"Morman." Jude braced himself as he stared up at Suzies house. "Take my hand."

"They're religious, very." Mike said, taking his hand anyways.

"They'll be too distracted by my lovely features." Jude nodded with a grin in his direction, pulling him toward the door.

"I can't feel my butt." Argyle complained. "Can you guys feel your butt?"

"I can feel my butt." Will confirmed as he stretched his back.

"Everyone needs to be on their best behavior, okay?" Jonathan warned the group, mainly looking to Argyle.

"Why are you looking at me when you say that?" he laughed.

"Woah, I didn't!" Jonathan defended himself.

"They're just really religious." Mike pointed out.

"On second thoughts, maybe I don't wanna get beaten with a bible today." Jude and Mike let their hands go as he knocked on the door. "Don't worry, i've got this. Parents love me."

"I'm super spiritual, dude." Argyle nodded.

"I think they're spiritual too." Mike looked back. "Just in a different way."

Jude smiled as the door opened, expecting to be face to face with a middle aged woman or balding man. His gaze fell down to a small child holding a fake bow their way. "Well, there goes my plan."

"Oh. Hey." Mike stared at the small one. "Is Suzie here?"

The boy screamed, letting the bow go as the fake arrow stuck to Mikes forever. Jude gave a sudden snort as Mike winced, the child yelled again. Jude reached up and pulled it off his face. "This is why I said let me do the talking."

"Shut up." Mike pulled him into the house as they gapped at the boys fake fighting. "Okay, getting seventh grade flashbacks."

"Because of Troy?" Jude frowned his eyebrows.

"Because of you." Mike corrected.

"Away, you starveling!" one of the kids yelled at the other. "You elf-skin! You dried neat'd tongue!"

"Sounds like Jude." Will gave a snort.

"This is my kind of party." Argyle looked around.

"I've been bitten." a girl announced as she fell onto the carpet. "Help! Help!"

"Beautiful performance." a boy approached with a camera in hand.

"Where would I ever read here?" Jude gapped.

"Excuse me." Jonathan cleared his throat. "Uh, hey, we're looking for Suzie."

The boy snapped his fingers with a look of disbelief. "Can you not see that we are filming?"

"It won't be as good as the book, anyways." Jude shrugged.

"Best behavior." Mike reminded him through his teeth.

They rounded the kitchen corner to come across two children cooking a large, very thought out dinner. Mike cleared his throat. "Hi, we're looking for Suzie."

"Don't know, don't care." the girl stated, yanking the spoon from her brother. "That's too much salt, Peter. Fathers kidneys! Fathers kidneys!"

"Of course they have a Peter." Jude nodded. "Of course they have a freaking Peter."

"Cool name, dude." Argyle nodded his head.

"Every evil family has a Peter." Jude shook his head. "Every single one."

The breaker suddenly shut off, the lights falling black. A older girls voice rung. "Cornelius! How many times do I have to tell you?"

Jude watched her mess with the breaker once again. "That is not a toy. Come on."

She walked past them, looking at Argyle. He went into a mini trance at the sight of her. They followed her up the stairs as she gapped at the group of boys. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Jude Mackenzie." Jude smiled as he pushed to stand infront of the group. "I like your earrings, a lot."

"My god." Mike mumbled.

"Thanks." she gave a little grin. "Eden."

"Like the garden." Argyle gapped.

"I'd rather love to stay and chat, but we're kinda in a rush. Is Suzie here?" Jude nodded to her. "Clearly good looks run in your family."

"Third floor, second door on your left." Eden nodded her head. "If you see her, you make sure to give that selfish four-eyed shit a nice little shove for me."

"Anything for you!" Jude kissed his hand and tossing it her way.

"Lady Killer." Will exhaled.

"Back in business." Jude tossed a smirk toward Mike, taking his hand. "Mike lover first, Lady Killer second."

Jonathan pushed the door open, looking around. "Well, great, she's not here."

"Her own room with that many littles?" Jude looked around, the window creaking caught their attention.

"Give her a shove." Mike quoted Eden, sticking his head out the window to look up. "Suzie!"

"Yeah?" she looked back. "Who the heck are you?"

"Jude Mackenzie." Jude leaned farther out the window with a wave. "Yellows definitely your color."

"Listen. We're Dustin's friends." Will shoved Jude's head back.

"Yeah." Mike agreed. "We really need your help."

They all gave their best smile at her.

"I dial in to this computer and find a location, and at this location is the Nina Project?" Suzie asked as she sat on her bed, the paper in hand.

"Exactly." Mike nodded.

"And the Nina Project is the code name for a video game?" Suzie frowned her eyebrows together.

"Not that I ever think you're wrong, but-" Jude began with a grin.

"It's a video game console." Mike cut him off.

"It's basically America's answer to Nintendo." Will jumped in.

"Americantendo." Argyle hummed.

"That's a stupid name." Suzie stared.

"100% agree with you." Jude sat next to her, pressing his shoulder into hers. "It's a 16-bit."

"Sixteen-bit?" she gapped at him. "Why have I never heard of it?"

"Because it's top secret." Mike informed her with a nod.

"That's why we're doing this." Will pointed out .

"Yeah, right. It's for the promotion." Mike agreed with him nearly too quickly. "Tell her, Jude!"

"It's the truth. The first people to find the secret location receive a-" Jude put a lie together in his head before he was cut off.

"Americantendo?" Argyle suggested.

"Uh, an Amerucantendo." Mike sighed with a nod of his head.

"So you drive 3,000 miles over your spring break so I can help you get a new video game console no one has ever heard of?" Suzie nodded her head.

"Heck yeah." Jude grinned. "Smart girl."

"But it's not for us. It's for Dustin." Will gave Jude an insane look.

"Dustin that would always agree to do anything in order to level up." Jude gave him a look in return, explaining his behavior through code.

"For Dustin's birthday, which is..." Mike trialed off.

"In two months, three days, five hours." Suzie nodded.

"Mike." Jude stared at him in offense. "How many hours until my birthday?"

"Suzie, I don't know what you're doing but I am not spending my entire day babysitting." Eden pushed the door open quickly. "Pull your damn weight!"

"Language." Suzie scolded her.

"Oh no, am I gonna burn in hall now?" Eden gasped as she clutched her heart.

"You tell her, Eden." Argyle stared in memorization.

"Out of my room!" Suzie shoved her.

"Don't touch me, you little shit!" Eden yelled as the door was slammed in her face.

"Okay, so can you help?" Will gave her a hopeful look.

"I would do anything for Dustybun, but i'm afraid there's been an unfortunate development." Suzie sighed as she messed with her fingers. "After changing Dusty and Corey's grades, I was wretched with the most awful guilt. Father could see my soul was tortured, and he wrenched a confession out of me. Not only was I breaking the law, I was dating an agnostic. An agnostic! I've never seen Father so angry. Naturally, after learning the terrible truth, he confiscated my computer. And Father is not one to change his mind. I'm as likely to see it again as I am my poor Dustybun."

"Where is it?" Jonathan stared.

"His study." Suzie answered. "He uses it for work now. And Father's always worked, and his door is, like, permanently locked."

"Father." Jude mocked Suzie under his breath with a grin, finding it kinda cute.

"I'm really sorry." Suzie sighed. "Truly. But it looks like you came all the way here for nothing."

The power shut off again. "Cornelius!"

"That damn Cornelius." Jude shook his head.

"Language." Suzie scolded him.

The power came back on as shrieking echoed. Suzie gave a look. "Unless.."

"Unless?" Mike nearly shook in hope.

"There might be a way." Suzie looked at them. "But we're gonna need help."

"Naughty religious girl." Jude shook his head at her with a teasing look. "I approve. Mike, say you approve."

"I approve." he agreed.

"I mean a lot of help." Suzie looked between the pair mainly.

"All right." Argyle nodded.

"Where's Argyle?" Will looked around when they got into the study.

"Shit, I don't know." Jonathan looked around.

"Let's not disturb him, wherever he is." Jude shook his head, leaning in next to Suzie with Mike on her other side. (oh to be suzie rn😩)

"And three, two..." with a pull of the breaker, the computer came on.

"Oh my god." Mikes eyes widened. "Why to go, Cornelius."

"Would it be offensive to say I wish I was Mormon?" Jude grinned as he gave Suzies shoulders a small squeeze to show his gratitude.

She began to type on the phone, looking back at the computer with a single click. "And we're in."

Jude and Mike cheered with two high fives. "Holy sh..heck."

"Heck, heck." Jude agreed as he patted his back. "Heck."

"Oh holy heck. You did it." Mike nodded with a smile.

"Hold your applause. I don't see an address." Suzie went to typing once again.

"Office." Jonathan pointed. "Try office:"

She listened, clicking quickly as the computer flooded with multiple bar codes. "What is all this?"

"You know." Jude shrugged. "Top secret shi-stuff."

"Maybe it's hidden in the code somewhere?" Jonathan suggested.

"What you just said makes no sense." Mike rolled his eyes.

"I tried to tell you you should have joined AV club." Jude rolled his eyes, though he wasn't sure Jonathan remember him saying it two years ago.

"Hold your butts. I'll just trace the IP." Suzie cut in on the banter.

"The..The I-what?" Will blinked.

"The internet protocol address." she said in return. "It's a unique numerical label given to all information technology connect to the Internet."

"What the heck is an internet?" Jude turned his head to look at her.

"Don't worry about it." Suzie said casually. "It's just gonna change the world."

"What's happening now?" Mike questioned as she typed a little faster

"I'm running the IP through a geolocation software." she answered, not taking her eyes off the screen. "Basically a form of data mining."

"Bingo." Suzie smiled as she hit return, location shown.

"Nevada?" the boys all asked on sync.

"Corey's from Navada!" Jude yelled suddenly. "He told us! Before he moved here right before the summer."

"It makes perfect sense." Will agreed, the pair sharing a look.

"Can you print this?" Mike looked down at Suzie.

"No, my skills end at IP geolocation." she said sarcastically, turning to hit the printer button.

"He doesn't know what a joke is." Jude shoved Mike with his hip as he stood infront of Suzie. "Suzie, you spoke to Corey when he needed help with his grade, right?"

"Yes, just a few days ago." she nodded her head.

"Did he say anything weird? Anything that might have gotten your attention? Even like just a centimeter of your attention." Jude nodded his head quickly to her.

"Not that-" she began. "Well, he said he wanted to get some approval with his grades."

"Approval?" Mike frowned his eyebrows.

"I figured he was talking about all of you." Suzie said in return. "He said exactly, 'Perhaps a proper approval' and then thanked me."

"Perhaps? Are you sure that was Corey?" Will asked in disbelief.

"No, you're right." Jude looked at Will. "He'd never use the world perhaps, it's not in his vocabulary. Just like s-"

"What are you doing?" Jonathan gave an odd look as Jude grabbed a pen, writing the sentence down, then taking a sharpie.

Perhaps a proper approval.

"Papa." Jude read. "Breners alive."

"That's what Harmon meant by El being in danger." Mikes eyes widened. "We need to go to Nevada."

"Right now." Jude agreed as Suzie took the paper, the group running out of the office to pass an older man on the stairs.

"Hi, Father. You look like you need a nap." Suzie spoke, running down first as the man eyed all four of the boys.

"Slow down!" he called over the staircase.

"Dustin's right." Mike panted as they got outside, taking the paper from Suzie. "You're a certified genius."

"Make sure to mention me in your award speech one day." Jude tossed an arm around her. "Maybe i'll be a short model one day. All looks, no height."

"You'll get a growth spurt, Jude. Don't worry." Mike rubbed his back.

"I think we just spooked a skunk." Suzie gave a sniff of the air.

"Close." Jude paused as they looked at the van, covered in smoke with music blaring from the inside. Jonathan pulled the back door open, revealing Argyle and Eden smoking in the back.

"Yo. My dudes." Argyle laughed as he sat up some. "Any luck?"

Jude and Mike shared a comical grin, Jude put his head on his shoulder for a few seconds before sitting up.

•

kylie speaks

see y'all again on
july 1st :(