A new frontier…hopefully there won’t be any screaming, but if so, maybe they’ll luck out and someone will hear.
Having the kids in the Scouts had its ups and downs, mostly downs for all parties involved, but the kids had not been kicked out yet, which was good. Betty was starting to wish that they would get kicked out just so she could stop wondering what was on Aztek’s uniform and why it smelled the way it did every time he came home from a meeting. She was glad that Romah was not as dirty as his big brother, but then again, it was near impossible to be “as dirty” as Aztek was.
Romah was more inclined to hang out with Nobunaga and they spent their time climbing and jumping off of things, which was just as annoying as the mystery smells in Aztek’s clothes. Romah and Nobunaga came close to hurting themselves or others plenty of times with the way they leaped way before looking. They had landed on several people on a number of occasions, but that never stopped them from doing it again and again.
Out of the boys, everyone thought that Bokuden would take best to the Dragon Scouts, but that was not the case. He did not have anything against the boys in the troop or anything, but he just did not like “organized activities” outside of school. He felt like he should be able to do whatever he wanted on his own time and that just was not so in the Dragon Scouts. He also had no desire to learn a lot of the things being taught in the Scouts. Some of the things that they preached, he knew already and had little desire to hear again.
Bokuden liked helping people, so he did not think that he needed a Scout handbook to tell him that he should help a person in need; he thought that it was just common sense. Most of the things that were expected of a Scout he thought were common sense things and he felt like he was being treated like an idiot when he was told to read those things in a book. So, he spent most meetings looking sullen and disinterested while praying that time sped up for him to get out of there soon.
Other than that, Bokuden and the boys did make some friends in their troop, which their parents thought was good. They thought that socializing with other kids might help calm the boys down some. Most of that theory was directed toward Nobunaga, who was a hyperactive tornado, often leaving a trail of utter destruction in his wake. Being around other boys actually did not help Nobunaga or Aztek much because whenever they did outrageous things, the other boys just egged them on to do more.
Still, since the boys had not been thrown out for any shocking and insane behavior, their parents thought that was a good thing. They figured that as long as the boys stayed there, eventually it would prove to be a helpful thing for the boys’ development. They just had to hope Nobunaga and Romah did not kill themselves or someone else before that happened. There was also the hope that Bokuden did not die of boredom, which seemed highly possible according to him.
The girls were another matter altogether. They were surprisingly still in the Pixie Scouts after a few months, which was almost like a miracle. Of course, they hated the Pixie Scouts and millions of times, it seemed anyway, Jayden wanted to know how it was possible for her mother to have been a part of such a group when she was younger. She could not picture Kim as a Pixie no matter how much she tried. It just did not link up in her mind knowing her mother now. Jayden always wondered, how in the hell it was possible for the kick-ass herpetologist/hero to have survived a stint in the Pixie Scouts?
The girls felt like the Pixie Scouts were just too, well, “girly.” They hated the uniforms certainly. They were not fans of wearing skirts. They did not even wear skirts with their school uniforms anymore. There was a “no-pants” rule with the Pixie Scouts though and their mothers were insisting that they follow the rules “to the best of their abilities.” So, they were stuck wearing the uniforms.
Other than the uniforms, they could not get into a lot of the activities that the Pixie Scouts did. They mostly hated the “arts and crafts” and typically drifted off to do their own thing, which generally involved breaking things to make something new. They scared the hell out of the troop den mother when they made a bolt gun, which confirmed that Raziya did, in fact, know how to build a firearm. Raziya normally supervised when they were making such things, but Mayah and Jayden were not without technical skills, so they did their own projects. Also, Jayden was a keen learner through observation, so on the few occasions that she watched Raziya build her own things, she had learned a lot about the mechanics in putting stuff together. The trio was full of surprises, mostly unwanted, thanks to those skills.
Every now and then, the troop would do something that the girls liked. There was drawing, which Raziya enjoyed greatly; although she had a habit of putting down most of the works of her fellow Pixie Scouts. Hey, she did not see anything wrong with telling the truth and the truth of the matter was that most of those girls could not draw; Jayden was included with that lot and the raven-haired girl knew it well.
There were nature walks, which Jayden and Mayah liked a lot. They sometimes frightened the den mother as they liked to run off when certain things caught their eyes; Raziya would follow them, even though she was not as enthusiastic about animals as they were. They were good for freaking out and angering the den mother.
The main problem actually had to do with the girls’ personalities. They were all very domineering and forceful, like their mothers, so sometimes without meaning to, they bullied the other girls. It might have helped that they fought each other so much that the other girls were scared of them, thinking that the trio would physically battle with them too if they disagreed with the trio. Mayah. Raziya, and Jayden typically had no desire to fight with other people unless provoked in someway, but sometimes it was very easy to provoke them. Still, despite their temperaments and personalities, they had not gotten into any physical combat with their fellow Pixies. Their mothers were actually proud of them for that.
“Wait, say that again,” Shego said to Jayden as she came into the house followed by Kim. The redhead had taken Jayden to her Pixie meeting because Shego had an emergency at work; usually, they both could take Jayden because the meetings were on the weekends.
“I have to sell cookies to pay for some damn camping trip thingy we’re going on in a month,” Jayden reported for a second time. She sounded just as excited that second time as she did the first, which was something short of wishing that she were dead to avoid having to actually do such a stupid thing.
Todd could not help himself; he burst into laughter. Jayden cut him a look of pure venom, but that did not shut him up. Everything about the whole “Pixie Scout thing” tickled the hell out of him when it came to his sister and her friends. He was a bit more understanding toward the boys and their Dragon Scout woes, although he thought that they were taking things too hard. The Scouts did not seem that bad in his opinion, but at least it gave him plenty of laughs at his sister’s expense.
“Shut the hell up, Smiley!” Jayden barked.
“Make me,” he retorted, knowing full well that she would take him up on that offer.
Jayden removed her shoe and pitched it at her brother. She probably would have hit a slower being that did not know her as well as Todd did, but he easily caught the projectile. She was undeterred and threw the second shoe at him. He dodged that one and then stuck his tongue out at her, teasing her since she was out of ammunition. She decided to turn her attention away from him and back to her mommy.
“Yeah, so I hafta sell stupid cookies,” Jayden grumbled.
“Well, I’ll take you up to the office tomorrow and we’ll force everyone to buy to your cookies so you can go on the camping trip,” Shego stated quite seriously.
“Maybe I don’t wanna go fucking camping with them,” the child muttered while folding her arms across her stomach.
“Ah, you know you wanna go,” Shego teased while snatching her daughter up and ruffling her hair.
“It’s probably gonna be boring,” Jayden protested. Every time the Pixies did something that sounded like it could be fun, it turned out boring.
“It should be fun,” Kim said while sitting down on the sofa next to Shego and Jayden. Todd was on the floor, doing something weird in the ladies’ opinions; he was putting together a kite. He had plans to fly it with Jayden once he was done with it.
“Nah, they’ll probably do stupid stuff, like sing around a fire or some dumb shit like that. That’s not fun,” Jayden pointed out.
“No, it ain’t,” Todd agreed. He hoped that they did more than that on the camping trip, although he had no doubt that his sister and her friends would liven things up if that was all they did.
“You have to give it a chance, munchkin,” Shego said to her daughter in a gentle tone, hoping to get the girl out of her funk over a trip that she was going on whether she liked it or not.
“You always say that about the Pixie Scouts, even though every time I give them a chance, we do something stupid,” Jayden argued vigorously.
“What about going to the zoo? You liked when you guys did that last week, right?” Kim pointed out.
“Yeah, but I coulda did that with you. I’d rather do it with you,” Jayden grumbled while folding her arms across her chest now. She leaned against Shego while pouting something fierce, looking for pity it seemed, even though she knew that it was not going to help.
“You should give a try. You might like camping. And, we’ll take you to the zoo soon,” Kim replied with a smile while reaching over to caress the top of Jayden’s head.
Jayden did not seem too assured by anything. She was happy to go to her mother’s job the next day and watch Shego “sell” cookies. Betty was up there too, doing the same thing. Mayah and Jayden could not help smiling while their mothers worked. Betty actually had candy to sell too for Aztek because the Dragon Scouts were also going on a camping trip. Betty was mentally groaning already about what Aztek was going to bring back with him. She could only hope that Romah did come back, although she doubted that the Dragon Scouts were going to take the younger boys.
“Well, if nothing else, one of us is gonna sell the most cookies,” Mayah remarked with an amused laugh because no one was turning their mothers down yet.
“Yeah, for a lame ass camping trip,” Jayden reminded her friend.
The elder girl sighed; she hated being reminded of the camping trip. She was pretty sure that it was going to be lame too, especially if the nature walks were any indications of things. She had never been so bored with being outside before in her life, but it was better when they took nature walks than when they stayed inside.
“Wanna go help sell junk?” Jayden suggested with a devilish smile.
Mayah just nodded enthusiastically. She would take any excuse to yell at people and force them to buy something from her. Jayden just wanted an excuse to see her mother work up close and personal, and maybe actually get in the faces of some people with Shego. It was quite the thing for all of the employees of the Go City Justice Bureau to see the second generation of their boss and her right-hand woman.
“I thought they outlawed human cloning,” someone remarked under his breath. Hey, Mayah and Jayden had to be clones of their mothers. It was the only way to explain the girls’ personalities.
(New day)
It was time to release their kids into the wild. The group of parents were not sure if they should worry more for the kids, as they did have a whole weekend in the woods to get lost or kill themselves or something like that, or if they should worry more of the people in charge. They were starting to wonder if they should have volunteered to go with them, or at least some of them volunteer, but they had not considered that until it was too late. The kids told their parents not to worry, which was only more cause for concern. How were they supposed to believe that the kids were going to be all right on their own? And how in the hell were they not supposed to worry when the little maniacs were telling them not to worry?!
Well, they supposed that everything would be all right as long as the Dragon Scouts and the Pixie Scouts were at two, very far campsites. If there was any way for Mayah, Raziya, and Jayden to get together with Bokuden and Aztek, they would probably unleash Hell, especially since their parents were miles away. It would make for an unforgettable weekend if they all did get together.
Nobunaga and Romah were not going on the trip. They were thankfully too young. No one wanted to know what Nobunaga might do around a campfire or what Romah might do near a lake. Nobunaga could possibly burn the state to the ground and Romah might never be seen again.
Ron did tell Bokuden that if he saw Bigfoot, he needed to snap a picture. Bokuden agreed while Yori just sighed. That was all she needed, Bokuden wandering in the woods looking for a fictional creature. It did not help matters that Bokuden believed in Bigfoot, which was mostly thanks to his father. She was really worried that she might not see her elder son again.
“So…figure they’ll blow up something or just hurt someone really badly?” Shego wondered aloud as they watched the buses drive off with their kids and so many possible victims.
“Aztek is going to discover poison ivy or poison oak. I know this already,” Betty sighed while shaking her head. She was holding Chyna in her arms; Chyna preferred being carried around by just about anyone, as long as she could avoid having to walk. Walking involved way too much falling for her liking while being carried not only had no falling, but also was less tiring.
“I hope Bo gets that picture of Bigfoot,” Ron said quite seriously.
“If Bo even think he’s sees Bigfoot, it’s time to get him mental help,” Monique commented. As quiet as she was, Yori partially agreed with that assessment, although she did take into account that Bokuden was a little kid and it was understandable for him to imagine seeing something.
“I wanna see Bigfoot!” Nobunaga whined. He wanted to go camping; there had to be a million things to throw rocks at in a forest. He could get dirty with Aztek, although he never got quite as dirty as the chocolate-skinned boy. And now he was hearing talks of Bigfoot. He would love to go catch a Bigfoot with his big brother.
“There is no Bigfoot,” Monique tried to assure the boy.
“What? ‘Course there’s a Bigfoot! My daddy said so,” Nobunaga argued. If his daddy said it, then it must be true, in his thinking anyway.
“What are you teaching this boy?” Betty asked Ron.
“Hey, there is a Bigfoot. Hundreds of people have seen it,” the restaurant owner pointed out.
“Hundreds of people claim that aliens are stealing their sperm and eggs for weird hybrid offspring. Are we to believe them too?” Shego riposted.
“Hey, it could happen,” Ron argued.
Shego threw her hands up in defeat; it was things like that that kept her from talking to Ron at all. They all split up after that since the kids were gone and most of them had other progeny to look after. Shego and Kim had to go pick up Todd from an arcade that they had dropped him off at earlier. Kim also had plans to take him to a professional baseball game, which they had two hours to get to. It was not their first time going to a professional sporting event and it would not be their last; it was one of Todd’s favorite things to do with Kim. They all did pray to whatever divine being or beings there might possibly be that their kids at least made it back in one piece without missing limbs or fingers or eyes or any other body part and that they did not hurt anyone too badly while they were gone.
Mayah and Jayden were not impressed with the whole “camping” thing. It would seem that they were not going to be doing “real camping.” They were not going to be sleeping in sleeping bags or in tents. The Pixies were going to be staying in cabins. That was pretty boring in their opinions; Raziya was not inclined to agree since she would take a bed over a sleeping bag any day of the week.
Ten seconds into the trip when they entered the cabin, the girls had the feeling that they were going to be annoyed. The omen came in the fact that the five other girls that they were sharing the cabin with screamed as if they were staring down the barrels of loaded guns because there was a small spider in the room. They panicked too, running around the room as if that was going to solve the problem of the spider. Mayah and Jayden rolled their eyes and would have been quite content to watch the girls pointlessly freak out, but Raziya did not want to bother with the noise and easily brushed the spider out of the cabin with her foot.
“If this is any indication of things…” Raziya just trailed off. Her friends knew what she was implying. If the girls’ reaction to a small spider was any indication of how they reacted to wild life, it definitely was going to be a long weekend.
“I knew this was gonna be bullshit,” Jayden muttered with a scowl on her face.
The trio decided to pick their beds while the other girls were still huffing about the spider, even though it was gone. The three girls took the beds at the far end of the cabin to be away from their annoying roommates. Mayah’s eye twitched in anger after a few minutes of the irksome behavior.
“Will you silly bitches stop clucking about like chickens over something that’s done and over with!” Mayah hollered in a fury. Raziya and Jayden could not help laughing over such words; they never would have thought to say something like that.
Aztek ate the first bug that he saw when he and other boys arrived at the campsite. Bokuden had not expected anything less; it seemed to be Aztek’s habit to check out the taste of the local bug life whenever they went somewhere new. Once he was done with his bug, Aztek found the first dirt pile and proceeded to slide in it, despite the fact that there were rocks in the soil.
“Aztek,” one of the Scout leaders groaned and went to go get a handle on the weird child.
Bokuden wandered off toward the thick woods, hoping to spot Bigfoot. He was stopped by another Scout leader before he got too far and was also scolded for “walking off.” He did not understand the problem as he was going to come right back, after he snapped a photo of Bigfoot of course. But, he was not going to have the chance to do that for the moment and he also did not get the chance to explain himself, which was something that he detested.
“Come on, Bo, we’re getting the camp together,” the Scout leader called to the boy in annoyingly chipper tone. Bokuden sighed and went to go help get things together.
The first thing that the boys had to do was put up their tents. Aztek actually did not want to sleep in a tent; he had also tried to leave his sleeping bag behind, but his father made sure to pack it. He had planned to sleep on the ground, no matter how cold it got. He seemed to think that it would not bother him. He was going to share a tent with Bokuden, once the half-Japanese boy got the thing up anyway. It did not cross Aztek’s mind to help with the contraption.
Bokuden was actually having trouble with the stupid tent and cursing it out in both English and Japanese, which were his two strongest languages. He was thoroughly reprimanded for his harsh language when one of the troop leaders heard him, although they only knew that he was swearing in English since none of them knew conversational Japanese, which Bokuden guessed was fortunate for him. He was told that Dragon Scouts did not use such “dreadful and detestable” language. He hated that they made it seem like cursing was the worst thing a person could do when he could think of a dozen things in under minute that he knew was worse than swearing. He did not even listen as the lecture continued on.
While Bokuden was being scolded for his “un-Dragon-like” language, Aztek was being pulled away from a mud puddle. He was now covered from head to toe in dirt and quite proud of it. The Scout leader that retrieved him was already a bit annoyed with him.
“Go do something productive,” the man urged Aztek while gently shoving him toward the campsite.
Aztek went and picked some berries, thinking that it would be helpful. He tried to offer them to Bokuden, who was too frustrated with “the goddamn tent” to even notice that Aztek was next to him. The chocolate-skinned boy was not bothered by that and just went to share his find with some of the other boys.
“Here, guys, you can have these. I’m not all that hungry,” Aztek said to the boys while holding out the berries in his hands.
The other boys took the berries from Aztek, not thinking anything of them. Hardly a minute after they were through, they were all complaining of stomach aches. Within a few hours, they were so sick that they had to go back home. It was about then that Aztek realized that the berries were poisonous, which made him happy that he had not eaten them. He did wish that it was a secret that he was the one that gave them the berries because while they were going home, he was getting in trouble.
For some reason that Aztek did not understand, the men in charge seemed to think that he purposely gave the other boys poisonous berries. He tried to assure them that he would never do such a thing…unless he did not like the boys anyway. But, he did not have anything against those guys and he was sorry for what he did. They thought his apology was insincere for a reason that was beyond him and continued on chastising him. After a couple of minutes, Aztek was bored with being reprimanded and just walked away to find something else to do. The men were so shocked by his behavior that they did not even go after him.
“This is stupid,” Aztek complained to himself as he casually strolled off through the campsite, passing by his blonde friend.
Bokuden had finally managed to get the tent up on his own and he took a moment to admire his handiwork. The tent had hardly been up for two minutes before a couple of Dragon Scouts walked by, bumping the tent and it collapsed. Bokuden hollered to the heavens in Japanese and then spun around, roundhouse kicking one of the boys in the back. He had obviously lost his cool, which was very rare.
“What the?” the unharmed boy said while his friend fell face-first into the dirt. The two boys turned to glare at Bokuden.
The blonde boy found himself in a fight because of his lost composure. The two boys were no match for him, but the fight was broken up halfway through as a couple of the men in charge noticed the brawl. Bokuden was dragged away; he was still angrily hollering in both English and Japanese about how they knocked his tent over.
The girls had not been in the woods for more than a couple of hours before Jayden seemed to unleash a Biblical plague upon her fellow Pixie Scouts. The girls had all been allowed to explore the surrounding area, which included a pond. Jayden had discovered the mother load of all amphibians there and began gathering as many as she could, hoping that her mommy would let her keep them for a little while and she could study them with her mom. She put them all in her Care Bear duffle bag.
It would have all been fine if only a girl had not asked Jayden for some candy. It was well known that Jayden always had sweets of some kind with her and she shared for the most part. She directed the girl to her duffle bag, which was by a tree. Mayah remembered that the creatures were in Jayden’s bag, but, god, she really wanted to see the reaction from the girl when she opened the bag, so she did not say anything.
The girl opened the main section of the bag and out sprang well over a dozen frogs and toads. Some salamanders crawled out, along with a few lizards that Jayden had come across. The girl screamed at the top of her lungs, as did several girls that were near her. Jayden threw her hands up in frustration as she saw her day’s catch escaping.
“Wow, that was worth it,” Mayah thought to herself as she watched her fellow scouts lose their minds over all of the slimy creatures. She was glad that she kept quiet.
“Goddamn it!” Jayden hollered as she started chasing all of her cold-blood critters with the hope of catching them all again.
“She shoulda saw that coming,” Raziya muttered while sitting back with Mayah and watching all of the Pixies bug out over the creatures flooding the campsite. Jayden was going after the animals with vigor, but she was not having much luck since the panicking girls were getting in her way.
“Ah, you know sometimes she gets a little senile,” Mayah remarked, while making a circle motion with her finger around her temple, gesturing that their friend was crazy. Sometimes, Jayden just forgot things, like the fact that if she directed someone to a duffle bag, the person was probably going to check the main pocket before any of the smaller ones.
Raziya nodded, agreeing that their friend both forgot things and was insane. Jayden never did catch all of the animals. Much to the girls’ dismay, there were amphibians and lizards somewhere in the cabins and all around their safe campsite. The trio did not really care since they were used to animals point blank, whether wild or tame. The other Pixies were not so nonchalant and were quite angry with Jayden for the whole trip, especially when a cold-blooded critter just popped up out of nowhere.
“Oh, grow the fuck up,” Jayden said to the frightened scouts with some disdain in her voice.
The trio was not done with ruining things for everyone else, as far as the other Pixies were concerned anyway. Mayah terrorized a few girls because they were “acting fucking stupid” in her opinion. So, she wasted no time in chastising and yelling at them for their behavior, especially when they started complaining about bugs.
“We’re out in the fucking woods, what the fuck do they expect?” Jayden inquired in disbelief with a totally confused expression on her face. Mayah agreed with that and just barked on the scouts about that. Raziya was so incredulous that she could not even holler at the other girls.
The trio could not help thinking that the other girls were such crybabies, especially when the sun went down. They acted like they had never been in the dark before in her opinion; Jayden and Raziya agreed and merely backed Mayah when she started hollering at girls to stop behaving so moronically. Mayah spent most of the trip reprimanding the Pixie Scouts for their behavior. It was fun for her and her friends.
The worst thing that the trio did as far as everyone around was concerned was when they were all sitting around the campfire and telling ghost stories while roasting marshmallows; not to mention, dodging frogs and toads that were coming out of nowhere to eat the insects attracted to the light. No one would have expected the gruesome tales that a nine-year-old and two eight-year-olds could bring up, but boy, Mayah, Raziya, and Jayden surprised the hell out of them. Only the trio slept that night.
Bokuden rose from his sleeping bag in the middle of the night. He was going to go hunt for Bigfoot while everyone was asleep, so he would not be disturbed and he would not get into any more trouble. He had never been scolded so much in his life than he had that first day of camping. He also never cursed so much in his life. He had never had a more irksome time outdoors than he was having with the damned Dragon Scouts.
He wandered off into the woods, failing to notice that he caught the attention of one of the men in charge. Bokuden did quickly figure out that he was being followed, though. He showed off his ninja skills and practically vanished as far as the man following him was concerned.
While the guy was busy wondering where Bokuden went, the blonde boy sprang into action. He came in from behind the guy, punching him in the back of the knees. As the guy fell to the ground in pain, Bokuden threw a small container to the ground, which released a white powder. The man began sneezing and his eyes started to water. He climbed to his feet, hoping to escape the dust. Bokuden vanished back into the trees.
The blonde boy watched carefully as the man stumbled about for a couple of seconds and then dropped out of sight. Little did Bokuden know, but the man had fallen into a bog. He climbed out after a while and was covered in mud, sticks, and leaves.
“Bigfoot,” Bokuden thought in awe and he snapped several pictures with the camera that he brought for just such an emergency. He did wonder what happened to the guy following him, but he did not think too much on it because he was busy loving the fact that he got to see Bigfoot.
With his mission complete, Bokuden went back to his tent and slept quite contently, especially since he had not been followed back to camp. Imagine his surprise when he woke up the next morning to find that he was already in trouble. He sighed; he hated camping and he hated the Dragon Scouts.
(New day)
For some reason, the parents were a bit shocked to find out that their kids had been kicked out of the scouts by the end of the camping trip. They had expected it, but it was still surprising because the kids had lasted so long. It was especially surprising that Bokuden got kicked out when he was the best behaved out of the kids when he was on his own.
But, when the bus pulled up and all of the kids filed out, the adults in charge handed the parents some very long list of complaints, citing the reasons that their children were no longer welcomed at scouting functions or meetings. Some of the complaints were actually crimes, as assault was listed on every one of their complaint sheets.
One thing that insulted the parents of Mayah, Raziya, and Jayden were that their scout leaders had actually suggested getting the girls psychological help, especially Raziya. The recommendation was mostly based on the horror stories that the girls told around the campfire. Raziya’s tale had been especially gory, violent, and vividly detailed; to the point that it was her story that kept the adults up that now infamous night. Felix only laughed when he heard the reason for the suggestion.
“Don’t laugh, it’s your fault,” Monique pointed out in a huff with her face twisted in a fury. She was damned mad that someone would suggest that their daughter needed to see a therapist because of her ability to tell a horror story on par with some masters of gore.
“Can I help it if we have the same taste in movies?” Felix asked with a smile. He still watched slasher movies with the kids and very often with Raziya. His daughter loved the movies just as much as he did. She actually added a bit of humor to their movie watching by yelling at the screen, which was something that all of the kids did.
“Whoa, you unleashed a terror of frogs, toads, and lizards onto the campsite?” Todd said to Jayden in an unmistakably proud tone. He leaned down to give his little sister a hand slap for such an accomplishment.
“And all the girls freaked,” Jayden added with a proud grin, which only made her brother appear all the more impressed.
“A lot,” Mayah chimed in. She was standing next to Todd, holding onto his pants’ pocket for whatever reason. He did not say anything about her being near him because he was not bothered by it…yet.
“I bet you helped,” Todd said to the nine-year-old with an amused smile on his face and he ruffled her hair just a bit.
“Well, let’s just say, I didn’t try to stop it,” Mayah remarked with a bit of a smile, feeling elated that the redheaded teen had touched her.
“Stop encouraging them, Smiley,” Betty scolded the pale teenager. He could be such a bad influence sometimes, she thought.
“I wasn’t really trying to,” Todd replied with a sheepish grin. He was just impressed by them. It was no small thing to let loose a plague unto an entire campground.
“Did you get the picture of Bigfoot?” Ron asked Bokuden, rather eager to hear the answer.
“I dunno if it’s Bigfoot. It might be like a swamp monster or something,” Bokuden replied while showing his father and his little brother the few pictures he snapped at night of a creature that he felt might be Bigfoot. He had a digital camera, so he was able to go through his pictures for them on the screen.
“Swamp monster,” Nobunaga concluded soundly when he saw the pictures. It did not have enough fur to be a Bigfoot.
“Yeah, it does sorta look like a swamp monster,” Ron concurred. “Which is just as super cool!” he declared. His sons grinned and they all shared a high-five.
Yori did not have the heart to tell her boys that the picture looked suspiciously like a man covered in mud. She was rather disappointed in Bokuden getting kicked out of the Dragon Scouts and planned to have a long talk with him to get him to explain his behavior, especially of all the things that were listed on the complaint sheet. Ron was with her on that since he could not understand why their rather well-behaved son had gotten such a bad report.
Everyone went home and sat down to talk to their kids. As usual, getting the kids points of view showed for the most part that they did not mean any harm. On a few items, the kids did admit to just being annoyed with their fellow scouts, which led to lectures about having patience and understanding for other people. It was weird for such open-minded kids to be rather intolerant, but as Jayden once put it, they were really only intolerant toward stupid behavior. Shego and Betty really could not scold their kids for something like that considering how they felt about stupid behavior.
Well, the scouting thing had lasted longer than expected at least. They were just going to have to figure out something else for the kids to do. Or they were just going to have to hope that the group actually calmed down on their own as time went by.
Next time: family vacation in a jungle.