The Scout Brooks Story: The Freshman Invasion by Scott Donnelly - HTML preview

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Oops

I.

We all seemed to materialize, fragment by fragment, in the middle of Professor Nog’s barn. It hurt; it felt like thousands of tiny needles sticking me in every part of my body.

When the materializing stopped, I looked around the barn. The I.P.S. wasn’t there, but Nog, Jakon and Principal Smidgeon were. They were rushing into the barn from outside.

“Guys!” Nog shouted as he rushed to our aid. Chuck and I plopped down on the straw covered floor, completely exhausted. Mandy walked around in a daze, still coming to grips with what had happened to her.

“Farrow, my brotha,” Nog said as he and Farrow exchanged a pretty in depth secret handshake followed by a jumping chest bump.

“I’ve seen the other world, Ed,” Farrow said to him. “I’ve seen the intergalactic space jerks we’ve been fighting. I’ve seen their technology and I’ve slept in their cages. I have a ton to tell you about.”

“I can’t wait to hear all about it.”

Jakon came over and helped Chuck and I to our feet. I felt disgusting, as I assumed Chuck did too. I was still soaked in the muddy cave water; I had bumps and bruises all over my body and on my face taking the shape of dirty pound signs. My backpack straps were torn, my pants were shredded at the knees, and my laser phaser had seen better days. In my left hand, I held the vanishing device. In my right hand, I still clenched Blorf’s sphere spear. The purple glow at the top had faded away and lost all of its hue.

“Where’s Radar?” Principal Smidgeon asked.

Chuck and I exchanged looks, not sure how to explain my cowardly dash back to the group instead of helping a fallen bully.

“He didn’t make it,” Farrow stepped in. “He was shot in the foot or something, and when I was trying to help him up, one of the creatures fired on me, getting a little too close for comfort to my parts, so I ran away and left him there. Scout went back like a hero, but the firepower was too much. We had no choice but to leave him.”

Nog and Smidgeon nodded, unsure how to feel. On one hand, there was nothing that we could have done. On the other, we were all somewhat responsible for leaving Radar on another planet.

“Well, I’ll figure something out,” Nog spoke softly.

Mandy came to my side and hung onto my arm, I assume feeling comforted. I looked at Nog. “Where’s the I.P.S.?”

“We lost the signal,” he said. “It’s somewhere out there in the blackness of space. We need to open an investigation to find out who’s been infiltrating the E.I.A. and messing with our stuff. It’s pretty clear the intent was to leave you all stranded there. And that’s not okay with me. Not one bit.”

Nog turned and walked out of the barn. The Smidge followed him.

“I’m glad you guys are okay,” Jakon said.

“Thanks, man,” Chuck and I both said in unison.

I grabbed Mandy’s hand and we all walked out of the barn.

II.

I got home around 11:00 PM. We were gone for almost two full days – Earth time. It was Sunday night, and I had to be back at school the next morning.

I snuck up the stairs quietly, hoping my mom and brother wouldn’t hear me. I closed my bedroom door and opened my closet door. I leaned the sphere spear against the closet wall and covered it with hanging clothes.

There was a quiet knock on my door. I shut the closet and sat on my bed. “Come in.”

Mark opened the door wearing nothing but red-spotted boxers. He rubbed his eyes; he’d obviously been sleeping.

“Where have you been all weekend, man?” he asked groggily.

“Um…”

“The fridge said something about going to Europe? Was that your handwriting?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you go to Europe or something?”

I shook my head.

“Where were you?”

I didn’t know what to say. How could I explain being gone all weekend without spilling the beans?

“Was mom mad that I was gone?” I asked.

“A little. She assumed you were rebelling and went to stay with your friends or a girl or something.”

“A girl?” I nervously laughed. If my mom thought I was rebelling, why wasn’t she more concerned about my whereabouts?

Mark looked at me and widened his eyes. “A girl…you were with a girl all weekend?”

I smiled. If he and my mom would believe that, then I’d roll with it. I’d be willing to suffer the punishment or even ‘the talk’ if it meant I could still keep the space mission a secret.

“Maybe…”

“Aw yeah, Scout! You were hooking up all weekend? I didn’t think you’d start jumping someone’s bones until at least your junior year!”

Oh, so that’s what ‘jumping bones’ meant?

“Is ‘Europe’ your secret code word? ‘Europe, here I come!’ Scout, you dog!”

I laughed. I saw him notice my disgusting appearance.

“Why are you so dirty? Why do you smell so bad, man?” he asked, covering his nose.

“It’s been a long weekend, bro.”

He smiled real big and pointed at me. “Yeah it was!”

Mark shook his head laughing and left my room, closing the door behind him. I quickly got up and locked it. I didn’t want anyone else coming in tonight.

I undressed down to the nude and lay in bed. I knew I should’ve showered, but I was too lazy. I just fought an epic space battle. I deserved a little rest. I was thinking about everything that had happened. The space training, the blast off, killing aliens, rescuing hostages, watching Blorf die before my eyes. It was a crazy weekend.

I leaned over and pulled Dragon Wind out of my backpack. I leafed through the pages and found the spot I left off at. I actually couldn’t wait to finish reading it. I was excited to see Phil, and I wanted to tell him everything, but I couldn’t.

Before I finished Phil’s book, I thought back to Bethani for a moment. Radar…there had to be more I could’ve done. How could we explain his absence? What were his parents going to think? He literally disappeared from this world without a trace. I had a feeling nothing good was going to come of this.

All I could see in my mind was Radar being bashed to a pulp by the Frooginites. Why didn’t they kill him? They chose to just beat him up instead. That made me curious.

III.

The bell rang to start the day at school. I sat in Mr. Watson’s homeroom, freshly showered and clothed. It felt nice. Mr. Watson began to intensely fire off the roll call. As he angrily shouted kids names for no reason, I turned and looked to the back of the classroom where Chuck was sitting. He was nervously clicking his pen again and staring in a daze.

After homeroom let out, I waited in the hallway for Chuck to come out. When he did, I put my hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

“I guess,” Chuck said blandly.

Something was bothering him. “What’s wrong?”

“There are police in the school today.” He said, looking past me and pointing. I looked down the hall and saw two police officers standing in front of the school office, talking to a well-dressed Smidgeon.

“What are they here for?”

“They talked with me this morning and I had to lie. Radar’s parents filed a missing persons report. They said he never came home Friday night from the Battle of the Bands. The police are interviewing people at the school. They asked me questions because of when he strung me up on the flag pole.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I just said that we were at Battle of the Bands that night, but Radar never took the stage. I played it off like I didn’t know anything.”

Chuck checked his watch. “I have to get to History. See you later, Scout.”

“You want to come over to my house after school? Me, you and Philly can hang out?”

“Sure.” With that, Chuck walked away. I looked back at the police one more time, and then headed for my next class.

I sat in Astronomy and stared at the back of Mandy’s head. I was so happy that we were able to save her, but I hope she wasn’t too traumatized from being kidnapped by aliens. She turned around a couple times to look at me, but was barely able to get a smile out.

Professor Nog was in front of the class preaching about Saturn’s moons or something pointless like that. He went back to his desk and pulled out a stack of papers.

“Alright everyone, let us pop a quiz on the Crab Nebula.”

Everyone groaned and I saw him wink at me. He’d warned me about this quiz. That jerk.

After the quiz was over, I was pretty sure I failed. Even though I was in the Crab Nebula, that didn’t mean I knew anything about it. The bell rang to end Astronomy and the class filed out. I hung around before the next class started and approached Nog at his desk.

“Any word on the I.P.S. or D.R. Fritz?” I asked.

“No. I had Jakon check my computers this morning before he opened his shop. He called and told me that there was still no sign of them.”

“Do you have the slightest idea of who this ‘ghost’ is?”

“No. But it has to be someone we know. They came into my classroom, your house, and broke into my barn to alter D.R. Fritz’s mission plans. Farrow and I are going to really look into this. Scout,” Nog got all serious, “Someone didn’t want you guys to come back from Bethani.”

I thought about that for a minute. Nog was right. Someone reprogrammed Fritz to shut down at a certain point, waited for us to wander off and then leave us stranded on Bethani. Luckily we had that vanishing device. Otherwise, we’d be chilling out amongst the stars still.

Chuck, Phil and I sat around the lunch table. I sucked down a Root Beer and chewed my way through a ham and cheese sandwich. Chuck picked the pepperonis off of his cold pizza and ate them. He still seemed worried. Phil was scarfing down his PB&J and piling Cheez-its into his mouth.

“I’m glad you were able to work everything out with Mandy,” Phil said with his mouth full. “All it took to get her back in the states was a quick bone-jumping. Good work, Scout.”

“Thanks.”

“Did you guys remember to bring me a souvenir?”

“Um…yeah,” I said, having no idea what to give him that could have been from Europe. “I’ll give it to you when you come over after school.”

“Thanks,” he said. “What do you guys think happened to Radar?”

Chuck looked at me, but to avoid suspicion, I didn’t look back.

“I don’t know. I hope he turns up,” I said.

“Did you get to read Dragon Wind on the plane?” Phil was asking random question after random question.

“Yeah!” I said, perking up. I had forgot to tell him that. “It was good, man. I can’t wait to read the rest of them.”

“Well, brace yourself, Scout. They get a little crazy,” Phil was obviously proud of his work.

I noticed Chuck look over his shoulder. The police were standing against the wall, watching over the crowd of students eating lunch. I wondered if they suspected something.

IV.

After school, Chuck and Phil came to my house and we hung out in my room, playing Xbox. I only had one controller, so we had to take turns. Chuck was playing first. He seemed to be in a slightly better mood now that we were out of the school with the constant police presence.

“So where’s my souvenir?” Phil asked.

My brain scrambled like eggs to try and think of something to give him. Then it struck me. I hopped off the bed and went to my closet, pulling out the glass spear. I handed it to him.

“Here ya go, Philly.”

Phil accepted it in a curious, yet excited way. “What is it?”

“It’s a…uh…European Sphere Spear. From Europe,” I came up with.

“Oh,” Phil said, looking the weapon up and down. “Cool. I’ve always wanted one of these.”

“Yeah?”

“Hey guys, we should go to Father Peanuts for a bite to eat later,” Chuck said, leveling up his Warlock character.

“I could get down with something like that,” Phil said, pouring a soda down his throat.

I watched as Chuck’s Warlock was stabbed in the back with the Sword of Eternity, and then his corpse was melted by a level seven Elf-Lord with a fire mana-extinguishing spell. Frustrated, Chuck handed the controller to Phil.

“You’re up, Philly. Let’s see what your Orge-loving, artifact-enhancing Wraith Night Walker is made of,” Chuck said, standing up from his Indian-style sit.

Phil grabbed the controller and loaded up his profile as Chuck walked towards the door. “I have to leak, boys. I’ll be right back.”

Chuck left the room, and Phil immediately paused the game. “Scout, I have something I want to show you. I know how freaked out Chuck gets about things, so I don’t want him to see it yet.”

“Okay…” I was a little concerned. What was he talking about?

Phil reached into his Velcro wallet and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it several times and showed me a short, typed message. I read it:

Phil,

Your friends, Scout Brooks and Chuck Taylor, are not who you think they are. Keep a close eye on them.

 I looked up at Phil, my heart picking up some heavy beats. “Who gave you this?”

“I don’t know. It was stuffed in my backpack.”

I looked back down at the note. Could this be the same person who tried to sabotage our space adventure?

“What is it referring to, Scout?”

 I looked Phil in the eye. I couldn’t tell him. I had to play dumb.

“I have no idea, honest,” I handed the note back to him. I heard the toilet flush from down the hall. “Just get rid of this before Chuck sees it. He’ll freak out. Throw it in the trash or something.”

Trash…garbage…dumpster…Homeless Harry! Aw, crap! I forgot about Homeless Harry! I promised him I’d go back to get him!

Now there were two people, Radar and Homeless Harry, out there in the cold, dark corners of the universe, probably really pissed off at me.

I really dropped the ball on that one.

Oops.