Today is Sunday.
It's been three weeks and three days since school got out.
And it's been a week since we learned about the high schoolers.
Before I get into what's happened over that week, I should probably explain how I've been doing.
I'll admit it...
I completely lost it there for a while.
I was so overwhelmed that I didn't know what to do.
The memory scared me.
It was nothing but ominous.
To a reader—if anyone is even reading this—it probably wouldn't seem like that big of a deal.
But it sure felt like one.
I know myself pretty well.
I know I wouldn't become a leader for no reason.
If I did, it's because something big happened between us and the high schoolers.
I just didn't know what.
But now, things are different.
Now I know about them.
In fact, I think I know how we can stop them.
And I don't need to become the sole leader to do it.
I'll work with everyone instead.
I will be better.
———————————————————————
Liam became our spy.
We call him our scout, though, because it sounds cooler or something.
Because he's the closest to the high schoolers, we can use him to get information on them.
He's started spending more time with his brother, Andrew, using the excuse that he's trying to be more mature.
He watches the high schoolers quietly and has been keeping track of who they talk to, where they go, and how often they meet up.
None of them notice, because Liam is good at disappearing into the background.
Melanie and I planned for all the founders to go to the mall this morning, but then we found out Leo is religious.
He had church.
He said he'd be gone from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
I don't know how long church services usually are, but that felt longer than normal.
So it was just the four of us going.
The mall had a small bowling alley, a food court, and a bunch of clothing stores.
Not many game stores, though, which kind of sucked.
We shopped for about an hour before heading to the food court.
Small talk filled the walk there.
"Hey... after we eat, can we go to the bookstore?"
"Is there a bookstore here? I haven't seen one."
"Yeah, it's in the part of the mall we haven't been to yet."
"Okay, we c—"
George cut me off.
"Hey guys! Isn't that Liam!?"
Liam?
Didn't he say he was with the high schoolers today?
Shit.
"George... shut up. He's scouting right now."
"Oh, shoot. What should we do?"
"I don't know. He didn't say they'd be here."
"Wouldn't it be best to go talk to them?" Melanie asked.
"If they realize we're trying to avoid them, that'll look more suspicious."
"But if we go over as Liam's friends, it'll seem normal."
I agreed.
"Okay. Let's go say hi."
George is loud.
He practically attracted the whole food court with his voice.
"Yo, Liam! Didn't expect to see you here today!"
"Who are you hanging out with!?"
Liam wasn't surprised by George suddenly calling out.
There's a good chance he knew we were there and was prepared for any situation.
"Hey, Liam, who are these kids?" one of the high schoolers named josh asked.
"They're my friends from Factory 24. They're also the founders."
"Ooh! The founders! I've always wondered about them!"
He already knew.
He barely even tried to hide it.
Andrew stepped in.
"Hey! Now that there are eight of us, why don't we all go bowling?"
"You're on!" George replied instantly.
What a quick turn of events!
On the way to the bowling alley, a high schooler named Axel kept trying to pester George.
I wouldn't let George bite back, though.
It's hard containing him without Leo. Leo knows him so much better than I do.
The high schoolers paid for our bowling session.
How kind of them.
Axel came up with an idea.
"Hey, founders. What if we made a bet?"
"What is it?" I asked.
"If our top scorer beats your top scorer, you have to give us a tour of that factory of yours."
"And if we win?"
"Well... we paid for bowling, right?"
"You know that won't cut it."
"Fine, fine... how about we tell you how many of us there are?"
What did he just say?
I was bewildered.
Did they know we were onto them the whole time?
I would've kept a straight face if everyone else had, but Mel and George both looked shocked immediately.
I still tried to play it off.
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Andrew cut in.
"Oh, come on! You think we're fools!?"
"We know you guys have been watching us!"
"My little bro, Liam... you are a smart kid, but you can't outsmart me!"
Damn it.
So Andrew did know.
This might be harder than I thought.
We agreed to the bet.
We pretty much had no choice at that point.
They knew we were watching them.
Liam swapped back to our side after that.
Even though we had the number advantage, only George actually knew how to bowl.
He'd done it once before.
No one else had, so we were basically relying on him.
During the game, Andrew and the others didn't try to push for answers about Factory 24.
That surprised me.
I would've thought they'd rile George up even more and try to squeeze information out of him, but they didn't.
They just stuck to normal small talk.
That somehow felt worse.
About an hour later, the game ended.
Final scores:
Melanie: 26
Mel: 9
George: 146
Axel: 109
Andrew: 173
Liam: 58
■■■■■: 99
Josh: 212
Just one more pin and I would've gotten 100...
"HOLY SHIT, Josh! You're a powerhouse!"
"Yeah, man, I wasn't expecting that!"
They were praising him a little too much.
It was definitely pissing George off.
"So, about that deal..." Andrew said.
"Yeah, yeah, we'll let you visit. Just let us know beforehand."
"Sure!" Andrew said.
"And you know what? Since I'm in a good mood today, I'll tell you how many of us there are!"
Liam stepped in, trying to get ahead of him.
"Fifty, right?"
Foolish mistake.
"FIFTY!? Woah!"
"Glad you think so highly of us, lil bro!"
"But no, there's only fifteen. But that's way more than enough to beat you guys."
Well, at least Liam misheard them the first time.
Fifty would've been a big problem.
Fifteen was still a problem, just a smaller one.
We have over a hundred members at this point. In a straight-up numbers game, we could overwhelm them.
That's if they were telling the truth, at least.
As we were getting ready to part ways with the high schoolers, Axel suddenly asked a question.
"There's another founder, right? Liam isn't one of you, so where's the last one?"
I answered quickly.
"I don't remember that being part of our bet."
He laughed.
"I like this kid! See you guys soon!"
———————————————————————
It was a little after 3 p.m. by then.
We'd eaten while bowling, so no one needed food, and we decided to head to Factory 24 to see if Leo was there yet.
He wasn't.
We played games and talked a little about the high schoolers while we waited for him to arrive.
During that time, George came up with a new flag idea.
Oh, no...
That was my only thought.
In my memory, George made a bunch of flags with the number 24 on them.
On top of the 2 was a nice gold crown with a bright red jewel in the middle.
I couldn't let this happen.
"George, every flag idea you've had has been terrible. Plus, it would only make us stand out even more to them..."
"Yeah, but if we're going to fight them for Factory 24, it'll be like a war!"
"Everyone needs a flag in a war!"
It was a solid reply, I'll give him that.
But I still couldn't let it happen.
"Okay, I like the idea, but what if instead of '24,' we drew a factory or something?"
No.
That sounded worse.
"No, that sounds worse."
Can you read minds, Melanie?
Another voice had an idea.
"I like the 24 with a crown. Easy to mass-produce."
"Oh, Leo. When'd you get here?"
George wasn't as shocked as I was.
He's probably used to Leo just showing up without announcing himself.
"About the same time as those high schoolers out front."
Huh?
High schoolers?
Out front?
"They told me you guys invited them here, but I didn't believe them, so I came to ask."
"Shit. They're here already!?"
Melanie didn't know what to do.
Neither did Mel.
Liam rushed out first.
"What are you guys doing here!?"
"Didn't we agree we would pick a certain time?"
Andrew shot back.
"We did! Us high schoolers agreed on now!"
Fucking hell...