The clouds darkened in the sky overhead. Things seemed like they would never be the same as Larry tried to deal with his feelings about Mya.

It appeared to him that she had already moved on. Did she even miss him? Was she planning to leave him all along? He would never know.

Asor stood above sprawled, depressed Larry, trying to snap him out of his daydream.

"Larry!" Asor had said for the fiftieth time.

"Huh?!" Larry shouted, finally back in reality.

"You can't keep sulking over her. You have to move on." Asor said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Larry slowly sat up to look at him in the eyes. "I can't."

"What was that?" Asor asked.

"I can't get over her," Larry mumbled to the ground.

Asor sighed exaggeratedly. "I can't have you sulking for the rest of your life. It's a bad image for our crew."

Suddenly, Hank, Larry's stepfather, stepped into the room. He and Asor shared a glance at each other. "

"Get this boy out of the house," Hank said. "He needs it."

"Your wish is my command!" Asor said saluting.

Asor walked over to Larry, dragging him by the feet out the front door. Larry refused and squealed like a child.

"Stop! I'm never leaving this house." He declared.

"Not if I have anything to do with it," Asor said loudly cracking his knuckles. "C'mon, Hank."

As a team effort, they both carried and threw Larry to the front yard. Larry's mother, Petunia, saw this.

"Get off my lawn!" She yelled. "You boys are ruining my garden!"

"Sorry, hon," Hank apologized. "Asor and I are trying to cheer him up."

"By throwing him unto my garden?!" She exclaimed.

Asor and Hank shrugged as they traded glances at an aching, emotionally, and physically, Larry.

Petunia dusted off her hands and helped her son get up.

"Things are meant to change, sometimes there's nothing you can do about it but accept it. It's summer, go have fun!"

Larry slowly nodded. "I guess you're right, Mom."

Asor swung an arm over his neck. "What is it that single people do?"

Asor stopped for a moment then gasped. "I know! Let's get ice cream!"

They went to Isla's Ice Cream Parlor, even though it was rated the worst ice cream shop. It's cheap and had the most unique toppings. Their favorite was the chocolate cockroaches and cotton candy cat hair.

They also loved it because they got discounts by making sure the owner feared them. Asor walked into the store, kicking the door open, while Larry lagged behind, letting everyone know who's boss.

The customers who knew him fled and the elderly held onto their canes and purses tightly. Asor rung the bell on the counter multiple times.

"Isla! Don't keep us waiting or I'll stuff the chocolate roaches down your throat!" Asor threatened.

Isla ran out of the back room."Sorry for the wait. It'll never happen again." Isla said, shaking in fear.

"You bet your one star it won't. Get us the usual." Asor said, smacking a few pennies onto the counter.

Isla looked down at the pennies."But this isn't enough-" She started.

"YOU'LL TAKE WHAT YOU CAN GET, YOU HEAR ME?" Asor said.

"Yes, sir." She said while she made their orders.

A rotten waffle cone, two scoops of frozen rat droppings, and a sprinkle of cat hair was Asor's favorite. A cup of frozen toilet water and chocolate cockroaches was Larry's.

They still wonder why the shop has one star when it clearly beats all the other shops. Larry and Asor took their orders over to a booth. Asor engulfed his ice cream in a matter of seconds. Larry, however, picked at his.

"You gonna finish that?" Asor said wiping his face.

"Nope," Larry said, sliding over his ice cream.

"Wow," Asor said devouring Larry's ice cream. "You're so bummed you don't want to eat ice cream."

Larry gave him a weak nod.

"I have an idea," Asor told him.

Larry perked up, suddenly interested. "What is it?"

"So, you know our Spanish teacher, Mr. Bozo, right?" Asor started. "He's hosting a fourth of July barbecue on the beach tonight. I'm thinking we crash it!"

Larry chuckled ruefully. "Sounds like a plan, chief."

***

While Asor and Larry were busy planning a way to destroy Mr. Bozo's barbecue party, Mya and Aaron were on the side of the pool talking.

"It's been a while since I've seen the rest of our bozo group," Mya said, taking a sip out of her mango smoothie. "What do you think happened to them?"

"I think they've been avoiding us," Aaron said, feeling guilty about Larry.

Meanwhile, Asor and Larry were collecting supplies to end Mr. Bozo's party with a bang. Since graduating from elementary school, the crew hired a few henchmen do gather things for them.

"Jimmy, do you have the gas we ordered?" Asor asked.

"Yes sir, I stole it from an elderly man!" Jimmy said proudly while saluting.

"Nice work, here's your pay for today," Asor said, handing him a few peanuts.

"Peanuts?! I have a family to feed!" Jimmy shouted.

"Feed them the peanuts, it's good protein," Asor said.

"I quit!" Jimmy yelled and he walked off.

Asor was ready to chase him down but Larry held him back.

"Let him go. Soon he won't have a family to feed, but in the meantime, let's go blow up Mr. Bozo's roof." Larry said.

"Fine..." Asor complied.

They made their way to Mr. Bozo's barbecue party with a gallon of gas and a few matches. Larry saw Aaron and Mya by the pool and was lost in his own world again.

"Larry! Snap out of it, we have a job to do!" Asor said, dragging Larry to the side of the house.

They found a ladder and climbed up to the roof. Mr. Bozo didn't notice because he was to busy burning hotdogs to a crisp and fighting with his wife at the same time.

"Look at those hotdogs! They're basically charcoal now!" Mrs. Bozo yelled.

"It's fine! The ashes add flavor, you would know that if you were a great cook!" Mr. Bozo yelled back.

"Well, you can't cook for diddly squat either! This barbecue is a failure just like you." Mrs. Bozo cried.

As they argued, Asor and Larry were covering the roof with gas.

"Be ready to jump into the pool," Larry said while lighting a match.

Asor nodded as Larry dropped the match. Except, it didn't catch on fire.

"Why didn't it work?!" Asor asked.

Larry sniffed the gas taking a closer look.

"We've been bamboozled! This is liquid butter!" Larry shouted, throwing the gas can angrily.

"It's okay we can still do this-" Asor said, getting cut off by Larry.

"No! Nothing seems to work. I don't seem to work." Larry pouted, getting off the roof.

"Larry!" Asor called after him.

Larry found a single chair located behind the grill. He sat sadly and muttering to himself.

"Pity party for on,  please." He told the server at the minibar.

"Make that two," A voice said sliding in the seat next to him.

"Emma?" Larry intoned. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged, looking into her glass of apple juice. Emma the emo was a part of his class. She doesn't get involved in most of their shenanigans because she was always too busy wallowing in her sadness and collecting knives.

"Are you sad, too?" Emma asked.

"Yeah," Larry answered.

"Do you want to know my cure for sadness?" Emma questioned.

"What is it?" Larry asked, interested.

Emma the emo pulled her knife collection out of her purse. Larry got startled by the sight of the knives causing him to drop his drink unto Mr. Bozo's poodle.

"Uh," Larry said nervously. "What are you doing with those knives?"

"I sharpen them and give them names. They're my friends." Emma explained to Larry. "When I'm feeling sad, they cheer me up by helping me mug Mrs. Crumplebottom for her apple juice."

"Whoa! Cool, can I have one?" Larry asked.

"NO! I mean-" Emma said, possessively clutching her bag of knives. Larry gave her the puppy eyes, basically begging with his face. 

Emma softened. "Fine, you can have the newest one. I stole it from a police officer."

Larry took the knife, and an idea struck him. "How would you like to be my new partner in crime?" Larry asked.

Aaron and Mya happened to be spying on Larry as he was talking to Emma. Mya put threw down her binoculars in extreme shock and spat out the rest of her drink.

"What happened? What did he say?!" Aaron shouted, doing a terrible job of being inconspicuous. He snatched the binoculars and continued to spy.

"I would love to," Emma answered, gushing bright pink. Which was very ironic since she wore dark colors.

They made a toast with their with glasses of apple juice.

"To crime!" They both said in unison.

"And a new love," Larry whispered.

"Huh-" Emma said, not quite hearing him.

"Nothing!" Larry said as he chugged his apple juice.

Mya flipped the table of burnt hotdogs in a blind rage. She stormed over to the bar, shoving everything in her path. A shingle fell off of the roof landing in front of Mya, consumed in flames.

Mya screamed at the fiery object that landed in front of her. The scream attracted Larry's attention which caused him to look up from his drink, watching as burning objects fell from the sky.

"Asor!" Larry mumbled under his breath.

Suddenly, Asor jumped off the roof, splashing into the pool.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! FIRE!" Asor screamed doggy paddling out of the pool.

People at the party started fled and screamed for their lives. A pool umbrella swung over with a gust of wind trapping Mya while shingles continued to rain off the roof. Larry looked over at Mya.

Strong feelings overtaking him, he knew he had to make a decision and quick because her life depended on it.

"C'mon, let's get out of here!" Emma said, tugging at his wrist.

"I can't. Go on without me," Larry said.

"What?! I can't leave you behind-" A brick hit her in the head mid-sentence.

Larry's choice was now clear: save Mya. He sprinted and jumped over flaming objects to get to her. Her screams grew louder with every passing second.

Those screams only fueled his strength.
Larry flipped the umbrella over into the pool, grabbing Mya by the hands.

"Larry!?" She yelled. "You're here!"

"Yeah, I'm here to save you!" Larry yelled back.

"Even after what happened between us?" Mya asked, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

"We might not be together but we'll always be friends, right?" Larry said.

Mya smiled as Larry helped her up. Overhead, fireworks were exploding in the sky. They watched the fireworks as Mr. Bozo's house burned to the ground behind them.

Fire Truck sirens blared in the distance, as Larry took Mya's hand.

"Mya Rivas, will you please take me back?" Larry asked. Mya hesitated to answer.

"Say yes!" Jerry the Janitor shouted, covered in burns while being carried into the ambulance.

"Yes!" Mya said.

They hugged and Larry cried tears of relief onto her shoulders. Aaron came back, wearing a fireman hat, with a hose to save Mya from the fire. He saw that Larry beat him to it. He dropped the hose in disappointment.

"I guess I wasn't fast enough," Aaron said to himself, dropping his hat onto the ground starting to walk home.

"Hey, where are you going-" Asor started to ask Aaron but saw Larry and Mya. "Oh.."

Larry saw Asor from afar and gave him a thumbs up. Asor gave him a thumbs down and pointed at Aaron in the distance. Larry felt conflicted; he got Mya back, but at what cost?

Mya interrupted his train of thought."It's getting late, we should go home before the police pin us for arson," Mya suggested.

The three of them walked home while fireworks continued to explode in the sky. Amends were made, relationships were restored but, in the end, a heart was crushed. It was a Fourth of July that they would never forget.