With the house to himself, Cole had invited Naomi and the rest of the gang over to discuss their plan that Tuesday night.  For now, she was the only one who’d turned up on time.  Paul was busy with basketball practice and Noah had some business with another friend to take care of.  The two of them sat in the living room, quietly sipping from their soda cans.  “I heard what you did last night.  Saw the video you made,” he grinned.

“It’s like I never get to take a break.  One minute, I’m saving you guys then I’ve got another pair of gays to help out.”

“Our hero,” he chuckled.

“It’s all in a day’s work.  His mom is a bit of a bitch, though, I can’t lie.  I met her when she was handing out these fliers in the park.”  Cole choked on his drink.

“The fake coupons?  That was August’s mom?”

“Mhm.  She owes Quincey’s the price of one of our meals.”  Cole nodded and turned to face the television.  There was no reason behind why he found horrible reality shows so entertaining, but he did.  It was as if everything put together was so bad that he loved it.  Two of the girls were taking a picture with a six foot giant of a jock.  He had an arm around either of them, playfully grabbing at their breasts.  A twinge of sadness struck his chest and he reached for the remote.  Too close for comfort.  Naomi knew something was bothering him but had no idea that it was about the picture upstairs in his shoebox.

Thankfully there was a knock at the door.  It gave him an excuse to leap off the couch and run to see who it was.  Who stood on his steps when he did took him by surprise.  Rather than just Noah and Paul, three others stood behind him.  Kacey, Laura, and Kendall.  “Surprise,” Paul smiled, letting himself into the house.  The others followed behind him.

“What… what’re you all doing here?” Cole asked.

“We’re here to fix a problem,” Kendall said.  He sounded confident in himself which was surprising to Cole.  Just yesterday, he’d seemed apprehensive to speak his mind or utter a word that defied the leader that Anthony seemed to be.  But here he was, ready to fix their baby situation.  “I shouldn’t have helped them steal your kid.  If I don’t help, I’ll be responsible for the death an innocent baby.”

“A little dramatic, but we’ll take it,” they all heard Naomi call from the living room.  Kendall shrugged and put an arm around Laura’s waist.

“And you, Kacey?” Cole said.

“Noah said he’d take me on a date.”  She smiled triumphantly, her hands rising to her hips and her hair whipping over her shoulder.  Cole bit his cheek to keep from smiling.  Instead, he glanced at Noah who had been staring at him, waiting for his reaction.

“I’m sure it’ll be great,” he smiled, taking a deep breath.

“It better be.  I’m not an easy to impress,” Kacey explained.

“I don’t doubt that,” Cole said quietly, waving the others into the living room as he walked.  They followed, taking up seats on the couch and armchairs around the room.  Paul took a seat next to Naomi, nudging her with his shoulder.  She smiled sweetly and pinched his thigh.

“Hey!” he exclaimed.

“Alright, so we have, what, seven people?  That’s enough to intimidate him.  Maybe just seeing that people don’t think he’s funny will make him give Robert back,” Noah offered.  From his tone of voice, he didn’t sound too sure of himself.

“Man, you and I both know that’s not the case.  We’ve both been around the guy for a while, and when has he ever listened to other people?  That’s not how Anthony works.”  As much as he wanted Kendall to be wrong, Cole didn’t think he was.  Anthony was willing to do almost anything for a laugh or embarrass somebody else.  He threw insults almost professionally, and he had people who did whatever he wanted.

“He’s like the Regina George of Kenneth Valley,” Cole muttered.

“Oh my gosh, I love that movie!  Like, it's my favorite movie ever,” Kacey grinned.

“Okay, thanks Kacey!” Naomi said quickly, trying her hardest not to roll her eyes at the girl.  Now was not the time for that.

“The thing is, we all want to see him get what’s coming.  He’s been an ass to all of us.  He’s constantly bringing up Laura’s body.  Passing judgment while we eat,” Kendall admitted.  He turned to Noah.

“He wants to kick my ass because I punched him in the mouth.”

“He hates me because we broke up,” Naomi said.

“He hates me because I’m with her,” Paul shrugged.  He glanced at Cole.

“He probably hates me because I was the reason Noah punched him.”

“I have no idea who he is,” Kacey muttered, picking at her nails.  “But he sounds like a dick.  And I hate dicks.  Well, not those… but yeah.”

“There you have it.  We’ve all got something to gain from tearing him apart.  I don’t want him to bother anyone again.  He has to learn a lesson.  I’ve got a few ideas, but since this is a group effort and you two are the parents, what do you think?”  Cole and Noah shared a look before turning back to Kendall.

“Let’s destroy him,” Noah said.

“Let’s get to work, then.”  Kendall reached for the pen and pad of paper on the coffee table in the middle of their semicircle.  He tapped the black ballpoint against the pad, thoughts taking shape in his head.

“The first thing we need to do is find something minor that we can extrapolate.  We want him to think we’ve got some dirt on him.  Something really bad,” Naomi thought out loud.

“Okay, that’s good.  What did you have in mind?”

“I’ve got a friend who’s really good with computers.  He could make a career out of it.  I think we should see if he could help us out.  In the book I’m reading, it says that you have to know who you’re messing with,” she said.  Paul raised an eyebrow and looked at the girl.

“You’re reading ‘The Art of War’?”

“Hell yeah.  Name-calling is one thing, but kidnapping is serious business.  No more fun and games,” Naomi said with determination.  Cole couldn’t help but smile at her ferocity.  He knew better than anyone that when Naomi set her mind to something, she wouldn’t stop until she got it.  Out of everyone here – himself included – he suspected she was the one who wanted revenge the most.  Cole couldn’t have been happier to have her on his side.

“So there’s this show that I’m really loving –,” Kacey began.

“Kacey, please,” Noah said quietly.

“No, listen!  I don’t really get a lot of it because it’s got politics and junk in it, but it’s called ‘Scandal’ and basically the main character goes around and solves people’s problems.  I think if she were in this situation, she’d totally use that nerdy computer guy Naomi knows and dig up some really interesting stuff.  Get his like, porn history or something.  And then threaten to show his mom!”  Noah seriously doubted that whatever he was looking at in his private time was enough to scare him into giving their baby back.

“She does have a point,” Laura said.  “I’ve seen that show, and she’s good at bluffing.  We just need something interesting enough to make Anthony back off.”  Cole nodded, pleased to see where this was going.  Had it just been the four of them trying to figure this whole thing out, he was almost certain it would have been a completely different case.

“I like it.  How do we get started?” Noah asked as he returned from the kitchen.  Confused, Cole checked the empty seat next to him.  He could have sworn the other boy had been there the whole time.  Now he was drinking soda out of Cole’s favorite cup.  The nerve.

“I think we’ll let Naomi handle that,” Kendall said.  “She’s the one who knows the computer guy.  She can find that information.  Plus, nothing would make him angrier than having you of all people threaten him.  He still cares about you in some really twisted way.”

“If I had just eaten, I’d puke,” Naomi said, flipping a strand of pink hair over her shoulder.  “I’ll do it, though.  I can probably have it done by Wednesday.  August doesn’t perform in the play tomorrow, so he can sneak off and help me out.”

“Great,” Kendall said as he scribbled on the notepad.  “Time for the real plan,” he said once he’d finished.  Cole crinkled his face.

“I thought we’d just come up with the real plan.”

“No, we came up with the distraction.  This whole thing has three parts: Naomi’s threats, the Trojan horse, and the kidnapping of Amber-Lynn.”

“They named their baby Amber-Lynn?  I hadn’t realized this was 1706,” Cole said sarcastically.  Noah smirked and took his seat next to the boy.

“Yep.  Naomi’s only doing part of the plan.  While he’s distracted with her and whatever she can find on his computer, we’re going to give him a horse.”

“An actual horse?”

“No, Kacey, he means we give him a gift that’s actually not a gift at all.  Like a baby.”  Naomi took no shame in laughing at her own joke.  “We’re gonna trick him and make him think that he’s getting something good, but in the end, it helps us more.”  While Kacey mulled that idea over, Paul lazily raised his hand.  Kendall looked at him.

“What’s the horse?”

“If we’re trying to figure out where Robert is and who’s looking after him, it has to be something revolving around the babies.”  The group sat in silence, mentally sifting through ideas and methods of figuring out where Robert was.  A small clanking outside the front door disrupted the silence.  His parents walked in with grocery bags in hand, taken aback by all of the teenagers in their house.

“Did we not get the invite to this party?” his father teased.

“Sorry,” Cole laughed, hopping up to help them with the plastic bags hazardously hanging from their arms.  They hated taking more than one trip and as a result, his parents were prone to carrying six bags on the same arm.  As he assisted them, the others in the room collected their things.

“Gotta get going, Cole,” Kendall said.  He swung his backpack over his shoulder and took Laura’s hand.

“Yeah, I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow!  Naomi, you don’t get to leave, though.  We’ve got studying to do,” Cole said from the kitchen.  She sighed and dropped back onto the couch.

“And here I thought I was getting a break from the constant wave of flashcards.”

“Never,” Paul grinned.  He leaned down and pecked her on the lips before he left.  It had been surprisingly hard for her not to reach forward and slap his butt on his way out, but being that Cole’s parents were in the room, that might not have gone over too well.  Instead, she slipped an elastic band from her wrist and put her hair up in a ponytail before she cleaned up the crumbled cans of soda on the coffee table.  She tossed them into the trashcan in the corner of the kitchen.

“So, what did you two get me from the store?” she grinned.