And these boys had to be ready to face it.
"That's not a gaming PC, that's a laptop!"
B. Wells and DBro were talking over Instagram as Brandon got ready for the Chili Bowl. DaVan was still asleep because his alarm cancelled out apparently.
And DBro wasn't in a great place either. He'd been yelled at by his girlfriend Skye's (Yes, the one who defended Tyler Wood for the corn thing) for watching Food Wars.
"What's the show about?"
"Whenever the people eat, they take their clothes off."
"Ok, no wonder why they don't want you to be around the kids." He said, laughing.
"But they don't show anything! There's no boobs or d***s, it's fine!"
"But they're still taking off their clothes! It's inappropriate, D!"
"They won't let me watch anime either!"
"Does the anime have nudity?"
"Well, I mean-"
"Exactly. Now let me go wake up DaVan. We only have about 15 minutes."
DaVan opened his eyes and gasped. (Like Josh) "What? It's 7:30?"
"Yeah. You gotta get up, bruv."
"Agh, I think my alarm cancelled itself."
"Well, that sucks, but we gotta go soon."
"Yep, I'm getting up."
DaVan groggily got up and looked at his phone. "Yeah, I should've woken up earlier. Lemme go get ready."
They were going to record some more tracks after they got up, but since DaVan slept in, they hadn't had any time. But oh well.
After he was ready, DaVan grabbed a donut to go and hopped in the car with B. Wells.
"Oh no, not Yung Penguin. This is horrible."
B. Wells laughed, as that guy was a funny penguin. And when they skipped to a Travis Scott song, they got really hyped driving to the church.
They listened to some clipping too, and when they pulled up into the parking lot, they were a little conflicted about getting out of the car.
"Should we get out?"
"I don't know, maybe."
"Oh look, the twins are getting out."
"Yeah, let's go."
So the rappers got out and walked into the church, heading upstairs to see the rest of the group.
There was so many people there. About 30, which was way more than any of the other churches competing in the game. It was much less hype than a Seahawks game.
But that didn't matter because DaVan had his speaker with him. And there were gonna film an amazing music video for one of the biggest vibes on the album.
Code.
It was Gordon Cormier's favorite song so far, and even though they'd gotten off on the wrong foot, what with Gordon being 12 and B. Wells being 17, they were still somewhat tighter than bark on a tree.
Kyle asked if they were playing in the football game, and they of course said no. They weren't into that. They were into performing and making fire tracks.
DaVan and B. Wells were talking about what they were gonna do during the chili bowl, when they heard a gasp come into the room.
It was Josh.
"I heard the gasp." Said DaVan.
B. Wells looked behind him to see the Gasper jumping up and down, saying "DBro" over and over again.
He had added DBro on Snapchat before, and he hadn't accepted it. But the boy just wouldn't stop. He had to talk to DBro. At some point, of course.
Well, anyway, they had to get on the bus. And this is where it got real.
B. Wells sat with DaVan and Gasper, as he knew the boy needed help. He'd had trouble in the past, and even told DBro he was 13. Yeah, not true.
But Brandon was always there to help. He was like a big brother to the kid, trying to protect him, keep him away from the big bads like Robert or Aaron, especially Aaron's brother, Jordan. He was super annoying.
He was even more annoying on this day, as Evan couldn't get by playing one of his or B. Wells' songs without him going "Turn that stupid crap off!"
"Yeah, turn that trash off!" Robert echoed.
"Shut up, we don't care." DaVan responded. And it was obvious that they didn't, because it was well with the van.
You know my girl is really thicc, but I'm not dumb as a brick
So before you diss me sit down and think about what you gonna do next
Cause I got some homies that won't dare make a so-o-o-ou-o-o-ou-ound
That verse was a vibe.
But at this point, someone threw a football at B. Wells. He looked up to see Aaron smirking at him in the seat in front of him.
"C'mon, bruv, really?" B. Wells threw the ball back, bouncing it off of his head.
Aaron gave the ball to Robert, who chucked it straight at B. Wells, hitting him right in the face, his glasses falling off, almost breaking.
"I'm ok. They're not broken."
To avoid getting hit again, Brandon put the ball below, behind his feet so they couldn't get to it.
But the hijinks ensued. Aaron reached down for it, and in addition, starting poking and wiggling his fingers around at the guy, making stupid noises and annoying him.
"Stop doing that. I'm not into that."
Aaron kept on mocking B. Wells, and not stopping at all. He put up with it for about 5 to 10 minutes, and it really was a long, insane time.
At one point, B. Wells even kicked his foot up. "I'm bout to throw some hands." He said out loud.
Jordan laughed. "He's probably got a gun. He's gonna shoot up a school." He said jokingly.
"Woah, woah, woah!"
Everyone quieted down hearing that, murmuring amongst themselves.
"Jordan, you need to stop talking right now. You took it too far."
Aaron reached back and grabbed at B. Wells again, who was starting to really get upset. "Actually stop."
He continued to make annoying noises and laugh, and once it really hit him, he climaxed.
"Alright, I'm done." He stood up and pushed Aaron back, who still kept on jabbing and poking.
B. Wells bopped him in the face, which didn't hurt him at all, but it did make him very angry.
Very.
Angry.
He grabbed B. Wells by the collar. "Don't you ever punch me in the face again. I will punch you in the face. I will. If you ever do that again,"
"Woah, chill." Robert protested, trying to hold Aaron back.
But Aaron pushed Robert away, holding B. Wells by the neck.
"He's insane!" Josh cried out.
"Hey, shut your mouth!" Aaron yelled.
"Aaron, calm down-"
"Shut up!"
Jordan turned around. "Brandon, shut your mouth! If you stopped talking maybe he wouldn't try to punch you in the face!"
"Shut up, Jordan!"
Now if Brandon was a normal human being, he would've been defenseless against this demon child - uhh, crazy person.
But B. Wells was as bipolar as Kanye West, and his magic upstaged all of Aaron's antics.
Because no matter how many times they showed them, Aaron and Robert always managed to forget that they were superior to them.
So B. Wells grabbed Aaron by the collar the same way, and lit up his jacket with a bit of fire.
Aaron saw the spark and screamed out in terror. He patted it out with the help of Robert and sat back in his seat.
B. Wells turned to Josh, putting his arm around him. "You ok?"
Gasper nodded, a little shook.
"I'm sorry, they can be crazy sometimes."
"All the time." DaVan replied.
Josh was a little scared, but B. Wells protected him. He knew the kid needed help.
Soon after, the bus pulled into the church at Scio, and everyone got out. Aaron glared at Brandon, and Evan stepped in front of him defensively. "C'mon, bro. Let's go."
The rappers into the building and sat their stuff down next to the chairs. This was the place where the cover had been taken a while back during the Scio trip before the album was created.
B. Wells had the It is Well cover taken there too, and it really was fire.
But the show they had tried to perform then was horrible, since no one really paid any attention at all.
That didn't matter, though. Because Gasper was their new hype man since Joseph (the T-Shirt) couldn't make it. Apparently Jesse couldn't either. Something about Pat's track meet. And he was great at it. Bouncing up and down, dancing a whole lot, gasping and shouting, "DBro!"
Evan went upstairs at one point and slipped candy under the door to Colin Owens (who didn't know how to help a fire get going) and some other kids to get them away from him. It was funny. And so were the constant mess-ups by Aaron and Robert in the football game, and the complete awesomeness and teamwork of the faster, younger kids, outshining the others.
Some guy got really mad at Jordan at one point, and Aaron defended him, with that same rage in his eyes as he had earlier that day. It was crazy.
But that was just the first part of the highlights.
When people started to go into the main room to eat lunch, B. Wells and DaVan hooked up the big speaker. The adapter worked, and so did the microphones.
People came in and that's when they started to go hard. (Like when you see these dogs in your front yard)
Emily Frey was bumping to the tracks. And Zoey Bowers was head bobbing for real. Gasper was gasping, dancing, doing the WAP, and shaking around for no reason.
And the rappers kept spitting.
Take em for the high and not for the low
Saving the Ps, so you never blow
Keeping your cool, going with the flow, so nobody knows (nobody knows)
The car is tough, it doesn't need to be towed
I think I've had enough of hitting the woah
Put away your phone, listen for the tone
I'mma get you out, stay away from the drone
Robert and Aaron were dissing them as always, and at one point, Aaron actually went and tried to twerk on B. Wells!
DaVan pushed him away with a sonic thunderwave.
"Get off my stage, man."
It wasn't even their actual stage, but when they were performing, it was.
"Hey, B. Wells!"
Brandon looked up to see Terra and Ventus there! With... An army dude? Somebody he didn't recognize.
"Hey, guys! How are you doing? And what are you doing here? And who is this?"
Terra smiled. "This is Sergeant Hartman. He's a friend of mine, he helped me out in a few of the crazy adventures with the keyblade. He knows some guys at Scio, and we go here every year now. Ven hasn't been, so I thought it'd be fun to take him."
"Yeah, the game's fun to watch!"
"Awesome! It's nice to see you guys!"
"Hey, Private Terra. I'm going over here to get a jelly doughnut. You can go and head outside."
"Alright, we'll see you out there."
It was really cool to see Terra, Ventus and Sergeant Hartman all at the Chili Bowl.
The highlight for them, though: filming the music video.
They sat atop a tiny toy house and threw wood chips down at Dom, Gasper's friend. And they stood firm when Aaron shook it and tried to get them off. DaVan threw a shoe at them too.
The music video was crazy.
Shots of the football game, the rappers walking down the sidewalk and singing, and B. Wells' feet walking down the stairs.
He didn't know whether DaVan wanted him to sing or not, so he tried both.
DaVan got a shot of Josh gasping, everyone gasping, and Aaron and Robert doing.... Questionable things. That would be collateral for anything they tried to throw at the guys.
A lot of donuts, sandwiches, chili, chili, candy and chili was eaten that day by everyone. And some of the younger kids were sad because they lost the game, but they tried, and that's what counted.
Robert and Aaron pushed B. Wells against them, and said some super inappropriate things to him, so he ran over to DaVan, who was talking to Will Brewer.
"Hey, uh... Do you know... CPR?"
He handed DaVan his wallet.
"Oh, thanks! I would be screwed if you hadn't found that."
"Yeah, you'll need that." He said, chuckling.
B. Wells got one more shot of Gasper dancing, and got in Owen's car with DaVan and the Davis twins so he wouldn't fight with Aaron.
"Who's Fresh King?" Gabe asked.
"Ugh, he's a guy on the label, with terrible mixing and he constantly says the F word for no reason all the time in his music."
"And he said 'you already know' a ton."
B. Wells proceeded to play 6Teen for them, and they immediately got the message. It wasn't even Fresh's song, it was TriVi's. But whatever.
"7903 isn't even a gang. But he still talks about it all the time."
Owen got back in the car from getting gas.
"Like I said, Jason, you should never start any conversation with 'on the topic of furries'."
They laughed, but it was definitely true.
They drove back to the church, gasping at the giant pumpkin, and talking about Jason never taking his Vitamin D.
Once they got back, they were howling and out of breath from the crazy jokes and roasts, and pretty soon, it was time for DaVan to go home.
But first, he had to grab DaVan's water bottle first that he'd left at the house.
So B. Wells and DaVan drove down to the house in Park Place, listening to lost! (feat. Valious & DaVan) by Theofficiallbug. It was a bop.
But just as B. Wells pulled up to the driveway, he saw something most peculiar.
Another car was parked in the driveway.
"Wait, who's that?"
B. Wells looked through the window of the house and saw...
None other than Erik Reinhart, talking to B. Wells' parents. Obviously about him.
"What the-"
"Aah! He saw us!"
Reinhart looked at the car with a glare. He knew.
"But what about the water bottle?"
"Screw the water bottle!" DaVan yelled. "Get us out of here!"
B. Wells swerved out of the driveway as DaVan pulled out his phone. "He knows we're going to my house, so we can't even go there!"
"So where do we go?"
"I don't know! Just drive!"
That's exactly what B. Wells did.
They were in a rush now, with Reinhart running out to his car to chase after them.
It was a high-speed chase now, blasting KXNEKI through the car speakers.
Evan scrolled through his Instagram.
"Holy crap."
"What?"
"Gordon's at Niagara Falls."
"What?! Gordon Cormier?"
"Yeah!"
"Gordon from The Stand?"
"Yes!"
"The one who told me to stop messaging him because he's 12?"
"Yes! Dangit, stop mentioning that! Hey, let's kill 2 birds with one stone, get away from Erik, and go meet Gordon!"
"Do I have a choice anymore?"
"No, we're doing it!"
DaVan GPSd to the falls, and they sped onto the highway to get away from the insane teacher.
B. Wells' mom tried to call him, and so did his dad, but they swiped away. There was no time to talk.
There was only the highway.
Erik continued to try to follow them, but ultimately the traffic was too much for him and he began to lose them.
"I think we're losing him!"
"That doesn't matter, keep driving!"
They didn't completely lose Reinhart, but he got very far behind. In fact, he turned onto the wrong exit, just like B. Wells had while taking DaVan to his house and adding 20 minutes to the drive.
But he was determined to find them. He looked through every possible route the could have taken and just started to speed. Luckily, no cop found either of them, or the whole thing would've been botched.
DaVan and B. Wells pulled up to the tourist attraction, got out of the car and looked around.
"We're in public now, so there's no way Reinhart will get us now."
"Yeah, we just gotta find Gordon."
"Well, you text him since I can't."
DaVan gave B. Wells an annoyed look. "You can."
"But I probably shouldn't."
"Yeah, you're right."
DaVan got onto his Instagram and commented on Gordon's post from 20 minutes ago about arriving at Niagara for the night.
"Where you at? Me and @b.wells9914 are here too!"
Gordon commented back about a minute later. "Come to the top of the observation tower!🔥🔥🔥"
"Oh dang, they at the tower."
"Well, let's go!"
The boys ran into the building, paying with DaVan's card that he had after getting tons of money on distrokid from Set Me Free (feat. DBro) [man, he pops up everywhere, doesn't he] and the remix.
They used DaVan's card so B. Wells' parents wouldn't be able to tell where they were. Because DaVan's parents really didn't care. (just like that line in First Class)
They ran up the stairs (which there were quite a bit of) and finally found him.
Gordon was with his parents at the top, and he turned around to see DaVan and B. Wells.
The boy grinned upon seeing them. "Hey, guys! What are you doing here?"
"Oh, just some friends taking a fun trip at night." DaVan replied.
"It's awesome to finally meet you, bro." B. Wells added. "We're big fans."
"And I'm a fan of your music!" Gordon complimented.
They introduced themselves to his parents and quickly connected.
"He found you from a comment?"
"Yeah, I guess he just wanted to check it out. And we just befriended each other from there."
"I thought you'd be a bit... Taller." He said, laughing.
"That's what everybody says." B. Wells joked.
He pulled the actor aside for a second. "Hey, I get the whole age gap thing but I just want you to know I'm only tryna be friendly. I'm not looking to be best friends or anything. Just a connection between actors, you know what I'm saying?"
Gordon nodded. "Yeah, just be careful."
"I got a 10 year old friend, apparently, so it's not that big of an issue with me."
The kids walked down and onto the bridge near the boat, watching the falls change color with the lights. The parents had gone on the boat, but the others just wanted to sightsee.
"The border between Canada and the US." Gordon remarked. "It's so cool."
"Yeah, I agree." DaVan said quietly. "So what's your favorite song of mine?"
Gordon sighed. "Ooh, that's a hard one. I really like Running From Your Love."
"Everybody likes that one."
"Well, it's a really good song! And it's catchy too."
B. Wells looked ahead in the distance and saw something a little weird. There was a man standing across the bridge staring at the group.
"Hey, guys? Who's that?"
Gordon and DaVan turned around and saw who Brandon was talking about.
"Is that..."
"A ninja?"
Well, it sure looked like it.
The man was intensely glaring at the kids and not stopping.
"Should we... Walk away?"
Gordon nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea."
They started to slowly walk away, and that's when DaVan saw the other ninja.
"You gotta be kidding me."
"Do you think..."
"Reinhart's racist?"
B. Wells rolled his eyes. "No. But do you think he found us?"
"I don't know how, but it's possible."
Others started to surround them and block them from exiting.
"Guys, there's something you need to know." Gordon said.
"Wait... Are they after you?"
"Maybe." He replied nervously.
"So if Reinhart didn't send them, who did?"
Suddenly, the people pounced.
Gordon snapped into a kick and a fighting pose, surprising B. Wells and DaVan greatly.
"You can fight?!"
"You know martial arts?!"
"No time to talk about it! Help me!"
DaVan threw a sonic punch to one of the men, and B. Wells used Blizzard and punched a frozen ninja across the bridge.
Gordon's eyes went wide. "You have superpowers?"
"I have magic, Evan has superpowers!"
"How?!" Gordon shouted, while fighting off another guy.
"I don't know, I guess I'm a mutant or something?"
"Nice!"
A few more men came, but B. Wells and DaVan fought them off with the help of the martial arts boy.
Luckily, not many people saw this, but a few stood on the tower and watched the craziness, some recording.
And that's how Erik Reinhart found them. He took one of the routes on the road and realized what they had done. And now, with the ninjas all over the internet, it was the perfect way for Reinhart to locate B. Wells.
Finally, there was a moment of silence, and DaVan asked Gordon, "So you're a karate master?"
"I know a lot of different styles." He grinned. "Those guys... Were members of The Hand."
"Wait, The Hand? Ven told me about those guys."
"He's fought them?" DaVan asked.
"With a group of NYC superheroes. They're a pretty bad group of guys. What do they want with you?"
"I got mixed up with one of their crime missions in Vancouver. Danny Rand was trying to stop them from stealing an ancient artifact that was going to give them a lot of power, and they decided to use me as leverage for Danny to give them what they wanted. But I snuck through them and fought them off."
"Wow. So they just kidnapped you because they thought you were an easy target?" Said DaVan.
"And they were wrong."
"Well, I'm glad you're still here. Do your parents know?"
"Yep. But as long as this doesn't get into the public eye, they're keeping it a secret."
"I think it's a little late for that." B. Wells pointed up to the people who had their phones out.
"Uh oh." Gordon muttered.
"Looks like we're gonna need a plan."
DaVan nodded, then gasped. "And there's another problem too." He pointed up at the bald man, glaring down at them.
"What do we do?" B. Wells asked.
DaVan glanced at both of them.
"Run!"
Reinhart darted as soon as they started to run, Gordon pulling out his phone and texting his parents frantically.
DaVan grabbed both of his friends by the arm and power-jumped over the people, Reinhart included.
"You got anywhere to go?"
"Not really!" Gordon yelled back.
"You can stay with me!" DaVan offered. "Because his parents are kinda sus!"
With DaVan's power, and B. Wells' magic, they outran the insane baldy and hopped back into the car.
"Alright, guys. Let's get you home."
Erik had been fooled again. They truly were breaking down his code.
The boys drove back to Murphy Drive, bumping some music and worrying about the next move at the same time.
Gordon's parents were nervous, but they trusted Evan and his family to keep him safe for the time being.
B. Wells dropped them off, telling them to let them know their status in the morning. There would be a lot to go over then.
And as for Brandon himself, he drove on back home listening to some Justin Timberlake, happy that he'd at least evaded the madman once again.
That is, for now. Who knew when he'd pop up again?
Well, that didn't matter yet, because B. Wells had some problems of his own to fix first.
And it wasn't the fact that he hadn't picked up the water bottle that was concerning. His parents were talking to Reinhart, but about what?
He could have been lying to them about something he did, or worse, tell them what he did.
Running away from a teacher was not something that was allowed in a school, but there was a reason, a purpose to it. He was just plain crazy.
And if Margaret and Allan hadn't picked up on that yet, then they really did believe Erik. And if he told them he just wanted to help, that'd be another literal bald-faced lie.
So now what? What would possibly happen at Liverpool Heights now?
Well, B. Wells entered his home and took his coat off. His parents were waiting there, looking especially upset this time around.
"....Hi."
B. Wells' mom looked up with a scared and angry look on her face.
"Where the heck have you been?!"
4078 words.