"If this is because of the whole 'Alvin' thing, we were just kidding." Private said anxiously. "Did I do something wrong?"

"I don't know, I'll let him explain. Right now, I have to deal with Julien." Alice said. She turned away and stomped to the elevators

"H-Henry, I swear I'm doing well in school. I got a good grade on the last history test and-"

"Andre, this isn't about grades." Henry sighed. "Let's sit." He gestured to the chairs.

Private sat down, he decided not to tell Henry about the name change.

"When did you get a haircut?"

"My roommate did it." Private said. "Is that what this is about?"

Henry sighed again. "No, the haircut is fine. Your mom saw the pictures on Facebook that your friend took."

"The food?" Private asked.

"Those, but she's more upset about recent events."

"I don't get it."

"She researched your roommates and unfortunately she knows what's been happening at school."

Private gasped. "Rico's not a nutter, I swear! He's really nice and-"

"That's not your mom's opinion. She thinks you'll get hurt. And she got a message that you were trying to get in the middle of that crowd-"

"They were pummeling Rico! If I hadn't stepped in, Skipper might have been too late and-"

"She also researched your other roommates and she's not happy with Skipper. She thinks he's going to force you to join the military or do something you don't want."

"B-but he's not-"

"It's your mom's decision."

"Well Mum's wrong!"

Henry looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry, Andre."

Private stared determinedly at the door. People were coming in, chatting about their day at school. Some were leaving to go shopping or for walks. He heard laughter from the dining hall. The thought that he might not be one of them…

It was too painful to think about.

He perked up as he saw Skipper and Kowalski enter with Rocky. But Skipper and Rocky seemed sad and Kowalski was very pale. They sat Kowalski down and chatted.

Skipper looked over to Private who gave the leader a sad smile. Skipper didn't buy it.

Skipper came over just as Rico stepped off the elevator with a fresh shirt and his laundry. Rico headed for a door around the corner that lead to the laundry room which Alice forgot to mention.

They waited for Rico to come out with his empty laundry basket.

Rico came over to see what was going on. He notified them that Kenny was still throwing up and suggested that he shouldn't go to school tomorrow.

Skipper told them that Kowalski had fainted again and he should rest. He also said that his brother had been involved in a car accident and he and Rocky were going back home on Friday afternoon and returning Sunday night.

Private drew a deep breath. "My mum's not letting me come back next term." He said.

"What?!" Rico yelped.

"Seriously?" Skipper said. "What happened?"

"She caught wind of the events happening recently and…she doesn't exactly think highly of you three." Private said. "AND she wants me to stay with Henry's family until the winter holidays…so that's it…I'm leaving."

"You can't go! We're a team, remember?"

"Skipper, I don't have a choice. Unless your military dad can convince-"

"I can't ask him to do that."

"Aww."

"But I can ask Julien's dad…or more specifically, he can make a phone call."

"Like Julien would agree."

"He would, but a few people won't like it." A mischievous grin appeared on Skipper's face.

Private was interested now.

"NO!" The girl yelled when Skipper suggested it the next day at lunch time. "It's nothing against the kid; he's a delight to frighten half to death but no."

"Come on, Nat, it's all he wants. One date with you and he'll tell his dad to convince Private's mom to let him stay." Skipper said.

"Read my lips and read closely." She said, grabbing his shirt. "I. Will. Not. Do. This."

"What do I have to do to convince you?"

"Hmm…I want Izzy's secret recipe for his pasta sauce. He refuses to give it to me."

"Fine, I'll ask." Skipper sighed.

"Now why would she want that?" Izzy asked, sketching in his notebook. Skipper and Rico had found him in the park after school. The other boys were still trying to come up with plans.

"So she can go on a date with Julien and Private's mother will be convinced that he can stay."

"Okay."

"Okay? Really, that's awesome-"

"But-"

"Aw, come on! There's a but?"

"Everyone has a but."

Rico snickered.

"Cut it out." Skipper said, giving Rico a light swat on the head. "Alright Izzy, what do you want?"

"Mort has a cool new camera, I want to borrow it." Izzy said.

"I'll ask Mort."

Groaning, they hurried across the park and back to the apartments. Skipper knocked on the door and Maurice answered.

"What happened to you?" Maurice asked, eyeing the sweaty boys.

"Long story, don't ask. Is Mort here?"

"Yeah, Mort!"

Mort bounced into the room. "Yeeeeees?"

"Can Izzy borrow that new camera you got?"

"Okay, can I have something too?"

"Oi vey." Skipper said. "Alright, what do you want?"

"I want Barry to be giving back my Pokémon yellow game." Mort said.

"Alright." Skipper said brightly. Barry already owed them for what he had done before. A quickly replied text indicated Barry in his room. Skipper sighed, at least the kid was just on the floor below and not on the other side of the park. Rico opted to go sit down in his room with a glass of water for a while.

"Hey, Skipper." Barry said, exiting his room and seeing the teen walking down the hall "Do you need something? Izzy texted me. I stayed here because I figured you'd be tired of running all over the place."

"Thank you for that. Yeah, we need something and remember you already owe us so…In a crazy chain of events I need you to do something so the chain can react."

"What?"

"I need you to give something to Mort so Mort can give the camera to Izzy so Izzy can give the secret recipe to Nat and Nat can go on a date with Julien and Julien will tell his dad to talk to Private's mom to let him stay."

"Oh, okay. What do you need me to give Mort, singing lessons?"

"I wish." Skipper shook his head. "He wants something called Pokémon yellow game that you borrowed."

The color drained from Barry's face. "You see…the thing is…"

"What?" Skipper groaned.

Barry hesitated. "I might have dropped it and it might have been accidentally knocked…er…into…the Hudson River."

"WHAT?! How did you manage that?"

"During the summer, my foster parents took us on a trip and I brought my game boy and two games…I happened to lose Mort's…"

Skipper groaned loudly.

"I'm sorry." Barry squeaked. "But if he wants anything else like singing lessons or a sleepover or something, I'd do it."

Skipper and Barry approached Mort to explain what happened to his game and Mort cried. He refused to give anything to anyone and shut the door.

Skipper explained the predicament to Izzy who said he couldn't give Nat the recipe. Of course, without the recipe there was no chance Nat would go out with Julien.

And then Julien refused to listen to any of the Penguins, claiming they stole his boom box's 'boominess.'

Skipper told this to the boys that evening. Private refused to point blank to accompany Henry to his house. Henry finally succumbed to the boys arguments and let Private stay.

Private's mom was less than happy. The next afternoon and the following afternoon, they talked until she had to go to bed and it always ended with Private refusing to go.

Friday came too quickly and Skipper had to leave. He and Rocky departed for Long Island at 4:00 pm.

Kowalski and Rico tried cheering Private up, but to no avail.

"Halloween's coming in two weeks and four days." Kowalski said. "And do you know what it'll be in four days?"

"Er, Wednesday?"

"It'll be a month since you've been here!"

Private sighed. "If only I could stay longer than two months…"

"We'll convince your mom, trust us!"

"I trust you and I respect you but there's no way Mum's going to-"

Private's phone rang. "It's not from anyone I know."

Kowalski took it. "Hello?" He narrowed his eyes as he listened to the voice on the other end. He hung up and scowled. "I don't recognize the voice, but it was a threat." He picked up his own phone. "And I just got a threatening message. Basically it says 'quit while you're ahead or else' It could be from that Blowhole guy, but he couldn't know yet, could he?"

"Hey, guys!" Rico shouted. "C'mere."

They rushed into Rico's room where they found him checking his email. There was the same threatening message.

"Who is this person?" Kowalski breathed.

Private looked at Kowalski. "Do you think Skip-?"

RING! RING!

Kowalski picked up his phone. "Hey…really? Us too…Rico got an email, Private got a phone call and I got a text message…yeah…okay…uh-huh…we'll be careful…bye…" he turned to the others. "Skipper found a note in his mailbox; it said the same thing except it added 'what happened to your brother will be the least of your problems'."

"That means he knows where we live." Private said fearfully.

Rico looked at Kowalski who was deep in thought.

"Something doesn't add up." Kowalski said, "How would your mother know about us? She should have been asleep when that whole Facebook thing started. We deleted everything right away, but it should have been past midnight."

"No, it happened in the morning. She could have seen the message-"

"Yes, but how would she know Rico's your roommate? How could she know who Skipper is? It has to be someone who has direct access to school files. There's no other way they'd know where Skipper lived or how to contact your mother or any of us."

"So someone is undercover at the school?" Private wondered.

"Yes, or someone at the school is being pressed with these questions and forced to answer them."

"But who can get into our files except for teachers and staff? They wouldn't tell."

"I know a student assistant who works there, he wouldn't tell unless he was threatened. We should talk to him tomorrow."

"He lives here? Could it be possible that Barry or Kenny-"

"No." Kowalski said curtly. "My brother wouldn't sell us out and I don't think Barry's working for anyone."

"I'm sorry I suggested-"

"It's okay, when raising suspicions we have to think about everyone we've told things to. This means you have to question your friends and I have to question mine until we get some answers. We also have to ask Roy."

"Who?"

"Roy, he's the student assistant in the front office. He's in eleventh grade like Rikki and Rocky."

"Okay, when do we begin?"

"Tomorrow."

"And my mum's decision?"

"We'll work on that. I promise, we'll get to the bottom of this and we'll make her see that you're fine here. Skipper and I have been concerned about this for a few days now, it was bound to get out that you and Rico were roommates and her concerns would skyrocket. What I want to know is how she got her information, she's all the way across the ocean with a five hour time difference and Henry's not allowed to know anything unless it's an emergency. Didn't you say he had kids? Maybe one of them could have-"

"Done nothing. They're not even in Pre-school yet."

"He and his wife still could have heard rumors from other parents with teenagers who go to the same school. And of course every parent has received an automated voice message about the 'bullying is wrong' message."

"How did you know that?"

"Because Rico's dad got it twice and Marlene told me her parents got it and…I…I uh…overheard D-Doris…" He inhaled; a slightly pink tinge appeared on his face. "And a few of our classmates told me and Skipper."

"How come he got it twice?"

"It's an automated message system, it goes through the numbers and calls. It also doesn't know who shares the same person. For example, Smith. There could be Joe Smith and John Smith, but can be completely unrelated. If the message took them to be brothers, Joe's family would know what's going on and unless John said anything, his parents wouldn't know."

"So Ramona's parents are going to get it four times?"

"That will most likely happen."

"What about Barry?"

"I assume the foster home would get it unless his elementary school papers transferred an old number to reach his sister. They probably did which is how she knew where to find him."

"I think we should find out more about her."

"That's what Skipper was thinking too."

"We've got lots of planning to do."

"Yup, are you ready Rico?"

They turned to find Rico fast asleep on his bed. Kowalski chuckled and left the room. Private turned off the light and closed the door behind him.

"Now what?" Private asked.

"We need to come up with a plan or four in this case. One, we need to figure out who's threatening us; two, we need to know how information is getting to your mother; and three, we need to convince her to let you stay. The fourth one is finding out what's going on with Barry and his sister, but I think that should be low on our priority list unless she does something crazy that warrants our attention."

"Alright…may I ask why you fainted on Monday?"

"No."

Private suddenly had an awkward feeling as if he touched upon something sensitive.

"Sorry," Kowalski said, "But I'd rather not tell you. Let's just say I wasn't feeling too well."

Private didn't press the subject further.

Over the weekend the three of them, with Skipper on the phone, began their plans. Private was to begin by asking his friends if they ever spoke to anyone about him. Ramona said she'd only told her parents that she made a new friend, but nothing about what happened in school. She also called Allie and her answer was pretty much the same. Allie's parents just didn't want her to have a boyfriend which they mentioned…five times.

Barry said he hadn't told anyone anything and Kenny never spilled any numbers either.

Rico and Private then questioned Julien, not that that was an easy task. Julien refused to be in the same room as Rico.

Kowalski had tracked down Roy and talked to him. Roy was a little nervous at first, but he consented to talk. Roy hadn't received threats of any kind nor had he given phone numbers out.

When Skipper returned on Sunday night, the boys hadn't had any success. They ruled out their suspects quickly. He said that he'd shown the letter to his father, but they were also unable to figure out where the threats came from.

"Who haven't we suspected yet?"

"I don't know." Kowalski said, trying to come up with something.

Skipper sighed heavily, and then he bolted up. "Hang on." He said. "Private, you've been in communication with your friends in England, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Private asked.

"How many people did you tell about your roommates?"

"Three. My dad, but he wouldn't tell Mum. And my friend Ginger, and my cousin Daniel."

"Could it be possible that Daniel or Ginger said anything?"

"I don't know, I'll ask tomorrow."

"Email them tonight so they can get it first thing tomorrow morning."

Private nodded. He sent out two emails and then got ready for bed.

Monday morning came and the boys woke up at 5:00 in the morning. Private looked at his phone and jumped out of bed to turn on his computer.

He got dressed and returned to his room to find Rico and Skipper waiting for him. Skipper pointed to the screen which was alerting the user to an incoming video message.

"It's from Ginger." He opened a video chat. "What's up?" he said once the video revealed a girl with curly brown hair and green eyes. She looked like she was in a park.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" She remarked, noting Private's messy hair and Rico holding a toothbrush.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" Private asked.

"It's the morning break now. I have to leave soon so let's make it quick. Andre, your email said you were worried about something, right?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if you or Daniel had given out any personal information."

"Whatever you said to everyone back home is what I said. I didn't say anything you didn't want me to. And I just said you had cool roommates." She looked at the others. "I suppose I should have mentioned cute too."

"Gingy…"

"You told me not to tell your mum and I didn't, mate, everything's good."

There was something in her tone that made Skipper narrow his eyes. "You're hiding something." He said.

Ginger looked at him in shock. "What makes you think-?"

"You mentioned nothing about Daniel." Skipper said.

She bit her lip.

"Ginger, what's going on?" Private asked.

"I swear I tried to stop the git!" She blurted before she could stop herself.

"What did he do?"

"Daniel's going on about how you betrayed the entire country and went to America and- he's also saying that he was the one who helped you when we played Pokémon as kids and…he stole your game too. He's also telling your mum about your roommates. Your emails are being read by him and he shows her. He's also threatening to beat you if you ever come back."

"W-what?! Why would he do that?" Private asked. "We're cousins, why would he…"

"Why would Daniel attempt to discredit Private?" Kowalski wondered.

"Who?" Ginger asked.

"Oh, I never told you, my new name is Private."

"Ginger!" A voice came from the background followed by the chime of a bell.

"I have to go." She said. "Sorry I'm not of much help!"

"How could he do this?" Private asked after he shut off his computer. "I trusted him, wait until I get my hands on him." He growled.

"Wow, you're actually making threats." Skipper said. "Congratulations, you're officially part of the team."

Private blushed. "I thought I already was…" he mumbled.

A/N: I hope this chapter satisfies you until I'm done with my Monday final and I might post another chapter of one of my stories. Next week I'm preparing to move out of the dorms so I'm going to be swamped with making sure I have all my things…I also have to figure out how to use up my extra dining money by the end of next week or it just gets thrown out like garbage. Thanks for reading and tune in to see what happens. -T.K