Chapter 9: California Summertime

It felt like being in a sad movie full of tragedy. It just felt like the days would NEVER end at all. Especially for Nate. And when he told the news to his friends, they were all saddened and upset by the fact that Nate IS moving. Especially for Ruby.

A week slowly passed, and today was moving day. And all week long, Nate's friends have done all they could to cheer Nate up (especially Ruby), to no avail. Examples of cheer ups from Nate's friends were the following:

Francis: "California is FASCINATING meteorologically speaking! The average temperature is..."

Dee Dee: "In a few years, after I become a STAR in Hollywood, we can be neighbors!"

Teddy: "Here's a joke that will cheer you up! A duck walks into a barber shop..."

But no one was able to cheer Nate up. Not even Ruby, who kept reassuring Nate that once she gets done with school and college, "she'll find him" (or whatever that means).

Nate packaged everything in his room and threw away what he didn't really need and put some of his belongings in the family car and some in the moving van and was prepared to leave.

That's when Nate saw...

"Nate!"

It was Ruby. She ran up to Nate and threw herself into his arms for one last hug. Nate hugged back as he felt extremely miserable for a whole week.

"It's good to see you before you leave for California!" Ruby said, knowing that she will have to break up with her sweetheart.

"Good to see you too," Nate replied back.

"Nate!" Another voice exclaims.

It was Francis.

Then Teddy.

Then Chad.

Then Dee Dee.

Then Artur.

Then Jenny.

And Randy.

Everyone wrapped their arms around Nate in a BIG group hug, which Nate feel better.

"So glad you guys came," Nate said.

"And so glad you haven't left town yet," Teddy replied back.

Everyone chuckled.

Then Martin called out to Nate:

"Nate. It's about time to go! Make sure you don't leave anything behind."

"Okay," Nate responded.

Then Martin suddenly gushed with happiness when he saw the group hug:

"Oh, you are bidding goodbye to your friends? Hang on! Let me take a picture of you guys before we leave."

Martin went and got a camera and ordered everyone to take a picture. Normally, Nate really didn't take family pictures, but since it might be the last time that Nate will ever see his friends again, Nate complied with the order.

Everyone had their pictures taken, and after that, it was time to go.

Everyone said their last goodbyes to Nate with Ruby, last but not least, bidding her last goodbye.

Ruby kissed Nate one last time on the lips before she parted with him after whispering:

"I'll find you, once I'm done with school and college."

Nate was touched by this, despite having heard that already and headed towards the family car and getting inside and closing the door.

Nate looked at his friends one last time and waved a final goodbye as a song was announced to be being played on the car radio.

Yup, it was "Say Something" by A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera.

And Nate felt like the urge to sing along.

Outside of Nate's family car, Ruby felt the exact same feeling as Nate felt. And knowing that she might NEVER see Nate again (despite having promised to find him one day), she started to sing along too.

"Wow, she's got good singing," Teddy whispered.

"Sssshhhh!" Dee Dee whispered back.

And after the song was finished, Nate took a long, last look at his friends. He waved at them, they waved back.

Nate also waved at Ruby one last time. She waved back with a sad look on her face and Nate actually noticed a few tears were slowly pouring down her face. Nate was sad too. He wanted to close his eyes to see that everything that Nate went through was nothing but a bad dream.

But unfortunately, it was not a dream. It was REAL.

The family car then slowing began pulling out of the driveway and Nate was off to California.

"California, here I come," Nate thought miserably.

Speaking of Nate, Ellen was quite upset when she learned that the Wright family is going to have to move to California. She tried (once or twice) to convince Martin to stay with her boyfriend, but Martin said that she was not a legal adult yet, so she HAD to go too.

And the California trip was S-L-O-W.

Along the way, Nate and his family stopped at gas stations, for bathroom breaks, gas refills, whatever. But not fast-food restaurants, because Martin said that they have to wait until they go to California, because, they have lots of surprises.

So wait, they did.

And what felt like days that would never end, the Wright family had finally arrived in California.

And the city they located in was San Francisco.

Seems like a great city to be in, right? Yes. It is known for (a) steep hills, landmarks, not to mention the Golden Gate Bridge, which caught the attention of Nate AND Ellen. Nate thought it was a cool site, so that little detail made Nate feel a little bit better about moving.

Anyway, after a while, the Wright family finally found a place to locate at their home. Seems like a cool house to relocate at, right?

Yes. When the Wright family took a good view for the very first time, they were SURPRISED, or you might as well say STUNNED because the house was AMAZING. Mainly because there were several things that caught the Wright's eyes:

There was a mini gate at the entrance, a little flight of stairs to main door entrance, a chef's kitchen with a breakfast bar, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a fireplace!

Nate was ESPECIALLY surprised by everything the new house had, so he began to feel better, a LOT better, and began to let the feeling of now living in California sink into him.

Unfortunately, Ellen was STILL sad that her family had to move, but after eating out at The Cheesecake Factory, she eventually recovered.

After a few days moving into the new home, Nate was watching tv when his dad walked right up to him and asked:

"You're not going to mope around all summer, are you?"

"I don't know, Dad. I just don't have much to do. Plus, I'm trying to get used to this place..." Nate responded.

"Well, find something else to do rather than just moping around all summer, alright? I'm not mad about what you did at P.S 38, but at least try to appease me by going outside and get some air, alright?" Martin responded back before walking away, leaving Nate all by himself in the living room.

Nate let out a LONG sigh, knowing his dad was right, mainly because the fact really was that Nate mostly stayed in his new home ever since moving in, not just because he felt guilt-ridden for his role in the P.S 38, but because Nate had to get used to his new home address, mainly because Nate didn't want to get lost in his new city.

So Nate pulled out notebook paper and a pen and began writing his new comic. It started with an Ultra-Nate comic (Nate's personal favorite) and Nate started to write and draw a few pages in it which included a story similar to Nate's experiences at P.S 38 with Randy as his sidekick defeating Gina and Jason before Ultra-Nate learned the news that HE will have to move to California. This would devastate the hero since he recently got his new crush (Ruby Dinsmore) and will have to leave his hometown behind, which Nate's tears began to pour out slowly.

Nate missed Ruby so much, especially his friends. Finding new friends is going to be pretty difficult, especially in California.

A few knocks were sounded at the front door. Nate went to answer it. He opened the door and there was a woman with black hair and brown eyes.

"You're new to this town?" the woman asked.

Nate nodded.

Then the woman gave Nate something.

It was an invitation card to a birthday.

"Thanks," Nate responded.

The woman nodded and left. Nate closed the door, looking at the card. Just then, Martin came up to Nate and asked:

"Who was that?"

Then Martin's eyes landed on the card. He took it and looked at it.

"Huh. I see. That's cool. Maybe that will get you out of the house for awhile," Martin said with relief as he was worried that Nate might have let in strangers to his home.

All that Nate could do was let out a sigh.

Here's what the card said:

You're invited to Simon's 9th birthday party!

Cake! Games! And much, much more!

It's only for two hours don't wait around!

Come over and have fun!

Nate looked at the card. It's nice going to someone's party. Maybe it will be fun after all.

So Nate got ready to go the party and headed straight to the location of Simon's birthday party. And I know what you're thinking: Why not give out addresses and phone numbers?

Good question.

Maybe it's because I don't want any identity thieves going out and about and stealing people's ID and money or have strangers come to your home on unannounced visits and try to kill you. So I'm censoring addresses unless if I can come up with my own, to which I don't at the moment, I'm not giving out anything on the matter.

Nate made his way to the location of Simon's birthday party and headed to the house and rang the doorbell.

The door opened and the person responded to the door was the woman who gave the card to Nate.

"Hi, and welcome to Simon's birthday! Come on in!" the woman replied.

Nate did so and headed to the main room and there were a few other people there.

So Nate got settled in for a bit and after a few moments, he spotted a boy who looked like Nate's age and had black hair and blue eyes like the woman's and was freaking out for some reason. Nate felt bad for the kid, so he headed over to ask what the problem is.

"You okay?" Nate asked.

The kid noticed.

"Other than posting my dad's ID to Facebook? I'm okay," the kid responded.

Nate's heart smacked the ground. He can imagine what the boy's father would say or do to his son, once he discovered what his son did on social media. So Nate changed the subject by introducing himself to the kid.

"I'm Nate Wright," Nate introduced himself.

"Daniel Johnson. Some people call me DJ," the kid-Daniel-introduced himself back.

"Soooo, how did you post your dad's ID on social media?" Nate asked.

"That was NOT me! Sorry for hissing at you, but I am freaking out here!" Daniel was freaking out more by the minute.

"Then who was it?"

"My brother, Simon."

Nate's heart stopped. AGAIN.

"Simon's your brother?" Nate asked in complete shock.

Daniel nodded.

"What the hell am I gonna do?" Daniel asked in a huge panic.

Nate never heard anyone curse like that, especially Daniel. But yet again, there's always a time for everything.

Just then, the woman-or should I say, Mrs. Johnson- announced to the crowd:

"Hey, everyone! Simon is here!"

Simon arrived and as the birthday candles were lit, everyone sang "Happy Birthday to You" to Simon (except Daniel, who freaking out more by the minute), who then blew out the candles, and then everyone began getting cake. And then Simon began to pressurize Daniel into...um...should we say sing a song for him?

Daniel didn't want to at all, but because of the intense pressure from everyone in the room (minus Nate), he is forced to sing out loud the theme song of "Bob the Builder."

The crowd did cheer, except for Nate, who happened to feel Daniel's pain.

And that is when the door flew open. Everyone turned to the source of the sound. And there stood a man, whose face looked pretty dark-red if you ask me.

"DANIEL!" roared the man.

The room went deadly quiet. All eyes landed on Daniel.

"Is that your dad?" Nate asks.

All that Daniel could do was nod his head.

And knowing that Daniel would likely be killed, Nate immediately stepped in for Daniel.

"He didn't do it! It's not his fault!" Nate protested.

"Then who did it?" Mr. Johnson demanded.

"That's what I want to know," Nate replied back.

Simon tried to look away, but unfortunately for him, his mother noticed what Simon was doing, so she began asking him repeatedly on how he got on Daniel's account and posted Mr. Johnson's ID online. And eventually, Simon admitted responsibility.

"Oooooooookkkkkkkkayyyyyyyyy. It was me," Simon said in defeat.

"How do we get the post down?" Mrs. Johnson demanded to Simon.

"Here's how..." Simon began.

And after a few minutes of getting the post down from social media, everything went back to normal...or so it seemed because it was all awkward silence in the room and that nobody said a WORD to each other.

"Don't EVER get on to your brother's account and posting without our consent. Do you understand?" Mr. Johnson warned to Simon.

"Yessir," Simon replied.

"Because I worked HARD to get you guys everything you need. And this better not be the thanks I get."

Simon nodded sadly. Nate knew it would be silent throughout the remainder of the party, so he decided to leave.

"Ummm, you know what? I'm gonna head out. Thanks for inviting me anyway," Nate said to the Johnsons.

"Your welcome," Mrs. Johnson said back.

"You're new to this city?" Mr. Johnson asked, suddenly surprised by a new member of San Francisco.

"Yup," Nate replied.

"Nice to meet you, kid. Nice to meet you."

Then after the conversation, Nate left the party. As he was making his way back home, he heard some music in the distance. So he headed straight towards to the source of the music and saw a kid finishing a song up, which Nate couldn't tell.

And the kid looked like any girl's dream crush if you ask me. The kid had red hair, blue eyes, somewhat tan skin, and looked a bit muscular. And Nate got closer as the red-haired boy began to sing another song:

Nate immediately recognized the song. It was Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are."

Nate couldn't help himself but imagine himself singing that to Ruby. Man, would she love it, or WHAT? Yep, she would DEFINITELY love it.

By now, Nate and Ruby would have a great item by now, even beating Artur and Jenny.

And after the song was finished Nate applauded to the kid, who then noticed and greeted him with a question:

"Hey there! You passin' through or you moving in here?"

"Moving in here," Nate responded.

"Great! My name is Samuel Brown," the kid-Samuel- introduced himself.

"Nate Wright," Nate introduced himself back.

"I'm a very good singer, but I haven't brought my talent yet to my school. Should I do so?" Samuel asked Nate.

"Probably a good idea," Nate replied.

Samuel smiled.

"Great idea! Hopefully, people can finally recognize me, and not look at me as a nobody," he said with relief.

"Hope so too," Nate agreed to Samuel's thoughts.

"You want me to sing a few more songs to you, or are you good for now?" Samuel asked.

"Hold off for now. I gotta get back home now, but show me later," Nate politely declined.

"Okay. See you later," Samuel said, bidding goodbye to his new friend.

"Bye," Nate said bidding goodbye back to his new friend.

Nate left and made his way back home. Martin was surprised at how early Nate came back, so he asked why that is.

"You're back early. Is everything alright?"

"Not really. The party turned up to be a disaster. Turned out Simon, the birthday boy, got on to his older brother's account and posted something he shouldn't have. So I excused myself to leave early, and I did, but as I was making my way back here, I heard singing, so I navigated my way to the source, and someone had incredible singing and was about my age too," Nate told his father.

"I can tell you made a friend," Martin said with a smile accompanied with a wink.

"I did," Nate replied back.

"Good for you, good for you. But I want you to be out of the house more, alright? I don't want you being indoors all summer long," Martin requested.

"Alright. I will," Nate responded.

And as promised, Nate spent less time indoors, and more time outdoors, by hanging out with his friends, Samuel and Daniel, by going to the Sava Pool, which was an indoor pool for anyone to go. So that is where Nate and his new friends hang out for most of the summer, other times Samuel would sing a few songs that were popular to the trio.

One day, while shopping for school supplies, which summer was about to end, Samuel asked Nate if he had any friends and foes previously. Nate said he did, by explaining what led up to the events of the P.S 38 Massacre. Daniel and Samuel were shocked by Nate's story, but they didn't hate Nate for what he did to Gina since Nate told Daniel and Samuel about Gina's personalities and selfishness, and how she gets on Nate's nerves, especially towards Nate's previous friends. So they simply warned him about creating demons. Here's the conversation:

"That's pretty harsh if you ask me. I'm not going to hate you for what you did, but I would like to warn about something," Samuel said to Nate.

"About what?" Nate asked.

"About creating your own demons. They can turn you and your life into a living nightmare," Samuel said, answering Nate's question.

Nate felt shocked by what Samuel said. So much that he began to shake uncontrollably.

Samuel went to comfort Nate. So did Daniel.

And after a few moments, the three pulled away from each other, with Samuel saying:

"Come on. Let's finish our school supply shopping."

"Great idea," Daniel replied.

"Right," Nate tagged along too.

And after shopping, Nate went home and went to his room and sat on his bed for a few minutes, then got up and pulled out a piece of paper and began writing a letter to his friends back in his former hometown:

Dear Francis and the rest of my friends,

I bet you're wondering how I'm doing. To answer that, I am doing fine...for now. School hasn't started soon and I hope you guys are okay. I now live in San Francisco, which looks like a pretty good place to live so far. I made a few friends so far too, and they are Daniel "DJ" Johnson and Samuel Brown. They are pretty nice if you ask me. Hopefully, we still stay in touch. I miss you guys so much and I hope I see you again.

-Nate Wright

Nate finished his letter and went up to his dad, who was finishing up dinner.

"Hey dad, can you send this letter to my friends?" Nate asked his dad.

"Sure," Martin replied.

After dinner, Martin took care of Nate's letter and got everything squared away.

Nate got cleaned up and went to his room. He hadn't made a comic for quite some time now, so he took the liberty upon himself and began drawing. Nate drew a comic of himself meeting his new friends when sooner or later, there was a robbery, and that's when Nate transformed himself to Ultra-Nate and defeating the villains. The comic left Nate wondering what his new friends would think if they saw his comic. But that didn't matter at the moment since it was getting late and Nate decided to go to sleep.

Meanwhile, about three thousands miles away, Gina sat in her jail cell in anger. She was STILL mad at Nate for what he did to her. She was sentenced to multiple life sentences PLUS one thousand years with no parole, not to mention that at her trial the prosecutor questioned her harshly during cross-examination so much that Gina actually swear out in court that she better not get out of jail. Gina also tried to point out that Nate was responsible for her downfall, but no one wanted to hear it.

But anyway, as Gina kept fuming in her cell in anger, she heard a sudden noise. Turned out there was a prison break in progress.

As Gina broke out of her cell, she screamed out in joy:

"YES! YES! I'M OUT OF MY CELL!"

Gina then noticed a few prison guards rounding up a few inmates, so she wasted no time killing them off one by one. One by knife, another with a neck snap, and the last with a gun.

"Thanks. Appreciate you," one inmate said in gratitude.

"Your welcome," Gina said with an evil smirk.

Then after that, Gina requested that everyone back her up while she and everyone else escape prison. And so they did, and as Gina and all the inmates were making their way out of prison, multiple police officers arrived at the prison.

"Oh Goddammit!" Gina groaned, knowing that she will have to go back to her cell.

But suddenly, multiple bullets began showering down on the ground, which killed the police officers instantly. And as Gina got a closer look, it turned it was coming from a helicopter with a man firing down with a machine gun.

The helicopter got down on the ground, then suddenly there were MORE helicopters coming.

"Get in the copters!" a man demanded to Gina and the inmates.

Everyone complied and the helicopters began to fly away from the prison. And once the inmates were at safety where no one can find them, the helicopters landed on the ground and everyone got out and the man introduced himself.

"I am Alfred Bates Evans. The older brother of the late Jason Evans and welcome to P.E.A.C.E!"

Everyone was quiet. No one said a word to each other until one inmate spoke up.

"What's P.E.A.C.E?" the inmate asked.

"I'm glad you asked. It stands for People Effectively Assaulting Countries Everywhere. We are terrorists, villains, MONSTERS!" Alfred explained to all the inmates, whom all cheered at what Alfred said except for one older inmate, who raised his hand.

"Question? Quiet down, everyone! Someone has a question," Alfred ordered to the crowd.

The cheering stopped, which gave the older inmate to speak.

"Quick out of the blue thing: before I got locked up in a cell, I read on that someone suggested that name you just said a little bit ago. Shouldn't you try another name like-"

But the old inmate wasn't able to finish his thought because Alfred wasted no time to kill the inmate instantly with a gun, which startled all the other inmates.

As the old inmate dropped dead to the ground, Alfred asked the rest of the inmates:

"Anyone else?"

Silence.

"I thought so. Now before we started, does anyone else have any questions or thoughts NOT relating to criticising my team's name?" Alfred asked after a few moments of silence.

Gina raised her hand.

"Go ahead," Alfred signaled to Gina, who responded back:

"I know your brother Jason before he was killed in the P.S 38 massacre. I was his co-accomplice."

This gets Alfred's attention pretty well.

"Ah yes. I heard about you. How about you sit right here in the helicopter while I give the orders?" Alfred suggested to Gina, who wanted to groan, but knowing that she would be the next person killed, she complied with Alfred's suggestion.

"Now. There's WAY too many of you, and I know you want to be on my team too," Alfred began to the inmates, who all cheered at once, causing Alfred to signal them to stop by holding his fist in the air.

"But there are WAY too many of you, so...we are gonna have...tryouts," Alfred continued.

Silence. Then one inmate raised his hand.

"What?" Alfred asked.

"What tryouts are you talking about?" the inmate asked.

"I'm glad you asked that one too. What I mean is that I need a team, who is STRONG, and willing to take orders from me. But I am gonna have to ask that you have ONE round of tryouts. And don't worry. Whoever advances from this round will NOT have to do this again in the future," Alfred explained.

"So what do we have to do?" an inmate asked.

"Simple. You will have to kill each other until there are about...75 of you remaining," Alfred continued to explain, which caused a HUGE protest from the inmates, causing Alfred to silence them again by firing a gun in the air.

"And yes, I know that's frustrating, but here's the catch. I'm looking for inmates from ages 10 to...55 to be on my team. No elderly people aloud," Alfred assured to the inmates.

"HUH?" asked one very old inmate in shock. And in no time flat, a nearby inmate killed the old inmate with a snap to the neck.

"That's right. No weapons, no guns, no knives. Just your hands. Oh. And a few other things. One: Keep track of the inmates with me. And two: anyone who cheats is automatically killed. Do I make myself clear?" Alfred asked while explaining the rules.

The inmates nodded.

"When do we start?" another inmate asked.

"Now," Alfred replied.

And in no time flat, every last inmate began turning on to each other and began killing each by stomping, kicking, and breaking each other apart while Gina watched safely from the helicopter.

And after all 75 inmates were now accounted for, Alfred congratulates the inmates.

"Great job, everyone! Now let's move quickly! I need to talk to Gina," Alfred said to the inmates.

And everyone got into their helicopters and flew away, leaving the rest of the bodies behind.

But anyway, Alfred began a conversation with Gina.

"You knew my brother?" Alfred asked.

Gina nodded.

"Yeah. I was so close to getting my revenge on my nemesis but unfortunately, I lost and I felt HUMILIATED," Gina explained.

Alfred nodded back.

"Who's your nemesis?" he asked Gina.

"Nate Wright. He has spiky hair and writes comics a LOT," Gina explained.

"Where do I find him?" Alfred asked.

"Somewhere...in California," Gina replied.

Alfred nodded again.

"Okay. We'll sweep the entire state for him. Do you know his friends and relatives?" he asked.

Gina nodded and pointed out everyone Nate was close to. Including, but not limited to Francis, Teddy, Chad, Dee Dee, Jenny, Artur, Maya (who has a crush on Chad), Randy, Breckenridge, and Ruby (Nate's ex-girlfriend).

"Where do I find them?" What will they look like?" Alfred asked. Gina pointed out their current locations and after that, Alfred said to Gina:

Here's what I'm thinking: We can either find Nate outright, OR we can make his friends suffer first, THEN him. What do you think?"

"Whichever way works possible," Gina responded.

"Okay. First, let's find a place to hide and have quiet profiles, then we'll find Nate's friends and make them suffer, and then, we'll find Nate. How does that sound to you?" Alfred asked.

"Fabulous," Gina said with an evil smirk.

In her mind, Gina's thoughts were:

Oh, Nate, you picked the wrong person to mess with. And now you will DEFINITELY pay for what you did to me!

That's when Alfred's phone began to ring.

"Hello?...Oh, I see...Uh-huh...uh-huh...Oh, okay! Thank you for the update! Bye!" Alfred answered before bidding goodbye to his caller then dropped the news to Gina:

"Good news: we now know where Nate is, and his dad has no idea that his new company is connected to ours."

*Oh boy! A shocking twist! And I am SO SORRY for the long delay. School conflicted me from writing this chapter amongst other things and all credit goes to LilGherkin from The Escapist. And thank you to giving me an idea to have Gina break out of prison. Tell me what I will write in the next chapter and I will write it down. Again, sorry for the BIG delay. See you all around!*