I was getting ice cream with Camille at the ‘B&B ice creams’ when Allen came running to us in some weird clothes. I love him with all my heart as a friend but that guy is weird and sometimes plain crazy. I keep myself from ridiculing him, but it’s so hard. He just gives me so much ammo to tease him all the time. God I hope he has a good reason for going native.

“Dude listen carefully before you make fun of me. Something similar to an apocalypse is about to happen exactly at 7:00 and we need to be inside the “Foods Organic” before that. I don’t have much time to explain, so hold this shield and cover me while Camille and I follow you. Also hold this pocket knife. It might come in handy. Camille, get into this armor NOW!” [Allen]

Allen handed me something that looked like a chain ornate with teeth. Are those ears? Did he plan an elaborate hoax on me? “7:00? that’s like now”[Alvin]

“Allen, this is no time for games. Alvin is the usual trouble maker. I can’t believe you would swoop to his level….” [Camille]

Camille was still skeptical about all this doomsday crap. But she still obediently listened to Allen and tried putting on the armor.

I can usually follow Allen’s logic in making fun of me. But this looked way different from his usual. He didn’t seem to be joking this time. Whatever he was worried about rattled him enough to put him in panic overdrive. He went to the library a minute ago and came back running immediately with some weird stuff on him. That can’t be a coincidence. He either planned all of this prank beforehand, in which case, I am so damn proud of him or it is as he claims. Shoving my mockery aside, I decided to do as Allen said. And he was quivering like a chihuahua in cold, so it must be true.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While Allen was forcing his weird ‘armor’ on Camille, I took his shield and began examining it. “I understand. I’ll do as you say. Lets just move to the store and continue our conversation there. You got some serious explaining to do” [Alvin]. It was like a poor school project gone wrong. Duct tapes all over the place with torn book covers as far as I can see. The handle itself looked like it could break from a small impact. He better have a good reason for tearing up the library books. Sheriff is going to have a field day with us.

Camille despite her strong-and-independent facade was utterly powerless against Allen. He doesn’t know that she has had a crush on him from like when we were 10. She never expressed it to him and he is too dense to even notice her affection. Allen is usually talking to himself while Camille and I both pretend that we didn’t notice such an obvious thing. When he was younger, he was more expressive with his thoughts, getting himself into trouble more often than I can count. After a while, he gradually just became pensive and just keeping to himself. Whenever we talked he only participated every now and more often too lost in thought to converse. May be another story for another time. Anyway, Camille was finally going to confess her feelings on her birthday. I can’t wait to see the look on his dumb face.

Allen jolted me from my thoughts and urged us to take cover in our grocery store. We all ran towards the grocery store while people jeered at us for being weird. I didn’t mind. If this was Allen’s prank, he would get payback several times worse than this. However, even if there is a slight chance Allen might be onto something, it was worth doing this. I don’t want to ever lose my two best friends and I am not ready to end the time I spent with them yet.

When we were about 10 feet from the grocery store, it happened. Cars started going whacky and people started screaming. Slowly loud thumping sounds and howling could be heard from a distance. I mustered myself to protect the two and run covering them closely to the grocery store. Allen, what have you gotten us into?. Things escalated real fast. Was that so wrong of me to just be the top of the board in donkey-kong?