"Elmo would totally whoop Scooby Doo's ass!" Jake exclaimed, throwing his hands up to strengthen his point as he gestured wildly.

"No way," Corey Shook his head. "Scooby Doo hunts monsters and shit. Elmo just fucks around on Sesame Street and manages not to find out."

"Corey, brother," Jake shook his head, looking at the boy in utter belief. "Have you not seen how ghetto Elmo actually is? Bro doesn't find out because he is what's out."

"Dude," Colby laughed, chiming into the conversation as he kept his eyes on the road from the driver's seat of the rental car. "I saw this video the other day of Elmo busting it down with Cookie Monster."

"Okay I see your point, but Scooby Doo is a dog and Elmo is... what is he? A fucking puppet?" Sam asked, looking around at the others. "Well whatever he is, Scooby Doo could just tear him to shreds."

"Okay well that's two for Elmo," Jake said, looking up at Colby as he whispered 'the right choice'. "And two for Schlooby Dookie or whatever his name is."

"TIEBREAKER," Jake and Corey shouted simultaneously, looking at each other as they both yelled out a series of 'jinxes!'.

"Andi, brother, which one do you think would win out of Scooby-Doo and Smell-mo?" Corey asked, looking over Jake, who was sitting in the middle seat, at Andi as the red-haired boy flipped him off.

"Say Elmo and I'll let you be Princess Fiona instead of Donkey next time we play Shrek," Jake pleaded, attempting to win another vote for his team.

The boys sat in silence for a few moments, waiting for her answer, but it never came, and they all raised an eyebrow at each other at their friend's sudden silence.

"Andi?" Sam asked, turning around in the passenger seat to look at the blonde girl. His eyes widened when he saw her sitting sideways in the seat, her back leaning against Jake's arm with her feet pressed firmly against the door. Her head was bowed and she looked intently at a large sheet of paper that was spread out over her lap. "Dude, what the fuck is all of that?"

Colby took his eyes off of the road for a moment as he quickly looked back at the girl to see what Sam was talking about. The four boys waited for her to look up at Sam, but once again she remained silent.

"Dude I swear to fucking god she's possessed," Corey said dryly, shaking his head as they stared at the blonde girl in disbelief.

"Earth to Andromeda," Jake said, using his other arm to shake the girl's shoulder.

"Huh?" Andi asked, looking up with furrowed brows as she saw the three of them staring expectantly at her, Colby glancing back every so often. "I know I'm a beauty, guys, but there's no need to stare."

Colby chuckled at her joke and looked back at the road. "Did you seriously not hear any of that?"

"Any of what?" She asked, once again confused as she looked at them.

"The whole ass conversation we just had, brother," Jake said with a laugh.

"Oh, no," She shook her head, shrugging at him. "I figured it was something stupid so I tuned you guys out."

"Okay first of all-" Corey started, but his words were cut off when Sam shook his head at him and held up a finger.

"What is all of that?" The blonde boy asked as he twisted around in his seat to get a better look at the large sheets of paper spread out across the girl.

"Blueprints of the park," She shrugged, looking back down at them in a mixture of confusion and concentration.

"Definitely possessed," Corey repeated, looking out of the window in fear.

"Shut up," She huffed at him, rolling her eyes. "I'll sic the shadow man on your ass."

"Brother!" Corey exclaimed, looking over at her with a small glare. "Don't even say his name."

"Andi," Sam said, snapping the girl back into the conversation they had been having. "Why on earth do you have blueprints for the park?"

"I found them in the office," She shrugged, looking back down at the paper.

"More like stole them out of some old desk," Jake said, exposing their earlier actions as Colby raised an eyebrow.

"I did not steal them," Andi shook her head. The others all gave her a deadpan look, knowing the girl tended to have sticky fingers, and she smiled sheepishly. "Okay maybe I did swipe them from a locked drawer, but honestly, who is going to want some dusty-ass blueprints of a park that's been shut down for years?"

"She has a point," Colby nodded. "Nobody probably even knows that those were there if the drawer was locked."

"Wait," Corey shook his head. "How the fuck did you get the desk open if it was locked?"

"That's not important," Andi mumbled, her attention back on the blueprints in her lap. "Sam, you know the layout of the park, right?"

"Somewhat," The blonde boy nodded, looking at her in confusion that was steadily growing to concern as the girl continued to not make zero sense. "Why?"

"I've been staring at these since we started the drive and something is completely out of place but I cannot, for the life of me, see what it is," She said, looking up at him. "It's driving me insane."

"More insane than usual," Corey mumbled, looking out of the window as Colby laughed quietly.

"That's strike two," She warned, pointing at him sternly. "Don't let me get to three."

"Momma's mad," Jake laughed, his eyes darting between the two of them in amusement.

"Let me see those," Sam said, narrowing his eyes as he scanned over the blueprints.

Andi passed the handful of papers up to him, hoping that somehow he would point out something that her searching eyes hadn't caught. She didn't know why she was all of a sudden so interested in the maps, but something nagged at her brain so harshly that she couldn't seem to put them down. There was something there, she just couldn't see it.

After a few moments of curious silence, Sam finally looked up at her with one eyebrow raised. "Andi, these look the exact same as the park layout to me. There's nothing out of place."

The blonde girl shook her head and huffed as her brows drew together. She took the papers back from him, her eyes scanning over the etched lines as an agitated look crossed her face.

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head when we were running earlier and just don't remember it?" Corey asked, watching the conversation with slight concern.

"Sometimes I do that and wake up on the floor of Colby's bathroom," Jake said nonchalantly.

Andi gave the red-haired boy a hard side eye before turning her attention back to the blueprints in front of her. "No, there's definitely something different between these and the actual park layout."

"Well whatever it is, it'll have to wait," Colby chimed in, pulling into a parking space in front of the smaller Walmart that lay in the middle of the teeny town. "Because we're here."

At his words, the group began to pile out of the cramped car, letting out sighs of relief as they cracked their sore joints. Andi hopped out of her door, blueprints in hand as she looked back into the car through the window. She saw Jake moving to climb out of her door and smirked as she shut it in his face.

"You ass face!" She heard him shout from inside as he flipped her off and climbed out of Corey's side. Andi chuckled and she stretched before looking around at the group.

"Leave the blueprints in the car," Sam said, lightly pushing her back towards her door.

"But it's going to drive me insane," She whined, letting him push her back to the car as the others waited off to the side.

"You'll be fine," He laughed, opening the door for her. "Plus, you need a break from thinking about the park. It'll help clear your head and then maybe you'll be able to find out what's bugging you so much."

Andi thought over his words and then huffed. She knew that he was right, and she gave in to his actions as she tossed the papers back into the vehicle and shut the door after them. Maybe a break would help her to focus more later.

The five of them made their way into the small Walmart and almost immediately felt out of place in the extremely small-southern-town-esc building. It reminded Andi a lot of home back in Kansas, and a small pang of nostalgia shot through her heart.

That went away a moment later when a teenage boy in cutoff jeans and an American flag t-shirt, his mullet slicked back underneath a baseball cap, walked past her and glared, mumbling 'fucking emos' under his breath as moved through the doors.

"It smells like redneck in here," Colby shuddered, looking around at the store that was already decked out in Fourth of July decorations, despite the holiday being over a week away.

"Let's get going before we get shot," Sam muttered, turning away from the hateful looks thrown at them with an unbothered expression.

Sam switched the filming camera on and pointed it over at the group with a smile.

"Alright guys, we are now at the small ass Walmart in this bum-fuck town to get the supplies for the seance," Sam explained to the camera.

"We might get jumped in the parking lot on the way out," Colby joked, looking at the device before he looked around them.

A woman walked past Jake with a hateful glare, and the red-haired boy turned to her with a laugh. "What, you've never seen a guy in skinny jeans before?"

"Jake," Corey wheezed, pulling him away from the disgusted old lady as the others held in a laugh and moved off to the side.

"What? The hag was asking for it," He shrugged, fist bumping Andi as she smiled proudly at him.

"Okay guys, what's the game plan?" Sam asked, pointing the camera at them.

"Kid thinks we're in football," Andi laughed, pulling the other four in so that they could huddle together like football players, the camera beneath them looking up at their laughing faces.

"Jake, dude, why the hell does your breath smell like garlic," Corey laughed, plugging his nose as he turned away.

"From eating out your mom," Jake retorted, smirking over at Corey as the boy punched his arm almost instantly.

"Holy fuck," Sam wheezed, quickly composing himself as he took a deep breath. "Okay, focus up guys, what're we doing here?"

"Well we're not going to get anything done with these third graders running around like heathens," Colby said, pushing Jake off of him as the boy tried to lick Colby's ear.

"I'll take them to get the food so that you two can get the spooky shit," Andi nodded, punching Corey in the arm as he mocked her silently.

"I'm not sure leaving you in charge makes me feel any better," Colby laughed, looking at her with a raised brow as she shoved Corey away from her like a child.

"Hey, watch it bud," Andi said, pointing at him sternly. "You're already in the dog house, don't dig the hole deeper."

"Alright," Sam interrupted, laughing as Colby threw his hands up in defense. "Andi, you're good to take them to shop for the food?"

"Yep," Andi nodded.

"Okay then Colby and I will go get the supplies for the seance," Sam nodded, checking the time on his phone. "We can meet up right here in thirty minutes from now."

"Sounds like a plan, Stan," Jake agreed, taking the vlogging camera from Colby so that his group could film as well.

"Are we supposed to say go team or something?" Corey laughed, pointing out that the five of them were still huddled together.

"Go team!" Everyone shouted jokingly, breaking the huddle apart as Andi shooed Sam and Colby away and turned to Jake and Corey, the three of them whispering to each other, the sight making Sam chuckle.

The two boys made their way across the store, heading straight for the candle aisle to gather the first stop of supplies for the seance tonight. They filmed as they walked, laughing and poking fun at the ridiculous things in the small-town Walmart that reminded them of their own store back in their hometown.

Colby led the way to the sweet-smelling section of the store, and he looked down in confusion as the camera battery began to blink red in his hands.

"Hey, didn't this have a full battery when we started this morning?" Colby asked, looking up at Sam who had begun looking through their options.

"Yeah, I switched the pack out when we got up," Sam nodded, looking up at him. "Why? What's it on now?"

"Twenty percent," Colby said, one of his brows quirking up as he rechecked the battery.

"What the fuck?" Sam said, moving over to look. Sure enough, the battery was almost completely drained from just a few hours of use. "That's a new battery too, that should last us almost all day."

"Maybe whatever was in that fun house just sucked the fuckin' juice right out," The blue-haired boy suggested. "It's happened before."

"Yeah, that's probably it," The other boy nodded. "God danggit. I guess we can just turn it off for now and just stick to filming us all checking out."

"That should work," Colby nodded, shutting the camera off as he put it away in the basket that they had picked up earlier. "I'm sure Jake will film enough of them fucking around anyways, we won't have much use of our footage."

Sam nodded, and the both of them went to work on searching for the tall white candles that most stores carried, the ones that they used every time they did a seance.

"So," Sam started, his eyes scanning over the various candles on the shelf in front of him. "How's it going with Andi?"

At his words, Colby let out a small sigh and ran a hand through his already-tousled hair, the white light glinting off of his ring-clad fingers. "I don't know, honestly. I've tried to apologize and she just keeps telling me to wait until later. Which I get, because, like, I wouldn't want to do it on camera either, but then she keeps switching between acting like we're chill and then being cold with me, so then I have no idea how to act until she lets me talk it out with her. Which then brings me to the fact that I don't know when she'll actually give me that chance, so then I don't know how to act around her. It's all one big shitshow and I'm the asshole who started it."

Sam let out a small snort of laughter and the last sentence and shook his head as Colby rambled on. "Okay, man, you might be pissed at me for saying this but hear me out. You're the one that started it, and honestly, if I were her I'd be pissed as well. You said some pretty messed up crap, so of course she's not just going to let that go right away."

"I know," The blue-haired boy sighed, running his hand down his face. "But I wish she would at least just pick one way to act instead of switching between 'oh hey Colby' and 'get the fuck away from me you ass wipe' so that I would know how to act."

"Well honestly the two of you have been friends for so long that in her mind it probably feels unnatural to not be friendly, but then she's also stubborn as fuck and won't let it go," Sam explained, pushing some of the candles aside to look for the ones that they needed.

"And I don't blame her for that, I know I would be pissed at me too," Colby sighed. "I just wish she would let me apologize already."

"Well give her some time to think and cool down," Sam suggested, and then stopped and looked over at Colby. "But you do know that she's just going to keep pushing it back right? You know how she is with confrontation. You're going to have to gently make her listen to you or she'll just keep waiting until 'later', and then it will never come."

"But how do I do that without pushing her farther away in the process by trying to force it," Colby shook his head, twisting the metal rings around his fingers.

"Listen," Sam sighed, looking up at Colby. "Just get her alone, Colby. Turn the camera off, go somewhere private, and just talk it out. She's stubborn, but she's not going to push you away if she can tell that you're being genuine. She knows that she can't dance around it forever."

Colby nodded, thinking over the blonde's words as a small plan formulated in his mind.

"And, for fucks sake, man, do it fast," Sam said, grabbing five of the larger white candles off of the shelf and putting them in the basket. "It's exhausting to watch you guys constantly dance around the elephant in the room."

—---------------------------------------------------------------

"Sir, sir!" Jake called, holding the vlog camera up as he jogged up to an older man who was browsing the bread selection. "Would you be willing to do a small interview with me and my crew?"

"Excuse me?" The man looked back, eyeing Jake suspiciously as he took in the boy's dyed hair and black apparel. He leaned to the side and looked past Jake, his eyes scanning over the aisle as Corey rounded the corner quickly, Andi in the cart laughing as she gripped the metal, the two of them quickly joining Jake. "What are you guys, some reality TV show?"

"You could say that," Jake nodded, holding the vlog camera up to the man. "Now, my name is Hugh Janus, these are my partners, Jenn Atools, and Tess Tickles, and I'd like to ask you a series of questions if that's okay."

Andi laughed quietly, standing up in the cart to grab a loaf of wheat bread from the top shelf as Jake handed the vlogging camera off to Corey to film the encounter.

"Okay, the first question is, do you play with balls?" Jake asked, looking at the man in all seriousness as he held up a random ass banana that had come out of nowhere to use as a microphone.

"Pardon me?" The man asked, his face screwing up as he looked over at Corey and Andi who turned the other way to hide their laughs. "Oh you kids think you're real fucking funny don't you?"

"No, no sir, I don't think you understand," Jake nodded, trying to hide a laugh as he pulled a bouncy ball out of his pocket. "I mean, do you bounce balls?"

The man's face dropped for a second, but he still looked at Jake with a hint of suspicion as he thought over the question. "I suppose I have, yes."

Andi was still grabbing the bread and she shook her head as she tried her hardest to hold in a laugh, not wanting to ruin the bit.

"Perfect!" Jake nodded, rubbing his thumb over the bouncy ball. "So would you say that you like your balls round or more oval shaped?"

"Umm," The man trailed off, looking at Jake carefully as he took in the words. "I'd have to say round."

"Ahh I see, I see," Jake nodded, clearly trying to keep his cool. "Now the next question. Do you like your balls one at a time or a handful?"

"Okay, um, probably a handful," The man nodded hesitantly, obviously just wanting the three of them to leave him to his shopping.

"Ahh I see, fellow sir," Jake smirked. "It's more fun that way. Anyways, would you say you like them textured or smooth?"

"We're still talking about bouncy balls, right?" The man asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, man, of course," Jake reassured, giving a sneaky wink in Corey and Andi's direction.

"Probably smooth then," The man shrugged. "Easier to bounce that way."

"I see, I see, I can tell you're an experienced ball bouncer," Jake furthered the joke. "Now for the last question."

"Go on son, I don't have all day," The man urged, growing irritated by the pointless 'interview'.

"Okay, for our last question," Jake started, looking at the camera. "We'd like to know if you like your balls hairy or shaved."

He said the last part of the sentence particularly loud, and Andi let out a cackle as the man's face screwed up in rage and he took a step forward.

"GO GO GO!" Jake yelled, sprinting down the aisle away from the man.

The cart lurched forward as Corey began running down the aisle with it, and Andi lost her footing, crashing down into the metal basket with a thump as she cradled the soft bread to her chest to save it. "WOAH! YOU ASSHOLES COULD HAVE WARNED ME!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU DAMN KIDS!" The man yelled from behind them, starting to run after the trio.

The blonde girl looked behind them and laughed, shaking her head as she saw the angry man running after them. "Never mind, just run!"

The three of them ran, zigzagging through aisles before they eventually made it to the toy section of the store to hide. When they could no longer hear the echoing footsteps of the angry older man behind them, they all took a breath, laughing uncontrollably.

"Dude," Andi said in between her wheezing laughs. "You're so lucky they're not kicking us out right now."

"Us?" Corey cackled, holding his stomach. "Nah, that was all Jake, brother."

"Bro, I cannot believe that old fart fell for that," The red-haired boy shook his head, laughing as he looked in the cart. "We don't have to go back over there, right?"

"No, I think I got all of the food earlier," Andi said, wiping her tears from laughing as she caught her breath. "This should definitely hold us over for two nights."

—------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay, we got the salt and candles," Colby started, walking through the store with Sam. "What else do we need? We already have Sage back at the park and Andi's getting water."

"That's basically all," Sam nodded, leading Colby towards the clothing aisles. "I just need to get one more thing."

"What, a bra?" Colby joked, laughing as they moved through the women's clothes. "Is Samantha making another appearance?"

"Jesus no," The blonde laughed, moving towards the accessories section. "I need a blindfold."

"Damn dude, I didn't know you were into that," Colby stopped walking and cocked an eyebrow, looking at Sam with an amused expression. "Can't that wait until we get back to LA though?"

"It's not for me," Sam shook his head, looking through the accessories for something that he could use as a blindfold.

"Oh ew, I don't want to know about Kat like that," Colby grimaced, faking a gag.

"No-" Sam laughed, looking up at Colby. "It's for the investigation."

"Ohh," The blue-haired boy laughed, kneeling down to help him look through the shelves. "Are we doing a solo challenge or something?"

"No," The blonde shook his head with a small smirk. "I've got a new thing in mind that I saw online. I figured we could try it, but, in true XPLR fashion, up the whole thing to a new level."

"Sounds Gucci," Colby nodded, pulling a small party blindfold off of a rack as he eyed it. "Who's going to do it?"

"Andi."

—--------------------------------------------------------------

"Surrender wretched hag!" Jake shouted, swinging his lightsaber down at Andi, the camera in his other hand and his expression unreadable under the oversized Transformers mask on his face.

"Suck my large penis, sir turd-head!" Andi shouted back, dodging his hit, her eyes squinting through her oversized unicorn glasses that matched the pink tutu clinging to her waist.

The two of them battled, their lightsabers thunking against each other as they jumped around the toy aisle like overgrown children. Corey came running toward them, laughing as he came back from where he had disappeared a few minutes prior.

"Brother, look what I found!" Corey shouted, interrupting their battle.

Andi turned slightly to look at him, and her jaw dropped when she saw the boy running toward her in a life-sized banana costume. "Holy tits, where did you find that?!"

Jake laughed, noticing that the laughing girl had let her guard down as she looked at Corey in amusement. He took the chance to swing his lightsaber at her knees, successfully knocking her onto the ground. "OH YEAH GET WASTED BROTHER!"

Andi yelped as her knees gave out, her legs slamming into the tile floor as she turned around and glared at Jake. "Dirty shot, you shit wipe. Dirty shot."

"You just got got!" Corey smirked, jumping up to chest-bump Jake with a laugh.

The blonde girl rolled her eyes, standing up as she snatched her lightsaber off of the floor. She stepped towards Jake and saw his eyes widen as she brought the saber up quickly, stopping it only inches from his crotch.

"Not the family jewels," The red-haired boy gasped, his hands shooting down to cover his groin.

"Oh please," She laughed, lowering the pretend weapon in satisfaction. "It's not like you're ever gonna have kids anyways."

"Hey!" He said, crossing his arms. "I've got bitches, you never know. It could happen."

"Tara would actually kill you," Corey laughed, patting Jake on the shoulder.

"I would kill you," Andi said threateningly. "I would actually rather let a demon possess me than have to be around a mini you."

"She wants a demon inside of her," Jake giggled, completely disregarding everything else that the girl had said.

"What the hell did we just walk into?" Colby laughed, he and Sam turning into the aisle with wide eyes as they observed the odd scene.

"THEY'VE FOUND US," Jake yelled, grabbing Andi's arm. "RETREAT SOLDIERS!"

The blonde girl let out a groan when he grabbed her arm, dragging her with him as he dove sideways into the large cage that held the blow-up bouncy balls. The toys toppled down on top of the two as they landed on the tile ground with a loud 'thump', the balls spilling out of the roped sides of the enclosure.

"Oh my fucking god, dude," Corey laughed, his jaw dropping open as he looked around them to make sure that there were no store employees near.

"Holy fuck-," Sam gasped, watching the two of them as he quickly moved down the aisle and pretended not to know them. "This is why we cannot go anywhere with the two of you."

Colby laughed and nodded in agreement, moving over to the roped cage quickly, a hint of concern present in his otherwise amused expression. He quickly moved a ball over and looked down at the blonde girl, his eyes raking over her as he took in her winded figure. "You okay, Star?"

"No," She groaned dramatically, the air having been knocked from her lungs upon her fall. She looked over at Jake and hit him on the chest. "I'm literally going to kill you, brother."

"It wasn't me... it was a ghost," Jake said, looking at her with a serious face. The two of them stared each other down before they both burst out into a fit of giggles, neither finding the ability to stay serious.

"You guys might actually give Sam a heart attack one day," Colby chuckled, gently grabbing into Andi's upper arms as he pulled her to her feet. His eyes scanned over her giggling face, double-checking that she was okay as his worried thoughts eased and he joined in on the laughing.

Andi let him pull her to her feet and a slight blush rose to her cheeks as his eyes scanned over her face worriedly. She had to admit, she didn't mind him holding onto her like this, his eyes on her face. She didn't mind it at all.

And then his words echoed in her head, and she pulled herself gently out of his grasp, letting out a small sigh.

"too childish."

She was definitely being too childish right now.

"Hey, if anyone asks, we can just say that you guys slipped on me," Corey chimed in, gesturing to his banana costume with a cheeky smile, obviously not seeing the small look of heartbreak hidden on Colby's face as Andi separated herself from him.

The camera cut and the next shot was all five of the friends at the front checkout, Corey, Andi, and Jake now stripped of their childish accessories as they loaded the food and supplies up onto the conveyor belt at the checkout station.

"Wait, guys, who's paying for all of this?" Jake asked, looking down at the three family-sized bags of chips he had chosen.

The group all looked at each other and their fingers quickly shot up to their noses as another silent game of 'nose-goes' was played. Sam was the slowest, and they all looked at him with small smirks.

"Looks like Sammy boy is playing sugar daddy this time," Corey laughed, moving to grab the now-bagged food items.

"Awe come on guys," Sam groaned, but they could all tell that he was joking around. "You can't all be my sugar babies."

"I've got it, man," Colby laughed, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.

"You sure?" Sam asked, looking over at Colby with a raised eyebrow. "Because I was just joking. I can totally get it."

"Yeah, don't worry about it, honey," Colby teased, swiping his card through the reader. "You paid for McDonalds last night anyway, so I've got it covered."

"Aweee, how romantic," Andi laughed, looking at the camera as she pretended to fangirl.

"All of the fanfic writers out there are going crazy right now," Jake laughed, helping grab the bags.

"Guys if this video gets one hundred likes right now, Sam and Colby will make out," Corey said, turning the camera towards him.

"One hundred and six," Sam corrected with a smirk.

"Yeah, one hundred and six likes at this exact second on this exact day," Andi shrugged. "Like right now guys."

"Wait," Jake joked. "But they make out with each other every day anyways?"

Corey panned the camera over to Colby, and the blue-haired boy pressed his face closer to the lens and did a side eye that said 'I've been caught'. "Cut the fucking camera guys."

The camera cut and the five of them checked out successfully and made their way through the parking lot to the parked car. Andi once again sat in the cart, and Sam pushed her across the rough gravel, the two of them running towards the vehicle, laughing the whole way. Colby watched the two of them with a small smile, enjoying how both of his favorite people were so happy at this given moment, the two of them looking like literal rays of sunshine as their giggles echoed the lot and their bright hair contrasted greatly with the slightly cloudy day.

Sure, he loved Jake and Corey and the girls a tremendous amount, but nobody could top Sam and Andi in his mind. They were his family, his people. His two soulmates. He had never, ever, had as strong of a bond with someone as he did with those two, and he thanked the universe every day that he had both of them right here with him. He just wished that he could make it right with Andi already. The tension between them was starting to hurt too much.

"Colby, brother!" Jake called from ahead, looking back at the blue-haired boy who had slowed his pace as he got lost in his thoughts. "Stop starin' at Sam's ass and get a move on!"

Colby chuckled and jogged over to the car with a smile, enjoying listening to everyone banter as Andi tried to jump out of the cart and landed face down on the ground, not even affected by the fall as she did her little snort-giggle combo and got up. The group loaded all of the groceries into the trunk of the car and then pushed the cart into the collector and gathered around in the parking lot.

"Alright, what's the plan with these interviews?" Colby asked, looking at Sam. It had been his idea to ask around town, so Colby had no idea how this was going to go.

"Yeah, how the dick are we going to get people to just blab on about the haunted ass park that's been closed off for years?" Jake questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"We get Corey to woo them," Andi shrugged, looking over at Corey.

"Yeah, I can woo them, man," Corey nodded, doing an extremely fast-paced and hilarious dance that made him look like a bird. When his dance was over he winked at Colby and blew him a kiss. "Did it work? Do you want to talk to us about ghost shit now?"

"I want to make out with you now," Colby joked, puckering his lips.

"Get over here then," Corey giggled, moving closer.

"Guysss," Sam whined, pushing the two of them apart. "This is why we keep passing around STDs."

"Damnit, I told you, Colby!" Jake said, furiously wiping his lips off on his sleeve.

"Guys..." Andi said, faking horror as she played along with the bit. "I kissed Tara the other day. Does that mean I have the STDs?"

"All seventy-five of them," Corey nodded, dapping Andi up with a wide smile. "Welcome to the club brother!"

"Guys I promise we're not hazing her," Sam laughed, turning the camera towards him.

"Yes we are," Colby said, pressing his face against the lens. "We're hazing the shit out of her."

The camera cut and the five of them laughed and joked for a minute more before they got back on track.

"Okay, so I was thinking that we could split into two groups and then one of us can go to that park over there and one of us can go to the gas station down the road," Sam said, laying out the plan for them. "Then we just ask around and see if anyone knows anything about the park and write it down."

Corey raised his hand when Sam finished speaking and Sam laughed before pointing to him like a teacher. "Can I be with Colby, Mr. Goldencock?"

The others laughed and Colby sent a sly, pleading look in Sam's direction. This could be his perfect chance to apologize to Andi in private.

Sam picked up on his friend's silent message and shook his head at Corey. "No, I might lose my mind if I have to split off with Jake and Andi," He said, looking over at the two who were playing rock paper scissors like children. "Colby can take Andi and hit up the park. We'll go to the gas station since Jake has to pee anyway."

"Ugh fine," Jake huffed, sounding an awful lot like a moody child. He looked at Andi with a pouty expression. "Bye, mom."

"I'll see you later, child," Andi joked back, moving off to separate from the three boys as Colby waited off to the side for her.

The two of them started off in the direction of the park across the street, a slightly awkward tension settling over them. Andi knew that she had promised him that they could talk when they made the trip to Walmart, and she knew that that was the real reason the two of them had been paired up. She wasn't blind, she had seen the look between him and Sam just a second ago.

While she knew that they needed to talk it out, she also was severely dreading it. Confrontation was never something that she did well with, and the fact that it was with him made it ten times more nerve-wracking.

"Look, Star," Colby started, breaking the silent tension. "I don't want to push anything onto you, but can we please talk now?"

The blonde closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, noting the hesitant tone in the boy's voice as he spoke. She opened her eyes and looked over at the mostly empty park that they were approaching.

'OH BROTHER. Get over yourself and just let the boy talk!' The voice in her head screamed.

"Yeah, we can," She nodded after a moment, stepping foot onto the wood chips that littered the floor of the play area, her shoulder briefly brushing his as they walked over to the swing set. "Let's talk."

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Word count- 6167

Fun fact- on the Fourth of July one year when they were younger, the group got kicked out of the town-wide barbeque because the four of them had a hot dog eating contest and Sam threw up all over the decorations.

Authors note: sorry that this took so long guys, I've been trying to get it done and I appreciate all of the love. I apologize if this chapter wasn't the best, but I'm a little bit rusty and exhausted right now.