Kendall, Sam, Derick and Levy were sitting down on the bus to school , the day after the argument between the four. Derick was sitting nearby but not next to any of them as the three mumbled amongst themselves. "So, what's the plan?" the red-haired boy asked. Kendall explained the plan- exactly how he had explained to Sam the night before, then, showed Levy the picture that he'd drawn. "Wow, that really looks like him! I never knew you were such an artist Kendall!" The boy smirked, "We learn something new everyday..." He looked at Sam and the smug expression was wiped off his face as he realised his friend was looking at Derick. Derick was seated a couple seats away, earphones in his ears and looking out of the window with a frown on his face that could barely be seen. "You two need to sort this out, you know that right?" Sam nodded in response to Kendall, "But we're on a bus! I'm not gonna do it now! Wait until we get to school- I'll talk to him then." he replied, failing to whisper. "It'll take a lot to convince Derick to comeback and work with us though," Levy warned and the other two boys agreed. Kendall tried to make two of his friends have a more positive outlook, "But, we'll manage. We all know he really wants to do this. And he certainly can't ignore us forever!" Sam nodded and Levy hummed in agreement.
Once they arrived at the school gates, they followed Derick into the building, walking closely behind him but drew no attention to themselves. Kendall started to push and shove his black-haired friend, "You need to go and talk to him, Sam. Just apologise already!" he whispered sharply. He received an eye roll but that didn't stop him from forcefully pushing Sam to him and making Derick turn around in pain and confusion. "Sorry, I was pushed," he apologised scratching the back of his neck. Derick huffed before turning around and walking to class. "Wait!" Sam yelled and grabbed his shoulder. "What do you want?" the other boy spat, his voice laced with annoyance and anger. Derick did not want to see any of the three boys right now. "It's about 'Mission Limbo'" he whispered, "Kendall's got a plan which we all think will work. We just need you to be a part of it." The boy looked at Sam, "Okay then..." he replied, raising an eyebrow. "You've got to convince me to be a part of 'Mission Limbo'. Don't think I'll make it so easy for you to get me back on board with this." He walked away, not letting his friend say anything else and smiled to himself as he made his way to his lesson.
Kendall and Levy, on the other hand, were not so impressed and began to scold Sam once he came back to them. "So, um, guys..." Sam started. The two boys looked at each other before looking at Sam- already knowing what he was going to say. "We have some convincing to do!" Kendall added, "We don't have much time to do it!" "If we don't convince him by the end of the school day, 'Mission Limbo' is not gonna happen. And you know what that means- waste of time, grounded for nothing, and empty pockets! There's no way I'm gonna let that happen so we're gonna convince him. But we need a plan..." Levy said.
In class, they began passing notes, secretly trying to devise a scheme to get Derick back into 'Mission Limbo' in a couple hours. Kendall started it off, "We've got to tell him to meet us at lunch, I'll explain my brilliant idea and show him the picture of the guy." He quickly folded the paper under his desk and passed it onto Levy to read as the teacher was writing something on the board. The red-haired boy opened the paper and read it. He sighed and started to write something underneath his friend's note when the teacher had turned away. "Where are we gonna meet him though? Also, we're going to have to hunt him down if we want to share our plans with him." Levy passed the paper back to Kendall and tapped his foot repeatedly.
Sam, who was still waiting for the note to reach him, kept looking back every minute to see what was going on, but he didn't want to look suspicious. Unluckily for him, he caught Derick's attention. Once they had eye contact, the boy with black hair gulped in terror and turned away, leaving the other boy bewildered and wondering what was wrong with him. Behind Sam, Kendall was receiving the piece of paper again and reading it. He tapped Levy's foot before nodding and giving him a thumbs up, indicating he had a plan in mind. The boy then lightly kicked the back of Sam's foot, and gave him the note.
As Sam read the unfolded piece of paper, Derick, who was sitting a desk diagonal from him, tried to look over the boy's shoulder to see what the note was saying but he was unsuccessful. "Why is the writing so small?" he muttered under his breath. After Sam had finished reading the note, he wrote many question marks below Levy's questions. He took care when refolding the paper but he was also quick. The paper had been circulating around that small area of the classroom for nearly an hour and they still hadn't been caught by the teacher. Maybe it was their lucky day! Kendall grabbed the paper, a little too harshly, and rolled his eyes once he had seen the large number of question marks on the creased paper. "I guess he didn't get the signal," he mumbled to himself. "We're going to chase after him dummy! After class, we're gonna talk to him and make sure he doesn't leave. That way, we can tell him the plan. If he still won't join, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve..." Once he'd finished writing that, the bell rang- guess he couldn't really explain the plan to the other two boys but they would just have to follow along as if they knew.
"Derick!" Kendall lightly jogged to his friend. "Trying to convince me to join your mission are you?" He showed very little interest in what Kendall was saying. "Well, it's your loss with those empty pockets..." the other boy whispered, before walking away and smiling. In a split second, Derick grabbed his wrist. "If it weren't for me, you would be bored and broke," he growled. "So, what is this plan you have?" Kendall began to explain the plan to him- Derick listening attentively- as Sam and Levy walked up to them. "Pretty smart, right?" the red-haired boy chirped. "That's not all though!" Sam exclaimed. Derick raised one eyebrow questioningly. "Here, Kendall has drawn an image of the old man who we met yesterday. This will help us identify him when we go to Limbo later on today." The three boys flashed a massive smile at Derick, who was surprised, "How did you come up with this scheme overnight? And that drawing... who knew you were a talented artist Kendall?" For once, he wore a smile on his face. "I'm in."
Once school was over, they all took the bus home and ran to their parents. "I'm going to the park with my friends!" Each and every one of them had told their parents. In response, they either received an "Okay, see you later!" or "Have fun!" before they grabbed their bikes and headed off to meet up at the bus stop. "Got the mags?" Kendall gave Derick a thumbs up. "How about the pho-" Kendall interrupted his friend, "Got that!" Levy chimed in, "I think we've got everything we need!" Everyone looked at the boy with the red hair. "What are we waiting for! Let's go!" The four boys raced down the long street cycling out of town and reaching Limbo in only fifteen minutes. "We're here." Sam mumbled to himself. Levy's eyes widened as he realised something. "Who's gonna watch our bikes?" he looked around but there was no place to put the two-wheeled vehicle and the boys did not have a lock for their bicycles on them. Everyone groaned in frustration. "Since you mentioned it, I think it's fair you watch over our bikes," Kendall replied. Before his friend could complain, he quickly added, "But you'll be with us, watching us negotiate." In frustration, Levy rolled his eyes, but he accepted and the four of them continued to move until they reached the exact spot they were in the day before.
Kendall took his backpack ff of his back and searched for the picture he drew. Once he found it, he looked up and there he was. The same man on his piece of paper in flesh. "Hey! You!" The man kept walking as if he didn't hear Kendall call him. "Hey!" he called again, sprinting to him. "Don't you remember me?" For a second, he looked lost but then realised it was the boy he met yesterday. "Oh, it's you! Oh kid," he paused, looking around him and started talking again, "Still got any of those mags on you?" Derick smiled, "We've got a whole load." Once he heard the boy's reply, the customer fished his wallet out of his pocket and started looking for any money he could find. "Here, here! Take this! And I'll have two magazines!" All four of them wore a smug expression on their faces until Levy reminded the stranger, "But... where are the other bunch of customers you promised us?" He smiled at them, grabbed his phone and called someone. "Bring em here. You know the place." Then, he hung up and looked at the boys, who were now the ones looking confused. "Sorry about that, had to make a quick phone call," the boys glared at him, "As you can tell." he hastily added. "Anyway, your customers should be here in around 2 minutes."
The five of them waited in an awkward silence, Levy silently struggling to hold all four of his friends' bikes and Kendall closed the backpack before putting it back on his back. Suddenly, a roar erupted- it was the sound of motorcycles ripping through the street. "Ah, they're here!" the stranger exclaimed. The young boys watched on, very interested by what they were seeing. "Whoa!" Kendall mumbled. Sam gawked and Derick rubbed his hands together in a sinister manner. "So, meet my friends- your new customers!" the man said confidently. One of them began asking him a question, probably doubting the boys, but they couldn't hear what he was saying very well- only a few words. "Why are they... Troy..." he whispered. "So, it turns out that guy's name is Troy..." Derick muttered under his breath. "I wonder what the other guy is saying to Troy," Sam whispered in Kendall's ear and his friend nodded. "Kendall..." Levy said quietly, "Take your backpack off your back." He mouthed the sentence, doing actions and gestures to show what he meant. Once he realised what his companion meant, the boy slowly took the bag off of his back and waited for one of the people- not Troy- to say something.
"Show us what you got." It was the same man who was saying something into Troy's ear just minutes before. His face was expressionless and, to Kendall, he looked kind of scary and the fact that he was stroking his brunet beard with a smirk on his face did not help. "Y-yes, of course!" the boy with the magazines stuttered. 'Why did I stutter?' he thought to himself and shook his head in frustration. He fumbled with the zip before opening the bag. "Interested in any of these?" Kendall said feeling quite smug. The group of men whispered and muttered amongst themselves, clearly in shock. "H-How did you get your filthy hands on those?" the man questioned. "That I won't tell you, but believe me- your hands are the filthiest here." Derick remarked, pointing at the bearded man's hands. Unsurprisingly, his nails had a dirt in them and his hands were indeed very filthy.
Everyone erupted with laughter as his face turned a deep-red- from either embarrassment, anger or even both. "Shut up!" Troy shouted, causing everyone to be quiet immediately. "So, how much are you selling these for?" The boys had forgotten about discussing the new price. "Excuse us..." Sam said. The quartet began discussing the price. "We said $15 last time, so should we say that again?" Kendall whispered. Derick, acting as if he was their leader (though he considered himself to be) uttered to the boys, "More sales to make here. More money to make. We're gonna increase the price a little bit- twenty bucks." They all nodded in agreement and stood in front of the men once again. "Twenty dollars. Per magazine." They whispered to each other but Troy raised a finger and they stopped. "You only charged me fifteen dollars yest-" "But you paid us fifty." Kendall interrupted, raising an eyebrow and smirking.
Troy looked flustered and irritated, "You didn't tell us this!" MQ, who was the guy with the brown beard and dirty hands, exclaimed and the rest of the men hummed in agreement. "We can discuss that later but let's buy these first. We don't have time to be fooling around and bickering" Troy sighed and looked at the four young boys. "Okay then. How many have you got?" Kendall nodded, "Twenty-eight." MQ nodded slowly and waited for Troy to speak. "Well how about, we take the whole stock for double your price? So, $1120?" Derick's eyes lit up. "Deal!" The sun was starting to sink lower and lower into in the horizon. "Let's make this quick," Kendall said, glaring at them darkly. He emptied the contents of the backpack and handed all twenty-eight magazines to MQ as Troy handed over the money that amounted to more than a thousand dollars.
Full of excitement, Kendall quickly stuffed the paper money into his backpack, making sure not to miss a single note.. "Nice doing business with you," Derick said, grabbing his bike from Levy, who sat there uninterested and stretched once all of his friends got their bikes back. "Likewise," Troy replied before he and the group of tall men got on their motorbikes and left the area. "Well aren't we loaded?" Kendall smiled. "If we do the maths, that's 280 dollars per person today," Levy said. "Human calculator!" Sam exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "Guys, we should get going before it gets dark," the raven haired boy said, reminding his friends. "Yeah, we're out of time!" Kendall said, as the sun shone, halfway up in the sky. The boys jumped onto their bikes and raced against time to reach their town and surprisingly, they made it in only ten minutes.
Must have been because they were so concentrated on getting home on time. They stopped off at Kendall's house and were greeted by his mom. "Hey boys! How was the park?" All of them wore bright smiles on their faces, "Great!" "Fantastic!" "Awesome!" "Amazing" They all shouted at the same time before bursting out laughing. His mum smiled, "That's great boys! You must be hungry though!" Kendall shook his head, "Not really, actually. I think I can wait until dinner," and his friends nodded in agreement. "Suit yourselves!" she replied as the boys walked passed her and ran into the stairs to Kendall's room. They began whispering, just to make sure no one was listening in their conversation. "Should we split the money now?" Sam asked. "We don't have our backpacks dummy! How are we meant to hide it and sneak it into our own houses?" Levy sharply whispered to him. As a response, Sam rolled his eyes, "I guess you've got a point. How about tomorrow after school we go straight here and collect the money?" Everyone nodded in agreement, "But bring like a secret money box or something." Derick added.
Once that conversation was over, they started talking about random things, school, YouTube channels and random videos- anything really. "I think we should get going before our parents start worrying about us." Levy said, reminding the boys of the time. "Yeah," Sam agreed. "Mhm," Derick hummed. The three of them said their goodbyes to Kendall and went downstairs to say goodbye to Kendall's mom. "Bye!" she waved. Levy, Derick and Sam left the house and got on their bicycles. The sky was a warm orange as the sun sank deeper and deeper into the horizon. Sam smiled as he watched the sun set. Sighing, he began riding his bike and spoke with he two other boys until they parted ways and entered their own houses.
"Hey Mom, I'm back!" Levy exclaimed. "Levy! How are you?" his mom asked him, wrapping two arms around him and hugging her son. "I'm great!" The red-haired boy embraced his mom until his dad walked in, "Hey Levy!" he smiled, "Seems like everyone's had a great day I see!" he continued, Levy's dad also joined the hug and they stayed like that for a few minutes before his son complained that he couldn't breathe. "Sorry!" his mom smiled. "I 'm gonna lie down now. I've been running and cycling for far too long!" Levy laughed, escaping from his overly cheerful parents. Meanwhile, Sam got off his bike and walked into the house with the two-wheeled vehicle.
"Hi Sam! Welcome home!" his mom greeted him, not really paying too much attention to him. "Hey Mom," he replied half-heartedly with a hint of cheerfulness in his voice. He continued walking in the house, putting his bicycle where he usually puts it and ran up the stairs to his room, sighing with relief once he flopped onto his bed. When Derick got home, he was greeted by his father, "Hello son!" The boy politely greeted him, not attempting to hide his joy. He placed his bike next to him, making it lean to the wall and made his way to his room. " Two hundred and eighty dollars. Nice..."