Jake Addams May 3rd, 20xx

“Jake! Jake! We have an emergency!”

I found myself surrounded by Sparrow’s minions as well as a few others I vaguely recognized but couldn’t put a name to.

“What is it this time?”

I tried not to sound irritated or tired, but this was the fourth ‘emergency’ I had been approached with today alone and Sparrow, who was supposed to be dealing with all this was nowhere to be found.

She had been difficult to contact since yesterday and it had escalated to impossible today. Her sudden absence was made all the more noticeable by how much people seemed to need her.

My teammates who were supposed to also be my friends smoothly drifted off to the side and let the distressed crowd enclose me even more, leaving me no space to move never mind run away.

“Alice’s group finally revealed their Concept!”

“and that is a problem-“

The one that had taken the lead, the one named Melissa didn’t even let me finish my leading statement before picking it up.

“Because they went for an oldie jazz show star concept!”

“Of course! Of course! And that’s terrible-“

Once again, she saved me from exposing my ignorance on not only what any of those were but why exactly any of this mattered.

“Because we were doing an ancient civilization concept? Remember? The cross over is way too high to ignore!”

Now, I was no history buff, nor did I claim to be any sort of ‘concept’ expert but even I knew that ancient civilizations and the swinging jazz times had little to no similarities. Melissa must have seen the deep confusion in my eyes because she began to explain in-depth although she didn’t forget to throw in an exasperated sigh before doing so.

“Both are ‘old’ concepts for one so the comparison will be there and secondly those two are almost famous for their contrast! They aren’t related because of their similarities but rather through their differences. It's not that we don’t think we can compete of course, but she just has more resources than we do as well as more money and a leader that doesn’t disappear into thin air every five seconds.”

She threw a dig at the absent sparrow and I made no moves to defend her since I wasn't all that happy about her absence either.

“Then we should-”

“Well, of course, we have to switch the concept! Sparrow already prepared for this but there are a few details that we haven’t worked out yet.”

“Then I need too-“

“Go find Sparrow so we can get this sorted out. We’ll get as much done as we can.”

Somehow, I got the feeling that I was nothing more than a figurehead for Melissa to use incase Sparrow came back and was unhappy with any decisions that were taken but I chose not to think about it too much. I got the feeling that there were some things I was happier not knowing.

My friends, who had drifted far enough to extricate themselves from the situation but remained close enough to eavesdrop and laugh at my expense began to prepare their formal escape, but I thought to return kind with kind.

“Melissa! For so many changes I'm sure you guys will need some muscle work done as well right?”

Like a cartoon character, she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and briefly looked over my friends who had unfortunately chosen to wear their work out gear today to ‘impress the drama chicks’.

“These guys have nothing to do anyway so let them help out. It's also the least they can do after you guys let them join so late.”

She considered it a bit more before finally nodding her head and waving them over.

“We’ll have to rework the sets today and I need to get some costumes refitted anyways. Out of the lot of them are any similar enough in size to you and Finn?”

I was taken aback by the sudden question but still pointed out the two that most resembled us in body shape. Since we all fit the pretty narrow standard of being ‘in shape’ it wasn’t difficult to find people similar in body shape to the two of us.

“Those two would work in a pinch but why? Practices are halted and all the games for the season are rounded up, I have more than enough time.”

She paused her herding of the jocks and sneered at me like I had just tried to hide a mistress by calling her my cousin.

“Well, Mr. Addams. If two out of three are missing, you can’t blame me for being more reluctant to trust in the reliance of the third.”

“You can’t reach Finn either?”

“Well he was a wild card to begin with so I’m not overly worried about it but if on your adventure to locate the bird you can locate the pretty boy as well it would be much appreciated.”

Once again, she insulted her leader and the woman she called ‘boss’ without so much as a blink and without letting me respond walked about the door with a crowd of people behind her. I could only take a small amount of satisfaction in the fact that the crowd included some very disgruntled athletes that didn’t forget to make their feelings clear through facial expressions.

I wasn’t sure what they had been expecting after throwing me to the dogs like that earlier though. Like, could only be returned with like.

I first got into the car and drove to Finn’s apartment, thinking he had probably just overslept since classes were officially over.

Starting from may up until the day of the showcase all students had the option to take the final test for the classes they took and put all of their attention on their showcase entries. It used to be entirely optional, but the school board eventually just chose to move final exams up to the end of April due to the large amounts of students that chose to test out.

“Ah! Mr. Addams! Are you here to see Mr. Hall again?”

Once again, I was greeted by an overenthusiastic lobby man and had to put on as confident a smile as I could.

“Good to see you again Jonas. And remember I’m only 19. You can call me Jake.”

He brushed off the request like it hadn’t happened and lead me to the seating area where Finn had first come down to meet me.

“I’m afraid Mr. Hall already went out but you are always welcome to wait here until he returns. Would you like anything to drink while you wait?”

Intensely regretting my decision to not swing by my house and pick up the spare keys Finn had given me I could only take a seat and wait for about half an hour before I finally tired of it and told Jonas that I was leaving.

“Ah, are you sure Mr. Addams? He usually gets back from work at five pm. It's only a few hours wait.”

I could only wave goodbye as I rushed out of there and started to drive towards his office, thinking even If I couldn’t find him I could at least get Will on his case.

Disliking the feeling of being a caretaker more and more I parked just short of the building itself and got Will on the phone.

“Is anything wrong with Finn?”

He cut right to the point, having assumed something had happened for me to have called during working hours and not waited for the ‘updates’ he forced me to put in every day on Finn’s wellbeing.

“I wouldn’t know since I can’t seem to find him. Sparrow is gone as well, no one has been able to contact her for the whole day which is unusual.”

I suddenly remembered that Will was, in fact, Sparrow’s elder brother and figured that he might know where she had disappeared off too. The sound of fingers hitting the keyboard echoed through the speakers as he looked up something and the mouse was clicked aggressively before Will finally responded.

“Finn put in an absence report approved by himself yesterday. It seems like his disappearance was planned and since he didn’t tell anyone he probably wasn’t planning on it to last particularly long. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

I worried about the structure of that company sometimes and how long it could last under Finn’s reign, but it wasn’t any of my business, so I chose not to comment.

Or rather since I had signed a contract to tie my future to this company, I should have been more worried than I was, but I was sure it would all work out.

“Then do you have any idea on where Sparrow might be?”

Will first scoffed and finally answered me in a tone more aggressive than usual.

“Even if I did, why would it be any of your concern where my younger sister is? Don’t get over your head just because I'm trusting you to keep an eye on Finn, something you aren’t doing a very good job of by the way.”

Before I could defend myself from the unwarranted attack Will had slammed the phone into the receiver and a high-pitched dial tone began to pierce into my eardrums.

I could only sigh and began to drive to Sparrow’s workshop, realizing that Mellissa and the others would probably have already checked but not having any other options.

Today was really building up to be a tiresome day.