Boseman High School Shenanigans: Episode 1

As Zach is still waiting for Rose to pick up - if she does - he replies, "If this girl answers now and tells me she's just hanging out with some friends and I'm worried for no reason, I'll gladly trade."

Freddie tries to read the rest of the text while speaking with Belinda. Not easy, but he's a teen.

He takes a deep breath, and blurts, "Hey, Belinda, just wanted you to know that I snuck Debbie out of the hospital, so no need to pick her up. There is probably some insurance forms needed that you'll need to sign, though. So everything went okay today? I saw your Range Rover at the school but couldn't find you."

Zach hangs up his phone again, keeping it in his hands as he looks silently out the window. Rose can be an extremely frustrating person but she is his sister and he's genuinely scared for her, as much as he tried to play over his concerns. He's trying to blink down tears as he collects his thoughts. Then he quietly says, not really to anyone in particular but with some determination in his voice, "I'm going in there right now."

When Zach's phone buzzes in his hands, he immediately raises it to read the message. Relief floods him when he sees it's from Rose, but then his whole body goes ice cold when he reads the text. He quickly shuts off his screen before any of his friends can read the name in the text.
There's no way this is just someone else messing with her phone. Who else would know that name? But also, Rose would never call him that anymore. He lets out a shaking breath, then says, "Rose isn't Rose anymore."

"What did Belinda say, Freddie? What's the text about? What's going on?" Emily's curiosity is peaked along with her frustration with her brother.

"I'm just going to ignore the little fart," she announces and then slips the phone back into her pocket.

Freddie says, "Of, we're about to break into an abandoned building and free some capture people from space alien slug monsters. You know kid stuff."

He hangs up, and looks at the retreating vehicle. "She didn't say anything useful. Sarah said she went home and changed vehicles, didn't even go inside."

The table comes to life again all at once, and suddenly everyone is moved to action.

"How can you know that?" Lily asks Zach.

Zach looks clearly shaken as he turns to Lily. "She texted me. She wrote something that only Rose could know but that she would never say to me." He really hopes nobody here asks for an explanation. Would he give an explanation if they did?

"Very cryptic! Riddle me this, Bats!

Alright, well… we know she’s not underground at least. She wouldn’t be able to message. So, she’s… out there somewhere?

See if she’ll tell you!"

"What if I ask her to meet me here?" Zach suggests, sounding unsure. "I can tell her I went looking for her and that we should meet up to go home together. If she thinks I'm alone and she really is one of the slugs now, maybe she'll fall for the bait and try to capture me. And if she's still herself and just drunk enough to be even more of an ass than I thought she could be, then she might still come by."

"Whadya mean Zach? What could be so terrible that Rose wouldn't tell you? Ohhh..." The light turns on in Emily's head.

"So she's been taken, or taken over." Emily's eyes dart around as her mind fights for an answer.

"That's a good idea Zach. See if she ... it ... falls for that. Ask her to meet us. But if she's ... well we don't want to club her to death. So what do we do if she is ... you know ... not Rose?"

"Belinda, Rose, what about Steve, Em, is he seeming normal? We need to find a way to expel these things if we're going to save our families. Fuck! What did you do, Zach, to get the slug out of Gromn?"

Freddie pops open his bottle of antacids, and dry chews two of them.

"Yeah I think so. Maybe a little more annoying than usual. But ... shit ...do you think? Oh my God. Maybe we need to go to my place?"

It might seem like Emily hated her brother but every family was like that, wasn't it?

Freddie touches her arm. "Annoying sounds like normal for him, but was he trying to get you to do anything?"

"If she's not Rose, then we, uhm, kidnap her. I'm stronger than Rose, so I could probably overpower her. And then... someone ties her up? As long as you don't make that weird. Maybe Emily could do it." He sighs. "And then we'll have to figure out what to do. I have an idea or two, but no guarantee that they're going to work." Looking at Fred, he answers the boy's question, "I killed Gromn. But that's not an option with Rose."

"You're stronger than Rose when she's Rose. If she's not, you can't be sure. But whadya mean weird?? Sure I can do it, I mean maybe I can. Freddie could help. Couldn't you Freddie?"

As shes' gently stroking Freddie's arm she thinks about the text from Steve. "Hmmm, lemme check." Glancing at the texts, she scrolls up a bit and nods. "Yeah, he wanted pizza and extra cheese and for me to bring my friend. That's normal though. He's always hungry and he always wants to mind-grope my female friends."

"Jesus, have you guys even seen a movie with aliens in it??" Lily asks, incredulous.

"You go for the momma bug; the big one! You take out the brain bug, and all the little ones just kind of die off."

"It’s afraid. ITS AFRAAID!" she calls out.

"You know… like in Starship Troopers?"

"Lily, can you cut the jokes for one second?" Zach snaps at her. "My little sister is infected with some fucking parasite and the only way to remove it that we know of so far is to kill her. I'm really not in the mood for some stupid movie reference."