AAOOOSC!: Gulls' Adventures!

Later that day, the laziness prevails: Nick is now taking a nap on the sofa, Joseph is nowhere in sight in the main room, and Brandon, well, he is still in the television, sitting through an infomercial.

Ding dong!

Brandon’s eyes widen at the sound. He gasps. “Someone’s here!” He peers through the glass wall at Nick. “Nicky!” He quickly processes that the closest person to the door is in a deep sleep. “Nicky! Nicky! Someone’s--”

“Anybody hoooOOOooome?” a familiar, giddy voice is heard through the door.

Brandon’s face immediately goes pale. “Oh no.”

Joseph comes into view from the hallway, storming toward the door. He is wearing a white smock on that is splattered with wet and dry clay; his hands are also crusted with various shades of the bubblegum clay.

Ding dong...! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong!

“Who the heck would be at my house at this time…,” Joseph mutters harshly as he approaches the door. He grabs onto the knob and swings the door open.

On the other side are the two close buddies and teammates of the Gulls with a massive height difference: Bryan Moore and Stu Bickel.

“Oh.” Joseph shoots them an unimpressive expression. “It’s Squirrel. And company.”

“Hello, there, Grumpy Cat,” Bryan shoots back mockingly.

Stu eyes his small friend with bared teeth. “Guys…! This isn’t why we came here…!”

Bryan straightens up with a massive smile. “Right!” He extends his index finger into the air. “I decided that it’d be fun to play Madden 16 because I wanted to have fun since I was bored and was like--” He looks up while rubbing his stubble-filled chin. “‘--I wanna have fun. What should I do to have fun?’ and then I was like--” He extends his hands out with excited eyes. “‘--That’s right! Play Madden 16—’"

“—at your house,” Joseph finishes off flatly.

Bryan frowns with sadden eyes. “But there’s no Madden 16 at our house and it’s really really sad!”

Joseph slides his piercing eyes over to Stu. “And you’re okay with this?”

Stu shrugs. “I suggested to give you guys a call.”

Joseph responds by huffing and rolling his eyes.

Bryan pops up in between Stu and Joseph. “Well, what are we standing here for? Let’s go play!” He then speeds between the doorjamb and Joseph’s leg, entering the house without permission.

Joseph purses his lips at Stu. Stu returns to him raised eyebrows and a shrug. He then shakes his head and steps back inside; Stu follows behind him, closing the door.

Bryan is already dashing down to the living room. "I call to make my team first!!!" He swings himself over of the sofa and plops himself on top of the back of Nick.

Nick naturally does not budge; Bryan naturally is oblivious that he is sitting on his teammate.

Bryan’s eyes then light up ahead of him. In all its glory, the Madden 16 cover is laying on the coffee table, waiting to be used. "I found it!" He then snatches the cover and begins searching through it.

Joseph steps into the living room. He immediately catches sight of Brandon hectically gazing at the scene in the living room from the other side of the television.

"Oh shoot." He rushes up to the television, coming face-to-face with it. He then murmurs to it, "Monty, stay low, we got Squirrel and company."

Brandon’s eyes widen. "What? Why didn’t you tell—?"

Joseph rolls his eyes from the living room and back to the screen. "You know how they’re like: my way or the highway."

He shoots him the same sarcastic expression. "Like you."

A dark mien immediately comes upon Joseph’s face. "What was that…‽"

"Just get me out!" Brandon squeaks. He knocks on the glass wall.

Joseph throws his hands out from his sides. "I don’t know how to!"

"Just—!"

"Hey, Crammer Slammer, how’s that conversation with the TV going?" Bryan asks from the sofa, behind Joseph.

Joseph immediately whirls around to face him, blocking the screen with his body.
"What TV—conversation?" he forces out.

"Um, I can hear…!" Bryan points his index finger from each hand to each of his two massive ears. "Why ya think I got these things so big?" He then whirls his fingers around his ears.

Stu gazes at the television with concern, sitting on the sofa on Bryan’s left. "Is the TV okay?"

Bryan leans over to his friend, cups his hand over his mouth, and whispers, "More like is he okay?" He snaps his eyes at Joseph. "He’s wearing an apron."

"It’s called a smock," Joseph growls, fuming from the other side of the living room. He then snatches the remote control from the coffee table and mutes the television with the press of a button.

Suddenly, Nick perks his head up from view with a sleepy mien, notifying everyone that he is awake physically. "Huh?"

Bryan peers down at his teammate; his eyes light up. “Oh, Pizzaface! I didn’t know you turned into the sofa there!"

"Oh, hi, Mooresy." He gives him a sheepish expression.

"Wanna play Madden 16?" Bryan picks up the Madden 16 disc cover and shakes it in the air.

A small smile appears on his face. "Yeah!" He then quickly slides himself out from under Bryan and sits next to him.

With that, Bryan is in the middle of the sofa with Stu and Nick, some of the biggest guys on the team, on each side of him. And standing in front of Bryan, obscuring the view of the television is Joseph.

"Ritch…!" Joseph hisses at Nick with bared teeth.

Nick raises his eyebrows at him. "Huh?"

Joseph nods his head sharply at the television behind him.

"Yeah, you’re in the way." He pushes his hand out in front of him as a signal. "You can move."

"No!" Joseph stomps his foot with his fists on both sides.

Bryan rolls his eyes and says, "I know, I know, Cram Cram, you want to be in the center of attention, but you’re not in the game."

"The TV is broken," Joseph mutters.

Stu makes a bewildered look. "Broken?"

Bryan throws his hands out in front of him. "You were just talking to it!"

"We can see it on behind you." Nick leans over to get a glimpse of the light emitting from the screen and points toward it.

Joseph just stays in his place, fuming with glowering eyes, a frown, and tightened fists.

"TV hogger," Bryan name-calls him mockingly.

Stu eyes him with rising shock. "Bryan…!"

"I’m gonna get you—!" Joseph then charges at him, leaving the television in plain sight.

"YES!" Bryan jumps off of the sofa, zips around Joseph, and successfully makes it to the television. He pops the game disc in and stands back with rising anticipation.

Madden 16 is now being displayed in all its glory on the screen. For some odd reason, Brandon is out of sight.

Nick claps happily. "Yay!"

Stu pumps his fist in the air. "Yes!"

Joseph just throws his hands in the air with a roll of his eyes. He then retreats to the back of the sofa as a witness to see how this predicament will fold out. He stares out ahead with a dark expression and crossed arms.

Bryan hops back into his place on the sofa with two controllers in his hands. "One for you, Pickle Stew!" He hands one controller to his best friend. "And one for me!"

He peers up at the television. "Alright, time to choose my team…" He moves his thumbs around the device. "I want the Panthers!" On the screen, he selects the NFL team, the Carolina Panthers.

"And my quarterback can be…" He presses a button repeatedly on the controls, flipping through the pictures of quarterbacks from on the screen. In the mix, a quarterback who looks a whole lot like Brandon turns up. "…this one!"

He selects the Brandon look-a-like quarterback. Brandon makes a quick grimace at Joseph as he is being selected.

The information of the quarterback then pops up. Bryan frowns at the screen.

"Aw, he has no name. But he does look like Monty Muffins!" His eyes light up. "Heeeyyy…" He turns to Joseph and Nick. "…whatever happened to Monty Muffins? I hadn’t seen him at all today…!"

Joseph flicks his eyes up at Brandon.

Brandon flashes him his famous look which consists of a pursed lips and upward eyebrows.

After the two friends build their teams, the game sets up. It is displaying the massive, digital football field with pixelated football players, coaches, referees, audience, and grass.

“Alright, it’s me and you, Stu!” Bryan exclaims with a sly expression.

Nick slowly lifts his index finger into the air. “I play winner!”

Bryan places a hand on his chest and replies pridefully, “Which will be me!”

Stu lets out some chuckles. “Haha, let’s see about that!”

Then all attention goes on the screen as the kickoff position is shown.

Notes

E.5 "Trapped!"
Part 2/6
Episode 5/20