"-And if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here."
Louie swallowed hard and looked away. Don't remind me. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh. Yeah. What are brothers for, right?"
He felt his brother's eyes boring into his soul. When Huey opened his mouth to say something, all Louie could do was cringe and pray that he wasn't about to call him out.
"Hey guys! Check this out!" Dewey came to his rescue.
Huey closed his mouth, now forgetting what he was going to say and Louie got off Scott free from whatever it was going to be. They headed over to Dewey who was still being followed by a dozen, pint-sized junior woodchucks.
He laughed and pointed at a large picture on the wall of Huey from the day he became a senior woodchuck, coonskin hat and all. "Look at that! Little ol' Huey has his own wall!"
Their eyes all went up. And it wasn't just the painting. Uncle Scrooge had gathered newspaper articles written by Huey and framed them along with his old shirt and sash.
"Wooow. Not like he has a favorite or anything," Louie smirked.
Dewey shoved him. "Uncle Scrooge does not pick favorites. But if he did, it'd be me. We all know that."
Huey stared at the wall, his mouth hanging open. The little junior woodchucks gasped and left Dewey to circle him.
"You're Huey Duck? I heard you caught three Beagle Boys using only your hands and woodchuck skills! Is that true?"
"You collected more merit badges in a year than any junior woodchuck has ever done!"
"They say you received so many badges, you had to sew them on the front and back… and then they had to give you a second one!"
"You literally wrote all the added entries in the new edition of the junior woodchuck guidebook!"
The chatter only grew from there.
Dewey stared in disbelief. "He… but he…."
Louie shrugged and laughed. "You may be good at telling stories but you're no famous nerd. Apparently, all this time Huey's LITERALLY been the king of nerds and no one's said anything." He nudged Dewey in the arm. "No wonder Scrooge gave him a wall."
"Why?!" Dewey fell back against the wall, scrubbing his face. "Why does the world hate me?"
"Eh. You learn to get over it."
After the initial shock, Huey knelt down and began signing autographs and answering questions from his little fans.
Louie glanced at his watch. His stomach tightened. Oh boiy. I didn't plan for Huey to be nerd famous. We're not going to make it if we don't get out of here soon. And the nerd crowd was groowwwing.
He went around the army of children and corralled them into a line. "Alright, kids. Hurry up. Hubert's only signing autographs for a few more minutes. Make it snappy." He scribbled on a sticky note and stuck on his brother's forehead. "You can get one autograph and one question for the small price of $5.99. Payable to his brother and manager… me." Might as well make the most of it before we bolt.
Huey crumpled the sticky note and tossed it back at him. "We're not charging them, Louie. They're just kids. Like we were, remember? Hungry for knowledge and adventure." He smiled at the next little boy in line before signing his name in the guidebook.
"Ugh, you're no fun." Louie kicked the crumpled piece of paper. It flew through the air and hit Dewey in the head. "Just hurry up, okay? We don't have long before we need to head out."
Huey seemed to ignore him by greeting another youngster who wore a similar red hat to the one he used to wear.
Louie watched him ruffle the little duck's hair before asking him how long he'd been a junior woodchuck. He had that familiar, warm smile going on and the spark was in his eye that Louie rarely saw anymore. He literally has a legacy already and he's only 18. How is he not taking advantage of it? I'd love it if Uncle Scrooge believed in me enough to create a wall in my honor and Dewey's been writing his dumb biography in secret just waiting for people to notice him.
Huey Duck, you're just plain weird.