Our last chapter began the A Friend In Need arc in which we have found that Sid is in a bad way, and he desperately needs some help from his friends. Drug lords in Hillwood? Sid's dad in jail? Sid's life in danger for his father's mistakes? How will this all play out! Well you'll find out as soon as I stop my senseless rambling. Moohahahaha I feel so evil. Anyway, let's get on with it!

A Friend in Need Part 2: He Knows

"Gerald, wake up anata, we are back in Hillwood."

Gerald woke up at the sound of Phoebe's voice; he sat up and looked out the window of the train they were on. It was quite late, almost midnight, and Gerald knew he was going to have a sleepy day at school the next day.

"Thanks for the wakeup call babe," he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. As they got off the train, Gerald told his parents that he would meet them at home after he had walked Phoebe to her house. They held hands as they walked down the lamp lit streets, neither one scared because they were together. They were almost at Phoebe's street when they heard a voice behind them.

"You G. Johanssen?" the voice asked.

Gerald and Phoebe turned to see a tall man in a pinstriped suit staring down at them through a pair of very expensive looking glasses. He had a very weasel like face and greasy slicked back hair.

"Maybe, who wants to know?" Gerald asked cautiously

"My boss asked me to bring you a letter," the man replied calmly. He handed Gerald a letter with only a name on the envelope. "F. Slippers"

"Oh man, it's from Fuzzy Slippers! What's he up… to?" Gerald looked around but the man was gone, only the faint smell of his hair grease was left. Gerald opened the letter and began to read.

Dear Gerald,

The following is information regarding a friend of yours by the name of Sid Gifaldi. Make sure it is delivered to A. P. Shortman as soon as possible as it will help with current investigations.

Sid Gifaldi is being targeted by the drug lord Francesco Vasquez to pay for crimes committed by his father. Vasquez is accepting nothing more or less than Sid's life. He means to break Mr. Gifaldi's spirit so that when he gets out of jail he doesn't even have a son to return to.

I have unearthed some information on Vasquez. His base of operations is in a warehouse down by the pier. He also has a taste for expensive clothes and exotic animals. He has a pair of Komodo dragons as his guard dogs. He is known to make unorthodox deals and wagers.

My suggestion for Arnold is to take this information to the police. Arnold will be confused as to how I knew of all of this. You know what to tell him. This isn't something high schoolers should have to deal with, make sure the police are told.

-F. Slippers

Gerald read and reread the letter several times, unsure of what exactly he was reading. He handed the letter off to Phoebe so that she could read it.

"This is highly unusual, I knew Sid's father was in trouble but I never would have believed it was to this degree." Phoebe said in a small voice.

"Yeah… come on let's get to the boarding house. We gotta give this to Arnold," said Gerald as he impulsively began to walk down the street.

"Hold on a minute sweetie, it's the middle of the night. We cannot just go marching into the boarding house now, we'll wake everyone up. We'll just give it to him tomorrow morning at school"

Gerald thought about this. He knew that any information from Fuzzy Slippers was bound to be nothing but fact, and that something this serious should be dealt with immediately.

"Nah I gotta take care of this now babe, I'll drop you off and then go take this to Arnold. I'll go up the fire escape and knock on his window so I don't wake anyone up."

He walked Phoebe to her front door and left her with a kiss and a hug. Then he ran off towards the boarding house. It only took him about five minutes to reach the bottom of Arnold's fire escape and start climbing. Once he made it to the window he looked down into Arnold's room. His friend was sitting upright in bed, reading with his headphones on. Gerald knocked on the window as hard as he dared but Arnold apparently couldn't hear him. So he ran around the skylight to the other side in hopes of being able to attract Arnold's sight but by the time he was there Arnold had turned off the light and sank down into his bed, headphones still on.

"Damn it," sighed Gerald, "he just can't make this easy can he?"

Gerald hurried around to the other side where the window was able to be opened and started trying to open it. It took a while but he was finally able to pry it open just enough to get his hand inside, so he hastily opened it.

He dropped down into the room and prodded Arnold's shoulder.

"Arnold, Arnold come on you need to get up man!" Gerald said.

Arnold stirred sleepily and then turned over.

"Arnold, dude come on, get up," Gerald said again as he pulled the headphones off his friends head. Arnold eyes slowly opened, and when he saw Gerald he gave a little start.

"Jesus Christ! Gerald? What the hell are you doing in my room at," he looked at the clock, "one in the morning!?"

"Sorry man it couldn't wait, you gotta read this letter." He handed the letter over to Arnold and went to sit on the couch. Arnold read the letter several times over, his face growing more confused after each time he finished it.

"How did he get all this information, I only decided to start looking for information a few hours ago?" Arnold said.

"I keep telling you man, Fuzzy Slippers knows," said Gerald somberly.

The next day at school, Arnold, Gerald and their girlfriends were sitting together at lunch discussing what needed to be done to help Sid.

"It's quite obvious. We should take this information to the police department as quickly as possible. They can do much more with it than us," Phoebe said wisely.

"I don't know babe, Arnold and I don't exactly have the best luck with reporting things to the police in this town," Gerald replied.

Arnold had a fleeting memory of all the times he and Gerald had been laughed out of the police station. "You've got a point, but what can we do with it? The most useful bit is where he tells us that this Vasquez guy's hideout is down on the pier," he said.

"Well I don't know what you lightweights are worried about," said Helga loudly, "it's not like we've never dealt with danger before. Remember all the crap we had to deal with when that jackass tried to build a shopping mall on all our houses. Oh and all of that shit that went on in the rainforest when we were out looking for your parents, and that was when we were in the fourth grade. Face it; we've been through more shit than action heroes."

Arnold knew Helga had a point, but it was hard for him to rationalize facing an armed drug lord head on. As the four of them walked out into the courtyard, he looked over to the far side by the road. He saw Sid, Stinky and Harold playing a game of 21 on the only court with and unbroken basketball hoop. He was just thinking about going to tell Sid all of the information they had been given by Fuzzy Slippers, when he saw it happen. A black van pulled up and three men in suits jumped out.

"Oh shit… Gerald come on!" Arnold yelled as he began to run towards his friends. The three men had grabbed Sid and were dragging him towards the van. Stinky and Harold had been knocked to the ground. By the time Arnold and Gerald had arrived the van was taking off down the road.

"God damn it!" Gerald shouted, "what the fuck do we do now."

"I dunno, but the minute I catch up to those guys… I'm gonna pound em," they heard Harold growl.

"I reckon I'll be right there with ya on accounta they just pissed me off," Stinky said. Completely shocked, they all stared down the road, where their friend had disappeared.

Chapter 7 ended, next chapter is a misadventures chapter. I think you all will enjoy what I have planned. Sorry about the wait but college is over now so maybe I can get back on a regular update schedule. Please everyone remember to read, review, and most importantly recommend to your friends! ^_^ Have a wonderful day everyone.