"You weren't kidding when you said this was the greatest sweet shop ever...," mumbled Royce as soon as they walked in, and the appetising aromas came flooding in.

"Hey, Jackie!" Johannes and Cameroon greeted their regular cashier.

"Hey, y'all!" answered the black boy with curly hair, who was working in a baby pink and white striped apron behind the counter. "The regulars, I'm assuming?"

"Actually, I think I'm going to try something new today... my mouth is sick of toffee pudding," Cameroon decided.

"Seriously? You're on a record of what, two months?" said Richard.

"You shush," Cameroon teased back as he looked at the menu up top.

There were mountains and mountains of extraordinarily-looking desserts laid out on the counter and in the glass cases. The whole vibe was a beauty; there was soft, low music playing, it was a small shop not too well known, the tables and chairs matched the colours... It was splendid.

Cameroon hummed while thinking of what he wanted to order, which was a difficulty—even if he could even order everything in the whole store if he really wanted to. "I'll take the Strawberry mell-fel." He pronounced it awfully wrong.

Richard cringed. "Oh god, I've never heard someone pronounce it that bad. It's obviously mille-feuille." Richard corrected Cameroon

"We all know you're French and whatever Richard—blah blah," Cameroon mocked with a laugh following it.

Richard rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "Just pointing it out, because you just suck at pronouncing things." Richard scoffed

"I'll get the chocolate crepe with strawberries and a coffee bavarois, thanks," Johannes ordered, ignoring the two. "You, Royce?"

"Um..."

The thing was, he didn't exactly know how to pronounce the sweet—-was it Pâte à Choux?

He decided to point at it in the glass case.

Johannes nodded. "He'll have a Pâte à Choux. That leaves Jonathan and Richard—" He looked at the two still deciding.

"I'll have Forêt Noire, for Jonathan, a chocolate Eclair and Forêt Noire too," Richard said politely, pronouncing the names correctly as he leaned against the counter with his stomach.

Royce was seated on a cushioned chair, Jonathan was positioned next to Richard, and Johannes and Cameroon were at the cash register with the decision of paying 50/50. The shop was just big enough to fit them all in there.

"Great! That'll be twenty pounds," said the man as he crouched to pull out the pastries in the glass cases. "Great to see you all again!" he exclaimed while the group got their sweets and walked out, eyes stuck on the delicious desserts.

"That reminds me of something. Cameroon, do you need anything from us? Usually you never treat us out, it was always Johannes or me paying for us," Richard pointed out.

Cameroon paused before opening his mouth, "Haha... about that... you guys remember my uncle's case?"

Everyone stared at him. Royce was begging for the conversation to start, just wanting to be able to enjoy without worrying for a moment.

"I thought you had given up? You've tried multiple times in the past already, no one's going to listen to you...," Johannes said.

"You know—" Cameroon said, noticing the frown on Royces' face, "—how about we talk about this later? I think we all just want to relax and chill and..."

"Fine," said Johannes stubbornly, "but you're telling us later."

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Cameroon nodded to show his agreement.

The group ate their goodies at the outdoor tables and watched the students from across the street eat lunch outside on benches and tables.

"This is really good," commented Royce in between bites with goo-goo eyes.

Cameron grinned, and exclaimed with his mouth full, "I told you!"

"Cameroon! Chew with your mouth closed!" cut in Richard in disgust—these two never get along without slandering each other.

Cameroon scoffed and rolled his eyes, but didn't argue.

Everybody ate in awkward silence.

It felt off. It felt strange—not having any conversation, even something like a witty fight would have been better than this utter quietness.

"Royce is someone different than what you guys thought of," Cameroon suddenly said, making Royce choke on his pastry.

Royce looked at Cameroon and had a "seriously?" expression on his face. "Er—I—" he stuttered, everyone looking at him and feeling his cheeks burning like flames.

"He's actually," continued Cameroon, "Scarlett Agnello's son," he added, making Johannes choke on his pastry too.

"SCARLETT ROSE!?" Johannes shrieked in surprise, his mouth still full.

Johannes swallowed his food first before continuing, "This man has been and is part of the Agnello bloodline the whole time!?"

Richard and Jonathan were both shocked, the way their eyes lit up and mouths quirked into frowns hinted it.

"Soo... the fact that all descendants are dead is actually a myth?" Richard asked, and Royce nodded a response.

"I'm actually one of the last two, my little sister's the other one," Royce mumbled with a bit of embarrassment.

"How on god's name did Cameroon trace you? That's just plain scary," Johannes said.

"Haha! You can't underestimate me!" Cameroon responded, making the group move away from him.

"Wait wait—I was joking," Cameroon stuttered.

Cameroon groaned. "Fineeee, guess it's my turn to tell my side of the story..."

"Someone paid my mother to find Royce and plan a way to get Royce close to her so she could invite Royce to our school, then get closer to him and become an 'ally.' or kidnap Royce even. Then Royce would typically give away where Rose's inventions were, and my mother would tell the dude who paid her and... yeah." Cameroon explained.

"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS ALL THIS TIME AND NEVER TOLD US??!!" everybody but Royce shouted at Cameroon.

"Did... did Jonathan just yell?" Cameroon asked, flabbergasted.

Jonathan immediately shut up and went back to eating his pastries and acting as if he didn't just speak for the first time in front of them.

"Huh," Cameroon simply said.

"Anyway, I wanted Royce's consent first soo...," Cameroon continued.

Royce facepalmed, and said disappointedly, "But you said it suddenly anyway, you suck at hiding secrets."

"That's Cameroon for you, he's talkative and... always too honest," Richard stated.

"So," Johannes spoke up, getting back on track, "You mentioned your uncle's case earlier, how come?"

Cameroon looked down. "I still want to give him justice, I know uncle would never do that. The police won't just listen to me even if I have proof, he was blamed and my mother bribed people to get him arrested."

Johannes felt bad, he sighed before speaking up, "We're kids in their eyes, they think they're much more superior than us younger people."

"Just they wait, I'll reveal my mother's real persona to them," Cameroon stated, "I'm using Royce as a bait!" The group cringed at his idea.

"Still disappointed with his ideas," Richard murmured.

"Oh come on! Is it that bad?" Cameroon whined like a child.

Royce laughed, "I told you, it's risky. A person with a brain would know."

Cameroon looked at Royce with an offended expression, "Are you saying I'm that dumb?"

Johannes was holding in his laughter until he couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing, "Well—You are though. Sorry, I tried to be serious, but man—your plan needs help," he said through laughs.

"We can put a tracker on Royce if the danger does happen, we don't know when your mother starts her plan, but I could tell it could start anytime soon. From my observations, you and your mother are very alike," planned Johannes. "You're pretty impatient, to be honest, and your mother too. The danger could happen earlier than we think, we need to put a location detector and recorder on Royce every time he goes to school, but we need his consent first of course," He looked at Royce, waiting for confirmation.

Royce thought for a second. Johannes' idea was pretty okay, but was Royce sure that he could trust him? And the plan he had conquered? Royce was not sure yet, but this time, he thought that he should at least try to go with it. "...Yeah," he responded after a minute of concentration.

"That settles it! Do we have any recording devices though?" Richard asked the group.

"I have a few, I also have a location detector," Cameroon replied, and everybody looked at him weirdly.

"Uh, why?" Johannes asked.

"Uh... hobby?" he said unsurely, as if he didn't even know the answer himself.

"O..kay..," Johannes said, dragging the word out while he shifted to sit a little farther from him.

"...Anyway, Royce, I also have an extra alarm device," Johannes said as he took out something from his pockets.

It was an orange cat keychain with fur and whiskers, it looked nothing out of the ordinary. "It looks like a simple keychain, but if you pull one of the whiskers, it notifies us, I have the app in my phone." He put it onto Royces' palm.

It looked cute, it didn't look suspicious, and probably was going to be really useful. Royce thanked Johannes for it and put it in his pockets.

"Let's continue eating, oh, and we'll have lunch at Royce's workplace, right?" Johannes asked and the group nodded.