"Now, here's where the story gets good." Josh begins as he time jumps the story.

It's early in the morning when there's a pounding on the front door. James is the first to his feet after a night a partying and drinking.

"Hold ya horses. I'm coming..." James grumbles, dragging his feet across the wood floor.

The pounds intensifies dramatically. Enough noise this time around that it brings Justin out of his slumber.

"Who in the world..." He slurs, listening to the noise.

"Wait, you guys were drinking! You're crazy and stupid!" Nikki states, smacking the back of Josh's hand.

That's when Josh hits her with a shocking revelation.

"You think that is bad? Ah hell, sweetie, I've been drinking since I was twelve. I started stealing it from my dad's liquor rack in his kitchen on weekends."

She's shocked beyond belief. From that point on, she knows she can't allow this self-destructing behavior to continue.

"No babycakes that can't keep happening. You know my bestie, Darlene, parties hard. It scares me because she hasn't slowed down. I can't be with you if this is how you're going to party."

"Do what... You seriously think I still have a problem?" Josh replies, trying to get back to the story.

"Well, we'll deal with that if I find out you're still drinking." She warns him with a new gut instinct that churns in her stomach.

"Anyways, back to the story." He says.

James unlocks the door and enters, Uncle Mike bursting into the living room. His boots stomp hard on the floor to get their attention.

"What the hell is that?" Josh asks, waking up with boots inches from his face since he passed out on the floor.

Astonished by the sight of liquor bottles and a few beer cans, Uncle Mike loses his cool.

"Are you boys drinking!" He yells as a new level of fury hits the room.

"Get the hell up and get out in the truck now!"

Josh stirs to his feet with a smart-aleck comment to follow. "Or what? We lose out on summer work and some money."

"REALLY! You want to be a smart mouth, little punk right now. Boy, I suspect you're still a little drunk. That's fine because I have the perfect way to sober you up. Now dumb nuts, get your sorry ass out into the back of my truck right now!" Uncle Mike demands with a scowl stamped on his face.

The young men gingerly make their way outside, feeling the effects of the alcohol. Uncle Mike takes a couple of minutes before he exits the house and makes sure the front door is locked.

"Wow, what a dickhead!" Josh spits out, smacking his lips with cottonmouth.

Justin shushes Josh as Uncle Mike fires up his 1970's Chevy truck with the boys sitting in the bed. They head out around five in the morning to a location that isn't the farmhouse when they turn onto a country backroad.

"Where we are going?" James questions out loud, knowing the way to the house isn't out this dirt road.

"Couldn't tell ya, bro," Justin speaks up while they bounce in the back of the truck.

About twelve minutes onto the backroad, the truck comes to a quick stop.

"GET OUT!" Uncle Mike screams when he exits the truck.

"You lazy, spoiled brats. Partying at your age getting drunk; you know that's against the law, and you're going to pay for that too. That punishment starts right now!"

He hands each of the boys a sealed envelope and points to a trail they can barely see.

"Um, I can't see anything. Any chance we get a flashlight or something?" Josh requests squinting his eyes at the trail only lit up from the low beam headlights.

"No, just watch your step, and if the ground feels smooth, then you're still on the path. Time to figure out things on your own. It's all explained in those letters, and oh, I do have one thing for you."

Uncle Mike yanks a map out from his back pocket and hands it to James.

"Since you're the shy one of this group, you can take the lead and head on out to camp." He explains, waiting on James to take it from his grip.

The only reaction James gives is a nod to acknowledge the orders. Josh stands there with a sarcastic expression. Justin keeps his eyes locked on the trail, worried at what's about to happen.

"Have fun, gentlemen, and be prepared. You have everything you need waiting for you where 'X' marks the spot on the map. Don't open those envelopes until you reach camp or suffer the consequences." Uncle Mike explains just before he jumps into his truck and takes off.

The trio stands there waiting to see if Uncle Mike will return.

Nikki makes a quick interruption. "Why did he leave you just standing there?"

"You'll find out; just be patient," Josh replies to her as they continue the slow drive.

He returns to the story, where they begin to head for the trail and gradually pace themselves.

"What in the hell is going on?" James asks, taking the lead, carefully planting each of his steps in the foggy darkness.

"Probably because, well, you know, we started how many problems and rumors at school. We're lucky they couldn't pin anything directly to us. Organizing fights, convincing others to get in on our pranks, and oh, I don't know, the volcano we made using restricted chemicals and blew up the science lab." Josh recalls and garners a reaction from Justin.

All they hear from him is unstoppable laughter that echoes through the trees.

"Yeah, that was so much fun! I mean, yeah, we've always done things, getting caught like you know the year before when we had the kickboxing fights in the locker room in gym class. Then again, there was the time we played poker in class and when the teacher told us to stop. Then I asked if we could play strip poker instead. Oh! Don't forget we were always chewing on the yellow straws we took from the cafeteria. So, you know, the fun times." Justin recalls out loud with Josh chuckling at their antics.

"And ya wonder why we're stuck here," James comments in his serious tone since he's usually the practical member of the trio.

"Whatever, bub," Josh calls out to him from the back of the three-person line.

They continue to stroll down the path slowly. The sun slowly begins to kiss the ridges' top, unaware that things are about to get wild.

"Finally, we can look at this map and get wherever it is we need to be," James calls out seconds before the next surprise finds them.

Suddenly a single shot rings out that sends the boys to the ground. They wait a few seconds before they try to get back to their feet when a few more rounds pop off in the distance.

"Hey moron, hunting season ain't here yet!" Justin yells as a few more shots echo closer.

"Screw this. I'm out of here!" Justin says and hurries to his feet and takes off for cover.

Josh looks over at James, who seems confused about what to do.

"Hey, James, James!" He begins. "Get up and run, just run, and we'll meet up sometime later. Go, go, GO!"

Josh gets to his feet then helps pull James up to his before taking off like a bat out of hell.

Nikki puts a pause on the story when she speaks up.

"Wow, did you know who shot at you?"

"I'll get to that, be patient." He tells her with his focus returns to his story.

Nearly fifteen minutes after the first shot rings out, Justin comes across a clearing where he notices a tent and three bags with their names written in marker.

Justin takes his bag and sits on the ground, where he hears the envelope crinkle. Leaning forward, he pulls it from his back pocket and rips it open.

"James, Josh, and Justin, after everything the three of you have done over the last few years, all of your parents got together and decided you needed some guidance. Together you are best friends, but you also feed off the other's weaknesses, making you weak as individuals. While you're out here, you must work on your weaknesses to win the game set in motion. You'll find out soon enough what's to come. Mike"

Nikki can't believe her ears when she listens to Josh paraphrase the letter.

"That is insane, babycakes."

"Oh, it gets better..."

Justin opens his bag to find a military uniform in his size along with a note that says, "look inside the tent!" which is where Justin discovers sleeping bags, boots, and paintball guns for different purposes.

"Holy cow, what do you have planned, Uncle Mike?" Justin asks himself to inspect everything.

Moments after he changes into the stiff new uniform, Justin hears panting and heavy footsteps from another direction.

"Who's there?" He calls out, picking up one of the paintball handguns.

"Hey, don't shoot there, Tex! It's me, bub, put the gun down!" Josh calls out, his hands in the air.

With a sigh of relief, Justin drops his guard and his weapon.

"Thank goodness it's you. Hey, have you read your letter yet?"

"Not yet. Why?"

Justin informs Josh of what's happened.

"Our parents thought this would be a good way of teaching us a life lesson, bro."

They get a good laugh before Josh takes his duffle bag over behind a tree to change into his uniform.

"Pretty snazzy if you ask me." He calls out, placing the cap on backward.

"And yeah, fat chance of that happening. Teach us a lesson, oh please. I say we make the most of this and talk about the opportunity your cousin offered us a while back. So, you think you could be down for actually going through with it?"

"What job was it?" Nikki asks when Josh suddenly goes quiet when he realizes what he said.

Quick wit takes hold, and Josh comes up with a bald-faced lie.

"Working with cars, you know, helping him out to get his garage going and teach us what he knows about cars."

"Well, that was nice to teach y'all because I know you keep your car nice. I can't wait for this weather to break since you promised to fix my car." Nikki babbles on buying every word of the lie.

Josh smiles a nervous smile and continues leaving out a significant part of the story on purpose.

"Anyway, after we talked about it and James was still nowhere to be found. That's when we decided to go look for him." Josh explains.

Together they head out in search of James and find him about a hundred yards from the campsite.

"James! Hey, James, there you are!" Justin yells, jogging up to him.

"Yeah, I fell and hit my knee, it's a little sore, but I'll be okay. By the way, what in the blue blazes are you wearing?"

Both boys look at James, trying not to laugh.

"You ain't going to believe this, bro, but our parents set us up. They placed us out here, and we got the essentials of what we need." Justin begins before Josh takes over.

"Yeah, I came across a stream that leads to a pond; so, we have water, and it looks like we'll have to build a firepit or something for light and maybe cook."

James has a look of disgust on his face. He pulls himself to his feet and begins to hobble back to camp with the other two delinquents.

Hours go by, and it's now mid-morning by the time everything's gathered for a couple of days of staying out in the woods on their own. James uses his boy scout training and concocts a firepit with stones around a dug-out portion of dirt that they can use to douse the fire at night. Josh and Justin go out to gather limbs to burn along with water from the stream in their canteens.

Hunger slowly begins to creep into the pit of their stomachs when their first of many visits from Uncle Mike occurs. He brings the boys' breakfast in the form of cereal and bagels.

"Morning, boys, enjoying the surprise?" He begins his lecture but pauses when he looks at Josh.

"Uh, excuse me, but get that cap turned around the proper way. You do not and will not disrespect that uniform and what it stands for, young man."

Josh immediately does as he's told when the tone of Uncle Mike's voice means business.

"Yes, sir, sorry, sir!" He apologizes as he corrects the cap to its rightful position.

"That a boy, now I brought you breakfast and your dinners. Now your dinners will consist of M.R.E.'s or meals ready to eat. They're not the greatest thing per se, but you won't go hungry. You're out here for about two weeks. It's a time to learn from each other and reflect on everything you've done. You're all at a crucial point in your lives on which way you can go. You're all great kids, but it is time to learn how to become men, and I mean real men, not lawbreakers."

All three of them pay close attention to the lecture as he continues.

"You need structure, a new sense of guidance, and that's what you'll learn out here. Now that being said, you will be tested and punished for everything you've done, which is why you have the weapons..."

James makes a comment interrupting Uncle Mike and a statement that stops the lecture.

"Oh yeah, those guns are gnarly!"

"Excuse me... Guns... Son, go get me one of those so-called guns." Uncle Mike orders getting to his feet.

James quickly does as he's told, and when he hands one of them over, Uncle Mike makes a gesture.

"This is my weapon, this is my gun, this is for killing, and this is for fun!" He calls out, moving the weapon with one hand and grabbing his crotch with his free hand to teach the correct terminology.

"Understood, young man?"

"Uh yes, sir, got it!" James quickly answers with his face turning a little shade of red.

Uncle Mike hands back the weapon to James and nods before he heads out the way he came.

Not long after he's gone, the boys dig into the food. Once their stomachs are stuffed, they place the other items in their tent.

After digging through the rest of their bags, they find a hand-held radio at the bottom of each bag.

"At least we can communicate when we're out scouring around. I say we have some fun with this and play war or cops, you know." James suggests not taking the preemptive warning from Uncle Mike seriously.

The day drags along, and the boys are bored out of their minds. They lay around talking or shooting off a couple of rounds of ammo just for the sake of dicking around to kill some time.

"Fourteen more days after today, and I need a good book right about now." Josh reminds them, wishing he had a book to read.

"You and your books, I swear. You can tell you're a geek." Nikki says, breaking his concentration.

Josh gives her a sarcastic glare that she can't see since he's still driving.

He gets back on track and takes her to that first night, where things are about to take an exciting turn.

The sun has nearly vanished behind the hills when the boys get ready to light up a fire when they hear something smash against a tree out of nowhere.

"What the..." James yells when he hits the dirt.

More ricochet shots fly just above their heads as panic starts to set in.

"Get to the tent!" Justin calls out, on his belly with Josh close behind him.

Once they retrieve their weapons, they crawl up to a tree, but the shots have ceased.

James gets to his feet, but the instant he moves towards the tent, a single shot comes flying at him, contacting his torso.

"Ow, son of a..." He screams before more shots pelt him.

Justin gets lucky and kneels, waiting for someone to make a move. He gives Josh a hush signal and listens for movement in the woods.

One of the shooters makes the mistake of crunching along some leaves, which gives Justin a chance to signal to Josh to shoot the noise closer to his friends' position.

A rush of adrenaline takes over, and Josh pops from around the tree, firing like crazy until he empties his canister. They listen as someone groans after being showered with paint pellets. It's a fatal mistake because the second Josh turns around feeling cocky, he's blasted with shots from chest to thighs.

"Ah man, I'm dead!" He shouts, plopped to his knees, and drops his weapon.

Justin's short temper gets the best of him. Charging towards the assailants doesn't do him any good as they come out from the woods into plain sight blasting everything left in their paintball chambers.

Covered in multi-colored splatter, Justin drops to his knees in defeat.

"I surrender..." he mutters, his hands in the air.

Laughter comes behind the masks. With the disguises lifted from their faces, the opposing team's faces are Justin's father, Uncle Mike, and Justin's older brothers, Eli and Larry.

"Now that was worth it." Mr. Adamson says, holding his gut laughing.

Uncle Mike looks over at Larry, covered from Josh's rapid-fire assault.

"Seems like a teenage boy took you out, Larry."

Larry shrugs his shoulders and departs the camp area flipping on his flashlight to head back for the rendezvous point.

"This is only the beginning, boys. Now, you know to be prepared at all times." Now that they're on guard, looking at the white of Mr. Adamson's eyes.

The expression lights up their eyes. That says it all when the boys glare off into space. The only thing their counterparts do is smile with their plans already in place to vary their times of attack.

"Hopefully, this will teach you, young men, the lesson that actions have consequences." Uncle Mike reminds them with a devious smile stretched across his face.

Each day at different times, the adults would attack but never in the same way or with the same number of attackers. There were times the boys would hold their own for a few minutes before they would have to regroup but would ultimately fail in the end compared to the adults' experience.

"Wow, sounds like a rough time," Nikki mentions as they crawl up to a parking spot near her home.

"You have no idea; what we learned was James plays it too safe with no confidence in himself, which explains why he's always been hesitant or follows behind us when we're up to something. Now, as for Justin, he's got a short temper, more than I realized. Once he feels like he's out of control of a situation, he loses it, and as for me, well, nothing new, over confidant and a smart-aleck to no end but together, Justin and I found out that we are two strong-willed leaders. Uncle Mike admitted that much after the fact when he took us back to the farm." Josh explains to rush through part of the story where he and his friends have their asses kicked repeatedly.

The car comes to a stop, and before Josh can say his goodbye for the night, Nikki makes a Christmas request with him.

"Come inside, stretch for a bit and relax. It's snowing, so what's your rush?"

Josh ponders over her request then kills the engine.

"Yay! C'mon, let's relax, and you can finish your story!" She squeals with excitement climbing out of the car.

Once they get inside and take a seat on the couch, Nikki snuggles up to Josh in hopes to keep him there a little longer than he plans on staying.

"Alright, now back to the story. Hurry before my parents return from the Christmas party!" She pleads, clinching her arm over his.

With a deep sigh and a tap of his finger to his lips, Josh begins where he left off.

"At the end of our time out at that camp area, we were sore, beaten, but we weren't humiliated. We refused to break, but we did have our thing planned when we got home after the other few weeks left to help out on the farm." He picks up, telling her with his eyes closed, remembering what happened next.

The morning was getting late, and the fellas get nearly finished packing up the tent and the supplies. They eagerly wait for Uncle Mike to arrive to get moving back to the farmhouse.

"Where is he?" James wonders out loud, tapping his foot on the dry, dusty dirt.

"I don't know. I say we go ahead and make our way down to where he dumped us off at and wait there." Justin orders taking the lead by picking up the tent and his duffle bag.

"Let's roll, bro's!"

Justin takes the lead, followed by Josh and James walking in pace together. It takes them roughly twenty-one minutes to come out from the woods, but when they set everything down, here comes Uncle Mike.

"Nice timing..." James mutters under his breath.

"Time to get a hot shower and relax," Justin admits feeling grimy from the time out at camp.

"I don't care as long as I can get back online and talk to Stacey," Josh reveals, missing his computer.

Nikki sits up, smacking him on the arm with force.

"Now, who is that?"

Josh snickers telling her about Stacey.

"She's a girl that I dated for almost two years. Her father got a job in Boston at some law firm, and she moved away."

Once that tidbit is out of the way, Josh returns to end the story.

"So, we pack up the truck and hop into the back and FINALLY arrive at the house. Oh, the smells coming from the house, hot breakfast at last!"

The way he describes it with such energy makes Nikki giggle as he continues.

The truck comes to a stop by the door. Justin is the first one out of the bed of the truck and rushes inside. Josh follows next, with James staying behind to help with the gear.

"Go help yourself to some breakfast. I can handle this." Uncle Mike tells him, closing the driver's side door.

"You sure, sir?" James asks, trying to ignore the aroma inside.

"Go! Once you've eaten, y'all can get to work out in the barn, pitching hay and helping me get it ready for the farmer's market.

James flies through the door to meet up with the others. He's overwhelmed by the smell of it all.

"Eggs, bacon, sausage, oh vanilla cinnamon French toast, where have you been for the last two weeks?" Justin says with his aunt laughing as she watches them devour everything in sight.

After breakfast is finished and Josh helps with dishes, the trio heads out to the barn where Uncle Mike leaves their gloves with a note of what needs to be done before returning from the field.

"After that, it pretty much was everyday farm work. Nothing else was done other than work and getting a tan." Josh finishes up before Nikki throws her three cents into it.

"Oh, baby, I remember how tanned you the night were when we met and oh-la-la..." She's hushed when Josh kisses her out of nowhere.

The prolonged kiss begins to work their bodies into overdrive when Josh pulls back to suggest something to Nikki.

"Wanna take this to your bedroom?" He speaks softly.

"Let's go, handsome..." She answers, picking herself up off the couch, remembering part of her story that Josh doesn't know about yet.