So, I essentially wrote this chapter for two people. I said to myself, if at least one person liked it, I would finish it, because I hate when I read a story and it doesn't get finished. So HUGE thank you to ButterYUM and the guest that left reviews. I appreciate it very much guys!

I give you the first part of their adventure. Enhoy!

It was the morning of July 23rd when we set off on our trip. Three days after the séance in the cemetery. I had told my mother that I was staying at Carlos's for the weekend and that we were going to camp out in the backyard. She just mumbled inaudibly and continued doing the dishes. She hadn't said anything since dad left. Until she saw me leaving the house with a blue sleeping bag over my shoulder.

"That's Benny's."

I hadn't originally intended to take my brother's sleeping bag, but when I was looking in the closet, I saw it, and I had hoped it would bring me extra comfort. But I saw the look of hurt on my mother's face and knew that I had to put it back and grab my own. Five minutes later I was out the door and on my way to meet Kendall. He had told me he wanted to show me something before we left. I had no idea what was so important that he couldn't show James and Carlos.

"Yo! Loges, over here," I heard Kendall call my name. I ran towards him.

"Hey man. What is it you wanted to show me?"

"Check it out," Kendall said as he inconspicuously pulled out what looked like a gun out of his backpack.

"Holy fuck Kendall! Where the hell did you get that?! "I whisper yelled at him. How could he have brought a gun, we would get in so much trouble if we were to get caught.

"Shh! Will you fucking relax. It's not even loaded. I snaked it off Mike. We might need it. But you can't tell the others, Carlos's old man is a cop and James will freak his shit"

I was still very doubtful. "Do you promise me it's not loaded and it won't get used unless it is 1000% necessary?"

"I swear on my dad's grave" Kendall promised. I knew that meant business. Kendall would never swear on his father's grave if he wasn't serious. So I for some strange reason trusted him with it and promised him I wouldn't tell the others as we headed to the tree house to meet them. We were silent for most of the walk.

"Bout time you spaz's got here. Me and Carlos have been waiting for ages, c'mon we wanna go find our ticket to the big time" James called when we finally arrived at the tree house, only 10 minutes late.

"Carlos and I" I corrected.

"Shut up dick weed. Let's just go already" Carlos defended James.

"Do we have everything?"

"Yes! C'mon let's go!"

"Kendall hasn't even told us where we're gonna look. He said he knew where we should look. Kendall?"

"Right by Keddy's Lake. Near old Crazy Pete's house" Kendall answered.

"ALL THE WAY OVER THERE!? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! THAT WILL TAKE US FOREVER!" James protested. I had to admit it seemed pretty far to go based on a gut instinct.

"Guys, do we really have to go there, Crazy Pete gives me the creeps. He was probably the man that killed Dear Johnny" Carlos was scared. He sometimes was a bit of a wuss, but most of the time he could be talked into doing anything.

"Do you idiots want to find a part of this body or what? I'm going to Keddy's Lake whether you guys come with me or not" Kendall said as he began walking off. Carlos was the first to follow. He could never disagree with Kendall. James and I looked at each other and figured we really wanted that new HQ. We needed to get away from home. So we followed him too.

We had been walking for some time when I began to feel hungry. We were just about to come up to the junkyard where we could stop over.

"Guys, let's stop for a bit, I'm really hungry." I suggested.

"Yeah, I'm with you on that one Loges. Good call. Litos, food us!" Kendall agreed

Carlos stopped wearily. "I brought the water. I thought James was in charge of the food"

"Carlos, I brought the water. You were supposed to bring the food"

"Oops."

"You've gotta be kidding me, I'm so hungry." Kendall complained.

"Relax, we'll just pool our money together and get some stuff from the store" I reasoned "I have $5, how much does everyone else have?"

"Sorry guys, you know Mike takes all my money, I only got $2.50."

Carlos emptied out his pockets. "Hmmm…one dollar and forty two cents, oh an this" Carlos handed over his money and a half stick of gum. We all rolled our eyes at him and then looked at James. He was the rich one of the four of us, we knew he had some. He looked back, biting his lip.

"Just because my parents are rich, doesn't mean that I have any of their money…"

"Jamie, did you do what I told you?" Kendall asked.

James looks shameful, but pulled a $20 out of his pocket. "That's my boy" said Kendall.

I assumed Kendall had told James to steal the money from his parents, which James didn't look too proud of, and rightly so, because stealing was wrong. But if anyone ever said anything to Kendall about it, he would just tell them that he never stole from good people, it was always the rotten ones that deserved it anyway. And after all it did mean we had enough money to buy a decent amount of food for the weekend.

"Now, someone has to go get the food"

"Shotgun not!" James, Carlos and Kendall simultaneously called.

I rolled my eyes. Of course I was left to do the dirty work, like always. I figured complaining would get me nowhere, so I went on my merry way.

I hated the owner of the store, he always smelt weird and was munching on his tobacco. I tried my best to ignore him while I was picking up stuff, but then he said something to me.

"Hey, aren't you Benny Mitchell's brother?

"Yes." I answered him, not wanting to hear any more about it.

"He was a star. That boy was gonna play for the Minnesota Wild, you anything like him? What do you do?"

I walked over to him with the stuff I had picked up and threw them on the counter, waiting for him to ring them up. I was tired of people comparing me to my brother. I know he was great, I didn't need to be told how much better he was than me. So I made a point to not answer his question.

"Did you know that chewing tobacco causes mouth cancer? And it can spread throughout your entire body and make you shit out blood?"

He didn't say anything back. He just handed me my change and my bag full of groceries. That's what he gets for comparing me to Ben. As I was walking back to the junkyard where the others were waiting I thought back to before Benny died. All my parents ever talked about was Benny and his hockey, how scouts were coming to watch him play, how he scored the winning goal at the match, how it would get him into a good college. They never mentioned the fact that I had come first in story writing competition, or gotten straight A's on my report card. They didn't care. But Benny did, he always told me how proud he was of me, how lucky he was to have me as his little brother. Shame my parents didn't feel that way.

"Logan's back with the food" I heard James call. They all pretty much attacked me for it.

"Hey! What are you little shits doing here?" It was Mr. Tucker, the man that worked at the junkyard. We weren't supposed to be here.

"We can be here whenever we want. It's private property" Carlos attacked

"Carlos, shut up, let's just go" I whispered to him, because he was right about it being private property but he didn't realize that meant we couldn't be here.

Mr. Tucker laughed hard. "Oh god! I forgot you were the retard kid. Well, you little spic, private property means you can't be here"

"We're sorry, we got lost, we'll leave now" James apologized

"What did you call me?" Carlos had finally responded to the insult.

"What are you deaf too boy? Retarted, deaf, spic." Mr. Tucker repeated.

"I'M GONNA RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!" Carlos lunged at Mr. Tucker.

Kendall was the first to react. Grabbing Carlos to pull him back. Remember when I said Carlos hated being called stupid. Well, yeah, if there was anything he hated more, it was being called spic, or beaner, or border hopper or anything of the likes. Carlos was fighting hard against Kendall, so James and I had to pull him back too. He was hard to control when he got like this. Mr. Tucker just laughed his head off. Kendall eventually picked Carlos straight up, carrying Carlos out of the junkyard, I followed him. James, however, didn't follow straight away. He stared down Mr. Tucker's laughing form intensely, just waiting for the moment we were out of the junkyard. The second we were back on land that didn't belong to Mr. Tucker, I saw James spit at him and turn around and run after us.

"You little pig!" Mr. Tucker yelled at him.

He chased James all the way through the junkyard until he met up with us on the outside. He knew he couldn't get us there. He was on probation with the cops from beating up kids and if he laid a hand on us outside the confines of his property, he would be arrested as soon as anyone found out.

Carlos's loud screams of anger had developed into sobs. He always got upset when someone insulted his heritage and insinuated he didn't belong here, especially because he had been born and lived here his whole life. James and I walked over to him curled up in Kendall's lap, Kendall's fingers running through his hair.

"Shh…it's okay Carlos. That idiot doesn't know what he's talking about, you're not retarted, and his stupid racist words mean nothing" Kendall cooed

After several minutes of Kendall reassuring Carlos and strokes through the hair, he finally calmed down and got up of Kendall's lap to stand up, Kendall following him, so we were now ready to keep on going.

"I'm sorry for lashing out like that" mumbled Carlos

James wrapped an arm around his shoulders and told him not to worry about it. Not another word on the matter was said.

20 minutes later, the cheery whistles of "L-l-l-l-like a lollipop" could be heard from Carlos and James as they skipped down the trail. Kendall and I laughed at their antics. James could always cheer Carlos up like no other, no matter how upset he was.

"So Loges, high school soon, huh?"

"Yep, we're gonna be high school freshmen in 3 months. Can you believe it?"

"Yeah, it's crazy. It's gonna be so weird not all of us being together"

"Whaddya mean" I questioned. I really had no idea what he meant. We were going to the same school. I mean, James had that audition for the music school, but we weren't sure how that had gone, so unless he knew something I didn't.

"Oh, c'mon Loges, you know very well what I mean. James is gonna get into that music school, you're gonna go to that smart people school, meanwhile me and Carlos will be stuck at St. Paul with all the other retards, taking shop courses"

I had forgotten about that. Back when Benny was alive, he had encouraged me to apply for the Shakopee High School for the gifted. I had gotten in to the early entry program. I had been stoked, and he'd been so proud of me, hell, even mom had said she was proud of me.

"I dunno man. Maybe I shouldn't go there. Maybe I should just stay with you and Carlos, you know, take the shop classes, I'm not really smart enough for that school anyway"

"Bullshit! Loges, that's your dad talking, you are the smartest guy I know. You're like a certified genius, you get straight A's and you do extra work. Everything about you screams that school. Don't let what your dad says about you get you down. Listen, I know Benny was the one that mattered to them. He was the one, he was the star. But you know what, screw them, cause you're important to me, and to Carlos and James and to hell we're gonna let you take shop classes at St Paul with all the retards" Kendall ranted.

"You know, you're not a retard either. You could take the harder classes, don't sell yourself short"

"Don't make this about me shit face. Go to that school."

I didn't reply. I just hung my head. Deep down I knew I should be going to that school. I had gotten a scholarship, graduating from that school would set me up for life, but I was just scared to do it alone.

"Hey guys, I'm tired, can we stop for the night" Carlos called from up ahead.

"Sure, let's set up camp" Kendall answered, dropping his things down right where he was standing. I guess this was as good a spot as any. Carlos and I set up the tent we had brought along with us while James and Kendall collected wood to start the fire. It was starting to get cold.

We roasted the marshmallow's I had bought from the store and talked about anything and everything. We even sang campfire songs, we actually sounded pretty good. But it was getting late, and we were getting tired. We knew we would have to get up early tomorrow morning to make it to the lake in decent time. So I made the executive decision.

"Guys, it's getting late, we should probably hit the hay". Everyone agreed with me, except Carlos.

"Um…guys. I'm a little scared. What if there are bears or what if Dear Johnny's murderer is out here and comes and kills us in our sleep?" Carlos shuddered.

"Well, why don't we sleep in shifts, that way we can scream to wake the others up if anything happens" Kendall suggested.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, I'll take the first shift", I volunteered. I figured if I took the first shift, I could get the best sleep. Luckily, the others thought it was me just being nice and not doing it for selfish reasons. They all grabbed their sleeping bags and headed into the tent. As soon as they were in there, I snuck Mike's gun out of Kendall's backpack just in case. Nobody had to know.

While on my shift, I had some time to think. Not really something I enjoyed as of late. Because all I would think about was Benny and how he looked lying in that hospital bed, all mangled up from the car. And how one of the first things my father said to me after we turned Benny's life support off was 'why weren't you in that car instead, with your criminal, faggot and border hopper friends'. I hated when he called my friends names, especially when they weren't true. Kendall wasn't a criminal, sure he had done some bad things, but he had reasons for all of them, his stepdad was an asshole and he even nearly killed him once. James wasn't a faggot, just because he liked music and acting my dad thought he must like dick too, but he didn't. And Carlos wasn't a border hopper, he was born in the same hospital I had been. While I had been thinking I hadn't noticed James creep up next to me.

"Hey".

"Hey, has it been that long already, is my shift over?"

"Nah, just thought you might like some company…holy shit what is that?" James switched tone's half sentence. I realised what he was talking about too late. He had seen the gun in my hands. I had completely forgotten about it. Kendall was going to kill me.

"Shit. James don't tell Kendall you know. He stole it from Mike, he promised we would only use it if necessary, and I thought as a precaution it would be good to have it on my watch"

"I won't tell if you let me hold it"

I agreed and handed James the gun carefully. He took it passing it around in his hands, looking at it intently and curiously, like he wanted to use it on something.

"Hey Logan, have you ever thought what it would be like to…to die" he asked me. I was concerned. I knew James hated his life, I mean we all did, but was he really thinking of doing something that drastic? I didn't know what to say, so I just sat there.

"I mean, like not that I'm gonna kill myself or anything" he chuckled darkly "but you know, sometimes I just wonder. My parents probably wouldn't even notice anyway. They'd be too busy worrying about their stupid country club to care that I was gone. I mean, I just figure, families are supposed to be shitty you know. But that doesn't mean we have to be shitty. I mean you look on the T.V and in the movies, half of them are all messed up. Brady Bunch, blended family, Simpsons, Homer is a doorknob, the entire family on The Fosters, and Batman never even had parents and he turned out okay. You know what I'm saying"

I don't know why I said it, it just came out. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that James had just shared something with me, I dunno, it was just like the gates opened.

"My parents are getting a divorce"

"What? Shit Logan, I always thought you're parents really loved each other"

"I thought they did to. But I think Benny was the only one they loved. Since he died, they haven't stopped fighting. And over the stupidest things too. I actually haven't seen my dad in a few days. He left on Tuesday. Walked straight out, didn't even say goodbye, just a shoulda been you."

"Jesus Loges, why didn't you tell us? I'm sorry man"

"It's okay, I'm glad he's gone anyway. Now I don't have to listen to him tell me how much he wishes I was dead instead of Benny. And I didn't tell you because I was embarrassed. I mean your parents are still together, and so are Carlos's and Kendall's would be if his dad was still alive, I just know it. I didn't want to be the kid whose dad left by choice, ya know?"

"Your dad's an asshole" James responded, putting an arm around my shoulder and pulling me into his side. We both shed tears over how fucked up our families really were and fell asleep like that. And Kendall nor Carlos ever came to wake us for their shift, we all slept on through the night

TBC

And there it is. Part 1 of the quest to find the body parts. There will be a part 2 of the adventure and then an epilogue where it returns to present date, so yeah a short story, but it is my first multi chap so I am pretty proud I have even managed this.

So yeah, review if you want, or not, whatever floats your boat