OKAY OKAY THIS IS the CHAPTER AND ITS LIKE MORNING AND I JUST WOKE UP BUT IM FEELING PUMPED SO IM WRITING.

*later*

^ lol I only write 400 words.

I decided to make Chapter 18 two parts, because we're halfway through the story (WHICH MEANS WE'RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE MOONE TRILOGY), and I still have a lot planned. So ye.

Have fun!

~<>~

~ Gordon's PoV (IKR) ~

I wish I could say that I woke up the next morning with a choir singing and a golden light shining on me. I rose from my bed and stretched with a smile on my face, embracing the morning and ready to start another day.

Haha. No.

There was no choir or golden light. And I wasn't in my bed. And I didn't smile. And it wasn't morning. And I didn't wake myself up.

A tongue woke me up. A tongue that licked all over my face.

"Gabriel." I half-whined. I forgot Infinity wanted us to put him in our room. Something about wanting to annoy us even when she wasn't there. It worked.

(I totally didn't disobey one of my own chapter titles and totally didn't forget about Gabriel or anything. Totally.)

I turned over so he couldn't lick my face. Instead, he started licking my hair.

"Hey hey hey!" I got up quickly and tried to fix my hair. "I know you don't care about your own style, but respect mine."

Since there was no chance of going back to sleep, I walked over to the window and looked outside. My mouth opened slightly when I saw the time. It was almost lunchtime. We completely skipped breakfast! That's like a crime!

"HeEeEey!" I skipped into the bedroom and yelled in the middle of the room.

"What, what?" Jake was the first to respond. Of course.

I abruptly collapsed.

"Gordon?" Skye tried to exclaim, but it came out as a question instead.

"S-someone." I whispered. "Come, come closer."

Jake slowly got up and walked over to me, kneeling down. "What?"

I whispered again, "We..."

"We what?" Mastermind asked.

"We... skipped... breakfast..." I then died.

"Dude!" Skye yelled. "Seriously?!"

"You scared us for a second!" Jake punched me.

Skye frowned. "Oh no, I don't care about that. I'm talking about breakfast!"

I un-deadified myself by sitting up and frowning. "Hey. That's rude."

"Why'd we sleep so late." Mastermind rubbed his forehead.

"We needed it, in my opinion." I spread my hands.

Jona asked, "Are the girls awake?"

"How are we supposed to know that?" Skye asked him. He shrugged in return.

"Only one way to find out!" I got up and ran into the main room, then out in the hallway. I waited by their door. The girls had given us their extra key, but Jake had it because he was "the most responsible". How rude.

The other guys were walking slowly out. Jake yawned and took his grand old time to open the door. As soon as it opened, I excitedly ran inside and opened the door to their bedroom.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" I yelled, grabbing the spare bed's pillow and smacked Abby with it. She gets special treatment because she cool.

"GORDON!!!" She shrieked. She was still laying down, but she grabbed her pillow and slapped me across the left side of my face with it. I crashed on the ground, blinking.

"Die!" Kat threw her pillow and it landed on my face.

"Is it dead?" I heard Infinity ask. "Because that's fine to be honest."

I laid still.

There was silence for a few seconds.

Then, Skye spoke. "Yo we slept in. Skipped breakfast."

"What?!" The girls screamed.

"Yeah, it's around lunchtime now." Jake said as I got up and tossed Kat her pillow back.

"Really..." Kat said, eyes narrowed at the ground. She knew something. I sensed it.

"Well we need food in our system then." Infinity said.

"FOOD!" Everyone screamed at multiple times and ran out of the room, shoving each other to get out first. Jake and I were the only ones left in the room. He looked speechless, mouth open.

"Did... did that just really happen?" He asked slowly.

As I walked out, I patted him on the shoulder and said, "You expected me to join them, didn't you."

I followed the herd out, and he said from behind me, "I really did."

~<>~

^ Link and Danny

~ Link's PoV (Remember him?) ~

"Pleeeeeease?"

"No."

"Come oooon." Danny kept tugging on my arm.

"Danny, we haven't done enough training with you." I told him sternly. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Come on." He said again. "We're gonna be far away from them. It's safe."

I ran my hand over my hair and stopped at the back. I really wanted to keep Danny safe. I remembered what Jake said to me before they all left.

~

"Come here." Jake grabbed my further shoulder and steered me away from the gathering crowd.

I shrugged his hand off when we stopped. "What's up?"

"Look." Jake looked at me in the eye. Even though I would never admit it, he kind of intimidated me. "I know I'm putting a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, with running the camp and all. But I especially need you to look after Danny."

I smirked. "I know, Jake. You care for the boy."

"I mean it." His eyes had a bit of anger in them. "Danny is young and full of life. He is a great kid. Almost like a little brother to me. If anything happens to him, I'm holding you responsible. And the punishment won't be pretty." He said the last part slowly, pronouncing every word carefully.

I managed to keep my cool. "I will make sure he is safe."

"Promise me."

"I promise." I nodded solemnly.

And I meant it.

~

I shook my head out of the thought. "I'm sorry, Danny." I continued to walk. He didn't follow.

"I miss Jake." Danny said sadly.

I turned around and saw him pouting at the ground, his bow drooping low in his hand.

"He would let me do it." He added, his bottom lip trembling barely.

Oh come on.

I walked toward him. "Listen small-fry." I knelt in front of him and took off my sunglasses. "I am not Jake. I will never be Jake. So we're going. And you're gonna kill your first monster."

He looked at me with wide eyes and a wide grin. "Really?! Promise?"

Another promise.

"I promise."

~<>~

"That was awesome!" Danny exclaimed.

"I can't believe you shot that skeleton from that far away." I shook my head in disbelief.

Danny ducked to avoid some leaves. We were heading back after about an hour of sniping monsters. I was really impressed with him. He really did have a lot of potential.

"Man, I can't wait till I can be one of you guys." He was referring to the archers. "You guys are so amazing."

Okay. I may be a cool guy, but even that could make me internally say "awww". Plus, the small-fry was right.

"You're gonna be the best of the best." I nudged him and poked his chest, earning a giggle.

Then, I heard a scream.

I jerked my head toward the noise, which was coming from in front of us.

Where the base was.

"Come on." I made out a whisper. I grabbed Danny's arm and sprinted forward.

For a second I was afraid that the poor kid wouldn't be able to keep up, but he
shook my hand away and kept up.

I finally saw the wall in the distance. There was smoke billowing up into the sky in multiple places inside the base. When we reached about ten blocks from the wall, I paused to think of our direction. We needed to find the entrance.

"Argh, we don't have time for this." I started to punch the dirt, breaking some blocks. Danny joined me.

When we finally had enough blocks, I placed one against the wall. Then the next one to the right and up one.

A few moments later, we were at the top of the wall. I didn't want mobs to get in, so I didn't build all the way up. Instead, I gave Danny a leg up and he climbed onto the top.

"Oh man..." He breathed.

I ignored what he said and pulled myself up. As I looked at the base, my heart dropped.

It was under attack.

~<>~

~ Abby's PoV ~

"Oh my Notch." I said in awe.

In front of us was a giant wall of sand. It seemed to be about a hundred blocks tall, surrounding the whole park. I wondered how people got that much sand.

"Under construction for carnival. Will open at 7pm." Jona read a sign on the wall.

"Carnival?" Gordon asked. "Like with clowns and stuff?"

"What's wrong with clowns?" Skye tilted his head.

Gordon shuddered. "They're just creepy."

"Ironic." Kat smirked.

He stared at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing." She coughed. "So what're the signs for?" She waved at the wall.

The bottom row of the massive barrier was just signs placed on each other horizontally the whole way down the line.

"They can break a sign, and the whole row breaks." I informed. "If you look closer, there's slabs under the signs. If the signs go, the sand will break on the slabs. This whole wall would disappear."

"You're one smart cookie." Gordon winked at me. I smiled, but didn't direct it toward him.

"Wait, isn't 7 pm in like 14 minutes?" Mastermind asked. Then, he added with a chuckle, "Why am I asking? Of course I know it is."

"Way to be humble about it." Jake said.

"Thanks man."

"This is gonna be cool." I said giddily. "They must have had the Ballistic Builders build all the rides throughout the day while we were gone (exploring the city again). I can already tell it's going to be amazing."

We spent a few minutes waiting. A crowd had developed as time passed, waiting for the wall to fall as well.

The sun was had also started to set while we were exploring throughout the city. It was barely a shining sliver in the distance, and the stars were coming out.

Finally, Mastermind told us it was time. We ended up waiting a little longer than I had hoped.

"Attention, everyone!"

I looked around to see the source of the male voice, as did everyone else.

"No, no I'm up here! Here! No, here!"

"Look!" Kat called out, pointing to the top of the wall. Way up high was a figure. They were dressed in bright blue, so I was surprised we didn't see him before.

"Hello!" He waved. "I am Nick! Leader of the Ballistic Builders!"

I squealed in anticipation and excitement. Infinity patted me on the back.

"We have come to your great city in honor of the anniversary!"

The crowd cheered.

"For the first day of the festival, we have built a carnival— an impressive looking one if I do say so myself— for all of you awesome people!"

More cheering.

"I would ask if you're ready, but since you're all already cheering, I'll say you are!"

"WOO-HOO!" I shouted.

"Let's get on with this thing then!" And with that, Nick jumped off the other side, earning some gasps. I hoped there was water or something to catch him.

Then, the bottom layer of signs broke instantly, and the sand fell. The crowd cheered and clapped as it did, and a lady had to keep her toddler from getting hit by the falling blocks.

As the last pieces dropped, my jaw dropped. Like, all the way.

The carnival was HUGE. It took up the whole park. I honestly don't know where to begin to describe it. There were rides everywhere, rollercoasters, spinning rides, even a Ferris wheel (SeRiOuSlY how did they do that?!). Booths were set up throughout, for food, drinks, and games, all so colorful and bright. A giant stage was in the midst of everything, lit up and standing out. The gravel walkways seemed like a maze throughout the park, with sea lantern lamps lighting up everything. A certain part of the park was completely bare, no rides or anything whatsoever. I couldn't see it from where I was very well, but it looked like a beautiful natural place.

"This is so cool." I barely made out, grinning from edge to edge.

"Breathe, Abby." Jake told me.

"I'm trying."

The crowd of people surged forward, going to the booths and rides.

"Okay guys, huddle up." Infinity clapped her hands once and motioned to us. We all gathered in a circle, and she spoke in a serious tone. "This place is going to be a hotspot for fun and relationship development. So we need to do this right."

"Wh... What?" Jake frowned.

Infinity pointed at Kat and Jake. "You two go together." Then, Gordon and I. "And you two go together. The rest of you—" meaning Jona, Skye, and Mastermind, "— I don't care. Do whatever. But we need our two OTPs together, understand?"

"Yes ma'am!" Gordon, Jona, Skye, and Mastermind said all together.

"Ummm...." Kat, Jake and I weren't as enthusiastic about it.

"Come on!" Gordon took my hand and led me into the carnival.

~<>~

Ayyyy

I really have nothing to say tbh.

Question: Pumpkins or melons?

Rock on, my li—

WAIT

Okay so there's th— wait. nvm. I changed my mind about what I wanted to say. So why am I still writing this? Why don't I just delete this? Meh I'm too lazy.

Rock on, my little rebels.