"Dude, are you serious?"

"Yep," Michael responded to Tommy Telford as he popped a chicken nugget into his mouth, now no longer aggressively chewing on his gum (for now). During this hour called lunch, he'd told his friends nearly everything about Chris running off to damn Fredbear's, and how he'd brought him home. But nothing about how Michael felt during the whole thing, his breakdown when he got back, or the blurred memories of he and Jeremy going back and forth about Immortal and the Restless. They were just unnecessary details that were known of their business (and thankfully, Jeremy didn't mention it either).

And when looking at their raised eyebrows as he finished the story, he could understand why they all looked so shocked. Chris was probably the last kid anyone in this town expected to go off by themselves.

Why did he? Michael again wondered as he swallowed down the nugget. Yeah, that kid loved Fredbear's, but Chris was about as paranoid as you could get about, well... just about anything that could come near him if he was outside by himself.

The pleasant voice of Marianne interrupted his thinking. "Why did you even bother?" she asked with her head tilted and an eyebrow raised as she thoughtlessly poked her fork at her caesar salad. "I mean, if he decided to be a dumbass and run off all by himself, then he's the one who should figure it out... not you."

"Was it because of your dad?" Tommy blurted out before the English teen could answer.

Michael shrugged and scowled down, now taking a bigger interest in poking at his food. "Mmm... something like that..." Surely there was no shame in just saying that. While Michael couldn't exactly say he was at all opposed to lying sometimes, at the moment, it felt better admitting that than... not being scared that his brother was lost, but just... a tiny bit concerned that... well...

How could you let that happen?

But instead of catching the hint, damn Telford then had the nerve to show off that annoying smirk, seeming to think that pressing the angry teen's buttons was the funniest thing in the world. "Were you afraid of what he'd do?"

Michael froze just as he'd picked up another chicken nugget. He sat there in an angry silence for a moment, practically squishing the thing to mush in his hand. He looked the bastard square in the eyes, responding with a hard -"No."

Tommy shrugged, seeming unfazed. "If you say so..."

"What the Hell is that-"

"SO!" Damn Jeremy interrupted, slamming his hand down on the table in order to catch his friend's attention before things escalated, quickly changing the subject. "Are you telling us this just to vent and get your frustrations out? Do you feel any better? Or... do you wanna talk about it anymore?"

Michael couldn't help but scoff at that suggestion, rolling his eyes, thus breaking the venomous glare he was giving Telford. What did Jeremy think? Michael obviously wasn't the type of guy to use words as a coping mechanism, and while sure, he was more calmed down than he'd been just a couple of hours ago, he definitely still didn't feel 'better' about all this. "Again, no. I just wanna teach him a lesson for being a bloody idiot... and thought maybe you guys might want to help..."

This is your last chance, Michael James.

How could you let that happen?

And, he thought silently to himself, for pretty much all of the blame getting thrown onto me for his mistake.

"Wait." Tommy said, forgetting about poking fun at his friend, as he now grinning in excitement, "So you mean... like a prank? Prank him?"

Michael again gave a shrug. "Probably. But I don't think you're invited."

Tommy's jaw dropped (the shocked expression made Marianne and Jeremy snicker). "What?! Come on, man! It's been forever since we punked someone good!"

The English teen again glared back down at his lunch tray. "Hmph."

The other rolled his eyes. "Holy Hell, fine. I'm sorry for the crap I said about you and your dad. It was rude or some shit like that. Now will you just let me be apart of this?"

"Hmph... maybe. I don't really know for sure what we'll do yet."

"WHAT?! So I said sorry for nothing?"

"I didn't say we weren't doing it, idiot. I just gotta figure out a plan."

Marianne rolled her eyes. "So you're just assuming we'll go through with whatever you say?"

"Pretty much. I thought it could be fun, and like Telford said it's been a while," he then shrugged. "But whatever. If you don't want to you won't see me begging." Though he wouldn't admit it aloud, he really did want to do it with his friends, because again, it had been quite some time since Michael pulled off a fun practical joke with them. The last he could remember was the group was finding snails and worms, then planting in old Nettle's garden, and Mr. Brook's shiny, new briefcase - and that was weeks ago.

And the old house, well... he'd hardly spent any time with the others, and it wasn't even a prank, so that didn't count.

"Well," Jeremy piped up again, "I guess I'm down for just about anything. So long as it's well-thought-out."

Alright, so that made two. Michael then raised an eyebrow at the dark-skinned girl. "Well?"

She responded with her signature eye-roll. "We'll see. Just let me know whatever it is you want to do." She then let out a sigh. "But honestly Michael, the last thing you wanted to do wasn't very fun - at least for us. So I don't know about this either."

Michael sucked in a quick breath into his nose, feeling his heart squeeze tightly in on itself from that, but still, he kept on a straight face. "Trust me, whatever I come up with will be a blast. I know you guys don't see Chris that often, but scaring him for a good laugh won't be hard. At all." Michael considered this to be going easy on the little bugger. Sure, he knew he wanted to give him one Hell of a scare that was different from what he normally did, but he also knew he could do way, way worse. He fully believed that Chris deserved some type of real punishment for the stunt he pulled, but it'd just be a prank he could laugh with his friends about. That was usually how they got back at anyone who got on their nerves.

It wasn't like he'd be taking Father's route.

Marianne again brought him out of his thoughts before raw anger could over-take him. "I'll think about it then," she said with a smirk and giving a familiar wink.

Michael couldn't help but smirk himself when seeing that smile, remaining mostly quiet as his friends discussed topics of their own.

When lunch was over, the group said their "see you later's", then split off in their own way like every other student, making their own way to their next period through the school's hallway.

At least, that's what Michael thought they'd all do.

"Hey, Mike!"

Surprised, the teen frowned as he stopped, turning around towards the direction of a familiar, friendly voice.

Tall, lanky, Jeremy soon caught up to his friend. But Michael soon noticed it was only him though, with is two other friends being out of sight.

"What?" Michael said with his eyebrows furrowed as other students strode past the only duo standing there.

Jeremy rubbed the back of his head, cheeks turning slightly pink. "Sorry, I just... now that the other guys are gone, I just um..." he shrugged, averting his eyes from Michael onto the floor. "Wanted to tell you I had a good time last night."

Michael blinked.

His brain shut off.

"Oh."

By mostly thinking about Chris and Father, he'd almost completely forgotten about the many hours they spent up late last night, going back and forth about his favorite soap opera.

"... yeah."

An awkward silence.

The shorter teen raised an eyebrow. "Is that all?"

"W-well!" he said stuttering (ugh), "I-is it... is it something you'd want to do again? I mean, I probably can't do it tonight because I gotta help my dad with some stuff, but-"

"No."

Jeremy blinked, looking a bit taken aback. "Oh... um... ok."

The other teen could feel his every inch of his intestines suddenly start to form into one gigantic knot when he saw how Jeremy's face fell as if he were a sad puppy. Alarm bells of confusion started to go off in the teen's head, his mind turning a blank page. What were you supposed to say when someone looked like that right in front of you? When Michael was with Chris when he was crying, his first instinct was to poke fun at him, but with Jeremy... and him looking like that... well...

He couldn't stand to look at that expression any longer, especially with the feeling in his stomach only growing worse.

"I gotta get to class."

"Uh... yeah," he put on a small smile. "Me-me to... so, uh... see you later?"

"Sure," he replied blankly, already turning away from the other teen.

As Michael walked away he found himself thinking about that whole awkward interaction. Last night still felt kind of fuzzy, but from what he could remember, Jeremy had mostly complained about the show the whole time... but... in a strange way, Michael hadn't feel upset about it?

Then why did he deny Jeremy so quickly? He thought back to their conversation. It was almost like this time, it'd been some sort of defensive instinct to immediately decline the offer. He hadn't even really put any thoughts about what came out of his mouth when he said it...

I'd probably just be wasting his time, Michael reasoned with himself as he approached history class. Again, the other teen clearly didn't like the intriguing characters or compelling plot...

Michael could feel his lips tighten as his mind came to a sudden realization - Jeremy must have just done it all out of pity... that was the only option as to why he was keen on watching it with him... and Michael's pride couldn't stand for any sort of that vile word.

There's isn't any reason he should care if he doesn't like it...

But deep down in his subconscious, maybe... maybe a part Michael had enjoyed it a little bit last night. Chatting about the show with Jeremy had triggered a somewhat nostalgic feeling in him... maybe it was because he used to also watch Immortal and the Restless with his mum... did that have something to do with it? And how he reacted?

Michael shook his head at his own ridiculous thoughts as he entered history and sat down in his seat in the back. This was stupid. If Jeremy thought it was just a dumb show, then he shouldn't be wasting his time with it. Michael was anything but a beggar. And he was certainly not going to beg damn Fitzgerald to enjoy a soap opera he hated.

Besides, dwelling on this of all things was the most idiotic thing Michael could be doing right now. His friends were now expecting him to come up with a great prank to pull on his twat of a brother.

But Marianne had said it wouldn't be fun...

He scoffed.

Well damn it all then, she better hold onto those bright, neon scrunchies, because Michael James Afton was about to clobber them all with the biggest hurricane of fun they'd ever seen in this boring town - no - their lives.

Michael held onto that thought as he sat there through his teacher's lectures, letting his new goal temporarily distract him from everything he'd been dealing with for the past few days.

He didn't even accidentally break any more pencils for about an hour.

Hello again, FFN friends. I hope this chapter was alright. I know it was a bit short, but I'll be going on a house-boat vacation with my family for about a week and won't be able to post anything, so I wanted to try and get ya'll a quick (but still hopefully good) chapter to enjoy.

Also, I promise that we're gonna get to another key part in FNAF soon... ish. And more Chris POV. I know its mostly been Michael.

Also, also, thank you all so, so much for your support on the last chapter despite being kinda pessimistic. I appreciate the constructive feedback and kind words. So thanks!