"Bug hurry up we're going to be late. You know how Brandon is." I say trying to get my best friend Bug to hurry up so we would not be late for Ripper night. "Okay Ricki, I'm coming just give me a minute." Bug says pulling a t-shirt over his head then slipping a jacket on over it. "Alright let's go" he says quietly pushing me towards the window. I slip back out his bedroom window and easily climb down to the ground with Bug behind me. We take off walking towards the river where everybody including our best friends Alex, Jay, and Jerome were already. "I swear Bug you take longer than my dead grandmother." I say smiling and playfully pushing him so he knows I'm joking. "Whatever be quite" he says as we near the clearing. Brandon is calling out the names of the Riverton Seven. "Jerome King, Alex Dunkelman, Jay Chan, Bug Hellerman...Hellerman?" We walk through the woods and somebody says "About time." "It's okay Bug takes a little longer cause he's a little slower." He says earning laughs from all of the High School students. "Stop being a dickhead Brandon!" I tell him extremely pissed just this one night why can't he lay off of Bug. He ignores me and continues calling everyone out. "Penelope Bright, Brittany Cunningham and last but not least..."He trails off and everybody says "Brandon O'Neil." I tune out while he explains everything about Abel. I tune back in when he goes to pick one of the seven. He usually nominates himself but I have a bad feeling this year. "I personally have chosen to volunteer...volunteer Bug Hellerman that is." he yells. I give him a death glare satisfied to see him flinch a little bit. Then I turn to Bug to see him wide eyed like a deer caught in headlights. "It's okay Bug. It's just a puppet. All you have to do is knock it down" I say soothingly as the others start to chant. Alex starts chanting with them so I punch him in the chest. Then the puppet emerges from the woods instead of the water. Brandon pushes Bug towards it and he almost stumbles. Bug stares up at it then stumbles back to my side again. "I can't do this" he says quickly sounding scared to death. Then Penelope yells cops. "Shit its Patterson. Jay help Jerome. Alex move or we're leaving you!" I say all but dragging Bug into the woods. Once he starts running on his own I let him go, but unfortunately Jay pushes Jerome so he doesn't run into a tree and Jerome ran into Bug knocking him into the lake. "Bug grab our hands" I say as Alex and I extend our hands to pull him out, we pull him out and hide behind a log. Alex and the other three go on about how awesome that was as Jay gives his jacket to Bug since he's soaking wet. I watch the cops pick up the puppet and look around. Then I hear Jay and Jerome say I got to go. "Be careful." I tell them before they walk off. Me, Bug, and Alex crawl into the woods then stand up and walk towards Alex's house. I notice Bug shaking so I wrap my arm around his waist hoping it will help. "Dude Quint will kill me if he catches me out this late." Alex complains as we walk towards his house. "Well get up there before he catches you" I tell him using my free arm to push him towards his house. Once he disappears through the window me and Bug head towards his house. "So I take it it's okay for me to stay over." I say as we walk in silence.
"Yeah" Bug says quietly.
The rest of the fifteen minute walk to his house was filled with a comfortable silence. We climb up onto the roof and in through Bugs open window. Not even bothering to change into a pair of Bugs shorts like I normally do I flop onto his bed and am instantly asleep.
I wake up the next morning and see Bug sitting at his desk. "Did you even go to sleep last night?" I ask him worriedly. I can't help but worry about Bug even though I probably sound like his mother. "Yeah a little but not much. I was working on mine and Alex's puppet." he explains nodding towards a duffel bag. I just yawn and grab my clothes out of my bag and go take a shower. When I get out and go into Bugs room I can hear him in the bathroom across the hall so I walk to Fangs room to see if she left already. I open her door and see her bedroom empty. Of course she left already, she always leaves at 6:45 just so she doesn't have to see Bug. I walk back to Bugs room and see him talking to Alex. "Hey when did you get here?" I ask him confused. "Like two minutes ago" he says then Bug throws the duffel bag out the window. "What was that?" Alex asks Bug pointing out the window. "The sock puppet" Bug says then motions for me to climb out the window. "Sock puppet on steroids." Alex says as they follow me out the window. "Something like that except you where it this time." Bug says to Alex as we climb down to the ground "What the hell do you mean wear it?" Alex asks him as the two of them turn to walk into the woods, but I don't follow them. It had been a while since Bug and Alex spent some quality guy time together. So I just continued walking to school and soon Jerome came up and put his hand on my shoulder. "Hey Jerome" I say making sure there's nothing in front of him. "Hey Ricki. Where's Alex and Bug?" he asks me sounding a little worried. I don't even ask how he knows that they aren't here. Even though he's blind it's like he has super hearing. "I'm not sure they disappeared into the woods a little while ago." I explain looking at Jerome. Before he can say anything else the two boys we were talking about walked up. Bug is talking on a little orange phone to May. "Is Ricki with you?" she asks Bug, I hear her since he has her on speaker phone. "Yes mom she's standing right beside me" he explains to her. "Good well make sure she stays out of trouble today" she says stiff ling a giggle. "Hey that's not fair May. I'm an angel." I complain with a completely straight face. But I look at Alex and we both bust out laughing at the same time. "Ricki you're as much of an angel as Alex" she says not even trying to stifle her giggles this time. Ignoring a complaint from Alex, she says "Anyway I have to go Happy Birthday all of you including you Ricki even though its a little late." We all say thanks may except Bug who says Thanks mom. I also add "It's alright May." She then continues to say "Alright I have to go Love you Ricki. Love you Bug. Bye sweethearts." "Love you to May/Mom" both me and Bug say at the same time. May hangs up and Bug looks at Alex and says "Um how do you" Alex takes the phone and tells him "You press the little read button and Boom" then flips it shut and looks at it. "Small" he says looking the little orange phone over. "Is that a bad thing" Bug asks taking the phone back and looking at the numbers taped on the back. "No it's a really good thing" Alex says right as Jerome's older sister walks up. "Jerome. Move Dunkleman" she barks at Alex then turns on Jerome. She just nods quickly at me showing she acknowledged my present. "See you later Jerome" Bug and Alex say as they walk towards the front of the school. "Bye Jerome" I tell him tapping his shoulder quickly before jogging to catch up with the other two boys. Officer Ramirez stopped us about the bag. Bug told him it was project and what class it was for and that it was sixth period. Ramirez wrote it down and took the bag as we walked off one of Fangs minions stopped me wanting to talk. The boys keep walking ahead of me. I stop and talk to the girl while keeping an eye on Alex and Bug. Fang is always trying to separate us so she can send Brandon to beat the shit out of them. Sure enough about two minutes later Brittany walked by and distracted Bug and Alex. "Shit" I say under my breathe I could already hear Bug in my head saying "That's a bad word." I push past the girl and make it to the boys right as Brandon punches Alex in the stomach making him fall to the ground. I walk up beside Bug who's holding his arm and push Brandon back. "Back off Brandon" I say glaring at him. "Or what" he asks cockily smirking at Alex who was still lying on the ground. "Fang may have you wrapped around her finger Brandon. But all I have to do is say you tried to hit me and she will make your life a living hell" I threaten him. He backs off knowing that it's the truth. As he walks off Alex hollers "Thanks Brandon that felt good. Brandon replies with "Ass wipe." But of course since this is Alex Dunkleman he had to holler back "But no as good as your mother felt last night." I'm tempted to kick him in the face my self, but am distracted by Brandon storming back towards us. He's stopped by Penelope yelling at him. After five minutes she's done yelling at him. He turns to Alex and says "When you least expect it Dunkleman" then walks off. Alex just flips him off still trying to catch his breath. I turn just in time to see Penelope kiss Bug on the check and say "Pray for our souls Bug he's coming back" "Who Jesus?" Bug asks confused. "We could only be so lucky." she says then turns to Alex "Rise up and protect you loins Alex." then turns to leave. "Ugh...Lets get to class" I say pulling Alex up to his feet. Gosh I hate this if I don't have Penelope majorly crushing on Bug. I have Bug worshiping the ground Brittany walked on. I can't catch a break between the girls and Brandon trying to beat the shit out of Bug. I tune the boys conversation out till I here Alex say "We're men now. The better you fake it the more of a man you are" I snap my gaze to glare at Alex. "What" he asks like he doesn't know why I'm glaring at him. "Don't listen to him Bug." I say still glaring at Alex. "But I want to be a man" Bug says innocently. I turn to face Bug stopping all three of us walking at the same time. "Bug you don't need to be a man right now. You'll become a man in your own time. For now how about you just be my Bug" I say patting his cheek. I faintly hear Alex snicker about the My Bug part but I ignore him. I don't give Bug time to say no or I don't know I link my arm with his and say "Come on lets get to class I don't Dunkleberry over there feeling you're brain with any more ideas." nodding towards Alex. I smile at him showing that I'm just trying to cheer Bug up. The day fly's by quickly and before I know it I'm walking into sixth period Biology with Bug and Alex. Bug keeps rubbing his temples like his head is hurting. "Bug are you getting a migraine?" I ask him worrying again for the umpteenth time. "No I'm fine." he says curtly making his way to his desk at the back of the class. I look at Alex confused but he just shrugs. We make our way to our desks which are on either side of Bugs. We sit down and wait for the teacher to call the boys up to do their presentation on the California condor. The teacher calls Bug and Alex to the front of the class. Bug gets up and follows Alex to the front but is still rubbing his head. He tries to start but ends up stopping. The teacher asks if he's having one of his migraines he says no. All of the Sudden I get a very bad feeling. Bug snaps his head up quickly and begins to speak. His voice is completely different; it's deeper and not so unsure sounding. He grabs a hold of Alex's shoulder who is currently wearing the condor costume and says "Fly now." Alex takes off running around the classroom sweeping his wings over people's heads. Bug is constantly spitting out facts but when the teacher stops him. Alex stops running and stands in front of me and cocks his head to the side. I just smile and tune into what the teacher is saying to Bug. He says "Bug stop." Bug's voice is back to normal when he says "It's okay Mr. something it's just for the presentation." The teacher nods silently telling him to continue. "The condor can consume a full cow within a single hour" Bug booms, buts interrupted by Brandon. "Bullshit" Brandon says from his seat in the second row. Alex snaps his hand around towards Brandon and leaps forward hissing at the people and the jump back away from him. When he's standing directly in front of Brandon Bug continues. "And if anybody so much as touches one...just one of its feathers.." when he says this Brandon reaches out and plucks one of the feathers off of the costume. "What are you gonna do. Are you gonna bite me?" he asks Alex tossing the feather down. Alex makes a noise that sort of sounds like a nuh uh and a little thing drops down and green stuff is sprayed all over Brandon. "The bird pukes profoundly on its tormentor." Bug booms again and steps back as Brandon tackles Alex. The teacher grabs a hold of Brandon trying to get him off of Alex. "But if that doesn't work the condor always has a second back up defense. Bottle number two Alex." Bug says and brown stuff is squirted all over Brandon. Then Bug starts choking and gagging so the teacher writes him a slip to leave. I jump up from my seat where I've been frozen the entire time and run to the teacher's desk. "Just go" he says clearly annoyed about the way the presentation turned out. Making sure to avoid both liquids I run out the door and down to the boy's bathroom door. I look around to make sure nobody's in the hall and slip inside. I walk up behind Alex while he's talking to Bug. "Bug are you okay?" I ask him causing Alex to jump a little bit. I look at Bug's face and see that he looks really frightened. "Bug what's wrong you look like you saw a ghost" I ask him scared that he might pass out. Apparently ghost was the wrong word because Bug just paled even more. "Uh, Um, I'll tell you in the courtyard meet me there after school. Okay?" he ask/tells me. "Okay feel better" I say then slip back out the door and walk to my last class of the day. My last class is free period so when I walk into the door and see my teacher with his feet propped on his desk I decide I'm not staying. "Hey Mr. T I'm gonna go hangout with Bug" I say not even bothering to walk past the doorway. "Okay just don't get into any trouble." he says waving his hand dismissing me. I walk back into the empty hallway and walk towards the open court yard. I'm walking down the hallway when I hear Bug and Alex talking in hushed tones. I sneak up to the corner where they're standing. I hear Fang say "his only friend is Dunkelman and he just uses Bug as his monkey" it sounded like she was on a phone. I hear a click then its quiet for a moment. Then they start mocking each other. "Bug! Bug! BUG!" Alex yells with Bug copying him and then there's a smack sound. "What happened" Bug asks Alex confused. "Nothing" Alex says quietly. "Do you think I'm a monkey Alex?" Bug asks innocently. "Have you ever killed people Bug" Alex asks Bug instead of answering his question. "Not that I can remember" Bug says sounding said. "Well I don't ever remember buying you bananas." Alex tells him. "Alright now go get your phone" he says a little louder. "What are you fucking crazy" Bug whisper yells. I have to stop myself from gasping. Bug doesn't cuss, he always corrects me and Alex when we do. I walk backwards a little and hide behind the lockers as Bug runs into the girls bathroom. I look up when I hear the click of heals. "Hey Brittany. What's up? How have you been? Where's Fang?" I ask running to stand between her and the bathroom that Bug still hadn't come out of. She ignores me and walks into the bathroom anyways. Three minutes later there's loud screams coming from the bathroom. Brittany runs out and then Bug run's out. Alex walks around the corner but stops in his tracks when he see's me. I round on him...