Huey only got a few minutes alone before his brothers found him around the side of the house. He wiped his face and squeezed his knees, clenching his jaw.

"What happened back there, Hueson?" Dewey stood with his fists on his hips.

Huey looked away, resting his chin on his knees. "I'm sure you heard the whole thing."

"Not the whole thing." Louie sat down next to him. "But you telling off our oldest living relative for trying to pay for your college? Oh yeah, we heard that." He snickered.

Huey shrugged and hugged his knees tighter to his chest. "They need to learn to take no for an answer." When neither of his brothers answered, he lifted his head. Please change the subject.

"Sure, but at least we don't have to!" Louie dangled Uncle Donald's massive keyring in his face. "No nos for us today."

"You're kidding!" Huey snatched them. The dozens of childhood photo keychains overflowed in his hand. "Yes! I owe you one, Lou."

"Aw, it was nothing. A simple guilt speech with a touch of puppy-dog eyes was all it took. I didn't even have to bring out the big guns." Louie stuffed his hands in his hoodie and smirked.

"What were the big guns?" Huey hesitated, looking from Louie to Dewey, knowing that with Louie "the big guns" could mean anything.

Dewey sighed and shook his head into his hand.

Louie flashed them a smile. "Let's just say it involved our very own Dewman, a bag of walnuts, and your hair gel."

"Heh. I'm glad it didn't come to that."

Louie jumped up and headed towards the garage. "Eh, I kinda wish it had. It was one of my better plans. Come on, let's get Huey into the house before Uncle D starts tracking him down."

Dewey grabbed Huey's hand and pulled him to his feet. They waited for Louie to walk out of sight. "Did Uncle Scrooge say anything about him?"

Huey rubbed the back of his head. "They're sending him to the mansion at the end of the summer. Without us around,I can only imagine Uncle Scrooge and Mrs. Beakley are going to crack down on him to make sure he doesn't start scheming again."

"Prison all over again," Dewey muttered. "But with a Scottish bajillionaire to keep tabs on him. What are we going to do?"

Huey shook his head. "Uncle Scrooge means well. They all do. But you and I both know that caging Louie in won't end well."

"It'll only give him more incentive to see the angles and outsmart them."

"Precisely."

"Hey! You guys com'n?" Louie called out to them from the garage.

"Be right there!" Dewey led the way back to the house, glancing back at Huey. "We'll figure something out."

Huey climbed the ladder to the attic after him. If we don't figure it out by the end of this trip, Dewey goes off to school while Louie sharpens pencils at the money bin and I get stuck coming home to Mom and Uncle D's purgatory of parental pressure… alone. For the REST of the YEAR. "We better."