AAOOOSC!: Gulls' Adventures!

The next day has arrived as a game day. In the early, bright morning, Joseph and Nick are sitting around the dining table again, waiting for breakfast to be served.

The chef strolls over to the dining room with two steaming plates, one in each hand. He places the plates on the table.

The two diners peer over to look at the plates’ contents: one plate has bacon and sausage while the other has sunny side up eggs.

Joseph perks up at Brandon with an unamused expression. On the other hand, Nick is already serving himself large portions with hungry eyes.

“What?” Brandon snaps at Joseph. “So I decided to go American today.”

Joseph serves himself an egg and takes a bite out of it. “At least it’s good,” he mumbles while chewing. He swallows, then his eyes immediately widen. He flicks them up at Brandon, who is sitting himself down with his own served plate. “Monty…!”

Brandon pops a bite of bacon into his mouth. “Huh?”

“Feeling…!”

He swallows with a perplexed expression at his roommate. “What?” He then instantly freezes at the familiar spiral of energy fizzing through him. “Oh no.”

Joseph takes in a deep breath, straightening up.

Silence settles into the room with the trepidation between the two roommates. With the absence of the chattering, Nick’s awfully loud eating can be heard.

Joseph gradually turns to Nick with sharp eyes at him. “Can you eat any louder than that?”

Without acknowledging him, Nick takes a forkful of cut up sausage mixed with egg yolk and stuffs it in his mouth. He continues chewing loudly.

Joseph scowls at him tensely, attempting to ward off his rising irritation. Behind him, Brandon stifles his laugh with a toothy grin.

“Nice one, Nicky,” Brandon squeaks out.

Nick perks up from his plate and peers at him with a clueless expression. “Huh?”

Joseph immediately whirls to Brandon and snarls to him, “SHUT IT.”

Brandon moves his mouth, yet no sound is coming from it.

With a haughty expression, Joseph turns back to his food continues eating.

Nick scrapes up the last bit of his plate and stuffs it in his mouth. He then rising to his feet with his plate in his two hands. “Time for my post-breakfast nap.” He shuffles out of the dining room.

Once Nick is gone from the main room of the house, it is only Brandon and Joseph left.

Brandon gazes up from his plate, spotting the pile of napkins on the other side of Joseph. He reverts his gaze at his roommate and moves his mouth with raised eyebrows. With a frown that he cannot speak for some odd reason, he smacks Joseph’s arm.

Joseph jolts in his chair and spins to him. “WHAT?”

He simply jabs his index finger toward the napkins’ direction.

“You can’t ask for them?”

Brandon reverts his index finger to his mouth and then down to his throat.

“You can’t speak?”

Brandon moves his folded arms in circles in front of him with an anxious expression.

“I’m not a mime reader!” Joseph gazes at him with complete bewilderment. “Speak, Monty!”

Brandon instantly takes a deep breath before gasping, “THANK YOU.”

Joseph reaches over to nab a napkin from the top of its pile. “What?” He tosses the napkin at him.

“So that’s it!” He receives the napkin and wipes his mouth with it.

“What?”

Brandon first gazes around with room with keen eyes. He then averts his gaze back at Joseph. He leans closer to him and proclaims lowly, “We have the power again.”

Joseph leans back with subtle surprise. “Really…?” His smirk begins to form on his face again

“But I think it’s a bit different this time. Because you just used it on me to shut up. That’s why I couldn’t speak. But you just plainly told me to shut it, not ‘I wish’ or ‘I want.’ Should we try it out?”

Joseph reclines in his chair in deep thought. “I’m…,” he starts, “...eating a gyro.”

Instantaneously, a gyro sandwich pops into his hand. He raises his eyebrows, then takes a massive bite of it.

“Huh…” Brandon scratches the side of his jaw while in mulling over what to say next. “We are eating outside.”

The setting switches to their patio, which is radiant with the sun’s rays and blue sky. The dining table and chairs are on the patio’s wooden deck along with the two roommates and the surface’s contents in the same position.

Joseph swats a hovering bug with his hand. “Not anymore.”

The scene flicks back to the warm dining room setting.

“So anything we say…,” Brandon starts off slowly. “...is true.” He eyes him with delight.

“Yeah, like Maple Leafs are number one in the league,” Joseph remarks matter-of-factory.

Brandon pulls out his smartphone and navigates to the standings in the NHL app. Sure enough in the NHL standings, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the first team in the list.

He gives the standings a confused expression. “I thought the Red Wings are number one in the league.”

The Detroit Red Wings pop into first place.

“You misread it,” Joseph says from in front of him. “It’s the Leafs.”

The Maple Leafs appear in first place once again.

“Oh yeah, I did.” Brandon turns off his phone and slips it out of sight. “This is a step up from the powers we had yesterday.”

Joseph stares ahead with a proud expression and crossed arms. “I like it— No secret code or anything, just say it and it happens. And I love to be right because I’m always right.”

Brandon eyes him tauntingly. “What if I say that you’re…”

He narrows his eyes at him with bared teeth. “Don’t you dare say it.”

“…right?”

Joseph returns to him a massive smirk.

Brandon’s face falls into a frown. “Darn… Now I can’t say it.”

Joseph chuckles. “I like this a lot… Let’s see here…” He rubs his hands together. “I’m on the Ducks.” He instantly disappears.

Brandon’s eyes fly wide open at the sight. “NO NO NO!!!” He slams his hands against the table and begins to stand up. “Joey is on the Gulls and will stay on the Gulls until the Ducks actually call him up!”

Joseph appears back in his chair. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

“No!” Brandon slams his hand against the table once again before sitting down. “No, Joey!” His hand snaps out its index finger at him. “Same limits as yesterday: Don’t say anything that will affect others other than us!”

Joseph sinks in his seat while sulking.

Then knocking on the door is heard: Knock knock knock knock! Knock knock!

“Nobody’s home!” Joseph roars to the door.

With that, the two residents vanish from the dining room, leaving it vacant.

In Poway Ice Arena’s parking lot, all is silent. Then Brandon, Joseph, and Nick appear on the asphalt, in between the building and empty parking stalls. The two roommates are standing while the third is snuggled up on the ground, not stirring a bit.

Brandon gawks at Joseph. “Really?”

“I’d rather be here than with Squirrel and company…,” Joseph mutters, rolling his eyes.

“But we’re not supposed to be here—!”

Suddenly, a swarm of girls with the matching Brandon Montour-themed shirts led by Jasmine Uofar begin rushing toward him. “MONTY MUFFINS!!!”

Brandon’s face turns pale at the sight. “Shoot! Run, run, run!!!” He kicks up his feet to begin to run.

“Chase after someone cuter than Monty!” Joseph shouts at the girls.

The crowd immediately stops in their tracks. “SEGGY,” they all bellow in awe. They then turn around and rush out of sight.

Brandon gazes at his roommate from next to him. “Thanks for saving me there… But really? You had to say that?”

Joseph eyes him with a flat expression. “It’s true. Why are they wasting their time on you?”

Brandon gapes at him. “You’re just—” He immediately halts his upcoming insult. “You know what? Forget it--” He waves his hands in front of him. “--we’re home!”

The setting flips back to the dining room with the two residents back in their original positions.

“Anybody hOOOOOooooome?!” Bryan’s voice sounds through the front door.

With a sigh, Brandon gets up from his seat and strolls over to the foyer. He swings the door open.

On the other side is the trio: Joe, Stu, and of course, Bryan.

“Hey, guys—” Brandon nods to them with his hand on the doorjamb. “What’s up?”

All three gaze up at the sky while pointing at it and exclaim in unison, “The sky!”

He gives them an odd look. “Uh, well—”

They return to their normal poses; Joe is the first to speak:

“It’s game day and an important aspect of the day is a great breakfast! And since your pancakes were the bomb-dot-com, we want to have a second round of pancakes!” He finishes with his signature grin.

“Ummm, well, I’m sorry, but I don’t have any pancakes…” He grimaces at them. “I didn’t make them today.”

“So what did you make?” Stu asks with his hands in his shorts’ pockets.

“Eggs and bacon!”

“Even better!” Joe pipes in.

Joseph approaches Brandon from behind. He glowers at them while growling, “He made nothing.”

“Wow, like as if we’re gonna buy into that, grouchy,” Bryan snaps at him with his hands on his hips.

Joseph pushes past his roommate and leans toward him. “Call me that one more time and I’ll boot you over to the other end of the world.”

Bryan stares hard at him. Then: “Grouchy.”

Simply with that, Joseph kicks Bryan over the house and into the sky, disappearing into a speck from view.

Stu gawks at the direction his best friend just went flying. He redirects his gaping at the one who did it. “You just kicked Mooresy into the sky!”

“No, duh.” Joseph crosses his arms.

Stu lowers his eyebrows with fury. “You can’t kick your teammates around like that! That’s rude!” He jabs his index finger toward the ground. “Bring him back!”

“Whatever.” Joseph rolls his eyes.

Brandon nervously slides in between the two skaters. “He-he didn’t kick Mooresy over to the other side of the world.” He lets out a chuckle. “He just, um, kicked him over into the house…”

Bryan then strolls into sight from Brandon’s right leg. “Crammer’s right—” he announces dully. “There’s no food.”

Joseph gazes down at him haughtily. “See? Told you.”

Joe gazes at the two roommates with sadden concern. “So what did y’all eat?”

“Um…” Brandon whips up the first question that comes to mind. “...we ate all the food.” Right away, he feels his stomach stuffed with pounds of food. He clutches his stomach and leans against the door jamb as a wave of nausea comes over him.

Stu frowns at his green-shaded face with his other teammates. “Dang, it surely looks like you guys did.”

“Yeah…,” Brandon forces out, “...a-a healthy amount…of it.” He then feels himself being elevated from the sickly heaviness. He straightens up with a sigh of relief.

Bryan peers up at the two roommates with hopeful eyes. “So, no pancakes?”

“No,” Joseph snaps at him.

Bryan gasps with horror. “THIS IS A TRAGEDY!!!” He cranes up to look at the sky. “A DAY WITHOUT PANCAKES…IS LIKE A DAY…WITHOUT RAIN.” His facial expression becomes weary as he places the back of his hand against his forehead. “OH!” He then dramatically collapses backward.

Stu is behind him, immediately catching him in his two arms.

Joseph claps slowly. “Wow, bravo,” he says with no enthusiasm, “you could definitely win an Oscar for that.”

Then, the grand, golden trophy from the Oscars appears in Bryan’s free hand. His eyes light up at the trophy. “An Oscar!” He straightens up from Stu’s arms and peers up at Joseph. “How did you know?”

Joseph shrugs. “I’m always right.”

“What else do I deserve?” He bounces up and down excitedly.

“Alright, Bryan, that’s enough…!” Stu hisses, pushing him back with his arm.

“Look at what I got!” Bryan exclaims to his friend, holding up the trophy.

Stu takes the trophy and examines it. His eyebrows shoot up with interest. “Whoa, this is real…!”

“I know, right?” Bryan rubs his hands together with delight.

Stu peers down at him. “How’d you get it?”

“I don’t know, it just popped right into my hand…!”

Brandon eyes his roommate. “Joey…!” he hisses at him.

Joseph gazes at him. “What?”

“Cut down on the sarcasm.” He makes a hand signal to go with his order by swiping his hand below his chin.

He nods. “Alright, I will.”

Brandon narrows his eyes at how Joseph quickly cooperated with him. Then a smile comes over his face with the fact of their curse comes to mind as the answer.

He turns back to the three guest, armed with a way to use the curse to his advantage. “I guess you guys must get going now!”

Joe’s eyes light up. “Oh yes, we must!”

“Yeah, yeah!” Stu and Bryan say together to each other.

“Alright, bye guys!” Brandon exclaims with a small wave of his hand.

“Bye!!!” The three say in unison as they turn around to leave the house.

Brandon and Joseph then step inside; Brandon closes the front door and rapidly whirls to his roommate.

“That was way too close!” Brandon states sternly. “Too close!” He shows how close with his index finger and thumb in the air. “At least they didn’t act suspicious…” He lets out a sigh while dropping his hand.

“What do you expect from Squirrel and co? They’re all from Happy-Go-Lucky land.” He rolls his eyes.

Brandon shoots him a serious expression. “Yeah, but we gotta be careful with what we say.”

“Now we will be.” A faint smirk creeps on his face.

Brandon’s eyes light up at what his roommate just did. “That’s right!” His hands shoot to his hair as he cranes his back. “Ugh, I wasn’t careful with what I said because I didn’t even know I said it!” He then slides his hands down his face. “Oh man, this is so confusing…”

“And there’s a game tonight,” Joseph adds on with a tilt of his head.

Brandon stuffs his head in his hands. “Ugggghhhhhhhh…”

“This is gonna be awesome.” Joseph smirks ahead with a heroic pose. “We’re gonna win.”

Brandon lifts his head from his hands, gawking at him. “Joey!!!”

“And you’re gonna score,” he adds on. He then peers at him. “There, happy?”

A smile appears on his face. “As a matter of a fact, I am!”

“Good.” Joseph then breezes past his roommate and strides through the living room and into the dining room. He gazes at the contents of the table, noticing that his gyro is nowhere to be found. “Where’s my gyro?”

Brandon halts next him. “You left it there…”

His gyro appears in front of Joseph on the table, untouched.

“There.” Joseph picks it up and peers at it. “I’ll put it away for later…” He slides his sharp eyes at his roommate. “...since I ate a ‘healthy amount of food’ without enjoying it,” he growls.

Brandon throws his hands into the air. “Okay, so I messed up.” He extends a hand out to him. “You can say that you’re hungry.”

“I’m hungry,” he tells the gyro fatly. His eyes immediately widen as the sensation of hunger sweeps through him. “Oh, I’m hungry,” he repeats with more feeling. He then begins taking massive bites from the gyro.

Brandon purses his lips with slanted eyebrows at the sight. “The wonders of this…curse.”

Notes

E.14 "What A Great Dish!"
Part 5/7
Episode 14/20