Bang! Nerf darts flew all around me. "Chase! We must get to the fort before Maven does!" Somehow, the day that had been so perfect, had become somewhat of a nightmare.

This is how it all started.

This is how it all started.................

    "Maddox! Maven! Chase and Perrin are here!" called my mom. My sister and I could not wait! Our best friends were at our house for a sleepover. 

    "Hi Chase!" I squealed.

    "Hi Maddox," he replied with no facial expression, but I knew he was excited. We had known each other since we were only two years old so I could usually tell when he was excited or not.

Chapter 1

   "What should we do?" I asked. 

   "Let's build a fort," he replied.  

    You see, I am really gifted with architecture, and Chase is really gifted with engineering.  So, we got to work to find a design for a big and sturdy fort. 

    "Okay.  If we do this design, the fort will be able to hold up to three layers. But only one layer will be for us," I explained. "The second layer of the fort we can use for all of our Nerf supplies. The third layer will be for storage." 

    "Sounds good," he replied. When we were almost done separating all the building supplies, the moms called us to come upstairs. 

    "Chase! Maddox! Come upstairs," they yelled. So, we reluctantly headed up. 

    The girls were celebrating like they had just won the lottery. We tried to get their attention so we could ask them what the heck was going on, but we couldn't get their attention. Then, the moms came over to us and told us they had a huge surprise for us. My mom was just about to tell us when my sister Maven interrupted.

    "Mom! I can't find my stuffed animal," she whined. 

    "I think I saw it outside," my mom replied.

    "Why would it be outside?" asked Maven. 

    "Who knows why you would put it outside," I sneered. 

    "Be nice Maddox," warned my mom. 

    After all of that, Chase's mom finally told us the big surprise. "Not only are you guys going to have a sleepover, but it's also going to be a yes weekend!"

    I think the moms were expecting us to start celebrating but we were both so confused. When they realized we didn't understand, they continued. "You see, it means we can't say no to anything reasonable you guys want to do this weekend," Chase's mom explained. We gasped in awe that we were going to have a whole 48 hours to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. 

    "Okay. Shall we continue building our fort?" I asked Chase.

    "Hmmm, I'm a little hungry. Is it possible we could eat a snack before we continue?" Chase asked. 

    I replied, "Well, my dad is going to the store to get food right now and all we have at the moment is candy. We can't eat.... oh, YES we can!" 

        "Yes day!" we both screamed.

    So, we went to the pantry to get some candy. We grabbed some nerds and skittles and happily headed back to the basement. After feasting on candy, but not too much so we wouldn't get sick, we went back to work on the fort. The bottom layer (which was the one for us to go in) would be very capacious and made solely of big Lego bricks. The rest of the layers would be constructed from nugget couches.

We started gathering all the Nerf supplies. We brought the targets with us to shoot, as we did not plan to have a war between the two of us. When we were almost done, Chase had a cool idea. 

    "Maddox! What if we put in a secret entrance?" he asked. 

    "That would be awesome!" I replied.    

    After we built the secret entrance, we decided to put the remainder of the big Lego bricks in the storage unit in case we decided to build anything else later. Now that we were done with the fort, we didn't know what to do next.

    "What if we go to the arcade," Chase suggested.

     "Sounds good to me," I replied.    

    We told the moms what our plan was and asked politely if they would drive us there. Of course, they said yes.     

    "Oh yeah. I almost forgot. We are going to need 1000 credits each," I added casually. I thought their eyes were going to pop out of their heads when I said that. But then again, it wasn't like they could say no to anything reasonable. So, off to the arcade we went.

Chapter 2

    Once we got the arcade cards, we went to see what the prizes were. We saw a Nintendo Switch for 75,000 tickets and immediately decided to combine our winnings to get it. We saw some game controllers that came in a pack of 4. We would also need games to play on it, so we picked out two: Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8. 

    To reach our goal, we had to have 93,000 tickets in total. So, we chose to play the two games where almost every time we played, we got 100 tickets. After burning through 1000 of our credits, we checked how many tickets we had. We had almost half of what we needed! About one hour later, we ran out of credit and headed to the shop. After all of this, we were six tickets short!

    "Well guys, y'all are six tickets short, BUT I will let you have it all as long as you don't tell anybody who works here," said the kind shopkeeper.  

    "Thank you so much!" I exclaimed. 

    "I'm kind of hungry," Chase complained. 

    "Well, they sell pizza over there," I replied. "Let's go ask the moms for cash for pizza." 

    "Okay," he agreed. And with that, we went to find our moms. 

    "I can almost smell the pizza!" I said, breathing in deeply. 

    "I know, right!" he replied.

    "That's because your pizza is here," said the waiter. We looked up to see the biggest pizza that we had ever seen!

    After we got our huge pizza, (we ate the whole thing between the two of us) we went to find the moms again so we could head back to the house. But we couldn't go right then because the girls were picking out their prizes. However, in about five minutes we were in the car rolling back to my house. When the Switch was done charging, we hooked it up to the television.  Then, we connected the controllers.  It was now 7:30 pm. That didn't matter because we could play the Switch for as long as we wanted. We were still going strong when we heard one of the girls calling us.     

    "Ugh, I wonder what they want," groaned Chase.     

    "I don’t know what they want. Let's go see," I replied.    

    "Let's keep this nice and simple," said Chase's sister, Perrin. "We want your fort and everything in it."

        I studied her face to see if she was serious or not. I could tell she wasn't joking. So, I just laughed. 

    "You guys going to make us?" I asked. 

    "Yeah, if you guys want to do this the hard way," answered Maven. 

    "Whatever. They are not going to do anything to us Maddox. Let's just go back to gaming," muttered Chase. 

    "Yeah, but before that, let's get some more candy." 

    "Ok," agreed Chase. When we came back, the girls were pointing Nerf guns straight at us. 

    "Put your hands in the air and slowly back away from your fort,said Perrin threateningly. 

    "Chase! Run!" I exclaimed. "We need to lock down the fort so they can't get in," I explained as we ran. Nerf darts flew all around us. When we got to the fort, we blocked all the entrances. 

    "That was close!" I said panting and trying to catch my breath. 

    "Maddox, if they do win, we lose everything!" said Chase. 

    "At least, if that does happen, we will still have each other to keep company," I replied sadly, realizing he was right.

Chapter 3

    "Our defense walls won't hold them out forever," I said. "I think the only way we are going to keep our fort is if we defend it." 

    "Before we try that," Chase suggested, "we should try to build an extra interior wall with the bricks that we stored earlier inside the fort. This way, if they break through the outer walls, they'll have to break through the interior wall as well." I pondered the idea. Should we go fight for our fort or try to protect it with another wall? 

    After a moment of silence, I finally said, "We will build the wall but prepare our nerf weapons just in case."

    So, we set to work. After only ten minutes, we finished the inner wall. Chase seemed confident that the wall would hold them out, but I wasn't so sure. 

    "Chase, I think we should still load all of our Nerf guns." 

    "Are you sure that we need to do that?" asked Chase. "I mean, the wall looks pretty sturdy to me. When they see it, they probably won't even try to get in!"  I thought about this for a moment but decided it would be better to be safe than sorry.  

    I answered, " Let's just do it anyway.  We don't know what they are capable of. After all, we never expected them to do any of this."

    "Yeah, I guess you're right." After we loaded the Nerf guns, I thought of an idea I felt was worth mentioning. 

    "Chase, if we could find out how they are planning to conquer our fort, we would have a better chance of being able to defend the attack." 

    Chase responded hesitantly. "Okay, that sounds good but how would we get that information from them without getting caught?" 

    "Whoever goes will have to be very, very stealthy," I whispered, trying to hide the worry in my voice.    

    Chase looked very worried. I, too, was worried but was trying to keep my cool so I could think clearly. I knew Chase didn't want to spy on the girls and neither did I. I figured Chase would volunteer but I offered first. "I'll do it." 

    "Are you sure?" he asked. "I can do it if you don't want to."

    "Nah, I'll handle it, but you'll need to stay and guard the fort in case they break through the wall while I'm gone," I explained. I looked into his eyes. I saw his eyes alert, anxious, and fearful.

     "We'll get through this together, ok?" I said, putting a hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him but inside, I was just as scared as he was.

    Just as I was about to head out, Chase stopped me.

    "Wait! How will you get back in?" he asked. "Also, if you're going, at least take your Commander Nerf gun." 

    "Don't worry. Remember we put in that secret entrance? I'll use that to get back in." I replied. "And I already have my Commander with me." I gave him a quick glance and started to head out quietly. I heard him whisper the words be careful. I gave him a silent nod and headed out the exit.

    I could hear the girls' voices but couldn't make out what they were saying. So, I crept a little bit closer. I stepped on something sharp and wanted to cry out in pain but bit my tongue as hard as I could. I got closer and I could now make out their voices.

Chapter 4

    Perrin was just suggesting, "What about trying to break through the roof?" when I stumbled. The girls pulled out their Nerf guns and pointed them in my direction.

    They couldn't see me, but they knew generally where I was located. I knew I had to get out of there fast. I started to run as quickly and quietly as I could. It was dark because it was around 9:15pm and I couldn't see very well. I tripped over a big Lego brick and fell. The girls heard me and in the blink of an eye, they had me surrounded.

       It had now been a good 20 minutes since I had gone out to spy. Chase sat alone in the fort wondering if I had been caught. 

    "He should surely be back by now," Chase thought.     

    He wondered if he should go out there to check on me but, he remembered that he needed to keep guarding the fort. When I had left to go spy, Chase could see the desperation and fear in my eyes.

    While Chase sat wondering about me, I was being dragged to the girls' fort for questioning. 

    I was saying, "I wasn't spying! Honest! I was just going to get some Oreos!" 

   "With your Nerf gun?" Maven asked. 

    "And why be so sneaky?" Perrin added in. 

    "I had my Commander with me because I didn't know if you guys would want to start any trouble and the reason that I was sneaking around was because I didn't want you guys to have the CHANCE to start any trouble at all!" I replied quickly trying to think fast.

    "Yeah right," said Maven. "Let's tie him up while we have a little discussion." 

    I got my Nerf gun out and pointed it at the girls. They pulled out theirs and pointed them at me. I was outnumbered so I put my Commander down and put my hands in the air. They retrieved my Commander and then tied me up. They also put a piece of clear tape across my mouth so that I could not call for help. I had no choice but to wait until they came back to tell me what their little discussion was all about.

Chapter 5

        They came back about five minutes later. They ripped the piece of tape off my mouth and had their Nerf guns turned towards me.

    "Don't try anything funny because we are not afraid to use our Nerf guns," Maven threatened. "Now, if you would just kindly tell us how to get into your fort, we will happily let you go." 

    "Well........," I said trying to stall for time. 

    "Hurry up with it!" Perrin exclaimed impatiently.

    By now, I had a plan to escape and warn Chase. They had tied my hands behind my back, which was a mistake on their part. They also didn't bother to tie my fingers, another error they made. I began to untie myself. I would need a bit of time to untie the knot though. 

    Trying to stall for time once more, I said, "Are you girls sure you want to capture our fort? I mean, we have some pretty good nerf guns to defend ourselves with." Almost untied, I thought. Almost there!

    "Yes, we're positive that we want to take over your fort. So, how do we get in?" asked Maven. By now, I had untied myself. I was just waiting for a moment when I could catch them off guard. I had the perfect idea to do this.

    "Chase! You came to rescue me!" I said, quickly looking to my right. Of course, Chase wasn't really there but both the girls pointed their guns in the direction that I looked. I saw my chance, scooped up my Commander and ran like the wind. Once the girls realized that they had been tricked, I was already gone.

Chapter 6

    Even though I had escaped, the girls didn't give up yet. Shots fired all around me. A couple even hit me. I got to the fort, but the fort was so big, and it was so dark, I couldn't find the secret entrance. So, I yelled for help. 

    "Chase! Let me in!" He opened one of the entrances and I ran into the safety of the fort. Well, at least for now. "Close the entrance!" I said. 

    "Already doing that!" called Chase. 

        Once Chase closed the entrance, he asked, "What happened?"

        "I tripped and fell. Then, they caught me, and then...." Chase interrupted. 

    "Slow down! You're telling me everything too fast. Now start from the beginning." 

    "Ok" I exhaled. Chase silently listened as I explained what had happened. Only at the very end did he speak. 

    "Well, if they need us to know how to get into the fort, we can just stay in the fort." 

    "Oh!" I remembered. "I also heard them say that they should try to get in through the roof!" Chase's face turned from confidence to worry in a millisecond. 

        "But the roof won't hold them out!" exclaimed Chase. 

    "I know" I replied mournfully. "We've tried to keep them out of our fort, but they just won't give up! I think the only way to stop this is to go out there and defend our fort," I said bravely. 

    "We'll need to build a battle station to shoot from," Chase added. 

    "You're right," I concurred. "We will need to build without the girls knowing we are there because surely, they would try to capture us."