, hoping that the actual doppelganger was not hiding somewhere nearby, and therefore able to more easily alert his friend Daiki that Rob was an imposter.
Meanwhile, Lenni was counting the large numbers on the front each townhouse as they went by them.
"One seventy-two, one seventy-four . . ." he heard her mutter as she squinted in the bright sunlight.
Gaby then stopped several houses later, her face set in a large grin. "There it is," she exclaimed, pointing to a light blue house with a few steps leading up to a cement porch. "One eighty-six!"
Rob nodded apprehensively, staring at the plain townhouse, no different than the others around it. Would Daiki, if he was actually here, really know the doppelganger? Hopefully they had not made a mistake in who they had asked Ghostwriter to look for. He also was not quite sure if he wanted to see . . . well, someone that looked exactly like himself staring angrily at him at some point. It had occurred this morning, but maybe that was somehow different. Then again, seeing him now would definitely be evidence that there was someone that looked like him, especially if Gaby managed to snap a picture (unless the doppelganger stole the camera).
Gaby had insisted in being in the trio again this time, due to needing her with her camera, and her brother had wanted to be in the group. He then frowned, looking at Gaby's stubborn face, with Alex's looking a little more than grim.
Rob thought about Daiki, if he was home, having only insults thrown at him just for having a thief as a friend. He might not even want to answer about anything unless Rob talked to him- calmly, though he wondered how composed he would be able to remain after a time, especially if the Japanese boy actually supported the thief stealing things, for some odd reason. There was also a chance that Daiki was innocent and knew nothing about the burglaries of his friend, as Tina had stated earlier, though. After all, the papers had only ever told of one kid stealing things, not three.
He felt a small shove behind him, and irritably turned around to see Gaby impatiently looking at him.
"Come on," she urged. "Let's go already!" Beside her, Alex was also looking impatient.
Rob turned to the team. "Maybe I should go alone for this one," he suggested, while Gaby's face turned incredulous. "I mean, if Daiki is even there, he might not want to talk if it's more obvious that I'm not the doppelganger, at least at first."
Unfortunately, most of the team was frowning, and Tina shook her head.
"I think it's still better to stick with some more people," she cautioned.
Gaby was nodding beside Alex. "Like we did with the two Travises," she added. "And how am I supposed to take a picture of the doppelganger if I'm not there?" The Latino girl pointedly lifted up her camera.
Rob looked at them all stubbornly. "Maybe it would make a difference," he replied. Seeing that his friends still looked rather disbelieving, he added, "And maybe Alex and Gaby could wait for just a just a couple of minutes, or something like that."
He glanced at Jamal, and was glad that the dark-skinned boy was actually nodding a bit. "Hey, this is Rob's doppelganger," Jamal pointed out. "He should have a say in this."
Lenni seemed to agree as she was nodding. Tina looked as if she did not know what to think, and Alex and Gaby still scowled a bit, especially the former.
"If we find out if anything was stolen from the bodega, Papa will be real mad," the Latino boy stated, frowning.
Rob shrugged apologetically. "Well, that's not right now," he commented.
Tina and the two siblings finally agreed after both Lenni and Jamal said a few more words, and Rob soon walked up alone the few concrete steps up to the plain dark-blue door. Looking back, he saw that his friends had congregated to a few houses to the left, but were watching steadily. A few random people meandered on past him on the sidewalk, only interested in their own conversations.
He sighed and rang the doorbell, and the door was soon opened by a curious Japanese high school aged girl, with her long, black hair tied back in a ponytail.
"I guess you're here to see Daiki again, right?" she asked, fairly nonchalantly.
Rob nodded quickly. "Yeah," he replied, a bit surprised that "he" was recognized again, and so quickly at that. "Is he here?"
He was glad that that at least he was not being accused this time. Rob did not bother to correct her about who he was, in fear she might send him away. Apparently his doppelganger had been at Daiki's house at least one time before, which could be promising for more information.
The girl nodded. "Sure, I'll get him," she replied.
Less than a minute later, a middle school kid came to the door. He was around Rob's age, and had jet-black hair, like the high school aged girl.
The Japanese boy then smiled. "Hi, Brandon," he said friendlily. "Why are you here?"
Rob then had to hide a surprised reaction- his troublemaker look-a-like finally had a name. He frowned inwardly, as he was here to tell that Daiki's friend was a thief, for one thing . . . At least Daiki would more easily believe that he was not pretending to be someone else besides the doppelganger- Brandon- since he and Travis has accompanied his look-a-like to the bodega earlier.
"I'm actually not Brandon," he said, a bit awkwardly.
Daiki's face looked a bit confused for a bit, then his eyes widened. "You're Rob, right?" he asked, startled.
There was a mix of confusion on his face and surprisingly, what also seemed to be fear. He was not quite sure why, but maybe it had to do something with actually suddenly being at his house the day that he had found out about him.
Rob nodded. "Yeah," he replied, glad that at least Daiki believed him about not being the doppelganger so fast. "You see, my friends' dad who owns a grocery store said that he saw your friend."
Hopefully Daiki would not instantly mistrust him due to . . . Brandon (it was quite odd thinking about the doppelganger with a name, instead of just his look-a-like thief) possibly not wanting to see him, for some reason.
"Yeah, that Spanish store," Daiki stated, also nodding, but still looking a bit wary. "The store manager was really nice."
Despite the situation, Rob could not help but smile a tiny bit. "Yeah, he is," he replied.
"Do you want to come inside?" Daiki asked.
Rob blinked, surprised. Really, the Japanese boy trusted him at least that much already?
"Sure," he answered.
He supposed that it was a good thing that at least one of the doppelganger's friends was at least seemingly nice to him. That could definitely help with catching the troublemaker.
Daiki led him upstairs to a small, blue-painted bedroom with various hangings and posters on the walls. Several of them held images that seemed definitely Asian, accompanied by unfamiliar spindly characters.
The black-haired boy turned around to see Rob staring at the things on the walls. Even though he himself had traveled to various places in the United States due to his father being in the air force, he had never been outside of the country. He had several souvenirs from different states, but it was interesting to see things that more definitely more foreign. Rob wondered briefly if Ghostwriter knew any other languages besides English. He then turned to Daiki again.
"Yeah, my family's Japanese," Daiki said. He looked a bit reserved, though, as if waiting to hear some criticism of his ancestry.
Rob nodded, a bit distracted due to the sudden appearance of Ghostwriter's familiar symbol in the room. Several letters flew together to create a message in Gaby's handwriting.
Why didn't you ask us to come inside with you? the Latino girl furiously demanded.
Rob managed to keep himself from frowning, as that would make it seem that he disapproved of Daiki's background. He had actually managed to forget about telling Daiki about his other friends waiting for him. No doubt they would be mad later.
Rob then shrugged nonchalantly. "That's fine," he answered, awkwardly looking at Daiki through the floating letters. "Some of my friends have families that aren't from the states." The message soon faded away, as Ghostwriter seemed to sense that he would not be writing a response currently. He then did frown as he shifted the topic. "But I wanted to talk to you about your friend. You said his name is Brandon, right?"
Daiki nodded, and he continued. "The thing is, I've been accused twice so far of stealing things when I didn't, and both times, someone saw a kid that looked like me. One of those times the police gave me a warning."
The Japanese boy was also frowning a bit. He sighed, seeming to be thinking about what to say. Finally, he responded, his face quite serious.
"Okay, what you need to know is that it's way different than what it looks like," Daiki began. "Brandon doesn't-"
He did not get any further, as there was a sound of a window breaking from nearby. Rob saw Daiki gasp as he threw back the dark green curtains and opened the window. He leaned a bit downward through the screen-less hole, but soon came up, looking a bit panicked.
"Was that a window in your house?" Rob asked, coming beside him and glancing out the window. He friends had congregated near the small townhouse, and were looking at what was probably the broken first story window right near the door.
Daiki nodded, but his gaze seemed to follow something unseen in the room- but that could not be right, could it? Rob then saw Daiki's hand move slightly to the right- and he knew that he did not hallucinate the next part- a blue-ish glow appeared around his hand. He was just staring in shock, when suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone that was just suddenly there. Rob turned around to see someone that, other than the different clothes, looked just like himself.
Rob was suddenly not sure what to say, or think, really. Sure, he had seen his look-a-like from across the street, but that was not close by like it was now. The doppelganger did not waste any reaction, though.
"Get out, now!" Brandon ordered, his face utterly serious.
Rob was confused, and not just that the voice somehow even sounded like his. He managed to find his voice.
"What for?" he asked, incredulous. "I didn't break the window-"
He was not prepared as Brandon just suddenly lunged toward him, grabbing one of his arms- and then he was not quite sure what happened next as the scene around him just suddenly changed. Just as quickly, the doppelganger backed away and then was just not suddenly there anymore.
Rob was quite surprised to see the back of a light-blue building that went on for a ways. He was on the sidewalk, with just a few people somewhat about twenty feet away from him, completely engaged in their conversation.
Rob blinked at what had just occurred. It was just plain crazy, but he was outside . . . when he had not even gone out the door. He then looked at the long building again, and realized that it had to be the back of the set of townhouses that Daiki lived in. Why had Brandon (teleported? It was crazy; yet it had happened . . .) him to the back of the house instead of the front?
It was then he remembered the broken window. Anyone that had heard it, including his friends, might be crowding around the area. The rest of the team might be especially curious since Jamal had told them about the broken car window in the Dayton parking lot, and Daiki's house was somewhat near there. Perhaps the doppelganger had wanted to put him somewhere that was close to the townhouses, but in a place where less people might see the teleporting.
He soon found his way toward the street he had been on. A few curious pedestrians were pointing at what was mostly likely the broken window. Sure enough, a bit later, he saw his friends crowded around the front door, and he saw Gaby reach out her arm, as if pressing the doorbell.
Rob finally caught up to them. They all turned around, varying amounts of surprise on their faces.
"Why did you go out the back door?" Alex asked, his face confused.
Rob did not really want to answer that question, due to his friends' reaction to the "flying" skateboard. If they did not believe him about that, then there was utterly no way that they would about what had just occurred.
He only shrugged instead, glad that the Daiki's older sister opened the door again just then. She seemed surprised to see all them standing there, especially Rob, but she did not comment.
Gaby wasted no time in speaking. "We need to talk to Daiki," she stated firmly.
The high school girl nodded. "I'll get him," she responded.
Unfortunately, she came back alone less than a minute later. "Sorry," she said apologetically. "He's busy right now. Maybe you can come back another time."
She closed the door, and they went to stand on the sidewalk. Gaby crossed her arms and scowled at Rob.
"So why didn't you let us in with Daiki?" she demanded. He noticed that most of the rest of the team was also looking rather annoyed.
Rob shrugged again, this time much more awkwardly. "I don't know," he said. He was not really used to them being angry with him that often.
Fortunately, Jamal was looking a bit calmer as they walked down the few steps to the wide sidewalk.
"So what happened in there, anyway?" he asked.
Rob was quite grateful that at least Jamal did not seem ready to yell at him. "Well, Daiki let me in, as you saw," he said. "I did get to find out the doppelganger's name just before that, though."
"Really?" Alex asked, suddenly interested.
He nodded. "Yeah, Daiki said that his name is Brandon," he relayed.
Gaby suddenly grinned a little bit. "So that's what it is," she said. "It wasn't Branson, after all, or Brendon, or any of those."
Rob nodded again, then continued. "Yeah. Anyway, I was with Daiki in his room, and I told him about the doppelganger stealing things. Daiki said that the doppelganger stealing was different than what it looked like. Then he said, 'Brandon doesn't'- and then the window broke, and . . ."
Rob trailed off, for the older members of the team had not believed him about his skateboard earlier that day, and even though they had seen what had occurred just now, they still might not believe him about his look-a-like just appearing out of thin air, as he knew that he had. Actually, now that he thought about it, it was more like a . . . summoning, of some sort, with the glow on Daiki's hand . . .
How that had been possible, he did not know, but something about the doppelganger and his two friends apparently was quite different.
"And then what?" Lenni wanted to know.
Rob continued. "Anyway, the doppelganger came in the room, and yelled at me to leave . . . and so I did."
"The doppelganger?" Alex repeated in utter amazement.
He nodded. Predictably, Gaby was especially angry.
"I could have taken his picture with you!" she exclaimed.
From what had just occurred, Rob rather doubted that she could have done that if the doppelganger was against it, but again, he did not say anything. He looked at his friends. Not even Jamal seemed to be on his side this time.
Fortunately, the sound of a nearing police siren diverted their attention. He guessed that Daiki's sister or someone else in his family had called the police. The siren stopped right after the car parked near them, and a different officer came out of the car.
"Did you see who broke the window?" the officer asked them authoritatively.
Jamal shook his head. "No," he responded. "Sorry."
The officer nodded curtly. "You all have better go elsewhere," he stated firmly.
Rob hoped that the officer did not even somewhat think that they were the vandalizers, but, who knew. He and the team nodded, and then the uniformed man then quickly marched up the front steps to ring the doorbell.
Alex raised an eyebrow. "I guess we're not going to get much out of here today," he stated regretfully as they started down the sidewalk.
"Unless the doppelganger comes out and we just happen to see him," Lenni added, huffing slightly.
Gaby crossed her arms. "Yeah, and we didn't get to see him since Rob wanted to go in Daiki's house all by himself."
Tina frowned a bit at the Latino girl. "Well, we did decide to let Rob talk with Daiki first, right?" she reminded her. "Maybe we can try again tomorrow."
Rob was relieved that at least someone was standing up for him. Jamal seemed to also agree, as he was nodding.
"We all know where Daiki lives now, and also Travis," the dark-skinned boy stated.
"And that the doppelganger might come to Daiki's house," Tina added.
Alex was thankfully looking a bit less angry, unlike his sister. Rob saw her huff and stare at the row of blue townhouses, where the policeman was still inside. Maybe she was more irritated since she really had been hoping to take a picture of the look-a-like.
They eventually agreed to come back in several days when they were all free. Rob listened to his friends chatter about some after school events from both of their schools as he walked along with them back to their side of Brooklyn. Maybe at some point he would actually see the doppelganger again, and find out more about him.